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!

I could return the boots and candle stick holders which would be a return of £126.

Thanks for the welcome! Peonies, he's great at sorting out the bills to get good deals/lowest rates, it's just the daft spending on junk or lunches at work he doesn't want to acknowledge.

Chocco, that's a lot of birthdays! I also have a niece to buy for.

I've signed up for a couple of survey sites this morning. Any ideas on how to make kids birthdays special without spending a load of money would also be very welcome!

Ah I pm you back creme but before I read the thread. No worries pm me again if you want to. Pleased you are getting help.

Hey miss A I remember you but you probably not me. Which makes me sound like a stalker I know. I'm pleased your are well and got a teaching position. Fingers crossed for a thread baby.

Hey more new people.

£30 on indoor trampoline and climbing today.
Got the Decs in the garage.

Cashback sites are

Top cashback
Quidco
Kidstart - who are the only one who do Amazon and John Lewis

I've got 2 different lots of veg soup bubbling on the hob so that's this week's lunches sorted. I used one massive onion split between the two and then used up veg we had in the fridge.
Should be NSD today except all our bills will go out so the bank balance will be very diminished!

cag is cagletini having a systems upgrade? The feeding marathons where you can't switch off inbetween are a nightmare I remember well. I only pay for amazon on a specific card. So I downloaded 12 months of statements. For the first 6 months of the year it was under £100 a month, december was 3 pages of small print. Truly hideous. But it's opened my eyes to it.

I don't give mine pocket money, and dd1 is very almost 15. I get them anything they need, and if she goes out, give her bits as and when. I'm not sure when they'd have the chance to spend it tbh, we live so rurally, the only shops they go to are the supermarkets with me, and they put little things in the trolley then.

Have to spend a bit today, we have run out of chicken food (they got a lot of party type food leftovers yesterday) and the sack of ferret food is about done. I need to not go to tescos while I'm out! I'll keep tabs on how long the new food lasts, so I can add it into my expected spends budget (note book!).

I use TopCashback mostly. I think they pay out quicker.

Lydia how old is said dc? I usually tell the dc on their birthday they can have whatever they want for breakfast, we have balloons, a banner on the door so everyone knows it's heir birthday.

Wreck similar to that my dc get money from others & put it into their piggybank. I'm going to insist we lodge some of this & leave coins maybe. I'm fortunate mine don't look for much so I also buy for them sometimes.

Chocco only a suggestion, if they're your Christmas treats I don't want to put a dampener on them.

Lydia what ages are your dc?

Mine get £1 a week off their gran. Sometimes from us if they have done extra jobs or for birthday/ Christmas. 7&9

Don't pay for TCB and quidco in the beginning. I think it's pretty of the t&c with kidstart.

For birthday we decorate the house. Let DC choose dinner, home made cake (if you can bake). Friends round of they want for dinner.

They will be 13 and 11. I've already said I'll take dd and friends to nando's and back to ours for a sleepover on the weekend after her birthday. I have her presents. It's the actual day.. I'll cook her favourite meals and put some balloons up but other than that we won't be doing anything else and I can't afford to take her out anywhere - even for a coffee! I feel guilty!

I need an idea of where to take ds and pals for his sleepover, he wanted paintballing but that's extortionate.

I'm a newbie poster but an on-off long-time lurker. I also used to lurk on the minimalist thread so feel a bit of a stalker in recognising some old usernames...

Re making birthdays special a breakfast consisting of birthday cake and a few balloons seem to do the trick in this house. We don't tend to go overboard on gifts anyway so expectations are not overly high.

Mine are 7 and 5. I've tried giving them pocket money a couple of times but linking them to (light) chores to teach them the value of money. After a week or two they stop doing their chores and so the pocket money also stop.

Ah I see hours are quite a bit older than mine Lydia

Yours, not hours!

Could you order pizzas for them Lydia? Cheaper than going out somewhere.

Unfortunately she wants to dress up a bit and go out... However I'm wondering if I can find a deal somewhere that would at least give us a discount. I've downloaded vouchercloud and there's money off prezzo - going to check out their menu now.

i have just used the Martin Lewis trick to get 2 for 1 cinema tickets for a year on the Compare the Meerkat site. Basically you buy the cheapest product possible - I bought travel insurance for a fictional trip to London at £1.20 and then you get the 2 for 1 deal for a year.
I can never afford the cinema but am determined to go this year. The first trip will pay for the £1.20 outlay easily.

@dementedma that's unreal! So we just go onto compare the market, buy aany product and they just give you this free pass?

That's worth knowing dementedma! I'll have a look at that later. It could work for ds's birthday treat too.

yes, I couldn't believe it either. The idea of course is that you take out your car insurance or life insurance but it works with any product at all. Once you have been sent a link to your product you download the Meerkat cinema app and the code for each week is in there. DD immediately did it with travel insurance that she genuinely needed for a forthcoming trip so it definitley works. Oh, you can only use it on Tuesdays and Wednesdays though but that's ok for me. I plan to see the new Hugh Jackman film next week (The Barnum one) and then the The Darkest Hour when it opens.

Aunt lydia you could sign up for a free trial of Tastecard which gives you discounts at restaurants . Some are 50% off but there may be restrictions at weekends. Dominos and Papa John's usually have lots of discount offers. Could you borrow a girly film from a friend for you and DD to watch on her birthday or do a bit of pampering such as facepack or nails if you already have the stuff. Window shopping can be fun and looking at make up and trying testers ( loved thus when I was a teenager many years ago)

Thanks sand - that looks great! Just signed up. I've proposed the film idea too and she's thinking of what she might want to see.

Re Amazon [moanranger now mounts her pulpit] As a business owner I pay huge amount of taxes as a percentage of the business income. Amazon now pay a bit more than before ( when they used to pay nothing), But in comparison to most UK retailers, they pay a really small percentage of their TO in taxes. It gives me the rage, and for that reason I rarely use them ( limited to cheap kindle books & used books)
I urge you to think about this. It is massively unfair, threatens UK retailers, and you can get these goods on line from UK retailers who do pay taxes. Also, note how good Amazon is at getting you to spend with them, ease of purchase, delivery, etc, but is it really worth it?
Sermon over

Morning everyone!

Please help me stay motivated! I've always been a money saver at heart but have lost my way over the last couple of years and really need to pay off my overdraft and credit card. My partner lost his job a couple of weeks before xmas and so that has put us back even further, fortunately he has another but with less pay than before and it doesn't start for another week.

I'm aiming for as many no-spend-days as possible (first was yesterday) and have started a spending diary. Sent DD(11) off with a packed lunch this morning so she didn't have to buy anything at school and have been using up the contents of my cupboards/freezer - have told the kids that I am making only one dinner a day and not pandering to any fussiness! With exception of some 50p bargains in Boots at the weekend (stuff we needed - deodorant and toothpaste) I am not buying any toiletries this month and am potty training our youngest so hopefully we will save on nappies soon too.

Got lots of birthdays this month, but am going to make a list today and have a good look around, buy through quidco and hopefully get some bargains.

Going to aim for cheap/free entertainment for the kids too. Have some free cinema tickets, free ticket to local trampoline park and will take them to city farm (free aside from tube fare). Will invest in the monthly pass for wacky warehouse to keep the youngest one amused during the week (I'm sahm). DS (6) is working on a picture to get a Blue Peter badge (DD already has one) which hopefully will arrive in time for the youngest' birthday treat to London Zoo in Feb!

I've been hard at work doing online surveys (panelbase, valued opinions and yougov) and am constantly checking vyper and shoppix on my phone.

Next up - eBay!

Hi everyone struggling to keep up!!

My dd is nearly 12yo and I don't give her pocket money, her nan gives her £5 a month and I will give her holiday money if we go away somewhere. If she needs clothes or anything else essential I would buy it for her and she has a fair amount of money in her savings account now which she can take out if she wanted to.

Had a difficult evening with her last night, she is struggling socially (year 7, started at secondary last Sept) and was saying some very upsetting things not sure what to do but will email her head of year I think for advice. Wish I could pull her out of school altogether sometimes like you did Cag

Another quiet day planned, weather is dismal, need to check account now all the DDs have gone out, will put some money towards dds school trip and drama group (emailed her drama group leader yesterday who said its fine to split the payments into two) and then see whats left...

MissA lovely to see you, I think my username is about the same

Oh and taking dd and a friend to a trampoline park place tomos, its on a 2 4 1 jump price but will still be £20 for the two of them for two hours! Pretty much the only thing am doing with dd over the hols though.

Back to work!! Leftover dinner for my lunch today. Bit of a trouble time in my day is at lunchtime - I usually go for a much needed walk/stretch at lunchtime and buy lunch. But when I bring my lunch in I feel out of sorts not buying anything the high street - I's just a habit, and I am aware of it. Just putting that out there.

Put some petrol in my car this morning - I usually only do this monthly, and I put £15 less in this morning as I will be walking/running in some days so use less gas. i did buy a coffee though so small fail there.