January Jingles, Valentine Capers, Frugal Fun Shenanigans & Looking Forward to Spring!

[DirtyGertiefromno30]

Welcome to the New thread everyone 😊
Here's to everyone of us and hoping 2026 brings us all health happiness and frugal finances 🤗

@devildeepblueseaah good to see you back here ,it's such a wonderful corner of MN ❤️
Am on the Welsh Borders in Monmouthshire . Well done on all your frugal work, you have really well 😊.
And thank you re my Mum , just have to take each day as it comes now ❤️

@BigSkies2022that's brilliant you have tenants, all your hard work has paid off . I am made up for you 😊👏

Aw thank you so much that's so kind of you re my Mum @chimichangaz bless you ❤️
Well done e sorting out your Christmas decorations and tree ornaments that's a job well done ! A lightbulb was £15 omg , never that's so expensive but l suppose it will last years and years 😊

Has anybody got snow yet?:

No snow here in the Welsh Borders @MushyPeasAndMintSauce

Nothing in the NE @MushyPeasAndMintSauce it came in from the North Sea last weekend so the coast was hit but we are further inland so just lots of frost! This weekend it looks like rain here which is fine by me. Where I live is quite high up so when it snows it takes weeks to melt.

Today I had a couple of incidental spends
Morrisons £7 needed kindling and also two for £2 daffodil pots to fill a couple of empty pots in the living room.
Also £7.24 went looking for cheaper kindling (Morrisons was £5 per bag) and came out with three packs of chocolate! They had my favourite sea salt dark chocolate in plus I got one pack for DC. Chocolate has got expensive all of a sudden though!
£12 Eco wax melts as a present to my niece for being so generous to DC at Christmas. She is early 30s and earning good money but still incredibly generous and thoughtful. Wanted to send her flowers but my BIL is allergic to pollen!

No snow here, it was sleeting though.

£1.80 on rinse aid
£4 in Tesco express (husband no idea)
£4 on parking at the nhs hospital (Nuffield had the good grace to be free!)
im just about to spend £30 on a few months of coffee, dh drinks azera and its cheaper to buy in bulk. He doesn’t leave the house without it!

i enjoyed some cheese and biscuits and a boost chocolate bar for my dinner. Hooray for Christmas bits! It was wenslydale with cranberries, my fave and I only buy it once a year!

Lots of big snowflakes last night from around 7pm - photo is from window at front of house. It’s a bit slushy this morning, made it for my PT session at 7:30 and deadlifted a new PB of 50kg!! Pretty chuffed with that. Then treated myself to egg McMuffin breakfast 🤣🤣

Have decided to start tracking a few things like gym visits, water intake, morning and night routine.

@FurForksSake £30 for a few months coffee is a good buy!!

Further spends today will be transport and food later for an event I’m going to (unless it’s cancelled due to weather).

Snow here last night but didn't stick and just dreary now, DD nearly got stuck in the library studying (never have caught me doing that!). They went in mid-afternoon and when they all came out gone 8pm they had about 4 inches and treacherous! Hope everyone else is ok.

@lifelongfrugaleer agree with you on food choices - since peri hitting I've been much more aware of UPF's and sugar in particular but it's so difficult to avoid, a cereal bar which is supposed to be good for you has over 10g sugar in a little packet, and things like jar sauces which I've relied on as easy fixes are almost as bad. Hope you are feeling ok (despite said hole) and being looked after.

Mixed day yesterday - remembered my lunch to the office which I was glad of as parking has become so much more expensive compared to last month, up from £7 to £15.20 so will be getting the bus from next week. Managed to snag the Lego I wanted so that was a spend that wasn't expected (but budgeted for March so the money was there), DD's dad is splitting the cost with me and as previously mentioned she won't be getting anything else!!!!

Busy today - supposed to be working but not used to it on a Friday as it's normally my nwd - but also have CD's being collected, and 3 separate returns to post, once everything arrives back it's £190 to us (which is already allocated so won't stay with us long!).

Need to write a shopping list - only need bread, milk, eggs, fruit & veg and a couple of cleaning bits so hoping for about £40 which will leave me with just over £150 for the rest of the month. Doable given everything we have in the freezer but will be a bit tight I think, groceries is one of the areas I've been guilty of just tapping the card if I don't have a plan or can't be bothered cooking so really want to cut this out. @devildeepbluesea I'm trying JamDoughnut for the first time this month - got £11 cashback banked from Tesco and Costa so hoping it works out for me. Just need to make sure that Tesco isn't more expensive than the cashback I get...........

Whew that was long sorry!

I haven’t had a Boost bar in decades! I am old enough to remember when they were called Star Bar and unwrapping each layer was my preferred méthode of eating them. Oh god, didn’t know this day was going to bring a rush of queasy nostalgia!

Pension income came in today, hurrah, and I have ordered 3 bras from M&S to replace ratty ones that I had to ditch. £50.

Errands today: inventory clerk, letting agents, supermarket. Hoping to avoid downpours. Admin, admin, admin. Spenny sort too, but costs of business so can’t be helped.

Dad’s op will be on 19 January - very much quicker than I expected. Good, obviously, but also the very week my brother is away and so not on hand to help manœuvre dad in and out of the car.

glad to hear your mum is improving Gert.

i hope everyone in the storms path are keeping well.

great news @BigSkies2022 on the tenants. i had not realised that Boost bars were actually starbars!

Tarts were baked and delivered, actually lovely to catch up. With a very large family we don't get to meet often so its often weddings and funerals that we get to catch up. Removal is tonight and funeral on Saturday so those days will be busy.

last nights dinner made use of the last of the roast beef. it had gone quite sry but some slowcooking in spices and lime juice made it very juicy. i'll have the leftovers for my lunch as a taco salad.

I've 3 days of mini workouts done. I'm rather shocked at how poor my flexibility has become. Some of this i think is due to the nature of the short workout. With a longer class my body has ore time to warm up and stretch out. Some of its just the fact i'm weaker and less flexible. This format seems to be working for me as i'm not knackered after them whereby a weekly class would leave me in pain for days.

Today i think will be Low spend, DH will pick up a few things tonight in lidl. i've very little on the list but who knows what protein items he will pick up.

So glad about your flat @BigSkies2022and also great news regarding your dad. Do you have anyone else that can help you that week?

How is your mum @DirtyGertiefromno30? Thought of you earlier. My mum also has a UTI and being seen by a Dr later today.

Spent £51 on shopping today. The last bits for DD party.

Added it up, the total for the party. I actually feel sick. I wish I hadn't. £800. That's the hall, food and two entertainments. I've never tracked things before and it's higher than expected so next year I shall aim for half this at least.
Feel free to tell me off. It's so expensive isn't it. Also the two girls who couldn't make it are now coming. Which is amazing. I need to try and make up another 2 party bags somehow.

I don't batch cook tbh, but I do try and save a portion of everything and stick in the freezer and then when I have enough it's a free meal for the family. Works for me.

@BigSkies2022 you can still buy star bars, they aren’t the same! Close though. But star bars are very much still available. I don’t think I’ve ever had one….

I’ve just seen calm go out, totally forgot about that but I do use it.

Snoop is telling me we have £400 left after bills for the month. Hoping that there aren’t any other unexpected bills and I can keep the food shops low and we can make it to the end of three month out of our overdraft and start February clean. I can then start using YNAB and will be able to see it all clearly.

DH bought scratch cards for us to do with Christmas dinner and we won £50, planning on a takeaway with it.

Ocado sent me a £10 voucher for my anniversary with them. And I used it to stock up the freezer with two lots of Birds Eye four items for £5 deals. They will be very useful when I can’t be bothered to cook! And I bought the most expensive items that should have been £3 an item. Silly prices!

sold a pair of trousers on vinted, someone liked them so i offered a £1 off. Hurrah! I think that’s my last item listed. I’m going to try and find another ten to twenty items to list. If I can buy the kids clothes from vinted this year it will really help.

@Frugal25 becoming aware of it is the main thing, it is a lot, we stopped doing parties because they were just too spendy. This year my 12 year old is going to take 4 friends to an escape room and the 10 year old is going to do bowling I think with a small group of friends. I’m hoping that won’t be too expensive. I do need to add a line to my budget for it.

we did a few times taking the boys to Alton towers instead of birthday parties and stayed over as we worked out it was cheaper!

@Frugal25 i was also shocked this year at the costs of birthday parties. we do a separate family party and had it on a different day. it meant 2 of everything, cakes etc. Next year the parties will be on the same day and we may cut down a bit on the catering.

I may say that this is the first and last party too. Unless I do my own entertainment like my mum did for me when I was little. Then it's just the hall and food which tbh weren't that expensive. It was the entertainment that was most of it.
Bowling and escape rooms sounds so much fun! I did that too for some of mine. Amazing fun.

Def agree though that tracking it was the important bit for me. First time tracking and it's opening my eyes up. Now time to ensure I can do better as I go forwards.

Currently sat in the dentist waiting room whilst Dmum has her crown fitted. Hoping this is the last appointment for six months, as she has had four appointment in the last eight weeks 🤞

Parties are expensive. DD2 recently had a birthday sleepover at home, and we easily spent £120 on takeaway pizza, cake, snacks and party bags (party bags were a little sparse as I forgot until the morning of the party to buy anything). Quite eye watering when you add it up for something small.

£48 in Tesco

I have a job interview next week. But another job was advertised yesterday that I like the look of which would be better, so I will apply for that too.

DD has a birthday coming up too. She's not sure what she wants to do but they are expensive. Last year, we did an escape room them back here for Wagamama delivery, that was more costly than I'd hoped!
Had two NSDs. Hoping for a third today. I do need to get some toiletries at the weekend but I'm not going anywhere so should be a LS weekend

@Frugal25 that's likely average for parties these days. My DD was funny and only ever wanted to invite 3 or 4 people, but even that was always a few hundred 5-10 years ago. I remember the big class parties for DS though. I once hired a carriage of a steam train 😂 It'll be fun.

I'd forgotten about Star Bars but I am old enough to have had the odd one 😊

Hope your DM is feeling a bit better @DirtyGertiefromno30

Hope noone was too affected by the storm. Other than losing a bit of grip on slush when picking DH up last night, it's been cold, dull and damp here.

@FurForksSake we also did scratch cards on Christmas Day and think we won £15 will see if DH has cashed that in when we get home.

Good news on your job interviews @Holidaysandchocolate

DS is waiting to hear back after two interviews this week. It would really help all of us if he gets one of them.

You have motivated me with talk of exercise. Need to book my class for tomorrow morning.

Ahhh ok I'll calm down about the price then of the party. I did try and cancel one of the entertainments but OH said to keep it.
A steam train birthday sounds so much fun!!

Good luck @Holidaysandchocolate!!!! And the other job sounds interesting, Def do that too :)

I need to do an abs workout tonight. May do this whilst dinner cooks and then it's done and dusted.
Loved the idea that @pistachiosanscreamhad. Small chunks of exercise every day. Sounds more doable and fun

The cost of parties soon adds up and it’s not forever. Sounds about right to me

Afternoon everyone 😊
Been to see Mum twice today and she was out of bed for the first time in weeks . Tired and really grumpy now though but it's to be expected given it's her first day out of bed for weeks. A NSD for me , l have not done much except visit Mum today , we have had no snow thankfully, not even where Mums home is in the heart of the country and up high near the mountains. I thought we would be under a blanket of snow this morning when l woke but nothing 🤗.
I was so glad so we could visit Mum l can tell you .

Thank you @lifelongfrugaleer first time doing a party that isn't family round for cups of tea at home so was a shock tbh. Hope you're doing ok?

@DirtyGertiefromno30so glad your mum is up albeit grumpy. Tbh, it's a grumpy day isn't it. Rain and grey. Yay for you and your mum.

Absolutely freezing here so I've wrapped people up more rather than turning the heating up further. Home made pizza for tea tonight and then I'm angling for the strewed apple that's defrosted with some lovely ice cream left over from Christmas....

AHH thank you so much @Frugal25 that's so kind of you . I just have to take each day as it comes now .
Re your DD party , if that is what you normally pay and l can see you have been very careful with what you have bought then it's not too much .
It could have been a lot more tbh.

Thank you @Lockin26so kind of you re my Mum, she seems better today. Fingers crossed for your DS interviews 🤗