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!

Tayto glad to hear your dd is feeling better, wonder if our bosses would give us a day off tomo?

Is that for you mammy so many horrid bugs going round. My mil has Aussie Flu, she won't go near the gp (dp threatened to call her an ambulance before she would make an appt) so dodged her flu vac. She is a tad stubborn!

£7.80 in the coop, just yogs for tomorrow (ds is eating about 6 a day atm, but doesn't have much dairy usually), a few reduced bakery bits, half price magnums and some crisps.

I need to go into parent pay to check lunch money, and pay the last £80 of the DofE as well.

need the outside looks a bit bare (our sign was bright and cheerful I drew the design), and I suppose in a way it's just proof that we are moving on. We are going to put it on the roof of the little shed, as it's a solid sheet of printed aluminium, and will help waterproofing. I hope it doesn't put helicopters off!

I haven't caught up properly sorry. Hope everyone who is ill/has ill family feels better soon .

That's weird about the school having a day off when they've just gone back .

I had my first afternoon back at work today. It was weird and I was so anxious that I retched a few times in the morning, I think that was my anxiety making the nausea worse. I did actually vomit on my walk home from work but at least I was ok whilst I was there, phew. My colleagues were all friendly and helpful and I announced my pregnancy so that they were chatting to me a lot about that. I kind of don't like talking about baby stuff all the time though, I feel like I don't even have the baby yet and some people seem suddenly unable to talk about anything to me except for babies ! I mean I now people are trying to be nice but I feel a bit uncomfortable sometimes. DH's aunt went out and randomly bought us a changing mat and gave it to him the other day when he went to see his family, AIBU in thinking that's a bit odd?! We have put it away in a storage cupboard, I know she's trying to be kind but it feels a bit premature and also overbearing. I really don't want to buy baby stuff yet as I feel weird about it as it feels too early so I was irrationally unhappy when I came home to see it laying in my hallway.

NSD for me anyway and on a frugal win, I have an advent calendar from work .

meadow glad it went well. I know what you mean re he pregnancy talk - I didn’t want to be the “pregnant one” at work and only talk about the baby and how I was feeling. Everyone else did though!!

I guess it’ll be easier for you now though - now you’ve announced it officially. People will understand if you’re not feeling too great (be prepared for offers of ginger tea/biscuits/sweets though - everyone has a remedy for pregnancy sickness!!!)

We got letters from school today and HSE flyers warning us to keep dc home from school if they have flu symptoms. It doesn’t help that the school gives prizes at the end of the year for full attendance and make a HUGE deal of it. DS cried when I made him stay home with the chicken pox (and then wanted days off for the slightest reason after that because there was no difference in his mind between missing one day and missing every day) and this time of year you see lots of obviously poorly kids struggling in with embarrassed parents for the sake of the big prize Mine were only wee the time of the swine flu panic and we felt relatively safe, pottering around the garden and parks and just taking common sense precautions. But this feels more serious to me now.

Meadow is it a particularly nice changing mat? Seems an odd choice of gift although better than the one millionth newborn babygro that will be too small by the end of the first week.

Wreck that’s unfortunate about salad. I get that way with popcorn, but that’s easier to do without. Maybe soup would be an alternative way to get the veggies in?

Bought 2kgs mince today and made bolognese for dinner and portioned it up for the freezer. And tomorrow I’ll mumsnet a chicken . I’m struggling with meal planning so I’ve decided to do a combination of planning the broad strokes and filling it in as I go along and review my notes in a few weeks.

I discovered SuperValu accept one-for-all vouchers which DH got as a Christmas bonus. I usually pop to Tesco for the odd bits and pieces that Aldi/Lidl don’t have, so I’ll switch to SV for those now. I think M&S take them too so that will help with uniforms later in the year too.

Ann I had soup though out December and November so was trying to change it up a bit maybe tomorrow I'll just have the feta and bacon

Glad to hear things are improving meadow

Had my first non-working Monday, while the DDs were at school/childminders. It was amazing! Yet felt very indulgent to have time to myself

Spends
£33 Asda
£26 on jeans but had gift vouchers
£0 M&S as did an exchange
£14.99 refund from H&M
Free hot chocolate and £1.75 on a pastry

I did a lot of window shopping but was quite restrained. Our Boots had lots of gift sets left, so might head back when they get reduced to 70% off

I may have spent a few hours catching up on the latest season of Scandal.

I also cleaning three carpets and made four pasta bakes for the freezer.

I really shouldnt be allowed to go out alone. I went to check the big tesco for this lego set ds wants for his birthday. Was apparently £20 from £60. They didnt have it, but i did still manage to spend £30 on next to nothing. I got game of life junior, a big box of lindt chocolates. 2 packs of fruitshoots, and a bunch of christmas plates/ cups/ tablecloths/ cards etc.

wreck do you de-seed and skin the cucumber? Cue sometimes upsets DH if not de-seeded/skinned ..(or so he says) I partially skin cucumber but dont usually bother taking the seeds out if ts just me me ).

I returned the Hush thing i bough in the sale .. so that's £65 'saved' /not spent..

Otherwise spent about £21 in co-op ,most of that on Taylors coffee which was on offer.. then when i got home I found we already had lots!1 (oops... luckily I love coffee!)

Laska I didn't because I ate cucumber yesterday and the day before with no issues! I really think it's some weird thing of salad and no carbs because it never happens when I have it with pasta or dahl etc funnily enough I have a dietitian appointment in March so could ask them

I never eat salad in the winter -it feels "wrong" no idea why
Super grumpy today despite doing well with saving goals which I set up on an app which plays a jingle when its time to top up.
DH looked at the meal plan and then didnt take sausages out for toad in the hole .
He was all "Ill just have a sandwich "
Oh never mind the rest of us then
Arseh*le
Is it the most miserable day of the year yet ?
Full of cold and meh !

Yes lonely for me, I've swollen glands since wed & no voice since fri night & already had prescription so I decided to give myself the best chance of getting well. SuperValu delivered & I got a multivitamin with cod liver oil for myself too, 3 months worth, guess I'd better pay that back to joint account so another €7.49 spent in my nsm!

Sounds like you got good value at co-op I thought that was an expensive supermarket when I was in Scotland last.

Meadow strange gift
Annwithnoe are you in ROI? Penney's also accept One4All

Bacon sound like a great day

Peppermint at your dh, reminded me again of an evening last week where dh made himself sausages & rashers & neglected to cook/offer to cook for anyone else just because he was on nights but I need to put that to one side because I'm now in bed while he puts dc to bed because I need the rest

pink today is “divorce Monday”

Tempting but I found a cream slice he was saving for later and have eaten it

mammy it was the way he said he would have a sandwich with no thought of anyone else and then said "oh"
Selfish git !
Haha revenge is mine though

mammy yes I’m RoI too. I didn’t realize Penneys accept them. That’s very useful!

snuggly, I've just made the HFW soup. It's spicy sweet potato and orange. Nothing amazing about that combination but you add star anise and cinnamon and it lifts it to another level. I've had star anise in my cupboard for about 3 years and never used it before ha!

I've done a fair bit of cooking this evening. Said soup for lunches. Roasted peppers for sandwiches. Hard boiled some eggs. Also made brownies and tea tonight was sweet potato, black bean and spinach enchilada bake. With salad. It only took an extra hour and I would only sit about reading or on social media.

DH also lost the first building he felt suitable tonight as it sold, but he's fine, there will be others. He's keen for it to be the right size, price and have the right transport links especially.

need that soup sounds lovely! Mmm. Does it taste Christmassy? I imagine with star anise and cinnamon it does. Love star anise. Dm puts it in crumble. We usually have to watch our teeth though....

pink cream slice....mmmm

We watched only connect from last week. We didn’t do so well. Ds is still a grouchy bugger. He was firmly put to bed. I felt mean doing it but he was crying and yawning and crying. He’s so tired. But didn’t want to sleep as I guess he didn’t want to miss out. Silly.

Not caught up properly yet but NSD and I went to the shops WITHOUT BUYING ANYTHING!!! This represents quite an achievement - normally Mondays mean spending at the Coop next to where the Caglets do taekwondo - something easy for dinner, snacks, drinks, usually about £10-15 spend. But I didn’t. Was so tempted which shows how much of an ingrained habit it is. That’s a lot of savings if I can avoid that. YAY!

Tuesdays we often end up eating in town after tap class as that is a two bus commute, so will have to prepare something in advance to avoid that. Wednesdays are DH’s problem as he’s usually off and takes DD to gym but she often gets a snack and drink so I will make sure they take something instead (hopefully we can make the flapjacks before that). Thursdays (Badgers) we would often get a snack at Lidl so I’ll pack something then for the journey home. Friday it’s £1 for a cake each but they are homemade and sold to make money for the ballet school so I’ll keep that one I think. Saturday is ballroom with DH, Coop again. Should save maybe £25-30 a week changing the above, blimey. And I wondered where my money was going... 🤔😳😱

So I’ve done this week’s Tesco order, £90 so on the high side, some household stuff and a fair bit of meat. Plus some cheap snacks and a couple of easier meals which should all help with the above spends. Baby steps and all that.

Em totally agree on the weekend away, if you were happy to then you’d know, but your instinct says not yet and that’s the end of it. There’ll be plenty of other opportunities.

Meadow I agree with you as well, it’s an odd gift so early on although kindly/helpfully meant I’m sure. Huge well done for getting through the shift, hopefully the novelty will wear off with the baby chat and get back to normal. Totally understand not wanting baby stuff yet too, I bought a couple of clothes after the 20 week scan as I’d promised DD, but after that nothing until much later.

Those who are testing the Lidl nappies how are you getting on? I’m not that enamoured TBH, they seem less absorbent than Tesco. Don’t ask how I know this. 😂

Early start and travelling today. As I'll be away from home until tomorrow night I will have to spend but can claim some back from r. Work later

Yesterday spent as predicted. Dog walker and drinks with a friend. Today chiropractor. Did 2 nsd last week. Going for 3 this week. Have not hit the sales at all

Enjoy wolf
Awake a lot during the night with coughing & nightmares too not sure if they're down to antibiotic or not 4 more nights of them if they are

No other spends yesterday.

Cag Those savings add up to about £1400 a year. That's the same as my council tax bill.