Frugal Friends Fearlessly Facing February.

[needastrongoneagain]

Thought I'd start the new thread. Been ages since I started a thread!

Spoke to lender and confirmed mortgage overpayment details. So it's 10 per cent of the original balance we can overpay every year without penalty and we can pay however we like, each month or one payment whatever. Which is pretty good. No way would we be able to afford anywhere even remotely close to 10 of what we borrowed anyway so no problem. Although we are on a 10yr fix with low interest rates so we probably should look at how to throw as much as poss on mortgage in that time period really.

DS still unwell, gonna get DH to check his ears again soon in case need to call 111 to try and get him ABs. We were all meant to be going to a birthday party so me and DD will just have to go which is bit of a shame. I suspect she will actually quite enjoy having the 1-on-1 time though. Probs spend a small amount of money on drinks at the party. Might do a little bit of online shopping tonight as need a few clothes bits for the kids. Might do Peacocks as can see they do 20 per cent blue light discount and cheap to start with anyway.

Glad DS is improving rapidly Em.

Tayto Aw, I think we all have stories like your toothpaste stain one! I'm sure book club will go great and be great fun.

Tbf to ds he did tell me I just didn’t realize we had no kidney beans left

£40 riding.

claimed £7.95 cash ack payout from TopCashback. So have thrown that against credit card.

ds has grown. And now his trousers don’t fit properly. So tomorrow we’re going to do a try on session. And will have to get him some new ones.

Ds has been saving for an oculus and saw a damaged box one for £300 - we went halves with him as we spend far more on dd than him
£15 show jumping clinic tomorrow £10 to dd and £15 to ds

Blimey that is steep for a dog hair cut, is it a big dog? I think I'd invest in some dog clippers for that price! Our dog gets one hair cut a year in May time bless him, he comes out looking like a different dog 😂 usually it's £30.

My top up shop turned into a full shop £140 😱 that's Morrisons and reminds me why I go to Aldi. I did get a lot for that and it includes a massive box of washing powder and lots of extras for dds bday next week.

£9 a prescription.

Thank you! I religiously checked everything. Halfway through I thought I ruined it, because it didn’t look stiff enough, but luckily it was fine at the end. I just tried small meringue, it’s bit too dry to my liking, so maybe I should switch the oven off sooner, but on the other hand it will be big pavlova, so might bake differently?

40 garden centre. Planting stuff for allotment that will probably yield me 2.50. Also haven’t been p there since November when I took a load of poo up. Horse!

I normally do an hour and a bit at 100C switch the oven off and jam a teaspoon in the door so it is open a crack. Leave it until it is cold. I aim for crunchy outside and chewy inner.

Just checking in although I haven't really caught up. Busy few days and I've got a thickly cough and a sore throat. Early night pending. 😴

weight you motivated me to download the bank we have a mortgage with. I've been overpaying for nearly two years. Just a couple of extra hundred per month but it will make a difference to the end date. Good luck with the overpayment, its not easy but I've stuck with it.

Been a long month, four more days to payday and we are desperate for a big shop. We have £10 in the every day account. Made lentil and veggie soup. Prepped veg and potatoes to go with sausages tomorrow. Scratching around in freezer and the store cupboard for ideas for the other three days...

£15 fuel
£26 school shoes (DD) can come from repairs and needs account as urgent.
£18.50 ice skating lesson. Again took hot choc in a flask to avoid the cafe.
£12 cinema tickets. Long standing date with a family member. Got the saver tickets at £6 each and they will buy food.

Roll on payday! 😎

*bank app that should say!

Thank you, will do the same

Btw. 66 quid today on zooplus for cat food+litter. No other spending phew.

That's what we are hoping to do Kessie. We haven't stretched ourselves too much with the mortgage in the first place so fingers crossed. I've come to realise me and DH are both pretty financially risk averse. It's good we are on the same page with our perspective though.

£9 on drinks at the party today, one drink was for host's DC. Then £1.75 in the shop on milk. That's all for today.

Evening all! Just popping in to catch up - I've been working long hours at the cafe this week and haven't had time to post anything (also this has been a really spendy week for us which doesn't seem great in a frugal thread!! But mostly all necessary!) will be back to confess spends tomorrow ... happy weekend everyone!

I have nothing to buy next week so should be nsd all week. We shall see.

necessary spends are frugal, worth looking if you are getting the beat deal
where possible

Morning all. Spent a fortune yesterday £32 lidl £10 car wash (big tip as it was really minging and they did a good job), £26 farmers market. Also £30 Amazon for flash cards for ds and a kitchen clock I've been after for about four months and have been hoping will get reduced, it wasn't but I need a clock in the kitchen and I'm fed up of waiting

It will (hopefully) be a nsd today

Good morning everyone 😊
Yesterday we used the TGTG app for Aldi. It was excellent.
£3.30 there were 3 specially selected ready meals , a bag of carrots , an organic cucumber, 7 single bananas , 4 cans of Coca Cola. Approx £14 in full value.
It's very much trial and error though the shop assistant said the other night it was all fresh mince and nothing else lol
So very much trial and error 😊
Have a lovely day everyone 😊

enjoyed catching up on everyone’s news after a busy two days at work with two presentations back to back on Friday and Saturday. Phew! Now on to interview prep in earnest as I couldn’t get to it last week while prepping for the presentations.

we have an allotment too but I’m less inclined to go and spend ages there before I know if I’ll be moving up north in the summer 😁 I guess we better go and do something but I do slightly regret spending £50 odd on seeds 😳

need to meal plan today, so far I have:
-gnocchi traybake with mushroom and squash (green roasting tin book)
-lamb tagine (from freezer batch cook) with purple kale
-orzo bake with fennel and tomato (also from freezer stash)
-shredded Brussels sprouts fried with chestnuts served with baked marinated tofu - worried this might be dry 😄

I have a bag of dried Greek beans so may try a sort of homemade baked bean dish.

Your meal plans sound delicious Gen , good luck with the interview prep and l agree with you re the allotment, you could keep the seeds for a new allotment up North if you get the job have everything crossed for you 😊

Good luck Gen.

I pay that for two dogs @BigSkies2022!! 😁

Had an extremely quiet and low spend weekend. Loaf of bread at the shop. Packet of Haribo and a quick haircut £50 (highlights, roots, cut). About to take DH back to the hospital.

Menu plan.

Left over paneer curry, rice, home made bhaji
Gnocchi with pesto and roast veggies, olives
Smoky veg patties
Veggie chilli or shepherd's pie
Samosa tart
Squash dhal or squash pasta

Thank goodness this dog doesn’t need cutting,

£39 renewing garden collection
has a clean of the pond today as it’s full of dead leaves, will need more plants this year

Having a nice relaxing weekend. I blitzed my dining room just now and re-potted a plant which had outgrown its original container.

Went to withdraw money for my hair cut/colour yesterday (my hairdresser doesn't take card payments) and discovered that my bank balance was very low. Luckily I had enough cash at home to pay for my hair cut. I checked my banking online and discovered that the money for my washing machine was only taken from my bank account yesterday! I must have it about three weeks now. So I went from having a very healthy bank balance on Friday night to having a very low balance on Saturday morning. I withdrew a small amount from Credit Union Account 2 to pay for my supermarket shopping (this is the account where I save DD's college fees). I transferred a larger amount in from Credit Union Account 1 'cos I've one or two direct debits to go out before pay day rolls around on Thursday. Something I need to consider in future, if I'm buying a large, expensive item. Don't just assume I've paid for it.

I also changed the light bulb in the utility room. All of my light bulbs seem to have died in the last six weeks or so. Very strange!

Going to put on dinner shortly - roasties, leftover M&S quiche and sprouts. Looking forward to Call the Midwife later.

tayto that is annoying. My bank keeps payments like that in a pending section so that I can't accidentally spend money twice. It is really useful. It also has no overdraft facility and doesn't charge for bounced payments. A very basic account left over from when we were paying our debt off.

Gen we have allotments up Norf although start saving for a greenhouse.

We are having filled pasta tonight. I was going to do homemade but eggs are getting rarer than the laying hens tooth collection.

We've been to Glastonbury today, spent £15 on some trousers for dd and around £10 on various other bits.

Met my ddad there for lunch which he paid for so saved some money there.