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.

Well done on the appointment cag.
Gws em
Potatoes are chatting made me laugh, sorry trying.
The issue with a car boot is we would buy each others clutter back. = Still clutter, less money. Unless we go to a giant one with non mnetters. We will need mn signs.

£62 sainsburys on an alleged to up shop. Almost a weekly shop.
£5 skate park, £2 cubs

Em, yours is better

Snuggly, let me know if you need me to explain offset more

Got back from Pilates to find DS hadn't bothered to make enough pasts and pesto for both of us. Honestly, bloody selfish teenagers are a nightmare! Never mind, I had spaghetti and pesto instead and obviously, he won't be getting any of the Thornton's fudge chocolate I picked up in the Co-op tonight. Mwah, ha, ha!

£1 battery for the smoke alarm.

Good for you Cag.

That's a good point about the car boot, lifelong. I would be interested to know more about offset mortgages but we've got at least 18 months left on our fixed rate so unlikely to change any time soon!

NSD I don't think I've ever typed that before!

By the sounds of it Em, you are in the lucky position that the statutory pay rate doesn't matter as your work will pay the difference anyway. I'm in the same position fortunately.

NSD yesterday. :)

Em Maybe you could switch to a pre-natal vitamin supplement like pregnacare? Those are safe in pregnancy.

I've been stuffing in the good foods this week, and woke up this morning and found I'm now able to remember what mango tastes like, which was very nice. I'm not sure why weaning ds from breastfeeding killed my sense of taste, but it's very nice to feel it gradually coming back.

Hopefully the roofers will be here today.

LSD today. Will be £3 on four tops I bought off fb selling site for ds.

Hoping for a NSD today.

My LSD yesterday was thrown when the window cleaner arrived and I had to fork out another £17.50. DH suggesting we ask him to come every two months instead of every month. Don't know why I feel odd about that because it makes sense. Tracking every single penny is revealing to me all the invisible ways we spend that I completely overlooked. I'm feeling the need for ME to make some money turning into a constant pressure.

Has anyone here used prolific.ac to try make some money at home? Just wondering how worthwhile it is?

Em this is completely meaningless really, but I was 40 when I had DC1 and 43 for DC2. Bizarrely, my age was repeatedly mentioned with DC1 at appointments but not once with DC2. On the day I delivered DC2 I asked the midwife if I was the oldest woman she'd had in that day and she said no, she'd had a 47year old in immediately before me.

I use profilic lean and it is a pretty good way to earn some extra money. Set up email alerts or login often though to see what is available.

Spent £2.20 on bus fare yesterday. It's £1.60 to the stop before it so I won't do that again...

I just followed though on my new year's resolution and went back to bed for the morning. It was pretty good. Zzzzz

Spends today:
€2 toddler group

Pixie I signed up for prolific over a week ago, check regularly, and have only had one study come up so far. I'm wondering if I'm a demographic that no one wants to study?

I just tried buying M&S shares and they went down. Ooops. I suppose that's one of the two possibilities.

I've just wasted an hour reading a hilarious parking thread on AIBU www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2823591-neighbour-using-my-drive-when-Im-out

I'm saving the follow up thread for later. I think I've wasted enough time already .

Maybe some Frugaleers could make extra money by renting out your driveway.

wilderness my work base is the health centre that is actually part of the football ground which was weird to begin with, as a fan.

Yesterday was almost an NSD and then I had to pay library fines .
Today has been no spend so far. I had a bit of a lie in as I'm off today and haven't been sleeping particularly well. Felt so much better when I did get up. I've got on well with all our sorting out. Our bedroom is beginning to resemble a bedroom again rather than a storage unit! Now just the conservatory and office come study come sewing room to go!
I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel but it has felt like a very long tunnel!!
I've got a charity shop pile, an ebay pile and I'm going to try a table top sale I think as there is so much stuff that I'm sure people would pay a small amount of money for but that isn't worth ebaying iyswim

Chicken fajitas for tea last night, pie (made with leftover stew from Sunday) with veg for tonight's tea.

Back at work today

Spends include £6 on tissues (4 boxes)
£2.15 on soup (chicken and chorizo)
£0.75 on a lemon
£2.99 on honey.

Also £25 to set up a new regular savers account. Mine is due to mature at the end of the month.

Sooo tempted to get a takeaway tonight! Especially as DSD is staying so an extra mouth to feed. But DD reminded me we have chicken left (the rotisserie one from yesterday) so we had some in sandwiches and I'm going to do a stir fry with some unopened bacon and whatever veg I can find. We have the uncle bens rice as well and I'll use the new wok (can't remember who asked now but it does say non stick).

Well done Cag on avoiding the takeaway! Promising news from your CAB appointment too.

Have phoned and booked car in for mot next month, trying a new garage which actually has courtesy cars so won't be so stressful.

Have spent ages trying to rearrange dd's neuromuscular appts in Southampton as I was told we could defer for six months if we were happy. They've sent me through another appt which will be either ds' first or second day of school and as we are so far from Southampton (1-2 hours) I just can't do it as we will be gone all day. So frustrating as the appointments team can't book it only the specialist nurses...

Had sold something to someone on a selling site but they decided they don't want it now

Chilli for dinner. With nachos and garlic bread. Healthy

Tayto renting out my drive could be a huge moneyspinner, especially if it had a charging socket fixed, because parking is dire around here. We're affectionately known as an unofficial park and ride for commuters and even locals can't park. Unfortunately I can't rent my drive because there is nowhere else to put my own car.

I'm glad I went back to bed this morning as dh and ds are both at home under the weather this afternoon.

tayto I read some of that thread this morning, and said thank fuck I live in the countryside! We used to have an issue in first house of neighbour parking half way across our back gateway so that you couldn't get into back yard with car, there was history between him and dh so I just let it be. Was annoying when bringing in the weekly shop as instead of backing up to the back door had to traipse through front -really tiny- garden and through hallway into kitchen instead.

cag well done to you and your dd on resisting takeaway.

I've come back to work today and feel beyond knackered, will be an early night for me and the dc that's for sure, dh going to a funeral, I expect to be sleeping before he comes home. Dropping dcat to vet for neutering this evening, and I neglected to ask the cost

Lean, that's a decent saving if you look at it over a year re the window cleaner, and a good reminder how small monies add up re expenses.

Cheaper than a takeout too Cag, and less wasteful, good stuff.

Did you see the nutritionist last week Cath, I think I remember that you said you were going? I have mango on my porridge in the mornings quite often, and am not frugal as I buy sliced mango. The health benefits outweigh the cost I would argue.

Spending-wise an expensive day.
£5 Cardio and Core class.
£130 D of E payment to school.
£25 theatre trip for DD.
££££££££££££ insane amount to HMRC paying self assessment tax.