We’ve had our Merry Thriftmas, now bring on the Happy Fru Year! All welcome as we Frugaleer our way into January 2018.

[Cagliostro]

A new thread in case we are too tipsy (or in my case, asleep on the sofa) to remember later.

This is a friendly group where we chat all things money related and all things everything else related. Everyone welcome so settle in and let’s make 2018 the year we save money!

hi all I am new to the thread, happy fru year I currently have two maxed credit cards as my other half quit his job due to stress he’s been doing amazon prime deliveries for two months but it’s getting a bit hit and miss, he wants to be a driving instructor so I put 1800 on my card to pay for the training (thinking long term goal of good income) but worried about mortgage and bills with one reliable decent income and a trip booked in April :S going to be frugal for the year, try not to think about the debt 5k in total we are looking to sell by the end of the year which would write off the debt so not too bad well that’s what I try and tell myself. Loving all the tips so far x

Parp! need

Unescorted hope it turns out to be benign. Thank goodness for mammograms, so scary to think you might not have found it for ages.

Hello to the new posters (makes me feel like less of a newbie)

Oh jeez. So much to catch up on!

Other spends £27 at coop (would have been less but I bought pop tarts and branded vinegar to clean the bottle steriliser - no own brand basic vinegar at coop today...also bought brioche sliced loaf instead of regular bread - no “normal” bread at all. Boats not come in since last Friday. So ships are running low. Sigh.

£20 amazon on baby wipes. And will need cat food tomorrow.

So. Catching up. We are storming here too. Force 11 winds. No boats leaving. No planes. Kids are being told they can get to school late tomorrow. No unnecessary journeys. And to avoid the main road into town (along the coast) at rush hour - coincides with a very high tide so spray and debris will be thrown into the road.

Which cinema is meerkat movies with?

em v rough and windy here also..our car ferries usually run though, even when the passenger ones stop but of course its inshore .
Do you ever bake bread? maybe a bread maker could be a good buy? We make bread but in the oven . DH is the bread maker !

Ive just looked and meerkat movies seems to be most cinemas. odeon , Vue and Cineworld anyway

compare the market linky. i got a quote for travel insurance 7 day trip to London for £1.20. which qualifies it seems .

Yes 7 pages on two days! its good that so many people want to be frugalleers though..

Can I join please? This has to be the year we get a hold of our finances, well the ones we have control over anyway.

We have about 4.5k on credit cards from (successful) ivf then covering maternity pay and now childcare costs. The other problem is a house we can’t sell as it’s in about 20k negative equity. It’s currently empty since Christmas so we are having to manage two mortgages, two council tax, as well as pay to do it up. Things are really tight.

Seems like a lovely group anyway so hopefully we’ll all help each other!

Can I join please?
Today has been a partial write off money wise. DH bought a Nintendo switch, and I bought some Bluetooth headphones (but I am going to start walking and need some music, and it means there are no wires. I needed them 😇)
I just want to save money really.
I have a plan though. I'm going to take X amount out if my bank each money and use that for day to day spending. Anything that is left on a Sunday night will get logged (So I dont spend It) and thrown in the cash tin.
I'm going to do a weekly online shop. I spend a fortune when i actually go in a shop. 🤔

I'm going to sit in a corner and steal your ideas. Hope you don't mind 😊😊

Oh Btw Need we have the same plates !!

Hi turquoise and painting congrats on your dc
Welcome potter and lost

laska ds asked me recently what that machine was behind microwave bread maker - dust gathering appliance here.

laksa great! We have Cineworld here. Will look into it.

We had a bread maker but the bread never lasted it was too tasty. I can make bread by hand. But it’s a faff. We usually have a sliced bread in the freezer.

May stop at Waitrose tomorrow to grab one. Coop got rid of their warehouses here last year. To save money. So now one smidge of bad weather and they run out.

Waitrose have storage facilities here. Will stock up on bread tomorrow (after my brioche roast le yum!)

em our co op runs out in bad weather (or when they miss the boat ) also..

DH's attempts at fixing the dishwasher were unsuccessful so I think we'll be washing our dishes by hand for the foreseeable future. I may need to pick up some more tea towels because I only have a handful. With a dishwasher, you don't need them so much.

Some bad flooding in Galway on the west coast of Ireland www.rte.ie/news/weather/2018/0102/930633-storm-eleanor/

A warm welcome to even more new frugaleers. We'll get to know you all in time.

Hello all, New Year, good intentions....

Spends today £15.10 for lunch stiff plus fruit.

Tomorrow will be £4 parking. Girls are now in their last week of panto and I am ready for normal life to resume.

Laska I am defo looking into casback-£1100- crikey!
Need I take dividends also, but I suspect it was paying back the cap gains tax which pushed me into higher category, triggering even more tax if I didn’t stop taking dividends.(Also had to use DLA at my accountants suggestion.)
Well I slapped on the £4.50 hair dye - John Frieda foam - not too messy, colour is pretty good, gray covered. My salon has a colour sale 3 times a year, so plan to get salon colour then only & do home colour between. Maybe pick up cut & blow dry specials wherever. Hope to cut my hairdresssing costs in half.

So many newbies, welcome everyone! It’s so lovely to have so many of us, all with a common goal as we head into 2018

Agree honestly don’t worry about keeping up, this must be the fastest moving Frugaleer thread, even compared to other New Years I think? Whether you read everything, or just dip in and out, all are very welcome.

Turquoise glad the IVF was a success - that has to be the most wonderful possible reason for debt! ❤️

I’ve achieved nothing today, I think you’re right lonely that Cagletini is having a leap (love the systems upgrade idea!). I barely moved off the sofa (it was on boob or nothing, so even the sling wasn’t an option as I haven’t managed hands free feeding with that yet). A year ago that would’ve been heaven but now I get so stiff when I don’t move enough, my knees make me feel ancient! I’m wondering if she may be teething soon as she is chewy and dribbly.

I need to write a list of all the little frugal things that I must do - meerkat movies, sort out nectar card etc.

No more spends for me but DH bought me new biscuits to try. Yay!

Mmmmmm brioche. Best with butter and lemon curd.

Thanks for all the bra thoughts BTW! I’m assuming that 10 weeks in my supply must be pretty much sorted now, so not going to change size.

@cagliostro fist bumping with you.

Lemon curd...not had that in donkey years. Used to be a standard treat at my grans as a kid. What brand do you recommend as I have to try it again!

I just get Tesco own tbh, not tried any others!

Enjoying the smoked salmon talk too, I had a bagel with that and cream cheese and salad for lunch. Le yum!

It's on the shopping list. I've been having chive and onion bagels with scrambled egg and smoked bacon a lot recently, smoked salmon and cream cheese sounds delicious.

£233 at dentist for DH. Ouch!
They included his next checkup in there which is in a few weeks. How generous!

Anyway! Can’t be avoided :(

£18 in Aldi
£1.80 in Sainsbury’s
Prescriptions collected but have a prepay nhs card

Oh make that £8 in Aldi!

Could I ask a question about meal planning please. I normally plan just the evening meal as that's when I have all 7 dc at home. Would it be more effective to include lunches and if so how do you allow for when you have an extra person unexpectedly?

So on one hand I 'finished' my insane moving house spending spree with £60 odd quid in Wilkos but it included:

• stocking up on super cheap toothpaste
• Home hair dye to save £££
• Christmas stuff for next year

I also picked up a pair of shoes which I'd got mended which felt very good.

Had a word with myself about internet slipper shopping (sheepskin, £60!!) and instead got some £9 look a likes from Tesco.

AND I remembered all my squillion canvas bags so no 5p charges anywhere!

Then made a super frugal vegetable and prawn curry using all Xmas veg leftovers and prawns from freezer.

Actually, I'm quite proud of all that even though on the face of it it was a spendy day!

Should be NSD tomorrow though as I'm back to work.

Wow! This thread moves fast!!
Not quite the NSD I had hoped. £6.21 at the coop on whole chicken and tea bags. Then I entered a half marathon at £33.40.
I can’t get a new credit card as I’m a SAHM so I’m going to have to really up my credit card payments as the interest rates kick in 😳
Thank you everyone for making me feel so welcome and I’ve picked up a few tips already xx

@lostmyemailaddress visitors at meal times is what kills my food budget. I love having company for dinner, usually my DM, and I don't grudge food I love being a feeder but it does get in the way of meal planning. For instance a pack of two fish cakes could be two nights dinner for myself but when feeding another I then have to buy more dinner food.

That's where 1 of my issues lie if I have to go to buy again I always get caught up with offers and end up buying stuff I haven't planned for :(