Familiar Friends in Frugality(Feb 24>)

[Happierwithouthim]

Frugal Friends Facing Forward with Fortitude http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/costoff_living/4957140-frugal-friends-facing-forward-with-fortitude

New thread

Spends today will be just a couple of drinks at the cricket club.

It'll be a low spend weekend hopefully.

Ahhh lost a post!
Sorry to those I've missed.
@needastrongoneagain cricketing 🏏 here too.
Enjoying the glimpses of sun today 😎, long may it continue!

Cc -2520

Ins
£25 from uncle ernie 🎰

Spends
£70 cricket club opening night. A great night to let loose with friends. Although early bed needed tonight 😴 🤣
£13 split taxi
£70 food shop
£780 decking labour

Sounds like a good night @Chile1978 😁

We didn't get to the cricket as DH really tired so has slept most of the afternoon. So saved a bit there.

Spent £40 Amazon on a garlic press, scales, measuring cups and a pestle and mortar. My old garlic press was part of a moving into our first house present 28 years ago and sort of squashes the cloves now rather than presses! I've been meaning to buy a pestle and mortar as I cook at home pretty much singularly.

Menu plan.
Today is gnocchi with pesto, butter beans and roasted veggies as I thought we were going to be out until at least 7pm and this is super quick and easy (veggies already roasted).
Venison and black bean shepherds pie.
Ragu from above with pasta.
Lemon dhal traybake
Chipotle aubergine parmigiana
Chickpea braise with kale and harissa
Lemon, kale and green herb stew.
Sweet potato, ginger and coconut stew.

The veggie dishes are all Anna Jones recipes. Highly recommended her books. They are wonderful.

A great night and a decent chunk of the morning 😉 @needastrongoneagain but yes it was lovely to shake off responsibilities for a while! 💃
Love gnocchi and butter beans. Your week sounds tasty.

Sun was doing the hokey cokey yesterday. Lovely when it was out but pretty chilly otherwise. Family lunch out today so looking forward to that but otherwise laundry is the key job of the day.

Frujobs / Frutivities (?) : washing on the line, 2 listings, and fix doorbell

Spends
£15 hotdogs/burgers
£35 diy
£50 petrol

Glad you had a good night Chile. Shaking responsibilities is awesome. Hope you enjoyed your lunch.

Especially love the sound of your sweet potato, ginger and coconut stew need.

Spending this weekend has been irresponsible. £37.69 on Bank Holiday weekend groceries. Don’t usually eat junk but have yesterday and today. Feel rather unwell. On the plus side there will be food left for the freezer.

Ordered some Crocs. I used the refund from the shoes I returned last week so including a discount code they were about £3. Spent £7.49 in Boots.

The sun was out earlier but it’s back to being overcast. Trying to be constructive and do life admin but the sofa, internet and Freevee are far more interesting. Was thinking of trying either Bicester or Gunwharf Quays today but decided that by the time I’d got there and back I might as well buy something at full price.

I felt ropey after junk food this weekend. Back to the gym tomorrow and good food

I have been adopting some Anna Jones' tips from this article https://www.theguardian.com/food/2024/mar/21/the-12-ultimate-hero-foods-how-to-improve-your-meals-in-seconds-without-really-trying, and agree with need that her cooking is really delicious. I will look out for her books in the library, and take a deeper dive this month.

@BigSkies2022 I scored two of her books in oxfam, £2.50 each and seemingly never opened by their previous owner, I was thrilled! Her recipes are amazing, never had one go wrong yet.

Spends over last few days, car tax for dds car £20, fuel £18, drink and ice cream at cafe £5, Morrisons shop £65, post office £20 (posted a gift for friends new baby who lives in Australia!!)

I also have dd £40 towards getting her hair highlighted and cut.

The weather cheered up finally Ystd and I've turned the heating off and plan to keep it off until October at least.

Hadn't heard of Anna Jones before but she looks great. Heartily agree with the top 12 ingredients - it's been on my list for a while to confit garlic.

Spends
£90 lunch

Spends of 8.05 on a new bum bag. I need it for walking the dog in the summer when I don't have enough pocket space for poo bags, dog treats, phone and medication I have to take with me. Its bright orange, this is so I can find the bloody thing. Its also the reason I have a bright red handbag with a lime green purse and a purple phone cover. I do mostly wear monochrome though so the obnoxious accessories don't actually clash with anything apart from each other.

I like the idea of colourful accessories @Nellieinthebarn. I have a treat bag thing for our dogs that I bought when they were puppies so it's 12 year old but often stuff a poo bag in various clothing items. It's rare I don't find a poo bag in a coat or jeans pocket 🤣

Not much spending over the Bank Holiday other than that I've already posted. We've mainly been sorting the garden.

Two Anna Jones books for £2.50 is incredible. My favourite is One Pot, Pan, Planet but I'm loving the new one too.

We had a Grand Day Out on Saturday and spent £100 all together. It feels like a reasonable, controlled indulgence and we enjoyed it. It's our first one since late 2023 so I have no regrets.

I truly feel that if we hadn't done this, something more drastic might have happened.

Big shop of the month, £130 in Aldi, stocked up on some things that I wont have to buy again this month though like soya milk and loo cleaner. And it's a week later than usual so it should make up for May being a 5 week month from a wages point of view.

It won't make up for it being DD and DHs birthdays, so I reckon about £300 has been spent on those, but I had already bought some of the bits and bobs so it's not all out of this month's money.

If I stay in the black it will be a win, if anything goes in the savings it will be a miracle.

Spendy two days here. Yesterday paid the trainer for next month and today spent £100 buying another pair of waterproof over trousers. Tried the pair I had bought on and they were ridiculously big. Have decided spreading the cost of things hasn’t worked for this holiday.

Found 17p on the pavement this morning. Don’t think that really balances out the outgoings but it’s better than losing 17p.

£90 on lunch Chile? Hope it was nice!

I've booked a holiday for the end of June in Brixam, Devon. It was £330 for 4 nights in a caravan, looks nice and we can take the dog. I haven't actually paid for it yet as they take the money out in a couple of weeks.

Otherwise spent £11 on a few bits in the co op and £7 on dog treats.

Dd is loving driving herself around, she made it to college and back in one piece (not sure when I'll stop worrying every time she drives off?!)

I’ve also fallen off the thread after some big life events. My dad has been diagnosed with cancer and all my team are facing redundancy and having to reapply for our own jobs, and drop a grade if we don’t get them. All kinds of horrible.

Sorry that I’ve not caught up with everyone’s news but I can see that girlie’s Dd has passed her test and got a good insurance price! Also that gen has posted - hope the move to America is still on as I think you need to be running fast from UK HE!
also, brave with the tattoo em that’s a lot of deep colour!

So, the upshot is I need to be very sensible and accountable. I’d put DS’s car insurance on my credit card and he and DD are supposed to be paying it off to me monthly. However the card is set to pay the full amount each month which I’d forgotten and a massive chunk has just gone out of my current account. So tomorrows first job is to try and sort that.

Lovely to hear from you martha. I am so very sorry to hear about your dad being unwell, and facing redundancy/drop in grade. That all sounds so stressful.

I’ve had an busy few days here, it started with a job interview at the end of last week which I’m awaiting the outcome of still. This would resolve the financial uncertainty that I posted about recently but also I really liked the job too. So🤞(I don’t think I will get it though)

Not able to sleep, which is why I’m online at 2.15am 😂

martha sorry to hear about your dad and the situation at work, that’s really tough 💕
I just got my work visa through so it’s all steam ahead with the move, we are in the process of selling our house too which is glacial despite having a cash buyer!

Martha ❤️

Sorry to hear that Martha so many horrible things together.

Time fingers crossed for you for outcome of the interview

I handed in my notice yesterday, I've been in my job almost all my adult life, strange feeling, hopefully the right decision for me and my children too.

Interestingly I just thought back last night, my endocrinologist suggested a change in job and hours last Oct and I wasn't for it at all but things change. I will have a couple of months on reduced income but then I can apply for Working Family Payment and that will bring my salary back in line. I can also increase my pension contributions as they don't count in the calculation for WFP.

Will be paid monthly in new job so hoping YNAB will help me transition there.

I've been reading and not posting since before the weekend so I must do a catchup post.

Did a 23k guided walk on Sun with bf which was lovely as it was a beautiful day and the scenery was amazing, I live in a beautiful county.

€10.50 on a pint & bottle of water afterwards, I just tapped, I'm surprised it was this much.

€7.70 on refreshments during walk
€4.25 on pizza to cook at home after walk, our lunch was included and we had a beautiful beef stew, we were starving, choice was that or chicken curry which would be my usual choice but the stew smelt so good it was le yum as em would say
€14.89 Aldi
€5.50 rubbish
€20 lookfantastic monthly beauty box, this month was all stuff I will use, I'll get it for a couple of months and review again then.
€3 youth club
€1.95 bottle of water ds
€0.60 parking
€80.11 Lidl - I got a lot for this, a huge bottle of surf, 8 cans of sardines for dcats & ddog, salad stuff, chicken, availed of the free sanitary protection, this was interesting to me as when I move jobs I'll be passing both Lidl/Aldi twice a day.

I usually do Dunnes click & collect so I will do a mix of all three I think. Get back into taking advantage of Super 6 and Lidl Treats
€70 diesel, my fuel card bill went out too €203.16

I got back €100 owed to me yesterday and on Sun bf gave me €50 to buy myself something nice

Ooo new job happier. Good luck

Thanks life

Thank you everyone for the good wishes and I’m glad to hear that it’s full steam ahead for the job gen. I hadn’t clicked you had a new job -happier - congratulations, it sounds a positive move.
we have been trying to work out a proposal as a team that’s more favourable than the one on the table. I think I will lose salary either by staying in my current place on a lower grade, or because other jobs I can realistically go for are lower paid. It’s gutting because I’d got to a place for the first time in 20 years where I had a nice bit of spare income. But. The bottom line is that the lower salaries on the table just about pay my bills, with nothing to spare but it is covered. So there’s that.

Afternoon.

So sorry to hear about both your dad and the stressful work situation @marthasmum. Living with uncertainty is very tough re health and re finance.

Hadn't realised you'd been at the same place for 20 years @Happierwithouthim. Were they surprised at all?

Fingers crossed for the job interview news @Timetoswitch. Hate not knowing. Hope you've slept better.

Minimal spending here still, other than food shopping which is always £££, there's no other unexpected or frivolous spending so far these last few weeks. Probably because all I've spent so much on the home improvements I trying to feel virtuous in other areas. 🤣