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

You deserve a nice lunch unescorted, go on have a treat!

Food sounds yum half, and bread is an essential food group for a child?!

@HalfWomanHalfChocolate French butter is my weakness especially Breton butter (still have some in the freezer). I intend to make Breton cake with it when I've lost the pounds I gained over Xmas. Concarneau is lovely if you're anywhere near there. Good sized town and fab small beaches with rock pools. You can also walk round the ramparts of the old fort in the harbour. You get from one side of town to the other on a small boat - but they do allow dogs on the boat so be aware. Enjoy the supermarchés

Lunch reminded me why I made the effort to make my own. Ok sandwich but expensive and not as good as home made.

Vet again. Different issue this time. £59. That's twice we've been in five days. Ffs.

£200 final payment for new blind.

£48 lidl

Aaaaaaargh

We’re staying near Carnac, I think Concarneau should be doable for the day and it sounds lovely. My 5-yr old loves rock pools so thanks for the tip off Granny!

I could literally eat proper French bread (the rustic chewy baguettes with the big holey structure) and butter ALL DAY LONG. Where I live there is a bakery, owned by a proper French baker, that makes them. I almost wish I hadn’t found it 😂

Wolf he is a money pit. Can you not keep him in a padded room?

Sorry to hear about another vets trip for ddog wolf

The holiday in France sounds lovely half

Good luck to DH in his job interview time

I've got savings to make on the ridiculously expensive TV and broadband package I tied us into two years ago, nearly up! Thinking it would be sensible to start AVCs with the money I save, around £50 a month I hope with DHs phone contract coming to an end too and he can move to SIM only for a few years.

Today I spent £120 on a meal out for DS's birthday. We saved £42 by going on the late lunch booking instead of the Friday evening price. Very nice and worth it. That's it for luxury spends for a while.

£20 on a bulb for the car 😬
£30 fuel

blooming expensive dogs

£105 Sainsbury’s, £48 lidl £10 primark, £3.10 Gregg’s and £15’round of drinks at gym new year party

Morning all. Verrry tough week at work but I made it to the weekend. Sick of the cold, frosty weather and having to defrost my car every time I want to go anywhere (how do they manage in really cold places where their cars are buried in snow every morning?). Anyway, enough moaning. It's the weekend now and I'm heading to the supermarket shortly. Going to pop on the kettle and have a quick cuppa while I write out a shopping list. As well as the usual groceries, I need to buy some glasses (tumblers) because all of mine seem to have disappeared. And pop into the garden centre for a slightly bigger plant pot for an indoor plant. And call to the fishmonger.

Calling to a friend's house later for a get together but I'll be driving so I won't drink. I'll pick up some turf and enjoy an open fire tomorrow evening. DD is at her Dad's but she works weekends now, so even if she was here, I wouldn't see much of her.

Got my electricity bill during the week. We got a subsidy from the government of €200 so I have to pay the balance which is €88.98. That's for a two month bill.

Have a good weekend lovely frugaleers. I'll catch up on your news at some point.

I typed out a long post catching up on everyone’s news but then lost it. So…hope everyone is ok!
can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this but our circumstances have changed a bit in that DP has decided to draw down some pensions (he’s 60 and works PT). He was working jn a shop additionally but hated it. So hopefully we will have around £300 a month extra income from that. He’s also got an interview for an additional job that’s right up his street, teaching life skills/ IT skills to people in difficult circumstances (similar to what he does already). Going to use the pension money to save for emergencies and that means my emergency pot has become my holiday pot. We have never taken the kids abroad so reading with interest about the Brittany holiday tips.
First I need to get us all passports though, that’s one on the list.
Felt really sad on Friday as DS2’s school (secondary) added an item to their weekly letter home that they’re asking parents to donate good condition coats for kids that don’t have them. I feel so sad and angry at the poverty in our country and the government. I gave my spare coats away recently so I think I might just buy one to donate.

martha have you seen that the cost of a passport is going up very soon, 2nd February I think. I think I saw it was £5 more for child’s passport, so might be worth doing it soon if you have a number to do!

martha we had a meeting at work (you’re also a Uni lecturer, aren’t you?) about some of our adjunct staff and support staff having to use food banks and asking WFH as they can’t afford the bus. It makes me so so angry. There’s going to be a COL payment or something but it’s a sticking plaster.
I am suffering today after overdoing it on a very rare night out. Haven’t had much booze recently so it’s hit me that much harder. Annoyed with myself and it was also expensive £70 for food and drinks. £10 on train and £7 on food today. Sigh. I want new gym gear and that could have easily paid for it. But it was fun and I had a great time so 😁
meal plan for this week:
haggis, neeps & tatties with kale
sausage, apple and squash tray bake
lasagne from freezer batch with beetroot and orange salad
turkey meatballs with root veg mash, sprouts done with bacon and chestnuts
Red lentil and root veg fritters with poached eggs and greens
prawn and veg stir fry

super busy at work so just need to keep the head down and get on with it.

Love all the talk of France. DH is French so we go there a lot, I am having lessons and enjoying learning the language.

Thank you time that’s a good tip! It will spur me to get on with it as I keep putting it off - I hate filling in forms like that and also I feel it commits me financially to going away!
gen- that is really sad too. Our uni has introduced some COL measures eg cheap meals. I was getting the rage thinking about the subsidised meals in the House of Commons 🤬Sorry by the way to hear about your job, j imagine these posts are extremely competitive?
Had to buy new glasses for DS1 as he lost his and despite a massive search of the house we haven’t found them. £180. However I’m a HealthShield member so will get £160 of that back. Trying to work out whether it’s also worth me joining me and DS1 and DS2 to a scheme the opticians have -£28 a month for all of us but gives us 25% off glasses, 50% off a spare pair and would replace a broken pair. I do like to have insurance in place but sometimes it’s just cheaper to pay for things as they occur isn’t it?

It is heartbreaking where we have got to with COL. Martha I am going to look out for coat banks because we have more than we use. Contacts in the outdoors adventure world means we get a lot of freebies/ low price ones.

I have just found the Gusto online cookbook... There are some great things there. Nothing too complex but most look super tasty and quick. It is worth a Google if you are running out of ideas and baulk at the cost of the boxes.

We have had a lovely warmish sunny day.... DH & DS have put the first load of washing on the line. Admittedly waterproofs that can't go in the dryer but I count that as a win. The alternative was airer and dehumidifier combo.

Martha The MPs subsidised meals piss me off too. It's obscene at the best of times but particularly now.
Concarneau is lovely we had a day there when they have their annual festival and it was so good.
Lovely tea with my aunty and cousin last night. Took a bottle of wine left over from Christmas.
Grocery shop today £63
Gousto offered me 60% off one box and 30% off 3 more. I've ordered 2 which gives us 8 meals which will give us 24 main meals and probably the same number of lunches. It was £60 so not bad at all.
If anyone wants to try it, I've got a code for 55% off the first box and 25% off for 2 months
We use it now and again when we are offered a good discount. We then keep all the recipes we've liked so we can recreate them

Loving the talk of gorgeous food. I just spent €24 on takeaway for the 3 of us. Mine was delicious- chicken kebab on really fresh naan bread, I think they make them on site. However last time the chips were homemade today they weren't

€50 getting ddog groomed
€94 on Dunnes delivery, stocked up on lots of stuff & availed of quite a few offers

Spends day £50 petrol, £40 dog food, £17 home bargains, £1.85 postage, ££ Aldi,

Oh and £10 m&s

£44.87 Lidl.
£11 ice-skating lesson. Took hot chocolate in a flask and left over cake from DS's birthday, no cafe today!

Sold a couple of items on Vinted although one hasn't been paid yet.

Agree re COL. My friend did a pet food bank collection recently.

Speaking of yummy food - my starter at the wedding last night. Yum.

currently battling with the kids to get them to pack their backpacks so we can check out of wedding hotel and go to the pool.

it’s at this point that DH has decided to go for a poo. So we may be late checking out.

Frugal Friends Fearlessly Facing February. http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/costoff_living/4725567-frugal-friends-fearlessly-facing-february

Morning.

I've started the new thread and I'll post on that!

🙃

Em hope he didn't delay ye much