New year frugalling commences. Save those pennies for January

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New Fred.

Ooh hello we3 :)

Sea she’s liked it so far thanks. It’s worth noting the horrible girl hasn’t been there this week so far so we shall see. She did enjoy the two weeks she did before Christmas but the bullying made it quite stressful. We have a meeting booked with the Senco (and our family support worker who is amazing) on 20th to see how it’s all going.

I have found that with Contigo cups also ChristmasSeacow but they are the only ones that I have found to be leakproof and well, staying so hot does make for a frugal couple of cups of coffee on along journey.

My last couple of days have been pretty frugal apart from having to pay return postage on a pair of Ash sale boots which didn't fit..( I wont order direct from them again, its so annoying when on line companies dont do postage return lables).
Also annoying that I had to pay for customs clearance for an ebay purchase which is a second hand keyboard for my laptop. Which had wine spill on just before Christmas. Mine has a detachable one and it seems to be discontinued. So only alternative was to buy from someone in Australia and its proved to be expensive (item itself was over 80).. Really hoping the replacement works am fed up of typing in tablet mode.. .. Then hopefully computer whizz DS can fix my old one also .
He is liking the new job so far, . It is on the island still which is good, .. And free /heavily discounted Liz Earle products !!

Today haircut, but its only a pixie and a wet cut so she charges £20.

One thing I really am missing from my old job is the discounted parking .. I need to find other places .. on Monday I had to pay £7 for the day, bait of a shock as I used to pay only 15 a month for an all island staff pass! (but that was our only perk)

Unescorted when will you know about your work ? So rubbish ..

Sea you are technically supposed to leave the contigo for 3 minutes before putting the lid on for that reason. I, however, like mine roasting

Klaxxon new Eat Well for Less tonight

We3 well done on quitting.

It should be my first no spend day today. There’s no payments due out and I’m not expecting to have to go out to the shops today.

Ooh I was just thinking about EWFL yesterday thanks wolf - that might persuade DD1 off her phone for an hour :o

Bullying Lane? . That’s crappy. Poor DD. I hope the school gets a grip on that.

I was driven out of the library by a very annoying man eating monster munch LOUDLY. Came home and ate my winter salad thingy, which I haven’t really been enjoying but wouldn’t be frugal to chuck it away.

Also did a small top-up shop. Got bread, smoked salmon and my annual packet of Ryvitas

£2.25 in butchers on cold meat and rolls. Was going to buy sausages to make a sausage casserole but decided to wait until they do a buy one get one free as they do this periodically throughout the year.

Just finished cleaning out the freezer and have binned a bag of stuff, which was out of date unidentifiable and although wasteful, leaves me with room to actually see what's actually in there. I am terrible for not being able to find what I am looking for and just buying another, hence the three bags of opened diced onion. I was convinced I didn't have any onion and if I'd done my shop before checking I would certainly have bought another Tonight's dinner will be interesting that's for sure

Yeah. One girl seems to be the ringleader and a few nasty followers. DD made friends with one particular girl right at the beginning (she’s also autistic and dyslexic, they are so close already it’s lovely), this girl has been bullied since the start of year 7 (now year 8) so that concerns me somewhat if they’re still doing it. But DD is being brave sticking up for her, and getting bullied too for daring to be her friend it seems. I’m hoping it will calm down. She does have a good group of friends already though. A boy asked her out yesterday :o why do they have to grow up?! 😂🤦‍♀️

In other news Cagletini starts nursery on Friday. Settling in session so only leaving her for an hour or so.

I'm a geography teacher. AMA!!
NSD here again. Tempted by dress online though....

Yesterday I made money by going to Mumsnet offices to do some home ed research thing. £60 plus travel expenses. Took DS to the science museum beforehand so made a day out of it. Spent £12 in the gift shop. Had McDonald's for dinner. £11

Did the weekly shop today -£66.
Bought a car air freshener thing in Yankee Candle as the car smelled funny. £4.99
Got 2 new houses keys cut - £10.50.

2 direct debits went out today - £58.84

Now I've got the shopping for the week I can relax! I always worry about running out of food and not having money! Trying to build up a stock of basic stuff just in case I do run out.

Just had a quick web chat with a tax credits person as when I went to check my online account there was nothing listed. Apparrantly we've been paid enough this year. So with that I asked if come April we would be entitled to any TCs and he came back with a figure that was nearly double the figure I got . I would love to work out how they work it out.

Ooh thanks guy will PM :)

Ima I've been getting tax credits for nearly 14 years and it's still a complete mystery to me how they work it out!!

Lane that's shit re the bullying, dds had the same on and off for years, I think any slight differences at secondary are just pounced on 😡 what's ridiculous is that by college time the more different you are the better!! Dd was also asked out just before Christmas, it was a fairly short relationship though as she dumped him Ystd 🙄🤣

Seacow how rude of the noisy monster-muncher 😂

Nsd for me/joint account! Dh, however, just walked in after collecting his new phone, carrying a falafel take-away. He did reluctantly offer to share but I virtuously carried on eating my (budget) home-made soup 😇 (spends like phones and food in the go come from our own kitties so still nsd!)

Off to a friend's tonight. I have tonnes of posh choc from Christmas so will take that. There's talk of wine and I really want to have an extended break but my will power is not robust!

I spent €25 on some luxury hand towels in the Arnotts sale (department store). I saved €29.

Also spent 75 cents on a tin of beans.

I've noticed a lot of new food containers in the work fridge. I'm not sure if people are eating healthier (salad containers) or saving money by bringing packed lunches.

My organisational zeal has extended to work. I spent an hour and a half clearing out the stationery cabinet. I've about half of it sorted. I need to order more containers for all the small bits - pens, markers, staples, paper clips etc.

I was just popping in to say EWFL is on at 8pm but I see Wolf beat me to it.
Nsd but about to pay car tax. Only 30 quid though.

NSD today, first in a long while.

Totally bizarre turn of events re van crash. Bearing in mind it was 2 days ago. We’ve spoken to the insurance company numerous times, the van has been taken away for repair, still waiting for a courtesy van tho. However we get a call earlier today from the insurers saying erm, we’ve realised you’re not actually insured with us!
The initial error was ours, I just grabbed the folder with all the van paperwork in and the first insurance certificate I could see. Which was last years. This years is still in an email, and with a different company 🙈. So the whole process has to be started again. Which has happened very quickly thankfully. How the old insurers got so far not realising we were no longer a customer of theirs I do not know!

@LaneBoy bullying is awful. And I think girls are worse than boys in some ways, it’s more emotional and mental, they get in your head. Friendships get so complicated as they get older.

Gym this afternoon. Oh my god. I’m hurting already. Tomorrow is going to be tough.

Slightly spendy day today, top up shop
For baking over the next week and smoothies to get fruit in my daughters
£12.04 in lidl.
Ordered a fitbit type step tracker for 7.50 off Ebay but my husband has paid for it so im classing that as a saving

Still so much better than normal and already my cash float and bank balance look healthier. Hope I can keep this up. Im also doing the MSE 1p challenge. Going to catch up tonight and start using the tracker.

Another NSD

And the staying away from re-signing up to Amazon prime continues. I suspect our cc bill next month will be much healthier.

I’m so fed up of packed lunches. Sadly there’s generally no time to go out to buy lunch where I work, and Aldi is the only option if I do. So pack up it is. I expect I’ve saved £100s since being in this job. I used to love a subway lunch!

Laska no idea.... statement has to be in for end of next week.

Love despite working in the very centre of Manchester I still take a pack up most days.... I can't bring myself to pay £3 for a too cold sandwich with a filling that has been waved somewhere near the flavour it purports to be. I have a drawer in the freezer (handily on the way out) that has pick and run lunches in. Some days can be a bit random.. especially at this time of year when I can't be bothered turning the light on.

We3 best of luck with the stopping smoking. I found it really useful to make it an active decision - you choose to stop but quitting is passive. That way if you are choosing to stop you can choose to start again... where as if you quit you just stop quitting. Does that make sense? Either way you are not a fraud on these threads. If you are so was I.

I have a challenge for you guys.... I need your best recipes for things you would donate to a foodbank. Where I live is an area of inequality - rich next to not quite managing so our food bank donations are quite random. Think lobster bisque / porcini mushrooms/vegan proteins/ you name it we have it & it seems a waste for it to go to waste . Also our donors are open to suggestions - when we tweeted we wanted a particular sized nappy we got 11 packs in a day ( so we can ask for a particular ingredient). So to encourage people to donate through the year & make our pack pickers lives easier we are going to do meal packs ( we deliver so people don't get to choose). What would be really useful would be for recipes that are out of the ordinary.

unescorted are you going to have a list of people who will be able to take the meal packs and will be able to make use of them to create the meal intended? I am just thinking about whether your clients have the kitchens/resources/equipment and can afford the gas electric to cook them (I.e fuel poverty).. Just a thought. ?