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

Gosh today was spendy.

We went into the city as husband had a hearing screening (shocker he needs a hearing aid - he was given one by the nhs 16 years ago and wouldn't wear it. Alzheimer's link to ooor hearing has spurred him to relocate at this). Breakfast in Starbucks was £27 for four of us, with blue light discount.

Then £14 in WH Smith's on Christmas cards and wrap for next year, saved about £50 though.

Then off to ikea. My boys suffer nose bleeds and then pillows were grim and flat as pancakes. New pillows and pillow protectors purchased. Plus new cushion pads for the lounge. Plus hooks for bedroom doors. Plus food bags. £140.

Cleaner came £40. She does my kitchen and four bathrooms. I have mobility issues so she's a godsend. She also hoovers my whole house. So I wouldn't be without.

Also loads of Amazon parcels arrived that I ordered over new year. Oops.

I have bought a cutter to make tags out of Christmas cards, I'll do that at some point over the next few days when I take them down.

Ooo where you going need? Another cruise?

As a non drinker there are some nice non alcohol cider & gins about

Great to see so many new "faces" on the thread and returning ones too.
Paid for lunch for DD and I yesterday £30. Not frugal but she's back to uni on Monday & I will miss her. She & I are going out again tomorrow with a mum & daughter we are both friends with. Likely a similar spend.
Yesterday we had stir-fry veg with some of the Christmas cured beef.
Today jacket pots with Christmas cheese & coleslaw made from leftover Christmas cabbage
Tomorrow will be HM cheese & onion pie with veg
Sunday pressure cooked brisket with Yorkshires & veg
Not the healthiest but very frugal using stuff up and lots of veg.
Further ahead:
more jacket pots,
broccoli & blue cheese soup,
pasta with veg, turkey & boursin
Fish chowder using up frozen fish & leftover cream
Projects for the year:
Make quilts only using fabric I already have (am guilty of a large stash!)
Sort out photos: have just loaded Snapfish app which gives you 50 prints a month (postage cost only)
Read the pile of books I already have but have never read
Use the press reader app, free through library membership
Spruce up our bedroom at minimal cost. First steps are replacing curtains & painting 1990 style pine furniture.
Hoping this thread will help keep me accountable!

£16.05 spent for me today on washing powder (forgot to get in weekly shop!) and a new home present and card for my closest friend who has just moved.

Off to a national trust tomorrow with a cracking adventure playground with son. We are very fortunate and have lifetime membership - an v generous Christmas gift from my parents a few years ago. Some of my family live In Cornwall and it saves a fortune just on parking at the beach car parks when we visit! Will take lunch and coffee, prob ham and cheese quesadilla and some leftover snacky bits. Meant to be a beautiful day so looking forward to some fresh air - meeting up with my brother which will be nice as haven’t seen him over Christmas. Planning on a low spend day 🤞🏻

hope everyone has a lovely weekend 😊

I love a National trust with the kids. My dc are teens now so we don’t go. Saves a fortune in the Lake District as well for parking

@Agirlhasnoname95 I love a national trust for my kids and family meet ups. We're in the midlands so we have a really nice variety of them.

I strongly resisted the urge for a takeaway last night's which I'm quote proud of myself for. I was tired amd down and my children were away with their grandparents so I really couldn't be bothered to cook. Found a portion of leftover chilli in the fridge so I had that, which was a) healthier and b) cheaper!

I have a big shop from Asda coming tonight as I have planned for the month, it's £150 but does include a set of pans in the sale because mine have been falling apart for a while because they're so old, so hopefully that will be the full extent of my food shop this month, plus some leeway into next month with cupboard staples as I have stocked up on tins.

Technically not a NSD as the shopping is coming so that will go through my account.
I have so far resisted the sales which I am pleased about, with the exception of the saucepans but they are a necessity for sure as mine had to go last month because the linings were breaking down.

Yesterday bought shorts for the child to go with a jersey given as a Christmas present. €16.95.

today I’ll pop to the shops in the hopes of getting some waterproof gloves for her. We’re due to get snow and I’d love to play either her in it but she can only manage a minute or so with wooden gloves.

also need to get bread, barley and quinoa and some fruit for the week ahead. I’ll have a browse around the sales and see if there’s anything I really like. I don’t shop in person often so don’t mind a little spend here.

Thank you so much @Happierwithouthim no worries about the time it takes you no pressure .l am just wondering if it does the job and cuts down on condensation and damp and l know you will say it as it is warts and all ☺️

Morning all, and wishing a good weekend for everyone.

Cold here. Got the decorations down yesterday, will pack everything away today and dust. Still plenty of meat in the freezer, frozen leftovers, cheese and sweet food leftover from Christmas, so no need to shop - another NSD then.

Have managed to do a Prolific study every day so far this year, and have earned £15.90 in three days! Aiming to earn £40 this month so I can replace a couple of make-up items that have run out without using my regular income. Also using up all my existing skincare/haircare products and hoping to make them last the month before replacing (they won't, so might learn that I can manage without).

Otherwise, laundry, reading weekend press and new book (a secondhand Christmas gift for DH which he read and loved, and so now I can get my hands on it), French podcasts to try and get myself in shape for the new term of classes. 'Proper' life begins again on Monday, so enjoying the last couple of days of a holiday/between time feel.

Morning everyone :)

We are off to Ikea and Costco today. Usually big expenses for me. Ikea is just for lunch (meatballs YUM) and a browse as we need a new bed for DS's room at some point. I usually spend a fortune at Costco however, but all we really need is laundry liquid, really, so I'm going to try my absolute best to resist everything else! Wish me luck!

Today's goal is to learn how to get library ebooks on my iPad, and also how to change the settings on it to make it less bright and more book like- have been assured by librarian friend this is what she does and recommends to everyone. I love my kindle so much but can't get books on kindle from library so this is the next option. I am determined not to buy books if I can help it this year, even though I'm in 2 book clubs, although typically this month's one for one club isn't available at the library so I'll have to buy it.

have just totted up 2024 clothes purchase spreadsheet, and am surprised to find that I spent £2020 on new/replacement clothes last year, including purchases of £365 that were actually gifts, not funded by me. I am not sure what I think about this! Except that benchmarking annual expenditure makes me think even more carefully about what I will be spending in 2025. I am surprised to find that I spent nearly twice as much in 2024 than 2023, but I guess clothes do wear out, prices rise, and I don't have an extensive wardrobe, having decluttered previously.

Went out last night with friends. Spent £28 on a meal. We weren't drinking so not too bad.

@BigSkies2022 I did the same annual task yesterday and noticed our clothes spend now averages about £1200 but we retired a couple of years ago - prior to this it was nearer £3000!

Those annual totals are a bit of a shock aren’t they? I have spent so much on books and magazines - haven’t even read most of them. Am going to cancel 2 subscriptions. Will also renew library card while I’m off work next week so hopefully will cut that down a bit in 2025.

Got some Vinted parcels today but not going to count those as the spend was last year 😇🤣. Vinted buys included a very nice ‘new to me’ purse so am starting the frugal year with a lovely organised wallet. Good vibes! Decluttering day at home today so won’t spend anything other than the £50 I already owed for some tickets to a festival in the summer. That’s all paid now. ✅

Lidl £43.39

Had some plans to clean the bathroom and tick some admin jobs off however I dropped some belated presents off at DMs, came home and fell asleep reading a book!

Love Vinted. Some of my most worn items are from there. Also nice to make a few quid - have some things in the attic to list and I need a wardrobe declutter too.

2/4 NSDs Just had a quiet day today and went to Lidl £25.40 for cereals, bread, 5 x tins ideal milk (DH loves it in coffee!!) some cream to make a trifle using up jelly, Amaretto and trifle sponges from Xmas stuff and re-usable freezer bags, Home Bargains £3.15 on meal worms and peanuts for the birds (cos I'm a softy) and then KFC £17.40 (just cos I'm lazy!!) 😁
If the snow comes tonight I'll not be going anywhere to spend anything!

Good look at Costco nessa!

Big shop came today for January staples. Think I've enough pasta, rice, grains and potatoes, spices, cleaning products etc to just buy fresh for a few weeks. £160 for 4 adults that only eat in from food in the house so not bad.

DH has a couple of friends round to watch the football, so some beer in that total too.

Menu plan is influenced by using up Christmas leftovers and freezer bits.

Smoked salmon and pea risotto. (Freezer salmon from Christmas, not sure why I bought it in the first place....).
Turkey dinner (frozen leftovers).
Chicken and mushroom casserole, lots of fresh vegetables
Slow cooker dhal.
Turkey broth and crusty bread. (Leftovers again)
Aubergine dhansak.
Cod with butter bean and greens tray bake.

Agree rainbow, can pretty much guarantee tomorrow will be a NSD!

Spending today was £70 on a Morrisons delivery, otherwise a no spend day. Hoping for another low or no tomorrow.

£23.50 on lovely lunch with the girls. Rescheduled from before Christmas. £20 to DS for snack spends as last weekend of holiday but pal has flu so postponed

Hello. It’s been a while.

happy new year!!!

ive been awol here but active on the cancer thread. Sigh.

I have three chemo sessions left. That’s three weeks. It’s definetly getting harder. But cumulative effect innit. then I’m done and we move to surgery.

im exhausted today. But went riding this morning hoorah. Out in the cold and sun. Watched the hunt go past and pony got a bit twitchy!

made some bread and brioche this afternoon and am now tucked up in bed.

I was very restrained at Costco and we generally made good decisions I think and spent just under £100. Proud of me for saying no to things that were wants-not-needs!

Pleased you are still out riding em between sessions

Great to 'see' you again em glad to hear this stage of process is nearly over for you, wishing you only positive vibes

€3.60 biscoff slice at shop bf's sis treated me to dinner, came home to snow.
I'm tucked up in bed now

Need diesel tomorrow and to organise my car to be serviced next week too

Ive had a couple of LSD's thankfully - Ive a huge electric bill here waiting to be paid

Popped into both Tesco and lidl this morning after my SW group, and found I actually needed very little to get us through the week - total spend £35, and £3.50 of that was for a box of luxury Christmas crackers stored in the back bedroom for next year

Both of us back to work Monday so most of todays shop was for lunches, he does like a packet of crisp and chocolate bar along with his lunch. Got a pile of soup veg and some bits and pieces for mum to be able to get herself something whilst Im at work , bread and milk. Only meat I got was braising beef, need to use the last of the carrots and turnips from Christmas and the weather is calling out for stews

Going to have to do a full inventory of the freezers, I have a pretty good idea, and then meal plan around whats there . Hoping to get by with just veg, milk and bread for as far into the month as possible, hopefully the end, as we are going to need oil as well by then

Being paid weekly its been a long time since I got paid last and another week before I get paid again. Hopefully the tax rebate Im due will be paid next week as well - tax man has had me on week1 for the past 10 weeks