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Frugal Friends Forging Forward Toward February and Further Financial Freedom

999 replies

Wolfcub · 16/01/2021 19:43

New fred

OP posts:
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26
lifelongfrugaleer · 29/01/2021 16:38

How dh GWS sing and it's a negative

Wolfcub · 29/01/2021 17:11

Sing hope she feels better soon and it's not covid

Love glad to hear your dad has had a better few days. Fingers crossed the intervention helps get things on a more even keel

Unescorted glad the presents arrived

£290 holiday balance

Snuggly can you convince the dc to have a movie and indoor camping weekend? It might require some food based bribery?

Em sounds exciting. I love the planning. My kitchen is on hold as wardrobes slightly more urgent at the moment

OP posts:
Unescorted · 29/01/2021 17:28

Sing hope your dh is -ve and he makes a speedy recovery. Case are still on the rise here so I sent DH to the shop.

love hopefully it give you and your mum a bit of a break.

snuggly bribery all the way in the circumstances.

lifelongfrugaleer · 29/01/2021 19:06

Pleased to hear the structure of meds is helping love.

£8 coop on pizza and sweet

lifelongfrugaleer · 29/01/2021 19:07

Definitely go for bribery and path of least resistance this weekend snug

CamdenLurker · 29/01/2021 19:51

Hey everyone!

Just wanted to jump back into this thread as last month I spent over £1000 on food/groceries - so bad! I mean there are 6/7 of us but still I can't justify it.

How's everyone doing? Lockdown blues are tough aren't they? It's so strange because I'm still going into the office and the roads and streets in London are as busy as ever but everything is closed, no idea where these people are going!!

School have finally decided today that the ski trip to Boston in March won't be going ahead so I'm awaiting a refund for that.

Anyone have anything to look forward to? We have Center Parcs booked for June, which I'm trying to be optimistic about and a Haven caravan holiday at the end of July - feeling slightly more confident about that one.

AdoraBell · 29/01/2021 19:54

£43 groceries.

Unescorted · 29/01/2021 21:09

Nice to see you camden - you need to follow one and find out if there are secret doors to a universe without covid. Wink

I have been watching DIY hair cutting tutorials having got to the stage of it being so awful that hacking at it randomly will be a better look. Hairdressers have all been closed or so booked up that there is no chance of getting a booking unless you were a pre COVID customer. If it is really bad I can wear a hat / scarf /not turn the video on.

ememem84 · 29/01/2021 22:00

Kitchen designs sent through and the guy has pretty much nailed it layout wise on the first attempt. Initial quote £13,500. Yikes.

Needs tweaking though so we’ll sit and talk things through with him at some point.

Gensola · 30/01/2021 08:11

camden I feel you, I spent £550 in December for me, DH and a cat! I was absolutely ashamed of myself, we are broke too and trying to clear debt.
We have tried our best through Jan to meal plan and stick to a budget and only had one takeaway which was a pineapple and ham pizza which I blame entirely on em Grin
I think we still spent about £400 tho :/ we don’t waste food but DH eats loads and it seems like every time we go to the supermarket something quite expensive needs bought like laundry liquid or massive box of cat food.

Mrsmadevans · 30/01/2021 08:36

Morning everyone 😀
Em tbh that sounds like a pretty good quote judging by how much they have quoted for us In the past 🤗👏👏 l know t depends on if fitting and appliances are included but fair dos 😀
Love everything crossed for you and your family 💐
Better shift .... MumBobs 🤗

maddenlightfoot · 30/01/2021 08:39

Morning! It's been a bit of a crazy, stressful week but we've actually started talking about exchange dates now so I'm allowing myself to get a tiny bit excited!

My December spends were horrendous too gen and Camden. I've done better this month but still annoyingly gone over (a rushed Tesco shop rather than a careful Aldi shop tipped me over)

Love it's good that your dad is home but with extra support.

Em the planning stage is the most exciting! Are you extending too?

We'll have no wardrobes at the new house wolf and I think we want something built in eventually so might just go with clothes rail chic for the time being!

Hope your dh is feeling better sing.

Snuggly please let me know if you have any bright ideas for keeping the kids entertained at home! One idea I started in Lockdown 1 was 'Saturday treat tea' which basically means they have a bath at 4pm and then eat a dinner of freezer food sitting on the sofa watching a film Blush!! Meanwhile me and DH can hang out in the kitchen and look forward to steak and wine later!

CamdenLurker · 30/01/2021 08:40

@Gensola

camden I feel you, I spent £550 in December for me, DH and a cat! I was absolutely ashamed of myself, we are broke too and trying to clear debt. We have tried our best through Jan to meal plan and stick to a budget and only had one takeaway which was a pineapple and ham pizza which I blame entirely on em Grin I think we still spent about £400 tho :/ we don’t waste food but DH eats loads and it seems like every time we go to the supermarket something quite expensive needs bought like laundry liquid or massive box of cat food.
I'm in the same position- meal plan and generally stick to it, but I have 18 year old ds who doesn't stick to anything! He will happily eat his way through the freezer contents whilst I'm at work rather than make a sandwich.
ememem84 · 30/01/2021 08:55

madden no not extending. We thought about it but had decking out down last year and if we extend we lose a bit of the garden.

The kitchen guy uses NEF appliances so these are spendy. £3.5k alone for these.

We’re trying to work out colour schemes too for the ground floor. Currently thinking teal (couch) grey (kitchen cabinets) pale wood floor black billy bookcases white walls. And another colour.

Wolfcub · 30/01/2021 08:57

Don't feel too bad about high shopping bills if people are at home more. That's more snacks, more coffee etc that you might otherwise be buying out of the house. In my experience school dinners are a damn sight cheaper than feeding a hungry teen at home

OP posts:
maddenlightfoot · 30/01/2021 09:14

Yes em, I thought I'd remembered you just having decking down. We're moving specifically for a bigger garden so I totally get wanting to preserve as much outside space as possible.

I'm starting to hate the word 'snack' 😩. The worst is when they come in saying 'I'm huuuuuunnnnnngggggrrrrryyyyy' literally as I'm serving up dinner. I point out that dinner will be on the table in less than two minutes and they still say 'but can we have a little snack first?' Aaaarrrrrrgggggghhhhh

lifelongfrugaleer · 30/01/2021 10:56

Ahem, my food bills is £100 on a cheap week, and that's before a midweek £25 fruit and bread top up. £150 a week is a average. I do waste some so not perfect getting better. Running down my freezer isn't helping

Wolfcub · 30/01/2021 11:57

Onto the second load of washing, first lot hung up to dry. Did big garden birdwatch hour this morning.
Checked bank accounts (little frugal tip I do this daily before I even get out of bed). Walked into town to the bakers and back, more for something to do than anything else £3.70 spent. Will be getting a takeaway later just for me as ds is at his dad's.

Life sometimes that's my weekly shopping bill for 2!!!! Sometimes it's £60. My total shopping budget with us both at home full time is £500, that's food, wine, toiletries, cleaning stuff, some stationery type bits - whatever comes in a shopping bag or any takeaway type treat basically. I could make it less than this and have had to in the past when we've been really skint but this allows us things like more fish 🐟 (bloody expensive). Pre-lockdown it would have been £400 (a bit more if ds takes packed lunches) but the counterpoint is I'm not spending on food when travelling (can't reclaim staff canteen spends), we're not doing any eating out and I'm not paying for school dinners.

OP posts:
lifelongfrugaleer · 30/01/2021 12:25

£20 made from selling some books. Loads of boxes packed, some bits put aside for beaver crafts and charity

lifelongfrugaleer · 30/01/2021 12:26

I didn't count takeaway and shops like b&m wolf. That's just the supermarket

lifelongfrugaleer · 30/01/2021 12:27

£16 m&s, £54 Aldi, £6 co-op, £20 riding

lifelongfrugaleer · 30/01/2021 12:28

I'm donating dd lesson fee while they are closed

Gensola · 30/01/2021 13:29

Just went through all the receipts and it was £468 in Jan plus about £45 on three veg boxes. That includes cat food, cleaning supplies and the takeaway. Maybe that’s just what food costs now as we really haven’t wasted anything much. Some stuff was relatively expensive herbs and spices which we now have in the cupboards.
Will see how Feb pans out!

ememem84 · 30/01/2021 14:31

£35 riding
£47 waitrose. Having an Italian dinner. Yay.

CamdenLurker · 30/01/2021 14:47

@Wolfcub

Onto the second load of washing, first lot hung up to dry. Did big garden birdwatch hour this morning. Checked bank accounts (little frugal tip I do this daily before I even get out of bed). Walked into town to the bakers and back, more for something to do than anything else £3.70 spent. Will be getting a takeaway later just for me as ds is at his dad's.

Life sometimes that's my weekly shopping bill for 2!!!! Sometimes it's £60. My total shopping budget with us both at home full time is £500, that's food, wine, toiletries, cleaning stuff, some stationery type bits - whatever comes in a shopping bag or any takeaway type treat basically. I could make it less than this and have had to in the past when we've been really skint but this allows us things like more fish 🐟 (bloody expensive). Pre-lockdown it would have been £400 (a bit more if ds takes packed lunches) but the counterpoint is I'm not spending on food when travelling (can't reclaim staff canteen spends), we're not doing any eating out and I'm not paying for school dinners.

How many loads of washing do you think you do each week? I had this conversation with Dh earlier as I was trying to work out how much fabric softener I need for a month, he reckons 4 loads a day which seems a lot!

I think that I 'thought' my spend was around £600 a month, but I'd never actually gone through everything and done the sums, the reality in Jan was £1036.26p makes me Envy

Sometimes though I buy things because it's easy - you know when there's no time to mash potatoes or whatever and I've come to the decision that its ok, if I didn't work I'd spend less, but we'd have less coming in so it's swings and roundabouts really.

We do have an enormous chest freezer in the shed which means that Dh we tend to Chuck stuff in there and not really know what we've got in, this also leads to ds2 cooking a whole pizza or 20 chicken nuggets for lunch every day.

With school lunches I would top up dd2's account with £50 on payday, dd1 takes lunch in and ds2 gets £3 each day for lunches so that's probably £150 ish a month maybe a bit less.

Can't remember who was getting a new kitchen - but when we did as part of our extension last year we ended up spending 50% more than we originally budgeted, partly down to appliances which cost over £5k including sink, taps etc. And also quartz worktops which cost around the same. Underfloor heating I wouldn't recommend as it just doesn't really heat the room well enough, our space is large 9m x 4.5m so this could be why though.

I hope everyone is having an enjoyable weekend, awful weather here, roads are flooded so can't get anywhere, not that I have plans!

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