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!

It was oops. Nov 2020

gws wolf and yeah for bonus

My birthday is in 3 weeks going to put my birthday money together with my shop and scan vouchers and buy one then.

I bought this in possibly Dec 19, I think it was replaced by Fitbit in the meantime. I've gotten value out of it!

Ds school was closed due to no power, €15 emergency childcare.

Going to take him for lunch while I get my perfume refilled €67 and collect my contact lenses.

Will bring rubbish & recycling to town also.

€60 perfume refill
€15.50 at rubbish place, I squashed two black bags into one saving €5.50
60c parking

€5.50 McDonald's ds
I'm not a fan so I'll wait until I get home to eat

Are you selling or hoping to buy out ex @RumBananaSundae ?

I could never get the hang of knitting @Nellieinthebarn . It somehow feels like I'm doing it wrong handed or something - you know when you try and write with the other hand.

@lifelongfrugaleer well done on tracking thise those little spends before they're strictly needed
@Wolfcub gws and bonus 👏

@Happierwithouthim good idea of going home to eat and not eating mcd just because it was there and easier. Hope power comes back soon.

Spends
£60-70ish petrol (can't remember if I put this before)
£13 milk, fruit, bread, snacks
£8 clothes for DD1

NS today, DH has a balance problem and was a bit wobbly today, so I have been busy being a walking aid, also walked the dog twice in between the rain.

Toast and cereal today for breakfast, h/m tomato sweet potato and pepper soup with use up the crusts croutons for lunch, and sausages, mash, neeps and cabbage for dinner. The neep was a bit elderly, and I don't remember the last time I bought one. It might well be a 15p one from Christmas. Tasted ok with plenty of pepper and butter mashed in.

I keep checking the bank balance and marveling at it not being less every time I look. Which as I am not spending any money is quite logical, but still seems a bit wonderful.

@Nellieinthebarn it's a good feeling. Well done 👏

Half term tomorrow. We have less than £10 in the fun budget but have birthday parties (presents already bought) and a theatre trip (already paid for). Just hoping the weather eases off a bit. Thankfully work trip has been cancelled so that makes childcare easier.

Need to keep the food spend under control this weekend. Will be keeping the frugaleers in mind!

Spends
£7 clothes OH - on sale (was a needed purchase from The List)
£160 garage part payment

And I should confess the £8 clothes for DD1 were not on The List but getting from ebay bnwt saved £14 from the M&S version she saw and wanted.

I saw this tip about gamifying your saving. You get a to do list/app and log a 1p/10p/50p as each separate line item up to £10. Every morning you commit to ticking off one line item per day - some days you do more, some you do just the one. But it gives that small boost and sense of achievement. You can adjust the amounts depending on your budget. I might try it for acc2 and logging each £1 as a line. It means at a minimum I'll pay off £30 a month.

€3.80 in Centra, ds wants split pot yogurts for lunch instead of a roll, which will save me a job in the morning, they were 2 for €2(ds informed me I can get them in Aldi but I recall that they had banana flavour which nobody ate so will look around!) and a bottle of 0% cider just because!

Dc are at their dads tonight so I've taken 3 salmon fillets out of freezer for dinner with bf & dm (I got 5 decent portions out of the €18 piece of salmon I bought in SV so I'm happy with that)
We had homemade pizzas last night for an easy tea.
Todays lunch is leftover turkey mince udon noodle stirfry from freezer.

Think dm will pay for dinner out tomo

Does anyone use Dr Bronners Liquid Castille Soap?

I'm on a facebook group called Life on a budget in Ireland, in case anyone's interested. Someone recommended this can be used for everything from personal hygiene to clothes to cleaning etc. I'm intrigued.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5003333-tell-me-at-one-or-two-small-thing-youve-done-to-make-your-life-easier?page=1

because I think we're likeminded people on this thread maybe some of you may enjoy this thread

@Happierwithouthim - I love Dr Bronners - but I've only ever used it for handwash/shower wash, not applied it across all the possible uses listed. So, for me, it's not a budget option, rather a treat because i love the packaging and the scents.

£70 on groceries at Aldi and Sainsbury's this week. Included salmon, but very little cheese this week, as we still had some. £50 at the butcher - 4 duck legs, 2 chickens, some sausages and a pack of Brindisi chorizo. We're going to Yorkshire for a week next week, partly to visit DS in Leeds, and partly to escape London and - fingers crossed for weather - get some walking in. So I'm planning to confit the duck legs and take them, plus one of the chickens, on holiday with us, so I can dish up some home comforts to DS. DH has promised to cook one of his excellent crumbles!

Other spends: £175 on a French language course (online, not in person - planning to work up to that over the year). Have stashed this month's savings into their various homes, and have a tight, but do-able budget for the remaining month. Have a yen to go and see American Fiction this weekend.

Ddog is asleep, and snoring. He's filthy - got wet and muddy in the park this afternoon, and I CBA to wrestle him into the bath. He's due his annual boosters, already paid for via the monthly pet club subscription, but I still need to get another kilo off him from his Christmas indulgences, and don't want to get ticked off by the vet.

@Happierwithouthim feeling a wee bit vindicated given I do a lot of these already 🤣 🤩

Sopping sopping wet today and horrendous traffic.

Spends
£1 school end of (half)term bake sale
£5 fruit

I shall read that thread
cheap shopping week only £90 sigh

Another NSD today so 6/9 so far but need to shop tomorrow but sticking rigidly to a list so hoping to rein in expenses.
Have a good weekend all!!

Sainsbury this morning for the stuff Aldi doesn’t sell

half term here

So much for a cheap weekly shop £95 Sainsbury’s though £34 was on socks which might be going back after a sock amnesty from dh & ds

Oh dear @lifelongfrugaleer hopefully the sock amnesty is bountiful!

Made a charity donation at Christmas which got routed incorrectly. May have to put aside some money to redonate whilst the refund works itself through the process. Ideally need to donate by end of march for tax purposes.

Spends
£50 cleaners
£20 weekend shop on bits and bobs - fruit, pizza, etc.

Spendy weekend in London, saw the Fantasy exhibit at British Library which was nice but spoiled by the fact they let in huge crowds and I am small so couldn’t see anything without queuing for 10-15 mins just to get to the front and see it was a single book I wasn’t that interested in. People were standing for ages in front of each thing. Legion exhibit at BM was the same. One guy was standing with a backpack on, kept whirling around as if it was deserted rather than super busy and hitting me. Enraged!
nice lunch with friends and several hipster coffees.

Well, not too bad on the food shopping Home Bargains £21.77 Lidl £12.37 and £8.00 in Iceland

We also spent £25.98 on photos in Max Spielmans but DH paid for those - I need to renew my Driving Licence by the 27th and DH needs to renew his passport if we want to go abroad this year. Whether we can afford/deserve it remains to be seen but a going out of date passport will be a definite hindrance!! He of course would be delighted if he was stuck somewhere nice, hot and sunny without me!! 😆He also bought and paid for fish food. 🐠So now the NSD are 6/10 must improve on that!!

How’s the hotel going Girlie? Hope you and your daughter are having a grand time.

I tried quilting Nellie. It was not a success. The sewing machine has not been used since.

Great news on the bonus Wolf.

I’m not sure Chilie. Financially it makes better sense to buy him out but the place needs so much work and mortgage rates are painful. Think I’m adjusting from being two or three years away from being mortgage free to having to start again. Also it depends on how much he’ll accept. Estate agents are coming this week.

Banana yogurt is the best Happier. The banana yogurt at breakfast was the best thing about my last visit to Switzerland. Worked out as the most expensive yogurt I’d ever eaten but it was lovely. I’ve read about Dr Bronner’s on some trekking blogs. I was put off it by someone mentioning they brush their teeth with it.

Enjoy your walking Big. The French course sounds good.

I know the feeling Gensola. I’m short. Went to the free Pesellino exhibition at the National Gallery this week and saw barely any of it.

Spending since my last post: Wednesday and Thursday was about £8 on random groceries. Thursday was £5 on a bao bun lunch. Friday was £5.75 on a dreadful pastry with flakey friend. Today has been £22.85 on groceries. I spent another three hours trying to sort out the broadband debacle this morning so I splashed out on a Chinese meal for one in Marks and Spencer. Note to self: I need to get back into better food shopping habits.

Flakey friend has invited themself on my April Paris jaunt. Have run out of tolerance so I’m hoping it will not be mentioned again as I won’t hold my tongue. Was made even worse by them asking me when I’d rebooked the tickets for for the event they cancelled on me on Sunday ignoring that I’d said I wouldn’t. Arghh. This week has been trying.

Home from the spa hotel, had a lovely time, enjoyed some much needed relaxing and was nice having time with dd. Still can't believe I officially have an adult child now though 😱

Dd drove some of the way there and we had one very hairy moment on a hairpin bend going up hill. When people say 'their life flashed before their eyes' I now know what they mean 😳🫣

We spent today shopping, dd didn't find anything which she was a bit disappointed about (she has a lot of bday money to spend!) I did find some clothes which wasn't the plan!

I spent £37 in Superdry on a silk play suit which was in the sale, I like it a lot and I think I can wear it to the party next wend. Also spent £27 in H&M on a few basics I needed.

My mum paid for our dinner at the hotel last night and lunch today was £12 in a bakery.

Parking was £5, hmmm think that was all the spends.