Jumping into July: Frugal Friends Financial Fun

[needastrongoneagain]

New 'Fred.

Very low spend couple of days.

£12 AdBlue but that's expenses.

Will be back to post fully later.

Ouch Em, we’ll be in a similar position if rates don’t fall before our fixed rate ends. And though we also used to manage with high childcare costs a lot else has gone up since - CoL, tax threshold impact, my pension contribution… it will definitely hurt. DH and I need to plan our savings priorities over the next couple of years and also budget for things like holidays. It’s a trade off as there’s only a few years where the kids will happily travel with us and we’d like to have a couple of memorable family trips if we can.

The heating wasn’t fixed yesterday but the engineer is due to come back with the part today. I am still freezing.

Irritating about your boiler Half. I hope it’s fixed now.

Have a wonderful time in London em.

Spends have been £16.84 on groceries. I’m still surprised at how expensive prune juice is now. Cupboard eating not going to plan I bought an onion, a tin of tomatoes and some sour cream to have with chilli for the rest of the week. Should leave my purse behind when I go out. I spent ~£4 on the Cewe photo printing booth in Boots.

Still mulling over what I want to do with the flat. I know ultimately it’s not my decision but depends on what I can afford. I know I want to go to France, at least for a few months, once this is over and half considering just selling and blowing the lot. Feel far too old to start again.

Beautiful French author man in releasing a new book next year so I’ve booked book fair day off work just in case. Attempting to update my holiday spreadsheets but not getting far. Feeling the change in temperature so have put a blanket on the bed.

We have heating!

now I need to work out the timers and nest thingy

Great news about the heating, Half! I am piling on layers, closing curtains early, adding extra bedding...I am determined not to put the heating on until we get back from France, which means we will have pushed through to November this year. Still, it is nice to have the choice. I put the chimney sheep back up the flue today, and will stuff the gaps with rockwool - the cold air really pours down it during winter otherwise.

Current hot weather in France set to head towards seasonal norms this weekend, so Metéo tells me. Which means packing layers, something for wet weather, and a brolly.

Should finish sealing the floors tomorrow, and will be able to sand at least some of it.

Afternoon.

Our heating is on I'm afraid, as I need to ensure DH is warm. Although I've built up a huge credit last year so it's not worrying me at the minute.

@HalfWomanHalfChocolate it's great putting the heating on 20 minutes before you get home (in the heady days of low energy costs) and coming home to a warm house!

Feel the pain re bathrooms @lifelongfrugaleer, ours being done currently. It's going to look great though when done. I console myself with this!!

Enjoy France @BigSkies2022

Spends
£57 Amazon on two electric toothbrushes for myself and DH.
£22 extra heads for above.
£30 food shopping
£20 cookbook about beans 😂
£40 veg box and extras (quite a few).
£60 Christmas presents from the budget
£75 Tropic - moisturiser and posh soap and cream for the downstairs loo (Aldi upstairs 😂). The moisturiser is the first item I've bought this year and my skin is feeling really dry and sore.

Wins
Not spent a penny on fuel this month as driven on electric in the main so £100 saved.
£75 extra per month new tax code due to the hybrid.
Finally cashed in an old ISA which was paying bugger all in interest and will pay off more mortgage.
Budgeted for clothes this month, bought none, but given this has been the case all year, I suspect I'll need some soon, as will DH.

Blooming upstairs electric shower has packed up. Not getting that bathroom done until next year but luckily the spark was here today and will fit us in next week.

£££ Christmas shopping
£38 top up shop

@HalfWomanHalfChocolate hooray for heating!!!!

I’ve emailed work and have asked to increase my hours. So I’ll do 4 full days and one day until 2. It’s 3 hours more a week. So not much. But every little helps. I’ve also asked for that day to be a work from home day to give me balance.

whether they agree is another matter.

I’ve just found out that primark do click and collect in some stores. This could be an absolute game changer!

Em that's what I do at work & i love being finished at 1pm one day per week. Currently while work is happening on my house it means I go to town to buy something before collecting ds from school home to homework and dinner before basketball but it's good!

I saw about click & collect on Stacey Solomons stories yesterday

Need I haven't had liquid soap for years as ds used to pour it down sink or dilute it, he's grown out of it but I got used to bar soap, bought a glass soap bottle in the range & then checked all offers & debated buying bath soak & eventually bought dove milk & honey for €2 for my en-suite so I get luxury vs Aldi 😂

€18.99 on 75 dr Beckmann magic sheets(half price of Amazon subscribe & save ), anti limescale for washing machine, stain removing spray & cooked chicken pieces for ds's lunchbox

€172 on ceiling paint for every room, paint for my room & hallway

Priced ok carpet €390 & carpet of dreams €550 including underlay & fitting. I'm going to splurge for my bedroom

Came home to €1930 bill from builder

Payday. Wahooo.

have thrown half at our joint account. 50% of the remainder at credit card. Then will split the remaining 60/40 savings and “fun” I need to get serious about savings.

Today I’ve paid off £1800 from my credit card. I’m cross that I let the balance build up again. (And this doesn’t clear it completely). But it’s at a more manageable level. I use it for all my spending then pay off as much as poss each month but it’s gotten away from me. I get the added benefit of cash back in the form of M&S vouchers/amazon vouchers/ avios /aurmiles hence why I use it. But with mortgage increase if it’s now time to get it sorted. Well the time to sort it was months ago

Finished for half term, woo! And off on our travels tomorrow.

Trying to do loads of house work today before we go. Fortunately I have been home alone as the various stresses of the last few weeks have meant I have been swearing away a lot to myself 🤯🤬

We need some new carpets too happier. Too scared to look at costs yet! Need to do our bedroom and halfway/stairs. Lounge too really.

Evening everyone 🤗
@Time have a great time 😊
@Em great job well done ! 👋
@Happier those Dr Beckmann sheets are lovely 🤗
Enjoy your splurge you deserve it ! 😊
@life that's a bummer when something so essential packs up but yay for the handy Spark 😊
@Need great job building up a credit in the heating and it's a necessity when someone is not well no question 💐
@Big your stay in the warm weather in France sounds fantastic! 🤗
Yay re the heating @Half 🤗👏
@Rum now the colder weather is here a few months in the warm sounds just wonderful 🤗
Been quite good re spending
Only bits in Tesco nothing big this week and about time too!
Have a lovely weekend everyone 🤗

Good news for the heating Half.

Not so good news on the shower Life.

Where about are you going Big? Have a fabulous time. Any room in your luggage for me?

Enjoy your travels Time.

Spending has been around €120 on excursion related things for France in December and about £5 on who knows what today in Sainsbury’s. Had the day from hell (him related) today. Rubbish trying to process things and decide what to do next. Came back to the flat to find the police. Sick of everything at this point.

DH has just informed me he’s going to the rugby final next week. In Paris. He said ages ago if nz got there he’d go. I just never thought he’d actually do it! Total spend estimated around €1000

extravagant for less than 24 hours in Paris. But he rarely does anything for him. So I’m all behind it. He’s also got bloody good tickets. Second row from the pitch.

That's great for your Dh @Em .
It's too good an opportunity for him to miss.
Dry here today thankfully hope everyone is ok from this Storm Babet .

That’s great em

yes the lack of shower mean I need to get my rotund self to the gym #everycloud

not frugal as dh dropped his laptop. After calling him a tit we will look for one in the pre Christmas sales.

bathroom coming along nicely but my house is cold apparently.. had to put the heating on yesterday to get some wall scree dry

hope the heating is working properly now half a
and the renos are going ok need. I assume for accessibility reasons?

Afternoon everyone 😊
Spends today £30 in Aldi on groceries.
Weather is lovely now, sunny, bright and dry. Hope everyone is ok after this terrible storm 😊
Been to see Mum she was in the best of moods today bless her🤗
Have a lovely day everyone and very good luck to England tonight 😊

Fantastic for your dh em
Half glad your heating is sorted. Hope the whole project is done soon
Rum are you OK? Sounds like a stressful time. Feel free to vent
Mary cheese footballs are a must for dh at Christmas
life glad you can get the shower sorted
Big enjoy France

Our spending carries on..... I think this year has been a reaction to last year & the cancer. We have done some great things with friends & family and visited some lovely places, but it needs to stop! I have an annual trip with mum, dd and aunty in 4 weeks. Now we're in Lakes with the group of friends we have an Oct holiday with every year. These are budgeted for & neither should be too spendy as we cook meals & split all the costs.
Dh & I went to Newcastle to visit dd. Had a fab time in the storm! She is okay, determined not to come home until Xmas but it was so lovely to see her. She is loving managing on a budget & has definitely taken on frugality. She has a weeks worth of meals in her freezer drawer from batch cooking!
I need to do a big check of finances when we get home on Thursday & plan for the last 2 months of the year.

Good morning everyone 😊
Been a quiet night and a quiet morning so far . Just getting up to go and do a little shopping then home to help DH put a new kitchen cupboard together. There will be words 🤣
@North 😊 Cheese footballs are one of our staple Christmas treats here , they don't seem easy to find these days either so l have to stick up when l find them lol
Hope you are ok lovely and stayed safe from this terrible storm , take care . Your Dd is obviously taking after you wonderful how she is managing her finances so well . Great job 👏👏🤗
Stops you from too much worry too ❤️
Shame about England losing in the last few mins of the game , l was hoping they would win .
At least it wasn't by a huge amount and surely their World rating will go up now .
Strictly was excellent as always , love Nigel, Ellie , Bobby, Angela , Krish & Amanda. l know she didn't dance but normally she's excellent. Fancy Angela Rippon being so brilliant, her footwork was amazing to think shes 78 , good for her !
Better shift , have a lovely day everyone 😊

Morning.

Lovely morning here after the awful weather. Our extension roof has leaked very slightly so the builder is coming out this week to sort.

Good luck with the cupboard @MaryGreenhill 😁

Completely understandable re the spending @northender, I wish we had done more before DH became so poorly.

Bit of both re the reasons for getting the rooms done @lifelongfrugaleer. Yes, more suitable and accessible, but also 12 years old and starting to show it. It's 'posh' accessible, so doesn't actually look adapted, which I'm pleased about.

Oh @RumBananaSundae, you okay?

Spends are huge!!! Mainly the bathrooms but also getting towels and accessories etc. it's been such a long time since we've changed anything so it all needed updating. I want new lights too and have also booked the decorators.

£47 regatta coat. My first item of clothing bought this year that's not pants!! Was on the Mumsnet money savers email. Reduced from £160.

Menu plan
At my brothers tonight
Slow cooked beef, mushroom and squash casserole
Kimchi fried rice and fried egg.
Squash dhal
Black bean parmigiana
Miso bean broth
Red bean ragu
Squash and black bean chilli.

Great news for your husband and the rugby em. I’ve not seen much this week as I’ve kept dozing off.

Hope you’re enjoying your break north.

I also have dhal for this week need. Sounds like the bathroom is coming along.

Thank you need and north. I’m trying to be rational about things. Had a message (x3) wanting me to do things by Tuesday. Not sure what’s lit the fire under him but it unsettled me especially as I’ve been waiting >18 months for his information and had started to think things might not be that bad. Not happy but can’t afford to look unreasonable especially as I think he has started some sort of legal 14 day clock so will run with it but ignore the ridiculous deadline. Will contact my solicitor tomorrow.

Spending has been bad. Had a university friend come to visit yesterday. That was £115 all in including breakfast and a present for her thought I still have half a bakery left in the kitchen. She brought me a Lulu Guinness Waitrose bag that I had been looking for.

Spend £112 online buying hiking gloves, socks and tights for my trek next year. Managed to make a mistake when I gave them my email address so glad I took a screenshot of the confirmation screen. Spend £11 on groceries today. Have frozen left overs from last week so I’ll not have to worry about cooking for a few days. At some point.

Have had the police twice since yesterday for my neighbour. It’s utterly ridiculous. Rather sunny and warm here today. Quite a contrast to the stormy weather we’ve been having.

Sorry I’ve not managed to keep up with everyone’s news - has been very busy here. Glad your DD is ok north - mine is too - it’s such a relief! The rugby sounds great em.

My frugal win today is that I managed to get some money back from booking.com. I’m going to London in a couple of weeks with a friend and we booked accommodation some while ago and got a rest good bargain. I logged in to pay and realised they’d emailed me to cancel it - didn’t even know booking.com could do that! Long story short, after several phone calls they have agreed that they will pay the difference between this accommodation and the replacement I’ve had to book. That’s £190 between me and my friend so quite a sum - we had thought we would just have to suck it up as we have train tickets and tickets to a comedian booked.

Also, I bought our meat for the month in one go and have done a months worth of meal plans. £78 from the butcher for meat for four of us which I thought was good. Also had a nice chat with the butcher, I’ve been going in there since I had DD in a sling, 19 years!!
Also £91 at Tesco with 10% off Clubcard plus and £40 cash and carry. So now I need to eat the many food items in my cupboard/ freezer and not do another big shop!

work is pants, but that’s another story. I’ve got 3 days off now which I do feel I need. My dad is also poorly and I’m trying to work out how I can visit parents more around working hours.

Spend day getting mtb safety gear for ds

Just checking in from a rainy Netherlands. Having a great time, and haven’t spent too much yet either. I think about 100 euro on our trip today, and we’re still currently spending our on board credit too. Had an amazing burger at lunch, trying to work out how long the DC can wait for another trip to the buffet. We’re stuffed, DC are hungry!

Our ship spent yesterday being part of a search/rescue/recovery 🙁 operation off the coast of Germany.

Think I need to be back in here. My credit card bill for food this month was £300 higher than normal. Always pay it off, but need to reign it in. Also the heating is on - weather has been so wet and I have a thing about washing being washed and dried on the same day. Will try to keep it off today as long as the DC rooms are warm enough later on - light the log burner instead.

Sorry I dropped off the thread. Work has been awful. I've stopped using the cleaning app I have, stopped attending gym classes and spent too much on food! On leave for half term here but have a meeting with management, union and HR later on about their latest proposal for the team.

Hope everyone is okay and hope its okay to sneak back in. 🙏