Frugal Friends Fearlessly Facing February.

[needastrongoneagain]

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

Managed to lose a post somewhere 🤔

Anywho it's payday 🥳

I have paid myself back and topped up the savings accounts by about £130.

I paid my mum £50 towards the London trip (will be £50 a month for 5 months.)

Paid for the dog's agility class £52 which is for two months.

Also paid £7.25 for a new pilates class, it was harder than my last class but good. I'm still undecided if joining the gym will be better value for money.

There should be around £600 left after all the DDs go out, I'm going to budget £300 for food (😱) and £60 for fuel.

So £240 to play with in theory....

85p diet coke
£4 bus fares
£45 for MOT - although it failed terribly. Work required of approx £1100 to £1500. It's not worth that, even with the MOT on it. We need a new car. Hey ho. Been juggling the spreadsheets tonight and focusing on the positives. We do have the resources to get a newer car and DH is sharing his car for a while to give me time to find a one I like for a decent price 🙏

Good luck with the budgeting girlie
Hope that keeps the car on the road for a good while longer em
Sorry can only see the one page.

@kessiebird me too! DH has an electric car in mind for next year and I want something bigger (current car is a 2009 fiesta) DH didn’t want the running costs of a big car so electric it is. But. They’re spendy. And it costs to also get a charge point installed in the house. This is part of the reason he’s thinking about solar panels too. But to do that we need to check the roof is ok and that needs scaffolding. And if we’re getting scaffolding we may as well look to fix everything up high in the house.

you see how we’ve spiralled now and spent thousands….!

anyway. Today should be low spends. Might take potential new colleague out for lunch but work will pay for that (well I will pay but it’ll be expenses back).

On a whim I just logged into my pension account. £48k in there. Woo. Had no idea it was that much. So that’s good.

I tend to try and pay I. Between 10-15% of my salary a year. But didn’t do it last year because we did renovations and needed all the spare cash we had!

Good morning everyone 😊
I have good news today , when my Mum was admitted to hospital last August my carers allowance was stopped . I have since contacted the tax office and they have given me a rebate of £300 into my pension l have been paid my pension today and l saw the £300 extra in my bank . I had to wait ages to get through to them but it was well worth it in the end 🤗
That will go towards the new fridge/freezer that l am really happy with so yay! 😊
Spent £125 on grocery shopping yesterday, hopefully for most of the week but l will have to go in today to top up on a few things in Morrisons today.
Hope everyone is ok have a lovely day 😊

Brilliant news mrs 💰😊

AHH thank you Kessie that's so good of you ❤️

Ahem, that was a spendy day today. £1000 (not a typo) on the gym but that's for a year and far better value than paying each month. And the gym is an absolute necessity for our DC hydrotherapy and quite frankly my own mental health. We've worked so hard the last few months to save up for it, literally selling stuff for the gym fund and we threw all our Christmas money at it (DH and I not the DC obvs!)

Also did a big aldi shop of non perishables for the month of things that are alot cheaper In there than our usual ocado eg cereals, crisps, snacks for school. We used to do this every month but haven't for ages and need to get back in the habit. So hopefully none of the above stuff will need buying until end of march!

I remember your gym dilemma decaf, so pleased you find it useful and well worth the money by the sounds of it

Evening.

If it gives you pleasure and adds to quality of life and you can afford it, no justification needed @Decafflatteplease. Sounds fab re the gym.

Hope you are less knackered @lifelongfrugaleer

Fab news @TheNewlmprovedMrsMadEvans re the extra payment.

Boo re the car @kessiebird but at least you can just about manage to juggle the finances to make a new one work.

Boo too re the lamb @OrderOfTheKookaburra, done similar myself.

So the menu plan I had done has gone to pot as my lovely friend dropped off 2/3 meals worth of various veggie curries and I had a delivery of excess fruit and vegetables, which will test my imagination re getting them used!!

Very frugal month but about £100 on extras for DH coming home today to make life more comfortable and thank you gifts and presents for the ward staff, who, after all this time are more friends than family.

Nsd.

Made a fugal lunch to take into work of noodles and chicken with soy sauce 😋

Welcome home need DH 🎉

Oooh love getting money back from Hmrc mrs, always feels amazing getting money off them!

boo to the car kessie, it’s really hard making the call when to replace a money put car. We’ve often paid for repairs, just for convenience so good you can manage until you get a new one

good saving decaff for the gym, good frugalling there to afford it.

Payday 😊 all bills accounted for etc. Would have been a NSD but DD was hungry after Scouts activity and we were 40 mins drive from home so Maccies it was for her and DS and chilli cheesy bites for me

Welcome home need DH. Lovely of your friend to send food.

Great news about the gym decaffe I pay for a leisure club and it's well worth it. Some people seem to spend all day there, cheaper than heating the house probably.

Enjoy the frugal lunch girlie

Today I took the kids for a bike ride with a packed lunch. We did stop at a coop and spend 3.75 on drinks as running low on water. Then went for an evening swim. I rate having a gym membership. We hardly ever wash at home and it saves a fortune in water heating also it’s really warm so a nice place to hang out.

Thanks all we've had the gym membership for a while but so far weve just repeatedly had 6 month blocks paid upfront using the overdraft but it works out more expensive doing 2 X 6 months compared with a 12 month one so we've gone for the 12 month. We do use it alot at least twice a week. It would of course be cheaper to "pay as you go" in the local leisure centre but that one isn't accessible for DC so expensive private gym it is, the hidden costs of disabilities eh?! 🙄 At least with a blue badge we get free parking right outside, silver lining and all that! And actually disabled DC goes free so we only pay for 2 adults 3 children but there's 6 of us on the pass which is so good of them!

Onwards as upwards into march. Should be a pretty frugal month bloody good job after today's spends! nothing particularly planned eg no birthdays no school holidays . Although the tumble dryer sounds like it's about to die I cross my fingers every time I turn it on, but so far so good!

I totally missed @needastrongoneagain good news about DH! Is that home long term now or just a visit? Either way I'm so pleased for you!

My tumble dryer has been screaming at me for months, next winter I will get a new one in the summer sales

emotional times need, they’ve been in your life so long,

boo about the car Kessie, hope you find a deal. End of the month and end of the quarter if you can apparently as they need to meet sales targets

i paid for 2! Take outs yesterday. Joys of bad planning, tiredness and teens 2 dinners

i also bought a side board off Facebook, it matched my furniture and was £220 delivered rather than £500 new. Been saving for that

happy 1 March y’all

Joyeux printemps, frugaleers. I had a crap day yesterday -migraine, barely moved from a sofa. DH sorted dinner and brought home ice-cream though, so that was nice. Hoping for better from today, and a jollier month in general.

Have booked two nights away in Leeds to catch up with DS, just me, Dh paying accommodation, I am paying for the train. So far it's coming in at £172 for transport and hotel (with breakfast!), and I am looking for free stuff to do. But I will also be paying for dinners, and want to treat DS, so it will inevitably be spendier than staying at home (kind of the point, really, of holidays). I am looking forward to a couple of days without the dog, being able to go anywhere I want, a break from routine, minimal responsibilities!

In the meantime, reality beckons: will venture a walk to Lidl today to buy a few bits - can't really face driving and a bigger shop. Will have to take Ddog out at some point. Cook something with mince, probably cottage pie. The joint account has been topped up but my personal financial month doesn't start until 7 March, so I am eking out this last week, trying to motivate myself by listening to personal finance podcasts and moving! I think washing my hair and painting my nails is also called for. What absolutely will not work is sitting on the sofa and eating toast, seductive though that be.

Happy March y’all!

spring has sprung.

yoga at lunchtime today. Yay

Some one needs to tell spring that, it’s fecking freezing

Happy start of Spring 🐣 I can't say I'm sorry to see the back of winter! Am hoping it will start warming up a bit soon.

Good luck with dh coming home need.

It's my day off today although I'm going to do a few hours overtime in a min, bank balance not looking too bad now all the DDs have come out. I need to be sensible this month though as I do seem to have a bad case of payday millionaire/end of month pauper syndrome!!

The upstairs loo has broken so need to factor in getting a plumber out at some point which is never less than £50.

I'm still debating the gym membership, at the moment I'm leaning towards going back to my more expensive but more enjoyable pilates class! The gym membership sounds great in theory but I'm not sure how much use I'd get out of it really and the class was painful rather than enjoyable (although probably doing my middle age spread some good 😂)

mrs well done on the £300, nice bit of life admin!
bigskies I love Leeds, I think it’s a great city for a mini break.
I head north next week for my promotion interview, feels so soon now. Only 1 weekend left to prep! Will be a relief when it is over.
I have £360ish left on my peloton loan (0% thank goodness) so hoping to clear that next month. I’ve gone onto direct debit for my student loan, the plan is to clear it in June/July then cancel the direct debit. It will be very exciting to have that paid off!

Evening. Thanks for the good wishes.

Fingers crossed re the interview @Gensola

Hope the budget stretches all month @Girliefriendlikespuppies

Migraines are the absolute pits @BigSkies2022, I relate. Enjoy Leeds when you go.

@Badbudgeter, I used to do the same years ago - all my showers were at the gym!

Somewhat spendy day but all within the budgeted 'pots'
£66 fuel
£103 supermarket shop and £6 Amazon on a huge tub of comfort fabric conditioner. That included wine, a huge bag of washing capsules and a concealer for my (currently huge) dark circles.

I made naan bread today to go with my donated veggie curries. I'll never buy naan bread again!

Recipe for naan bread* please need* 😬 we had curry tonight (went off meal plan but was a frugal meal so 🤷‍♀️) I did a chickpea curry for dd which is fry an onion and garlic, add curry powder, add a tin of chickpeas and coconut milk and cook over a low heat for half an hour.

Very easy and cheap.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/easy-naan-bread

There you go Girlie. Delicious (not my cooking, just the recipe!).

Naan bread recipe I use is the magic ratio of 3parts flour (bread flour with some wholemeal) and 2 parts liquid by weight. You can increase to 70-72% but it becomes harder to handle. Liquid is strained yoghurt and milk mix. If you like it tangy use more yoghurt. Add salt sugar and yeast also any spices you want to add (nigella is really good) to the flour. Mix in the liquid until just mixed. Leave it to rest for 20 minutes then knead til smooth. Leave to rise. When bulked knock back & form into balls (tension them for best results) each one small fist size... But depends on the size of your pan. Roll out to about 0.5cm

There are 3 cooking methods 1. Dry fry (no fat) in a hot pan until bubbles start to form. Finish off on other side under the grill.

1. Dry fry both sides
2. If you have a tawah stick the naan to the hot pan with a sprinkle of water. Cook until bubbly then turn the tawah over and cook the other side. This only works if you have a gas hob.