Summer savings support - be frugal

[ememem84]

Running out of space on the old thread so here’s the new one. Everyone welcome.

for background this is a slice to share your No spend days, your big spend days your savings your situation. We all help each other out with advice and tips etc. but it’s mostly for friendly accountability.

@Thefroglover i also sadly quite like some plain pasta with butter and some grated cheese and black pepper - I do that sometimes.

Morning all,

I'm well jealous of your cheap dentist mrs. We havent been for a couple of years have meant to gone twice but the dentist have always cancelled it. We pay around £25 forma basic adult checkup and usually dh or I or both have a filling so it's around £50 each normally. I don't understand why NHS only cover some of the cost?

frog you sound like you are doing lots of things to cut back. Is there a reason why you can't eat what DH has? Are you cooking a proper meals for him then having bits yourself? Can't you both have the same?

Good frugaleering here this morning £40 in Asda but loads of yellow stickers and even some yellow sticker treats! Freezer is absolutely jam packed now!

Easy (fairly cheap) tea tonight. Large chicken in the slow cooker like a roast. Air fryer wedges, corn on the cob, salad and coleslaw, crusty bread. Everyone will eat part of this so just one meal tonight phew! Then I pick all the meat off the carcass (using disposable gloves) and will save some for chicken fried rice tomorrow hopefully and some for lunches.

@Decafflatteplease DH will make some dinners that we will share but not many. With his allergies and my refusal to eat fatty food, there are not many of his dinners we can share. I'm going without/reducing what I eat and today DH has announced he is getting his lunch from Greggs as he's WFH and there are no easy lunch bits in the house for him. He brought things he would need to spend some time making eg spag bol and are more dinner/evening type meals. He has the option of beans/cheese on toast, freezer bits can be ready in 20 mins.
I'm fuming.

Love a good yellow sticker and saving left overs for the next dinner.

My new strapline - I REFUSE TO SPEND MONEY !

My DH isn’t great on the money saving either. I get “it’s only £5” or whatever but he doesn’t see that all those add up.

I have a target for us to save by March 2024 when we think our works will start and it’s so disheartening every month when the savings needle is seemingly not moving up much because DH keeps spending

Hello frog. Sounds like you're off to a flying start, and hopefully the family will come on board. Remember the old advertisers' adage: Benefits sell! What are the benefits for them of reducing expenditure - get them to set goals for the money saved so they can enjoy being frugal in pursuit of something nice, rather than a punitive thing. Hope they come round.

You will experience great health and fitness benefits from your frugal ways - not drinking, not snacking, walking more. So you might find that you can fit into clothes you haven't worn in a while, which means you don't feel the need to spend on new. I lost 8kg from not drinking and got re-acquainted with lots of old friends in my wardrobe, which felt really good. Decluttering and organising your clothes is also a good way of soothing the spending urge (and the snacking/drinking one!)

For going out, I signed up to Show Film First - you can get free or very reduced tickets to all kinds of performing arts and events. You usually need to pay an admin fee, but it's still a good deal.

Have you switched bank account to gain some money? HSCB Advance are offering £170 to switchers. Martin Lewis' Money Saving Expert website is worth signing up to if you haven't already because it gives weekly updates on these kind of offers.

Sounds like you are already working very hard - other frugaleers will point out the need to find stuff you enjoy as well, have a line in the budget for fun. Even if that is £4 on a nail polish and doing a home mani-pedi.

Just saw you like the gym, frog. I gave up the gym during lockdown, obviously, but switched to free YouTube workouts - Adrienne for yoga, Lazy Dancer (ballet), Kathryn Morgan (ballet), Pilates with Ange - there are loads, of course, those are just ones I stuck with. I've not gone back to the gym (got really, really used to not paying for exercise) and my cardio fitness is probably not what it was, but I have lost weight and my muscle tone and flexibility is much better, so I'd say overall I haven't missed out.

Frog l get you re your Dh and spending, mine is pretty good on the whole but is grizzling about wanting a new tv , there is nothing wrong with ours atm if it dies then we will have one instantly but it is not a necessity . He also wants a new car, is grizzling about the car has done high mileage and we won't get anything back in part ex. Well l have news for him we aren't having a new car for a couple of years if l have my way
l live in SE Wales and the dental checkups are free if under 25 , pregnant, on certain benefits or over 60 , if you need xrays it's £14.70, treatment like a filling it's £47. A full course of treatment like crowns dentures bridges etc are £203 start to finish .
I do realise how lucky l am to be on an NHS register
NSD today for me but have just bought a parasol for MumBob in the sale for £70 plus postage of a fiver . They have a sale on and it had 30 pounds off
www.wilko.com/en-uk/airwave-banana-hanging-parasol---green/p/0519140

Decaff it seems ridiculous l know but the Wales NHS charges are cheaper than in England , Scotland is much of a muchness as is NI .

It’sso difficult if the family are t on board with frugal ways.
nsd today

Blood tests back - all but one. High cholesterol. Which suprises me.

We are the opposite here, DP is incredibly frugal and has to be persuaded to spend money on things I think are necessities. Eg for years we had a shit hoover that didn’t work, DP claimed it was fine. Eventually got a new one (shark) and he hasn’t said anything since 😂
mom being quite frugal at the moment. Have actually managed to stay within food budget, hurray! Nursing car along on the last bit of fuel before DP is paid on 18th.
DP and I went to the tip/ charity shop on sun. Bought a pair of jeans for £3.49 from the charity shop and then found two picture frames on the street that someone had put out with the rubbish outside a shop. We reckoned we’d broken even!
mrs I’m chuckling at your DP frizzling, haven’t heard that for a ehiley

grizzling! That was a spell check

lsd yesterday £5 Co-op

Morning.

Up early as couldn't sleep so did a couple of extra surveys for £2.

Not sure re spending today as the dogs eye still poorly so back at the vets.

No other spends planned though.

Great advice Skies🙂

In better news, having submitted our meter readings, we are actually £300 in credit. Will try to build that up too.

Morning all, spendy evening last night and again this morning.

£50 on Amazon in the prime sales. TBF 2 items were things we needed and I'd been waiting to get (lamp and pillows) then we got some toys for DC who has some hospital stays coming up so will stash them away to take to hospital.

£50 Asda on a fan to try to beat the heatwave 😱 and chocolate for teaching assistants. And a summer dress for me for holiday, got the same style last year in a different colour and they've brought the same ones out again this year so have got a different colour this time I got so many nice compliments last year. I cover shoulder to knee for modesty reasons so it's nice to find summery things that aren't too short or strappy etc.

£40 diesel.

Phew that added up fast!

I’m tempted by an air fryer and also a blender on Amazon.

taking some things back to next today.

em we have an air fryer just a basic one from Asda and it's absolutely amazing! Would definitely recommend, made things so much quicker and easier.

At the risk of sounding dim, can you use an air fryer to cook things you would normally cook on the hob in a frying pan e.g. chicken escalopes/schnitzels, burgers, bacon, chops?...our extractor fan isn't what it needs to be and I'm fed up with cleaning the hob and worktops and having to degrease every kitchen surface regularly. Where does the cooking fat from the meat cooked go in an air fryer? is it a bugger to clean?

We are going to see Minions tonight! £15 for 3 tickets at the fleapit cinema. It will be air-conditioned too! Not quite so hot here today, but still living in the dark with curtains and blinds drawn, and have fans going.

We go away the end of next week and as DS is working everyday I plan to leave him some freezer meals and some cash for takeaways. Noticed that the Charlie Bigham meals have gone up to £9.50! Used to like their fish pie from time to time, but won't be buying them at that price.

I got the £79.99 corsito one from Amazon. There is a gap between the basket and drawer to catch the fat,
I’ve only cooked a couple of things : nuggets chips fish Fingers and meatballs, the recipe book indicates chicken and dish are ok too

Ours has a rack that covers the bottom with holes in like a colander and any fat etc goes in there. I'd say the name air fryer is a bit of a misnomer really it's basically a very small fast oven.

Today I've just done roasted veg in it for lunches. Took 15 mins far quicker than our admittedly crap oven. And doesn't warm the kitchen up.

I've also done the usual nuggets and chips, wedges type things.

Salmon was fab in it but I think we cooked it a bit too long it was a bit dry. Also done things like heated up croissants a few times.

Halloumi fries, mini pizzas etc all fab aswell

Tempted but resisting an air fryer.

Spends
£14 chicken feed.
£3 parking
£17 Sainsburys, used my ONS voucher to get lots of value and veggie products, plus a bottle of wine. Gousto here tomorrow and still loads left from the last delivery. We only need coffee, but refuse will get that at Lidl.

Saying that, I've gotten a refund for a race I now can't do, which I wasn't expecting for £12, and Sainsburys have sent a voucher for £22 for not using the full value of my delivery pass up (they are so expensive in general I find). Granted, I'll have to spend £18 to make it into an online delivery but you can get some things cheaply there.

Oh and £5 at the vets! Thankfully they found a grass seed in ddog2's eye not spotted previously so just the drops to numb his eye. Cheapest vet visit I've ever encountered!

£30 at mountain warehouse got some rash beats and boardies for the kids in the (seemingly on all the time) sale.

also £35 paper chase on cards for the next few months.