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

NSD for me yay!!
Might have a takeaway tonight though so watch this space 😂

NSD for me too. Although OH bought a new slide for DD. Was needed, hers was broken and we have been saying for almost a year we would get another for her. I've mended two items of clothing instead of buying new.
@pistachiosanscream I've just checked my cupboards, and they don't contain things I can make things out of, but they do have things I can add to bulk meals out with. Dried pulses etc so that will be done this week. Then freezer. Needs a clean too so will run it down and then defrost it.
Such a great idea about making your own garlic bread. I have all the ingredients, why did I buy some this week? Def won't be buying any next week.
@Happierwithouthim I'm so glad the show was amazing! And taking your own porridge is a great idea. I've done this before too to my mum's. :)
Yes, I've promised myself that if I'm still in the black by next pay day I can have my favourite takeaway pizza.
Enjoy your takeaway if you decide to have one @MaryGreenhill !

Soft play was about £3 when my DC were younger chipshop but that was 15 years ago then it seemed to go up massively before they grew out of it. Hope the DC enjoyed themselves.

Pay day yesterday. Been a bit spendy..
£100.25 meal out with family
£16 coop

Today has been
£16.83 M&S 50th present for a friend. Saved 6.5% buying through work benefits.
£6.68 TK Maxx for stationary. I stepped away from the shower gel as didn't need it.
£63 Lidl.
£15.95 eBay. The best hair colour I've had for ages has gone out of stock everywhere! Found it on eBay but not cheap.
£4.49 Boots.

All stocked up at home so hopefully no more grocery spends until Wednesday 🤞

€55.50 on petrol and bananas. The lasagne was lovely and homemade garlic bread was good.

made a jam tart and rice crispy buns. Found another bag of my baking chocolate hidden in the pasta mountain. Big find as it’s gone ruinously expensive.

She did bless her.
I enjoyed the nap she had even more.

No takeaway tonight after all @Frugal25 😁

Morning all, and especially north, who will be likewise satisfied by Plymouth Argyle's performance against Man City yesterday. Good report in the Guardian/Observer site today, brimming with well-founded optimism for the remaining season.

£50 in Sainsbury's £50 in Aldi on Friday. NSD yesterday and a nice walk in the sunshine with Ddog and DH. Horrible migraine back at home, so spent the evening recuperating while DH did dinner. Slept well and fine this morning. Just as well, as I have a date to take Dmum shopping tomorrow and will need my energy! And more migraine meds, just in case.

Prolific payout in Feb came to £31, January was £36.

Morning all, and especially north, who will be likewise satisfied by Plymouth Argyle's performance against Man City yesterday. Good report in the Guardian/Observer site today, brimming with well-founded optimism for the remaining season.

£50 in Sainsbury's £50 in Aldi on Friday. NSD yesterday and a nice walk in the sunshine with Ddog and DH. Horrible migraine back at home, so spent the evening recuperating while DH did dinner. Slept well and fine this morning. Just as well, as I have a date to take Dmum shopping tomorrow and will need my energy! And more migraine meds, just in case.

Prolific payout in Feb came to £31, January was £36.

Yesterday certainly was a brilliant day in the north household Big. My team made it through to the FA cup quarter finals, a first in my lifetime so there is much excitement about the place! I had a season ticket from early teens to age 50, a couple of years ago when I had an ideological fall out with the club. But I'll always be a fan so watched on TV & then met all my footy friends at the pub after the match. Meanwhile dh, his friends and his sister were at the Argyle game & as you rightly say they really did themselves proud. Ds had his dream day out, managing to go to both matches as his loyalties are split between the 2 teams.

So a decidedly unfrugal weekend here, but great fun!

Afternoon.

Apologies for being AWOL. Life has gotten in the way. Checking back in for March.

February ended up being a good month financially, and we ended up with some leftover budget for both food and general expenses. That's soon gone on a few extra not strictly necessary bits, the largest being £60 on two, new, washable dog beds. The others were stinky and grim, and un-washable. £40 on an array of supplements too.

I'll keep up going forward as life (and particularly work) should settle down.

Menu pan.

S: roast pork and trimmings.
M: Salmon and Mediterranean vegetables.
T: Veggie lasagne
W: Leftover lamb curry (DS, DH), chickpea, mushroom and spinach curry (DD, me).
T: cauliflower and potato curry.
F: one pot sausage, beans and peppers.
S : aubergine and pepper tagine with cod.

More spending today £88 Nike on a bag and 2x joggers for DS
£2.74 boots £21 hobbycraft on a voucher
£7 coffee beans

Back to work & school tomorrow

Never ending isn't it, spending money Life - or so it feels like.

Ended up spending today but not on groceries at least - food stock is lasting.

£20 Home Bargains for logs and kindling.
£16 swimming costume for holidays from George. May get returned but will see if it's a good fit!

I have got through 9 NSDs in a row (on my personal account) and tomorrow - bank systems willing - I will have my payday and can start spending on my own account again! March will be lean, mind, with less than £100 to play with,(I"ve already taken into account my haircut, Netflix) BUT it will be the last rent and utility payment due for DS at university.

This week's action from the 52 micro financial decisions is - Food Planning! Yup, shopping your cupboards, thinking ahead, avoiding impulse buys. Good suggestions for use of tech to aid planning e.g. ChatGPT and Google ReverseImage.

I used an old school method: was decluttering the recipe book shelf and stripped out two nice recipes for chestnut, lentil and cavola nero pan fry; and a lemon cake. No new ingredients needed, and some elderly cook books and weekend supplements recycled.

Just bought a new keter harden bench Amazon £115 delivered
These couple of sunny days have tempted me 😊

Harden 😁🙄
Garden of course 😜

@NessaSmith your menu sounds lovely. The money spending does feel rather never ending.

i was shocked today at how a small few bits in the local shop came to €30. But when you buy strawberries, crème eggs and a treat for the child you can see where it goes.

trying to ration the strawberries for Pancake Tuesday.

made a couple of homemade curries and had my mum over for dinner. Lots of leftovers for the freezer. I’ve done a lot of cooking this past week and the fridge is full so will do a stocktake again tomorrow.

@MaryGreenhill im terrified that spring will trigger a flood of spending. It’s tradionally when I spend the most money and lots on the garden. Hoping this year won’t be so bad as I really did buy a lot last year. Though we do need new strawberry plants this year.

Oh God @pistachiosanscream you could be me 😱😊
My DH is a big gardener and he swears by Aldi's,B&M and Home Bargains that have a separate gardening section . If you have to buy and l get that you want some lovely stuff for the Spring/Summer ,who doesn't after this awful Winter ,then try there first lovely . You probably know this already bless you ☺️

Well that's the bills out and it's looking ok.

We need to spend £££ this year in the garden and on a roof and a bathroom

Happy Monday

Morning.

A full roof @lifelongfrugaleer? Sounds ££££££

We've just had some work done in the garden. We have 7/8 large, very established trees in there. They are beautiful but 40/50 years old at least and sizeable. We haven't had them thinned in the 13 years we've loved here and they were overdue. £1800. Ouch. Hopefully another 13 years before we do that again,

I love fresh strawberries @pistachiosanscream . Agree, they need to be rationed. I try to wait until they are in season but sometimes also give in to temptation and buy some. All that food planning will save time going forward.

Good tip to use AI for menu planning.

Today I'm working but then we are popping to the garden centre to buy some garrotta and a tree/plant for a big birthday. This gets DH out of the house too, and is accessible so easier for me.

Will report spending later.

Happy Monday.

Single story wrap around extension roof. Probably £5-10k bathroom about £12
Garden £3k or less

Then all savings gone

Today feels like spring! Working the late shift so i always try to do any in person shopping i need to do on those days.

Spent €16.50 on a new frying an just in time for pancake tuesday. I'd been planning buying one for a while but was waiting for my preferred brand to come on sale.

€20.80 on 2 topiary balls to match others i have from last year.

€7.50 on new socks and a long sleeved black tshirt needed for small childs world book day costume.

Had a nice browse around the range and spotted some fake plants i may use outside my front door. i will not water anything consistently enough there and have let too many die to even contemplate buying fresh ones.

My dad used to always say "spend on a monday and you're spending all week" And it will be a more expensive week as we have dinner out planned but otherwise i hope this isn't the start of my garden flood of spending.

In work until 9 with dinner packed so i don't expect to spend much more than €2 on a snack.

This thread has been incredibly helpful in making me control my impulse spending. I am amazed that in each of the shops i was in i only bought what i came for. I'd easily have picked up at least 2 frying pans other years. When i actually only need one. I am hoping to stay on the straight and narrow as last year i did fall off the wagon around this time but fingers crossed!

Tesco £29
Lunch with a friend £18
Beautiful day here 🌞
Trying to sort out a fixed deal for our energy but l cannot understand what is the best deal tbh . I have gone to MSE energy club but it's so difficult 🙄

I fixed with Octopus for another 16 months @MaryGreenhill would have been £7 pm cheaper to move but I like Octopus and worry about moving and other companies suddenly increasing the DD. I've got a variable DD which I like as pay what I owe each month.

Today:
£108 karcher pressure washer. Had £20 off and I used employee benefits plan to get 6% off that. Tried my neighbours last year and it worked well. Plan to use 2 x per year and cheaper than getting someone to clean the patio and decking.
£2.98 card factory
£3.25 Poundland
£8.90 Amazon
£5.90 M&S lunch and wasn't that good! Lunch at home for the next three days 👍
£4.48 coop pancake toppings

Quite a spendy day really

Morning.

I feel like your dads saying @pistachiosanscream. If usually have a NSD on Monday's and if I don't, it feels like it's a bad start to the week!

Ouch re the spending @lifelongfrugaleer.

Spends yesterday

£15 garden centre.
£15 Amazon. Annoyingly getting the item we wanted from the garden centre....