The Friendly Frugaleers; joyfully saving through July

[Wolfcub]

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Snuggly that's just the same as me, except for the wall-cleaning part. It's just how to plough through all those days that is the tricky thing. I haven't currently got the energy to leave the house as I'm recovering from a bug, but hopefully that will get better in a week or so.

The council here runs a lot of free activities, up to 5 every day through the holidays, so I think we might try to go to those.

I wish I could get better enough to get out to an air conditioned place. That would really help, just in these coming few days. Tempted to sleep in the tent.

OMG I just went out in the cool of the 3am garden, and the stars are amazing. Every single one just shining away up there. Gosh!

Ffs. The nhs pay calculators said I would be due £240 this month including back pay. I've got £30. £30!! I'm not even top of my band. Stupid of me to rely on that for the summer holidays

Rubbish night sleep here. Couldn't sleep as a bit stressed with work.
It's raining this morning here.
£80 to child minder for the balance of July bill.
Summer colds here too.

Happy anniversary em.

Happy holiday wolf. Hope yours improved Mammy.

I'm sure the DC will be fine sorting the house cag.

Oh no wreck. Have payroll got it right? That's shite

I'll have to wait until I get my payslip. I know people were saying it was worse than originally thought but not that much worse surely?

hat the standing order truck is a good one. Basically look at your last dd payment. Create a standing order for the same amount plus a little more (when I’ve done this in the past I’ve rounded up to the nearest “round” number...so if dd payment was £37 SO payment is £40). Then you cancel the dd payment. This way you pay the same amount each month. And it clears the balance faster than just paying a % of it which is how the dd works.

You need to stop using the card though...

Back to work today. Wax at lunchtime then gym after work.

Yippeee!!

Hat

Credit cards like you to pay by dd so they can string the debt out for as long as possible. Each repayment is slightly lower than the last.

Standing orders pay a fixed amount and this eats into the debt. The poster who told us all about it reckons it will take 30 years to pay a cc balance if you pay by dd, but only 3 if you pay by so.

What you do is set up a s/o on your online banking to the cc company and fix the payment to your last DD rounded up. So if it was £99, round to £100. Set it a week before the payment is due so you don't get late charges.

Then cancel the DD.

They don't like you doing this because they know the trick too but they cannot stop you.

Up and still packing / putting the house to rights. Ug. Yesterday was manic and we are still in total disarray! Both children are being awful... dd has a streaming cold and is clingy and DS can sense the upheaval and is super anxious. So progress is slooooow.

I would email the ceo Sea, their website put you on the wrong track entirely.

Good luck seacow no mean feat taking two small children off on holiday! It was always worth the stress ime even if just for me to be somewhere different.

I'm still lounging in bed, love the holidays! snuggly before you know it your children will be of an age where they can lie in, get themselves up, put the telly on quietly and get their own breakfast #holygrailofparenting.

wreck that’s really crap. Hope payroll have got it wrong.

Soooo hot here last night, it was horrible.

Should be a very low spend day here. Helping out at ww this morning, then taking DS2 to the local park which has a splash pool. Can’t wait to get cooled down by being a big kid and playing in the water! It’s a huge treat, given we live about as far away from the coast as you can get (Midlands). Taking a packed lunch with us, so all it will cost me is parking and an ice cream!

I need to find a new way to deal with our joint account. We put the same amount in each month, which should more than cover all bills. But it’s the little spends here and there that mean we end up overdrawn at the end of each month, and have to give it a top up, hence why we are not saving anything. I need to run through the outgoings to check those first. Then next month I think what I will do is draw out an amount of cash that we can afford from it, and leave my card at home.

How does everyone else handle the little spends that soon add up? Is there a better way for me to do this?

On my to do list when I get home is to set up standing orders for all three credit cards.
Refund from disgraceful landlord is back on my card, which has reduced my balance significantly except this is joint money not mine so I'm somehow going to have to repay joint account with it.
Also last week I transferred money to my new credit card instead of to joint account in error.
In total now I owe joint account €1176.04 only way I can think of sorting it out is paying expenses from it to balance it out as I don't think I can transfer it back eg car tax is due & groceries for next while, I don't think it'd look good to put a mortgage payment on it

ememem good luck for work, is this your first day back after ML?

Sharing bed with ds on holiday, have mattress protector. H allowed him drinks that cause him to wet the bed more. Last night he went to sleep at 11.15 after being to toilet, I woke at 12.30 to take him to toilet and he was already wet, at 1.15 I woke to him peeing on my arm and I'd to deflect rest of it onto mattress protector. Must get a laundry card this morning as both mattress protectors now need washing

Curls

We do that for bills, then keep our own accounts for personal expenses.

I find it harder in the summer too as I'm constantly buying salad and fruit. Winter groceries are much easier for us.

Sports day today. No shade either...

Oh no mammy how annoying :( maybe H would stop giving him the drinks if he has to share the bed with DS instead!

Powering through phonecalls here, changed TV license canceled plusnet etc. DH will be taking over them both as he has a cashback on bills thing.

We do the standing order thing for our CC which is on a 0%, DH didn't know it was a Thing but set it up like that. Once the moving/furnishing expenses have settled we are planning to increase it. It's now just under £2k and we pay £125pm but thinking at least £150 to get it down quicker. Or maybe chuck a lump sum at it, we haven't even touched the ISA yet as my mum and grandma gave us some money for the move ♥️ and we should get at least some of our £1250 deposit back (it's under the DPS). That said, we will be taking a holiday next year if we get a decent amount back!

Sunny that's lovely about the stargazing. DH is a keen astronomer and one of the exciting little things about the new house is we now have space (no pun intended) to sit outside - in fact our big telescope, which was shoved in a cupboard for years, is now out on the decking! Living the dream :o

Probably joining a bit late sorry! Hello

Yes I'm looking forward to those days Girlie although I expect I'll miss the toddler stage when they are grumpy teenagers! They are super cute and funny luckily!

£51 Asda weekly shop including huge box of washing powder, carpet spray and big box of baby wipes so I'm quite happy with that. I'll go to Aldi at the weekend for a few extras.

Thanks Cag, I did enjoy it. So nice and cool, and a little hedgehog absolutely bombing it round the garden while I had my nocturnal dinner. I hope you enjoy your garden. I think it's the nicest thing in the world to have a garden.

I have come up with a cunning way to keep cool. It turns out that pointing the fan directly at my head from 2 feet away, and sitting with wet hair is the absolute business. #frugalAirCon

Welcome Coffee.

Welcome newbies :)

I'm just resting while baby is asleep on me. Tesco delivery was late but they've given me a £10 voucher woohoo!

Caglets have had lots of frugal fun with DD's phone. They've discovered the pause button on the camera so have been doing magic videos including one where DS falls through a hole (bin bag) in the bedroom and winds up in the kitchen. They will be helping unpack more later but it's amusing seeing what they're coming up with!