Festive Frugaleers gather round the (best value and carefully researched) Christmas Tree for support, advice and chat. All welcome.

[needastrongone]

New thread.

No idea life! Was probably online.

Your poor sister em

Sorry you have had such a tough time seacow and hope wreckDS is on the mend

Welcome back new and old frugaleers

We stayed at PIL last night. DDs went to bed rather late and we all shared a room. DD1 kept waking up and crying about the dark so had to have the light on all night. Rather tired all round here today!

DC have been truly spoilt. We got some nice gifts and a few that have made the ebay/regift box . My favourite present was some slippers

Not too bothered about the sales. I always end up with clothes that are not quite right so saving the £s this year. We need to do serious sorting/decluttering before we can replace furniture/carpet so will wait until May bank holiday sales.

Need to get back on the frugal way of things now though!

If she bought from amazon wreck they will refund/replace with minimal fuss, and provide a return label

Welcome Newbies. Have you all been through your utility bills, checked no direct debits are going out that don't need to be?. Registered with topcashback & Kidstart? Kidstart do cashback on Amazon & John Lewis so it's useful to have.

If they deliver to your areas try Waitrose online shopping, they do good introductory offers & have a loyalty card that has a selection of products with a 20% discount. I do 3 weekly shops now & get odds and sods from Aldi/morrisons. It's saved me a bundle.

Em Nice. It'll all rinse out in the end buts it's bloody painful.

I have topcashback and kidstart.

Shopping wise i get a morrisons order maybe twice a month of heavy stuff (dont drive). Other shopping i get from aldi / co op/ local discount shop.

Could do with looking at my direct debits etc but tbh im not even going to say i will before the dc are back at school!

I used to shop at Aldi, it was creeping up to £55 a week for everything.

Now it's £26 and possibly £10 on top up. I have an app on my phone called media cell & that pays £10 Amazon a month so that's feeding the cat on gourmet.

I think sainsburys is more expensive & co-op is pricey.

I have developed a rather major Ocado habit, aldi is just too much for me to manage on top of working and I have found the quality / price of the other supermarkets that deliver a bit rubbish. My target is £50 a week. I just need to meal plan and make it work.

We usually use Dh's bonus to pay for his annual travel card, but this year we are going to take the season ticket loan. That will leave us £500 down a month. The aim is then to use the bonus to top up the bank account if absolutely necessary. I am really hoping we can make it work, it is a bit scary to go into 2017 being that much down.

just getting back in as fallen off the thread.. wear away for a couple of days.. we went to see my parents today ,.. but they are both ill and depressed (colds not anything life threatening , but they are just not positive people ..probably why they were having the row he other day). it was quite a sad visit really..I'm not sure what else to say about this right now, but it does reiterate what DH and I have been saying about making sure e downsize and have positive plans for our later life..

cag what a sweetie! ( i cant do that heart/eyes thing on my PC but she is beautiful

em poor sis , sh e must be devastated..

Frugal fail - we were planning to have the posh fish pie I froze after the evening at A&E at the weekend... but it’s still pretty frozen in spite of my getting it out of the freezer at 7am. Ocado is coming very late and there’s no other food in the house as we ran everything down before going away, so it’ll have to be a takeaway. We only have them about 3 times a year because I’m not too keen (generally greasy /disappointing, I tend to prefer my own cooking). So at least it is a novelty. Fish pie tomorrow I guess! Might go Chinese or Thai.

Maybe I'll try Ocado again. So fed up of going to Lidl it's just so stressful. Can I keep it under £75 a week?! I might go and do a test run.

Sorry about the depressing visit Laska. I am sure you will be more positive - you seem to be that sort of person!

Cutie Cag

I think £75 per week on Ocado is doable their own brand is good.

Food is my big thing. Sainsbury is expensive but make sure your have a nectar card. The points sharp mount up.

Ah, I wondered if it was somewhere you could just swap it yourself. You don't need a receipt for fault goods

Ocado have a thing with 20% off your favourite items doesn't it. We are too far north for that malarkey. (South of Durham)!

lonely there is so much aggro in some parts of MN .. I am really happy we have this bit.. Ive had so much positive support from here and am pretty sure i would have never really got a handle on my debt without the advice I got here.. yes so I now spend money .. Yes, sometimes on frivolous things .. BUT its my money not credit.. not having a debt is what this thread did for me..

so today I spent £5 on a 1939 penguin edition of a lake district travel guide..(my only spends) I am so looking forward to reading it and going there with it .. - in my campervan when i get it .. (I have never been to the Lake District).

what was the thread BTw?

All the prices seem higher than Tesco/Lidl. I need to sit down and meal plan but I'm fed up of food right now

thanks seacow.. I hope things will better for DD soon .

just also wanted to say welcome new people. this is a lovely supportive corner of MN.. we do all have different incomes and spending priorities, but we also all believe that being frugal / canny with money helps us prioritise for better spending decisions (inc treats when we can) .. its NOT about absolute non spending misery here !!

fluffy how many people in your house? Under 40 a week is great!

We were spending around 100 per week with tesco/asda/morrisons online

Ive definitley cut it down using local shops but im not sure how much to. Need to work that out.

I am so ready to eat something that isn’t turkey right now wreck . DP has got a gousto order coming tomorrow (think he got 25% off, and then our next order is free). So quite excited about that!

Sorry to hear about your depressing trip laska

I have no plans for hitting the Sales for clothes or anything , but we are in Watford house (where DH lives during the week) at the mo,so It is possible that I may fall into John Lewis tomorrow.. (i must admit that our bedding and towels are all now pretty old/tatty)

Oh and i only buy certain things from coop. Mainly own brand that get 5% back on. Offers and things like milk work out cheaper (2×4pints for £2 then 5% back on coop card)

Ha ha!! i found that thread where we are being berated.... so come on Confess! who was the bad person that bought the silk shirt? .. Not me this time!

em so why choose christmas? indeed (nasty person). OW? your poor Dsis..

Just the two of us Turkey & a cat with a serious pouch habit.

That's all meals for both of us, no takeaways due to allergies

Great post Laska
Sums up how I feel /spend.
The point is most of us have stopped takeaway coffee/impulse buys/ began to switch regularly a while ago and so are now able to make concious decisions about our priorities .
Im looking forward to get back into frugaleering for The New Year but am hoping to go away twice next year .
Shame they dont want to join us as I think collectively we have lots of wisdom and encouragement to offer
Silk skirt gate #itwasntme

God em what a dick to wait a year and then leave at Xmas. FFS.

Sorry little ones are poorly still. Also seacow don't blame you being tearful. It's really not fair to be disappointed in their grandson, he wasn't being rude or ungrateful FFS he was overwhelmed :( they need to realize that he can appreciate the toys in his own time and that it's not about them getting to see the reaction they expect.

HI Newbies and welcome!

Only £14ish travel to friends today. Got a tad spoiled while there they are very generous and kind. The mum is kind of a second mum to me/granny to the Caglets really, she was always there when I had my eldest and I used to go round there a lot.

Need to edit the Tesco order as oldest friend visiting on Friday, want easy stuff for dinner.