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.

Ah Gen sending positive thoughts right back to you.

Sending you positive thoughts also gen x

Hoping for a great outcome for both you Gen & you North.
Sending you both all the best 💐

Oh no gen you really could do with a break from the bad news. Everything crossed for you.

yep with the scary rise in fuel bills I’ve taken the plunge and switched to Utility warehouse. Have to start on their variable rate which is £355 pm - about £7 less than I’m paying bulb at the moment. Once that’s up and running I can take out an insurance product with them which is £18 a month - but pays for a boiler service annually, which I need to pay anyway to keep the guarantee on my boiler. Plus will give home emergency cover, which I usually pay for separately. I also took a SIM with them for £12 - worth it as I needed one anyway, as one of the DC’s phones is coming to the end of a contract. Anyways once the insurance, phone and energy are all set up I can then go onto their fixed deal for 12 months (provided they don’t pull it!!) That’s a whopping £542 a month but that is still less than I would be looking likely to pay if I stayed on a variable deal. Truly scary stuff. For anyone who is interested Martin Lewis is now saying if you can get - fix that’s no more than 70% more than you currently pay it would be worth considering!!

plus for those that are still reading (!) Rishi is telling us he’d offer a VAT cut on fuel if he gets in. So I’ve looked that up and apparently it’s only 5% on fuel and would go to the companies first, so they’d have to pass it on to us. Personally I think if the govt do anything they probably will (and should ) do it for those less well off than me.
just off for a dog walk…mild drizzle here

Still around :-)

It's been an odd few weeks - new baby fog, despite being what I thought organised there were some expences at the start a few things she needed as smaller than expected a few little treats to comfort her light projector etc and obviously milk etc.

We've had a couple of low cost takeaways - think chippy not an Indian but I'm really ok with this because without a doubt we would be a lot worse normally.

Just mini and me soon as daddy going back to work, will be doing baby groups etc but hopefully can be under my weekly allowance and start topping my pots up. I'm a bit under budget this week so I am buying birthday cards for family for the rest of the year and stuffing the cash in early.

Gosh Gen, you’ve had a lot going on. I hope your surgery brings good news. North, that sounds like a whopper 😮

I have no idea what we are paying for fuel at the mo - I have charged DH with sorting out the smart meter as I have literally no time to do it. I need to start keeping a. Very close eye on it though.

I’m having an horrifically expensive month 😬. Home insurance was due, was £450 😮. Patio door fixed, £120 (but it is an absolute pleasure to be able to slide it open all by myself, without needing DH’s help 😂). Had to buy a Kenwood chef thingy for my sister as a housewarming present - I bought one for the other sister when she bought her first house 12 years abo and promised DSis2 the same when the time came (said before having kids, obvs 😉), £300.

We also took the DC to see Frozen at the theatre - tickets were pricey but bought months ago. However, we ended up paying for lunch out and then I took DD out for dinner at Wagamamas (DS couldn’t cope with that too). That was £44, plus about £20 Costa lunch. I also had to bribe DS to go into the national gallery with the promise of cake, but a little portion of carrot cake in the gallery shop was £6.50 😮😮😮. DH paid for that and drinks etc, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. We were only in the gallery itself for about 10 mins , but DD’s class had a piece of work on display and we wanted to see it and be proud. For about 10s before DS started screaming, anyway,. Then carousel rides later on the south bank, £12. Argh! On the plus side the production really was very good indeed, I was really impressed with the staging and the cast was excellent. We had a lovely walk along and over the Thames afterwards and I think the DC will remember that day for years to come.

we’re off to see my sister’s new house now, so will be fed but will need petrol on the way back. Food shop tomorrow, and I have to sort the holiday food shop too. Luckily last month was fairly low spend. And now our holiday cottage is paid for the holiday itself will be quite low spend - we have NT and EH membership and mostly go to beaches, take picnics etc.

but I still need to buy a couple of new bras ££££

it’s nice to be back and I really need the accountability!

Minion movie was fun. Both the girls enjoyed it and laughed loads..
30£ for popcorn fizzy and candy in the cinema. I wouldn't call a trip to the cinema a cheap treat anymore. For the 4 of us it was around 70 £ in total.
Luckily both the girls goes to school cinema during the school year so have lots of opportunities for experience movie trips. And that only cost 12 £ per kid for 5 movies.
Thanks for all the welcomes.
Wolfcub sorry to hear that the price rises is scaring. I'm so relieved that we have district heating instead, so much cheaper and very unlikely to rise in price.

Martha congratulations with the pay rises.

Hoping for a great outcome for both you Gen & you North with the OP.
Sending you both all the best get well wishes

@ North, hi, I was just going through the thread backwards and saw mention of your upcoming surgery and I just wanted to say I had a 6kg cyst removed from an ovary just 21 months ago. Unfortunately mine was cancer, Mucinous Ovarian Cancer, and I was staged at 1a which meant I didn’t mean chemotherapy.

Im pretty convinced if Covid hadn’t delayed my annual well woman check up I would have been diagnosed with a borderline tumor, or micro invasion expansile Mucinous cancer, rather than Mucinous invasive stage 1a.

These Giant tumors are generally Mucinous tumours and are a law unto themselves to the extent you can have a malignant one and still have normal CA125 results so thank God they are gigantic as it means they’re noticeable and can be removed before they are stage 2 or 3. My stage 1a meant no chemotherapy it had it even been stage 1c I’d would have had to have it.

I just wanted to re-assure you regarding your surgery and to say that I think you’ll be better much sooner than your Dr has said. I was 62 when I had my surgery that involved removing my cyst, ovaries, Fallopian tubes, uterus, cervix, appendix, momentum and a few lymph nodes just to check them and I was over it all physically by the end of 6 weeks. Mentally though it was a different story altogether given the shock and the speed at which it all happened.

All the best to you with it all and if you would like to spend time with women who’ve dealt with tests and surgeries and the horrible worries etc then
you’d be very welcome on the Cancer thread we have. Not that you have to have cancer to hang out with us - it’s really a thread from when a person finds a lump etc and goes to the Dr.

@Gensola, sorry I just saw that you’re also waiting on surgery. Please feel free to join us on the other thread also if it appeals to you.

Be kind to yourself name, the early new born days are tough. Sounds like you are doing great
that’s a lot of spends half but they sound worth it
I might take kids to see minions and Thor this week as raining

food shop yesterday was £90 ish, need fuel But will only put £60 in

Evening. Just, or is it still afternoon? 😁

Absolute and total sympathy to both north and gensola, I'm so sorry this is happening to you both.

Wow! Thanks some energy bill martha, it's so worrying isn't it? I fixed for two years last October out of pure luck re timing, increased the DD but only £30 a month to £200 pcm. Building up my credit at present too to buffer the hike when it doesn't happen.

Take care and be kind to yourself name, newborns are bloody hard work.

Ouch re the cost this month half,

Cinema most definitely not cheap luxembourg!

Nana ❤️

Spends today will be a bottle of wine to take to my friends and we are getting a takeout. Given I'm on my own at the minute a lot with DH being in hospital then it's a welcome spend.

Oh and about £9 in The Range, on some wine glasses and cleaning products, that'll be it for the weekend.

So sorry to hear you are due surgery too gen, we’ll be here for both you and north

Bills are such a worry. I asked work about doing more hours and got a no. On the plus side, I can skip off to interviews saying it’s only because I need more ££££s. DH has a job to apply for which would be great for him ( and a pay rise), I don’t think he’s started the form yet so need to kick him into gear. If he got it, it would change family time a lot but would be brilliant for him.

I’m currently on the countdown to no work for the summer, yay!

Frustrating day today. Discovered the fabric I'd got for the backing of ds' quilt runs (colour) when wet so not suitable. Had to undo a good bit of stitching, grrrrr! Then bought new fabric £19, but haven't got enough. Felt like throwing it in the bin, but didn't. Have decided to do a proper frugal patchwork thing & split the fabric in 2 and insert a patchwork panel made up of the fabrics used in the front panel. Loads more work, but will work.
New local shop is fab. They do all dried goods you can think of & herbs & spices & household products. Take your own containers & buy as much or little as you want. Great not to be creating more waste. Bought gram flour for bhajis which I usually end up wasting half a bag.
Was given some gooseberries earlier in the week & some were pretty manky, but salvaged what I could to make a cake & a crumble

Gen sorry to hear you are also waiting for surgery, you have a lot on at the moment, fingers and toes crossed for you

Baking in the oven, which is on a bit of a go slow, then need to dog walk in the rain. Back to work tomorrow and I'm really not looking forward to it at all. I feel like I need an extended break from it all, apparently someone tried to stitch me up and dump some shit work on me whilst I was off, luckily my team protected me from it but it's an unpleasant environment to be working in.

Have lovely Sundays everyone

Ah no about the fabric north.
that is shit wolf. Thank heaven for a good team
baking here too and rain

Nsd. Going to the beach in a bit. We have luckily nice weather so spending the last day before school at the beach.

Just lost a huge post 😱
Spends today Morrisons 17
Have loads to do so cannot reply like l would have liked to but waves to everyone 👋

Haven't caught up with the thread will read properly later. Hi to all!

We are on holiday house sitting/ staying with family friends. They have a granny flat so we are in there it's normally a holiday let but it is empty this week. So no accomodation costs which is a real blessing.

We are budgeting around £5-700 for the week. Spent £200 on a big online shop (well our shops are always big with their being 6 of us). £90 on deisel to fill the car but annoyingly the next garage we passed was 12p a litre cheaper but we didn't know that and we got about 50 litres I think so could have saved a bit. Oh well.

Out to dinner this evening but our friends are paying we will cook for them later in the week so it evens out.

Just got our energy bill for July. We have just switched to the higher rate that most people were hit by in April. We are paying £300 a month to build a credit for winter. In good news we e definitely made a big effort to cut down our usage and it shows in the readings but the price is still double. (Although we are paying a fixed rate). Uurgh.

Right I'm off to the (free!) Beach!

Just checked our electric usage for July. Seems that we less than expected so that's nice

Evening all spends yesterday £63 on meal out for dh birthday was lovely and for 4 of us very reasonable
have started using my chase account yesterday finally for debit card purchase as it gives cash back for the first year and also rounds up to a pound at 5% and am going to transfer some of our savings across as the savings account gives 1.5 % interest
finally bit the bullet and paid my credit card off only £120 so no idea why I didn’t do it sooner it never had much on it in the first place but got into the habit of just paying £30 a month

it’s been lovely here today so did some gardening and got 2 loads of washing dry on the line just had a bath and put my joggers on waiting to pick ds up from work they stop serving at 8 pm today not 9 pm so hopefully won’t be to late
nsd today

hi
can I join you all please
Absolutely need to cut back
NSD day today thankfully

Welcome orange

Almost an NSD but my 3-in-1 hand blender has given up the ghost. I think it was 15 years old though. £35 for a new one.

That blender owes you nothing does it

Nsd planned today. No work, though still haven’t filled the car