Keeping our Fru Year Resolutions! Frugal January thread two (already) - all welcome!

[Cagliostro]

Eeek so the other thread filled up fast. January 10th must be some kind of record!

Need Is he going to Scotland then to study?.

Wow need I only dream of countertops that are bare like this I've 3 countertops and a little table like a breakfast bar/island in mine. This is clear except for one little pile of paperwork, got dh to put up a letter rack on wall to deal with this & he proceeded to fill it with paperwork. Going to tackle this tomo. Today is taken up with making two cheesecakes, bathing dc, funeral, general laundry, hopefully collecting my car & going to my friends to celebrate her birthday. Forgot to tell ye this, dh offered to collect me & I replied no need haven't I decided to go alcohol free this year. This has been applauded by family & friends. He says sure you're hardly going to drink water. I said I'll have soda water & lime actually, so you're not drinking at Wedding next month & I said no or any other event this year, a low derogatory that'll be fun so was his retort. My body, My choice

Anyhow I digress another little part of worktop has an egg tray for our 8 hens, currently empty they're on their winter holidays. Next little space has spices but I'm getting rid of this as a shoe press is going in its place & will shudder a bit when closed so not suitable for putting spice jars on top, next little bit has brown bin for kitchen waste & a tub for glass recycling. I intend renovating an under sink press to house both of this & kitchen bin in next few weeks.
Next counter top has chopping board which will stay & 6 glass storage jars which were intended for display of pasta rice etc 9 years ago but have rarely had them since they can go right!!
Then remaining long countertop has kettle & toaster bread maker(unused but hidden behind microwave & obviously microwave & junk like multiple chargers paperwork basically everything moved from table out of the way & fruit bowl.

We thought at end of last year we'd be repurposing some presses but as ikea have changed size of kitchen presses that's not an option now.
Need to think of how to best use the space that's there now

Sorry for long winded thread - it helps to discuss things out loud here

Late to the new thread, thanks Cag.
Haven't properly read back yet.
Frugal week here. Only money spent has been on small top up shop & petrol.
Despite working almost full time hours I've managed to cook meals every day & the house looks okay too.
Sod's law that ds is ill just as I've upped my hours, but I can be flexible with work so it's been manageable.
Just about to head off to circuits class.

Lifelong do you dc need or want their old schoolwork? Could you keep one item for sentimental reasons & get rid of rest, says she with a full filing cabinet drawer of college notes anything that's in them could now be found online I think. Another option would take time but scan stuff that's wanted or you want to keep and store it in the cloud

www.hotukdeals.com/deals/a2-milk-on-try-me-free-buy-for-between-1-and-120-then-claim-your-money-back-free-2876041

Free milk.

I will ask then but I know dd will say yes as she hates letting things go and ds probably will too. It's doing no harm in boxes and divided into years.

I'm trying to become less hoardish & it's not even really hoarding it's just not getting time to throw away so last June when dds books came for her third year at primary I got rid of the previous two years except for one book & kept her preschool scrapbooks for both years. My theory was I hadn't looked at the first years one in 12 months so was unlikely to in the future it was cathartic.

Thanks need
Dc fighting in the bed beside me I'm going to have to get up aren't I ?

I meant to reply to you too peonies, the spray fluffy mentions is great. I'm dark too, same issue with grey. Last year, I took the plunge and got blonde highlights put in and yes, it does negate the badger head look very effectively.

fluffy I'm not sure about the term of the mortgage reducing. I might specifically do that next time we renew and keep the same payments, good idea. We'll chuck a chunk of the dividend at it again this year. I know we are lucky financially, but I still want to make things work well for us.

Re DS, he's not 100% decided between Lancaster or Edinburgh at present. Either way, because of our income he will get the very smallest maintenance allowance. Fees are £10k for tuition. The maintenance grant won't even cover half his accommodation. We will have the help. It must be really very difficult if you are not in a position to help, and that angers me tbh.

Re kitchens, my Dsil recently had a large kitchen extension, she claimed this would help her declutter, it didn't. Truth is, both her and DB are untidy and like to hoard, there's just more space to do so now

My utility is the same life but my drawers and cupboards are less so!

My kitchen is quite small and there’s not much storage but I keep it pretty clear because I cook a lot and can’t abide mess! The messy bits of the house are the ones I don’t have to ‘live’ in, iyswim. I do dream of a completely clear kitchen surface but I’ll always have to keep some things like a spice rack out because there isn’t cupboard space for it. It’s a bit worse at the moment as I have baby bottle stuff out all the time (steriliser, perfect prep machine, tub with the clean bottles, separate washing up bowl for the dirty ones . It’s a proper production line). The kitchen looks a lot better when there isn’t a baby in the house. Oh well, just 6 More months of bottle sterilising etc to go!

At least insides of my kitchen cupboards are also highly organised (for the same reason - I use everything a lot, not much space) . I think I am like naturally tidy and it’s how I lived when alone, but years of more than full time work and commuting (so being v time poor) and kids’ stuff has allowed it to run away from me a bit. Hence 2018 will be the year I sort it all, before I go back to full time work.

I need DH to take a day or two off work so I can paint the utility room for starters.

Feeling pretty good today as I had an inadvertent lie in. DH got up with the baby at 5.30, I intended to be close behind him but didn’t hear DS wake and was completely dead to the world till 8.30am. DH has gone for a shower now, he didn’t look too thrilled with me as DS was being a pain so I feel a little guilty but still, he can have one tomorrow!

When I was a student the first time I hand wrote my notes and filed them in beautifully organised ring binders. Couldn’t bear to throw them away (initially) but after 3 house moves dh (then dp)said enough was enough and I agreed with him. I scanned every single page. And have them saved on a memory stick. Kept the text books though. Well the more interesting ones.

My law stuff I typed as I went. Again kept the text books.

Todays jobs:

Take bags to charity shop.
Take boxes to my parents to store (things we already had there and grabbed back - Christmas decorations etc)
Riding £27
Pick up two more sleeping bags for ds from sisters friends house conveniently next to stables £10
Buy lamb for dinner tomorrow. Some kind of slow roasted lamby lamb lamb. Mmm.
Resist tickling ds. He chuckles now when we do it. It’s the best.

Ah em I used to love making DD giggle by tickling her still do, and she's 6.5!

Really busy week but managed NSDs Thursday, Friday and should manage one today thanks to DH who filled the car up for me.

Off out for the day but have picnic and drinks packed and membership to where we're going was paid for last year.

Pay day Monday....hurrah.

Dh and ds got Chinese whilst I was out last night. I was quite annoyed as there was food in the house but it was dh’s money not shared money. I think someone mentioned on the earlier thread that they had a dh who looked at a plethora of ingredients but couldn’t see a meal. Mine is the same.
Spent less than £20 at the pub, did feel better for going and getting out of my head a bit, not sure how I feel now other than flat. Not sure about spends today, I’ve just added some bits to the Ocado order as ds will need a packed lunch on one of the days I’m away with work as there is a school trip. Toad in the hole for tea so no spends there. Need a card and wrapping paper for new neice’s present and I’m not sure what’s happening about lunch. I think this thread is deftinitely helping me think about the impact of those small spends and how they add up but then again I say that every year and then fall off the wagon come June!

Just checking in. I need to catch up.

My Dh is the same "there's nothing to eat in this house" and yet food appears by magic every night.

You can always do Chinese at home & freeze ahead. That & some rice/prawn crackers in the cupboard. If you think they'd re-heat it.

The takeaway secret is my most used cook book

I would murder DH if he had chinese without me

Oh lord the Uni costs !
I was woefully ignorant at just how costly it would be .
Like you need we are in the income bracket that means DC (2 at uni at the same time ) only get minimum loan.Again it doesnt even cover rent.
If your DC are doing long courses then its super painful.
I budget £500/600 each per month for rent top up and living costs .
They also work in the holidays and its still tight.
We paid our mortgage off early thank goodness.
Those on lower incomes get more student loan and in some cases can access a low income bursary depending on what they are doing.

£44 Aldi. Someone asked to go in front of me and I said no I felt bad but then why should I? I had already been waiting ages.

£7.40 John Lewis cafe. Got my free coffee and cake

I’ve just dig out my didymos baby wrap, there will be no more babies in this house so I am going to wash it and sell it - it’s only taken ten years!
DF called, he is going to the farm shop and hour away so I’ve ordered a pie and some chicken (and some brownies), not too worried about this as it will all get eaten and it’s good stuff. The pack of chicken breads will be split wrapped and frozen

mammy your hair sounds like my dream but I'm not brave enough! Also don't have the money for upkeep unfortunately.

Peonies I used to have horrendous periods when I was a teenager with lots of 'accidents', it has genuinely scarred me for life. I went on the pill at 17 which changed my life. When I came off depo for a year-ish on my year abroad they came back with a vengence and that was awful as well so I went on the pill again as soon as I came back to the UK and then since coming off it this time around to ttc after about 3 months it settled now into what I would consider somewhere in the realm of normal. I dunno if it was just my age and things now have settled now I'm older maybe, but yeah I am still permanently anxious whenever I have a period even though mine aren't anywhere near as bad as they once were. Really feel for you .

Need Your kitchen is like my dream omg. I wish we had the motivation to keep ours like that!! Although ours is only like a tiny corner kitchen thing in a large open-plan living area room. We actually only have 4 kitchen cupboards so we have two bookcases also standing in lieu of kitchen cupboards . Have to be creative in small places!

mammy Sorry that he won't support you in the not-drinking. DH has been saying for the past few years he wants to give up alcohol at some point (not that either of us are big or frequent drinkers normally anyway) but then never does .

Re: uni, I got the min loan for my first year so my parents paid for my (very expensive) accommodation in halls. Then DH and I had a quick marriage down the registry office with 2 witnesses about 8 months before our big wedding party, purely so that we would then not be assessed by student finance by our parents' income - DH was estranged by his parents at that time so would have been that way anyway but a big faff sorting paperwork to prove this, and my parents were struggling with the expense, and we were engaged anyway, so it made sense, as cynical as that sounds! So then we both got the max of everything which was a mixture of loans & grants then though I know they've got rid of grants now . Our debt burden would be utterly unbearable if we hadn't had grants then! Anyway we've mostly been financially independent as a couple since then, which was our 2nd year of uni when we moved in together and got married just before it.

(Sorry for the two posts, just it's easier as I was on page 9 to read that then write my reply as I go along and then the same on page 10 otherwise I can't remember anything anyone said)

Interesting thread about hating Aldi on AIBU .
I tend to do a big Aldi shop once a month for dry good/tins/dishwasher.
Ocado once a month and then weekly farmshop/market for meat/fruit and veg.
Apparently this makes me German
I really cant tell the difference in quality and its £ cheaper.

£6 coop, £8 chips shop

I started reading that thread. We have 2 soon to be 3 aldis in this town and the two are quite different. I get most of my baking and cupboard stuff from there, cheese and cooked meats. I find the f&v is fine if we don't want it to last. The meat is ok too but prefer butchers.

I read that thread too. Honestly for pasta, biscuits, baking goods etc who can tell the difference?! I wonder if it's mainly people who buy ready made sauces etc?

Need your kitchen is beautiful. Our counters are sometimes like that but only for about a day before the clutter comes back! We have a tiny kitchen and do a lot of cooking so there's always something like a cake tin in the way. Also things we have 0ut out of reach of the babies seem to end up in the kitchen.

I made the Jamie Oliver flatbreads from the new book today (P. 79 for those who have the book). I didn't do the egg recipe he does with them. I made them because we'd run out of bread and needed some lunch. They were very quick and delicious.

NSD yesterday. Low spends today as we needed cat food.