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.

blue epic baking there and wow meadow fantastic on the volunteering! I know it's easier said than done but do remember it doesn't matter what the other woman thought. Just think what a difference you've made to those kids! Anyway, even if she was annoyed at you treading on toes, in all honesty it says more about her than you.

I just did something a bit scary and applied to be a guest writer on a massive home ed site. Eep.

That sounds exciting, Cag, good luck with the application.

Well done Meadow, pleased you've had a better day today.

Blue your baking looks amazing. Pastry is my nemesis, I just can't get it right!

In bed. Just watched SSGB on iPlayer, not sure I really followed it. I was confused from the start! Might watch second part tomorrow to see if I can get into it.

Thanks snuggly :)

I was wondering about that ssgb thing but I'm super excited about broadchurch on Monday! Can't wait! And something called the replacement starts on BBC on Tuesday. I love a bit of British drama.

Wow, thanks everyone, you are all so friendly and supportive. I always think nobody will read my posts and then I get a bazillion people saying well done it is really sweet, thanks .

Cag that sounds super, if you write for it you will have to link us! I did read your blog post btw it was good and insightful.

Wrt pensions, I don't have anything yet nor any NI contributions. It makes me anxious when I think about it. I know I'm young but realistically the age of retirement is just going to go up and up and up so it's kind of scary not to know when I will accrue any kind of pension . Idk if people will agree with me on this or not but personally I think students in higher education should get NI contributions because otherwise we are unfairly disadvantaged in terms of the state pension. I mean when you claim JSA you get NI contributions (rightfully in my opinion don't get me wrong) but not when you're a student. Not sure how controversial that view point might be though.

DH and I just applied for marriage tax allowance so there's a little frugal win (as unfair and discriminatory as that allowance is).

Aw thanks meadow :) I have no idea if your view is a controversial one re: students, I had never thought of the issue before but now you've mentioned it you make damn good sense IMO.

I have another two new piano pupils interested yay! Hopefully starting week after next. I'm glad I haven't advertised for ages (I only ever did a handful of times on FB groups, never got round to putting my flyer up etc) - it's been nice to see it growing naturally through word of mouth. Quite a confidence boost which with everything else going on at the moment is really rather helpful. :o

Must try and sleep but I always hate lying down when I'm all snotty and sore throaty. Ugh.

All that's really interesting about pensions. I'd love to hear lots more about your investment ideas. That's my main frugal thing, but there's not much talk about it on here.

I think I'm going to go out for breakfast. Have mentioned it to the dc so will have to now will get petrol too.

I'm just going to let her do it. Alex she wants to be.

LSD planned today, getting bits for costume. DS has footy but that's paid for.

Other good frugal thing I did yesterday was ring up and cancel sky for when our 60% off runs out. Last year we lasted two weeks without sky before they rang up with this offer so let's see if the resolve remains! Plan is to have now tv and Netflix instead (poor DP loses his sports)

I started burning a posh candle that I was given for my birthday a couple of years ago last night. But something in it has made me cough and I'm still coughing now. Annoying as now it's been used it can't be ebayed instead.

Plan is for a NSD

I've thought the same about students and NI before - I was a student for 6 years and ended up contributing some but not enough during that time (summer job) - I was offered the chance to pay make it up but it wasnt an insignificant amount and in my student wisdom decided that the money would be better spent on other stuff. Regret that now lol in my mid thirties and starting to think seriously about this stuff. I will have some occupational pension (approx 8 years). We will have hopefully paid off our house. Thats it. Must look into a private arrangement soon if I remain a SAHM for a while.

Thanks for the pastry praise! I can confirm that the mince and onion pie and the apple lattice were top notch. The quiche is for today. I just make my pastry in the food processor - half the amount of fat (marg or butter) to plain flour blitzed into fine crumbs, enough water dribbled in so that the food processor brings it together into a ball of pastry. Then chill for 30 mins or so. No skill required on my part lol.

Today we will mostly be visiting relatives I think, my DP and my inlaws.

Oh, forgot my freezer meal plan for this week. In no particular order -

Burger, salad and fries
Sausage, mash and onion gravy
Chicken curry and rice
Chilli beef tacos
Sweet and sour pork and rice
Teriyaki pork stir fry and noodles
Quiche and salad (beans for DC)

Not bad considering its all from the freezer or cupboard. Will still need milk and bread midweek.

We always seem to end up skint for the last week of the month from frittering, so Im going to try and flip that so we have a purposefully skint first week to see if that works any better

blue It all looked lovely. Pastry is so cheap to make too.

Yesterday was;
Tiler £790
Paint £29
Curry £10

toast You can still sell that candle, or leave it in a south facing room to get the scent without burning it. People buy empty jo malone candles on eBay.

I haven't had a washing machine all week so we're putting the kitchen back together today.

Place marking - will catch up later.

I have a pension with Zurich and was told I need to be putting at least 15% of my salary in there each year. I pay in once a year. If I do that I only pay a £50 admin fee instead of a £15 admin fee every month.

I'm finding it hard to decide where the priorities for saving should be.

1. Pay more into pension
2. over pay the mortgage to reduce the debt
3. save for children's uni etc (I read a scary thread about the costs the other day)
4. our own savings

How do people decide what to prioritise? I guess the answer is to contribute to all four in small amounts

I like the idea of having a skint first week of the month, I'm going to try that.

I read that to find out how much pension you will need then you multiply that figure by 30.

So I want to have (min ) £10,000 a year as wont have mortgage payments anymore, and I reakon £1000 (apx) a month is do able if I've also got my teachers pension plus (maybe) the state pension. So 30 x 10,000 is £300,000.
I have £100,000 in equity from a property I own with my ex (cant sell it as ex has disappeared). I need to save £200,000 in 20 years. I will then have enough to retire - just.

But that is a very modest retirement of 10 grand ish a year. Which is not exactly lavish.
Also I know dH hasn't got much of a pension.

Anyway I find this all quite interesting and I think ill write a post about it on my blog.

I read the post on mumsnet in the other part of the forums too.

Well off for a country walk today and plan a nsd.

I love making pastry but don't make it too often due to its calorific nature!
meadow glad you're feeling brighter, mental health problems are so tough to live with.

I'm working 12-8 today, did 8-4 yesterday. It's dh's birthday today so we're going to have a big brunch before I go to work & then a party tea of pizza, sausage rolls & a cheeseboard when I get home. We had a steak dinner last night with HM brownies & ice cream for dessert. The steak for 4 of us was almost £20 but so worth it & so much cheaper than going out. He got a good mix of fun & practical presents and money from our parents which is going to go towards restarting his genealogy hobby.

Paid out £110 on cricket kit for ds on Thursday but my parents usually pay for that so I might get it back. He needs a new bat too. That's likely to be around £200 as well but they will pay for that too thank goodness. There are cheaper bats but it does make a difference and he is good enough and plays enough to justify the spending. Dd isn't going to be playing this year but is going to be the first team scorer again so she'll be making money (£15-20 a time). Think she's going to save up for an iPhone as "everyone" has them

Hello all, been away with work in a very rural area with no reception, in some ways it was quite nice but now very behind!
Frugal win... made a huge tray of banana flapjacks with seeds, nuts and fruit in, enough for DH and me to eat as breakfast all week. Also a banana bread which is more treaty (flapjacks don't have sugar in them, just 3 teaspoons of honey for the whole 16 flapjacks).
Have mealplanned this week:

Patatas bravas and Spanish beans with spinach and sundried tomato
Roasted squash with spiced chickpeas
Toasted sourdough with homemade hummus, beetroot, carrot, tomatoes
Sweet potato and lentil stew
Veg burgers with carrots, peas and homemade wedges
Spicy "sausage" pasta

I have a huge amount of marking and other admin to do today for work tomorrow. It will be a long day tomorrow as we are screening a film for the kids ahead of a trip to Italy and that is happening at 630pm. Sigh.

I don't think I'm saving enough for the future. When I started teaching the teachers' pension was amazing. It's less good now and I'll have to work until I'm about 70 to fully benefit. I can't imagine still teaching teenagers at 70!
We try to overpay the mortgage whenever we have a little extra but we've only managed about £500 since August. Have been saving for mat leave though.
After that I think most will go on childcare but once all 3 are in school we should be able to start saving/mortgage overpayments etc. Bonus of being a teacher is that we won't have to fork out for childcare in the school hols.

Off to Sainsbury's shortly for a top up shop and hopefully a cheap laptop as our pc is on it's last legs. We don't use it enough to need anything flash but we do need one for banking, shopping, school work etc.

been

I prioritise as follows: mortgage overpaying, pension, savings, kids at uni (no kids yet and once baby arrives later this year it'll be ages before they have to think about uni. It cost my parents a lot to send both me and my sister so hopefully by the time baby has to think about it there'll either be a uni here or he/she won't want to go...!)

I'm also trying to save for my mat leave now too. I'll still get a decent chunk of my salary but will still need to save.

Spoke to my riding instructor yesterday who said that when I decide to stop riding she'll text me to let me know when they're hacking out and I can walk along with them. So will still be involved.

Dinner last night was great. Dm and df paid (which was so lovely of them and totally unexpected). Three set menus at £19.95 for three courses, my calamari and pizza, two bottles of wine at £18 a bottle, a bottle of sparkling water, a Guinness, a peroni and an espresso all came to £130. So not bad value for 4 people. And the food was delish and great portions.

todays goals:

• no throwing up (feel a bit sick but the calamaris were serves with a super garlic mayo....)
• 2 loads of washing minimum
• clear dining table
• empty wardrobe and find dhs pin for his suit (he dropped the spikey bit so it's most likely in one of my shoes...)
• declutter wardrobe and eBay things.

-change bedding.

I have no pension provision (well a work one which will maybe pay out 10k total when I'm 68, I only paid into it for 6 years), dp even less. We live hand to mouth, which is worrying; but there is not a penny spare, so saving money is not an option atm. Realistically I am relying on winning the lottery at some point

Still in bed.

my priorities are mortgage then savings for rainy day then DC teenage fund (uni, car, school trips etc). neither of us will have fantastic pensions but they will be enough so no AVC's for us.

I pay into the teachers pension but I started teaching at 26 so I have missed lots of years of contributions. I need to get advice on whether to pay a fine into the TP to make those lost years up or whether it's better to try and save up into another type of account.
We don't own a house but hope to buy this year and over pay mortgage with goal of paid-for house in retirement.
I was a student for 8 years (masters then doctorate) and missed all
Those NI contributions too.

I've had to get a dictionary out to understand my six year olds homework ffs. It's insane.

Wreck The overambitious school curriculum is driving me up the wall at the moment. The school sent a questionnaire out to ask what I think and I had to go and tell the headmistress that I couldn't possibly write that down as my thoughts were largely not repeatable in polite company.

This is some of it. She had to answer questions on it.