Remember remember it's frugal November

[LonelyOversharer]

Woo hoo! I've never done the new thread before!

Its interesting re the spending on luxuries thing, i don't really feel like I do have any luxuries now. This year I haven't bought any clothes apart from one top for £10, i get my hair cut twice a year, I don't smoke or drink, I don't buy a lot of make up, i don't buy shoes or coats, I don't eat out or buy expensive food....

What money I do spend is normally on dd one way or another not sure thats a good thing really, I should treat myself more than I do.

Hamburger is this your first baby? I hate to say it but I imagine the expensive hair cut may take a back seat once the baby turns up anyway.

I have had a nice day, caught up at home and spent the afternoon in town with a friend.

Spends;
£13.50 in Primark on various bits (mostly for dd!)
£6 New Look on 2 vest tops (for dd.)
£5 The Entertainer Christmas present (for dd.)
£11 Superdrug Christmas bits (for dd) and conditioner.

Dd is def my luxury

Also £5 on coffee and cake.

Lovely picture Wrecked

Hamburgers Just to echo what everyone else has said, don't feel bad. However, as someone who also gets their hair coloured and cut regularly (damn the grey and dark hair...!), I did find a couple of practical things help keep the cost down. First, because I was going 4/5 weeks, I only actually get it cut when it needs it, sometimes that's nearly 12 weeks. Second, just add a day or two between each appointment and you might stretch it to one less appointment a year. Last, I found those little tins of dye they sell in Boots for about £6 brilliant for covering roots, they sell all colours. That stretches it out another week or so too. Just practical tips there.

Sunny I also forgot but Seasalt coats get raved about on the S&B Boards here. From what I can tell, they tend to suit a taller person rather than my height. Folk rave about how warm and waterproof they are.

£20 today on a sports massage.
£100 Ocado.

I was also thinking the baby might make getting the hair cut done that regularly a touch tricky on a practical basis but you might strike lucky, DD would have sat peacefully, DS not a chance!

@hamburgers costs are ridiculous here. However I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. Wages are higher to compensate but still... we’re looking to sell our apartment next year and buy our forever home. Nothing fancy just a three bed house. We’ll be looking at circa £500k as a minimum. Sigh. In the uk (in Devon near where dgrandma lives) we’d get a farm with land for that...and I’d be able to have a pony. Sadly I need to decide horse vs house. House always wins on this one (sensible decisions - can’t live in a horse...haha!)

Ds is napping. Finally. Thank goodness. Now I can maybe get on with everything I meant to get done.

Running and running items are my luxury, I have so cut back on clothes and make up etc. I've enough to last ages anyway.

Also start training your hair to be washed once a month. I haven’t washed mine now since last Thursday. It’s mostly dry shampoo. Dry shampoo is my best friend this week.

Hamburger I’m really sorry to hear things are so tough for you. Not what you need with a baby on the way. Have you talked to CAB to make sure you’re eating everything you’re entitled to?

The landlord situation sounds particularly stressful and I think this is one you need to focus on to try and resolve. You may know this already but once you have 8 weeks of arrears, the landlord can approach the council to request that the HB be paid to them directly. It sounds like this might be what’s happening at the moment? If this is what’s happening then it’s really important that you try and come up with a plan, because the landlord unfortunately probably has a pretty good chance of getting the HB diverted to them directly.

When is the break clause in your lease? How long have you been in the property?

Yep @LillyLollyLandy DH going to CAB tomorrow morning. We’ve been trying to call them all day but can’t get through on the phone so going to our local drop-in session tomorrow morning. There was never any break clause in our lease 😣 so we’re obliged to stay here till March next year. I think we’ve been majorly shafted as we thought it was 100% common practice to have a break clause in a tenancy.

hamburgers . It sounds so tough for you right now

If you have internet and you are stuck at home, have you joined internet survey sites like valued opinions? It won’t make you rich but you could get enough credit to get boots vouchers or amazon to buy nappies for when baby arrives?

Train appears to be running ok back home. But I am seriously cheesed off today

@hamburgers have you thought about contacting Shelter too? Not all leases include break clauses unfortunately. Shelter may be able to help you find a way to reach agreement with the landlord about surrendering the lease early so could be worth ringing them for advice.

I finally found one of these paypal charges in the shop on bricklink:

"- A 3.4% + 20p fee is added to all orders paid via PayPal for UK Orders. (Shown on invoice under 'Additional Fees 2')"

Sunny they’re passing their merchant charges on to their customers.

www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/paypal-fees#Close

@LillyLollyLandy yep we rang Shelter months ago. They said they couldn’t really help us except contact LL direct and ask for a mutual surrender of the tenancy, which we did but LL said no, so we’re completely buggered.

Thanks @Loveabaconsandwich I will have a look tonight. Every little cash incentive or voucher helps right now!

hamburgers what an awful situation. Wtf is wrong with landlords?? Right, hb doesn't cover the rent, so you're getting more and more behind, you want to leave. Surely if they let you out of the lease you could move somewhere cheaper and gradually square the arrears? Makes sense, so why on earth won't they let you move out so they can get people in who can pay full rent??

Much sympathy from me. We are being forced to pay 3 months notice on our business unit, even though we never recieved or signed the new lease. I will get the deposit back at the end, but still, it's a grand and two extra months I have to waste for no reason (my poor battered credit cards).

We have decided to move my little car into the unit and do it's clutch inside! Stuff doing it on the freezing driveway. Got two more quotes today, over £500 each. Actual clutch is £120. No brainer. If we have to keep the unit we're going to use it. Might mothball dp's sort-of sports car over the winter in there too. It sits on the drive looking sad and unloved and cold. Far too expensive to have running, but we love it so. A throw back from better financial times, and not worth enough to sell - my road bike cost more.

Hamburger I also had blonde hair regularly highlighted at cost of €65 a time, my solution was drastic, I got a short haircut pixie but not as short as laska & just get flat red colour now. It now costs €70 every 2 months instead of €130.

I agree with all that frugaleering is about cutting back in some areas to afford in others but I think if you're struggling to eat/clothe/house yourselves and have a baby on the way then your hair may be something you'll have to compromise on. Sorry

Nsd. Went to three schools and none offered me coffee. Luckily colleague bought us one.

£10 Aldi top up shop
£8 homebargains, things I don't want to run out of or go back to that shopping park between now and Xmas.
£8.50 sains, Friars balsam, dw powder, smart price bleach, gravy powder.

£3 birthday cards.
£6 morrisons. Soya milk, dried peas, cheap wul for stain removal.
£50 cats urine infection tablets.

Dh bought me Prosecco.

Hopefully I'll just need top up shops between now & Christmas so I can avoid the local retail park. All the cheap shops are there but it's a bit rough. Someone nicked my space today. Twunt. Jokes on him, 66 plate diesel Volkswagon, try selling that in a few years time.
£1.69 coconut oil.

I need to make more laundry gloop. I though it would last all winter but it's done two months. So 75p a month. Meh.

I was blonde years ago. Now I have strands of silver!. I was hoping for a streak of grey at the front but it's all at the back.

Dd just won a colouring competition last year ds(3) coloured better than dd(7) I'm super thrilled for her presentation next wed night might treat them to takeaway on the way

Ah well done MammyDD!

Sorry things are so tough Ham. It seems ridiculous that your LL is trying to squeeze money out of you that you haven't got rather than finding new tenants who can pay full whack. Are they likely to find tenants easily? Might they be persuaded to look for new tenants now and you move out as soon as they find some? I.e. You stay for now to make sure it's not empty but they get full paying tenants asap and you get off the lease as early as possible? I guess you'd have to be quick finding somewhere to go to though.

I am afraid I agree with Mammy that hair can be top priority of all disposable income spends (it does look lovely) but that it's a bit hard to maintain if you are struggling to afford food and rent, sorry . Better times are ahead again, I hope you get through this painful phase quickly .

Mixed day:

1. Small top up shop for cheap fruit (apples, bananas, oranges). Just 4.50 spent.
2. DS had a couple of upsets so it's been a bit frazzling here and there
3. Cleaners did turn up, so the house is sparkling but I didn't save the money, iyswim. Still, clean house is better at this moment in time. Thinking of stopping after Christmas (or at the very least dropping to fortnightly)
4. DD still poorly and I've got her cold now. The cuddles are good though
5. I rejoined the local library and joined DD up too. DS is already a member but I need to track his card down. Borrowed the Jamie Oliver 5 ingredients book
6. Trod in dog shit and tracked it into the sitting room (I have to sit down to take shoes off with the PF, I can't push them off with the other foot). Took me back to the 1970s. I was pretty annoyed but at least it was before the cleaners came! And we have wooden floors. 💩

I just ran out of washing capsules - think I may need to make gloop for first time this weekend

Seacow that sounds like a rough day to me

Lsd here - €4 for entry to the gym 20 mins on treadmill

Mammy this brilliant!

My car is going to be ready next Friday apparently but I need to go and collect it from Brighton bit of a pain really especially as I haven’t really got any spare money.

My old manager (who is officially my manager still) told my new manager than she had reused my change in hours. She’s such a liar. Anyway my new manager said she smoothed things over with her but I feel like it’s made me look bad she didn’t refuse them she just wouldn’t give me an answer.

Popped to sainsburys for carrots and nurofen. Spent £30. To be fair though it's DPs Birthday this weekend and he's asked for Eggs Benedict for breakfast so had to get ingredients for that. Have never made it before Hopefully he enjoys it.

Sorry about your floor and shoes @seacow

hamburger survey type sites-
Valued opinions
Nectar canvas and e-rewards- you have to join via Nectar
You gov (but will take about a year to pay out but as £50 BACs)
Maximiles
Prolific academic (I haven’t really used this one though but someone on here recommended)

I’m sure fluffy can recommend more. You might want to set up a new free email account or be prepared to have lots of emails in your main account

My favourite is valued opinions. I spent just over an hour on a focus group the other week and got £40 back as gift vouchers.

Surveys can also be good to do whilst feeding the baby . You may have to answer lots of screening questions first while setting up the accounts

Also @Wreck that sounds completely unfair! Sounds like she didn't want to refuse you herself so she's fobbed it off on the new manager. I would be seriously peeved