Festive frugaleers saving through to the new year!

[SnugglySnerd]

New thread! Tried to post on the old one and it was full. Newcomers welcome!

Filling out my ynab with future dated transactions of expenses I have coming up such as hair & make up x 2 - christmas party & a wedding, hotel room, cash for wedding card etc up to almost €300 without any drop of drink

I read MSE's tips for spending this Christmas and am delighted that this Christmas I have been reducing my credit card debt rather than adding to it. This was helped a lot by getting tax back in late October, but I've got at least half of that money stashed in my account too.

sneaky looks like a good shopping trip, no aisle of doom purchases!

Tonight I'll be spending on popcorn at the cinema for dc, will get kids tray x 4 approx €20 but I won the tickets so I'm ok with that and promised them McDonald's after so probably the same cost again.

I've started taking just enough cash to cover food so I can't get distracted by the aisle of random shit

Good plan

Put a cheese grater on your Christmas list Sneaky. Did you ever watch eat well for less on the bbc?.

Well done Nursie👍 £50 is brilliant.

£8 on gourmet cat food for the cats protection collection.

I made dhal for lunch. It was about 50p for two massive portions & it was so comforting. It was a hug in a bowl.

There was a woman on the news who’s paid for all her Christmas stuff with vouchers from surveys. Good on her.

Marking place. Am still around but not keeping up. Things are up and down. Increased dose today. :) xx

I did Fluffy! And have bookmarked cooking on a bootstrap.

But your still buying grated cheese?.

It was the only cheese I liked they had left!

I buy grated cheese. I figure life is too short to grate cheese and tend to grate my fingers too

Grating cheese is much much harder without a dishwasher too.

Those are both reasons I like grated

ds used to live on grated cheese and for a while I nearly bought a second grater for when the other was in the dishwasher, as they are impossible to handwash.

I still buy grated cheese too
dc don't like cheese I grate myself in their lunchbox and it's easier to control portion size for me also. Our cheese consumption has reduced massively since H moved out so it's not as big an expense as it was.

To be fair, I don't like 'raw' cheese and neither does DP. I only like it on pizza, in toasties or cooked in food #childlike. My DC like cheese but they eat sparrow sized potions

Could I please step in and join, was a brief person on here back in 2015 when pregnant and saving for mat leave, that bump is now almost 3 and we are having a kick up the backside for a Frugal 2019.
Getting married in 9 weeks and then the plan is to move house, we will be moving somewhere with another bedroom so want to start accounting for the increase in council tax and mortgage now so we can see just how tight it'll be.
Clearing off some debts and hoping 2019 will be the year to be able to have our wages for us rather than spending it on debts ran up previously!

Welcome back qforcucumber cool name

Oh god. Melted cheese is my absolute favourite cheese.

Mmm.

I’m also partial to some of the German smoked cheese. And burratta (fancy mozzarella - essentially the scraps from the makings of buffalo mozzarella squished with cream... Waitrose sell it in little tubs. It is delicious)

🤦🏻‍♀️ The lovely greg would also be shaking his head. I know everyone on here hates greg but you can’t knock his enthusiasm.

£12 up from matched betting.

Hi Cucumber.

Grated cheese, on hot buttered toast! Don't melt it, just grate it over and eat - it's heavens work.

also cheesy chips and garlic mayo :)

Cheese is a weakness

I quite like grating cheese 😆 I also like grating carrots, sad but frugal! The worst thing I find for handwashing is the bloody sieve, that drives me mad!

Busy day here, took dd to the dr who checked her over and said it's viral and carry on as we are. She has seemed a bit better this afternoon so fingers crossed she is finally on the mend.

Went to morrisons and spent £38 this included tubs of biscuits etc to dish out to various people , also got dairy free stuff for dd and other bits they don't sell in aldi.

£8 lunch for dd and I.

£19 in dun elm on Christmas gifts.

£5.50 pets at home on Christmas gift for the cat and hamster!!

£3 posting a parcel.

Need to try and curb the spending now as my account is looking very sad.

Oh, I also spent £6.96 on stamps today.

I threw out my sieve, I just use a colander

While we are talking cheese, can I just let you know I bought a baking Camembert today? Cannot wait to get that bad boy in the oven over Christmas.

Very productive day. I took the huge food shopping list and got everything that isn’t perishable or is freezable. Also got last couple of bits for nieces and nephews and DS2s teacher. And finally got round to writing some Christmas cards. Done all the hand deliver ones, just the posting ones to tackle now. Tomorrow I’m going to buy the family cards and start doing some wrapping. My brother is visiting at the weekend so I’d like to be able to send him back with all the cards and presents for them.

But the best thing about today was I had a blood pressure appointment and it’s normal! No further appointments required for 6 months, woohoo!

That's brilliant Curls.

Happier I find this gadget absolutely brilliant for portion control with cheese. It can cut the thinnest sliver of cheese, so we still that yummy cheesy taste but with very few calories. Also it's really fun to do the cutting.

www.amazon.co.uk/TAMUME-Stainless-Cheese-Cutting-Slicer/dp/B01M0SO9K1/ref=sr_1_11?s=kitchen&keywords=cheese+wire&tag=mumsnetforum-21&ie=UTF8&qid=1544634665&sr=1-11

ds is off to the nativity now, in costume. Me next.

That cheese gadget above doesn't need to be washed after use to those who don't have a dishwasher could use it and not have to buy grated cheese, I think. Just an idea anyway, if it would save money.

Oooh I was getting excited looking at that amazon link thinking I could buy it for DP. But now I think about it, I think somewhere in our house someone has already bought us one.

I have no idea what to buy DP and he gives me no ideas. So I was thinking a gift voucher. Plus all the things we need for the house as something to unwrap. We need a new frying pan