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

[Cagliostro]

Hello everyone! :)

Ooh thanks em not heard of her and I've added her to our list. My mum (who follows loads of history stuff on FB) shared a post about someone called Qiu Jin so I've added her to the list too. :)

We rather sillily do jacket spuds at our shop! We have a little oven with 2 electric rings on top (£120 - the 'shop' bought it), and we bung them in there at 2pm to take home with us at 4! As the shop pays for its own electric, I count this as free cooking. We have them once a week, as 5/6 of us like them with tuna mayo and cheese.

Thanks for the info on the baccalaureate thing. It sounded a bit vague to me, so dd can drop french, which she hates, and do a dt subject instead. School wasn't pushing it, just very little info. We're really lucky to have an excellent secondary in the village we're based in (but can't afford to live in!).

Does anybody know what the easy way is to get cobwebs off the ceiling without buying and storing a ceiling duster thing?

I used to do it with the hoover but it's such a faff. I wondered if other people do cunning things like sticking a sock on a bamboo cane or something? I'm guessing that using a lit match would end poorly.

Spiders really like this house and I just use an ordinary long handled broom with a duster on to get the cobwebs off the high places

That's a good idea Trying. Thanks for that. Maybe I could just use a big stick in that case.

Gah, coming down with fruflu. Thanks dh. I have loads of plans this weekend too

Thank you for the kind words about my little tribe! And Neenook you Flo is gorgeous! Just look at that fluffy face.

Cag and everyone else living with chronic conditions: you have my utmost sympathy and admiration. I genuinely have no idea how you do it.

Happy birthday for yesterdCay Need - I did post last night but it seems to have got lost. Grr.

We do the microwave/oven jacket spud thing too.

Girlie glad you're feeling better.

Yesterday: £29.99 on a new carry on bag for the holiday. Paid for by PayPal funds though so sort of free!

Also £20.07 in Lidl on booze paid in cash so budget unaffected.

Payday today and I've had quite a big one this month. Should cover all bills now the mortgage is down to virtually pennies.

Out with a friend tonight so will be spendy but again cash I already have accounted for.

Today's balances

Joint ac £229.90
My ac £184
Penny ac £8.91
Cc £745

Have slaved away making breakfast this morning for all of the two seconds it took to move from freezer to oven and 12 minutes to cook look at my "homemade" pastries

Today's balances

Joint ac £229.90
My ac £184
Penny ac £8.91
Cc £745

Have slaved away making breakfast this morning for all of the two seconds it took to move from freezer to oven and 12 minutes to cook look at my "homemade" pastries

Hi all, been lurking & following tips on hrre for the past week as I'm really determined to clear my debt & build up some decebt savings before TTC.
I've done pretty well this week - cancelling unnecessary DD's & have had 4 NSD's. Have tried to be organised & online shop is due today (£67 for 2 of us - could probably be cheaper!) - I have meal planned though & hope to get 20 meals out of it (lunches & dinners). Looking forward to seeing how everyone else does!

Morning all! I'm trying to attempt normal life today and stop myself from feeling ill and drained! Does anybody have door curtains ? And do they make a difference? Is there an easy way to hang them that doesn't involve buying curtain poles and getting drills out?

Have had to dispatch dp for pastries now em (we heed milk for coffee too). I love your tiles. My jug with utensils by the hob got broken by dd2 yesterday. Irreplaceable denby luxor, I said "Nevermind dear, these things happen", and gave her a squeeze, while screaming inside! She was making 3 packed lunches at the time, a job she took over without me ever asking!

Am not going to look on ebay, as whats done is done and I do have a large collection of jugs

Hi swgirl this is a lovely thread, really supportive, keeps me on the straight and narrow spend wise.

cag bean pole with 2 socks knotted on at the top works for me (not that I bother most of the time).

Sorry to hear that life. My throat is slowly rusting too.

Thanks confused. Chronic stuff is weird, but I have great hopes of getting back on form once I've caught up on the sleep deprivation. I think your kind words will help people a lot though. The lack of understanding is a huge part of the problem I think.

Frazzled in extremis I think a bath towel and some thumb tacks would keep the draughts out just until this cold snap is over. I'm battening down the hatches here as it's frigid outside. We often hang a bath towel over the door in summer so that the most intense sun stays out. We just shut the top edge of the towel in the top of the door as we close it.

Distinct possibility of a NSD here.

knitting good plan, thanks.

I feel like I'm making progress finally - next week when we get paid children's allowance it won't be used for monthly bills but for paying mechanics bill for work owed on dh's car, that will be what it's used for Feb/Mar & then it will be saved for a trip to Canada next year
Also when our direct debits start to come out next month I will have the money waiting for all of them(not quite a month ahead which is the aim of ynab but I won't have to use money allocated to bills in the future like car tax/christmas etc to pay the regular monthly bills) This is progress albeit slow progress.

We get paid weekly on Thurs/Fri but it often takes dh until the following Wed to transfer his share I do mine immediately!

Morning all, I am still in bed but have been out to get dd to school!!

Am a bit fed up as its payday but have just looked online and it wasn't as much as I was hoping for, need to check my payslip as I should have had a wend and two bank hol payments so was hoping for a bit extra that and the fact that I was £110 overdrawn. Was really hoping for a better month in February.

In theory it should still look better so here is my budget.

Total in £1780

Direct Debits
Mortgage/ Rent £543
Various insurances (life, pets, contents etc) £80
Council tax £89 (although ? doesn't come out in Feb - March)
Everything else (phone, Broadband, Utilities, car tax, RCN, childcare etc) £313
Savings £200

Total - £1225.

Left £555.

Budget
£200 food and other supermarket spends.
£100 petrol (this is an estimate but will try and keep track a bit better this month!)

£50 hair cut for me and dd over half term, its been at least 6 months since my last cut!!

So £205 left for anything else, in theory this should be plenty but there is half term in the middle of Feb to consider. That said I can't think of any big spends now that dds birthday is nearly out of the way (party and gifts all paid for.)

Ds has been sent home from school with the d&v. Apparently it's rife there at the moment. Wish me luck!

Hope you had a great birthday yesterday Need.

Been I mainly use it for music (more on Spotify than Amazon Music) and DP has Audible which is Amazon's audio books. So I listen to music or books whilst cooking/cleaning/relaxing. Not very frugal though.
I've also added a few 'skills' to it so it can play 20 questions and a few other voice games. DP and I had a few days of asking it daft questions or saying geeky stuff to it. Only funny for those in the know though. Also shopping lists and to do lists, although personally I think they are crap, and it doesn't understand what I say half the time so trying to shop with a list of: bumper (butter), lung cardio (lime cordial) etc is funny/annoying depending on my mood.

Happy birthday for yesterday Need, I have fallen a bit behind.

Am having a bit of a rough time with DS. He is not toilet trained at 4.5 (he is autistic , fr those who are new to the thread) and it is driving me round the bend. He seems to be having some issues with his bowels - yesterday he pooed 8 times. At least half the time his nappy leaks because they are too small (I need to start buying special big ones from internet £££££ ). So 5 changes of trousers required. It just seemed to go on all day and he was so cranky each time, asking to be changed and then screeching the whole time. DH was home late because of another tube strike and when he got home he found me cleaning poo off the bedroom and hall carpet (DS removed his trousers on one leaky occasion before I got to him). It was just so stressful. Very different to changing a baby's nappy lots of times, not least because he is so heavy to lift now and everything requires negotiation. It was a bad day.

Today hadn't been much better. He has been screeching at me all day - he was upset first thing by a broken toy which I eventually had to take away because he was so upset by it... but then he was upset with me for removing it. Nothing is right. I took him to the park, where he was upset because the slide was wet. So I (unfrugally) took him for pizza for lunch. That was fine.... but just now he screeched at me while I changed his nappy (again!) and I burst into tears! I am glad it's Friday, I think I need a break. I feel really guilty as I am just struggling through the days atm, not able to muster the energy to do the imaginative enrichment activities with him that he really needs. I will try to plan stuff a bit more for next week, that will help.

Freezer food tonight, cba to cook.

Sorry for the moany me-me-me post just need to get it off my chest!

Oh Christmas that sounds so hard and could your ds be a bit under the weather hence it being more tricky than usual? Have you had any advice on the continence issues from professionals? i don't know for certain but would think you would be eligible for some pads on the NHS, might be worth discussing with HV?

If it is stressing you both out I would leave it for another month or so, I don't have any experience with autism but my guess would be its a softly softly approach. You are certainly allowed a cry though, sounds so hard and being pregnant as well you must be knackered.

I think I am feeling a bit better, have had a quiet day but managed to pootle about the house. Have also wrapped all dds bday gifts and am feeling a tad smug at how well I have done on a tight budget! Have spent around £150 I think but she has got some lovely gifts for that, lucky girl.

Have had two electricians out again, they are still trying to sort out my heating the issue was quite complex and so far I have had five different people out to look at it! They think they have worked out the problem now and need to get a new wire before it will be fixed. Really glad I persevered with getting Redrow to sort this out, was worth putting a complaint in for sure.

Right better go and get dd I suppose.

Hope your ds is o.kay Cath

And one of my kitchen cupboard doors fell off this morning - no sign of the missing screw so will have to face Homebase.

Thanks Girlie and glad you are feeling better. It's rubbish being ill but defo best to stay off work!

We are not actually trying to toilet train at the mo - we got such a strong negative reaction when we tried a couple of weeks back that I backed off straight away. Last thing I want it to make it an serious issue with him. I will try again in a few weeks, still with nappies in the meantime.

I know some boroughs have a continence service and even free nappies after 4yo. I don't know whether ours does, I have made enquiries and am awaiting an answer. I do think something is going on with his bowels but the GP wasn't interested. I might go back and see the nice lady one instead!

I am not sleeping brilliantly, which doesn't help, and nor does the winter weather as we are a bit cooped up. It will all pass! Thanks for the encouragement though!

In the meantime I have put the heating on and turned it up as I am not going to be miserable AND cold! I am about to make hot choc and will see if I can engage DS in cookie making without destroying the kitchen further . When in doubt, eat something calorific.

Cathode hope your DS isn't too disastrously ill. I do not enjoy DS's occasional bouts of D&V (all that carpet scrubbing again).

Snuggly was this your last week at work? You'll get all your baby prep done much more easily once work stops.

TGIF!

seacow my friend said nappies are free once they're four, we're in West Sussex.

cath oh no! Neither of my dc have ever had diarrhoea oddly.

Nsd. Have swimming lessons in a bit. Feeling really shitty about work and feel like telling them to shove it. Ffs. Feel unappreciated have done the shred which helped ward off my horrendous headache I had from work.

Saw a school girl stroking WreckCat earlier on outside he's such an attention seeker.

Oh no, Cath! Hope he gets better soon. There are so many kids off school poorly at the moment I think there's a lot going around.

Yes finished work now, Seacow! Have just got into bed but will have to get up again to collect DD.
It sounds like you are having a tough week, especially with being pregnant too. Will your DH be around to help out over the weekend?

NSD so far but going out for meal with friends. Not drinking makes meals out much, much cheaper though!