New year frugalling commences. Save those pennies for January

[ememem84]

New Fred.

Lsd £2.09 (veg oil, chocolate for home baked cake)
Work better today! Found out today inset day end of term, yipeee!

Done 20 mins yoga today too...

DH off work all day today, obvs. Well, if he’d had a van I’m sure he’d be back at work, so I’m glad it hasn’t turned up. The insurance company are struggling to get hold of one, which is concerning given they use Enterprise, a pretty big company. So we will be claiming loss of earnings for them after today as it’s in the insurance policy that they provide a van within 1 working day.

He’s on his way back from hospital, took himself off up there on the bus. The GP receptionist said no point in him going there as he may need a scan or X-ray, so cut out the middle man and go to a&e. Verdict is a bit of whiplash so rest and painkillers. But at least it’s on his medical records if it gets any worse and he can’t work in the next few days.

Spent a ridiculous amount in Aldi and Morrison’s, but we really did need everything, down to our last loo roll and out of shampoo as of this morning.

Should be a NSD tomorrow. Catching up with laundry as I ran out of washing tabs 3 days ago 😆

Thanks for reminding me one of my resolutions is to buy period pants as they will be kinder to both the environment and my purse. Will look at the brands suggested here in a bit.

Dh tells me the Book People have gone into administration. Disappointed as I love when we get their box at work but perhaps they will have some more recipe books bargains.

Tesco order came today and it included a free gift for Veganuary: vegan margarine, some sort of spice mix and some nice wraps with seeds plus some money off vouchers. Quite pleased with all that!

Nsd too.

NSD, bloody needed it too 🙈

Slattern the bags you've made look great.
Curls glad no-one was hurt
Well done those resisting the sales. It's only a bargain if it's something you needed and would've bought anyway...
Lane dd uses cheeky and loves them. We looked at modibodi but it was £££
marbles the cross trainer sounds like a bargain
Batley your yarn reasoning sounds like how I justify my fabric purchases!

Today was work and no spends. Tea was cottage pie. The meat was frozen just before Christmas so it just needed mash on the top & baking. I got a voucher for a local place which does spa type treatments, so I need to have a look at their range and decide what to have done. Something pre-holiday would be good. The Tobago countdown is on, less than 6 weeks to go!

I looked at modibody but I couldn't bring to spend £30 on a pair of knickers! I might get dd the ones she can wear to go swimming though.

Today spent £3.65 on a meal deal lunch and a loaf of bread.

Have put a few bits on fb buy and sell pages to sell.

Thankfully the teen ones weren’t so much for modibodi. Maybe I got them on sale. She has a couple of those and some cheekywipes ones.

Spendy day!
£6 taxi
50p gum
£4.99 lunch
£4.54 food for DS and DD2
£120.90 😭😭😭 glasses. Got my NHS voucher off the frames (and free eye test yay!) but added on lens thinning, and insurance because toddler. Keeping my current pair, they are super scratched and wonky now but if I need a spare they’ll do!

I’m wondering if DD might like the swimwear - swimming is one thing she could do with some of her home ed friends (her school is next to the leisure centre and one lives nearby too so they can meet after school) but it depends how reliable it is I guess. Her periods don’t seem so bad since she started the iron. I wouldn’t dare myself though! I’ve swum with my cup a couple of times but only on my lightest days so far.

Ahem. £400 on car seats. We need a new one for Dd for our car and one for dms car. I’ve bought two of the Joie 360 ones.

I’m all for second hand but not for things like car seats. Although will sell them on when we no longer need them.

Went via topcashback and got £36 cashback from very. Also vat off.

@LaneBoy I feel your pain re glasses! I’m blind as a bat so always go for the cheapest frames poss in order to pay for lens thinning.

Nsd today! Have had a really nice after-school time baking with the kids to make lunch-box snacks so feeling all frugally virtuous.

Bloody hell, currently watching When They See Us on Netflix. It's making me feel sick to my stomach. Those poor boys, and those bastard police.

NSD

I’ve got some cheeky wipes period pants, but I’ve only been brave enough to rely on them at the start and end of periods so far.

Spends today:-

€15 for 3 x mass cards. It's a custom in Ireland that when someone loses a close relative, you give them a mass card. It's basically a sympathy card but it means that a mass will be said for the deceased person.

€6.95 in Easons (stationery shop) on a Thank You card, bubble wrap and two small plastic folders. One of the folders is for my Tesco Clubcard vouchers and one is for food receipts - I may need these for the separation.

€3.83 for bread and milk.

Total spends €25.78

I seem to be spending a lot this month on organizing type things (diary, food containers for the freezer, plastic wallets etc.) but hopefully it will save me money in the long run e.g. by having cooked dinners in the freezer, I won't be tempted to buy takeaways. And by having all my Tesco Clubcard vouchers stored together in a plastic wallet, I won't lose them and can avail of a significant discount on my Christmas shop at the end of the year.

NSD today!
Work was ok, but I'm still tired, even though I was in bed by 9:30 last night.
Heading to bed in a second, can hardly keep my eyes open!

Another spend, £22.50 2 science books for DS and 2 books for Cagletini (numbers and reusable stickers!

Which reminds me I need to peel off the stickers she put on the chair earlier

Can I join?
Total spend today ...10p (bus card reader seemed to charge me this rather than £1)
Not bad

I currently have £3.56 in the Save the Change account, I love that the bank just sweep the pennies over to there from the main account. I've decided to move it over to the ISA weekly. Also £37.81 gone out for Amazon Subscribe and Save.

Thank you for your kind words about my bag. If you would like to discuss one with me please DM and we can have a chat.

£10 last night to enroll in dive club.

Need a top up shop too. Should think about a full shop.

Yesterday 26 on dog walker. Only use on days I have to go into office which is about 80 days a year. Do work more than that but she can be with me test of time. Should be NSD today

Accupuncture today £58 then gym later - session with my trainer already paid for.

She’s weighing me today and doing body measurements and talking about goals. I want to lose around 5kg and get my core strength back. All this will be easier once I’m back at work and can go easily without having to wait for someone to look after Dd (can go after work before nursery pick ups).

Nsd for me yesterday but dh had to pick up a few things we’d run out of like cold meat for sandwiches. So annoyed with myself as I had to give the cats two packets that had expired the day before. It’s difficult with teenagers as you never know how much of anything they will go through and all you hear when they look in the fridge is I’m starving and there’s nothing to eat 🙄
I really need to do a big shop but might try to eek it out until Friday and then hopefully will only need one other shop before payday.

My Topcashback for my new sofas finally came through £249 so I’m very happy as I was convinced it wasn’t going to pay out as the status changed back the way from confirmed to pending. I never know what do do with cashback. Do people take it out immediately or let it mount up until it’s a worthwhile amount?

Lane I just realised who you are. I did notice you changing but then with all the new posters I forgot and when you were talking about home Ed I thought gosh that’s the same as you and then it clicked 😂

Tayto that sounds like good organising and will definitely make your life easier. I could do with doing similar.

Welcome Tiddler I love being undercharged for things. Nice start to the day.

Is it ok if I join in?

Have been lurking for a while but I felt a fraud talking about saving money while I was still smoking. Today i am stopping smoking. Have by vape with me and I'm determined. Can't afford it, it's a filthy disgusting habit and I really want to stop.

Thinking about it I've picked a really spend day to join the thread as I need to pay my childminder for the month but it's payday and it's a necessary spend. Apart from that I just need a little top up shop.

we3 good job on quitting!! Stay strong. You got this. I quit in 2007. I was 23. And my only reason for quitting was because I’m lazy. Didn’t want to go outside when they banned indoor smoking here in bars pubs etc (it was January).

I felt awful for about 3 months but didn’t have a vape so had to go cold turkey.

Good for you We3. I’ve never smoked but spend waaaayyy too much on food so am also a fraud . Stay strong - I bet it’s really hard to crack but so worthwhile - cost, risk to health, smelling so much better. Dig out some perfume and flaunt your new fragrant self!

Lane how did back to school go for DD1? Is she still happy to have started school again?

LSD yesterday, £5 fruit top up. I need to reduce the amount of stuff in the freezer (no space for useful batch cooking or even bread ) so will be doing an audit later. I also have loads of food that I stashed for Brexit but as we may be moving out for building work soon we really need to eat it up! I seem to have a lot of tins of various beans and dried noodles (especially vermicelli). All the most useful stuff is long gone!

Working from home today so have saved tube fare. DD and DM are at home so I’ve decamped to the library for some quiet. Only remembered en route that hot drinks are allowed so I bought a tea - most frugal place was Greggs for £1.20. Resisted pastry

I do have a Contigo cup but I’m not actually sure I like it as it keeps drinks too hot! Fine if it’s for later but I’ve made one to drink on the 1.5 hour journey to PILs and not been able to drink it until an hour after we arrived! I may be a hot drink wuss through.