The Friendly Frugaleers, figuring out our finances with furry feline photos!

[Cagliostro]

Hello all :)

Spent £80 on dogs getting a hair cut, they look sparky and new.
I do have a British short hair cat but he now lives with my parents.
Spent £35 diesel.
Feeling poorly so only spent on me was a Saturday newspaper.
We are going to be super frugal this month. I've been reading lots of blogs and am so committed to saving up/paying off debit plus not buying more stuff. Dh is on board too.
I've got a 10 year plan to retire (but more likely it will be 15),I so want to stop work.

Spendy day, £4 football, £26 cake shop, £32 lakeland, £19 sainsburys, £20 charity shop, £60 riding lessons and party deposit, £12.30 take out, £6 co-op,

Have been so busy giving others pressie ideas I have no idea what to get dc.

Need a big aldi shop too.

Sorry you are having a bad day collie.
I'm impressed with all the clearingg out and sorting. I need a massive clear out and car boot sale, no time though. I need Someone to do it for me for a cut of the cash.

Oh good luck em.
Tell me about now TV. I've got the lot with virgin but they are putting prices up by £3.40 a month. There used to be a bt line into the house that could be reactivated if I need non cable. I haven't got a clue and cba to ring now for the hard sell until I know my facts

I would find it weird to buy dd something for no reason and would worry about her getting spoilt, that said she does get lots of money spent on her in other ways so I guess its swings and roundabouts. She does play really well by herself though which is something I have always encouraged, she played with her playmobil for 5 hours straight last wend I don't think you can natter to girls any more than you can with boys tbh! I think its sometimes good for kids to be bored and not be entertained constantly, I quite often tell dd that she needs to entertain herself as I need some quiet time to mumsnet

Em how long have you been TTC now? Am crossing everything for you! Although why would you not want to go to NZ?! That is on my bucket list of places to visit!!

Em I hope he finds a bargain like I did!

I'm awful at buying things for the dc.

girlie I do want to go I suppose. I've been three times now (dh is kiwi). It's beautiful. But mil is there and last time we went she turned on me. I also don't like to fly so the thought of a 26 hour flight is not fun...

Have been off the pill now since February. And so far nothing. Not ttc "seriously" I suppose. Not testing ovulation etc. I didn't want to add any pressure. We're just seeing what happens.

lifelong now tv is great. I think there is an initial cost for the box but you can buy vouchers for entertainment and movies on Amazon. It's great if you watch it. We got rid a while ago and went back to Netflix. But will switch back and forth as and when.

Em used ov sticks just to find out when I was ovulating. And I got pregnant immediately. It was much earlier than I thought and I think a lot of people aren't ovulating when they think they are. Dtd every three days and you'll hit it though :-)

Lots of my friends took at least a year to conceive, one friend commented that it was 'quantity rather than quality' that led to BFP in the end

I would have to be sedated to survive a 26 hour flight so I get that! How is your head now?

Exciting em. No real advice except regular dtd! We got pregnant with DC1 6 weeks after my coil came out, but DC2 took 8 months . It also took my sister's cycle about 6-7 months to stabilise after coming off the pill. I'd also recommend the ov sticks (cheapie ones off Amazon are good).

Spent £15 in Co-op, nice relaxing day

Much better now. Dh made butternut squash curry homemade naan and dhal. Proper yum spicy hangover banishing food.

I'm back in bed now as am exhausted. Going to read for a bit and get a massive sleep and then try and get shit done tomorrow.

The travel time is something stupid like 37 hours door to door. Sigh. We're thinking of stopping for three days in Singapore on the way back to break it up a bit though. Then there's the jet lag...

The only thing we're doing (aside from at the moment not dtd regularly as have both been feeling awful/busy/tired etc) is trying to eat better get fitter etc. One of the points was less booze. failed spectacularly last night haha!

Car insurance has gone up despite an extra year no claims

Do you mean the renewal or new quotes?.

fluffy the renewal had gone up by £60 ish per year. DH did some quotes and the cheapest one is still more than what we currently pay.

He's just trying one more comparison site. Fingers crossed!

Do any of your parents have clean licences & no accidents in the past 5 years?.

If so try adding one of them as a named driver.

We've had the same collie. We tried everything and nothing made a difference.

What a pain, Wreck and Collie. No rewards for loyalty these days.

Day out in Newcastle today. I went to the Alice in Wonderland exhibition and DS went on a march against the EDL. Apparently it finished early, as the EDL all went! DS met me in the John Lewis café, as I had a voucher for a free drink and cake. We shared the most enormous slice of Victoria sponge and I bought DS a posh lemonade. Then I bought him a new pair of high tops/ boots for winter from Primark and I bought a maxi dress from H&M for next summer. DS went to a pal's house in Durham tonight (expecting him home in about an hour) and I came home. I decided to have something reasonably healthy for dinner, instead of vegetable pizza, as my body was craving some protein and something green after a day of carbs. I mashed up a whole avocado with lime juice and lots of black pepper and had that on 2 slices of wholemeal toast; 2 topped with a fried egg and the other with thin slices of mature cheddar, followed by a peach and a yogurt. I honestly feel like a new woman afterwards! So, spends: £12.80 travel, £2 Greggs lunch, £6 exhibition entry, £2.75 John Lewis café and £2.90 on a body oil from Primark, as I prefer that to thick creams and lotions and might actually moisturise a bit more now. Total: £26.45 cash and £27.04 card on the boots and dress.

£15 petrol.

£50 on weekly shop but that was incl washing powder etc in Aldi. Got two packs of jus rol puff pastry free on click-snap. I've frozen it for winter pies.

Tomorrow I'm making a vegan sponge cake off tescos website in the slow cooker. I've bought 25 cake liners in home-bargains for the occasion.

Exciting news Em, sorry you're feeling awful. Was it your birthday by any chance?
Collie hope things get better for you soon.
My car insurance went up as well, but I got one about the same and went through TCB so saved a bit.
Just got the quote from the builder for my cloakroom and bathrooms, all of which are minging and leaky. Am really pleased as I have managed to save most of it up already and will have the rest by the time they gave finished. They will start in 4-6 weeks so maybe have at least one decent shower room in time for Christmas.
Another NSD 14this month YAY. Bloody hard going though, saving all the time, but worth it in the end (better be!)
Sold another £50 of stuff today, so that can go in savings as well.

That's really good going Trying.

I wrote a message and must have lost it :(
girlie, I have a full freezer and 2 cupboards of food. It's a challenge. But I'm including packed lunches, yes.
I spent £30 in Tesco, sainsbury's and coop. 15 eggs in tesco cost £2!!! £15 in Tesco included a led bulb for my reading lamp, £4! I needed one for about two months now! The £5 in coop included a line for tonight's lotto.
I bought milk (£1.40) eggs (£2), butter (£2), melba toast (£2.80), soy sauce (£2), 2 boxes of kitten food(£6), lemonade(80p), popcorn (4.40), coffee (£3), quorn chicken pieces (£3). That's £24-ish. Plus £2 lotto and £4 bulb.

Not that you needed to know, but I think I need to 'justify' every penny to myself. And have a good hard look at what I am spending :)

Lovely evening here as friends came up, DD is at a sleepover and DH was working late and friends insisted on taking me and DS to dinner. So we had a nice chilled evening playing card games and eating pub food. :)

Battery running out so will catch up properly tomorrow.

£18 in Iceland
£87 in Tesco should cover all meals and extras this week

Em learning to say "no" to your MIL is an incredibly healthy way to prepare for parenthood. It's something you have to learn after the kids come along anyway, and probably easier if you get practise in now. I'm rubbish at it. Good luck!

Morning everyone. I've been waning a new Hoover for a while, we currently have a Henry (second hand 9 years ago!). It's OK at hoovering up but no good with hair. It's also so heavy and I struggle to get it up and down the stairs and often end up falling over it anyway vax have a new cordless reduced to £139 with free extras (including pet hair) and you can pay over four months with no interest. Do you think this would be OK?

creme how much was the dress and shoes, is that in your spends too? Sounds like a lovely dinner.
cag what a nice evening.
wreck we have a vax and 2 dogs and works well, but we only have a very small house.

Lsd I only need yoghurt and milk (non dairy so is on the expensive side). Then off to park. Need to do irioning at some point. And have to say goodbye to my sister, she's going back to nz (has lived there for years) but might ask her to buy us a national trust membership now that I've found that out