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!

timetoswitch I wish I'd known these syringes could been recycled, I must have thrown away a hundred when dc were younger.

I'm currently gathering my old glasses to hand over to charity, collected my two new pairs last week.

@Timetoswitch I also wish I had known about the syringe recycling when DD was younger, Calpol was practically a drink in our house!

£33 marks and £98 Sainsbury’s when it comes.
satisfying de clutter and tidy up today

Loving all the octopus chat! I do like octopus but in small quantities. Not sure how I would feel after 9kg's worth of mealtimes!

A fun night out with old friends last night set me back £80. Today did £4.90 for a top up shop though I do need to do a fuller shop tomorrow.

Been looking at the exit fee for my mortgage and now the market seems to have eased up and my circumstances have changed in other ways to make me a more attractive borrower it may make sense for me to pay the fee and try to get a better mortgage rate. Could be a significant saving and make month to month budgeting less nerve wracking.

Loved the octopus chat yesterday.
Thanks so much for your kind messages re my parents. It's early stages but I think the enormity of it has really hit home. They have both been on good form this week which has made a nice change. Thanks to whoever suggested the elderly parents chat on MN, I will look at it over the weekend and join in.
Joining in with the lack of subsistence outrage Gen
I almost always take my lunch to work. HM soup is my winter favourite, leftovers is probably next & then allsorts from toast or rice cakes with a tin of sardines, salad more in the summer. Yesterday I was running late though so had to buy and on a Thursday we run a clinic in a church hall which has Greenhalgh's nearby, a northern bakery chain. It's cakes never look that appetising but they have up to 6 different soups on each day & yesterday I had curried chicken & coconut milk for £3.30. It was delish & very filling.
So after doing some last finishing off work this morning I've now got a week off, woohoo! I really feel I need it at the moment. I've had a productive afternoon rescheduling dental appointments (1 new crown & one replacement crown so ££££) that were cancelled due to my work commitments, booking opticians check (can claim cost back through work), booking a massage that was a birthday gift (no cost to me).
Meal planning/eating down the freezer etc going very well. Random freezer meals last night, haggis, neeps & tatties Wed, Chilli cornbread pie tonight.
Booths shop today £80 but that included great deals on a whole chicken and a shoulder of lamb.
Dh & I are paying for our Paris trip, 4 nights for the 4 of us in April. I'm trying to cover as much of the cost as possible with CC cashback, vinted money, topcashback and betting wins (we both have a couple of accounts where we use mainly the free offers and it accumulates over time, very small scale). So far we've got £350. During my week off I'm trying to list as much as I can on vinted and see what else we can sell. Need also to check an ancient premium bond dh was given as a child.

NS day today.

Avocado on toast for breakfast, that 4/4 decent avocados, I am inordinately pleased to just get what I paid for which was 4 edible avocados. Ham and cheese toasties with an apple for lunch, and have just put a h/m lentil and tomato lasagne in the oven for dinner.

I had already made the ragu and the bechamel before I realised I had run out of lasagne sheets. So I made it, I'm quite impressed with myself for not popping out and buying some.

Evening everyone
My Mum has Covid but is barely ill thankfully , it has been going around her residential home since just after Christmas and out of 22 residents only 6 have got/had it & they have been barely ill . Of course they are vaccinated to the hilt there so that is why they have been so well l think
We haven't been visiting her since Weds this week and they are going to test her again on Sunday . l can't see her being negative on Sunday but we shall see , fingers crossed , meanwhile they are looking after her and we are ringing her everyday and she says to us all 'how good they are to me here ' . l realise how lucky we are to have her in such a great care home, the staff are just wonderful .
Hope you are feeling better @ememem84
@Happierwithouthim well done on gathering your old glasses it's so kind of you meals sound lovely l wouldn't mind yummy lol
@northender l had to take my NHS pension early too just like you are contemplating. I don't regret it because l managed to look after my parents for 6 years until My Dad died and my Mum then went into a residential care home, her decision. I felt awful in the beginning , l was so afraid we wouldn't be able to manage but even though it's not a lot of money l had carer's allowance for my Mum as well which helped pay for my fuel . l really didn't miss work at all l was so surprised ! Good luck with whatever you decide to do
@Gensola that's wonderful re possible promotion l am so pleased for you sweetheart
l can't get over how busy it is here and l must apologise for not catching up with everyone but it's a big task
Spends today Costco £125
Tu sale £17
We are eating out of the freezer too yay !
Am loving the Neo and Brutus photos

£40 hairdressers, yikes!

£15 in Tesco, but I used cash in purse that I’d earned from something else, so doesn’t really count!

£10 in charity shop. A bee hotel reduced from 22 to 5. And a mint velvet top, which when I tried it on at home is too tight, so it’s now on Vinted.

listed a few other items while I was at it, and have sold one already!

I’m going a bit green with all the fish discussions! Im feeling very in-cosmopolitan because I’m not sure I’ve ever had octopus…and certainly not conga [goes off to google].
Nearly a NSD - £2ish on snacks at work. Non spendy weekend planned, taking DS’s to football and dog walking. Oh and £65 on tesco
online shop which is cheap for me - unexciting end of the month shop.

Wesley
Here is a picture of a conger for anyone unsure (with a man called Wesley)

@marthasmum that is terrifying 😱
I have had eel once in a Japanese restaurant and it was really fatty and rich, my dad had to finish it for me 😂
on way to gym then library to prep for interviews next week for promotions- have packed my breakfast (frittata with mushroom and kale) and lunch (leftover blue cheese, red cabbage and fig salad which I’ll add chicken to from M&S) to save spending loads on food.
Making a lamb gosht with red lentils later which I’m really looking forward to.

We are about to clear our last credit card - I can’t believe we will be debt free apart from the mortgage. Payment will be done ceremonially later this eve and we will celebrate with some fizz 😄

Wonderful news @Gensola! Congratulations, enjoy that fizz!

Good luck with the interviews green and wahoo on clearing the debt

Congratulations 🎊@Gensola ! That deserves some fizz

My first real test today of sticking to the list and what we need as off to the shops.

Acc1 -900 (but no foreseeable change now until Feb)

That’s fab gen, really well done. Have you any plans what to do with the extra money?
are the new jobs at a different uni or interns promotions?
chile good luck with sticking to the list. I am poor at that!

Hi all,

Can I join you? I’m on the no-spend thread. My natural frugality flew out the window this last couple of years with ill health and life-crap, I’d like to find my old peace again.

I’m trying to use my multi-fuel stove more for cooking (it’s already cheap as heating as we use driftwood and buy a tractor’s worth of tree trunks at a time and split them). Today it’ll be bean chilli simmering away on top, and jacket potatoes done in the ash pan.

It’s dry here so I’ll do a thermos of tea soon and spend a couple of hours on the beach with the dog, I’ve already sat working on the mending/altering pile for a while; I like the younger children seeing me do it whilst they play. DD19 is an amazing seamstress, far better than me, which I love.

Have a nice Saturday everyone.

Oh yeah conga are terrifying. Supposedly if they bite you they won’t let go. An old jersey recipe is conga head soup. Yuk. Needless to say we don’t eat that. 🤢🤮

£80 in. Car seat sold. Woop.

DH has taken the dc to the movies to see cats in the museum. I’m still in bed. Picked him up from airport last night and then left him with the kids and went to sleep. Slept for 14 hours.

Don't Google the conger!

£25 butchers £70 ds driving lesson. It's been a spendy day so far

I'm also winning the avocado lottery. Two out of four perfect so far so I have high hopes for the other two if I get to them fast enough

Need bread but that can wait until tomorrow. I'm contemplating making a beetroot and turnip gratin as the veg box was a bit odd this week

I am in a bit of a domesticated mood this morning so before I forget

Neo is not as lively as I thought... He came up a bit but hasn't doubled in size. I think I am judging him by Brutus' standards. Brutus is a really good starter.... I would go back into a burning building to save him. The kids ds have legs and can save themselves.

I am giving Neo another refresh... Bread could be Tomorrow or Monday. We will see how he goes. He could be good for breads that need a long rise time or where I want the bread to rise slowly. Make & shape one day and bake for dinner the next if I am on an overnight adventure.

I will read back when the washing is sorted.... It could be a while

That's pretty much my memory but not only was the mouth wide open, there were needle teeth on display.

It was intimidating for a young child to see that every time we heaved the lid of the freezer up.

I'm planning octopus in tomato sauce for Sunday or Monday. I shall see how the family receives it.

Yes I bet that was terrifying hackathon. We also had a chest freezer in the 70s when we were kids. We grew up in the country and I remember eating venison because a deer had blundered into my dads car one night. It was shot as it was badly injured and the meat shared out (apologise to any vegetarians here). There was also onion and potato ‘gleaning’ which was when the farmers had harvested their crops and you were able to go and pick up the sun standard ones from the field for free. My mum used to try and make us think it was a game because we needed the free food. We also used to go to the ‘pea factory’ with my mums friend and her kids - not quite sure how this worked but I think it was seconds from Birds Eye peas! We considered it an exciting day out as you got to watch all the peas coming down a giant chute. We would then travel back in my mums mini with two adults, four kids and buckets and buckets of peas. My kids did a lot of outdoorsy stuff when they were small but I’m not sure if their standards for excitement were higher than ours in the rural 70s!

Happy Saturday Everyone! Rather grey and uninspiring weather here but it's dry at least.

Really enjoying reading everyone's posts. I'm most intrigued by your enormous and exotic pantry @2024Hackathon - it sounds like whoever it belonged to was very canny with their food preservation skills!
Congratulations on paying off CC @Gensola - that's a great achievement. I'm hoping to pay the last big chunk of ours off with January's pay packet.

Quite shocked and disappointed by how much we are spending on groceries etc this month especially when I'm trying to be more careful but as I've said before, it's as much about awareness of where the ££ are going as actually saving.
Have also had a bit of a shock at how much DC is spending on school lunches and snacks. Have set limit now and had a word about health implications of sugary snacks as well as cost. Have also agreed to trial of packed lunches.

Spends:
Saturday: £24.25 birthday presents for family and a few kitchen implements that needed to replace.
Sunday: £75.00 lunch out with family (4)
Monday: £2.70 snacks at work
Tuesday: £2.70 parking
£3.24 snacks at work
£49.59@ Tesco (cat litter, vitamins x 3, calpol, drinks, bread plus a book and magazine)
£41.00fuel
£1.00 scratch card (didn't win anything)
Wednesday: no spend day
Thursday: £8.30 bits for tea and snacks as forgot to take dinner out to defrost
Friday: £5.00 tea & cake with friend
£4.00 bday cards x4 @ charity shop
£120.00 Weekly shop inc. Aveeno hand cream for very sore/chapped hands and cat food x 2 boxes

Savings:
Took lunch to work on Wednesday so saved £5-6 there.
Used £15 worth of Nectar points towards this weeks big shop and got lots of Nectar & Clubcard prices in Sainsbo's and Tesco.
Bought this months tank of fuel at Tesco so got Clubcard points with that too. Usually just go wherever is closest when I'm running out.

Need to take lunch to work daily and stop buying snacks. Aiming for NSD on 4 days this week.

Off to make some vegetable soup and flapjacks.

Have a lovely (and thrifty) weekend everyone.

@marthasmum I did ok. Much better than usual. I think one trick is only bringing enough bags to hold 'the list' as then there's an additional step of buying more bags (of which I have dozens!!).

Welcome @MrsShortbread

@R00tat00tt00t as they say, knowledge is power. I was shocked too when I checked my statements on how much we spend on clothes. I would have before said we don't spend a lot at all, but it does all add up - those lost hats/gloves/socks, new activity clothes like swimming costumes or ballet kit.

Spends
£80 Groceries (Inc. Cleaning stuff)
£15 brunch for the DDs
£10 new key
£20 kids activity

I'm going to go over budget this month but it will be interesting to see the exact amount. And then review the month and see which category did the damage!

Argh ds just but a nearly dried load of washing back on rinse and spin. Not the first time he's done this. It's not cheap living with dopey teens.