Frugal Friends Forging Forward Toward February and Further Financial Freedom

[Wolfcub]

New fred

Born l am loving Lidl atm , their app is great
Unescorted that really is bad service sorry lovely hope you get the AB'S soon.
Sing yay!
Dh just had a phone review with the GP , they are happy with his Atrial Fibrillation & his chest xray was clear so that is all good
NSD for me today about time l am skint!

ah unescorded i'm on countdown now for the weekend as i don't work on Fridays. yahooo!

cat face has calmed down. she's on her cushion behind me on the couch. i have moved from the table to the couch with my lap desk. i have had enough of being smart and professional and needed to be comfy.

Sing we have a slimline dishwasher. it is fine for crockery and cutlery but a bit small for things like a big saucepan. They fit but limit the space for other things. It still cuts the washing up though.

Nsd.

Thanks snug! Width just about is fine luckily (although I agree, a slim one is still better than no dishwasher for sure!) it’s the depth that is the issue which seems difficult to solve. We have been round in circles all day but eventually decided to get a standard one. It’s only about 5cm that it’ll stick out, so could be worse, and honestly I cannot overstate how much of a difference having it will make on a daily basis. I think that’ll outweigh the annoyance!

So, today’s spends £265ish 😂

A dishwasher is cheaper than a divorce lawyer sing. Before it arrives drill everyone in the difference between in and on.

:o love that.

We currently have dishes on our housework rota wheel (four tasks, the four of us move round daily) so that will stay but become “make sure it’s bloody well ON” 😂

I actually have no idea what to buy for it though, tablets? Liquid? Those salt things? Any recommendations would be great. Also do you have to do maintenance washes like I do sometimes with the washing machine?

sing the cheapest I’ve found are “presto” from amazon. We buy them on subscribe and save and get a delivery every 2 months I think.

Bear in mind though we have a choice of M&S coop and waitrose here for our shopping and only some tesco products.

I rate the presto ones though. They do the job.

Make sure you give it a clean every month or so. I run a cup of white vinegar through on a hot wash every month. And clean out the filters. Otherwise nothings clean.

Sing I use smol dishwasher tablets now. The cheap ones from lidl that are like the finish ones are absolutely fine and I used them for years but as we get less skint I like to make slightly more eco choices where I can

I use the Lidl ones and they are fine l totally agree Wolf
You and l are leading the fan club for Lidl by the looks
I bought their Spatchcock Piri Piri chicken it was delicious

I have tried all the dishwasher tablets and Aldi/Lidl other supermarket brands are fine. Have to admit though I use expensive eco ones now as I'm trying to be as kind to the environment as I can. I have never put salt or rinse aid in the dishwasher, I have no idea what either of them does. Ours is ten years old and seems fine!

We use the Aldi all in one ones. The very cheapest ones are ok too but (feeble alert) a pain to cut out of the little plastic sachets. The all in ones can be thrown in without faff. Also worth doing every now and then is running it with a dishwasher cleaner and descaler if you live in a limey area.

Lidl is one of the few things I miss about wfh. We had a Lidl at the bottom of our building in town. The nearest one is over 10miles away now.

5 cm protrusion is nothing sing. No idea for tables as don't have a dw.
Looked at a rental today a budget busting £1350 pm. V little choice. I may be living In my new car £££ (tiguan)
It's bloody ridiculous you still don't have you prescription.
£53 Sainsbury's

I want lidl!!!!!! 😂😂👍🏻

I have never put rinse aid or salt in mine either Snuggly

None of ours have been salted or rinse aided either. I cannot remember a time when we were without a dishwasher.... except in student hovels.

Em you have lovely beaches and a warm climate. You can't have everything

Good news on the vaccine born, and also good health news for your dh Mrs. Wish you could say the same unescorted - what a palava!

'A dishwasher is cheaper than a divorce lawyer' 🤣🤣 Never a truer word was spoken. Ours broke at the very beginning of Lockdown 1 - the amount of washing up from us all being at home all day was mountainous!

Aww hope cat face is ok now em.

Another nsd here. Really trying to achieve them is helping... had to pop out and post a letter at lunchtime. I never usually leave the school site during the day so it was a bit of a novelty and I was very tempted by the lovely local cafe for coffee and cake but I resisted as I wanted to add to my total 😬

February:
NSDs: 3/28
Groceries: £3.06/£390
Everything else: £76.08/£350

I do need shopping tomorrow and I have 3 different collections to add to at work so that will be a fiver each as well.

That is an impressive NSD ratio there madden

re those rental costs Life and yay on the Tiguan.

No salt or rinse aid here either. I remember being without a dishwasher twice for six months each time when we were very skint. Never again!!!! Never

Yay re vaccine Born and Sing

Your golf club lunch sounds lovely Em

Ouch sorry life I missed that, but it doesn't surprise me... rental prices are ridiculous! We pay around half in mortgage costs to what we could rent out our current house for. In my Plan B scenario I was looking at some little flats that were much more reasonable but dh said a categorical no 😅. But if you have to rent, just see it as one of the moving costs - it will be finite

Hi everyone I'm being rubbish at keeping up, I seem to only be able to manage to keep up with one thread and at the moment that's still the teen ED one!!

Anyway I wanted to pop in and say hello, not much to report, same shit here unfortunately and I'm about to go off sick from work again to look after dd.

This is the first month in ages that my bank balance has looked better though. I had £106 refunded to me from the water company and I'd completely forgotten about the council tax free months!! Plus it's the first month in ages that I've not had Christmas or a big bday to worry about.

I've been super sensible and put the extra money straight into savings and am hoping to move some more over by the end of the month as well. In theory I've only got food and petrol to spend money on!!

Hope everyone is well.

Thanks for advice! I had seen the salts etc mentioned before and I don’t know what they’re for - but someone mentioned it may be to do with water hardness, so I need to look up what type we have and see if I need to do anything particular. We have had bad luck with washing machines in the past so I really want to make sure I don’t bugger it up 😳

girlie sorry thing are still difficult. I hope your dd has a speedy recovery - I know that is a relative term.

Madden rents are skyrocketing atm and mortgages are coming down. Our mortgage is less than a third of our neighbours rent. I suspect it will get worse while people struggle to get and retain secure work contracts.

That's a good point about water softness. Birmingham water is really soft, we don't have limescale. I had never even heard of calgon until I went to uni - we don't even get the ads! We can probably get away with not using salts, rinse aid etc.

Nice to see you Girlie. Sorry things are still tough for you.

Hello Girlie sorry things are still so tough for you. I hope having some time off work takes some of the stress off of you.

I don't have a dishwasher 😨 When I get a new kitchen I will definitely make space for one. I don't have a tumble dryer either think I must be living in the dark ages 😂

Managed a nsd 🎉