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!

Gosh darn it. I have covid. Which explains why I’ve felt so exhausted recently. Spent a lot of yesterday coughing at work. Came home. Did a test and didn’t even have to wait the allotted time (15 mins). After about 30 seconds two huge red lines showed up. Super dooper. So that’s me wfh for the foreseeable and cancelling all my plans for the weekend. Which to be fair probably saves me around £150….

cleaner comes today. Yay.

DH has gone away for work - he left this morning. Super timing.

@ememem84 what a nightmare. I had it for 3 weeks before Christmas. Coughing was the main issue made sleeping v difficult. So much sympathy 💐

Yesterday petrol and plumber, which was planned for rather than emergency

@ememem84 hope you get better quickly. It did the rounds here just before Christmas. A kind colleague brought it to a whole team event... 27 of the 30 people attending got it. We are still catching up on the work.

That’s why work are very hot on us staying home. I mentioned it to dsis last night (teacher) and said I had been told to wfh. She thought it was stupid because there are no rules here anymore. But we’re a small team and if something runs through the team and takes us all down….

admittedly I probably have infected everyone anyway. Because I was IN Office yesterday. Coughing every 20 mins or so. But at that point I didn’t know.

I’m up and about though. DH has gone to airport. Dd was up at 545. We’ve had breakfast (I’ve had eggs. She’s had Nutella on toast) ds is still asleep.

catface is a bit confused because DH has gone. She’s going to be my co worker today. She’ll probably win employee of the day 🤣

Good morning, it's taken me ages to catch up with the thread as it's pretty active.
I'm keeping a written note of spends this week and will log it all on here at weekend. It's been quite an eye opener seeing all the unplanned spends adding up though and I feel a lot more accountable iyswim.
We've been much better at eating what's there and not just what we fancy though so wasting less food and spending less on unnecessary top-ups and lunches at work.
Still debating whether we can justify a few nights away over Feb half term. Sensible head knows it would be better to wait and see if can pay off CC bill with this months pay so think will stick to that then see if we can find a last minute hotel or SC option somewhere by the sea in the UK...Any suggestions welcome.

Coming into work when poorly is frowned on here too.... Mostly it works.

@HalfWomanHalfChocolate I use the pouches of grains as a base and throw roasted vegetables or left overs in a tub. This time of year it can be nuked or in warmer weather green bits and a couple of tomatoes get hurled at the pot. I have jars of prepared dressing. I have a weird obsession with dressing recipes.

Or make soup and freeze in the travel/microwave cups. Pick up a bun as you go by Aldi / Lidl... And pick up a cheap pastry while you are there.

Or freeze single servings of things like lasagne or shepherd's pie...

Before you all ask yes I do have a freezer drawer of grab and go lunches. It is where I keep my tupperware collection.

What type of facilities for reheating/making food at work have you got half

I often use leftovers, or throw salad ingredients into a lunchbox and bring a salmon fillet/chicken either already cooked and reheat or to cook fresh. If you don't like sandwiches leftovers are a good option too. The precooked rice option mentioned here is invaluable for a handy lunch for sure.

Yesterday was a NSD, however I should've bought firelighters. I got Tesco delivery on Mon eve but doing Dunnes click & collect this eve because I'll be in town and I need a few bits and buying them in a convenience store/going into the store will lead to more spends, approx €80 on this, taking advantage of the €10 off €50 x 2. I'd €16 off €80 in Tesco but there was no comparison in the value I got after spending €74.69 but I wanted to get Method wood floor cleaner because I've heard good things

Em get well soon, do you need to notify cleaner in case she's not keen on catching Covid?

We have local property tax here which I guess in the equivalent of your council tax however there are very few services provided by it if you live in the country. I pay €8.25 per month but I live in the country and have private water/septic tank and no street lighting so it's just money for nothing really. It is by the value of your house & that is self declared.

All this starter talk is making me want to take mine out & revive but I don't need to be eating loads of bread & my oven isn't working right either.

Had a fella out to look at it yesterday and he slated the brand & told me it would be €180 to replace thermostat, it's the fan oven and there is a top oven and I also have an air fryer so I'm not going to spend money on it at the moment. €90 for call out though

Got paid today, another wage with zero overtime, but next week will be back to normal & then I'll be able to see what impact the new tax bands have had.

A couple of heavy spend days but got a very good deal on flights to a family wedding later this year so bought them while the price was right. I had factored in paying for them but wasn't sure exactly when but feels good to have them covered now. Also went to a birthday dinner last night and spent £65.

This weekend will be very low key and I will be super careful on spending until payday. I have a couple of big costs to factor in including hair appointment but should be ok to manage those.

have notified cleaner - thanks for the reminder happier she's totally happy to come round still. she's an angel. her words were " you have to have a clean house when you're poorly - i'm coming to help you"

half when i do work lunches it's typically leftovers. we only have a microwave. so anything i can re heat. what i like to do sometimes is make jacket potatoes at home, and then take one in a box with cheese already grated on top for lunch. reheat in microwave.

Isn't that just great em being sick and on your own with dc for weekend, last thing you need is the house up in a heap as well

I’ve started on antibiotics and feeling queasy / bloated as a result. Bleurgh.
Need to grab some stuff for tomorrow night’s dinner as I’ve a job interview tomorrow and won’t have time.
didn’t sleep well last night worrying about how busy work will be and also the upcoming interview which isn’t exactly productive as it’s left me exhausted today 😫
@Unescorted taking note as DH has started having bad IBS reactions to his school lunches, it must be the oil they use or something so he’s going to have to take pack ups from Monday.

Yep - it's the best timing. the kids also have two parties to go to this weekend. ds can be dropped off which is great. but dd is still little enough that she needs me to hang about. so i need to see if someone else can take her.

it will be fine though . i'm not feeling too grotty. more jet lagged than anything if that makes sense. and snotty.

currently listening to caleb hammer's podcast "financial audit" it's USA based, but it's interesting. he interviews people about their debt and finances.

Bread and milk from the Co-op, £2.40. As I went shopping last Friday I am going to eek it out until Monday so getting 10 days of meals out of 7 days of shopping. I have managed this by using up Christmas cheese and freezer stash/pantry bits.

Todays menu is breakfast egg on toast and porridge for DH, lunch swede, leek and carrot soup which was not as grim as it sounds as it had a good lump of butter and a lot of pepper and fresh thyme from the garden incorporated, with a crusty roll and more butter, dinner will be some salmon from the freezer of indeterminate age, new potatoes carrots and peas and I am thinking of a lemony/peppery/creamy sauce type of thing to go with.

Parsnip cake all gone so I made some scones for elevenis which we had with h/m plum jam.

NSDs progressing well. But, that's my spending, I still need DH to continue the conversation he finally initiated a week ago and get round to discussing and agreeing budgets with me.

Baby steps.

Still on target for eating from stores and pantry except for fresh milk and eggs but we're cutting down on the use of those.

Random pantry discovery: 9kg of octopus.

@2024Hackathon How on earth do you lose track of 9kg of octopus? is it a whole one?

So many tentacled questions. Tinned, frozen or do live near an aquarium and it has escaped?

My reading comprehension is so poor.... Pantry = not frozen unless you live in the Antarctic/ Arctic and it is an outdoor pantry.

@2024Hackathon house

You're not that far out.

Some of the octopus cache is tinned. It was in with the other vast stocks of tinned fish so I hadn't grasped it was octopus because it looked like (say) mackerel or sardines in tomato sauce (it was musky octopus in tomato sauce).

For the rest, apparently, it's Galician octopus, caught by my relative's chum. It's been vac-packed and frozen. But, because some freezer items were transported in the box they were in straight from her freezer to my freezer, they were labelled 'seafood' which didn't bring octopus to mind for me. Even seeing the phrase "pulpo a la gallega" didn't mean a lot to me as I misread it as 'pollo' (chicken).

Cue, last night, I was looking into the seafood boxes with a view to making a laksa (someone mentioned one on a thread recently and it prompted me to think of it) when I discovered that they are full of tentacles.

The family is going to have an interesting time embracing this. You can't really disguise a tentacle. I don't know if it would be complete culinary heresy to grind some of it down but I've never really heard of octopus mince before. To be fair, I've never thought of serving octopus before now so what do I know.

@2024Hackathon , you've greatly amused me this afternoon with the octopus chat, thank you!

Another NSD. This week is going well so far! Funny how some weeks the spending seems to be none stop and others less so.

Salmon and Greek roasted veg for tea. The broth last night was delicious and so cheap to make, I should have made double. I've tons of mushrooms needing using so will make mushroom and chickpea curry tomorrow and stay on the frugal train!

Looking at my Mum's/ brother's freezer it is an easy mistake to make. It is more tombola than informed choice.

They might go for it... Mine love it. In Tempura batter, pasta sauces or fish stews are the favourites. Also BBQ with lemon garlic and herb butter.

Need salmon & roast vege sounds lurvly.

Had to get the plumber out today- he’s off to see if the required part is in stock, so don’t know the final costs just yet. But we need hot water!

I’ve been grazing on snacks all day while waiting in, and now I’m not hungry for dinner. Oh well, my lovely tofu will keep till tomorrow.

Low spend day so far. Brought my lunch to my client's office and paid the travel on expenses. I managed to resist buying a coffee which I don't usually. Meeting some friends after work so that will cost but have resisted booking a restaurant and will look at cheap eat options.

I brought lunch with me to heat up & eat in car when collecting ds, it'll be tomorrow's lunch because I went to deli counter and got lasagne & chips with a drink €8.95, ate very little of it, it looked far better than it tasted

60c on parking
€0 on ds haircut because he refused
€6.03 on cat food & effervescent vitamins
€30 eye trio, badly overdue
€52 because I forgot to cancel eatstro delivery, managed to miss emails about choosing order & reminder on my phone to cancel so I just looked I'm getting meatballs Alfredo, sweet & sour chicken & creamy Parmesan, sausage & kale pasta, story could be worse I guess!
€80.99 on dunnes click & collect