Springing into the New Year with the 2017 Frugaleers

[CathodeRayTube]

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.

What with the tube strike and Southern Rail disruption I am so glad I don't live down there.
I am so jealous of Wreck and Em going to NZ. We went a few years ago and went round in a camper van. We liked it so much we changed our flight back so we could stay longer.
Cath, it is not too difficult to grow a few veggies. I do it so it must be fairly easy. Last summer I grew lots of tomatoes, cucumber and peppers in the conservatory.

Hi everyone. May I join you?

I'm a SAHM, and I had slipped into leaving all finance decisions to DH with zero visibility of money or debt or bills. My best friends were horrified when I told them I had no idea what our monthly expenses were.

Last year I learned we'd built up over 8k on credit card debt. Not sure whatDH was planning to do about it (remortgage I think) but It really frightened me. If anything happened to him I'd be heartbroken, screwed AND in debt. We've managed to clear that by cashing in bonds and some savings. But now I'm determined not to allow it to gain traction again.

I'm not a big spender for myself, but I do buy for the kids and I'm afraid DH never said anything about our debt building up. I think he feels a failure because his public sector salary doesn't give us anything near the standard of living our friends have.

We now have an app on our phones, and we're tracking every penny. I sense relief from DH that I'm on board. But I'm seriously alarmed and more than a little scared by how close we are to the wire, so hoping you good people can help me figure out how to lower our expenses and also find ways for me to earn a few pennies from home.

I've NC'd for this thread. DH would be mortified if he knew I was talking about this in any form. I really think he finds it hard.

My name encapsulates my hope for both my finances and my physique this year!

Cath & Wilderness have you tried 4 square gardening? You can cram all sorts in - just make sure you keep on top of the compost additions. I add extra each time I clear a square.

Em & Wreck I am jealous.

Need well done. I have only done that once - being first woman for the club.... no other women from my club were running, but it still counts!

This was where I was a Christmas.... vimeo.com/197921478 They are trying to win a bike so entered the festive 500.

Trying I've head NZ is lovely. Another friend went there and nearly didn't come back.

I know what you mean about veggies. It's only tricky just now because we're growing them in January in an unheated greenhouse. I don't mind if they get frosted off though. Ds enjoys the planting and the watering well enough. In our location we may not get any frosts at all and if we do we can easily resow, so I'm happy to take the risk, since it's just a bit of fun really.

Welcome lean, remortgaging would actually increase your debt. We're on a low interest rate & repay £1.42 for every £1 borrowed.

Can all the newbies read the links in the op? They're really useful & you will learn a lot except the chat ones I forgot to get moved

£3.50 play sand to use as cat litter. His Royal furriness doesn't do wood pellets anymore.

Lean welcome. Given the public sector has not had anything more than a 1% payrise for years it is no wonder that things are a struggle. A few years back Eric Pickles was on the radio saying that a 1% increase in council tax was a reduction in real terms... the same day all the civil servants in his department recieved a letter saying we would get a 1% pay rise.

I just worked out my numbers for December and they weren't too bad after all.

I spent a lot on Christmas presents, but if that isn't included, everything else was pretty good. There was almost nothing on the house, almost nothing on ds (since grandparents sent entertaining things for the days of the holiday) and nothing on clothes. That was really quite good in the end. Food was up a bit, but mainly because I put a lot of non-perishables away in the cupboard when bulk-buying. Good stuff!

Jealous of the NZ trips too. I went in 1994 for just over 3 weeks and had a fab time. I would like to go with dh & the dc but not sure when that's likely to happen.
Well done on the run Girlie and your dd. Dd is going to do the junior Parkrun next weekend. I'm going to do Parkrun but am not quite up to it yet!

Does anyone have a link/code they would be able to share with me from the Sunday Times or yesterday's Times? It entitles you to enter a "Pre" ballot for the Great North Run

The weekend has been busy with lots of football watching. My team almost got a draw yesterday but lost in the last minutes of the game. Dh's team got a draw today so that means they will get a replay at their ground in a couple of week's time. It's an amazing result for their club, great for dh & ds but not great for the budget as they will go to the game but it's a 600 mile round trip! We do have a budget for football matches and concerts as those are 2 things we really enjoy so dh will be allocated a tight budget for the trip! They haven't got back from today's game yet but will be in very good spirits when they do.

I've got a beef stew in the slow cooker, some roasties to go with it and an apple crumble for pud. There will be enough for at least one more meal and probably a pie (all to freeze). We had chilli last night and again there was enough to freeze for another day. My freezer audit was good yesterday. I definitely have enough to get us through to the end of the month only buying fresh stuff and any small top ups we need.

Northender I think we may live in the same place I was on that match!!

Welcome lean! You can do this we've got your back I'm getting better though!

I am so fed up of my fussy children. Oh. My. God. They drive me fucking mad.

I'm going to put away £50 a month starting Jan pay fo Xmas. It will make such a difference having it saved up already (plus it ticks one of my new years resolutions 😊).
I sold our Tripp trapp high chair for £40 today,I bought brand new. I used gumtree.
Dh tidied the down stairs loo lm amazed that he found the cleaning cloth, plus its such a wasted space and we would love to knock it into the kitchen to increase space. But that would cost.
My parents were born in NZ and I was born in Australia. Miss the warmth.

bloody hell im on fire today - a million loads of washing and drying, cleaner hired and starts thursday, lasagne made for tomorrow, ham roast dinner today, 5 portions of soup for lunches, cranberry scones snf s rice pudding. Housework done.
Into town for £17.50 argos - newphone, £25 boots stocking up on hair stuff, £12 waterstones on dc study aid books, 70p on bubblegum, £1 parking,
£10 skate park, £50 diesel.

Ah we all have those days need. today is a new day. well done on the run

Welcome lean, you'll be ok.

I wish i had stayed in the private sector TBH. then again i may have been made redundant as i was in banking but the pay rises were better.

all I was born in Sydney. I miss the warm too but not the ocker BS.

Ebay is good for selling I find, but the postage costs can be prohibitive and put buyers off. I post from work, so it costs me nothing but otherwise it's pretty high. There was a brilliant Ebay thread recently that might come up on an advanced search?

Hi Lean You'll be okay, now that you are both fully on board. Do you menu plan? Have you gone through every direct debit you can to see if you can reduce or get rid? Sky subscription? Does DH take a lunch to work? Takeaways reduced?

Good re the cleaner Life, it enables you to do all the other stuff I find that never gets done.

Unescorted. Ha ha. I am actually a really good runner. It's the only sport I am good at, but I am good at it, and I really want to be good at it too, so train really hard to get back to where I was 6 years ago.

Junior Parkrun is a super event, there's loads around. Brilliant for kids to get into fitness and sport and enjoy being active. Lovely atmosphere. The actual Parkrun is brilliant too, all run by volunteers. Responsible for so many people getting active. You can walk it, run it, take the dog, whatever and folk will clap and support you all the way.
.

I've had a chat to dh and we've agreed that we will aim to go to nz every 3 years. And if he feels he needs to go more frequently he will have to go on his own. I've said that when we have kids I'm not pulling them out of school for weeks at a time. Also it's pricey.

I've relented (because I'm in a new year new me phase) and have said that mil is welcome in our house after previously saying no way never again but she can't just announce she's coming. She will have to give us notice and we will have to ok it. Last time she was here for 2 weeks and dh had no notice so he spent 2 days with her. Fortunately I couldn't take any time off...

I've explained that my mental health is my focus at the moment. So he needs to help me with it. And be supportive and help take some of the stress away.
He is now solely in charge of food shopping and meal planning and cooking. Which totally suits me. I'm in charge of washing. And hoovering (cat face is primarily "mine" and she gets fur everywhere...).

Small steps.

It's been a nsd. I have collected 3 Kilmer jars from dm who was throwing them away. Yay! On my way to having a lovely shelf full of jars of pulses beans pasta etc.

And I got told about a cashback payout. The princely aim of 75p. Not sure what I'm going to do with it. Must not spend all at once!!

Welcome, Lean.

Stumbly I love the swapping idea, that's brilliant.

I am bloody knackered, been at a kids' party this afternoon! It was good fun though.

Feeling very "Sunday nightish" now, really don't want to get up at 6 and go to work, even less so than usual!

Well done life sounds super productive

Thanks for the well dones, it feels good to have done some exercise and have decided that every Sunday we will either swim, run, walk or go for a bike ride. Need you are my inspiration the trainers were good thanks, my ankle felt a bit wobbly at one point but not sure if that would be trainer related?

Had a fairly productive day, caught up on house work, washing, helped dd with homework (have learnt lots about Isambard Kingdom Brunel!!) and caught up some other jobs.

We popped out this afternoon to Sainsburys, got dds party invites, cat litter and a couple of half price clothes for dd in the sale. Total spend £19.

Right have listed some bits on eBay and some bits on fb. Fingers crossed.

Ugh. We have just done our budget and it's fairly horrifying...

We need £3670 a month on bare essentials (bills, food, petrol).

If we want to buy a 3 bed house in two years and a child (assuming possible) next year then we need to save £2k per month.

YIKES.

Yikes stumbly! That is a lot per month! Know what you mean lean, we are also living on a single public sector salary at the min... things are tight

Sold another £15 on gumtree, and my ebay stuff all just finished... £95! Nice surprise

Several of our friends emigrated to NZ - dont blame them it looks lovely!

I've read up to here - I'm place marking because I'm having an early night. Will catch up with you all tomo

blue wow good job.

stumbly yikes!

I've drunk so much water today - and after a weeks worth of increased water I've been rewarded with a gigantic cheek spot. Brill.

The water seems to be helping the snottiness though. Or at least helping flush it all out. They're going to love me at work tomorrow.

cag how you doing my snotty friend?

Spends today:
€5 in local shop

Mammy - I think you mentioned bra shopping. Just to let you know M&S had some really well reduced bras I the last week, €13 reduced from €35 I think, only limited sizes though.

Stumbly, that's including £2000 savings, right? Would it be more realistic to save less over longer? Even £1000 a month is a lot for savings.

Especially as we're on one income at the moment (mine)...the last year or so we've been spending £1k or so on non-essentials every month and saving nil so really need to go as much 'no spend' as we can!