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

@BigSkies2022 I've just downloaded that PDF for a look through, it's worth a look if you can get it to work. I start my day off listening to The Mindset Mentor podcast by Rob Dial, which is for motivation, direction and focus. Only around 20 minutes per podcast but really helps with habit building, amongst other things.

Last week I made an extra £40, but I ordered two cashmere jumpers I really do need new clothes and high quality is a sound investment, luckily it's mostly the smaller purchases left to buy which I'll split over February and March.

Yesterday was also a spending day, just short of £30 on various vitamins and supplements, and a mulberry silk pillowcase. I used £20 of vouchers earned through surveys, so it was a decent reduction. I'm focusing on health and wellbeing this year.

No spends planned for the rest of the month, but I have a couple of things sat in baskets that I'm considering.

My financial mantra should be 'Do I really need another bloody recipe book?' 🤣

NSD.

Ah Mary I remember your username now. I bought a Primark robin and holly duvet set as a result of this group!

Couple of LSDs. £5.68 Lidl for lunch and £1.85 in Morrisons for chocolate yesterday (needed). £8.75 co-op this morning. Also £12.10 for Amazon for a silver chain to replace mine which broke.

Came home and DH had made jacket spuds with cheese and beans as day off for him today. I also got mince out of the freezer so need to make something out of that tonight

Ahh l hope that beautiful duvet set has given you lots of pleasure @kessiebird
I spent £18,99 online TKMaxx for Dd1 birthday present ,
TKMaxx have a good Christmas clearance on if anyone is interested
Nothing else

€2.20 on a cup of tea at work. €26.50 on some groceries. Deciding to eat down the stockpile has made me put off the big shop I was planning this weekend. Went to Aldi and only bought the essentials that are cheaper there. A minor miracle for me to spend so little there.

f

£185 on 2 pairs of glasses. Buy one get one at specsavers. Plus eyetest. Plus anti glare lense coating x 2. Have asked my med inshrance if they’ll reimburse me.

£3.40 coffee to kill time while waiting beteeen appointments.

I'll declare my recipe book habit too need! I picked up 3 that I'd ordered from the library on Friday and then spotted 2 others too.
Had a good weekend, Friday night dinner at my aunty's, Saturday night Burns night at the cricket club which was fun and lowish spends. Lots more sorting at the weekend too.
Frugal win was discovering Nationwide's 6.5% reg saver account so I set one up for me and one for DH & a 5.5% one from YBS. So we're trying to max those with the monthly payments.

Tesco delivery €108

Oo I’ll have a look at those savings accounts

the things you never knew about chemo eh em. Bet the new specs look fab

no recipe book addiction here, oh no!!😂

Sainsbury’s this morning )60 ish. Haven’t got receipt yet
£10 yesterday work travel car park & lunch

Oh confession I pre-ordered the noodle kit £27 from the spicery
IYKYK 😉

Stationery addiction here. I have a shelf in the wardrobe full of cute notebooks. I’m a fan of moleskine. And when oaperchase closed down here I stocked up on their nice ones.

haven’t been working so haven’t been using them up.

@psuedocream3 -thank you for the Rob Dial recommendation. I downloaded one of the episodes (on the one habit that changed everything) and listened to it while walking the dog. Very good! It's basically - focus on your system for doing something, not on the goal. And it's a retread/repackaging of James Clearly's Atomic Habits, which is itself a retread of someone else. This is not to diss retreads, btw! This is a really good one, and I'll listen more to him. Wholeheartedly agree about the value of habit and systems and just keep on showing up regularly for money management, learning, fitness, whatever you're trying to achieve!

I have forwarded the episode to DS who is listening to it at present while packing his case and cleaning his trainers! (this latter merits a mention, as he never does this, while spending a fortune on trainers).

£16 in Sainsbury's topping up a few bits before a bigger shop tomorrow. DH's eating plan means I can't just open my cupboards and get something nice to eat together based on pasta/rice/beans. We've agreed I'll do the shop, and he has to write the list.

£81 in Morrisons. Payday on Friday, but I really needed to replenish the cupboards, and the freezer is also looking pretty bare.

Looking at the bank account, I think I will be able to put away £200 this month, which I am quite pleased with as a start to the year.

I rather lost track of what I saved last year, some months the money hardly had time to get comfortable in the savings account before it was needed elsewhere.

But on the other hand this year we were able to get the new TV, cooker and mattress without going overdrawn or using the credit card, and Christmas was fully paid for, so we have also not paid any interest or bank charges, I think for the first time in about 20 years. I am counting that as a successful year overall.

NSD today and about time too 😁
Popped to see my Mum but had bought all the stuff l needed to take and she was very happy there thankfully.
Visited my Mum's friends and took the lady of the house a book l bought from the library for 50. l have read it and now passed it on. Brand new, never been read and a hardback too such a bargain ! Heads up for you have a look in your libraries for the same bargains ☺️

Dm is back home. She’d been to the Uk to move dgm to a dementia facility.

she had to clear out her small flat. But she brought me back the most amazing thing.

dgm always had this dish made of glass which shimmered like a rainbow. No idea how. Some sort of glaze I guess. It was shaped like a flower. And she kept jam in it. Always jam. Always red jam. And it was always on the table at breakfast and for high tea. I made many a jam sandwich from this. She asked me before she went if there was anything of dgms I wanted and I asked for this.

im not sure what to do with it. Might keep some jewellery in it or something. But I’m so happy I have it.

£23 Waitrose on dishwasher tablets.

How is it still not payday?!?! 😱
£80 over budget.

Ah sorry to hear about Dgran em. Hope she gets the care she needs. Love the jam dish memories

Sorry about your gran em, but im glad you have the dish as you will always cherish the memories.

I think my addiction really is just shopping. While i like the things i buy, they don't spark huge joy in me. So i think my catchphrase has to be the marie kondo "does this spark joy". For too long ive used shopping as therapy but im in a much better space now so and realise its not good for me overall. So im going to try and wean off it.

I feel spending cash mroe than card payments so i think i'm going to go on a cash diet for February. For my personal spending i'll take cash out for my purchases and try not to use my cards except where i have to.

NSD today and i was in the office so thats a result! tomorrow is WFH day so i hope to have another NSD

€4.49 on blu tack & 3x 2 40g snickers in mr price

Payday tomo - my first year getting paid monthly so Dec pay day was one week early and everyone talks about how difficult this can be but because I'd stuff happen in my personal life which meant other than buying for dc Christmas just came and went I survived just fine!

I'm also at end of my renovation journey and decided against the outdoor work for now so I'm under budget. Builder should be finished in another week. The job he completed yesterday gave me so much joy. He cut a hole in the wall of my shed to make a tunnel and dogs house is now inside the shed covered so will be warmer and protected from the weather. I've wanted to do this since we moved in 3.5 years ago.

I'll catch up on posts when I've put ds to bed and fed animals and locked up.

Nellie that sounds like a very successful year

Em I'm sorry about your dgm, lovely to have that dish that brings many lovely memories with it.

Thanks for reminder everyone, need to figure out my recipe books location before builder finishes up

Really chuffed with my month in general. We made a plan to only eat out of the freezer (we had to buy a few things to supplement it like milk/bread) Due to this, our food bill for two people was only £200, compared to £700. That includes 1 x trip to the fish and chip shop.

Also, I decided to review our life insurance and critical illness cover. It was set up by our mortgage broker and I was convinced it was too expensive. We knew it wouldn’t be ‘cheap’ due to us both having life long medical conditions but £250PCM seemed ridiculous. After 3 hours on the phone, we got it to £102 PCM for both of us with Vitality. I’d say that’s a great win!

Also, we weren’t using our National Trust membership so I decided to cancel (£12.60pcm for joint membership) I’m quite annoyed about this though as apparently, just by receiving the renewal letter, I’d agreed to another year! When I originally called to cancel, they asked why I wanted to cancel and I said it was because I wasn’t using it. A very helpful lady said that she wasn’t supposed to tell me this but I should call back and tell another agent that I can’t afford the payments. That’s the ONLY way they’ll cancel it 🤷‍♀️ I think that’s disgusting.

Overall, a fairly successful month and well done to everyone!

That is shoddy of NT

I’ve just ordered more vitamins and an alleged leak proof water bottle. £36 left before pay day tomorrow

great frugaleering on the insurance. Which reminds me my car ins is done.

Just catching up over the last few days.

So sorry to hear about your DGM Em. Lovely memory though.

Good financial organisation @HamAndMustardSandwich, especially re food.

Doghouse sounds lovely @Happierwithouthim

The cash system of spending really does seem to work.

Stop being an enabler @lifelongfrugaleer 🤣

Spends so far this week.

£70 shoes for DH but they are going back and it's Amazon returns so super easy.
£20 top up shop.

Also I spent £19.95 on a NHS HRT PPC. Which is, Hormone Replacement Therapy Pre Payment Certificate. I didn't know about this until yesterday, when I was prescribed HRT. It's a special certificate that allows you a year's worth of HRT for £19.95, rather than paying for each individual certificate, or indeed spending £11 per month on a standard PPC. It was brought in from April 2023. I'm just putting it on here in case folk don't know. about it, and I think it's a Very Good Thing 😁

Ham - great sleuthing on insurance. I was surprised to find that searching for replacement house insurance didn't produce lower premiums - the cheapest option by far was to renew with the same provider. Our car insurance is due, I think, in April. I heard a snippet yesterday that premiums have fallen because the 20mph limit introduced in many places has reduced accidents and claims.

need - I went and got that HRT PPC the minute it was available. The only thing it doesn't cover on my prescription is testosterone. It's a big saving. They are going to have to prise my HRT from my cold, dead, untroubled-by-osteoarthritis- or-bone-breakage fingers.

Lovely bright day here. Have to go to supermarket (DH sent list from the train! this is progress!) and the optician. I hope to choose some new glasses, but not sure when I will get round to actually buying them.

I've been keeping a list of things I've wanted to buy but stopped myself. It's crazy looking at it already after not even two weeks!