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!

wrong good to have a fellow equine owner to moan about the work and cost to! Ours is 23 but thinks he's 6 and unlikely to retire any time soon.....

£123 for school meals and residential deposit.

Move again need. I thought this was your dream home. Does dh not have enough to do with the expansion?

Yes I did need it's really annoying!

Ds has declared he only likes toast. Shame we have no bread so he will have to eat what he's given. I'm sure he will anyway.

Really don't want to go to work tomorrow after so long off!

It's my dream home. DH is never ever satisfied. It's a blessing and a curse. It's got us what we've got in life but it's bloody hard work too sometimes. He's a restless soul for sure!

Life I'm hoping expanding the business will occupy him.....he would move if I didn't want to in fairness. I'd prefer to get the kids through Uni first then downsize.

He'll forget about it once the business expansion kicks off Need. I hope. Can't you just build an orangery? Or buy ds a flat for uni?.

Meadow Welcome back.

NSD.

Waitrose won't let me book a slot . Balls.

Had a lovely day, the kids party was chaotic - loads of 3yos 😣 but dd was a very good helper and the buffet was good 😉

Lyme was baltic but beautiful, £12.95 fish n chips.

meadow so good to hear from you and that you're feeling a bit better, hopefully you can relax and even enjoy it a bit now!

need my dad was like your dh, we moved every 3 years as kids! Drove my mum nuts.

Back to work tomos 😭

Have just packed up lunch things for work tomorrow, finished all the ironing, sorted the wardrobe and packed my washbag for Tuesday. I really have the January blues now, I do not want to go back to work and knowing I will take a pay cut in May if I don’t find something new is really depressing. Frugal wins - dh suggested eating out and we didn’t. Frugal losses bought a new DVD player and sound bar as our integrated blooming expensive 10 year old DVD player and sound system was buggered. We downgraded massively on the replacement and bought in the Sainsbury’s sale. Dh bought the sound bar £50. I bought the DVD player £70.

Need - mine are all retired. Luckily have my own land with huge field shelter. all rugged and just get checked twice a day and haylage - all good doers. Not much trouble - but oh my lord the mud!

For the ladies with the chicken stock recipes...I've got the carcass and veg simmering on low...will 4 hours be long enough before cooling overnight?

My DH is like that too. He mentioned selling the house last week. I almost said yeah, and buy something to live in for a month before moving again

Speaking of DH, I bought him coffee and cake today, £8, that has to stop. Also spent £9.50on thermal vests.

Glad to see you back and doing well meadow..

I have just had a really busy weekend with DGS ,, need to read back and catch up!!

Nice to see you meadow and congrats on your pregnancy
Frugal day today - spent £5.25 on coffee and a cake for colleague, I said no to cake and had a full loyalty card so my coffee was free. Went to two free Pilates sessions at gym so expect to be sore tomorrow!
Also batch cooked a huge amount of risotto and soup for the coming weeks. DH made lovely pasta with roasted aubergine, courgette and squash in tomato sauce for tea. Now have about 3 hours of work to do for work tomorrow

Had an amazing dinner with turkey, stuffing and pigs in blankets that I froze from Christmas. Feel proper frugal now as in the past it would go in the freezer but then the bin.

I am trying to adopt the attitude that any frugal wins are a bonus. I am a total rookie at this and sometimes I think its too overwhelming and I can't do it. I'm hoping I'll get better, but doubt that it will ever come naturally to me.

I don't have facebook but my dh does. Its the buyers that want something for nothing on eBay that put me off. I was going to put them in a charity bag and then I thought maybe I could sell them and put the money aside for a treat. They are a size 10-12.

I've just made dds lunch for tomorrow, got their pe bags ready and set the table for breakfast. Still need to get their wellies for school and ds' book bag plus my lunch but I'll probably do that in the morning as salad is nicer fresh.

I'm so sad they're going to back to school

You will be able to sell them born. Just put a higher than 99p starting price.

I always start my listings at 99p. Currently I have ten items selling and am at £75, still got over an hour to go too.

About four years ago I worked for a company who had tree eBay shops.

NSD today thank goodness.
Congratulations on your pregnancy Meadow, when are you due.
Friend’s funeral tomorrow.
Will take me ages to catch up on everyone’s news.
Have you moved house Cag? I know you were hoping to.

Yay, Meadow! Good to see you back and feeling better.

Welcome Mum.

Just did my online supermarket order £64 for 65 items meaning I've avareaged under £1 per item. I haven't managed that for ages. It's a little challenge I like to set myself! Several branded things were on offer making them cheaper than own-brand so we have posh pasta and baby rice cakes next week!

Vat is done. It's a repayment, which is very welcome, but highlights that we are finished as a business, a bit sad really. Onwards and upwards this year. We just have to settle the few outstanding bills, get shot of the unit (and empty it!) and relax!

Weekly spends: supermarkets £38.53, other shopping £68.97. This is very low. Not every week will be like this! Just going to pay off my weekly spends on my asda credit card.

Dp made tea. A piece of brisket from the freezer, and lots of roasties! I think he did 2 carrots between 5 of us, and a head of brocolli, so it was a very small portion of veg, but I didn't have to cook, so will not complain.

Born Its a lot to take in. Some of us have been doing this for years & still learn new things.

Welcome Mum.

When my Dh makes the dinner he does giant portions that are totally off putting, but like that I try to say nothing not always successfully in case it puts him off.

It's making me challenge my careless, money wasting ways, so I am determined to stick with it and it's a lovely wee thread where people seem really friendly.

Can you store them for lunch the next day?.

Spendy day yesterday. €145 in Aldi, €25 lidl and €27 Tesco. The numbers look worse as euros but all focused, no deviations from the list and hopefully it will keep us going in store cupboard and freezer stuff for the month.
I still need to get meat tomorrow for the week. I’m refusing to put meat in my freezer until I’ve got the hang of actually eating what’s in there. In the meantime I’ve got a meal plan for the week.

We put all the Christmas decorations away and up in the attic today. And I took careful note of all the craft materials, cards, ribbons etc that I have stashed up there so I don’t end up buying stuff I don’t need in oct/nov.

Tomorrow the dc are back to school and I’m going to miss hanging out and being lazy with them. House needs a thorough tidy, laundry needs sorting and I am not looking forward to making lunches in the morning and being the homework nazi in the afternoon.

DS1 and DS2 both need a trip to the dentist, who really knows how to charge. We could get it through the health centre but dentist there is awful and I think it’s better to pay for a better experience. I still have huge dentist hang ups from my childhood and it has cost me a fortune in root canals because I struggle to deal with minor issues until they become more unbearable than the fear of the dentist. I suspect DD might possibly need reading glasses too. And I need a visit to the GP. So that’s about €270 for starters but we should be able to claim some back through tax and insurance. Need to check what’s covered.

Fingers crossed no one has had a growth spurt over the holidays or I’ll be adding uniforms to the list.

Btw - a tip for coaxing reluctant family members to eat more vegetarian meals is to crumble bacon over it. You can freeze rashers (spread out to freeze then put frozen rashers in a bag in the freezer) and just pull out one. My brain would have got stuck on the meaning of “vegetarian” but from a frugal perspective it can help when there’s one member of the family feeling deprived.