The Friendly Frugaleers, saving and chatting as autumn arrives

[AGenie]

Hello all :-)

keepon we can do a clothes ban together. I have way too much. And so many lovely things that I just don't wear.
I'm spending the next 6 weeks working out what I wear and everything I don't (with the exception of sundresses and shorts) will be ebayed.

I'm also taking pictures every day of my outfit so I have a record of what goes with what etc and am trying out more daring things on work.

My starting tip would be to pull every item of clothing you own out of wardrobe/drawers. Pile it all up. Take a picture of it. Then sort through it. Also delete your card details from all shops online and get rid of paypal one click.

You could also do what I did and pull a years worth of bank statements and add up exactly how much you spent on clothes/toiletries/stuff. although I was shocked and scared

Yes nsd _ no spend day, LSD low spend day. Some of us have targets for nsds
Dig out the spreadsheet, go through everything with a fresh eye to m make sure everything is on the best deals and there is nothing you can cancel.

Welcome Keepon

I've got a blood test in a minute then I'm treating ds and I to costa with the money left over from Friday night

For those of you with Topcashback - there's a weekend box for just £1 with free delivery & £1.61 cashback, seems to be similar to toucanbox

keepon I spent Friday unsubscribing from online store / offers / sale spam emails. It felt SO good!! I highly recommend it.

boobs I'm on a clothing ban until December too! I'm in my 3rd week and it is going well. Yesterday I decided I needed new pyjamas but I decided to wait until the next 25% TU Clothing Sale. Or just wait until Christmas! I'm wearing clothes I forgot I had .

On Saturday we had a thunderstorm so we turned off all the lights, turned on battery powered tea lights, candles and fairy lights. And got the cushions and thick snuggly blanket out and read stories. DS and DH loved it! And the sound & lightning from the thunderstorm was incredible. It was really lovely.

Waiting eagerly for news from the solicitors today. It's hard to think about anything else at the moment. Can't wait until it's over

We did a relaxed version of kondo-ing . Also I stopped buying random clothes and started building a capsule wardrobe. It has helped massively. Pinterest and YouTube is a great source of inspiration for capsule wardrobe ideas. I used to buy clothes to cover the fact I was stressed and unhappy in life. I tackled that issue and everything else sorted itself out.

Sometimes I still feel anxious and tend to have an urge to spend on clothes. But I manage it quite well now considering what I was like a few years ago. And I buy stuff that actually suits me - which helps as I wear it more often.

I have lost a dress size recently which means some of my favourite pieces have to be replaced with a smaller size. But I shall do it after we move house (hopefully by December). I'm holding off and saving up!

I have found a few bits from years ago which are the right size again. So that's cool!

keepon oh yes we were drowning in clutter too. Sorting it out certainly helps you feel less anxious. I found I gradually changed my attitude towards "stuff". We're not as materialistic or wasteful now. :)

£9 something in Costa
£1.50 charity shop on the first Harry Potter book for dd
£4.20 something in tesco on coffee, bagels and smarties for Ds
40p parking.

keep I'm aiming for a year. But am going to do 6 weeks or so until Dec to start. I def have enough stuff to go a full year.

I will need new tights and pants though.so those are allowed.

I tried kondoing but failed.

tayto that bord gais offer is only available to new customers, check out switcher.ie or bonkers.ie you input who you're with and what tariff you're on and tells you what each offer will mean for you. Energia seem to offer good savings too. Bord Gais & Energia seem to offer the best savings to me, must check what they're going to charge me for Level Pay, have never done this system before. Although I self impose something similar on myself by paying weekly towards my electricity provider anyhow, I know it's giving them use of my money but I don't care, it means I'm never caught out with a big bill either

Had a frugal win yesterday found a book of stamps that I'd been missing for a while.

Got the £7 bonus from amazon for buying £30 of giftcards.

Weekend was spendy, although dinner worked out very cheaply Sat night €30 for both dh and I, we all had cake as dessert at 90th party. spent €50 on drinks though It was a thoroughly enjoyable night and I made toasties for everyone after we came home so saved on chip shop costs. Dh drove so no taxis costs, and no spends on alcohol for him either.

Yesterday I did dinner for my parents and sister. Got a couple of stuffed cooked chickens from a deli counter, frozen veg, potato croquettes and chips, from a Centra shop so cost more than Aldi would €24.50.

allthebest that's inspiring that you've done so well this month. It's hard to save money that was previously allocated to bills isn't it?

Things have been spendy with us and the rest of the month is quite hectic too. Have decided not to travel to my parents the bank holiday weekend, and have offered to take my friends boy overnight, he's same age as dd. The local community centre is showing a movie at 2pm on the saturday & they can make homemade pizzas that night at ours.

I've found when I'm not diligently entering my spends in ynab on a busy weekend I lose track, today wasn't too bad as I had entered up to lunchtime on Saturday.

lifelong just saw your post about computer game, hope you've managed to get it sorted out

8 I love how you sorted out your dd's spends My dd is not at all demanding yet but I'm sure it's only around the corner, she's 6. Although dh's dgd and dgs aren't either and they're 9 and 13

welcome keeponkeepinon we'd love to have you here. Have you read this blog Blonde on a Budget One Year Shopping Ban electricboobs is just starting a shopping ban on clothes too. I have limited my spends on clothes until my cc are cleared. Still have spent €60 average per month though.

I'm going to make a fresh attempt at selling some of my things on facebook & adverts to get rid of clutter and to bring down my debt also.

I set up a different email address a few years ago and use it for subscription emails, I have it set up as a secondary account on my phone and only check the emails about once a week, I found that helped and have spent the time since unsubscribing from emails when they come in to my regular email address.

You've hit the nail on the head regarding weight and clothes. I've had a plateau with my weight loss lasting a couple of years now and I've gone through the waiting to purchase clothes until I've lost weight, waiting to get back into my own slim clothes, giving in eventually as everything I had was worn out and buying some in my current size, and back to when I drop a size I'll buy some more.

Underwear and tights count as essentials boobs after trying loads of differents ones I bought some underwear recently in Tesco and it has kept its fresh colour and fit wash after wash [happy]

mammy thanks for that link. I'll take a look.

I find that lunchtime is the worst for me. Because my office is in "town" surrounded by shops. From my window I can see oasis, tioshop and next. so when I'm walking about I tend to pop in. I can also get from one end of town to the other without limited stepping outside if it rains by going through shops. Again bad for the bank account.

Today's spends though £25 on 2 cafetierres. I broke ours at the weekend and dh was moaning. The one we have/had was £25. But they were half price today. So we have a back up now!

Leftover pasta for lunch. Yum. And am now sat at my desk eating and reading the daily fail. Apparently an indoors lunch like what I'm having is now referred to as "al desko" utter load of garbage

It's a real eye opener for me listening to you giving up buying clothes. I buy clothes very rarely and don't wear make up.

The only soap/cleanser stuff I buy is Johnson's baby shampoo, which I use as shower gel and to wash the bath and basin too.

I don't get my nails done and used to only get my hair cut twice a year.

Having said that, I spend an absolute stink load of money on food, so I think it all balances out in the end probably.

I do wonder if everybody has one non-frugal thing that they do, that makes them feel good, and that maybe it's just different for different people?

Just got back from our trip away and remarking my place :)

Keepon. I think it's the cathartic prices of laying it all out in writing that will address the root need/want to spend. N no worries about doing that on here as we are all doing different frugal j journeys. I think if you sell or charity it, in that order, it's n not a frugal waste as Someone else will get use of it.
Nsd and will remain that way

Gosh! Just caught up with the thread. I was five pages behind. My new washing machine has arrived and has a 1400 speed spin. I can't believe how dry the clothes are when they come out. There must be a saving to be made there.

Last week was really spendy. Ds3 is on holiday from school and most of his friends have been away so he has needed entertained. I will try to claw back for the rest of the month.

I had decided to do a Lidl shop this morning. It's across the other side of town but worth a journey occasionally. However all ds's friends are back and they are all here. He is so pleased that I haven't got the heart to throw them out so I shall leave Lidl until tomorrow.

Good luck with the house hunting Collie. There is a 2 bed bungalow near us for sale that I quite fancy downsizing to but I have to wait until ds's 1&2 move out and that could be quite some time!

In Ireland we tend to buy/build a house and that's it for rest of your life!

Although dh's son is looking at buying a new house and selling his old one currently

NSD.

Made £5 on Ebay selling a bit (piece of tack).
Made £1 selling eggs to a neighbour.

Genie. I spend money on clothes because I like clothes and can afford it, which is different I guess to the reasons keep (welcome!) and collie do, which are possibly to avoid dealing with the actual reasons for their stress and anxiety. FWIW I think we ALL have something like that which we do, whether it's controlled eating (or the opposite), drinking etc. Not all of us acknowledge it though, which Collie and keep bravely have.

Running for me, which is fairly frugal compared to other sports, but still required financial output to buy kit and shoes and enter races. Running gives me something that I would struggle to put into words. Having not run for 4 years until recently, I had forgotten just how important it was.

Stuffed peppers with halloumi and salad tonight.

£10 petrol
81p work stuff.

eva Imagine what there like after a go in a spin dryer

Your tumble dryer manuals will have charts of how much residual water there is after each spin speed.

Loft hatch now 90% silicone & Dh checked for draughts using a cigarette lighter. Luckily I have some white pain for the resulting burn marks.

Genie. ps It's having a tidy house for me. If I don't have a clean and tidy house I can feel my anxiety rising, when actually it's about feeling out of control I guess. I am weird I guess!

pps Collie, any legal news?