Marvellous Frugaleers - Chatting and saving through November, and into December.

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Just setting up the new thread for the chatty Frugaleers.

By popular request - copied from an old thread

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/other_subjects/1324074-For-those-who-cant-afford-to-use-central-heating-this-year-How-are-you-going-to-cope

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/1543785-your-top-tips-for-money-saving-and-a-more-frugal-life

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/1600030-Small-money-saving-habits-petty-even

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/1628874-Gas-Elec-Bills-monthly-and-SKY-so-angry

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_classics/1911061-NO-MORE-COLD-MUMSNETTERS

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/2209167-Slow-Cookers-are-shit

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/2224969-saving-money

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_money_matters/2258202-Debt-mutual-support-thread-number-6-start-the-new-year-with-a-clear-purpose-and-keep-moving-forwards-even-by-tiny-steps?

orchard.tesco.com/ Sign up to this.

www.topcashback.co.uk/home And this.

www.quidco.com/home/ And this

www.moneysavingexpert.com/ And this

www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheapenergyclub ditto.

www.checkoutsmart.com/ Plus this.

www.hotukdeals.com/all/deals/new?page=3 Check this daily.

Haha Need I was thinking that! There are lots of cheaper places in the South as well! Where I live you can buy a 4 bedroom house in a decent area for around £170'000 which compared to where my brother is in Guildford is dirt cheap! Plus lots of affordable housing schemes like the one I have done, good schools, beautiful countryside, not far from the coast etc. Move here Cag your dd would have a ready made bestie with my dd!!

Thanks for good wishes people, I did sleep well but still feel a bit 'off colour' its quite non specific, achey joints, skin feels tender/over sensitive, tired and a bit wobbly but no sore throat that you would expect if it was a virus or something

Quiet day today, going to see a friend for lunch and otherwise do a bit of tidying and lying on the sofa!

Payday today

Spent a further £17 last night on a photo calendar for a Christmas present and printing out a 100 photos, haven't printed out any at all this year so far so need to update photo frames and albums. Did it online with Oneclickprint who have lots of offers at the moment.

Oh and meant to say i had a chap out from Wessex water this morning looking at ways to save me money! It was a free service, he has attached a new shower thingy to my kitchen tap which apparently will save water and given me a 4 minute shower timer is it possible to shower in 4 minutes?!

Anyway he said that apparently we are going to end up being able to choose our water providers which I thought was interesting, he said this would open up competition and thus lower bills (hopefully!) Will be good if it happens as our water bills seem very high compared to other areas.

I've been thinking about the YNAB tutorials that I watched when I first joined the Frugaleers.

I'm thinking again about how to get to have a proper chat with a GP about managing long term conditions. I'm wondering whether I ought to rejig my budget so that we would have money set aside to visit a private GP.

It occurs to me that we spend chunks of money on the house and on a car if needed, but we'd never thing to do that to fix a health problem. I'm going to look at the numbers and see if it would be crazy or perhaps feasible.

Em Your genealogy plan sounds good. My parents did our family tree when they retired and have gone back about 700 years in all directions. They found some very interesting stories about where people went and what they did. Definitely worth a go. They used a piece of software called Family Tree Maker.

need

I didn't say they were £3.50! There are other reasons why I want to move up north. E.g family & better jobs for us. And yes the area which we like is relatively cheaper than where we live at the moment.

girlie that's great. If you can get work in that area. Lucky you

We don't all have the same priorities, the same hobbies or the same jobs. Different places suit different people.

Quidco is down. Of all the days to do site maintenance.

Oh Collie I wasn't having a go the North is lovely as well (all my dads family live in Yorkshire) I only meant that there are affordable places in the South but you're right not always the jobs, sorry if I upset you - didn't mean to

Just had a phone call from HSBC they want to upgrade my account which is nice, they said I will get a better interest rate and some other benefits as well.

I think the distribution of property prices is really different once you get out of the SE. I live in London and we were thinking about trying to scale down our costs and release equity, given DS's needs. I was quite shocked to realise that we wouldn't really be better off if we moved to any of the commuter towns within an hour or so of London - anywhere with transport links is shocking expensive. May as well live in zone 4

I know what you mean though Need there are some very pricey places scattered around the country. I had a few friends who worked for AstraZeneca up in Alderley but the prices around there (footballer territory) were astonishing! They did all manage to get into an affordable area without having to travel too far though - I think that is a big difference. In the SE you either need to get well well way away from transport links or have a very long commute to get close to average UK property prices. In the north you can usually find big difference in property prices without having to go more than 30 mins away.

If I could live anywhere I'd like to live in a lovely historic town like Oxford or York. But that wouldn't be cheaper than London outskirts anyway! So I shall just daydream...

Out for lunch today with a friend. With previous lunch, paying the decorator, parking tickets and some Xmas gift shopping this is not turning out to be a frugal week at all. I shall take the shame and try harder next week!

My sisters have decided they will come to us for Xmas day (I had thought it would be just the three of us - was a bit sad about it but quite happy about the silver lining of scaling back the food and food costs!). But anyway, they are coming, which is good, so I have ordered a turkey. Them birds ain't cheap though!

This is the pot.

Sorry. Drip feeding. This was story of the pot. It used to look like this.

How much then, Em?

ah come on em

She's probably busy counting, Mammy.

Balls. I was trying to upload pics.

Nice pot! :)

DH has taken our little penny jar in to pay into the bank today as it's full. But the total certainly won't rival your pot :o

Oh DH just phoned and the jar added up to exactly £20. Not too shabby considering it's mainly coppers.

Another day in planned here hopefully with productivity despite lack of sleep!

Yesterday was spendy as I went to the cinema and also got pretty much the last few Christmas bits for the Caglets, although I will get money back for that from my parents/grandma as it's mostly on their behalf. I've cut back a lot this year though, normally I would think oooh they've given me £x so I'll spend it, but this time I'm using it on what we'd already planned to get them, so we aren't actually giving them as much ourselves this year. Leftover money from them is going on their various club fees. DH and I are also spending much less on each other.

£344

That's a pound every two days or thereabouts for the last two years.

Brekkie was nice. This was my view.

Dh is now being a bit annoying. He keeps twittering on about going into town. I've counted and bagged up the money. He's moaning about taking it to the bank.

He's moaning about how I'm wasting his day off. I've just shouted that he's hijacked mine. He knew I wanted a quiet day. I didn't want to go to town. Not my family. Not my problem. (We agreed years ago that for presents I'd deal with my side and him his unless the other was physically incapable).

In the last hour I've done a load of washing hoovered and have counted the pot. He's moaned.

Aaaaaaah.

We've spent £30 on petrol.

cag that's pretty good for a jar of coppers!!

I'm sticking to a £40 budget for Christmas presents per person. So far I've come in at under budget for dm at £35.

I've said to dh that next year I am saving like mad. I want, before I am 40 to go to Argentina and ride horses and drink Malbec and eat steaky steak steak. And watch and maybe learn to play polo. It'll be a holiday of a lifetime. And probably a wee bit pricey. But I have 9 years to save. on too of saving for a house. And hypothetical kids. If I can save £300 a year towards our trip it should be doable. (it'd have to be on me because dh wouldn't pay to go horse riding...he has a slight phobia of horses....but I have 9 years to work on that...!). It's a dream. And would obviously relinquish the money if I had to for house/kids. But it's something nice to save for.

Wow great going Em! :)

Who was it who knew about sending off old phones to get a bit of money? We have loads knocking around. And an old ipad etc. What's the best place to recycle them please?

I almost don't like to post here because I don't want to shatter that lovely image of Em playing polo in Argentina, which I must say does sound lovely.

However the oven repair man has been and I have learned such household tips as I couldn't possibly keep to myself.

He says that if I want to get the wire shelves completely clean from burnt stuff then I should soak them in washing machine soap in the bath, and then stick them in the dishwasher once a week to keep them clean after that. Who knew?

He says I should wash the oven sides with washing up liquid and keep using my oven liner. He also taught me how to take the door off so as to get the hinge clean.

I now feel like an oven expert.

He replaced the fan and the motor for £165.

Collie, you know me! I was only joking and most certainly didn't mean to upset you at all. Please accept my honest apologies if I have.

Scarecrow is right. We live is a small village which is circa 10-20 miles from York, Harrogate and Leeds. Next to countryside and the motorway link to Manchester easily accessible. Chuck in excellent schools and you don't get change out of 500k for a 4 bed house in this area. There's pockets of affordable homes in any area though. But I do think there is a genuine perception that there's a huge price differential Ooop North, which isn't necessarily true.

Well done on the pots Cag and Em, you've inspired me to do similar.

Lovely views.

Hope you have a lovely lunch Scarecrow.

cath that's the dream. In all fairness it's already been shattered. I doubt it'll ever happen. But I can dream right??

cag I sold my old phone with mazuma mobile. I think music magpie do it too. But I've only used them to get rid of CDs.

Em definitely keep dreaming. There's a polo club in Cambridge if you are really keen on that part of it.