Frugal Friends Fearlessly Facing February.

[needastrongoneagain]

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

Hello everyone!
Ememem - I am so glad my days at the indoor parks are mostly over. An occasional trampoline park is the most I have to do.
starpatch - my Jerusalem artichokes are so tall (taller than the house eaves) that a number of them have bent over - watching the chickens jump up to grab leaves is hilarious!

lifelong the bread and butter thing looks interesting!

spring - with the budget, I did 3 columns with fortnightly, monthly and annually. You could do it with 4 and put in quarterly as well if that's how your utility bills come in. Then I put it all of my costs down in the appropriate column. Annual bills, in the annual, monthly direct debits into monthly, and my normal spends in the fortnightly. I think fill in the spaces for the other columns, so a fortnightly budget, times by 26 for the monthly, and then divide that by 12 for the monthly. So that at a glance I can see EVERYTHING that I have to budget out of my pay - mine is fortnightly but it would work for monthly. What I don't spend but have budgeted (for larger, less frequent expenses) needs to be sitting in my 'normal' savings account which I can access for them. My real savings account is in a different bank account and not to be touched (I get extra interest every month if I don't withdraw).

You could colour code it for things that are flexible and things that are set - eg groceries you could set your normal amount, but knowing that occasionally you have a super careful week and spend less - they are the costs that have some wiggle room. Other costs like car insurance don't have wiggle room. I have chosen to do annual expenses only for things that are cheaper annually than they would be monthly or fortnightly.

Personally, I have deliberately omitted my additional income from annual bonuses and tax returns (everyone in Australia has to do tax returns, and we claim a tax rebate for working from home so I usually get something). I am trying to keep to my budget very strictly and am using these 'windfall' amounts for things like birthday/Christmas presents, holiday trips and additional one off large items that I want/need.

My spends:
My weekend was a bit spendy, $53.80 going out with my friend, lunch and a drink, and $135 for 2 1/2 wine barrel for the garden and $129 for a gazebo. One wine barrel will be used for herbs and I think I might buy an elder for the other one, jury is still out though. The gazebo will eventually be for use for cricket etc, but for now it is over one of my chickens, she has gone broody and is sitting on eggs. If she stays there I will get some day old chicks to pop under her. But she chose the WRONG week to be broody, Mon - Fri temps here are 35/36/39/40/40. Without the additional shade I'm not sure she'd survive the week.

But otherwise they are the only spends since Saturday. I will have to do a bit of a food shop today after work though. (Wine cask was freshly cut in half, I swear I was getting drunk on the fumes!!)

Some newspapers have a cheaper digital only subscription, would that be ok or do you want the actual newspaper?

Oh the errors in my post ...

Pay. Day. Woooo

ah the holy grail of a belt.

i bought a superb belt last year. beautiful soft leather. and it goes with everything. i did use some of my work bonus to buy it so i'm to suggesting that it's affordable. it was an absolute treat. from fairfax and favour. but i have worn it basically every day (i got the tan suede one) and wear it with jeans and with trousers for work.

i haven't bought any new clothes this year for myself. or if i have i've regretted it and taken them back.

i'm really trying to shop my wardrobe and make new outfits from things i have.

today is payday and i have worked out my spends for the next month, and then have put the remainder of my money (less a buffer of £50) onto my credit card. so have paid roughly £800 off today. i'm not saving anything at the moment (save for £150 into premium bonds) - all other money that was diverted to savings has come out and is being thrown at credit card. i feel twitchy at the thought of no savings but realistically i need the credit card paid off so i can then start to save. not much point having all the debt and all the savings when they could easily cancel each other out. . . .

working from home today as have a bit of a cold and was all sorts of cough and sneezy yesterday in the office. i could tell i was annoying people (and myself). today it's a gazillion times more snotty so staying put. no one needs me around like this!

Well, obviously, em, I had to google fairfax and favour. Beautiful indeed, but 'luckily' for me, the hardware isn't quite what I'm looking for. But if I could get away with £65 for the right belt, I'd feel I was doing OK-ish. But I'll pay less if I can! (Some of the ones I've looked at are 6 times that, and the brands must be 'aving a larf). Shopping your wardrobe is absolutely the right thing - in recent years, I've lost weight, decluttered, pressed old friends back into service, had things altered and mended, done a bit of home-dyeing, looked after items better, and not waited for an occasion to wear nice things. So I've actually enjoyed my wardrobe more in these frugal years than when I used to shop more frequently.

oops. sorry. but yep the things on there are beautiful. and the quality is good. and the customer service is amazing. and to be fair the sales are usually good too. i have some tassels for boots from there too - my riding boots had black tassels on the zips - switched them out for some pink ones a while ago.

currently listening to a tax webinar. god its dull.

I also googled, very beautiful but as it's been years since my belts have been on show I only use cheap ones, belts just serve the purpose of keeping my jeans up currently

Happy pancake day! I’m making mine with lemon and treacle.
My wedding invitations have arrived, beautifully designed by my sister. I will post these at the weekend. We have had a quote for the hire of the church hall and kitchen for the wedding, £290 which I think is ok.
Mum and I shall purchase a basic tall fridge as we may not leave any food in the church fridge overnight. That can go in her sun lounge. What we will do with it afterwards I do not know.
Low spendy day today, just some salad and fruit, was careful not to buy too much, to leave some for everyone else. Expensive weekend though, £600 for car repair, but local Volvo garage reliable and good.

Does she now know about the reception at her house?

I made crepe style pancakes for dc at 6am, making fluffy style ones for my own dinner now.

em I hear your tax webinar and see you project management.

Duchess you cold put it on your local Freecycle or maybe your local foodbank if you don't want any money for it.

I am willing the weather to warm up so I can grow my own tomatoes. It hasn't quite got to fisty cuffs yet but it is not far off. Facebook will soon have takes of youffs in hoodies roaming the allotments.

Happy pancake day, we just made a load of them and had them with squirty cream and biscoffee spread 😋😋😋 have made enough to have some for breakfast as well.

Feel sick now though 😂

Had an email from EE to say broadbands going up 🙄 did I see that someone else had this and queried it? I thought my price was fixed for 18 months 😒

I wouldn't mind but the internet's rubbish most of the time anyway.

Dds work experience hasn't been great, she is working at a posh (theoretically) dog kennel place but is being left on her own with a lot of dogs most of the day. Honestly it's pretty shocking, she won't let me tell the college as she just wants to get through it. She has to do a lot of WE hours (150) to pass the first year.

Evening.

Your wedding sounds absolutely wonderful @TheDuchessofDukeStreet. Just love the sound of it.

Excellent budgeting @OrderOfTheKookaburra. We had chickens for a long time. Our last one died last year but I felt sorry for her on her own (we knew we didn't want more).

I'm doing pretty well so far this month. I've not done much frittering really, two recipe books but that's it re splurge type items. I'm actually going to stay within my own wage and pop some money aside in various 'pots' for birthdays, holiday, Christmas etc. Need to add a dog food category as I bulk buy.

I'm doing no clothes and cosmetics apart from essentials this year too, nothing to do with DH's stroke, I've too many of both.

Love the sound of your herbs @Unescorted!

I will admit to sometimes making DS (age 23!) a sandwich when I make mine for lunch otherwise he hoovers up all the more expensive snack type items that cost me a fortune...

No pancakes here, none of us are fans!

First time using this recipe I was very impressed
https://www.taste.com.au/quick-easy/galleries/pancake-day-recipes-difference/IPmJnqAi?utmcampaign=later-linkinbio-superfoodideas&utmmcontent=later-33166907&utmmedium=social&utmmsource=linkin.bio

I made two huge ones from the recipe but only ate one.

I just finished work at 7pm and mindlessly shoved in Swedish style meatballs from the freezer and left over mash and veg from the weekend. Forgot it was Shrove Tuesday! Never mind.

Spent £3.60 in two days on milk, cream and bread. Frugal food cooking yesterday with potato and leek souip and a bacon and leek quiche which we polished off today at lunchtime. Now on leave until Monday for half term here. Probably going to have a few spends.

Had the same email for three EE contracts and BT girlie Spoke to BT last night as contract coming to an end. Honestly the BS they were spouting me to try to get me to stay.

Hope you feel better soon em least you could watch the webinar from home I guess!

duchess the wedding prep sounds exciting.

Sorry not a full catch up as on phone..

Didn't do pancakes as, quite honestly, am generally underwhelmed. Even by NIgella's American style. We had baked garlic mushrooms on toast and I had vanilla ice-cream with creme fraiche after. In March, I will be adding a 'no sugar' (well, only weekends, then) rule to my no booze one.

Managed to get DS' belt buckle fixed at a metal workshop today. For £10 cash, the nice man fashioned a completely new steel bracket. Now I can take the belt and buckle to a leather workshop and reunite the two. Belts seem to have become a theme this week! While I quite enjoy digging out these local resources and problem-solving, I wonder if DS would bother, left to his own devices, or just buy a new belt.

LA has just informed us that the green/garden waste bin collection will rise to £94 this year. DH keen to keep it, and he's right, but when we began subscribing, about 7 years ago, it was £40 a year. I might scout among neighbours if anyone wants to share.

I am shocked big that you have to pay for your green bin. You must get loads of people burning their green waste.

I might do a belated pancake session on Saturday. I love them and the cooking of them is fun. Everyone hangs about in the kitchen drinking coffee and eating them as they are cooked.

need they started as a way to make cheap food less dull when we were super broke. Now it pains me to pay £1 for an itsy bitsy bag when I can buy a couple of cheap pots and they keep going for most of the year.

unescorted we have to pay for our garden waste too so we don’t pay, we take it to the tip where they have a garden / green waste skip and it’s free. We have a big tarpaulin liner for the boot so it doesn’t wreck the car. Our council stopped collecting the garden waste bins for months last year and didn’t refund coz covid coz brexit coz blah blah so that was the last straw (no pun intended).

Our water direct debit has doubled and usage has gone down … what is up with that? I can see our usage so I know it’s not a leak or anything.

busy day at work tomorrow, it never stops in this term with exams etc.

She won’t mind, Happier. She will be there with her glass. I will set up a table with various bottles, soft drinks and glasses for the household and any poppers in to help themselves. DP has promised to string up some fairy lights etc. My sister is to visit France at Easter and will bring back as many bottles of fizz as allowed and anything else I can purchase at Costco. The evening before the wedding, after we have set up the church hall for the reception, family and any helpers will gather at Mum’s and we will send out for fish and chips, so we will need drinks. That with tea, coffee and biscuits while not being quite a wedding rehearsal dinner as in America should be welcome enough, I dare say.
The table will be replenished with breakfast things etc on the day, for the family and any friends staying.
it is exciting, Strong and Kessie, a bit scary at the same time. I’m trying to settle in my mind that it will not go exactly as I envisage but I hope all will be good. If anything does go wrong we will cope, we have plenty of friends to help us.
Thats right, Unescorted, and the church has an active food bank etc so I think we will be ok re fridge if Mum decides not to keep it.

Off to work today because I’m less of a snot bag. 😂

Paid a grand total of £935.87 off my credit card yesterday. Woooooooo.

Budgeted my monthly soends carefully.

Well done on credit card repayment em - I"m chipping away, chipping away...

I think people stick their garden waste in the general waste, tbh. Or they put a shout out on the WhatsApp group for a loan of a bin if they are doing an occasional clear up (sometimes this is accompanied by a slightly sheepish offer to pay, but who can be arsed to charge a neighbour for use of a bin if it's not a regular request?) We are supposed to be doing a fair old garden rethink this year, so will stick with the stupidly expensive bin for a while. If nothing else, it will encourage us to work hard and fill it each week!

One more day of eating the pantry before I shop again: lentil dahl, spinach and rice, and a vegetable and bean soup. Might make flapjacks if I have enough butter. I think I will buy a chicken tomorrow and treat us to a harissa roast chicken with couscous over the weekend. I can hear Ddog's rapture now!

Hello. I haven't posted for ages so need to start afresh. I'm still trying to be frugal most of the time.

Just wanted to say there is a £5 off of a £25 on the Lidl app. You go onto the app and click on "more" (down the right hand corner) then "redeem code." The code is FEELGOOD and it should the add the £5 off to your vouchers to be used by 28th February. Hope this helps someone as I know there's a few Lidl shoppers here.

Air conditioner has barely been off today... ☹️. It was 39 today. It's 10 pm right now and it's still 31.5. Next 2 days are due to hit 41. At least during the day the solar panels are taking the edge off the bill, but it's so hot overnight and the brick walls have so much residual heat in them that I'll have to leave it on all night as well.

Big shop yesterday $390. But that's with 10% taken off the initial bill (can do that once per month) and just over 2000 reward points which is another $10 towards my Christmas fund by keeping an eye on point boosts. A lot of bulk buys and about 1 1/2 weeks worth of meat. Could possibly eke it out to 2 full weeks if I'm careful and do a leftovers night or two, and just top up with some veg and other essentials.

Have a few other big buys planned so am waiting for my awards credit card to arrive so that I can make the most out of any 'kickbacks' for my spending.

Wow kooka seriously hot. I experienced heat like that once in my life, one week in 2002 while working in Crete it went up to 45-50 degrees, I used to work split shifts, the time in the middle was normally spent at the beach, however that week I just slept until it was time to go to work again.