New year frugalling commences. Save those pennies for January

[ememem84]

New Fred.

I forgot but @ChristmasSeacow bought nappies and that reminded me . l saw they had very good offers on nappies in Tesco today l don't work for them l promise

£30 1st communion gift, so an unexpected, unavoidable spend. Not bad, as that's my first outlay of the year, over and above bills and food shopping.

€18 on wash & blow dry
€10 on dd's haircut
€12 on ds's haircut

€9 on scratch cards for a birthday present

Rest of spends came out of dcs money

Not trying to enable anyone but I seem to remember there being a few frugaleers that liked ultrasun suntan lotion and I just saw on Hotukdeals that it’s £16 for 400mls. I’ve never tried it before but might give it a bash at that price link

Nsd today

Didn’t go out at all which makes it easier

I keep looking at a COSTCO membership but for the things we buy it isn't any cheaper & just presents a larger aisle of doom.
I find the Indian, West Indian, Chinese, Thai and Persian supermarkets are loads cheaper for the speciality ingredients we use, Aldi / Lidl for most groceries and markets and local shops & main supermarkets for bread, fish, vege and meat. I am lucky because I work near Chinatown and the others are on my commuter train line so I jump off / or cycle out, shop and jump back onto the next train . We have a fish market in town where I can choose at lunch time and they prep it ready for pick up at home time.

Late sign in. Volunteered at homeless shelter tonight. Took chocolate with me. £7 also dog class £3 and petrol £30 which will last me about 4 days. So Em £47 for a month..... How was your session. I see someone monthly as had a very traumatic event a couple of years ago

@Unescorted , very true. l don't think we will save much, if anything but it is almost like an entertainment for us tbh yes we are that sad we liked it there though, it was interesting seeing the different foods and trying them out and it is massive . We don't live near any brilliant food stores like you though, your neck of the woods sounds fabulous !

I work in central Manchester and commute to the Peaks. Best of both worlds really.

Hello. I was briefly on the Frugaleers a couple of years ago and should like to hop back on if I may. We lost my Father eighteen months ago and life has been quite busy with supporting my lovely Mum. We have also acquired a rescue cat, who is very pretty and sweet but eats like a little wolf. We have been largely living from my salary and DP has been using his to pay for a new boiler, a new bathroom and a new car. Next on the list will be a redo of he kitchen and then new windows. We hope to be in a position to sell our flat in due course and move back up north to a house.
Fairly spendy day yesterday, £32 at Costco funnily enough, for two large packs of mini chicken fillets, a big pack of kiwi fruit and strawberries. I shall batch cook the chicken later today in various sauces.
We find Costco to be convenient and good quality but if I’m stocking up I use the calculator on my phone as I go so there are no surprises at the till. Our staples there are loo and kitchen roll, bin bags, laundry powder, dishwasher tabs, tinned tomatoes and cat food. Puss will only eat Sheba and it’s five pounds a case cheaper there. Also on Black Friday we got a real bargain on a Dualit four slice toaster, £50 off so we paid only £89. But as one of their staff members said to us, it’s not the pound shop but the hundred pound shop, so you do have to be disciplined.

Argh, forgot to mention, since I want to be accountable, also about £31 at Tesco on cooking sauces, creme fraiche, tortillas, tinned soup for DP’s lunches and wine. House is well stocked, shouldn’t need to buy much for a couple of weeks. I also put £50 diesel in the car.

That's a bargain born.

Costco is too far from us to be worth it which is a shame.
And it's near IKEA so double danger

Fuel for car needed today. Need to spend a new look voucher too before the go down. I hope they don't but it's looking bleak.

Wahoo. My insurance have confirmed they’ll pay for 10 therapy sessions. Phew. So whether I pay and then submit invoices for reimbursement or whether I sent invoices to them is my decision.

Might be lsd today. Need fruit.

That's great about the insurers ememem84

I didn't realise about new look. All the shops are closing down, in my town in the shopping centre there are a few scattered about but mostly charity shops and pound shops.

Have ordered some ultra sun, thanks born.

Lifelong our Costco is next to an ikea and the range triple danger 😂

Danni are all new looks everywhere closing down? I hope not it's my favourite clothes shop about 90% of my wardrobe is new look ☹️

Up for an early match this morning. Ds also helpfully got up at 5 and again at 6 so I'm bleary eyed.

Have packed coffee in my contigo.

I am too scared to go to Costco because I have food hoarding issues anyway (and no space) so I fear the consequences! I am seriously trying to run the hoard down as we’ll need to store it all while the kitchen is done otherwise (and a lot of it will probably go out of date if it isn’t already ). Grr.

I’ve been up since 6am with the kids but still no sign of DH. I’ve made blueberry pancakes for the kids and cottage pie for our dinner tonight. Might do a pudding with tinned fruit, to reduce the hoard. Any recommendations? I think we have mandarins, pineapple or peaches. I made peach and blueberry crumble recently and it was delish. Could do that again or mix it up a bit.

Not an NSD as I have to pay a penalty charge notice for driving in a bus lane. I only swerved into it just a bit before it ended to get into the right lane for the roundabout (my left turning lane after the bus lane was empty but the lane I was driving in had a queue) so I am they’ve put a camera there to catch people doing just that - seems very petty! £65

Will probably take the kids for a yomp in Epping forest today. Wish I could find my contigo flask!

Cross posted with a few of you. The high street is really suffering at the moment! I believe yesterday was the last day of trading for Morhercare shops too. I feel sad about that - we had a very nice flagship store near us with a little soft play and a Costa. I used to take DS quite a bit when he was small and it was always a happy place for me - I went there on my first ever day of maternity leave, when heavily pregnant with Ds, and felt at such peace to have left my stressful job behind and be looking at lovely baby things - I was so excited to have him and be able to Concentrate on that at last!

Good news about the insurance Em

I think @WreckTangled likes that sun cream too, iirc. Hope she sees the deal.

I had t heard that about new look. Sad if it does go as ours is huge.

I saw yesterday that the shop where our jack wills store is is for sale.

I’ve been up with ds since 530. Dh is in bed still. Dd is with him.

Peach cobbler, Sea?

I've also been up since 6 making pancakes! Dh is now cleaning and I've been changing nappies and planting hair, whatever one girl has the other must have too!

I remember you Duchess! Welcome back. Sorry to hear about your father.

So. Have just done some number crunching. This is the status of our budget.

Mortgage - £1543 pcm
Childcare - £1689 pcm (two kids nursery three days a week.....!) as of end of this month
Electricity -£197 pcm
Water - £33 pcm
Car parking £170 pcm (secure under cover guaranteed space right underneath nursery)
Phone and broadband £81 pcm
Tv (Netflix and amazon prime) - £17 roughly
Petrol - £40 a month (ish)
Food - £200 (dh does this and is pretty good at meal planning and food shop)
Baby things (nappies formula wipes) £60 pcm
Pet insurance £12 pcm
Cat food £16 pcm

Annual things like insurance:
Car -£224
House -£305

I’m going to look to get the phone and broadband reduced. I think if I switch provider I can get a discount from work. However not sure what the coverage is like. I’m also only on a £20 pcm monthly rolling contract so will really need to look at whether it’s worth it (I want the same if not better terms for less money...)

Electricity and water can’t be changed as we have access to one electricity Co and one water co only. The people who lived here previously disconnected the rads from the economy wiring/tarrif. To put it back it’ll cost us around £15000 (and be messy - channelling into walls etc) so we’re leaving it for the moment as in a couple of years we’re planning on getting work done which will mean rejigging the layout so will get this done then.

We’ve switched to LED bulbs and have jacketed the water tank in the loft and the hot water cylinder. Heating is on a timer as is hot water.

Where poss we dry things outside not in the dryer. And dishwasher is run once a day and only when full.

We use both amazon prime and Netflix so don’t really want to get rid

When I’ve put it all down on paper it’s scary.

Morning all.

Spends yesterday
Greggs £3.10 on a vegan steak bake for me and pizza for dd2
Primark £10.50 on some tights for me and underwear for dd2
Boots £9.53 on a couple of Christmas/Birthday presents and a chocolate for dd
Tk maxx £14.99 on a Joseph Joseph cutlery tray and knife thing.
Tesco £34.50 on boots for me, tops for dd2 and a calendar, the one I got for Christmas doesn't have enough space.
Costa £8.80

Hope you all have a great Sunday.