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!

While googling something completely different I discovered I can claim for my glasses on VHI, approx €75 of what I spent will be paid out and I'm debating IUD and that can be bought on DPS so will cost max €80. All good news.

Blue this years a leap year so Feb will have 29 days

Well it's been pay day for some of our pensions, the rest will follow tomorrow and then again next week. Be good to have some money back in the bank!!
Following results from blood tests and a BP Diary - DH and I both need to eat more healthily so will be browsing the cook books and menu planning with a view to using stuff from the freezer. That way we can make space for the healthier options from the Meat packs.
We got very lazy over Christmas and we love the nibbly bits but they are all pre-prepared so need to get back on with more cooking from scratch. But it was nice while it lasted.
Need to dig out my Monty Books too and have a think about what we can grow this year in our planters in the garden. We did well last year with Strawberries, Lettuces, Salad leaves, Tomatoes, Herbs, Potatoes, Spring onions and onions - the Brussels Sprouts were pathetic - not a single sprout to be seen but you never know they might show something yet!! Might try cauliflowers but grow them in amongst the bushes and flora in the flower beds this year.
Going to list the tinned ingredients we have too - there's plenty of couscous - which is healthy and stuff that the GCs eat - but there are odd things like coconut milk buried at the back so we could have a few surprises.
It wasn't a NSD today as GC had a toddler swimming class today which was £6 and someone gained a £1 out of me as I forgot to take it out of the locker - I'm always doing that! 🙄But will start counting up the NSD days in February again.

@martha yes it's definitely over the annual amount we budget.
Cars are the worst and we've been more than your average unlucky with them. Even though we've gone for decent brands, dealers, etc.etc.
@life and @need happy anniversary to you both
@need Raised beds sounds ideal. We need to get 2 put in but it never is a priority
@happier tiredness setting in here too. Sometimes a good rest with your feet up, a hot cuppa, and an entire pack of jaffa cakes is what's needed!
@wolf well done to you and your parents. Mine are no longer with us, but the ILs still haven't 'quite got round to it'. There's only so much encouragement I can do given I'm a DIL. There's children from both sides and previous marriages so it's going to be difficult. Both me and oh have POAs already and we're a good 30years younger than they are! Having been through multiple relative deaths in all various ways - sudden, slow, incapacitated etc. I am an evangelist for sorting these things out - and completing helpful death paperwork like The Life Book by AgeUK (it's free to download from their website)
Interesting dating discussion. It's impossible to know what you might feel like and why it ends may well influence that. Definitely harder too if young kids are involved.

Sorry to anyone I missed!

Acc1 -1080

Spends yesterday and today
£15 lunch (planned outing)
£3 fruit
£7 gym
£7 gym
£10 fruit and milk
£8 snacks

Ahhh expensive day today. Car service, I had £250 put aside but was £450 due to needing brake parts as well. That’s about £900 I’ve spent on the MOT and service recently which is not good . This car has been pretty reliable but is 12 years old now so showing it’s age.
also, forgot I owed the dog walker £135 so now about to go £50 or so overdrawn. Whilst I’ve been working these really long days I’ve been having the dog walker even when I’m at home as I just haven’t had a minute.
Out for tea tomorrow which is more spends but it’s to a pub with reasonable prices and DS1 will come as well as DP and me, as it’s his friend’s mum’s birthday. And I am mostly excited because I will have to leave work at a reasonable time to get there!

@marthasmum sorry even talking to me must have passed on our car bad luck! 👎 leaving work early sounds good

@Rainbow1901 happens to me too. We seem to lose £1 coins at the rate of knots!

Trying to decide whether to put £200 to paying back Acc1 or put it into SIPP. The financially sound thing is to put it into the pension but there's a mental win in getting the account to less than -1000.

Half & half Chile ?

Payday here too. Thank goodness

Transferred £140 to the savings account this month. Very pleased with that considering I had the TV license, an unbudgeted two nights away and a birthday I forgot. Hoping this month I can put a bit more away.

Spends today £24 on 8 clear storage boxes for the larder, its going to have a good clear out and stock take, and rationalised storage. I am hoping this will help stop things getting lost and going out of date before I can use them. I am not saying I don't eat out of date food, because I more or less ignore best before dates, but I am hoping this will help me with stock rotation and keeping tabs on what I've got. But I will miss the joy of finding an unexpected packet of something I forgot was there.

This purchase has made me very happy, I love a project and got a dopamine hit from the purchase. I also enjoyed standing in Homebase working out that it was cheaper to buy two packs of 4 bundled boxes, than purchasing them separately. £3 each for good sized clear plastic storage boxes with lids.

Looks like little car's new tyre will cost me between £70-£90.

We spent £222 on food this month. Which works out about £3.70 a day per person. Not bad, and I feel we ate well, but the Christmas leftovers really helped.

nellie that’s great both savings and your food bill, would you mind sharing your fave meals? I struggle getting ours below £450 a month 😳

Just cleared the last IVF loan, it will take 2 days to show on the app. Now I am consumer debt / student debt free! DH has a bank loan of £3000ish outstanding which we will need to tackle asap if moving to USA. It was for a car as cheaper than car finance. We might actually sell the car and use it to pay some of the loan off if we are moving as obvs wouldn’t be taking car with us. Will also be selling a lot of house stuff so maybe we could raise the money that way 🧐

martha I resent all car spends so much 😂

Well done @Gensola 👏 when will you hear about if you got the job? 🇺🇸

@Nellieinthebarn excellent frugaleering! How many are you feeding?

Still the lurgy here - had a come and collect call so at home today and then oh taking over tomorrow. Lots of catch up work at the weekend for both of us to do - good thing that's free! Except nice biscuits to keep us going! 🍪

@Happierwithouthim that message made me realise I should put it all to pension! So thank you. I can keep plugging away at Acc1.

Closed out January with <6 days on which I spent and that was a new tiny brush to clean the fridge drain and the rest was spent on items for someon who is unwell.

We ate completely from stores and freezer except for fresh milk, fresh eggs, and 2 lots of potatoes when we had roast potatoes for guests.

Slight further progress with DH. Still not been able to have a budget conversation with him. But, I persuaded him to look at the Peloton offers. The discount plus the Klarna interest free deal gives us a monthly payment that is less than his current gym membership a month which he uses mostly for spin classes). And having a Peloton would allow me to take classes etc. which I haven't been because I couldn't justify the cost.

We have a free trial to see what we think. But we'll reduce our outgoings if we take to it. (It took a lot of explaining to persuade DH this was true.)

We didn't substantially add to savings beyond what we normally do. But, we absorbed increased commuting costs and the extra costs for caring for a poorly family member.

And, I resisted all the amazing 50% discounts on stuff I've wanted for years. So, that's £500 I didn't spend.

Onwards, if not necessarily upwards as yet.

I like the idea of a wee brush for the fridge drain @2024Hackathon. Good news re your DH getting on board with the Peloton at least. Sorry about your family member.

Sorry about the lurgy @Chile1978

Well done on the loan clearance @Gensola and exciting re the USA.

That's excellent savings @Nellieinthebarn

Boo re the car @marthasmum, work sounds full on.

Agree fully re POA. We now have POA for both finance and health. Wish we'd had them before. Just doing my Mums at present. Sorry about your brother @Girliefriendlikespuppies, I can certainly sympathise with the repercussions of a huge stroke on a loved one

Love the planting ideas rainbow. I've lots of healthy recipe book suggestions if you need any.

We had a visit from our financial advisor yesterday. Extremely thorough. I'd asked for him to do a number of projections for me based on a number of scenarios. We are in a good position. Better than I thought and that is reassuring to say the least.

Spends
£12 bulk oat milk.
£70 various items that we use that we buy quarterly and makes sense to bulk buy (cleaning items, hydration tablets etc).

@2024Hackathon do you have separate personal spends from your DH? Otherwise sounds a bit unfair he gets to go to the gym and you don't. £500 did NOT spend is a savvy start!

@needastrongoneagain is the financial advisor something you've always had or something once your dh's situation changed your financial position?

Spends
£200 SIPP (not quite on track but considering I started 2023 with nothing, I'm pleased with how much I've been able to squirrel away)
£1910 final payment for Holiday 🏖

Gensola - that is a great milestone achieved (debt clearance, I mean) - congratulations! and maybe a move to the US (tell Trump to stop, if you get there, and the Democrats to pull their socks up) also on the cards. Very exciting 2024 lined up.

Sounds like an excellent start made with DH, Hack. Does he respond well to spreadsheets - just little ones, showing differences between two options over 3-6-12 months? Maybe seeing it in black and white, as it were, would take the pressure off you being the sole source of truth about the numbers?

First of the month here, joint account topped up by DH (my share gets paid in on the 8th) and off to Sainsbury's I went. £69!!! on precious little, it seems to me. I shop in Sainsbury's in order to buy brands I can't get in Lidl/Aldi, and today I indulged as well in a couple of those slow-cooked dishes (pork and duck), some ready-made Parmentier potatoes and (shame-faced emoji) a microwave pack of greens. We're going to see The Holdovers tonight (and not at fleapit bargain cinema, but premium seats in an Odeon! posh!) so I want a night off cooking as well.

I love duck @BigSkies2022 hope you have fun at the movies 🎬

Spends
£32 food (got to admit mainly snacks as we're exhausted but nappies and essentials too)

@Chile1978 Just the two of us. But I usually spend more, I don't know what on to be honest.

Well done gen on getting rid of more debt.
And hack on being a bit closer with dh

£130 on tyres today

I moved the council tax money I haven't spent (it's paid over 10 months rather than 12 for some reason) into savings.

After this month I reckon I can increase how much I save each month, in theory maybe even double it...

annual alarm support/service fee paid. This is budgeted for but it's 50% more expensive than last year as I had my system upgraded in the autumn.

Need that meeting sounds very productive.

Well done everyone on the savings

Life ouch on new tires. I think I have a slow puncture so half expecting a need for a new tyre tomorrow during service and mot. Also think it'll be new cam belt time so it's going to be a spendy day

I’m really glad you’re in a good financial position need. That’s good after all the difficulty you’ve had. Sounds like everyone is doing well on saving!
My extra money saved from council tax has sadly gone on mopping up Xmas spends girlie. One of these years I’ll have a bit of surplus I hope at this time of year.
£30 or so on food and drinks for me and DP today at birthday night out, but we had a really nice time. DP is not a big socialiser but he was comfortable with this group which was nice.

@Chile1978 i should know in two weeks time 😄
Thanks, bigskies and life

Super busy now having been away - SIL staying which means more spends on food and wine.

Chile - do you have separate personal spends from your DH? Otherwise sounds a bit unfair he gets to go to the gym and you don't.

It's ridiculous because I know it doesn't work. But, I try to model financial prudence so he can't say, "No one ever told/show me," and he spends so much on himself that I make the choice not to worsen our position by spending more. He tells himself stories about me not wanting things sooner than actually accept that I'm compensating for him as the least worst alternative to being in the position that we were. We badly need a budgeting conversation. And I need a counsellor (I have to get over my default cynicism about them arising from the fact that DH has been seeing one since 2018 or 2019 and this is where we still are.)

BigSkies - good idea on the spreadsheet.

I'm in the midst of sorting out the kitchen and mindless additions to the online supermarket last thing at night. Went for McDs on Tuesday and enjoyed it, but there was already plenty in the fridge.

I'm taking on board

Well done Gensola. And fingers crossed for the US.

Glad you’ve made some progress with your husband 2024Hack. The Peloton idea sounds like a good one. What you said at 09:11 resonates with me and I’m sorry. He was similar and I used to compensate. It irritated me at the time but hey compromise and all that. Sorry. Might be projecting somewhat.

Spending was £8.20 on two cartons of juice and £1.25 on some sweets on Wednesday. Yesterday I spent £80 in Victorinox on a pocketknife for my holiday (think it’s the last item on the list) and £1.50 in Waitrose. Got an off peak train back and saved about £3. I was surprised at how many people were waiting until one second after 19:00 to go through the ticket gates. Invoice for the remaining management fees arrived -£963.61- so a little cheaper that I was expecting.

First mediation session booked for next Wednesday. Will be at the office so will have company. Was meant to be meeting flakey friend on Sunday for an event and they’ve double booked but I’ll go anyway. Currently waiting for Mr DHL to deliver my sneakers. Am eagerly waiting my Amazon books. I bought one as the author is, ahem, a tad handsome but read a free bit online and it’s good so I’m looking forward to reading it.