Frugaleers Frolick Frugally through February

[Ipsomatic]

Just setting up the new thread for the chatty Frugaleers.

By popular request - copied from an old thread

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.

Trying If it's a big company email the CEO, you might get some compo money.

Meadow that's really shit and must be really stressful for you.

£6 parking
£7 cafe Nero
-£1.50 and we exchanged some shorts for dd and they were cheaper.
£20 Jamie's Italian for the three of us for lunch as kids ate free
£105 on two suitcase
£2.85 on tampons and paracetamol
£2.35 on chocolate as a treat for Ds after the Drs so had to buy as all something...

The dr said Ds' ear is still full of wax and continue with the drops but we've been doing those for a month almost already so I'm tempted to pay to have microsuction done for him if they'll do it at his age.

Hi all 😃

Meadow that is so rubbish, this government make me so angry, so unsupportive😠

I've had a busy day at work, had a senior manager out with me all day as she wanted to see what we do 😕 anyway was quite good as she saw first hand how busy we are and how much pressure we are under. Doubt anything will change mind!!

Nsd.

Arghhhh eir my mobile phone provider credit my billing account instead of refunding to my bank account. It covers current months bill plus next four. Would've preferred the lump sum!

Loving the blogs too guys

Meadow sorry to hear things are so difficult for you right now

Em well done on paying off your credit card.

I owned up to a costly mistake at work today & my boss was really nice & said not to make it a habit, he's really chilled out since we got a young enthusiastic foreman on board, lightens his load I guess.

Spend €20 on diesel as I needed cash back to reimburse au pair for €20 diesel for her car.
€10.30 from joint account on chicken fillets & beef stirfry that's dinner sorted for the week cos have my Christmas party on Friday night!!!

Not overly frugal but absolutely lip smackingly delicious!
Restaurant Quality Sundried Tomato & Chicken Pasta Dish

Good day in Richmond; complete with a visit to the Green Howard's Museum, a trip to Archer's ice cream parlour; and a walk through the fields along the river and back up the steep hill past the castle into the market place, to blow away the cobwebs. Phew!

Spends: £11.50 travel; £4 Greggs elevenses for both of us; £4.50 museum entry for me; £16.70 on lunch (card); £4 new doormat; £5 ice cream; £1 donation for a 2nd hand book. Total: £46.70.

The tumbler is on it's second of 4 loads. One wet in the machine, two very wet on the line, and the whites I washed when we got home. Poor thing. On the plus side my cucumbers are up, and some of the tomatoes. Have transferred them from on top of my snake viv (v. warm) to the conservatory so they don't get leggy.

Have been given deceptively hard painting this week, its making me cross as I keep making mistskes! Going to watch some telly and go back to it later. I dream of paying off my credit card(sss), only 18k to go

Knitting, if I can save up you can pay off those credit cards. It just takes time and it's bloody hard, very hard but doable.
Mammy, that looks gorgeous.
Fluffy, unfortunately it is a local plumbers/ bathroom fitters. Not sure how big it is but they only do bathrooms and have a good selection. I went in and was very cross but polite and civilised. I told them I expect a discount apart from anything else I have spent a fortune with them. 1 cloakroom, 1 family bathroom and 2 ensuites.....and I mean radiators, heated towel rails, the lot. Very angry. I took photographs of what I ordered so there was no argument.

Nutcracker was completely awesome. Pas de deux made me cry! ❤️️ Stunning. Caglets were enchanted the whole way through too - stroppy as hell during the interval but that seems to be par for the course with the theatre. But I kept peeking over at DS and he was just not taking his eyes off the stage at all. Disadvantage of the show, DD is on one about starting ballet. Sigh! Dad took us for tapas before hand which was le yum (or as it's Spanish maybe it should be el yum?)

I'm all bashful that people are reading my blog now :o and very very grateful. Sorry I know the diary posts are a tad dull really 😳😂 I mostly do that bit for my own sake/so family can keep up with what we are doing. Although mum pointed out today that it'll be great when it comes to 'inspection' time with the LEA, as I won't be scrabbling around trying to remember what we've done 😜 Anyway what I really want to do with it is start doing more other posts, reviews, activity ideas, upload resources I've designed and that kind of thing. But I'm building up super slowly... I had the account for like a year before I even wrote a post 😂

So excited about IKEA tomorrow. Hoping not to succumb to too much in the market bit! But if I see the fold up gym mat, the like of which I've not seen anywhere else, I'm getting it for my leapy little darlings. :o

Oooo ikea

Should be nsd. Am making a cake this morning then my friend is coming over this afternoon.

My manager has done my reference but said I can't tell our boss hopefully hr will contact me today.

Looks like some of you are in for some hairy weather today. We've only got a a yellow weather warning...

Knitting you can pay off that debt little by little. Have you seen those pictures with flowers on them where you colour a petal for each £100/£500 you pay off?

Awful weather here too. Have been awake and dozing on and off since 3 am. got up to go for a wee then needed a drink then couldn't really get back to sleep.

Catface is a bit unsettled by the weather so she hopped back up on bed with us at 430.

Have to be in super early today as have a seminar to go to which starts at 8.30. Should really get a wriggle on and get out of bed. Don't really want to go to seminar but it's a free breakfast!

Storm Doris hit with a bang last night. There are about 20,000 homes without power this morning. That's what I get for complaining about a bit of wind and rain the other day . I didn't sleep very well last night either.

Anyway, should be an NSD.

Ds obsessed with watching weird things on YouTube

Am hoping for nsd too.

Have such a long day ahead of me. Seminar then a full day of work then a friend's leaving drinks then meditation class. Should be home and able to relax by 930pm

Was doing really well with only spending the cash in my wallet until the end of the month. But I was late and it was raining so paid for parking online. Resolves my issue about not having quite enough cash to tip my hairdresser tomorrow though

knitting small goals for paying off your debt should help. So aim to pay £500 or £1000 off by June (obviously adapting this to what you can afford). Little steps you can achieve as otherwise the total debt will look really over whelming.

Very windy here too although the rain has stopped and the sun is shining.
Hoping for an NSD. I don't really feel like going out in this weather anyway.

Hi all, struggling to keep up as usual!

I couldn't find the bat shit rules thread either, never mind. Cag I shall read your blog at the weekend - have a busy couple of days before then but I am very interested!

em waking up in the night to wee is a pregnancy curse. I have had this problem from the very beginning. Some nights I can go straight back to sleep but often I can't. That's when I end up on mn at 4am.

Wreck fingers crossed this will be the end of this reference saga!

Meadow I am really sorry to hear how difficult this is and that your MP won't help. Hopefully you'll get some useful advice and support from one of the other organisations named up thread.

LSD yesterday, I spent the morning visiting a friend (free tea and cake!) and then did some Internet research in the afternoon. Just a few £on top up of onions, tinned toms and a reduced quiche for lunch. I was pleased I actually cooked last night (pork and beef meatballs with spaghetti and a tomato and pepper sauce) - I had he ingredients and they needed using but I have terrible pelvic girdle pain at the moment. I was so tempted just to chuck the lot in the bin and order a takeaway but I didn't and it was delicious.

Got to do lots of paperwork today (scope of work for this project work I am taking on and some stuff for DS's EHCP assessment). Also SN playgroup today so a bit of parking. In between I will make a couple of banana loaves as I have some soggy bananas. If I have treacle in I might even make those yummy-sounding muffins of Girlie's

No food in for dinner so might have to delve in the freezer.

It has just started pouring torrentially here and th wind is really getting up too. DS is fascinated!

We have just had a speculative quote for a new front door and side window - ours is an old. Wooden door with a gap right round through which you can see the light(so very draughty). And a dodgy lock. And a very scruffy surround with cracked paint. I was very pleased that a new composite door and double glazed window was affordable... until DH reminded me that we are in a conservation area. I looked it up and it seems we would need permission to even just paint our front door, let alone replace it! This might be a bit of a mission... grrr.

Christmas when I was expecting ds I had a lot of pelvic girdle pain and struggled to walk at times, but then I bought two of these strong elastic supports and wore them both at the same time and it solved the problem. They might be worth a try.

www.amazon.co.uk/d/50t/Carriwell-5011-Maternity-Support-Band-Medium-Black/B001VBZAVQ/ref=sr_1_10?s=baby&ie=UTF8&qid=1487841187&sr=1-10&keywords=support+band+pregnancy&tag=mumsnetforum-21

Em You were asking about nursing tops recently and I couldn't remember the name of the brand I used but it just came back to me. It was this one (below). They're very handy as they have an integrated bra so you don't need to fiddle with a separate bra underneath.

www.amazon.co.uk/Carriwell-Seamless-Nursing-Control-Large/dp/B004REK36Q/ref=sr_1_4?s=baby&ie=UTF8&qid=1487841304&sr=1-4&keywords=carriwell+nursing+top&tag=mumsnetforum-21

The weather's very funny here at the moment. Heavy rain then bright sun then heavy rain. It's an expensive week as I've had dentistry and then a hearing test booked for ds and other stuff to come, but all necessary and in budget.

Em Forgot to say I found that when I was trying to tell what baby stuff was good an what wasn't, very often looking on the NCT shop website helped as they tend to stock the good versions of everything.

tayto the weather is affecting you guys much more than us down south, it passed over us during the night.

I found ds's tractor and trailer outside our wall on edge of the road this morning as they flew out there in the wind last night, however his much smaller and lighter tractor and trailer didn't budge!

wreck my dc were watching demos of computer games on youtube last night, or not even demos someone else playing computer games I'd say.

Today I've leftovers for lunch - half a spaghetti bolognese dinner from freezer and half a portion of what we had last night. Made stewed apple with two cooking apples that were hanging around and have end of a pot of 0% fat greek yogurt too.

toast is it more or less expensive to pay parking online?
My Balances
Personal Bank 241.77
Personal Cash 13.76
Fuel Card -27.97
CC 1 - 1556.53 (177.02 owed from Joint Acc)
CC 2 - 404.81
Owed €359 from Joint Account
Budgeted like this this week have transferred €400 to joint account this am €70 Credit Union Loan €5 dd's savings €10 collection for colleague retiring €20 Beauty & Hair €82.42 Contact Lenses €38 and Car Tax savings €32.01

Joint Balances
Bank 1111.34
Cash 0.30
Owed to Mechanic €500
Budgeted like so - Credit Union Loan 40.00, Au Pair 130.00 Groceries 139.70(150 weekly spent 10.30 at butchers yesterday) Cleaner 20 School Bus Money 20, Mortgage 310.11/756.17 due 7th(dh will be paid twice in interim and I'll be paid once more) Tv License 13.33/13.33 due 3rd, Internet 25.40/25.40 due 1st, Au Pair Car Insurance 57.34/57.34 due 1st, Drama €5 Ladybirds €2, Relax Kids €50/€50 due 11th, Au pair car tax 34/200 due end April, NCT Au Pair Car 5.50/55 due oct, Electricity 198.01(meter reading estimate) Gas 9.59(every 3 months 28.50), Property Tax €38.25/315 due end Dec Household Expenses 13.41(want to buy tea towels)

We also have a credit union loan for boundary wall and gates & I've got a car loan with them

Thanks all, I think I will do a little something each time I pay a chunk. I basically service my cards, each month pay off about £700, but theres always something that comes up. The difference now is that my head is out of the sand about it. I know how much is on each card, when the payment needs doing etc.

The really sad thing is that 6 years ago I was debt free. So I spend 3k more a year than I have. This is also being addressed! It is mostly my fault, but it stems from exp not paying maintenance for 6 months 4 years ago, and I was proud and tried to make do, then had to find him; and then the ask/beg/abuse cycle started.

Onwards and upwards! Its down to this thread, and you lot that I tackle this

Hope you all stay safe today in this weather, we too far south for snow (I hope), and too far north and west for the wind and rain it seems. It is wierd and sort of still here.

Nowhere near as bad as expected so far up here in Durham. Actually have some blue skies and a breeze, rather than wind, this morning. Off to Leeds on the train for a day out, so I wonder what it'll be like down there? Shall find out about 11.45!

Every time someone mentions treacle I'm reminded that I must get up into my baking press - it's above my fridge and clean the treacle that spilled onto the base of the press. I keep everything in a basket that's easy to take down out of press so it hasn't been a priority

Knitting there's a genuine reason for your debt and it's not lifestyle debt so it'll be sorted in time.

Weather is mixed here, sunshine now, bucketing down a half hour ago