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

€22 for takeaway and it was very good.

My tips for tan after not tanning for about 15 years is get 10 second b perfect strawberry tan, moisture elbows & ankles before tanning & apply with the mitt, do two days before event so that you can do another layer night before if it's not dark enough. Streak free & wears off well too.
Or just don't bother 😂

Ughhh lost my post.

Briefly:

Em Culture show sounds fab! Was there any specific sushi items that were a particular hit with the kids? Thinking of us going to Yo! Sushi in the Feb half-term, my kids have never had sushi before either. Have very low expectations as to whether they will eat anything but DD does seem intrigued. (We are vegetarian though.)

MrsEvans I haven't read all of the posts as I've caught up only to top of the last page, but can see you are having a difficult time at the moment. I'm so sorry and I hope that you're able to find some resolution of some sort for you and your DM.

Today's spends were just £5 entrance to playgroup. Today's frugal win was DF coming round and bringing us some free stuff: decaf tea bags, biscuits, and covid tests! Been feeling super cold today for some reason and we were home most of the day so had the heating blasting all that time which will be ££££ eek.

Tomorrow will need to pay for DD's French class which is £6. We may have dinner out at the play cafe if it's open, I will find out. I suspect it may not be though, which will save us some cash to be fair.

Wow I’m impressed by all the tanning advice. I’m afraid I have no self confidence in theses matters and am in the ‘don’t bother’ camp.

Home insurance today - win. I used go compare, confused.com and compare the market. I’m always a bit sceptical of the cheapest ones that come up and tend to scroll down until I get to the name of an insurer than o recognise. But today I was brave and looked at the cheapest one -£158- which was about £300’less than I usually pay (have tended to overpay in past as we are in flood prone area). The next one up was £227 - I went for that one end ended up bumping it up to £300 with extras. But for that I have all bells and whistles and still £230 less than my renewal offer 🙄 It was with a company called Policy Expert if anyones’s interested, apparently one of the most popular UK companies.

Also, does everyone already know about compare the market? If you buy a product through them (I got my car insurance) you get a year-long offer of 2 for 1 meals and cinema tickets. You can use it at selected places eg Pizza Hut as often as you like. I think that’s a really good freebie. I also got £250 towards excess on my home insurance from go compare - which meant I could put in higher excess and get a cheaper deal.

@WeightoftheWorld they loved the avocado rolls and also chicken katsu! Remember not all sushi is fish. So when in doubt chicken and rice!

Unescorted the lightest colour of dove summer body tinted body cream. The one in te gold package. Fellow deathly pale person here

Sorry the nail stuff didn't work @Happierwithouthim! I gave up on it too, but least it pretty cheap🙂.

I tan easily so sorry that I've no advice in this regard.

Nice insurance saving @marthasmum

Free covid tests are a win, they are bloody ridiculously pricey!

Spends yesterday were £2.80 on a Gregg's TGTG bag - tuna salad sandwich, Cajun chicken baguette, vegan chicken salad sandwich, 2 steak bakes, 2 mince pies and a shortbread cookie!

Will be a cheap weekend too as DH will be home so £50 in accessible taxis but I think that will be it.

Oh and DD bought some diesel jeans from Thrift for a tenner. They are too small for her so she's given them to me! Win!

Similarly translucent person here too, I expect I’d look orange too if I tried fake tan.

Glad to hear the issue resolved em.

Sorry for sharing the poo story to the person suffering from the stomach pain, can’t remember who it was (sorry) but really hope you are feeling better!

I’m currently enjoying a free 2.5 hours this morning before having to go to appointment/run errands. Very unusual. Got a ☕️ and going to finish the last couple of chapters in a book, before pottering around the house 😁

In frugal news, I joined kindle unlimited on a 99p for three months deal as there was a book I wanted to read and cheapest way of reading it. I’ve read two books already this week. Diarised cancelling it at the end of three months.
Had an email to say my mobile sim cost was going up, so ordered a new sim (5p for 6 months) with a bit more data than current provider, and requested pac code. Again diarised looking at deals at the end of 6 months.
Even better, got a refund from our old mortgage company yesterday. We’d made a payment the day before the fixed term ended and then we moved to another provide. Moved the cash in to a saving account to hopefully pay a bit towards a holiday in 2024.

Frugal win there need

0% card approved 12 months interest free on transfers.
Interest was €47 this month so that'll be a nice saving.

Paid €143.13 against it this week.

nice insurance save, martha. I have just renewed ours, at -gulp - £529 from £299 last year. We made a claim last year, which I assume pushed it up. A couple of DS' items (very expensive, and critical to his daily life) are on there, and I couldn't face shopping around to find a company that would do it for a better price. So I've sucked it up this year.

Just booked a weekend away to visit DS at university - last weekend of January. Using the money that was a gift from my DPs, so - provided we live on Aldi shopping and fresh air once DS goes back next week - we can manage it.

So, a spendy morning, not offset by cancelling Amazon Prime, which I only ever meant to cover Christmas anyway, so no real saving. Tempted to cancel Netflix, but suspect there would be an outcry.

Done a fair old bit of cleaning and bedstripping/changing this morning, so feeling quite productive. Cassoulet tonight (using up fridge/freezer/cupboard contents, so NSD on food).

If it makes you feel better Big my insurance is meant 900 this year! Tiny tiny house!

Unexpected pharmacy spends £86 food shopping

Jaysus, wolf! How does that stack up?

Some of my quotes came back for £1800, which I obviously laughed at. But I did see one or two that were lower, but just couldn't face the phone call bottoming out the cover, especially if I ended up with a smaller saving than initial quote, which I thought very likely. I'm usually a bit of a rotweiler with these kind of admin tasks, but I just couldn't this time round.

Floods, water escapes. Water is bloody expensive

Are you in a flood Re area wolf ?

Thanks for all the tanning advice... I have fallen down a you tube rabbit hole. I may be some time.

I am also translucent/pale blue (Irish) 😄 I have just given up on tan and embraced my ghostly pallor.

Spendy day travelling back from NI. Now for a weekend of mad exam marking and prep for term - no chance to spend money at least!
Our house insurance is only £300 - I am worried it’s crap now?! Or maybe we just don’t have anything of value 😂

need to meal plan also for the week. I want to do more plant based stuff.

Low spend week so far & a good amount of food used from the freezer.
Had the best surprise yesterday though. I'm in the NhS pension scheme & was shafted in the changes the gov made, with my pension age going from 55 to 60 overnight. But changes to all their pension schemes were found to be unfair & discriminatory & the main part of my pension pot has reverted to 55 woohoo!!
So I will retire in Nov 2026, pay off the remainder of the mortgage with the lump sum & then return to work but for fewer hours. The other part of the pension will mature at 67 but will hope to take it at 60ish. I can't believe it & felt so excited & emotional last night. I do realise how fortunate I am, DH is just a bit jealous!

That's fantastic North

Martha I recently purchased buildings insurance via Compare the Market, how do I claim the 2-for-1 thing? I don't remember getting an email about it or anything. Might come in handy for us though.

Em thanks, we are vegetarian but can get things like pumpkin katsu instead of chicken etc. Yum.

Was meant to meet a mate at the pub this eve but cancelled as DS has a fever and DH made his plans first so I think that's only fair. I've saved a bit of cash there like at least.

Spends today was £2 for my bus fare to take DD to her French class and then £6 for the class. I don't think we will go again though. There was very little interest in the class for littlies such that some weeks she was the only child there. So they're just running one class now. She was the only little one and most of the other kids were just wrecking havoc tbh so don't think she will learn anything in that environment, not worth the cost of the classes. Shame as she was learning before. But again it will save us some cash I spose.

Probs going to do some work tonight if DS isn't too unsettled. Can't be bothered but it will make us some cash and I'm behind with everything tbh.

😳 at the high insurance premiums. It's going to affect more & more people given all the extreme weather around

Em I went to one of those cultural evenings in NZ in 1993. The food in the hangi was amazing

That’s amazing news north . Have you worked exactly how many days left yet? 🤣

Absolutely brilliant win the north, what a lovely bit of news!

Only taxi spends yesterday as planned.

About to menu plan with a cuppa.

That’s great about the pension shift north

my insurance has lots of add on stuff.

sounds like the French isn’t worth it. can you get the teaching audio from the library or something
Cinema today will be £££ for snacks