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!

£100 a week sounds a lot but I can see how it adds up if you include all the baby stuff, plus for most of you there are two adults in the home. We manage on a fairly small food budget but there is only the two of us (one adult one child) and we aren't massive eaters. Shopping in Aldi/Lidls def helps!! I aim for between £30 - £40 a week and looking at the Girl called Jack book feel like I could get that right down...

Talking of which I need to pop to Aldi later as have run out of milk and need to pick up some bits before being back at work/ school next week.

Dd had a riding lesson this morning, she was on the naughty pony again but actually did well on him, got him jumping etc.

Its flipping freezing here now!!

Just looked at the FSA guidelines for 2 adults and 2 DC (primary age) and without alcohol it comes in at minumum £119 per week .
I think I remembered that previous guidelines were £25 per person pw so that makes sense with re ent price rises.

Recent

So far I spend by far the most on groceries then. Yes, theres six of us, a cat and two fat dogs that get fed from the groceries pot, but still. I am a competent cook, a bloody good baker if I do say so myself and I still buy cakes and biscuits. That stops. Now.

I also dread the empty cupboard. And this week I have been twitching to do "a food shop" but there is nothing we need! Normally I would have gone anyway, and the bags would still be sitting un-put-away on the kitchen floor. It feels good, but very strange.

Chicken from the freezer tonight, homemade kfc (better than) with chips. All deep fried. Meh.

I used to spend 130 or so per week

Now aiming for 75

Its doable, i just shop around more and take advantage of offers etc

Hello Copper!

unsecorted I'm so glad to hear you are helping homeless people. We have so many here and I wish someone would help but I am always too intimidated to go near. We have charities here but there are really a lot of people at the moment. A whole street of shops has closed because there were so many people sleeping in the doorways that the shops lost all their customers and went out of business.

Cag the flapjack cake things were really nice you need a food processor though. Do you have one? If so I'll send you the recipe.

Vegan brownies come out well. We've probably all got the ingredients for them right now. Theres something called "store cupboard Cake" too. Good for using up any dried fruit. I think my vegan sponge is something like 40p for an 8 inch sponge.

I like to run cupboards right down. Sometimes I'm down to rice, cheap spaghetti & red lentils.

£3 sunscreen lip balm.
£6 morrisons
£5 sains. They do cruelty free soap and my soap failed so I need soap.
£4.68 Aldi.

I'm trying again with the soap though.

fluffy What happened to the soap
Lonely I think we are very similar !
I have kicked my shopping habits and uts brilliant.
I know exactly what we have in and Im not falling over bags of stuff .
Less wadte and regularly eat everything down.
Have saved ££££ and no longer use CC

The solid fat seperated from the oil

Has anyone had any success with uht milk to stop top up shops?.

I tried with uht milk fluffy but dh hates it. To the extent he refuses to drink it. I’ve always kept some in the cupboard though. Tend to use it for porridge or for white sauces. Dm always has it in as well as that milk powder stuff.

Dh gets annoyed with me because I don't drink milk so never think to buy it obviously I get it in the main shop but if he doesn't tell me it's run out I don't know or care

Do you think he'd notice if you rinsed out a normal container & decanted it Em?

Dh thinks we have Robinsons squash.....we sometimes have Robinsons squash.

Which is nice.

Oh I just read about that fluffy
Soap Queen (google) puts frozen milk cubes in to stop it getting to hot (I think)
Am thinking about making Castille soap (Olive oil) but have got one of those kits of melt and pour lazy to try first

fluffy nope. He hasn’t noticed I switched the Heinz ketchup so wouldn’t notice the milk - trouble is we don’t get milk in bottles. Only the fancy farm shop stuff (the jersey milk you guys can buy is this stuff). Our “Normal” milk comes in cartons. So I’d have to keep a carton wash it and refill it. And he’d read the date....and throw away. Could always get a milk jug though....

He also didn’t notice id bought non Heinz baked beans. I forget what brand I did buy but they were 23p a tin and in the “international” section.

Milk jug. Very middle class.

Lentil Dahl for dinner was delicious. Even dd ate it all!

£48 in aldi approx £10 of that was on non food stuff (loo rolls, cleaning stuff) so just about on budget...

Just had a really odd message from a lady who wants to buy dds old globe, have agreed to meet her at morrisons next wed and am genuinely hoping she isn't a murderer 😕 not really worth it for £4!!!

Girlie maybe she doesn't drive and gets the bus to Morrison's?! Or maybe she gets anxious going to peoples houses to get stuff I'm not too keen and have been known to meet people at swimming lessons etc if it's convenient

So interesting what people spend on the food shop. I think ours is probably a bit high for 2 adults and a primary child (plus baby) as I spend usually around £100 PE on Ocado plus actually quite a bit on fruit and bread top ups as I buy them locally. I might track overalls or DS properly fit a few weeks. I’ve been thinking about it though and there are pros and cons to how we manage it.

Pros:

• we almost never do takeaways (maybe 2-3 times per year)
• I make everything from scratch, including cakes etc. The only treats we buy are loads of chocolate
• we don’t buy much in the way of snacks. I only buy crisps etc for picnics.

Cons:

• DH really does not appreciate a meat -free meal so we always have meat or fish unless he’s out
• I cook for other people a lot. Really a lot. My family live in tiny houses and have dogs, DS is terrified of dogs... so they always come to me. I also bake for others a lot - for pta /charities and for friends. I think that pushes my grocery costs up noticeably, especially with eggs and butter getting expensive
• DS is fussy about food but getting much better with fruit. So I spend an awful lot on a variety of Nice fruit.

I will have a think about what is important to me to retain and where we should trim. I bet top up costs are much worse than I realise though.

En route to Karaoke 🎤 have a horrible headache though

Had to spend £40 at chiropractor this morning, but now back is much better. Only other spend was £2.20 in Co-op for Sat paper & a cappuccino which are, strangely, not bad.
Store cupboard dinner -a sort of bastard chicken cacciatore with chicken from freezer, tin of tomatoes, onions, pepper, garlic & chuck in some orzo.
Following on from yesterday’s post, I am reviewing the arrangement with the IFA, basically, because he’s pants! Charges too much & most of his “services” I don’t need or want. These new Miffad (sp) regs should help. (To improve transparency in financial services). All part of my relentless cost-cutting “everything cheaper, all of the time”. That’s my motto!

Deffo getting a milk jug then if it’s vair middle class.

We spend around £40 on a weeks shop. Dh meal plans and buys only what we need. Catfaces food is separate. As is ds’ nappies and formula.

I’m an emotional eater too so we rarely have treats in the house. I’ve eaten almost the Christmas food.

Spends £10 second hand travel cot and £10 two sleeping bags for ds. travel cot will be left at my parents as will one sleeping bag.

We have meat at dinner every day, I eat vegan lunches to counter balance it. I need a lot of meat. I've tried being vegetarian 3 times & I go downhill every time.

POAS and negative but I’m not due AF until 12/13th so not given up hope yet! Boobs have been sore and are larger but this may have more to do with eating too much over Xmas haha!
My frugal new year resolutions:
No eating out except for v special occasions (basically birthday or anniversary only) & have friends over rather than be pressured into eating out/pub
Dry January
Use up the large amount of toiletries I have before buying new
No new clothes until June
Meal plan and shop online to avoid adding things to trolley
Bring water into work and don’t buy
Have joined a new lovely gym and plan to entertain myself with lots of lovely classes and cooking from scratch, plus work will be super busy so hopefully that will distract me from online shopping!

Meal plan this week:
Sat - homemade pizza and salad
Sun - Tuscan bean soup, HM bread
Mon - butternut squash risotto, salad
Tues - red lentil, spinach and sweet potato stew
Weds - sausage casserole
Thurs - leftover soup and bread
Fri - black bean wraps with peppers, salsa and guacamole

spendy day - petrol as planned

But forgot farrier was coming - £100. have 4 all retired but still are trimmed. Also overnight one had trashed her rug. so another £60.

Em - read you ride dont buy your own. if you are soft like me you will just end up with them for years ( love them all really - evented them all when rich and married - now poor and not!)