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!

I doubt anyone is surprised that I still haven't had the budget analysis or conversation that DH said we'd have on 04.02.

All my days have been NSDs except for today where we bought bike shoes.

Peloton arrives on Monday for the trial period. Although there's no charge for it or the app during the trial period, we bought bike shoes as you need the cleated sort.

My shoes were £43, DH's were £50.99.

I'm looking forward to having access to the bike and seeing if I take to it.

@Gensola that's annoying. I've taken to going to exhibits on a weekday morning and either taking half a day of holiday or using flexi. Otherwise the weekend ones just aren't worth it for me either. I've also enjoyed venue (like British museum) YouTube channels. Yes, it's not the same as seeing it in person, but it's free and you get up close to the item.

@RumBananaSundae that is a big adjustment. Sounds like you have some exciting upcoming trips

NSD so far and no spends planned. It's another wet and soggy day. Birthday party later - present wrapped and ready to go.

Ins
£12ish selling (haven't been very good about updating this but it's small amounts). Now that acc1 is paid off, selling money is going to mortgage overpayments this month.

Yesterday I hoovered and mopped kitchen and hallway & hoovered my bedroom, sitting room & dcs bedrooms not possible because the floors aren't clear, I've annoyed myself by repeating same jobs over and over again met by deaf ears so I've left them with dm & gone to town for grocery shop hungry

I also brought dm's burst tyre to tyre shop, visited garage three times to get bulbs in her car replaced & attended a funeral yesterday. She hit a pothole even though she claims she didn't

Feels like a rather boring weekend of jobs & two funerals. Going to watch Irish dancing with the stars at 6:30, I've only watched snippets on Instagram but saw full show last weekend at my parents.

Sorry about your waiting for the analysis woes 2024Hack. Hope you enjoy the Peloton.

Congrats on the paying off Chile.

I’ve spent about £10 today on some spreadable butter and some kind of apple spread. I feel bad about getting rid of the butter I have but it’s over a year past its date (I don’t use it very often) and tastes odd. I thought the apple spread might be nice with pancakes later in the week. Ginger is on special in Aldi so I bought quite a bit.

We went to look at a new car yesterday. Full electric. Second hand.

torn between:

2023 Kia Niro. Bigger range on battery. Done less miles. Fully spec’d out (£29,995)

2023 Audi etron. Smaller range on battery (by 70 miles) more miles done (100 more). Basic model. (£29,995)

we can get £3500 off as a grant for electric car from government. Plus around £3k for our car as a part exch.

what would you choose. Appreciate this is a huge amount of money. But we want electric. And we need this size car. And we only have one.

Does the spec give you extras you would use?
do you prefer the feel of any of them?
what are the maintenance costs ie charging costs - are there plenty of resonable charging points?
what about service costs parts etc. I suspect Kia are cheaper and give a longer warranty so I would go with them

Kia have longer warranty.
audi seems more durable (plastic backed sears not fabric so kids kicking seats with muddy feet won’t matter).
to buy new Kia is cheaper.
there are tons of charging points here.we’ll also get one in the house.
apparently with the Solar it could cost us less that £5 to charge a month.

@Happierwithouthim the weekends fly by! Sounds productive at least

@RumBananaSundae thank you. Acc2 to go - hopefully should make a decent dent next payday.

@ememem84 kia 🚗

Spends
£15 stocking up on (60!) birthday cards. Down to the last 3 so wanted to take advantage of a good price.

Avoided spends
£25 not booking swimming for next weekend as we should use our annual farm pass instead and oh is not over the bug.

I know little about cars but always like Audis.

I'm risk averse and the Kia sounds a safe bet with its warranty. Is there an annual review available that would confirm how reliable it is? Would it be horrendously costly to stain proof the seats or put more resistant covers on?

<£5 per month sound remarkable!

Seat covers

which is you heart wanting as practically they seen equal. I’m not a gadget person past auto lights and wipers

Em My bf has an audi A6- years old with massive mileage, it's a lovely solid car and beautiful to drive but he says you'll remember your visit to the garage My last bf also had an audi A6 much newer so garage costs weren't an issue.

If there's 100 miles in the difference I would think that the Kia is overpriced. My choice would definitely be the Audi, the Kia Niro is quite stylish too though.

Lidl yesterday €138.76
Dunnes €14.62 including €4.50 on toilet roll (interestingly 9pk cost €4.50, 16pk cost €9 so smaller pack better value dunnes own brand)

Hardly any meat - 4 chicken fillets, a salmon piece 3 portions, 1kg ham on lidl offer
Lidl middle aisle purchases €6.48
Cat food stock up 4 bags @ 2.29 €9.16
20 Tins of sardines for dog/cats @ 49c €9.80
Lidl Plus savings came to €10.18 and were all items I would be buying anyway
I allow €75 per week for groceries & €15 for animal food/cleaning products and this has worked out well for last 2/3 years, I think I'll need to adjust this going forward and stick to Dunnes with it's €10 off €50 spent. I'm going to put this shop into Dunnes website and see what it would cost there. I wouldn't buy the cat food or sardines there anyway so I will compare like with like. And it took me 1.5 hours plus travel but I needed that yesterday, I don't need it every week

I replaced a dim a couple of weeks ago on my Ford Focus €10 and a brake light bulb a week ago €5, replaced two dims on dm's Skoda Octavia €25 each

Well, no cat spaying operation again - so a NSD. The moggie seems to have an heart arrhythmia so will need a specialist heart scan to find out what is going on -£580!! 😨We are hoping the cat insurance will cover the cost otherwise we will have to pay but the vet is going to argue the case for us.
Otherwise she will have to be a house cat and get used to a harness so she can at least go out in the garden on a lead. Bit of a catch 22 situation, she is at risk with anaesthesia but getting pregnant will also be a high risk for her. 😯

I've given dd the task of catching our kitten today for spaying tomorrow.

Yikes that's a lot of money Rainbow

£35 car tax for the year.

I've just put my meter readings in, I'm a bit nervous as the heatings been on a fair bit recently.

Need to do an Aldi shop in a bit.

So after putting my shopping into Dunnes website turns out I wouldn't have saved anything by going there. Although if I did click & collect I'd have taken stuff out to keep costs down, there's nothing wasteful in the shopping either.

£35 is very good girlie
I must check my oil tank too as like you I've had heating on a lot lately.

£60 in Aldi. BUT they had Yorkshire Decaf Teabags in for £5.25 and they don't normally do them, so I bought 6 boxes. They are £6 in Morrisons, and £5.75 in Tesco, so I don't feel bad about stocking up on them. Even at full price they work out good value though, because they are good and strong, I can get 2 mugs out of one teabag no problem. I will stop justifying it now.... I like having 6 months worth of teabags.

Nellie I bought 20 tins of sardines yesterday for ddog, and didn't even think of having to justify myself

Still recovering from the shock of being quoted £4,000 for hearing aids!!!!!

What shall I make for dinner - I have broccoli, onions, courgettes, peppers mushrooms. Plenty of eggs and tinned things.

Sounds like omelette to me

All activity on the business account has ceased, and it can be closed. Direct debits have been transferred to personal current account, and I'm a bit more relaxed about it all. A fraudulent transaction has been refunded to the account, with no bank charges.

I got a phone call the other day with an automated message that there was unusual activity on the credit card. Press 2 to speak to advisor. I told "advisor" I would hang up and dial the number on the back of the card. Which I did, and it was a scam as I had suspected.

I want to cut back the number of tesco deliveries to one weekly. I've got into the lazy habit of ordering top-up groceries on just-eat and that's just not sustsinable. Did some batch cooking this weekend while watching Michael Moseley's "Secrets of your Big Shop". Made me think a lot about my haphazard shopping.

Will there be a new thread soon?

I saw omlette as well

one of us will set it up soon ELF. Will dine in the scam dodge and during the account

my stand mixer and food processor are coming to the end of life. Any recommendations? I’ve had my kenwoods for more years than I can count. They owe me nothing

Good luck with the car purchase em.

Hope moggie turns out OK Rainbow and that the insurance covers it.

Crikey for the hearing aids Sandy.

Frivolous Spending over the last two days. £20.24 on pancakes (for the freezer), chocolate milk, a dinner accompaniment for this week and snacks. Never usually buy snacks so not sure what happened.

Used the last of the Christmas parsnips and shallots yesterday for a few dinners this week. Still have some potatoes left. And some celery so it will be soup of some kind next week.

€53.95 on dinner & much needed catch up with a friend, it had been 4.5 months since we'd met, and we used to meet weekly.

€7.20 on lunch and 3 little chocolate bars for Pancake Tues/Valentines for myself & dc
€50 to neighbour who cut my field last July and I didn't see since to pay him. He want to do it FOC but I didn't want that as he can do a variety of stuff and I want to keep things level.

Dm has been visiting since Fri so I spent two nights in ds's bed and two on the couch, it's more comfy than sofa bed, and am looking forward to being back in my own bed tonight. I knew dd needed a new mattress but turns out ds's is urgent too. Ds's bed is 4' and has 3.5 legs, it was in the house when I bought it, contacted a local new/used furniture place and they'll have new 4' beds in stock soon. I've also got single bed frames so going to see if which he'd like best.

Had a text from my builder today that he's currently in hospital so my extension won't be starting this month. Going to gather up stuff for rubbish so far & start with a clean slate when he returns.

Project Spring Clean will commence

Going to prime a kallax unit tomorrow, hoping ds will use it for his room but if not I'll repurpose it for utility in time. Going to give dc a roller each and make it a family activity.

Familiar Friends in Frugality(Feb 24>) http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/costoff_living/5007277-familiar-friends-in-frugalityfeb-24