Frugal Friends Facing Forward with Fortitude

[Happierwithouthim]

Here's a friendly space for new and existing frugal friends.

We have all different types of incomes and lifestyles but with a common goal of making the best of the money we have.

Many of us have experiences of becoming debt free or being in difficulty with money for one reason or another so there's no need for embarrassment, just join in, post as little or as often as you wish.

Some record daily spends, some record only spends that are unplanned, some don't record spends at all, the choice is yours!

Hello, I'd like to join this year. Last year being frugal helped me save enough for a new boiler so this year I plan on doing the same to get another couple of bits ticked off my list.

@RumBananaSundae good luck with the walking - I'm very jealous
@Happierwithouthim she's still a lucky girl - not many dealers would offer such generous terms 😂

Spends
£11 barber plus tip (had a christmas/NY discount offer, so will be normal price next visit)
£4 post office
£4 parking
£11 birthday present stash

+£20 Christmas gift money

Interested in the council tax answer Girlie please do update when you find out

Nsd technically. Three weeks holiday "club" booked but they couldn't take payment today so....

Back to work which has sucked!

On the mesh issue we had that for a while, didn't work well in the house even with full fibre broadband (stone walls) but fixed fibre has worked wonders and I don't need the mesh at all

Acc1: -1138
Stretch target of getting it to -1000 but will be tough especially in Jan

Back to work tomorrow. Going to try and blitz the house tonight so the Christmas boxes can go back into the loft.

Aldi shop done today. Spent £102 but that included some cleaning products, discounted alcohol and some pricier things like nuts and oils so quite happy with that.

Staring down a hefty self assessment tax bill at the end of the month which I will take out of the business as planned but will need to rein in company spending as well as personal to build up my balance again.

@Wolfcub @Girliefriendlikespuppies looks like you'd continue to get single person discount as long as they are still students studying more than 21h a week.
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/council-tax-discounts/

No spend so that’s 2 out of 2. Husband went to buy dog food and came back with a massive bag which will last ages. Win win

All back to work and school here today. Early morning was brutal, work was actually a bit slow today 😂

Dropped off a package for a refund of sale shopping that didn’t quite fit. £58 due back.

It was almost a NSD, but then saw the last holiday payment for Easter’s weekend away came out today.

January’s credit card bill is looking big. Will pay off in full, but I think we won’t manage to save into the holiday fund as we have the DC’s term activities to pay for this month too. Need to have a frugal month!

I have been unintentionally frugal. New years day was spent in a&e with no working vending machines. Unplugged By someone who wanted to charge their phone By the time I left even McDonald's had closed. Today I am too tired to go to a shop. I may have eaten a lot of toast.

@marthasmum walking is so good for the soul. I try to get out in the hills at least once a week.... Easier given where I live than a lot of people.

Welcome new peeps.... It is lovely to see so many new people.

Unescorted 💐

I remember when DD was at uni, I had to ask her to get a certificate from Student Services with proof of her hours which I submitted to the council as evidence that she was a full-time student which preserved my single person discount.

Chile it'll be 15 years old at that stage but it'll be a great start for her I think

Yikes, looks like food shopping will be hiked for months as a result of the Red Sea shipping problems.

€68.50 on a kindle paperwhite from cex. Amazon had refurbished ones but £120 & wouldn't ship to ROI, there's a guarantee from cex & a branch locally so figured why not. I got a kindle fire years ago & gave away kindle & regretted it since.
I've Christmas money that I haven't spent anything from yet.

Back to reality 🥱 Got my lunch ready to go

Sorry to hear that @Unescorted

Ins
+225 PB -set to reinvest. Very happy with that 👏

Thanks sing & Chile I am fine - I was acting as the responsible adult for my DM. She could be in cardiac arrest with catastrophic bleeding and you still need to wrestle her through the door of the hospital in case she puts anyone out ... Forgetting that things are easier to treat if you go early. And not being able to swallow after 24 hours does need medical help. We can go before or after organ failure sets in but it needs looking at at some point. I was in the before camp. Therefore I was panicking unnecessarily ergo a very bad person.

tutti I was just listening to that in the news. Today was a school day as I learnt about the Shanghai Container Index.

Today is a day of spreadsheets... Specifically a function that will look up a value and return a blank if it is 2 of 5 values and another if it is one of the other 3. Then it needs a conditional format and a sum for the remaining values. I predict lots of swearing. Wish me luck.

I'll swap your spreadsheet for a PBC Unescorted. It's currently doing my nut in

That must have been really difficult with your mum unescorted sounds like you did the right thing though!

Tuesday 2nd
£85.19 tesco 😬 more than it should’ve been but hopefully as I adjust back to regular deliveries it’ll be less

Frugal act for today - had an email about HP Instant Ink price increase and have reduced my plan from 9.99 (going up to 11.99) to 2.99 - I don’t need nearly as many pages now I’m not tutoring (stopped when I increased hours at work). Need to get a new printer today anyway as ours just died, I might print lots for Cagletini with my rollover pages before they disappear 🤣

Off to collect my glasses today too but I paid for those before Christmas.

£80 yesterday at osteopath. And about to drop £50 at drs. But both can be claimed back through work insurance. So I’m not counting it.

Unexpected tenner in bagging area!

I’d left a tip for the bin crew in a card pre Xmas, but it blew away. Another neighbour found it and returned to me- I stuck the card more firmly on the lid for todays collection, but they haven’t taken it. So, I tried, and I can reclaim my tenner in good conscience

Need a few bits today (onions, butter, bread), in order to make chestnut hummus and parsnip-chestnut soup, to use up the chestnut purée that DH mistakenly bought instead of while ones. The dip will help to use up some veggies in the form of crudités.

@Wolfcub I don't know what a PBC is but it can't be this traumatising so it is a deal.
@Sandytoxic sounds reasonable to me. I love the beginning of winter because I find all my emergency fivers.
@ememem84 I hope you feel all straight again.
@SingToTheSky I have been paperless for years now because of the cost of ink. Shopping lists on my phone (added advantage they can be sent to whoever is passing the shop). All other notes on One note. I only use paper for drawing/ painting. Other added bonus is that I can zoom in when I can't find my reading glasses 🤓

Dr thinks it’s hormone imbalance. So I’m back on the pill. She’s suggested trying it out for a bit and seeing how I go. I’ve got another apt booked in a month to report back.

Nsd so far. Woop.

Thank you Chile. I love walking but there is nothing too interesting here and I'm too tight to pay to go and walk somewhere else. Happy to have located another Post Office user.

Sorry to hear about your mother Unescorted. I hope she is recovering.

Your soup sounds lovely Sandy. I'm a big fan of chestnuts. I have parsnips and chestnuts so I might follow your lead.

Spending has been £1.89 on some yogurt drink in Lidl this morning. I'm back at the office tomorrow so will put some money on my travelcard later.

Stress levels rising due to arsehole. Had a nightmare last night so I'm crossing my fingers I'm not returning to the days of them happening frequently.

@Wolfcub profit benefit cost? Proposed/project business case? Either way, neither sound good.

@Unescorted YouTube is your friend! IF or XLOOKUP sounds like they might be a good start

@SingToTheSky have you thought about a laser printer - yes a higher initial outlay but I've had mine for over 5yrs I think and not yet paid for a new ink cartridge. Check out ebay too for refurbished or second hand ones.

@RumBananaSundae do you work? Is there somewhere near the office or some other place you go to that has better walks?

Spends
4 food
22 school trip
(I don't count commuting fare as that's a monthly unavoidable set cost)

Thanks for the advice on the council tax, dd is planning on finishing college this summer and wants to work/travel. If she gets a full time job Ill definitely be asking for a bit of rent to make up the difference in council tax and child benefit. She's not decided if she wants to go to uni yet and I'm happy for her to have a think about what's next.

Have had a couple of lsds now I'm back at work, it's my mums bday today so my brother and I are taking her out for dinner tonight.

I had a glut of carrots so have par boiled them and put in the freezer 😇