Advancing into April - Frugal Friends still being, er, Frugal.

[needastrongoneagain]

New thread.

All welcome.

Has everyone found their car insurance premiums have gone up this year? I've just done a price comparison and they're all higher by at least £100 compared to last year 😥

girlfriend - secondments are a great chance to try before you buy, expand your skills and network, and presumably the job you really like would still be there if you wanted to return? I'd go for it!

Our sodding car insurers are still dicking around resolving what should be an absolutely clear-cut case of a moped running into the back of me in October last year. So our premiums were artificially inflated when they came up for renewal in April by the tardiness of solicitors and claims processors and we are waiting for that to be adjusted sometime in the next decade.

More admin crap yesterday regarding a life insurance policy which should have been written into trust nearly a decade ago. Monday should bring some more useful information. Why do I spend my life mopping up other people's errors and oversights?

Frugal opportunity came up this morning, to see Soft Cell play at Hampton Court next week for a mere £6.50 admin costs! I did linger over the possibility of taking DS to see a bit of 80's arthouse cabaret/pop crossover, but, honestly, the thought of the journey to Hampton Court, then the wait for SC to come on, then being surrounded by middle-aged acolytes giving it their all as they lip-synch to Say Hello, Wave Goodbye, then flogging our way back at some ludicrous hour just sapped my will. We're doing Hockney followed by a nice sit down at a Korean barbecue restaurant on Sunday, and that, my dears, is where I've landed in my middle years.

Right, butcher, baker, pick up shirt from tailor, new hoover bags, book dog haircut, redo sealant around kitchen sink. Chilli from last night will do again tonight, so clean(ish) kitchen might stay that way for a bit.

big your description of middle aged acolytes made me giggle.

girlie I can see why you’re being cautious. An NHS job that you enjoy is hard to come by these days. Would you be able to return to the same job/team from secondment…or is there a chance they’d shuffle you off somewhere else? Also, what is the teaching job title? That might give you an idea what’s involved and the stress. Eg if it’s mainly teaching clinical skills that you feel confident with, less stress than being handed a module and asked to lead it! I am an ex HCP in HCP ed in case you were wondering 😊

Quote of the day in the life house " Get your tongue off Colin "

Labrador trying to lick she birthday cake 😂

Spending few days, will have to pull back the rest of the month

She = DH

Yeah Martha thats what worries me, plus the new job would be mostly hospital based which isn't my natural stomping ground.

I'll think on it..

Had a nice day here, weather gorgeous, spent £18 on top up shop.

Thanks for the mortgage responses. I've spoken to my provider again and they've said if we pay lump sums under £2k (which is per transaction figure) they won't recalculate the monthly payments. So I'm just going to split my lump sum overpayments into various payments of £1,999.99, the first one I did today. I'm going to wait until it shows in my online account thing before I make the next one of the same value.

My new debit card arrived today too, I wasn't on here then but it looks like I somehow got scammed out of £10 via it last week, which was very strange as my card was not lost and I had it with me at the time of the fraudulent transaction?! I'm awaiting my new PIN to arrive though so can't use it yet really.

Collected a pair of boots I bought from Vinted today from a locker thing in a local shop. I paid £10 + delivery for brand new with tags New Look boots that were £30 originally. I really like them so that's good, they're going to go away in the loft ready for next winter so that's a frugal win there.

Also spent in Tesco about £11 on groceries which was hardly anything gosh. A small box of cereal, a punnet of blackberries, a punnet of raspberries, a pack of cookies, and two packs of veggie sausages. 😫The veggie sausages were for a barbecue we are supposed to be attending tomorrow at my DP's, but DS has a temperature this evening, so probs now unlikely that we will all be able to go after all.

DH and I both have MBNA credit cards. He uses his for basically all his purchases and pays off each month in full. I use mine just for occasional online shopping really, pay off in full each month too, I only got it to improve my credit score really and for emergencies so that we have access to some credit, although my credit is pretty low, DH's a lot higher. Obviously we hope we'd never need them but it is reassuring to know we could access that if we needed to.

Good morning everyone,
been out a lot this week being as the weather has been grand , hence not being online 😊
Hope everyone is fine and your weather has been amazing 😊
Spends
£11 Asda George new duvet cover for Mum
Tee shirt tops for mum in Primark and Matalan £20
Morrisons £40
Petrol £46
Petrol 136.9 a litre here much better than the highest we paid of 189.9 last year 🙄
Have a lovely weekend everyone 😊

£100 ish Waitrose yesterday. Pizza for dinner because I cba to cook. Included in that was a £65 bottle of bollinger for dsis and Bil. Because if you’re going to celebrate you need the good stuff. 😄

party with ds in a bit. Joy.

I need to rein in the spending now.

Weekend away so there will be loads of spends
Yesterday
Subway €5.50
Return Ferry ticket €32.40
Dinner €13 kids fish & chips with a pint
Drinks run €47

Accommodation was paid over last 6 months €810 I'll get €540 of this from others & because there's a spare bed I'm covering this. Had the house to myself last night so fairs fair.

Today
Breakfast €10.90

I was going to exchange money on revolut for my hols in 3 weeks but they charge 1% at the weekend so it'll wait until Monday.

Child benefit comes with extra €200 this month €100 will pay dds surfing camp and other €100 will go against house insurance on credit card

Not getting caught next year so have allowed a buffer in case of increase.

Enjoy happier

Hello all. Pottering around day today, gotta run some errands, sand down the shelves for the, I hope, final coat. Doing them for my parents so feel they need to be perfect.

£35 in butcher yesterday, £4 in baker, £12 replacement hoover bags. £46 left in weekly food budget till next Friday, shouldn't be a problem, we've lots in.

£8 for invisible mending on a silk shirt, hopefully will spin another couple of years out of it.

Other spends : £14 on a pair of sunglasses from H&M, including delivery. £25 on JVN instant hair recovery serum.

Sunglasses and shirt repair brings my tally on clothes this year (i.e. since January) to £637.

Hi everyone, this seems like a nice friendly thread, hope it's ok to join?
We are fortunate enough to be in good financial circumstances, but I have a chronic health condition, and I don't know how sustainable it's going to be for me to keep working in the medium term. I'm currently signed off work for a couple of weeks to hopefully get over the worst of this current flare up, so I want to try get my head around some frugal living habits, to see how practical it would be for us to live without my salary for a while.

Sunny afternoon here today.

Happier Love a yellow sticker. Was quite excited in Marks and Spencer one evening when I got there at double yellow sticker time. Hope you’re enjoying your weekend away.

Girlie Go for the secondment if you think it’s a good opportunity but not if you think you’ll be demonstrating your role is redundant.

Two spendyish days.

~ 90CHF on train tickets for my holiday later this month
15CHF on a ticket for an attraction
£10.60 on some holiday bits in Boots
~£18 on sending a parcel and buying some stamps at the Post Office
£4.60 on some rice and mango lassi to go with my takeaway today

Looks more than I remember when I’ve written it down. Thinking I’m offsetting a bit as with the train strikes this week I didn’t go to the office so had no train fares.

Management fees bill arrived (£960) I know it comes but had forgotten so that’s a big chunk to pay next week.

Hi!!!
we are friendly here. And super helpful. Use the thread for whatever you need. Budgeting help or just venting about how soendy things are!

Impromptu engagement party tomorrow at dsis house. So I’ve been to coop and bought stuff to throw together a charcuterie board. And a cheese board. Yum.

dm is on desserts. Dsis is getting a load of “picky bits”

my wagon arrived. I’m so happy with it. DH thinks I’m insane. But it will be so handy. For the park/beach/supermarket shop when I don’t fancy driving….

Love all the good news you had em, hope the party went well for Dsis.

Bit late to reply on this girlie, we have a nectar CC but always pay off the balance in full at the end of the month by direct debit I think. £25 fee though, and I have been meaning to look into whether there is a better option.

Welcome to the newbies 🙂

The service for Ddad was lovely, it would have been exactly what he wanted. Dmum did well reading her part of the eulogy too.

Good to see new faces, we're a really friendly bunch.
I've not posted much as we're in the midst of A levels here which seem to be going OK so far, but dd is needing a lot of support as her fatigue is pretty bad at the minute. We took 2 days out to go to Edinburgh to see Bruce Springsteen which was fantastic. We'd already budgeted and paid for the tickets & Hotel & managed to be pretty frugal with everything else.
Had a bit of a fright on Monday as ds had spent the night in A&E after an alcohol induced fall. He's made a mess of his face and has definitely hurt his pride but luckily he has good friends there who got him to A&E and stayed with him.
Had a very good frugal day yesterday. I contacted our suppliers of broadband/TV and mobile sim only deals. So 2 phonecalls, no real negotiation needed and a £42 a month saving achieved! I couldn't have tackled the tv/broadband any sooner as we were tied in to the deal, but can't help feeling a bit sick thinking what we could've saved on the mobiles if I'd got it sorted sooner.
Dh is hoping to finish putting up our new lean to greenhouse today, very exciting. Dd and I are out to lunch with my aunty for her 80th birthday. She is paying , I've just paid £12 for a balloon arrangement.

north good luck for your DD’s A levels. My DD starts on 7th (she has 3 and BTEC exams as she also did some last year). Hope your DS is ok - sounds like you’re in the throes of teenager hood.
Congratulations on the good news em. Is your wagon one of those pull-along ones you take on the beach? I got one last year also much to the hilarity of my family. I actually have used it less than I thought because my DC are now old enough to carry stuff. But at your DC’s ages it would be great.
Having breakfast and then planning to go for a big run before it gets too warm
Spent ages last night booking holiday hire car for Croatia. The whole thing makes me nervous - insurance, finding petrol in a country I don’t know, driving on the wrong side of the road etc. it was more than I thought -£334 with insurance - but I did get 10% off with DP’s blue light card.

Morning all,

Bit of a spendy one yesterday, but it was all DS2s birthday presents. He wanted a pair of white AF1s and also sent me a pic of some shorts from Next. He also wants money and chocolate, easily pleased! I also saw some really nice sliders on the Nike site so I’ve got those for him as well. He needed new trainers for summer anyway so I’m not counting the entire cost of them in his birthday budget, so I can justify the money and chocolate as well.

While I was on the Nike site I got a couple of T-shirts that my mum is going to give me the money for as a present from her and my dad. We always do this as she says I know better what the kids will like.

Aside from that, all he wants to do on the day is go to our local Italian restaurant for pizza, so that’s all booked.

Hello blinded, and sorry about your unpredictable health. Are you signed off on usual pay at present? then this is a good time to have a good practice run!

I stopped full-time work about 7 years ago, and my income reduced to about 1/3 of what it had been. If you don't already have a reasonable cash buffer, use this time to set one up. Have a good look at your pension situation. Get shot of any debts. Get your head around your budget and turn it inside out. I found I was able to make my income go much further, (and still plan for nice experiences and things!) once I stopped work and was able to really think about what was needed.

Jason Butler is good on money milestones and budgeting. Claer Barrat for the FT has a good podcast, which you can get for free, you don't have to subscribe to the FT. I listen to/read lots of personal finance podcasts and bloggers and find them really helpful and motivating, along with this thread, especially when I get a 'sod it' moment and find myself yearning for, ooh, navy blue Arizona Birkenstocks or a spendy haircut.

I have enjoyed being frugal, much more than I was enjoying the extra money in my last full-time job. Good luck!

Hi all! Not posted for a while because the stress of packing up my overstuffed house and moving out (for the building work) was just awful. Lots of very late finishes 😡 and giving away /chucking out stuff that I might have sold, had I had more time. But hey ho. We made it, and last week we were on a little half term holiday in Kent, where the sun was NOT shining, unlike the rest of the country, but at least it was dry! The kids enjoyed the beach and the odd schlep around an English Heritage attraction, DH and I pretty much just collapsed!

Anyway, the loft conversion is structurally done and the stairs went in yesterday! The downstairs has been gutted, there’s no kitchen at all according to DH (who went round yesterday to
collect the clothes we’d left there for term time to
bring to the temporary flat). I’ll have a look for myself later as he forgot to get DD’s school uniform 🙄 so I’m heading round there.

The costs are predictably increasing, some extra steel, some unforeseen structural stuff, it’s all very expensive, eek. I also have decided to dig deep and spend a bit more on the glazing so I get electric opening of the kitchen roof lights and shades, as I can’t bear to be baking hot. We won’t be able to afford to get the new rooms decorated at this rate or buy furniture but can do that ourselves gradually. Sigh.

The temporary flat we’ve moved into
is not lovely at all - for the extraordinary sum we are paying it is very run down, and the fridge is not cold enough so I’m worried about food spoilage. But it’s just for a couple of months so we will manage, and the location near the DC school is really good.

Spends last week on hols were low apart from food, I seemed to spend a fortune in supermarkets still 😬. But we did eat well and had DM with us so another mouth to feed. Took packed lunches every day and just topped up with ice creams and one fish supper 😋.

I need to really rein in the day to day spends but am currently sitting in a salon waiting for my pedicure to dry. I normally paint my own toenails but I hurt my back when packing up (too much lifting) and can’t bend down! Now the sun is out I need to deal with my horrible winter feet somehow, even though I don’t actually like other people touching them. £35.

The sun is out here and it’s a beautiful day!

I need to read back a bit as I’ve missed some news but will try to post more often to stay on track with the spending, especially on food.