Money Saving Marches on....frugal living, friendly chat, no judgment

[ememem84]

Hello. Took the liberty of starting a new thread...

We moved 11 years ago and have not done everything we want to. We need to change the rest of the Windows, update the kitchen, replace our shower, replace the stair carper.

In our area, there are furniture shops gif a kcal hospice, we always look there for stuff.

Just cooked an amazing roast.

So sorry to hear that audit . Lots of love to you and your family

Audit really sorry to hear that. no matter how prepared you think you are you are still not ready.

Low spend March so far - 1st £52 food shop and today £38 petrol. Being snowed in helps. down side due to damage horses did ( hence £700bill) they are at a friends 6 miles away - she is skiing so had to walk 14 mile round trip to them Friday and Saturday. managed to drive there today - will bring them home this week - once I have some help. they are all very ancient but turn into 4 year olds if you try to take them anywhere

We have a good reuse shop linked to the tip which was good for furniture, also marketplace on fb. It is expensive moving, when I moved in to the flat is spent a grand getting it carpeted 😲 I guess just save as much as possible cag have you got any stuff you can sell?

We have had a nice day, made it to mums and had a nice walk and snowball fight!!

creme our set moving date was/is Friday coming. We don’t yet know if it’s happening. Fun!!!!

im Packing up the non essentials.

Cag In theory it should be hard for your LL to illegally deduct deposit money as your money is in a deposit protection scheme. Keep a hold of your certificate so you can log-in online and check the status of it once you move, and log any disputes on there. We've never had any problems and I've moved at least once a year since like 2013, apart from our last move when our dodgy cowboy letting agents over two months later still had not sorted our deposit out, we kept going on at them and then I got HG so it completely fell by the wayside, about a month later we finally got some of our deposit back, they stole about £300 from us and we had no way to dispute it through the scheme as though we were in one they never gave us a certificate for it and I couldn't find our details on one when I looked after we moved out (but they had been there when we moved in as I checked but couldn't remember which scheme and stupidly didn't make an note of it). As I was bed-bound this wasn't something we could fight and as time goes on the prospect of us issuing court proceedings to try and claim that £300 back seems further and further away, I don't think I can handle the stress of it all right now on top of everything else, even writing this out is making me feel anxious. However every other time we've moved we've had our full deposit returned! We've also always just used man-and-van in the past but then there's only been two of us apart from our move here we had to have a proper removals cos we had some large furniture items and were relocating. Our furniture is mostly Ikea and British Heart Foundation, some of the BHF stuff is actually new as they do sell new stuff as well, it was a bit more expensive than the second-hand but obviously unscathed and still reasonable. Tbh I think everything they sell is decent quality, I think they are trustworthy vendors.

Goodness, Em. That's happened very quickly, hasn't it? Sorry, I haven't read through, prior to starting back on 1st March. Best of luck with the move!

We got our sofa from the daughter of friends of my parents. It had been her parents before her. Cost us £40 for a removal guy and a bunch of flowers/bottle of wine. Well used but was a good make to start with so I’d look at quality of make if buying second hand. It was leather and a bit scratched In places due to dogs but a lot pack of leather wipes later and a good vac down the sides and it came up a treat. It’s still serving us well a few years later.

Making cobblers to go with tea that way it will go further and there might be leftovers (and I get to eat lots of cobblers)

BHF is my favourite charity shop chain. I used to volunteer for them and they are SO strict about what they put out for sale compared to many. Eg checking all games have no missing pieces etc, a lot of shops don’t do that. And that seems to carry over into the furniture shop. Compared to the other furniture shop a few doors up, we looked there for sofas and OMG it was vile, things only worthy of the tip (and believe me I am not fussy). Not much cheaper either.

We do want to try and buy the best quality we can. Things need to be tough in our house, that’s what comes of having two autistic kids who stim and jump and hurtle about and sensory seek (can you tell I am particularly worn down by this ATM ). And if things need replacing we will have the added expense of getting old things removed etc (expensive when you have no car). So it’s important to make the right choices... but also not to spend too much at once.

DH still has his old credit card but with a 0% balance still to clear I’m really wary of using it for this. We can definitely afford a lot more than we would have managed a year ago (both in overdrafts and no savings). So that’s really good. But don’t want to get worse again.

Clean plates all round from dinner tonight which is always nice (and a rarity). I'm exhausted. Still need to fold the washing, dh is hoovering the kitchen which I asked him to do (rather cheekily as like I said he's been busy all day too!).

I think if your going to prioritise which furniture to “spend” on it ought to be beds and bedding. Whatever you prefer, electric blankets, teddy bear toppers, pure cotton sheets, woollen duvets.

You spend at least a third of your life in them. I had a proper bed at home but a wooden slatted bed at my parents holiday house. Always a bad nights sleep and woke up stroppy.

That’s a fair point. Thankfully DH and I are sorted for bed/bedding, it’s just the Caglets. And baby doesn’t yet have a cotbed. But the latter may need to be bought before we move anyway, so that’ll spread the cost a bit.

Caglets have actually decluttered some toys today. I’ve packed a couple of bits into boxes. Must be organised (ie transform my entire personality) 🙄🤔

creme yeah it’s crept up. But we’re still not sure if it’s happening or not. I need to speak to our lawyer tomorrow and see what’s going on. If he’s heard from the other side and they’re still ok to go on Friday. If not I suspect it’ll be the next frisay

Argos have 20% off bed offer. You’d get two singles for about £200 delivered.

It’d need a mattress topper. Our beds got one sewn in. Life changing.

Been really busy the last few days so just catching up.

So sorry to hear about your mum Audit, what a shock. IIRC you only lost your dad a couple of years ago. Take care of yourself

Cag when I bought my first flat years ago I was broke as I’d literally put all my savings into the deposit. For clothes storage I bought this (and so a ‘shelf’ version of the same thing)

www.argos.co.uk/product/8751014

I intended to replace them but they ended up staying for 7 years until I moved house because they held tonnes and tonnes, for a really small footprint, and actually looked okay against my lovely blue walls. I’d never have crammed as much into a ‘real’ wardrobe and that put me off replacing them! Worth a look if you want to spread cost. Carpets are going to be your biggest up front cost by the sound of it... exciting times though!

Upcycled wardrobe looks great Girlie

It’s been so interesting hearing the snow stories from all over - glad everyone was okay (and you got your dd back Lonely!). We had quite a bit up till Friday tea time but it was all gone by the end of Saturday as the temperature rose really sharply. DS’s school was one of the few to stay open in our borough. I am not really sure why so many closed, it was a few inches but the roads were open and tubes were running. Lightweights.

I’ve not had a very frugal time - paid the £200 deposit for our holiday and had some big grocery spends. I had 16 people round for lunch yesterday. I made lasagne (using 2.5kg naice mince and 5 pints of milk for béchamel!) with garlic bread and salad. Then a huge 10” Victoria sponge filled with fresh cream and raspberries for pudding. Also a lemon drizzle cake. I always cater generously but there was virtually nothing left . Even the various kids ate it. We had the party because one of my uni friends was in London with his family for a visit (they live abroad) and they wanted to meet up with the London-based contingent of our group of friends. But with little kids etc it was easier to have everyone round than go out. It was very relaxed and jolly (and somewhat boozy) but I am knackered! Had one of the friends staying over so I also had to tidy up the massively overstacked baby equipment /clothes warehouse spare room too. That was a mission. I need to embark on sorting DD’s next size of clothing out soon as her babygros are getting snug in the length. So another clearout - watch out Cag!

I had dd weighed this week and she is still quite little (17.5lbs) in spite of feeling like a dead weight after carrying her for 2 mins. But also quite long, hence yet more sorting of clothes.

meadow do you feel more confident about acquiring bits for the baby yet? I have a few useful items earmarked for you if you'd like them (stuff like a sling, sleeping bags, muslins all in excellent or as-new condition). You’d be doing me a favour as I have huge trouble letting go of stuff unless I am giving it to someone I like - hence the spare room of doom! I am weirdly sentimental about baby things... I don’t want to keep them but it’s important to me that they go to someone nice!

£61 today on petrol as we went to PILs for lunch and were running on fumes. A full tank tends to last us 6-8 weeks so it’s not too bad. Also PILs have given me a very generous cheque for my birthday, as well as some smellies to open. It was a lovely lunch but today I was struck by the fact that they are looking a little older . Funny how you can suddenly just notice.

Seacow I'm the same with baby clothes!

Audit was there a code for M&S?

seacow I can pm you a 20% off code if you need

I’ve got two if anyone else needs one. Use by end tomorrow

If you have a sparks card you should just be able to opt in though

Ooh that’s exciting seacow thank you. Cagletini is currently wearing the sausage dog onesie and earlier wore those navy dungarees (I nearly messaged you to ask how the straps worked as I couldn’t figure out the buttons 😳😂). I have a feeling she will be catching up with her size soon (having been in 0-3m until nearly 4m), I haven’t had her weighed for a while though. Great that you entertained, I am really looking forward to doing that when we move. I’m usually the one who can’t make evening plans with friends, due to DH working lates. But if it’s at my house, no problem. Also thanks for the clothes storage idea!

Meadow I was going to ask the same, I have neutral clothes sorted for if and when you’d like them. That’s honestly an if though, totally understandable if you want to choose things yourself.

The plan with beds was always to get bunk bed type things or something with a futon underneath, as we so often have family staying. I hate the fact that DSCs have to kip on the sofa, not that they ever complain and I know loads of families don’t have extra bedrooms etc, but I was so looking forward to them finally (age 20 and 26!) having an actual bed at ours. When they were younger we at least had a sofa bed, but I’ve yet to encounter a comfortable one TBH.

I’m going to make a note of that furniture paint girlie mentioned, we have three Trofast units that would be perfectly renewed with a sand/paint and new buckets. I would very much like to paint the Caglets’ rooms too, before we move in. The bedrooms here still have the trade paint/carpet, so they’ve never had a decorated room. I asked them what colour they’d like their room to be a few days back and they were totally baffled by the concept .

Re flooring, I would actually really like to not have carpet TBH, especially with a soon to be weaning baby! But I have no idea what the floor beneath the carpets will be like when they rip them out. They could be perfectly decent, or they could be spiky splintery horrible things that would be unsafe for baby to crawl on in which case we’d have no choice but to spend a lot fixing it one way or another. I do understand why they rip them up (so as not to end up having to clear infestations ) but it’s stressing me a bit not knowing if we will end up ‘forced’ to spend several hundred or worse on flooring before we can even move in (as opposed to furniture which we can make do without IYSWIM). Hopeful that a sand and varnish will be all that’s needed :o.

I’m glad we didn’t book the holiday now. Sad we are letting the kids down as we were so excited but they will understand it means getting nice bedrooms etc. DD was looking at beds with me online and was horrified at the cost!

cag in my opinion it’s the matress that matters. So don’t spend a fortune on the bedframe itself. Put the money into the matress.

Tomorrow’s jobs. More packing. But after calling the lawyer to find out where we stand re completion on Friday.

Also post office to return ds’ sleeping bag to amazon. Oddly they’ve said £50 is due to be refunded. Except the one bag was only £25. And they are only expecting one back. Hey ho. Will see what happens.

Quiet here this morning!

Seen DP and DDs out the house, I have a day all to myself! Ocado have already delivered my food. Washing on. Washing hung up. Windows open to air the house. Time to sit with a for an hour in front of the tv before deciding what to do.

I should do some house sorting and maybe then a trip to Primark once i’ve worked out what the DDs need

Very quiet! Too quiet...

Valuer for the bank has just been in and done his thing. Lawyer has been emailed to find out if we are actually moving on Friday. Eeeep.

Audit sorry to hear about your mum

Struggling a bit at the moment to keep thing under control. I have a lot of big spends this month and it's hard not to feel disheartened by how quickly my money is disappearing. I think if I get through this month without dipping into savings that it will be a success.

lawyer thinks unlikely this friday. more likely next friday. but wait to see what management company say... so i'm not actually any further forwards.

keep on packing then!

must go to post office today and return amazon order. also have to do a change of address/mail redirection form. and buy parcel tape.

I also have to sort out storage and removals. just in case we need them from this week. storage is easy as we know we will definitely need it. dh is dithering about maybe getting a van and moving ourselves. i'm not sure yet who is going to help him....he isn't either.