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

Nessa you are doing brilliantly. Your mindset is changing gradually, well done!
Chile sorry to hear about your relative passing.
We've done 3 Ocado shops in Dec/Jan having never used them before and with discount offers. I'm impressed with the service and if you shop carefully then you can get good value.
We've done well overall in January, a lot of eating from freezer stocks. In Feb the food spend will likely be a bit more as I'm trying to eat a slightly different diet to see if it helps the post surgical menopause me in terms of symptoms and fat loss. It'll mean stocking up with some different ingredients and more fresh ingredients but will try to be savvy with it. I am going to ask for referral to a menopause clinic too to see if there is anything they can offer..
Today I've got some work work to do, meal plan, food shop, ds is home so dparents are coming over for tea before ds goes home, a bit of housework in between & prep for the week ahead.

Pistachio and I thought I was forward planning Toyota are great they just keep on going!

Chile condolences on your loss

€6.50 subway lunch
€2.50 piece of carrot cake
€13.85 Penneys - thought I was doing an exchange but receipt had expired so I bought the stuff anyhow, face mask, vit c serum & white hand towel(needed for ds boxing)
€1.50 Vaseline - needed for boxing

Slow cooker Bolognese was lush

I'm so sorry to hear of your loss @Chile1978

@Decafflatteplease - Ocado are great aren't they? I don't have any specific recommendations, but I do love the range of interesting products they stock. I'm a big fan of the 'flash sale' just before checkout and pretty often pick up some great bargains on fish or good quality meat there. Plus, the fact I can get M&S produce there is a huge bonus! The latter has a cleaning product range that is eco friendly and really good value.

£30 Amazon on Vitamin D tablets (I'm currently deficient after a blood test revealed it so!) and creatine gummies!

Menu plan

Turkey ragu.
Ginger beef (DH has a friend over from Spain and he's calling for supper)
Sweet potato dhal.
Nachos (veggie chilli or similar)
Black bean parmigiana
Chicken broth and crusty bread (Wednesday, when we all eat at different times)
Sweet and spicy squash, chicken and chickpea stew, rice.

Quite a lot of these are from the Bold Bean Recipe book and website.

Only two days into February and neither of those were NSDs. Fish and Chips for tea last night plus a meal deal and newspaper to take into work yesterday. £30 Petrol today. Maybe, maybe tomorrow......................

@Chile1978 sorry for your loss . Home now, car unpacked and basic food shop done, DD is home this weekend (been at her dads) so is on the way, Ddad is coming for dinner too.
Have to meal plan which I'll do with a nice g&t later with my new gin and ammonite glasses picked up while we were away. Busy few weeks coming up so need to be organised otherwise food budget goes out of the window and I'm being as strict as I can - full freezers so no excuses really. Have never tried Ocado so will give it a look

<gah> just had a flat tyre when driving back from walking dog. Today will be meal planning - still got a freezer full of stuff to get us through the next week.

Gosh the last few days have been spendy. I need to start posting again to make myself accountable.

I've bought maps for holiday (and local ones for map reading practice for the children), new school shoes, replaced lost items, bought extension leads for work use... it goes on.

I've also been eyeing up some new clothes. Must have some more resolve!

Dinner is ham, egg and chips with the gammon / ham I roasted last night. So that feels at least a little frugal?

Not managed NSD this weekend but very low so I am happy with it.
£8 took daughter for doughnuts yesterday as she is under the weather. We didn't leave the car but had cabin fever.
£4 dog treats today
Did spend Friday but happy overall.

@Happierwithouthim i have benefitted from buying my mums 2011 Yaris when she upgraded so all going well this one will last. I’ve no interest in cars except as a means of transport. DH also buys his parents cars and last year he upgraded from a 2006 Corolla to a 2014 Corolla. It’s a great peace of mind knowing that both cars have had 1 previous careful owner who did all the recommended servicing etc. once taken care of they will last a long time.

todays groceries were €76 in Lidl. I’m happy with this as I stuck to my list and didn’t go into stocking up mode.

also spent €15 on some lawn edging for one of our rose beds.

this bank holiday Sunday was lovely and productive. Made cookies and scones for the freezer with child. Also put together some açai bowl mix using freezer produce. Did a nice bit of gardening and pruning. Tomorrow will be more garden clean up. Setting up the raised beds for the spring by weeding and enriching the soil a bit

NSD today, mainly because it was my Mum's birthday and we were with her a lot of the day .
She has a wonderful birthday 🎂 loved the cake !

Well done everyone 👏 I had a bit of a spendy weekend as it was payday so treated myself to some chocolate, a new book a magazine and some yarn. About £30 in total. Overtime today so that’s a bit extra earned. Desperately need to sit down and work out a proper budget - everything still feels very chaotic

€109.40 on a full length mirror and two signs one for a gift in the Range
€8 parking
€928.85 paying off credit card

Got €75 refund on credit card
Returned a computer game €17.99 poor communication meant both exh & I bought same game, I said nothing & returned my copy poor communication, I said I'd bought it and he purchased too

Dishwasher is not working, it is very elderly, no idea how old as it came with the house. We have used it almost every day for the last three years though.

We are currently debating if its worth the call out fee for an engineer, or just bite the bullet and buy a new one.

I know a dishwasher is an extravagance, but I would really miss having one.

I can confirm my water bottle is indeed leak proof

have you done the what could it be on you tube for the dishy?
Pleased mam had a good birthday Mary
we have a Skoda that belonged to 1 owner

sadly house insurance car insurance & Mot all due this month

Ah, pay day! DDs/SOs gone through, I have manually allocated funds to their respective pots and, having done all that, I have £150 for guilt-free spending this month, and £70 for the unforeseen extras (not big emergencies, just odds and sods). We'll see how that goes.

Having finally resolved the problem in connecting to the civil service pension portal, my pension statement is taking forever to come through, I think because one of the pensions has got caught up the in McCloud Remedy. Which means sitting on the phone this week waiting for someone to pick up. It makes me so cross when CSP/HMRC can't/won't resource these lines properly. Still, while I am fuming on the line, I am not spending money I suppose!

Lovely walk yesterday - lots of sunshine, even some warmth in the sun.

I'm hopping back on the thread after spectacularly falling off the No Spend wagon at the end of Jan.

So far in Feb I've spent £3.20 on some bananas and grapes so not a bad start, although a big Ocado shop is due tomorrow. @needastrongoneagain I love the flash sales too, I got 4 half price large whole chickens last week, I would've got more but the freezer was full.

@BigSkies2022 We're with Thames water too. Our DD has gone up from £21-£61 this year but I think some of that is due to using lots of water last summer to water our new veggie patch. I'll have to cut down this year and hope it comes back down again. Really need to get a water butt.

For those thinking about HRT. I would definately recommend it if you can get it. I went from a weeping, hot flushing mess to a normal functioning human within days.

Thanks all. £107 spent yesterday travelling to see family, on lunch out, and supper on the road. We did pack rolls and snacks but it wasn't enough for the whole day. Will travel again for the funeral but for now am phone support.

Need to finish off some financial admin, but struggling to find motivation today - might save for wfh Friday.

I wanted to quote the poster who listed out the financial goals - thank you. Think I've done quite a few of them, but some were helpful reminders and still pondering my financial catchphrase- it might be something like 'just keep swimming' 🐠

Found it!

1.Write your financial motivation statement. - 🤔

1. ✔️
2. ✔️ pension contributions

4.✔️ Does it align with my values/priorities? Do I need it right now? Can I get it any other way? 5.✔️ 6.Clear out items that cost you money. - An ongoing battle.... 7.✔️ 8.✔️ I don't pay for any streaming services 9.Set up a credit monitoring system. - assume this is American? Not sure needed 10. ✔️ my version is preparing my work lunches for a week 11. ✔️ February is low/no spend month 12. ✔️ Electrician is coming to replace garage light for LED and limiting tumble dryer use to once per week.

Well done everyone for getting through January. It was a slog. And good luck 🍀 for February ❤️

So DH has investigated the Dishwasher, or tried to. It appears the previous owners kind of put the Dishwasher in, and built the whole bloody kitchen around it. After much swearing, and banging about, DH is taking a break.

Apparently he might have to take the work surface off, risking breaking it, and definitely needing to reseal it if it can be reused. He also might have to take the sink cupboard apart, and that risks breaking the tile surround, so re-tiling. And what are the odds we can still get matching tiles? And this is just to get the bastard thing out to see if it can be mended.

All in all its a bit of a shit-show in the Barn household. But we haven't spent any money today.

Nellie at least dh can do it and you're not paying tradesmen.

I've been clearing and cleaning here this morning. I really wanted not to do it and do something else. My bedroom, en-suite ,hallway, kitchen and sitting room are almost visitor ready now. I'm going to bring in fuel for the fire too as I've had no fire all weekend because I was late home every night and had nothing in.

Aarghh nellie. I know exactly that feeling of hating your vendors for the decisions they took - we spent a fair bit of money on a bathroom refurb last year, which included fixing the irrational, borderline illegal plumbing which didn't actually lead to the soil pipe, and which was perpetually at risk of blocking. We're planning (well, I am planning) to sort the kitchen out next year, or possibly the one after, and doubtless will uncover more shortcuts and weird decisions. I suppose there's some satisfaction in leaving the house better than you found it.

As for the podcast micro-actions: I'm keeping up to date with them, although could probably find more inspirational wording for my motivational statements and financial catchphrase. Getting rid of items that cost you money - well, I don't have stuff in storage, and we don't have non-essential vehicles lying around requiring insurance/MOT/maintenance.

However, we do have some dining chairs which have now been replaced, so - for the first time ever - I have created a Facebook Marketplace listing! Usually I would take this sort of item to a charity shop, but the chairs lack a fire certificate, so are no use to Emmaus/Shelter/BHF. They're too good to take to recycle, so I'm going to give this a go.

Have just seen there about a bazillion dining chairs on FM, so suspect I shall soon be confronting the fact that no-one wants our chairs, and will be taking them to the tip!

Write your financial motivation statement - DONE
Calculate your current net worth - DONE
Choose one financial metric to track - DONE
Create a spending decision catchphrase - in prog
Boost your saving rate by $10/month for every $1000 you bring home - I am counting my additional pension contributions as this.
Clear out items that cost you money - not getting rid of the doggo!
Wait one week before making online purchases - Everything is going on wish lists
Cancel your cable TV subscription - 😄
Set up a credit monitoring system - DONE
Commit to meal planning for one week - DONE
Set a “low-spend” goal for one week - DONE
Make your home more energy efficient - will need a lot of spending to do this 😄
Was surprised that I had done some of these. FF25

Sorry, haven't had a chance to catch up yet. Just sharing the next weeks up until 26 (half way) as you're all motivated. It's a nightmare copying from the PDF but here you go.

13.Replace one disposable product with a reusable one.
14.Raise your thermostat by one degree.
15.Start a "fun fund" for stress-free splurging.
16.Design your charitable giving strategy.
17.Set aside money for professional development.
18 Create an emergency medical expense plan.
19.Replace "I can't" with "I choose not to."
20.Review your tax withholding.
21.Boost your savings rate for the second time.
22.Create an estate plan.
23.Evaluate if your side hustle is worth the time.
24.Add one affordable self-care activity.
25.Learn one new financial term this week.
26.Track prices to find the best deals

@Nellieinthebarn we had something very similar with our dishwasher. Floor under dishwasher was lower than kitchen floors and wood strips were added below the dishwasher feet to raise the dishwasher. However they were laid across the dishwasher rather than backwards so very hard to move. We did manage it by lowering the feet of the dishwasher which were adjustable.

woukd this be an option for you?

NSD today and great work done in the garden clearing our raised beds and getting them setup for planting. However we will need new compost and strawberry plants this year. Though our generous neighbour will probably give us some