Amigos actively attempting austere actions August 24>

[Happierwithouthim]

Link to last thread
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/cost_of_living/5007277-familiar-friends-in-frugalityfeb-24?latest=1

All welcome, the vibe is frugal life to make the things that matter possible, which is different for everyone, some of us have overcome debt, separations etc. All are friendly and we're sometimes chatty, sometimes quiet.

Don't lurk, join in

Totally is a grief process and hair is so important to our look and feel.

How lovely from the hairdresser Em. Your feelings are totally understandable.
The talk of fitness watches has reminded me I need to research a replacement strap for mine. I rarely wear it as within 24-48 hours it triggers an eczema type reaction on my wrist. I need to find something more breathable I think.
Less than 24 hours before our week away & I feel very under prepared but I'm sure it'll be fine. I've not bought any new clothes as I've enough for a week. We've had a few evenings after work this week tidying in the garden. I'm determined for a better garden year next year, starting now.

• divide current plants up and spread out to fill some gaps
• get offcuts of plants from friends & family to also plug gaps
• sort through the random seed collection I've got & plan ahead. Am planning to have a bed for flowers to cut next year as I love fresh flowers in the house & seeds are not expensive
• set a realistic budget for whatever else is likely to be needed.

Have a good day all.

I’ve been in the garden. Had to wait for my bin to be empied. Back to it today

Have a grand time away north.

Not a frugal day for me. Should be on my way but the line is/was blocked so couldn’t get to St Pancras - £95 to change my ticket time. Trying to be relaxed about it. Should probably make a move for my second attempt before something else happens.

Oh @ememem84 if you need to grieve and rant for your hair, you bloody well go ahead and do it. I cannot imagine what you are going through, I've not had cancer or lost my hair, but I cried for a week over a very bad perm, so I am sure you are being a lot stronger than I would be. All power to you my dear.

September not going too badly on the spends front. In the black, not by much, but my wages from my little job go in weekly on Mondays which is very helpful at keeping it bobbing along with its head above the water.

I won't be saving anything this month as its my son's birthday, and we are taking our autumn trip down South to see him and the rest of the family, I might even break into the savings a bit, but that is what they are for.

I'm hankering after a a cast iron bread mould, for cooking the no knead type of bread in. Its oblong, which means the slices will fit better in the toaster. I definitely do NOT NEED this. I have perfectly functional round casseroles that do a brilliant job. Its my birthday in November though, and if I still want one by then, I am going to ask DH for it. I don't normally approve of house things for presents, only if I specifically ask for them.

I'm with you on the presents for the house Nellie , it's only if I ask for something that I'd class as a nice to have.
Hope you made it to St Pancras Rum. Have a fab trip.
Life we've filled our bin too. Making the most of the dry weather.
We've made it to the airport. Taxi cost not frugal but needed given flight times. No spends here as I packed a nice airport picnic for us & so glad I did, everything here is more extortionate than I thought. Makes me appreciate our ferry holidays!

I’ma house presents strictly by request too

enjoy the time away north

Enjoy trips away!!!!

im the same re house presents. Only if it’s something we both really want.

€121-73 in Lidl after using Lidl plus saving me almost €8.
There was wine, flowers for a present, 4 packs of bulbs, 4 heathers & a thyme plant, a chicken & two salmon fillets, 4 cans premix alcoholic drinks amongst regular stuff

€32.50 tip run
€10 car wash
€13 1 portion of chips & one taco chips visiting my late bf's mother
€28 on a gift for my cousin

Spendy day yesterday. Our for the first of the 50th

Still been keeping a lid on grocery and social spending although I need to update here more to keep the focus. We are considering some spendy items (dining area in kitchen and booking some flights for next year) so need to keep day to day things in check.

Em rant away when you need it. It's such an awful thing to go through.

Rum hope you made it on time and have a great trip.

Today was £19 in Lidl, £30 fuel and £11.50 DD activity.

Hello posters old and new, I have also fallen off the thread for a while. Frugal things have been secondary as sadly my DDad had become more ill and recently died. Have been spending a lot of time at parents. The one frugal win I can name is that while I’ve been away DP has done the food shop (which is my nemesis). He’s done it online and we’ve saved £150 which proves conclusively how much I spend on snacks 😳
Everything is still pretty much up in the air but I do need to focus on frugal things as my wage has recently gone down after restructure at work.

I can see there is lots of news - will try to keep up now. em you’ve had particularly big news, hope you are doing ok.

Martha ❤️

Martha

Martha 💐

To add to this morose Monday - oh has had their news in : 10% paycut. So as of January, budget will be amended. So that's been our main discussion the last 2weeks.

Will catch up later hopefully as more work to do this evening.

Bugger chilli

Sorry to those on the thread with bad news.
Went out and managed to stick to budget - £3. 69 on sending a parcel (Royal Mail have put prices up AGAIN, I should have stuck with Yodel) and £2.70 on a flat white at Caffe Nero - 25% off using the Meerkat trick.

Put an asda shop in the basket - for a family of four + 2 cats it's hard to get it under £150. Doesn't help that one doesn't eat meat and one doesn't like anything spicy - sometimes I have to do 2-3 versions of the same meal although cutting down on meat helps. I remember in ye olden days (like, five years ago) a family weekly shop would be £80, £90 maybe. It was only at christmastime that we went much over £100.

Hello!!!!

spendy day. £255 jewellers getting my rings resized and cleaned

£80 new look on some
fuzzy cosy jumpers and some basic T-shirts.

now at the gym

have chemo tomorrow. Yay. 🙄😂🤣😬 at least no more delays.

it’s ds 7th birthday tomorrow. So timing for chemo is shit. But we’re going to make it a good one for him.

I'm amused was behind a man at Lidl till nicely dressed buying all yellow sticker fish & coleslaw plus coffee, just saw him drive off in a new VW Tiguan!

I spent €4.90 on ten tins of sardines & got a free pack of boiled sweets on the app

Not been around for a while, been busy with a friend who took a nasty fall a couple of weeks ago. Resulting in family flying in from abroad - hospital visits, airport runs, shopping trips, clinic visits and so on - been rather hectic but friend is recovering well now and looking forward to having her house to herself now 🙃
So not much time to spend money (at least not mine anyway) but that was until the integrated fridge freezer started icing up. We had hoped to replace just the fridge but not an option we could continue with in our built in kitchen. So a new complete fridge freezer was ordered and installed by DH but involved some new electrical work needing to be done. 😡So a trip to B&Q followed and a rewire job to access the fridge/freezer without taking the kitchen apart in future when a defrost is needed. The old one had switches inside which made this an easy job. It's a good job DH is a former electrician and builder but it took up the whole of Sunday.
The old freezer is being moved to the shed to act as a back up so we will have plenty of storage space for Xmas food, bread and bargains!. So kicked off with a meat order to be delivered tomorrow £85 Fridge freezer £429 B&Q £78 (we also bought some storage boxes to replace broken and split ones at home) Lidl £11 for Sunday dinner (as we had run out of food!!) and Petrol £40 - Good job the month end is coming up!!
Good luck with the chemo @ememem84 and positive thoughts for those having a difficult time right now.

Best wishes for tomorrow's chemotherapy. May any test results come back swiftly and may any infusions be trouble-free with medications delivered on time.

Birthday wishes to your DS. Is a favourite dinner or cake in his future?

Other spends today
€14.80 on parking
€16.99 lunch
€340 on hospital appt (all's good)
€13 fish from market
€16 on fruit & veg from market
€4 fancy choc
€5.99 on rapeseed oil & bar of choc
€3 on a drink
€0 on a follow up ikea kitchen planning appt - will edit it with proper measurements at home.

Thanks for good wishes.
rainbows I think £150 for a family of 4 +pets is average - I probably spend £175 for 5 of us. I agree though it feels shockingly expensive.
DD has moved into student house for 2nd year and there is relationship drama already as some of the housemates are becoming more than friends 🤗 She phoned me for advice - made me smile and brought back memories of how intense these things were in my student days.

Ooh, I don't think I'd risk yellow sticker fish tbh, but I'm not very keen on fish unless its covered in batter and accompanied by chips, so its not that appealing even when its new.

£3.50 on a birthday card - well he is my son! already had the stamp so not counting that.

Dog's been sick, I told him if he has to go to the vet, we can't afford to take him to the seaside. He perked right up at the mention of seaside, so I suspect he has just managed to snaffle something horrible on a walk, and isn't actually unwell. Fingers crossed.