Frugal the flip to make the festivities fun

[lifelongfrugaleer]

Wasn’t going to be flip but decided to be polite
46 days or so

don’t panic frugaleers

I hear you on the challenge of one wage Tayto, I had hoped I could keep him debt free Unescorted but I think on one wage (albeit a good one) it's going to be impossible. 6k per year is going to be enough to try and find I think. And I fully appreciate I've only got the one child to put through all this, I'd never be able to do it with two

Happy new year all
spends yesterday £75 me dsis dd and dm went to York for the day part of dm Christmas present was afternoon tea at Betty’s tea room had a lovely day my first time going to York dc have been twice with dsis definitely want to go back

spends have been ridiculous for months it’s been one thing after another since dd graduation got ds 18th next week and he’s having a party looking forward to getting back to normal as no more big birthdays etc it’s been dsis 50 th and dd 21 this year also hoping ds passes his test soon as well as driving lessons are sooo expensive

need to focus on being more frugal next year the top up shops are creeping up again it’s getting a bit of a habit popping to Morrisons on my way home from work so need to meal plan better

have a good day everyone

That's what we've done unescorted , kept ds from debts over and above the student loans. It is such an expensive few years. He is funding himself this year then coming home for his final uni year as dd hopefully goes away for her first year.
Had a splurge this morning at the lovely bakery here. Expensive but fabulous stuff so a great treat.
We've spent lots this year. Costa Rica was budgeted for, but the extra spends around milestone birthdays and Christmas were definitely well over budget, mainly down to my op & the aftermath. I don't consider any of it wasted as we have some great photos & memories and all presents given will be used (practical) or appreciated/valued if that makes sense, nothing bought for the sake of it.
So, less savings than I wanted but feel very focused to start building reserves up again.
No big holiday this year. Planning a week here in June after A levels & then ferry from here to France & a quiet week in Brittany.
Meal planning for next week done

@Wolfcub and @Taytocrisps we are also on one wage here. Still quite a few years to go before uni here so for now I'm burying my head in the sand about it all and just hoping I'll have a little part time job by the time uni days come and we will have 2 at uni at the same time!

Mixed bag here frugaleering wise too.

Have been eeking out the Christmas leftovers and clearing the freezer. I'm thinking in terms of food for Jan to keep what cost down DH and I don't mind random creation meals as long as the DC are well fed.

£40 diesel yesterday prices are dropping that's good.also.good news on the energy front our DD was meant to go up from £300 to £500 in Jan and we were going to have to cancel the extra preschool session to pay for it but now the energy company are saying a DD of £350 is what's it's going to be as we have a large credit so we have breathing space for now, phew!

We also got some Christmas money that DH and I are meant to spend on oursleves but we've put in the family pot for a bit of a buffer so going into jan not too bad!

I've just spend £49.99 on a pair of wellies in the sale - much needed as I have an allotment and dogs, and I wore my last pair out.
Am doing a food shop tomorrow, but these wellies are the last 'non essential' (even though I do really need them) spend until February. Hopefully longer!

A decent pair of welling boots is an investment imo

I’m nervous about dropping to one salary in may, totally not prepared

Well done Wolf you are so organised! Put me to shame
Em hope your Dh is better very soon , bless you re missing the New Year and your parents
Life have a lovely meal out tonight , l get you re feeling worried about the one income coming up but l am sure you will be fine
Tayto hope you feel much better now . We aren't planning on a holiday this year either, it's one of the few things we can economize on , l would rather stay home and be warm in the Winter tbh.
Decaffe phew that is a huge relief for you am so glad
North The bakery stuff sounds lovely and you sound very focused
Alfie your York experience sounds lovely , l aim to do the same one day
Have a wonderful New Years Eve everyone and may the New Year bless us all with health, wealth, and happiness.

I am making a macaroni cheese to line DS' stomach before he heads out for various parties. DH and I are planning to watch a double episode of Slow Horses, and read the weekend FT before bracing ourselves for Ddog's hysterics at the fireworks that will rumble around at midnight.

Off to do a yoga session. Dmum has a UTI and is on antibiotics. Narrowly avoided a hospital admission because the GP managed to get hold of a Rapid Response Unit who visited, diagnosed and issued a prescription last night. She's very lucky frankly, but it hasn't stopped her being horrible to Ddad, who called the GP, and us, against my mother's wishes, and my patience and kindness is being stretched. But hope that her physical recovery will bring a better frame of mind.

Despite this last minute blip, I am looking forward to 2023, and hope it brings good things to you all! xx

Was one of you taking a Voluntary redundancy life?

It’s been an odd few days here, Christmas, DC birthday and Ddad has been back in hospital, but now fortunately back to the care home this afternoon. Dmum has been frustrating too. I’m hoping for a quiet, drama free couple of days before back to work.

Need to do a refresh on the finances here too. DH seems to be doing a lot of shopping, some for reselling but am thinking I am being a bit of a mug saving so hard while he shops and the packages keep arriving…. Hmmmm.

I think my wish for the new year is to try and not let Dmum stress me out so much as she has been such hard work and nasty this year. I need to have the hind of a rhino, funnily enough exactly just like her! 🤣

No dh is in a discipline service and will have done his tenure by April. he will get another job but I’m still a worry wart

enjoy yoga big sounds like you deserve it

I’m going to go to York soon as it’s only 40 mins on the train but surprising expensive to get there,

sorry people have poorly parents, mil was trying us stay yesterday

didn’t go out in the end went to M&S

Happy new year all. Good to see you back wolfcub. I have an unexpected £15000 house bill to pay over next year. Also want to retire at 55 so 30 months to go.

Hello from 2023!!!!

its 8am. I was woken up by ds singing a song about waking up…. And then brought a cup of tea in bed. DH is making pancakes.

my goals for 2023.

financial:

• save £12,000 - in theory this sounds easy. “Just” £1,000 a month. But in practice who knows.
• research mortgage renewal and get the absolute best deal I can. Not due until October so time.
• at least 4 nsd a week
• stricter with meal planning and food shopping.

”life”:

• read 12 books.
• eat better - see above meal planning.
• drink less alcohol more water
• work on my sleep health.
• exercise of some form at least 40 minutes a day.
• do couch to 5k again. See above.
• lose 10kg - the above will help with this.
• find the joy in the small things.
• do one show jumping competition.

Happy 2023 em

i haven’t decided yet but some of mine will be similar to yours em

Happy 2023 Em How cute is your Ds? I love the idea of having a waking up song. I may have to get one too.

With the extra exercise, less drinking and healthy eating you will ace the weight loss. I started on a similar path in mid August and have lost 12kg without feeling I am deprived of life's good things. The more exercise I do the easier I find it & the more I want to do. I have even got back out running on the hills.

I am failing on the be more social resolution.... I want to tuck up in bed but have said that I will go out to dance & see the fireworks.

Nearly 2023! Hope the year ahead brings lots of frugaleering.

Love those goals em

My main one will be a snack ban, eating three meals per day when hungry, nothing else. I lose weight and save money on wasted calories. Lost five pounds over the summer doing this and could do with another half stone off after Christmas excess

Tackle boring but necessary jobs in the house.

Make use of leisure club membership and continue to run regularly. The leisure club is more for my emotional wellbeing than fitness, running keeps me fit.

Save as much money as possible into two pots - 'needs and emergency' 'presents and wants'.

There's a lot more I want to do, but I think these ones free up emotional head space to do more.

2022 has been good but expensive with my 50th, we had an amazing trip to Amsterdam and Berlin. No big holiday in 2023 - build up savings this year.

$95 at the zoo on tickets. $28 ice cream and then $100 in gift shop. Exchange rate is roughly $2 per £1. Gift shop was partly the kids spending their own money they were given for Christmas but I chucked it on my card as easier. Am keeping a tally.

managed to pick up some super cute kiwi bird Christmas decorations though!!

That’sa great exchange rate

Morning all and happy New year 🎊

I love the idea of a waking up song em sounds like you are having a great time and it will be such a fab experience for your DC

I was asleep by 1230 last night 😂

We had a great night though had a really cosy time with our older ones just playing board games etc once little ones asleep.

Some good sounding goals for the year here are mine...

Lose some weight am loosely starting slimming world once DC back at school it's worked in the past. I need to lose around 5 stone 😱 but realistically I'd be happy with 2!

Read 24 books. I normally read around 20 in a year so would love to get to 24 that would be average 2 a month I think that's reasonable. Need to keep my kindle by my bed so I reach for that at night rather than crap on the iPad!

Financial goals of course. Want to try to stay out the overdraft or at least stay in the interest free bit. We are very lucky we got Christmas money so are starting Jan looking pretty healthy money wise but it need to stretch!

Our mortgage is up for renewal so DH and I need to find time to go I to branch to see what they can offer. It's clearly going to go up but we've got no idea how much.

Hope all are well!

Decaffe it might be worth speaking to an independent mortgage advisor as well as the bank to maximise your chance of getting the best rate

Christmas tree is nearly down I just need to schlep down to the cellar for its box and then put the decorations in the attic.

£18 yesterday in lidl and £5 today buying a spare part for something that got lost when I lent it to a friend. £28 yesterday in the vets, again! She's charging me less and less every time I think she feels sorry for me and catastro-dog

Morning, and Happy New Year to all!

we’ve had a quiet Christmas and NY, and been largely stuck at home due to DD’s chicken pox. However, she’s had it fairly mildly and I think can break out of quarantine from now, so we’ll go out somewhere over the next couple of days. Maybe tomorrow as I now have a cold and feel a bit crap as it’s resurrected my annoying cough and wheeze.

It’s not been a frugal time - the food shopping in December has been horrendous. We hosted Christmas for my family and then took a 3-course meal to PILs this week to save them cooking. And I always overcater. And I missed an online shop cut-off while at PILs so ended up with stuff I would have taken out, and going to a shop for stuff I actually needed! We also wasted 2 panto tickets as DD and DMum couldn’t come (pox) and while I tried to give them away, no luck (it’s not local enough to us for my local fb groups to take the bait)

I have written a list of things I won’t do again, and those I will, for future years, to try to reduce the stress and curb the waste.

North thank you for remembering DDad, it’s so lovely that you do that. He would indeed be very pleased with his team’s performance!

Em the trip sounds fab, but it is also hard being away from hone at Christmas (I did a dream trip over Xmas once, was fabulous but defo brought mixed feelings). Have a wonderful time

it sounds as though a lot of us have had some sort of lurgy over Christmas, get well soon everyone!

NY goals:

• need to cut out wasteful spending much more assiduously than I ever have. Areas of focus: food shopping and ‘panic buying’ (often clothes for an event /work/kids where I don’t feel confident with what I have and am too time poor to think it through so ‘fix’ it by clicking online. Same with present buying)
• get healthier. Much healthier. I don’t look after myself nearly enough and my children need me to stick around. I do need to lose a lot of weight but am so over diets - that ‘all or nothing’ mentality has really not helped me over recent years. So I’m focusing on improving some of my worst habits, especially around carbs and refined sugars. But no hard rules and no quick fixes. And need to try to get DH to join me in eating less meat
• Get big work done to the house. The state of the house is really affecting my mental health, so need to get the building work done THIS YEAR. It’s going to be stressful but the only way is forward!

I hope that in spite of the spiralling CoL , 2023 is as good as possible for all on this thread and I wish everyone the very best for the new year x

There's a lot to be said for a sober NYE. No hangover today . DD was out late but popped her head in the door to tell me she was home. So I didn't need to collect her after all.

I think I'll take down the tree and decorations tomorrow. It's traditional here to leave them up until Little Christmas (6th Jan.) but I'll be in work that day and I couldn't be arsed taking them down after work. That Christmas decoration box I bought last year was brilliant - it saved so much work packing them away last year and taking them down this year.

I don't make NY resolutions about dieting or no alcohol because January and February are tough months and the last thing you want to be doing at this time of year is denying yourself nice things. But I like to get out my diary and put in any events that I know are happening. It's nice to have things to look forward to. So far I have an engagement party, The Lion King show (the tickets were a Christmas present from my sister) and my weekend in Dublin. No doubt other things will crop up during the year.

Frugal goals are pretty much the same as previous years. Continue to save monthly for home heating oil all through the year, keep an eye on the price and build a reserve in case oil prices rise even further (it's currently €1,230 for a full tank of home heating oil). I don't know how people are managing to heat their homes if they're surviving on low incomes or pensions etc. - I guess there's a lot of demand on charities like St. Vincent De Paul. I have the heating set to come on for three hours a day but I also have a plug in radiator for my sitting room which I use a fair bit because that's the room I spend the most time in. And we have fleece blankets on the sofa which we use if we're watching TV or Mumsnetting etc. I have one tucked around me right now. Obviously I'll continue to save money for DD's college fees.

I spent a small fortune on the big shop at Christmas. That was mainly for two people although I cooked veg. for 20 on St. Stephen's Day (26th December). And it didn't include a turkey or ham because I didn't do the hosting on Christmas Day or St. Stephen's Day. I bought a fair few pre-mixed cocktails in cans or bottles for DD but I reckon it would have been cheaper to buy one or two bottles of spirits and some pineapple juice or whatever and make them ourselves. And they probably would have been nicer too. I bought a few bottles of wine for the festive season and then I received gifts of a few bottles for Christmas, so I won't need any wine for about six months. There's definitely room for improvement when it comes to the big shop in 2023. And I had vouchers for both supermarkets but never brought them with me. I'd been feeling so unwell that it was a major effort just to gather together some shopping bags and head off in the car. I'll check the vouchers though - I can probably still use them in 2023.

NSD so far but it's only 11 o'clock and we're heading out to a Chinese restaurant for lunch with family.

Also, I think I need to communicate better with DD and Ex re: Christmas days and events etc. Ex arranged things/meet ups with family for the days DD was with him and I did the same for the days she was with me. The end result was that DD had a very action packed Christmas but didn't have enough days for just lounging around and watching TV. I think she feels it wasn't a very restful or relaxing Christmas. So, room for improvement there also.

Tayto interesting reading your message about ex and dds holidays.
We're at home in our own house today and it's the first full 24 hours in our home over the holidays dd hasn't got up yet, ds is watching tv and I've eaten breakfast with bf before he went home and am browsing on my phone. Ambition for the day is to walk to the shop for milk! Their dad is collecting them at 6pm again.

Well we didn't walk to shop because of procrastination and now it's pouring rain

I’m horsing around and it looks like the weather is coming in here
cleared out my cupboards and arranged tins and stuff.
Soup on to use up leeks etc