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!

meadow your workplace sound really fabulous and understanding especially to a relatively new employee. Hope you get lots of rest and feel much better over the weekend.

love that's great that your dad is getting treated promptly. Takeaway won't make you feel any better, have you got ingredients for a fakeaway or is it the taking away the stress of dinner tonight that has it appealing to you? If it's this I think you should go for it.

Text the shop which took in one of my dresses for resale and it's sold so €50 for me also found an app called dressup so might put some stuff up there too. This dress has a story to it, my mother won in an auction a few years ago for €5, price tag says €208 it's really good quality but not my size, could be altered, but not my style either. My dm says even if you only make a cushion cover out of it or sell it and make something out of it for yourself, do what you wish! I tried and failed to sell it on facebook but now it's sold making 10 times the cost We're going away next month for a night away so will put it with €50 cash dm gave us at Christmas to go towards afternoon tea one day and lunch following day

Meadow gladyour work are being helpful..

love Good , I hope the fast treatment means better outcome for your Dad, Really, give your self a break and just get a takeaway.. Totally understandable .....times of stress and all that ..

It was shaping up to be a NSD but then a couple of pairs of the curtains I wanted from JL came back in stock.. £200 ,, but they are lovely.

My 'grenade' cause a (somewhat hostile) reaction ! But at least I know whats happening now.. person still alive (good) but likely to have to go into LT care.. So no need to worry about potential inheritance ruckus then, there wont be anything much left .. ( and quite rightly too IMO , although 'other party' doesn't seem to have quite taken this on board.. )

Oops mammy I see we are of opposite opinions on love's' Potential Takeaway ! but I am a bit of a 'F-it , im having it' person if its really been a crap day

Em What do you need to have done?

Just stuck the oven on. Think it will be sausages and chips and tinned spaghetti. Maybe with some token carrots and broccoli for the health factor.

Your inheritance thing sounds crazy laska. Glad the person is alive and spending their money- that is certainly a way of solving it!

That’s great news on the dress mammy. Love a making money story like that!

laksa I’m getting my teeth straightened using Invisalign. I don’t have to have it done but have saved for ages for it and as it’ll involve a series of mouth guards which might make me lisp a bit initially I figured less disruption whilst I’m off work.
It should take between 9-12 months.

And sadly love they wont know that they are spending it.. but yes it is crazy... It's all around someones expectations and 'rights' .. They need to read a few books..... Dickens and George Eliot come to mind! !!

We also have sausages .. and I am going to break open the homemade sauerkraut.. ( this should be interesting ..... )

.Oh, .and that I am in the way of their 'rights' it seems....

My “grenade” had an effect. My report to the data protection commissioner re my data being shared without my consent has been read and is being investigated. My email to the person who shared my data’s work has got them worried. I’ve said that as said person has resigned their position it’s not appropriate for my data to be held on their unrelated businesses servers. SO please remove immediately and confirm it’s been done.

Laska we're allowed to think differently my take on takeaways I think is similar to cags if I recall correctly, eating out doesn't cost much more & is far more enjoyable. Plus I think the idea of takeaway is better than the reality

Love a lazy dinner like that though love quicker & cheaper

I found a person advertising www.riverford.co.uk/ veg boxes in town today and signed up for a trial one.

They seem more like a delivering supermarket but for only organic food when I look online. Their minimum order value is £15 which I thought might be quite handy compared to £60 with Waitrose and £15 from Tesco.

I wondered if anyone has experience of them? Their meat is very expensive, being organic.

love sorry to hear that about your dad, good they are starting treatment ASAP.

Only spend today was petrol £37, that's the most I've ever put in it I'd been driving on empty for a while!!

need I emailed dds year head Monday re a few issues, still not heard anything back!!

That’s right mammy it’s shocking how much takeaway costs round here TBH. I’m trying in general to make eating out/takeaway more of a nice thing rather than something I do because I can’t face cooking IYSWIM. Or because I’ve been disorganised. Eg I have no qualms taking the kids for a McDonald’s (though I did discover that trying to eat a Big Mac without spilling lettuce on the baby in the sling is quite difficult... 😳😂) or similar but it’s much nicer to do that with a friend so the mums and kids can chat.

That said I think all rules are off in this kind of situation love just do whatever gets you through, your head must be spinning

On the subject of food, I now have a soup maker! I’ve been coveting it for ages since mum got it, you just shove 600g veg and 600ml liquid in and it makes a creamed soup in 23mins. Also keeps it hot for an hour after so perfect if I get waylaid with hungry baby. I was going to get one with my Christmas voucher, but then mum got a new one and gave me this. Yay! It’s even got a cleaning cycle so you just put hot water in after serving. It’s much lighter and smaller than the slow cooker so easier to get in and out of the cupboard (I never use the SC or food processor as no counter space). So excited.

Will post spends later.

I had a monumental blip today. Went to Dunelm. £53. Storage for my new craft room (clear boxes for felt and fabric) curtains for the living room, I just liked them (£22 down from £48), and my bargain of the day, 3 x 4 sets of napkin rings, made of tiny bells. I get through a lot of tiny bells not this many

£10 Matalan on more little storage boxes.

£17 Macdonalds for the dc's tea. I had a vanilla milkshake. Was nice on my sore throat. I clearly spend when I'm feeling poorly.

That is fab about the fast replies need! Sorry to hear DS has become anxious about a topic but it sounds like he will get great help :)

I’ve found a friend who uses washable pads so she’s sent me loads of links etc. I’ve also realised I could possibly see if DD could use them from the off, as she has such massive issues with texture, so disposables may be a problem. Whereas washables would just feel more like normal undies. So I’ll see how she feels about that when the time comes. I suppose it wouldn’t be practical if she was in school all day but as she isn’t going to be for the foreseeable then it may be worth a shot. I hope it’s another two years at least before we have this issue though. I was 12.5.

Meadow so sorry you were sick again, how frustrating :(

mammy I like the idea of takeaway but we hardly ever get one anyway as nothing much near us.. one nice curry restaurant in town about 5 miles away we will get perhaps twice a year .. ( and we have to go collect it ).. I do sometimes long for Peking ribs though, l like we could get when we lived in our last house ( 11 years ago !)

sunny I sort of have experience with riverford. Although not firsthand. Mum and dad have raves about them. My aunt uses them and when parents have stayed with aunt and uncle they’ve had riverford food. A beef casserole was delish apparently. And the organic wine is also lovely. I’ve been sent a bottle. Le yum.

No one delivers to where we live either and nearest place with an Indian and Chinese is five miles away. Wish we had more choice but it's good for the bank balance

Evening !
Had a few days away from SM.
Work has been manic but yay its Friday !
Havent had time to catch up with the whole thread.
NSD today and most of week-pretty broke and I dont use CC so frugal it is !
We have plenty of food etc

I used to have Riverford and then A&C .
I loved the convenience but found it was very expensive compared with our local market which is very cheap .
The other thing I found was lots of the organic produce was flown in so defeated the "local" produce/low air miles/seasonal thing.
If I could afford it I would get A&C again but I cant justify it atm
Takeaways
/buying food out is hideously expensive for what it is .
I always meal plan so would never get a takeaway to replace that.It is always planned and really enjoyed as a rare treat.

Nowhere delivers to us either

£10 bus. But fluffy I got all my printing/copying done for my bus pass yay! And I didn't even have to pay as my mum gave me change. 😳😳
£33 hmv, four DVDs and a loyalty card (we shop a lot in there so hopefully worth it). I realised that one of the DVDs was wrong though so I'll swap it next time I'm in town. £20 is my pocket money spends this month and the rest was a present for DH's birthday
£14.48 birthday present and half price gift wrap in Waterstones
£4.65 millies cookies
£10.99 crop tops and undies for DD to try, will get more if they work well for her

Also dad gave me a cheque for Christmas money (I had already bought the Caglets presents from him) and bless him it was much more than I thought 😯 will use some for ballet/tap invoices and bank the rest

I've put the natwest app on my iPad and it's much easier to use than on the phone. Worked out how to delete defunct payees (old child minders etc) and found out how to view all my direct debits and standing orders in one place. Would like to view all my payments though as I can't work out when I last paid for tap, searching isn't working for some reason

Well done Cag, is it a long form?. What treats can you offer yourself to get it done?.

Step 1✔️

Getting there with YNAB - our direct debit categories are almost filled two pay days in advance. This means when child benefit comes it won't be needed for bills

Good work cag

Tomorrow SuperValu will bring approx €80 worth of food, I will visit Aldi for the rest as I promised dh Tempted to just get whole shop from SuperValu & not go to town but I won't.

I'm doing some overtime over the next few Saturdays. Can't say I relish the prospect but the extra money will be handy. It's just Saturday mornings.

Payday arrived yesterday. I picked up the Mary Berry baking bible so I hope to impress you all with photos of my baked goods. It was €32 but I had a gift card for €20 so it only cost me €12.

On the subject of baking, has anyone been watching 'Zumbo's Just Desserts' on Netflix? It's really good.

I'll catch up properly tomorrow.