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!

Thanks Mammy it's on the list

Hope your DS is ok life?

Just read back a bit. seacow could you return/exchange for the next size up any of DDs clothes from your mountain? Hopefully you have some receipts maybe from the stuff you have bought? Or you could ebay them as new?

He seems fine. Landed on his back and hit the back of his head. Knocked out for about 10 sec. It's awful when the a&e nurse thinks she knows your.

Read away five. One of us will get round to posting the useful links at some point.

Have you planned meals from all of that healthy looking shopping list?

When you are able have your looked at all of your outgoings ie bills/ direct debits to make sure a) you should still be paying them and need them and b) you are on the best deal for them?

Not quite a NSD after all as I needed cream for Sticky toffee pud (homemade)
Omg what a nightmare in Waitrose not only was it heaving bit full of childrennon those awful wheely things (sp?) And 2 on bloody scooters racing round the shop!
Overheard one woman tell her DC to "go away and leave me in peace "
What earth posses anyone to buy those bloody things ?
Our area has lots of elderly and I have issues with pain not to mention its bloody annoying
Email sent

I haven't looked at bills yet, my only outgoings are rent (all bills included), spotify, another piece of software and now a credit card bill.

I just seem to drop money from my pockets on silly things like coffee, buying lunch, buying things that I don't need - and then I have times where I have no idea where my money will go.

I have meal planned for the week, yes.

Quite I quite fancy a pair of those wheelie things but I think I'd end up breaking a hip (I am assuming that you mean the shoes?)

12.4g in those quark pots lifelong

TheUgly Im afraid I loath them but then Im not that keen on OPC particularly when parents are inconsiderate as to let them wizz up and down where there are elderly people and people in pain

love hope you’re feeling better too. I recovered enough to go for afternoon tea with dh and ds. Scones and jam and cream and sandwiches and cake oh my! And a cheeky glass of champagne. £7.50. We had a voucher for the tea so just the bubbly to pay for

This money mindfulness is really helping my bank balance. Managed to pay off a store card in full today. Embarrassed to admit to the store card but happy it's gone.

Hoping the next one will go next month if I can keep this frugality up.....

All eBay items have bids on them. £100 ish in total at the moment and hoping that will increase in the next 24 hours (I only put them on for 5 days rather than 7).

Ocado order delivered and the wine is calling me already......

What about taking your own lunch and getting a thermal mug five? Small change but potentially big savings

£14 pizza hut. £25 on dh and I had the the best pizzas from a new place in town. Omg keep yum

Ooh wolf I’d not seen that game but it looks good! I’m a light gamer really. Don’t get time for longer games these days. Current favourites:
Nefarious
Guillotine
Kingdomino
Tokkaido
Takenoko
7 Wonders

And my birthday present from DH, Dice Forge :o

Not well enough to go out for a meal so DH and I are having a takeaway just us. Last time we ordered a curry was the night we moved here in 2008 :o damn fussy kids. But they’ve eaten separately and we can watch a movie together or something. £23ish I think and I remembered to use TCB.

NSD on my own card although I remembered yesterday I spent £2 (plus £10 which was sitting in my PayPal) on a subscription to DoodleMaths app. Sunny I’m not really sure on maths websites, I haven’t tried much TBH, the Caglets like Prodigy but it’s expensive as an individual sub, we got a home ed rate for that as well. If you have an iPad, I love Mystery Math Museum/Town for simple arithmetic practice.

Bloody hate heelies. Rollerblading is fab, great exercise (really wish we had a roller rink and/or ice rink round here as DD in particular shows promise :o) but I absolutely detest seeing kids scoot/skate in a frigging SHOP. Used to get it in the library a lot as well FFS. When heelies were first popular they were banned in the local mall.

Bloody well done Shoop, I think most of us have had a store card?

Five You are totally in the right place & very welcome. Feel free to read the old threads. Nothing's private on an open forum like this. I would consider a cafetière & thermal mug if it will stop you buying one at £2.50. Plus once you've had nice coffee from home Costa tastes like shit. It's win-win.

I would downgrade the Spotify to free. Just till the cc is paid off. Do you know the standing order trick with credit cards?. I'll post the usefull links after this or I'll lose my post.

Wolf Can you do a balance transfer to 0%? You'd get cashback on it too.

Thanks Fluffy

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/2270347-Frugal-January-everyone-welcome

Usefull links, the chat ones are dead obviously.

Debenhams card here. Fucking thing. I've had the bloody thing since I was 20 and bought my first bit of Denby. It has always had a balance on it. I only buy perfume and presents with it. It makes them very expensive.

Had a quick nap and feel better now. Made the dc omelettes and chips for tea. I'm having my second bowl of cereal for the day.

Well done on the store card shoop and it will be great if you manage to shift the other one next month too! How much do you save by getting rid of them?

I’ve never had a store card. Shop staff are always trying to get me to take one out, but I would be awful with one!

One of my strawberries was mouldy so have emailed tesco asking for a refund. It was a big one too and so obviously mouldy when I looked at the packet.

Have got clean bedsheets so will probs be in bed in a minute

Ds has had his bath, had a Mummy cuddle had some calpol chewed his teething ring (pic attached he doesn’t quite get it) had his bottle farted loads and is finally asleep.

I’m having a medicinal wine.

Hi Five, welcome! It must be tough with your dissociation especially when it causes financial problems too. This thread is great for advice on all matters frugal - and all things unrelated tbh too. There are a few of us on here with additional needs so you are not the only one either.

I applied for a Debenhams store card last weekend in store in an attempt to save money on my bras I was buying. Got declined . I got declined for making an account with Studio before Xmas too. It's a bit worrying that my credit score is apparently so poor given I've never had any debts (barring student loans), was only unemployed for a year when I was too disabled to study/work a few years ago, have a CC that I pay off in full each month, never had a CCJ against me or rent or council tax arrears or anything etc...sigh. But low income, being a student for most of my adult life and moving every year in the private rented sector count against me I suppose .

NSD here. DH is still ill with a cold. I have mostly been resting after being so exhausted from work & sickness but did a few small chores now I can manage them too.

Does anyone have any good, easy recipes for things we can make with our blender we've just bought? Bought it for smoothies mainly but anything really. We made apple and mango smoothie the other day which I thought was really yummy but DH weirdly didn't like it and planning to make lemonade tomorrow.

I have Spotify premium atm but on a 3 month deal where it was really cheap for three months. Will be cancelling in a few weeks when it's soon to come to an end. I had a month free trial in like August as well. In-between I just use the free one, the adverts are annoying but it's just an extra expense really I don't find it worth it. Plus you can listen to podcasts back to back without adverts or at least you can if you download them.

Oops forgot pic

Lost track of the thread this week, it was moving too quickly for me & I didn't have enough time spare to keep up. Will try to read back later.
The summary of my week:
Ds is improving finally & is hoping to be back to school on Monday. Blood tests looking for glandular fever and leukaemia (eek!) were all negative (yay!). He now has 3 weeks to try to be fit for his Caribbean cricket trip.
Still working my extra hours. The money will be so welcome when it comes. I suspect my boss hasn't put my new hours in to payroll so there might well be a delay.
I've managed to cook every night & resist takeaways which I'm pleased about.
Need to meal plan for the next couple of weeks.
I'm working tomorrow but then I've got some annual leave this week so hopefully will have time to refocus and keep up with the thread.

Love - again, I'm really embarrassed to admit it, but I've got about £2.5k of debt spread across 3 remaining store cards - Argos, Next and Simply Be.

I've just seriously dropped the ball with spending in the last few years and it got out of control.

I'm really lucky in that I've got a good salary and DH earns pretty well too, but this year has to be the year I finally take control of things.

I've had issues since my twenties really - spending on things I thought would make me happy. I think I've always spent to cover up some kind of insecurity. Nice clothes to "cover up" the fact I'm three stone overweight, etc who am I kidding that nice clothes would cover THAT up.

Anyway, apologies for the maudlin introspection. I'm glad I'm here and you lot are keeping me focussed

Oh Em DS is gorgeous!!❤️