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!

NSD here! All snuggled up with cold, weathers horrendous outside.

Expected to be a nsd. Bad weather but no rain still unlikely to go out today. Will probably browse the sales online though. DD who is a good sleeper decided to wake up at quarter to 3 last night and didn't go down until 4.30am so we slept in until 10.40. Lucky we didn't have anything planned today.
@seacow sorry to hear about your dd, I hope the toilet issues resolve quickly and she feels better soon. Is the reflux still bad?
@laska soup today, wish me luck!
@em good news on the boat. Hope things go completely back to normal soon

@missingmo me too!! It’s times like this I’m glad we try as much as possible to buy local stuff.

Have just peeped onto Facebook and our local M&S store has posted a picture of full shelves! Yesterday they had milk and a few beetroots. Crazy

Ds is cot-napping again. I seem to be able to settle him in the cot for a nap at around this time each day but only this time.

He settled fairly well in his basket and sleeping bag last night though. First time we’d tried that. So hopefully it’ll be easy enough to do sleeping bag in basket in cot this evening. Fingers crossed!

The laundry is piled. Just need to hand it out ha, I mean put it away myself or it won't ever go into draws and get the next load on.

I'm going to make a batch of buns (I suppose I should call them cupcakes now, I'm too old) before going to my mums. I need to pick up the paperwork for vat (due on 7th), won't take long as we took less than 2k in the period. Hence why we closed! Hope we get a bit back from hmrc. Dp has a chilli bubbling (it's very spicy!) with mince from the freezer, everything else is store cupboard.

em he sounds like a wee star. Napping by himself is brilliant. Having a baby that will only sleep in your arms is exhausting, and a bit frustrating!

We’re heading to the tip later to get rid of some crap (mostly dh’s) but first I’m turning the leftover opened cheese into a load of mac and cheese for the freezer.

New to this. I’m entering the unpaid bit of mat leave, due back at work in March. I have £100 “pocket money” a month to cover all my personal spends as everything else comes out the joint account. So that’s mobile phone, fuel for my car, gifts for birthdays, coffee out, toiletries that aren’t the basics, etc etc.
DH covers everything else at the moment.
Trying to have a no spend month for January, save where I can on household expenses etc, as we want to move to a bigger house this year.

Spending so far this month - nothing 1st or 2nd. £22.20 in the charity shop yesterday o books. But this included 20 brand new usbourne books, 4 Julia Donaldson and one more. Bar two DD wanted the rest are being stashed for her party bags for her birthday this year. No plastic tat and under £1 each child.

Fridge is nearly bare here I’ve never let it run so low before and it’s actually a bit of an eye opener to me. Usually on shopping day I chuck out a few things that have gone past their best. And I buy things that seem like a nice idea but in reality don’t get used because actually we’re very boring.
I’m going to go through cupboards properly and make a shopping list this afternoon and try and do one big shop for the month and then walk to green grocer and butcher during the week. I’m hoping that, as my nan used to say “what the eye doesn’t see, the heart doesn’t grieve over” so if I don’t go into the big shops as often I won’t get tempted.
I’ve tried cutting back on shopping trips before but then I forget something like laundry detergent or toilet paper and head off again...and again. So I’m hoping that with a bit of planning and organization (not my strong points) I might get on top of this.

Forgot who asked about carrot tops for stock: as long as they are cleaned they are fine. I strain everything at the end so they’re not actually eaten.

Bin day is tomorrow so going to quietly clear out the freezer this evening. Although I should probably weigh and check the bin rates as it might be cheaper to go to the dump with it. I feel awful throwing out so much but I think pp’s are right that 2-3 year old meat won’t be great.

Interesting to hear other people’s issues with fussiness. Eldest two have asd. One would be on a white food diet if left to his own devices, the other has sensory issues and then DD has a lot of learned behaviors. Now that Christmas is over I need to get firm again about meals and snacking and confiscate what’s left of the selection boxes.

I’m lonesome reading about sick babies and colic and sleepless nights. The rose tint in my broody-spectacles is so strong that I can’t remember finding those days anything but charming and adorable! Hugs to all those actually struggling through at the moment.

Grr Ocado have texted to say my careful planned food order is missing my veg box (which was on offer) so will now need to go shopping tomorrow 😡

Dropped about 6 bags of stuff at the charity shop this morning, feel better for having done that. Still got more stuff to sort but we have made a start!

Dd has been aching all over today after the trampoline park Ystd! !!

Been to town spent £3.60 parking
£5 coffee with a friend
£3 posting a parcel
£29 primark, new clothes for dd and a new onesie for me!!!
£8 subway lunch

Ann I've just watched "Inside the Factory" on iPlayer (the one about fish fingers) whilst feeding ds. the food scientist person at dundee university says to keep things in the freezer for no longer than 6 months otherwise they start to go past their best.

Have just spent the last half hour or so playing around with my online banking. i had to change all my standing orders as am no longer getting paid from work (next payday is in May) so didn't want my usual savings going from my account.

i noticed that my "big" savings account (the one with the most in it) was only earning me 0.01% interest. my smallest one was earning 0.45% so have switched the balances over and have transferred the balance from another account into it too. so this month i should get a whopping £35 interest (on almost £8k)...sigh.

have also started a savings account for Christmas 2017. £50 a month. so this should cover presents etc.

Surfacing after night shifts. Laundry done, nice little joint of beef in oven as didn't get round to a roast dinner for new year. Going to make toffee and set a jelly, and peel potatoes. Fighting urge to pop over to large charity shop on industrial estate over the road. Am on the lookout for a couple of latte glasses from which to imbibe hot ribena.

Just to add re travel mugs, I too appreciate my contigo travel mug, but agree with the previous poster who says they can work rather too well. I have to put a little extra milk in the tea. They are a great comfort for early mornings and public transport etc. It's nice to arrive at work having had the second cup of tea.

Lonely oversharer, it's always a batch of buns in our house!

Spent £80 on two pairs of new jeans and ordered 3 pairs of trainers from M and M.l to try on and keep 1 pair, it came to £120 but at least two pairs will go back so not too bad.
Going out for dinner with the fam tonight which will be more money but then back home tomorrow and back to work on Monday so not too much opportunity to spend, will need to work all weekend preparing lessons and doing admin as haven’t done a bloody thing all holiday

Also really tempted to take a pregnancy test but resisting, prob is that I have PCOS so I never know where I am in my cycle, safest thing would be to wait until the end of Jan and test if still no AF. Also tests are really expensive so this is not a frugal process

MissA get the cheap ones from eBay they're just as good.

£10.50 charity shop boden jumper for me, boden jumper for dd, M&S jumper dress for dd and cool f+f leggings for dd.

£1 bottle of Pepsi to get me through the day.

Yes missA, I had similar issues with never knowing if just late. Buy the cheap ones and when it looks like a positive, a “better” one. Shopping for the confirmation test is quite exciting! And the cheap one wasn’t wrong either. I gave up testing though, and when the nausea hit it was time to test.

Arrghhh! So I tackled the freezer which was just shameful! And then picked up the bag to check the weight whereupon (knew I’d get to use that word some day) it split spilling the contents everywhere. Repacked it all up, down to the last freezer burned carrot and blueberry and then checked times for nearest dump. It closes at 5 and there’s no way I’ll get DS peacefully into the car for an unscheduled trip in that time so I’ll have to wait til morning.
So I thought: feck it I’ll just shove it on the bin which predictably is full. And not dance-on-it-to-make-space-full but proper week-after-Christmas-full which Should have been obvious!!! Should have left in the freezer as by morning it will be defrosted. But now that it’s been thrown around the floor and in bags with other rubbish, I can’t even shove it back in the freezer.
I had intended discreetly taking care of this without discussing it with DH who would want to keep all the meat despite not actually eating or insisted on inviting his entire family over to be poisoned
This is exactly the kind of disorganization and lack of planning that ends up costing me so much money!!!
So now I’m sorting out all the recycling as well, to make the journey worthwhile, when I’d much rather drink wine and read mumsnet play with the children
Still at least I can count it as a NSD since I didn’t have to pay the dump fee (yet)

My bargain bag of bird seed arrived today - had been feeling bad about empty feeder sat in garden. BUT the seeds are too small for the feeder and fall out the holes! I didn’t think that we’d always put peanuts in before. So I now have 6kg of bird seed that is useless unless I buy another feeder (upwards of £10). Aargh!

We were going to buy food for catface today then pop in and see dparents. However we were halfway to the pet shop and I heard a rumble coming from ds. Then smelt it.

So we came straight to dparents. Dgodmother said she’d change him. She wished she hadn’t after she saw the mess!! Haha!! #mummyavoidspooagain

Have just had a cuppa and a piece of Christmas cake.

Probably have to go pick up dh in a bit.

have Reported that last post

Same

Me too.

Cheminotte if you buy some lard and melt it with the seeds you can make fat balls/cakes, which you can put in the feeder you’ve got.

Thanks Lonely - yes, DD is a bit unlucky at the moment. This may still be the end of her lurgy or it could be the effect of just starting solids in the last few days, or even teething. She was quite cheerful this morning but has been pretty tearful this afternoon (and she’s not normally much of a cryer). Calpol didn’t seem to help. Anyway, feeding-wise she seems to be doing much better with the gag reflex and is highly enthusiastic about baby sweetcorn! It’s very cute watching her tuck in. I might even enjoy weaning, I did with DS actually, even though it is a faff. So lovely to see them explore food. Baby-led weaning here, not bothering with purées and spoon feeding as I didn’t with DS (I tried but he would not tolerate being spoon fed at all).

Ann even though DD hasn’t been the easiest baby I feel very lucky to have her and spend a lot of time just gazing at her. She’s 6m now and it is a gorgeous age. Are you tempted to have another?

I also sympathise about the freezer nightmare too - I hate being stuck with rubbish once I’ve got a head of steam up.

NSD today, although gotta pay the credit card later.

Ooh, and while DD has her nap earlier I stripped the tree and even managed to get it out of the house. It’s at least 6 ft so not sure how I managed it on my own, DH will be impressed. Hoping for a nice bit of time to knit this evening.

Lovely salmon laksa soup this evening - I froze the paste in portions when I made it from fresh stuff so just need to add coconut milk, salmon, noodles and veg. Am really looking forward to it especially as I just ate a big pack of minstrels for lunch