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.

Happy new year! I can't get onto the app which is annoying had to do a password reset and it still won't let me in.

Anyway, I'm at my friends I don't remember getting into my pjs or into bed

Peonies and Snuggly I think there may be something in that actually.

I did everything by the book with ds, no booze (ever) all the vitamins, no soft cheeze, no preserved meat blah blah blah, very careful about absolutely everything and we've been in crap health.

My neighbour across the road did the same, with the same outcome, and a good friend who went even further and used only hand washable wool nappies and no plastic toys, only wooden, has had an even worse time.

Clearly we need to let our hair down a bit.

Em I'm not sure about actually boozing and smoking but a relentless agenda of actually being happy, relaxed and not giving a YouKnowWhat
about what other people thinks does seem to be good for the soul. I wonder how one does that?

My ds has got right into jigsaws suddenly and is very cheerful and singing like a lark. He spent the last four days watching Gilbert and Sullivan videoes with dh and it really seemed to work out well for him. He's all happy and smiling and singing. Much cheaper hobby than lego, it turns out.

Someone on our street had the loudest fireworks and woke everyone up.

Nsd today as shops are shut and I don't need anything. Dh at work and we are off to dm for lunch.

Em there may well be something in the relax philosophy as stress hormones are not good. Not sure about the hedonistic life change though.
We calculate ovulation days and had success with that, as did a couple of friends.

Lovely evening last night. Had a few glasses of fizz then switched to soft drinks yet I'm the only one feeling hungover this morning!!

House stinks of cheese (we had raclette le super yum).

Here we go. Day 1 of 2017.

Oh wreck you must have a sore head so
I've officially got fruflu. Back to work on Tues, I think I'll get a sick cert if I still feel like this. I get paid for sick days & never abuse that privilege. 2013 when pregnant with ds was the only time I used it.

I like your goals creme
I want to save for a big holiday in 2018 to visit my db in Canada, going to utilise the info in ynab to work out what we need to put away for various expenses during the year, also want to start a pension.

I've signed up for a few runs so that's fitness side of things covered & I want to lose 2/2.5 stone also

I think you are right, Cath whilst my house is fairly clean I'm not that fussed about DD playing with the cat, getting covered in mud in the garden etc and she is rarely ill. I think kids do need a certain amount of germs to build immunity, there was something about it in the Guardian a few weeks ago actually. Now I've said that I've probably jinxed her to catching some horrible lurgy!

Anyway, Happy New Year! I didn't stay up to see midnight but I was woken up by the neighbour's fireworks.

Made lemon and poppyseed pancakes for breakfast and have leftovers from last night for lunch. Will probably get a takeaway tonight, it's a bit of a tradition for us on new year's day.

DD has been asking questions non stop since she woke up 2 hours ago. I am going slowly insane!

Happy new year everyone!!

We saw the new year in at a friends parents gathering, was very tame, buffet and games till midnight oh how times have changed was lovely though, dd managed to stay up till midnight which was a first! Was nice and very cheap no smoking hot men though

Fluffy you are so wise dd was conceived, well actually not ready to share that story but lets just say I was young, foolish and absolutely shit faced

Today am going to spend the day sorting out my pig sty of a house and de Christmasing!!

Snuggly I've read about that too and wish I could do it but my menfolk seem to be allergic to lots of things. They have big dust allergies so I have to keep the house very tidy and spotless all the time or they don't sleep. Also allergic to cats and grass so having a nice pet to snuggle and rolling around in the fields having old fashioned fun doesn't work so well.

I wish I knew what I'm meant to do about it. dh doesn't like the smell of dogs and I'm allergic to the hay that goes with guinea pigs. It's really weird how many constraints we have.

Oddly my neighbour across the road has many of the same problems in spite of having all the best intentions, and being a medic herself.

Do you think a hamster would do?

I just spent a tenner on another jigsaw to keep us going until the schools go back. It's been quite an expensive Christmas really. Ooops.

Jan 1 balances:

Joint ac £2010
My ac £210
Penny ac £0
Credit card £744 (although this should go down to £604 on Tuesday as made a £140 payment yesterday).

Today will be nsd.

Have 4 things which will sell on eBay today so once the money comes in will apply that to my cc.

Today is day one of week one of the 52 small changes. Drink more water. So I stopped the booze last night at about 10. Then had another small fizz at midnight then lots of water. And more water. And more water. I need to seriously rehydrate today.

We're going to my parents for lunch. I will have another fizz to cheer in the new year with them but then will be soft drinks only. I need a good unbroken sleep tonight and booze does not give me this.

I was toying with the idea of dry January. May see if I can do it this year. I've drunk a lot in the past 2 weeks. At least two drink every day. Usually I'll maybe just have a bottle of wine over a weekend. which isn't a huge amount. But to go from that to every day...poor liver. Poor skin. Poor dehydrated me.

A hamster might work, Cath! I have some sort of allergy, something makes me sneeze uncontrollably. Never found out what but allergy tests were inconclusive, I wasn't allergic to any of the things they tested for. I try to keep on top of dust and mildew just in case.
Have just sorted out my make up bag, chucked old stuff and put the rest into a lovely new make up bag that my mum got free from Clarins and passed onto me. We're going to get the decorations down later and have a big tidy up, I'm in a sorting and organising mood!

I'm not going to lie I have felt better! Friends will be arriving for lunch any minute, with wine... Hair of the dog and all that 😜

Ah now, folks, who's going to join me in 6 week dry January?

DH and I doing dry January, ironically we have loads of booze in as I got given a case of wine by a colleague in return for coaching his daughter and then we tried to have a NYE party and bought lots of booze and only
Two people came! I am also Doing 52 small changes, the change this week is drink enough water.

creme peonies I'll join you for dry-ish January. (After my one glass of aforementioned fizz).

Nice to see someone else doing 52 small changes. We can do this!!

I've been dry since the summer anyway due to being pregnant so I can't really join you but good luck!

I'm not joining dry January as I've two Christmas parties but I didn't drink much at Christmas at all. Maybe two bottles of wine in total.

Happy New Year everyone .

Spends today:
€6 supermarket, it feels like a day for bacon sandwiches with nice crusty bread .

Creme I'll join you. I'm teetotal anyway, but why not.

Em Am I remembering rightly that you joined us at this time last year? I'm getting heavy deja vu here.

Happy New Year everyone

Eek! Booked our summer holiday today! A cottage by the sea in the south of England. It was the miserable weather that made us do it.

NSD apart from that.

Good luck dry January people. I'm tee total too but will cheer you on.
I might go for no choc January instead.

Yay! I didn't drink that much over Christmas, I suppose (between 23rd-31st with a couple of alcohol-free days, I had a bottle of wine, bottle of prosecco, small bottle of Irish cream liqueur, 2 g&ts and a 20 cl bottle of prosecco last night), but as I normally drink a bottle of wine every other weekend, I feel it's a lot, although I haven't had any hangovers. Yes please, join us, Life. I don't think I could do no-chocolate January, but I only have a Terry's chocolate orange left, so my goal is to eat that and no other chocolate this week.

NSD.

Happy New Year friendly frugaleers! I hope that whatever you guys did last night, you enjoyed it. And, I hope 2017 is wonderful and happy and cheap.

Well party went well.... last person left at 3.30 am. House looked like a complete bombsite. Folk were dancing on my sofa Tidied until 5.30 then slept for an hour, got up and did the pony and dogs, then tidied some more. I can't describe the amount of booze we have in the garage, 40 plus bottles of wine, at least 100 cans of lager and beer. It will last us 2017 I reckon.

I'm not doing dry January. I rarely eat chocolate or cake. I am not fussed about crisps. We eat really well. I don't smoke. I drink 2/3 litres of water a day. I train very hard. My one or possibly two glasses of wine in the evening and my pleasure. I didn't even drink that much last night, I just really savour the taste of a good wine in the evening too much to give it up.

I didn't know I was pregnant with DS as we weren't TTC, so didn't know until about 8 weeks (very irregular periods for years and had come off the pill literally just a few weeks before). I had a wild Christmas. I still cringe when I think. Saying that, he's just got 6 A*'s and 6 A's at GCSE so I think he turned out fine.

I'm also a reasonably chilled parent, not sure what is actually meant by doing it correctly? It's always baffled me to be honest. We are all just doing our best, we don't need any guilt it's not the 'right' way!

I'm glad you had a nice evening Wrecked and Em

NSD.

*are my pleasure.

I'm sitting down and only changing washing over, cooking tea and menu planning/finances for the rest of the day. I might even snooze.