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.

That's very restrained in IKEA. V impressive

TBF it's a lot easier to spend less in Ikea when you have no car and therefore have to lug your purchases home on a tram, train and bus :o :o :o

There were lots of things I would've bought otherwise though! But since I'm REALLY hoping we will be moving sometime this year, assuming the whole housing thing works out (!), the plan is to wait until we know where we're going and then throw a load of money at Ikea because we have very little furniture to take with us (we will need at a minimum 3 beds and a sofa).

No cafe Fluffy? I may have to suggest a LTB for that bit. MEATBALLS!!! Le Yum (or the Swedish equivalent)

Welcome stitch. It's a very supportive, friendly thread
Ipso, what great news. 😀😀at not listening. That is so typical
Weather here is horrendous but no damage done apat from a bit of guttering come down.
£3.40 on tea and 12 eggs from fríend.
I can happily go to ikea and only buy preplanned stuff but absolutely will not pass the cafe. It's brillíant.

Hmmm... instead of 'le yum' I'm going with 'de yüm'

DH gets ridiculously excited about going to Ikea for the cafe! It's a good job the new one is the opposite side of town from where he works or he'd be in there every day!

I nearly got a hot dog once cag but then the parcel arrived and I was escorted out.

Mmm meatballs

We always wish we had an IKEA we could get to so we could have meatballs. Dh lived in Stockholm for a couple of months once in a studio flat made entirely out of IKEA stuff, and now loves visiting. Oddly for a University town, we don't have one anywhere near. If we want to buy IKEA stuff we have to visit neighbours houses to look at their furniture and then order online.

Thanks for all the kind responses on the hearing thing. So relieved here.

Evening guys :) havent read back yet but I see lots of mention of ikea which I loveeeeeee. Not least for the meatballs, and I think they do free tea and coffee with the family card. Love it.

Spend well for less(?) on tonight on BBC if anyone interested.

Payday tomorrow, need to pay the balance on our holiday so wont be a good month for savings.

Going to try and do evening meals for the first week of the month out of what we already have to give us a head start - need to bring it all out and do a meal plan based around whats there.

No council tax for 2 months woohoo

I'm in love with my new bread maker it I the best. £80 getting dogs haircut 💇 they needed it.

Christmas if it helps, I'm £22 grand in debt, takes time.

I've just started watching spend well for less. I have no doubt that I'll eat my words when my kids are teenagers but I'm always gobsmacked by how many tvs, consoles, tablets and other gadgets some families have!

Which brand of bread maker is it? I keep wondering if the Panasonic is worth it as we only do pizza dough and bread dough. I don't like the crust on my old makers bake

Bread maker is the new Panasonic, it has a section for seeds/fruit and for yeast so it goes in at the optimum time. I chose light crust and did 50/50 wholemeal and white with added seeds, it came out really light and super yum. Plus all natural ingredients. I found it cheapest in amazon.

Hi all, flipping love IKEA although some trauma always seem to befall DD when we go! Last time she took the escalator down and I took the lift and somehow we managed to miss each other at the bottom 😮 eventually found DD sobbing with some security person who then wouldn't hand her over, even though she was shouting mummy mummy!!! Eventually they decided i wasn't a child abductor and we went on our way feeling slightly more frazzled 😓 the lunch still made the trip worthwhile tho 😋

Another busy work day, had a student with me who was v helpful.

Posted a parcel £3.50 picked up some chocolate £1

LSD

That's great re your son ipsos my dds hearing has got much better in the last couple of yrs as well, the drs always told me she would eventually out grow her ear problems but I never really believed them as they were so bad for so long! About 2 yrs ago they told me she had permanent nerve damage as a result of all the ear infections but amazingly her hearing has improved.

Am so tired, thank God it's Friday tomorrow!!

Yikes girlie that ikea incident sounds awful 😱

Woken up at half 4 by DD coming into our room complaining that DS was awake and therefore she was awake. And she couldn't possibly sleep until he was asleep. Man I can't wait for them to have separate rooms! 😡

I can't sleep now as I woke up full of cold and my throat is killing. I have avoided the fruflu for so long but it had to catch up with me sometime. Does explain why I was so drastically achy after the trip yesterday - normally I'd be tired and a bit sore but it was really extreme last night even by my standards. Ended up ordering a takeaway which I was then too ill to eat properly. 🙄 Will get DH to pick up some supplies for today before work but then he's off for a week thank goodness.

So just had to cancel this afternoon's lesson with a friend's DS - first time this YEAR I have had to cancel any tutoring due to being poorly. Quite a good run for me! (Not sure when the last time was before xmas.) Unfortunately said friend and I were supposed to be putting the final plans together for our world book day party and it's getting rather close now. Eek.

Oh I love Ikea. But we don't have one here. It'd take up the whole island. If we want to visit Ikea we have to car ferry to either Southampton or Rennes.

I tend to just order online. However they don't deliver here themselves so I have to get a third party company involved. Sigh.

Still usually works out cheaper than buying local...

SHould be nsd today. My lunch is all packed up (leftover beef and ricotta burgers turned into chunky bolognaise by crumbling them into pasta with squashed cherry tomatoes and onions, and some fruit), and I'm all comfy for work.

Haven't washed my hair because I couldn't be arsed so have pinned it up and sprayed with dry shampoo so it smells like pineapples even if it looks like a birds nest! And I'm debating ugg boots for today.

This weekend is my last weekend with dh before his trip . We may go for dinner tomorrow somewhere. But not sure yet.

Lifelong we have a Panasonic bread machine too and we love it. We usually make 2 loaves a week and it's much cheaper than buying bread. We also use it for pizza dough and dough to make things like Chelsea buns. We only buy bread if we fancy something like a French baguette.

Sorry to hear the fruflu got you, Cag. Hope you feel better soon.

NSD planned although I should probably get DH a birthday present! Also have to go for blood tests and I'd like to make some soup. DD is at nursery today so hoping to fit it a bit of lazing!

Ikea is 4 hours drive from us, but still closer than the 6 hours drive it was when we were fitting out our house
Should I run for cover? I've never tried the meatballs there
Yesterday's spends €10 getting underarms waxed for tonight's christmas party - had to go to beauticans for her to check if they were long enough to wax she didn't know what 4mm was and €10 contribution to a retirement card.

Ds had another meltdown last night, think I'm going to buy the explosive child. I think it's because he doesn't want to wear a nappy by night but he's never dry by night so I'm not too keen on taking it off.

Dd is complaining of a pain in her belly and has now got my headcold as well, she snored all night beside me, combined with a few kicks.

This morning I decided to use the whitening gel on my teeth, ds woke in the middle of this, and wanted to get his clothes for school, I tried telling him that there was no school but with two gumshields in my mouth this wasn't very clear Rant over, I'm glad to be at work

Yesterday's lunch consisted of two half portions of different pasta dishes and today's is my homemade brown bread with salad, might do toasted cheese on it with the salad.

I can't tell if the ginseng is working for energy or not because I've been down with a headcold since Mon and only started taking it on Sunday. Hopefully next week I'll see a difference.

I'm pondering the cost of attending Unislim class when I'm not seeing results, as a former leader I know attending class breeds success, but I also have the discipline to track what I'm eating and weigh once weekly myself. It's cost me €70 to lose 2.5lbs so far this year.

Easy Kids Dinner Thread some good ideas here

Interested in bread machine recipes, particularly multigrain/wholemeal recipes that hold for a couple of days. Dh is a sandwich fiend. I've moved on to my all the ones brown bread since getting recipe last month and haven't looked back and the loaf stays fresh enough to eat all week in a ziploc bag [score!]

My wonderful colleague has brought in donuts today. Polish cheese and ham ones (weirdly delish) and red jam ones. Left over from "fat Thursday" apparently it's a Polish thing like pancake day.

Yummm

I read about Fat Thursday alright!

You reminded me SPAR promised me an Iced Doughnut for my birthday needs to be collected by Tues will get it at weekend for dd (hoping dh hangs on to ds tomorrow and I get to have lunch out with dd while my car's being valeted)
Also Topaz have offered a 3pk of Ferrero Rocher and a bottle of Pepsi or a bottle of water and pack of Manhatten Popcorn as a February treat.

Morning all. Was painting until 2am, there's loads of work at the moment, and the more I do, the more money for my credit cards. Tired now. Next week will do it at the shop during the day, but its impissible with the dc off.

mammy sounds like our house. Ds is out of 'scratchy pants' pullups but has restarted wetting. Ugh. Its getting him to sleep thats a polava that involves snacks and juice, which resolves itself at about 3am. And then of course he us in our bed, kicking me.

Do you need to go to the slimming meetings? You know how its done, so is it for the group motivation thing? Have never been to any group like that, but it seems a lot to spend for little out. Have you lots to lose? You said size 12, so am guessing not. I have bulked up about a stone over the winter (was more last year), will weigh in on dps garmin scales on Monday and start from there. It is time as I'm getting annoyed with myself. Am thinking of trying 5:2 to get going, has anyone tried this?