Springing into the New Year with the 2017 Frugaleers

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Just setting up the new thread for the chatty Frugaleers.

By popular request - copied from an old thread grin

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.

Dh still in Kent, still working. Might as well go and enjoy the bed to myself I'm terrible for drinking water. Today I have had four coffees and one glass of squash. Must do better.

Spends today:
€2 work canteen
€85 childcare
€135 on new clothes for DH, all at good sale prices but I expect at least 50% will be going back.

Thanks creme.

Still reading
Need work is always full on but this week i got sifted out of the recruitment process for the job I'm currently doing and will still be doing for a few more months. L loads of post Christmas hr issues but it will be fine. I'm far less stressed than I was.

All I've just read the next post, not got to the all about me bit. If you want corrections i will let you know as I do read stuff for a living

NSD today thank goodness.
I am the same about water. I drink about 1 litre a day ( well most days) and I must do more.

Oh fab thank you mammy :). Annoyingly I forgot what weight she is, the Caglets were both weighed and measured when they had their autism screening thing the other week

Parent fail sent ds to school in the wrong coat so he got soaked. Teacher has asked if we have money issues as he is also still in shorts. Think a chat Is needed Monday.. parent fail and doesn't like trousers.

I get more tired if I don't drink enough.

Agree be frugal for the stuff that matters. Just turn out heating up to 17 which is tropical here as the scout hut was baltic.

£2 beavers

Take biscuit with you. When dcat is ill Dh decamps to the spare room so the cat can sleep with me.

Our gas bill has been put up to £20 a month but I'm fixed for two years. None of the electricians I have contacted have got back to me to fit my chop cloc

Bastards.

I was watching Ireland AM the other day and they had some financial expert on. She was discussing financial New Year resolutions e.g. setting aside savings to pay for Christmas 2017/setting up savings accounts/tackling debt etc. She said that some people got paid a bit early in December and then spent all their salary in December. Now they're facing into the month of January without any money and they don't get paid again until the end of January. Scary stuff! Thank God we've enough to keep us going until pay day rolls around at the end of the month.

I know it's Nollaig na mBan or Womens Christmas today but it's not a tradition in my part of the country. I think it's more of a Cork/Kerry thing.

tayto my old work used to pay us on the 5 Dec instead of 24th Dec. Absolute nightmare because we still got paid on 24 Jan. So had to go almost 8 weeks in one months wages. Nightmare.

Current work always pay on 21st. So it's ok.

Back from karaoke. Had lovely korean food in soho first, then into karaoke. We ended up extending our booking by an hour to 5 hours total . Just got the night tube home - first time I've used it. So handy. I now feel like I deserve to call myself a Londoner.

Also pleased to say that I smashed A few good songs tonight. Never done Genie in a Bottle before. Or Je T'aime... moi non plus (with DH). Was hilarious.

Knackered and I am getting up with DS in the morning. Hopefully after 7am. Will catch up properly tomorrow, night night!

Hmmmm, I've stopped the sertaline a few weeks back, bit I seem to have gone back to insomnia and feeling meh. Perhaps I'm not quite ready yet. Trip to the docs methinks.

I'm slowly getting used to how much food to buy and cook-it's been 6 months since we've moved on our own and it's taken me a while to adjust.

The internet (BT) is atrocious!!! I only just made a new contract when we moved, so it expires in july-ish? What do I do? I want out, it's £20 a month (minus the landline rental) for a very rubbish service indeed.
Switched electrics and gas with Flow, must give them the reading, £38 a month. I'm one of those people that has a warm house. Thermostat is set to 21 but I up it sometimes to 23, especially on cold mornings/evenings. I'm happy to pay for that.

So far my idea of opening a specific Bills account and setting a standing order seems to work. I put £600 a month for all bills, DD's, insurances and one big Ocado delivery (every 6 weeks).
So hopefully that'll be ok.

I am going to have a bit of a spendy day, I will become a member to an art gallery, going to boots with DD for 'make up', I need hair products/masks/treatment, I'd like to have a look in sales too.
I did a big (clothes)order online, they arrived and they're all super so I am not sending anything back :)

I love the idea of a women's Christmas!!! How fab!!! It's funny it coincides with the Russian christmas though :)

8 I'm with southern electric for my broadband. Never had any problems and it's pretty cheap.

I could have gone to lidl today would have been much cheaper but instead I'm doing click and collect from tesco as I couldn't face it with the dc on my own. Then I need to go to halfords to get a new light for the car and to sainsburys to get dd new pe tracksuit bottoms and swimsuit.

Dh got home at 11:30 and is off to work again in a bit. Hopefully he won't work all day.

Super busy day yesterday. £2 on baby group, £8.95 meeting friends from work for lunch, £2.58 for mango chutney and bloody expensive strawberries (dds special request as she had a friend over for tea).

Had a lovely frugal dinner lastnight. On Thursday I marinated a huge pack of chicken drumsticks and thighs in yoghurt and spices and served with lentil dahl and salad. Le yum!

Dh was supposed to be paid Thursday but hasn't been... Luckily can just about manage today.

Saw this and thought of us. I don't buy snack/convenience food if I can help it but sometimes I really want it!

Ah wreck his boss is a disaster.
Dh is working today, dd should have swimming lessons but she's still not 100% so we're staying home.

The waitress that's an unusual request for dds sleepover

8 sorry to hear you're not feeling well, maybe you need to reduce more gradually.

Seacow hope your ds stayed in bed
Tayto in our work we get paid weekly, woman that did wages used to give us all our wages & holiday pay mon before Christmas & keep back one week for when we got back to work, which was ok, now it's paid weekly as normal which is fantastic.

Put my one remaining good bra in wash yesterday & underwire came out, luckily it didn't damage the machine, will need to replace as I was down to one good bra. Hopefully Debenhams will have a sale.

Fluffy that's annoying about your chop cloc

wreck this seems to happen often doesn't it with your dh's wages? So frustrating for you.
Re central heating in the winter, I wouldn't want to be cold in the house but I also object to paying more money than necessary to the energy companies. I also find that I feel uncomfortable when the house is "too" warm and we always sleep with windows open. I'm not a martyr to it though.

Great journey back yesterday. The M6 was free flowing all the way which is something of a miracle on a Friday afternoon. Ds met the footballer and appeared on the South west evening news last night & even dd had a little cameo appearance! We're all pleased we stayed for it although it means we've got twice as much to do today to catch up!

Our football teams have both got big FA cup matches, one today, one tomorrow so it'll be a busy weekend. A friend of ours is driving up from Somerset today to go to the match with dh tomorrow. He's staying until Monday morning. It's great that we have a spare room now, in the loft, makes such a difference.

January's budget is looking stretched already, to say the least!! Freezer audit today to see if we can live from that and the cupboard for the month with just fresh food top ups.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Hi 8 was wondering how you were getting on, sorry to hear you are feeling a bit rubbish yy to seeing the Dr. I think us nurses all too often get used to looking after other people and neglect ourselves.

I also like a warm house so anything below 20 warrants the heating being on luckily my house is very well insulated so keeps the heat iyswim. Am still waiting for the downstairs thermostat to be fixed, I had a plumber person come out last week and tell me he thought it was an electrical issue so now waiting for the electrician to make contact.

Thats good re the council tax in Feb and March, will help offset dds bday!

Have increased my savings to £200 a month from next month, hoping thats doable, will have to wait and see....

Am still in bed but need to get moving, dd has riding this morning (all ready paid for) and then we are going into town. Have a few jobs to do but hopefully nothing too spendy.

Will be getting party bag fillers and invites though.......

LSD today. I just need to pick up some sellotape to wrap the last few of my delicate decorations. I've filled three large plastic storage boxes already and there's still more bits! At this stage I'll be happy to say goodbye to Christmas and get my house back to normal. Roll on spring.

Wreck I'd be raging if my employer was late paying me, especially if it's happened before. Does your DH know when it will come through?

north your DS must have been thrilled meeting the footballer and making the evening news too. I'm also trying to live out of the freezer as much as possible and I'm making a real effort to think ahead and take things out of the freezer in advance. There's nothing more annoying than having to buy meat for dinner because you forgot to defrost something.

em and mammy are you feeling better now?

Seacow I'm laughing at the image of you and your DH singing 'Je t'aime'

Having a lovely lazy morning in bed. DD is having a sleepover in her Granny's house and DH has gone out for a run.

DS had me up and making pancakes at 7. Off for a nap now DH is up!

Will catch up later 💤

I won't get into Cag's maths club will I? :o :o Nah, always room for my frugaleer buddies!

Not quite caught up on the thread yet but interesting about the vinegar thing. I had no idea.

Must weigh the Caglets later to find out their water intake. We have scales somewhere. I need even more than my (massive) weight suggests as I have POTS and therefore need to increase salt and water.

Feeling achy today. This kind of morning (I've not even managed to get out of bed yet) would be prime for asking DH to grab me a Dr Pepper but I've joined the 'kick the coke habit' thread and I'm trying to keep away from it. I did get myself a fancy smoothie as it was on offer when I ordered tesco, so I'll enjoy some of that later.

Getting a nice restful day as DH has just taken both the Caglets with him - DD has dancing but afterwards they are going to town to get new backpacks. The one they share is falling apart after constant use since May last year (I only remember that because we bought it for DD's first Brownie camp). Apparently they do backpacks in Decathlon for £2.50 so I reckon at that cost we can stretch to one each :o. Then they'll get trainers in SportsDirect, neither has anything suitable for sports club. DSD is meeting them too - I'd got her some shoes from their outlet for Christmas as she specifically asked for shoes, but the sizing was WAY out - size 7 as requested, but way too big even for me (and I'm more like a 7.5). So I just suggested they go to town and choose something together, as she's back to uni soon (:( :().

Jan 6
£76 tesco delivery (I think - DH took it so I haven't seen receipt)
£4.70 bus/tram fares
£2.40 snack at station

Err I meant May 2015 not last year - clearly haven't adjusted to the fact it's no longer 2016!

I think decathlon do kids shoes too cag.
Defo do a cheap back pack.
£30 petrol.
Body attack done, loving being back at the gym

Feeling much better thanks tayto myself and dc still not up, dh gone to work.

We just spent all of their Christmas money on wooden toys on yesbebe.co.uk there's 20% off £100 spent on toys, also got a wooden crib as I want a crib that's ours not dh's mothers or first wife's guess that means we'll have 3 cribs on display next year.

Must dechristmas our house today, dh likes it up until Jan 6th which meant nearly a month this Christmas.

Hi everyone,

Hope it's okay to join in?

We are a walking financial disaster so hoping to learn a lot...be gentle with me though as we're just starting out and I suspect my spending habits will horrify you but very much need this to change.

Current situation:

House deposit savings: £18500
Mat leave savings £0
Wedding savings £0
Loan: £6500
Credit card £4K?
Account 1 -£330
Account 2 -£3000
Account 3 £450

We have NO reason to be in debt as I'm a high earner. So this years goals are to:

Pay off and close Account 1. Save/spend around £5k as the remainder of our contribution to the wedding which is on 1st December. Keep paying £500 towards loan each month.

Today DP & I will be doing a budget to work out how much we think we can save towards mat leave (we want to TTC next year but I'm self employed and the breadwinner so have to save my salary for those month).

We currently struggle to stick to a budget of £1k disposable spend a month (after bills) which I know is absurd!

cag I realised yesterday Ive spent the whole week signing off payments with 2016 as the date. Oops.

tayto yes feeling much better thanks. I imagine if I hadn't been drinking gallons of water I'd be feeling worse. I did struggle through work this week. But rested loads when I was home so I did my best. Couldn't face being home sick after having a week off. I know it would be legit but you know what I mean.

£25 riding today. Dh has gone to work. Poor thing. The next 3 months are his busiest time and because of the impending nz trip he has to work double hard to get things done.

Something else that you may/may not be aware of. Pound coins as they are at present are being discontinued as of March 31 I think. My banking friend told me this. They will no longer be legal. They are issuing new ones but there will be a cut off date for the old ones. So if you've got any to pay in do it sooner rather than later as at some point they won't be accepted in banks.

We'll have a issue here as we have our own £1 coins as well as £1 notes. And we also use uk ones. So we'll have to check to make sure they're ok.