January Frugaleers thread brings no judgment just friendly banter & advice for like minded folk

[Happierwithouthim]

A place where all are welcome regardless of income, level of debt or reason for being in debt or debt free.

We're friendly, full of good advice and open to new ideas where to shave off expense and how to live your best life on the income you have.

Over the years we've celebrated debt payoffs, babies, leaving jobs, getting different jobs, bonuses, and we've been there for each other through difficult times.

New posters welcome always & I hope posters who have fallen off thread will rejoin too

Have booked accommodation in the Loire to break the drive further south (and back again) for our French holiday in September. Card details given but payment not taken yet, (can cancel up to three weeks prior to booking, but it looks lovely, so I'm sure we'll stick) so still a NSD in theory! 350euros for the two nights B&B, welcome hamper includes wine and beer.

Not very diet-friendly ragu simmering away, I will be eating it with spaghetti, DH is going to have to fend for himself dietwise. I'm spending the next few nights at DParents', while DM recovers from an op, and I'm going to need all the comforting ballast I can get. Luckily they have broadband and Netflix, so I'm thinking I might catch up on One Day/Ripley/Baby Reindeer (we don't have Netflix currently).

£4 on a birthday card and £41 on birthday present for brother in law.

Used ChatGPT to plan an itinerary for our holiday; should allow me to price things up based on suggestions and look at where we can get some deals.

€5.55 on dulcolax
€51.77 think it was chocolate spread that was out of stock which is fine
Got on street parking today, unless it's raining I don't intend spending money on parking as this is going to an almost daily place I'll be visiting and parking will add up

I'm a nightmare, I can't seem to stop myself on the impulse purchases. So many good intentions, so many dings with the Apple Pay 😩

Today's unnecessary purchases include a £10 reed diffuser (reduced from £20 and smells nice however) and a hairband for £6.

Give yourself an impulse pot nessa?
Great in free parking happier. Hope it’s the dance during the work week.

I’ve just booked some Italian activities but payment later

Good frugaleering here today, had a sort out of the freezer so I know what's in there now and meal planned for the week using things mainly from the freezer so our food shop today was only £130 (usually £150) plus I haven't ordered hello fresh this week due to aforementioned freezer so thats £50 saved there plus £20 on food shop so £70.

Also sold 2 things on vinted today 👍

Meal plan...
Tonight....roast chicken....was lovely
Mon... peanut chicken noodles
Tues... chicken fried rice (chicken legs in freezer will cook in the day then fry later with rice)
Weds... spaghetti carbonara and broccoli
Thurs...filled pasta/pesto and garlic bread
Fri...pizza and wedges
Sat... burgers and wedges (chicken burgers as we don't eat beef)

Just realised that alot of chicken 😂

What prompts did you use to plan an ChatGPT itinerary, please?

This weekend hasn't been great but there's certainly a lot less transactions going out which is a definite improvement sharnt bother faffing with declaring them.

The diet hasn't been brilliant either. Definitely noticed a direct correlation between bad spending and bad diet.

I am no expert on the ChatGPT. I just asked it to plan a trip and then gave location, ages and duration. It did suggest going to an animal park in the morning and a zoo in the afternoon, but showed me some good ideas of local and not so local things. I said we had a car and would travel up to an hour from our base.

Today was speedy.
€10 in dealz on tea, toothbrushes and print stick
€3.50 on bigger print stick and rubber for school
€7.50 on bath bombs
€35 on groceries
€47 on new dress

the trip to the shopping centre for glue sticks for school snowballed. Should have tried the local store!

menu plan and food prep done for the week ahead.

made a red cabbage/grated carrot mix as a salad base for lunches. Pulled a jar of stewed apple out of the freezer for breakfasts and snacks. Chopped veg and prepped fruit etc.

dinners
Monday - ham and roasted vegetables. Leftover ham I’ll portion for child’s school lunches
Tuesday - pasta of some kind.
Wednesday - Mexican hash
Thursday - teriyaki meatballs, broccoli and rice
Friday - maybe a takeaway pizza or something from the air fryer. I’ve a full on day at work planned so may push the easy button here

Have announced to DW I'm buying nothing except food til payday (28th). I've never managed anything like this before so I'll see how I get on.

I feel committed, we are so deep in debt now it keeps me awake. But I also know (as mentioned) I am terrible for the impulse purchases.

nessa at the risk of sounding dim, can you return the impulse purchases if they are not necessary items? At least you'd be clawing back the spending and helping your debt position?

Good luck nessa

Some lovely menu plans on here!

Good luck @NessaSmith

NSD here but... we have a mole.. it's made such a mess of the garden.. I've had to get a professional in today. Last time I tried all sorts of things myself to scant avail. That will be £150 I hadn't planned on spending in January. Boo.

Overall though, January is going well. Payday Friday - so I'll tot up then but I'll have a few pots in surplus.

@NessaSmith do try and enjoy the next few weeks while you are till off work. Staying awake at night can't be good for your health. perhaps use some of the time to decide on a debt payoff schedule for when you are back to work and earning a salary again. Then allow yourself a few treats. taking a bit of control might help with the sleeping.

I had a relatively small amount of debt follow me around like a bad smell for years. Once i committed to paying it off i had it gone quite quickly as i prioritised it and paid it like a bill. i was always making the mistake of using my "leftover" money to pay it off. As an impulse spender, there was never any "leftover" money.

Well not a NSD today. £53 in Home Bargains but did buy cat litter, dishwasher tablets in that lot. Plus £34.43 in Lidl but did share a bingo win last night so technically not my money and still a few quid up!! 😉

@pistachiosanscream that's really good advice, thank you. I have a plan for the first 6 month wages which will make a big difference. And thanks to the others for wishing me luck too.

I spent time today making a list of activities I can do with what I already have, to make the most of the next 6 weeks or so before I go back to work. It was a stark reminder of how we've got into this financial pickle...

• 6 x cross stitch kits
• 15 x diamond art kits
• 3 x half done crochet blankets (plus yarn for at least 3 other projects not started)
• Over 100 unread books on my kindle (I'm the worst for this)
• 13 unlistened to audiobooks in audible (realising this made me cancel it!)
• A learn to embroider kit I got for my birthday and wanted for ages
• A pile of actual books and current library book
• 6 x copies of the magazine I get delivered; I've now cancelled the subscription to this too since I haven't read the last 6 yet! (It's 'The Simple Things' which I love)

I know exactly where you are coming from with the lovely craft kits and unread books and magazines piling up 😳. Good luck with the NSDs for the rest of the month NessaSmith You can totally do this!

My Lidl app had 20% their dog/cat food. I wasn't sure how many bags of cat food so I got 5 so 1 free.

Total spend €13.89
No parking charges either today

Today was the last of my big diesel bills on my fuel card too €157.08

Nessa sounds like you've loads there, shop your own shelves for the next while and get that debt sorted

I joined this thread around the same time I created an excel spreadsheet that I called "the road to being debtfree" I used to use it to plan out my spending & track my debt. After that I downloaded YNAB and haven't looked back.

Only debt now other than mortgage is €1003.85 on credit card, I must do my tax returns for med expenses last year and will put that towards this.

I would've bought a cross stitch mag this Christmas but none in either easons I was in

Baby steps nessa. You definitely have enough to keep you going. Don’t forget to return the library books so no fine.

pay your debt as a bill out of your salary (which pp said) but also a small amount of savings for emergencies

Thanks for the podcast recommendation.

Sounds like one of those days super saver don't feel bad and start afresh.

With DS birthday last week wasn't as frugal as this one will be but I did save money on the Lidl Plus App, managed not to spend a fortune in the posh farm shop (went there for mince as they sell in bulk and came away with mince only) and got free postage and a free blusher with my Face Theory order so saved £11 there!

Back on track of keeping credit card bill down. This month looks like it's £450 less than December and November. I pay it in full and it monitors how much goes out on grocery, non grocery and social spends.

Yesterday was £3.60 for lunch. Had dinner out of the freezer (giant Yorkshires with sausages, roasties and Christmas veg) and plan to eat out of the freezer all week.

Have just been looking at Ynab, it won't link to my bank (metro bank) is it still worth doing, assuming I'd have to add everything manually Happierwithouthim?

Prior to having YNAB I used to have unpaid direct debits and have to watch my bank balance to decide if I could buy something now that's not the case.

You definitely could do something similar on excel but I like the convenience of app on my phone and the reporting features

I find inputting transactions manually makes me more aware of spending and can have recurring transactions and scheduled transactions

Why not do the trial and see if you like it
I've a referral link which gives us both a free month if you sign up

https://www.ynab.com/our-free-34-day-trial/?utmsource=customerrreferral&utmcampaign=mobileeshare

€20 bloods
€1690 builder (second last payment)
That should be the only spends today