Frugaleers, keeping their frugal resolutions in the new year. Keep on, erm, resoluting!?

[Cagliostro]

Hello everyone! :)

Oh and £10 for a second hand baby monitor that DP is picking up on his way home. Poorly pet has a cough so I want to be able to hear her so we can give her her meds when needed.

TSB has a switch offer on money saving expert, £125 if you pay in £500 a month. They pay out in about 4-6 weeks Ime.

£4 on multi vits & minerals, 4 pt marked down organic milk and tomatoes.
£79 Minx & St Tropez training course. They had an offer on so I've saved £60.

It's Burns Night tonight.

Smart meter fitted and we now have a digital energy monitor. I am already obsessed! Also slightly horrified at how much electricity was being used to run only the dishwasher and kitchen lights. I'm going to be trying all the different washing machine/dishwasher cycles to see which is most efficient!

Have you got halogen kitchen lights?.

Dinner is pasta pesto with chicken, asparagus and cherry tomatoes. No doubt the dc will think I'm trying to poison them

My ds wouldn't even touch basic pasta bake on Sunday -spoilt brat brought up on freshly made meals- I'd have no hope with asparagus I'm afraid!

I need to buy led spotlights - we've got 6 in kitchen, 6 in sitting room, 6? in dining room, and some in some of the bedrooms too, I've replaced a couple.

Rang my mobile phone provider who have been overcharging me at 5.05 as that was when boss left the building, department I need to speak to closes at 5

It's wild and windy here, must check if dh is going to be home so I can take dd swimming. He still hasn't apologised or made any shape at it, and is still sleeping in spare room. Lots more room for me to stretch out

Fluffy I have read the MSE email yet, is it a switch or just open an account deal?

£12 in Aldi, buying staples that we like from there, reduced tomorrows Ocado delivery to £56, more than I spent at Aldi, so a saving.

Ugg boots have arrived and are fab, so they won't be going back.

This is our tea, and it tastes utterly divine and is very frugal too. Cheap ingredients and made a huge vat of soup. And hugely healthy.

www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/red-lentil-sweet-potato-coconut-soup/

Hmm not cool MrMammy still make the most of the extra room I suppose. I hope you're ok.

Lovely day today, had a pupil round which went brilliantly (I know I mustn't have favourites :o but it is SO rewarding and fun teaching him). Then we had geography club which went really well, the Caglets showed off their presentations and did lots of activities after. Bloody glad I don't need to leave the house again though, DH finishes at 6 today so he can collect from Brownies. YAY!

£4.65 train fare
£13 hot chocolate and toasties. Not cool! I need to remember this when planning geography days - we have no time between my pupil and leaving to get the train so I need to make that a packed lunch day.

Wow need that soup sounds amazing!

Lemon I have 2 teen DC that have phones and laptops, leave every light and charger on imaginable, and a DH that is just as bad. A very large 4 bed house with doors open all the time. 2 freezers. Fish tank, the lot We pay £100 pcm. I wonder if there are savings that you can make?

That being said, house is only 5 years old, all mega efficient German appliances (provided by builder!) and the house was built to way in excess of regulation. I honestly think this makes the most difference.

Oh dear Mammy.

I've had a taste Cag, it's wonderful. I won't eat until later as I'm off to run 10 miles now.

It's a switch, but it's £250 tax free if you both do it.

Then you switch back when you've had the £250 etc.

Funny you should mention that, Fluffy, as my £100 for switching to TSB last month came through today. Guess I should have waited a bit longer to make the extra £25, but I can confirm they pay out promptly.

£ 9.70 travel to work and £1.59 at the shop, on milk and a Bounty.

Yeah I missed out on the extra £25 too. Oh well.

I'm actually really happy with Santander and M&S, but cheers for the clarification there.

Just registered with MSE - hoping for some good ideas from there. I think I used it years ago but drifted away for some reason.

Have done 3 loads of washing today. 2 on the line and just finished off tonight on the radiators and just one load of towel that I put in the tumble drier. Massive improvement!

Had a builder round for a quote today who sat outside in his car for 20 mins as he thought we were out - couldn't see any lights on! 😂

Lemon my rat snake is very grumpy too! I let it off because it's sooo pretty! It has iridescent scales on its tummy.

£42 in Lidl, as needed all sorts of staples. Dp bought me a costa (a rare treat).

mammy I really feel for you, I think my ex (the girls dad) was a bit like your dh. Do you think you'll reach your limit at some point?

Wow Knitting it is indeed pretty! 😍🐍

That soup sounds lush Need and I think I have all of the ingredients in (which shows how ridiculously overstocked I am on food...) anyway, I think I will make that tomorrow for lunches.

We are having this for dinner - sounds very basic but I really recommend it, it is really tasty and warming (and a pack of mince goes a very long way). And it is quick to prepare! I add a few more veggies, usually some diced squash:

[http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1702/cold-weather-hotpot hotpot]

Mammy how long will DH sulk for? I hope things improve soon. If my DH is out late or we are in separate rooms (with colds of snoring sulks) I make the most of if by listening to the Archers podcast in bed. DH hates it.

I have realised that I have no idea what we spent on gas and electric. I should find out. I am pretty careful about turning stuff off but I am sure there is room for improvement.

Link fail! I will learn to do clever links but for now:

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1702/cold-weather-hotpot

knitting I think knitting is what we have in common. Not so much snakes

They are cool but I don't fancy handling one!

Love the snake pic! I like snakes but DH is quite scared of them so a pet one would be out of the question.

Fluffy yes they are halogen. A lot of the bulbs need replacing so I'm waiting for a couple more to go and then replacing the lot with LEDs. Going to do the hall and bathroom lights too.

At the weekend I made Jamie Oliver's 7 veg pasta sauce from the latest book. It made gallons and I've stocked the freezer with various sized portions to use for making Bolognese, lasagne, quick meals for DD etc. Just used some as a pizza topping and it was delicious.
We've also made the easy pesto and frozen tonnes of it and it's delicious.
Trying to get the freezer stocked for when the babies come!

lemon what's Alexa?

Christmas thanks for sharing the recipe, we can't get baked beans here, you think kidney beans will do?

Italian I want to live somewhere where you can't get baked beans, they make me retch to the point I can't even watch someone else eating them. People at work bring them for lunch and then I can't eat my own lunch!