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

The YuleHouse started a No Spend year on 1st January. Bills & budgeted expenses are excluded from the totals, and we have very strict budgets for gifts, holidays, ad hoc etc which are unfortunately not yet defined as the end of last year ran away from me 😬 2025 thus far:

1.1 NSD
2.1 Used an almost-expired JL voucher on 2 gifts for next Christmas - £7.20 spend
3.1 NSD
4.1 Was shaping up to be another NSD but LO snapped a string so new instrument strings - £12.89 spend

We can eke out the fridge/freezer/larder for another day. Monday will be a planned spending day so I'll do a veg/bread/fruit top-up then. I was aiming to only spend the voucher on Thursday, I'm a bit disappointed I caved on day two! Today's expense was unplanned for but all spending to date fits into a budget. Now if I can just get a quiet hour to work out those budget figures...

Would like to join please!
desperately in need of frugality - on mat pay for the second time and it’s pretty bad as we’ve moved house and had a baby in the year, our mortgage has doubled as well as all the other expenses :(
I love good food and a Starbucks every now and then so I’m really trying to cut down on everything.

DS needed new clothes so bought some multipacks in the sales. DD (1m old!) has grown out of first size, 0-3 and now in her brother 3-6s so I had to buy a couple things for her.

have some credit cards to pay off (0% so not too bad!) hate them looming over me.
dying for a holiday but I doubt it will happen this year

trying to hold myself accountable for any purchases I make on Amazon (do I really need it?)

looking forward to hearing others tips and tricks!

happy new year 😅

3 nsd so far
Today will need petrol ⛽️
good to see you @ememem84 . Glad you got to go riding

For Amazon don’t do next day. Have a delivery day (mine is Friday as get mil shopping too) buy the item but then review before dispatch

I like this idea. So in effect you keep it in your basket and can change your mind before it’s due to go? I can see how it would work if you have a set day, otherwise you can forget.

Snowing heavily here in Lancashire! ❄☃Birds have been fed as everything is completely covered. DH moaned that I had spoilt our pristine snow!! At this rate it will all be covered again soon.
So now enjoying a coffee and celebrating the fact that I won a £10 coupon for Lidl which is valid for 7 days! Even though I want as few NSDs as possible I'm not going to let that go to waste and technically it's not my money is it?!
I need to check on my neighbour but other than that it is a day for packing away Christmas decorations and doing mundane chores like ironing.
Stay warm people!!

Pretty much rosa

lots of snow here but went to the farm as a few snowed in

£45 on some arch support trainers I can wear around the house as slippers, but better for my gammy feet. My 3 year old vionics have just about died, so I don't feel they were poor value. I'm trying Hotter ones this time, apparently they are good for planter fasciitis, so hopefully they will be comfortable. And they were much cheaper than vionic or fit-flops.

Ooh Rainbow where in Lancashire are you? My MN name gives me away.
Glad your chemo is nearly done Em
Doing well here so far in 2025. Still using up food, but spent £10 at Booths & £40 at lidl using the £5 off a £30 shop. All things we need for January's meal plan and included a huge box of washing powder for £12.
£30 on lunch with dd and our friends yesterday. It was lovely to meet up but the food was really disappointing.
No other spends that I can think of. I'm about to work on our planned budget for the year after talking it through with dh last night, am feeling optimistic about the year as yet. It has started better than 2024 as there are no big dental bills looming!
Christmas decs are all down and packed away. Dh has chopped up the tree and put it in the brown bin. I'm going to try to incorporate more lights into the living room as that's what I miss the most when Christmas is done.
Dd goes back to uni tomorrow on the train, if it's running.... We've had a lovely Christmas with ds back for a spell too, the house will seem quiet again. I'm trying to get social plans in place for Jan & Feb that don't involve spending much, so entertaining or being entertained.

Nellie I just buy the insoles for normal shoes. About £8 on Amazon or much cheaper on Temu. Much more frugal and versatile than special shoes

decorations down here but tree lights strung around the living room

I'm home in front of the fire and thinking if I took down decorations it would be a productive use of my time but it's only the 5th! My mother is on the phone beside me I'm itching to put on tv and distract me from taking down the decorations.
Maybe I'll take down some and leave the tree

€68 diesel
€23 groceries

It's only 4pm, but I'm calling a NSD.

roast chicken for dinner, I'll have a chicken sandwich for lunch tomorrow.

Going back to work and absolutely dreading it.

£5 spent taking my son swimming.

We are trying to skip this week from the supermarket. Normal shopping day is Monday but doing a meal plan it looks like we can get through without a visit this week. Made some butter out of cream which was expiring. Gone all Mary Berry

Hello! My main frugal effort was to change from my standard bank to Monzo. I split all my income into "pots" for bills, petrol etc and then have my "spending" money for the month. I have this is a separate pot also. Each week this "spending money" pot releases £60 into my main account for me to spend. My the end of the month I've only spent 60xnumbers of weeks in the month. In a typical 4 or 5 week month, this means I spend £240 or £300 (outside bills and food shopping etc). It's been a real game changer. For example, I like to buy lunch at work and that's fine if I still have some of my £60 for the week left over. If I don't, it's sandwiches from home. If I know there's a big expense coming up (e.g. dinner out with friends next week) then I make sure not to spend too much this week to add to my £60 from next week to afford it. It's a really good money management system.

@northender On the rural outskirts of Burnley - but when I went to take rubbish out for recycling it was chucking it down with rain. So although still shed loads of snow around - it won't last long if this carries on.
@frieda It's interesting to see how other people manage their spending - and how it works for them. I sit down each month and move money around to cover bills, savings, debts and other bits. The balance is used to cover everything from clothes (not that we buy much) petrol, food shopping, coffees out etc but as the total reduces we mentally know how much we can spend in a day. If we have a big shop then the total is divided by how many days are left to next pay day. That way for example, even if we can only have a fiver a day - on the days we have a NSD that figure rises. We usually have a credit at the month end and divide this no matter how much - half to savings and half to additional debt repayments. This has brought forward our debt free date by quite a bit and still allows us to have a budget holiday.
@ememem84 glad to hear that the treatment is counting down - it will soon be done.
The tree is down and everything stashed upstairs - it still needs boxing up but one of the plastic boxes is outside the back door housing Christmas booze and soft drinks. So need to bring that in soon. The outside tree is still twinkling away!!
Another wash has been done and a huge pile of ironing is done too, and DH and I are munching on Christmas nibbles and leftovers along with a mulled wine! So no dinner to cook today!! But as it's been a NSD running total is now 3/5 😊

Good luck with the remaining treatment em - I confess I hadn't clocked you had been through quite such torrid time, healthwise. May 2025 bring good health!

Planning sesh with DB and DSIL this morning to work out how we're going to help DParents when my mum has an op in a couple of weeks. Another sign that Christmas is over and regular responsibilities resuming!

£4.75 sitting in Prolific account, so nearly halfway to target of earning enough to replace make-up items this month! NSD yesterday, used up last of the confit duck for dinner and tomato soup from the freezer for lunch.

Today £10 topping up milk, bread and muesli. DH spent money on dishwasher tablets, fruit and razors, but dunno what he spent as he used his own account rather than the joint one, tsk, tsk. Currently have an Amazon basket totalling over £40, containing cleaning products and Greenies for DDog's dental health.

Italian sausages out of the freezer will be used to make a lentil stew for dinner tonight. I still have a big piece of belly pork, 2kg of chuck steak, leftover cassoulet and loads of chicken stock in the freezer. DS now back however so I expect our rate of food consumption to rise.

Just checked energy account and realise that the balance excludes this month's direct debt, which hasn't yet been applied. So the debit balance is closer to £150, and therefore really not bad for this time of year and all the extra heating, cooking and laundry we've been doing. Will pay down a chunk on it though, before the end of January, and start to claw back the winter usage.

Weather shit here today and step count accordingly awful. So off to do a floor workout to at least use some muscles!

Lsd today. Use up dinner of Christmas ham carbonara.£7 on choc for cheesecake

Fur I have the back to work dread too 🙁 However, I do like being paid, so back to work I go!

We had “free” electricity today. Dishwasher has been on three times (once was doing a dishwasher clean), washing machine 5 times 😂 including two lots of bedding and I’d been saving the rest up, tumble dryer on for about 3 hours. Hopefully haven’t exceeded the fair usage of it 😁

DH only spent £80 in the supermarket today. Still eating all the Christmas goodies which helps. Not sure if all the tubs of chocolate will be gone by Easter.

For me it was a NSD.

Ah yes, pay! That's why we do it.

It's the scariest Sunday of the year, I have to remind myself that I'll settle back in. I've been off three weeks as I was poorly before Christmas so it's been a long time. I know I've got tonnes to do and also an empty diary which feels scary.

I'm going to try taking lunch every day and then getting out for a 15 minute walk and not going in supermarkets.

Saying that I just used the last of the cooking oil so will need to pop in.

em sorry I missed your post before I posted, glad to hear you got out for a ride, wishing you all the best for the rest of your treatment.

Today was a LSD, just bits for the DC that were needed. Poor DW has the back to work dreads, we've had a lovely fortnight together. Reality here we come.

I should find out this week if my new job offer will be finalised or retracted depending on if they can bend to the adjustments I asked for before Christmas due to my disability. I'm not too bothered either, having a job after over a year out of work will be great financially but I'm dreading it mentally! If not this job it'll have to be another though so it'd be great to skip the interviewing again.

I also got my period and desperately want to faceplant the remaining tub of Celebrations tonight. Think I will, since we're back on our healthy eating tomorrow so I'll be doing us both a favour getting it out of the house, right? 😋

Aiming for an NSD tomorrow.

Hello checking in.
I was a member of this a couple of years ago now when I had just become a mum but fell off the page.
I have a two year old daughter now who absolutely loves adventures so I am wanting to cut the bits and bobs spends out, the meal deals at lunch time the can't be bothered to cook takeaways etc. etc. and focus on memories in 2025. We've had a very low spend weekend with a NSD today and small spend for my daughter yesterday.

em good to hear from you, I was on the thread back in the summer but fell off. Hope the next few treatments are okay - nearly there 🙏
Nessa fingers crossed that the t&c work out for the new job.

£14.93 co-op
£13.99 Amazon for new table runner

Co-op was mainly essentials for the week ahead and we get discount due to DHs job so I may have slipped some Kit Kat Chunkys in the basket.

Quite a lot of snow here but it's melting fast. Tomorrow morning we need to put DHs car in the garage as the sub frame dropped off on Boxing Day and the AA got it to a garage that has been shut all of Christmas! That's going to be spendy - we just need it fixed until it's MOT date in November and then we are getting a better one.

Evening peeps... It has been a while

@ememem84 I am so glad you are on the home straight with the chemo.

It would have been a nsd but I had to pick the paper up for my mum.... She will give me the money back at some point.

Notes the 15% shit happens contingency... We are working out the minimum amount we need to keep body and soul together so we can plan for retirement. The 3 weeks off over Chrissynewyears has cemented my early retirement plans.