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 🤗

I agree that’s not a spend Jonah. No failure there

Not a spend AND a declutter. That’s top frugal behaviour.

NSD for me today ,Mum was ok there thankfully 🤗.
Weather is a joke ,dark ,dank drab and dismal all the D's 🤣
@Johaanahnot a spend at all fabulous you can get what you want, am made up for you 🤗
Lol @FurForksSake&
@lifelongfrugaleer 🤣.
It's only 9k , pocket money 😁
Thank you @lifefor your kind words 🤗
Hope your Mum is ok @pistachiosanscream💐
Fabulous bonus for your DH @FurForksSake 👏👏👏🤗.
Have a lovely visit with your Mum and Dad tomorrow @BigSkies2022🤗
I hear everyone re the payday can't come quickly enough 👍

Thank you. I had a lovely day with my friend yesterday. I spent so much I stopped counting. I went to Uniqlo. We had lunch and cocktails then dinner at one of my favourite restaurants before nearly missing the start of the show as we were chatting too much over dinner. The show was good and it was nice to feel a bit like I used to.

How do you compartmentalise @Alwayslearning25? I think it would help but I just can’t. When something is in my head I have to solve it or work out what to do. It’s exhausting.

Glad things look positive for your father @BigSkies2022. Hope you are enjoying a quiet day today.

Great win on the tin of paint @Frugal25. What a discovery.

Not as bad today thank you @needastrongoneagain.

Gift cards don’t count @Johaanah .

Didn’t do much today. Went out for some milk. Have a feeling I’m going to fall asleep on the sofa.

A LSD for me today. £4 something on stamps. And £14 on a cd for OH for valentine's. I normally spend way more than this so I'm chuffed. I do need to get patrol but this is budgeted for

Your day sounds amazing @RumBananaSundaeam so pleased for you.
@DirtyGertiefromno30yay for your mum being happy and well. And the weather has been hilarious hasn't it.

On the weather..... I turned up at work looking like a drowned rat. At lunch I said to a colleague how awful I looked and she asked why I hadn't used the facilities..... Turns out there's pretty much a spa in the basement of our building that's free. A short while later I returned to my desk looking like a model. Although it made me realise my ghds aren't working as well as the should be.....

Glad you had such a wonderful day with your friend @RumBananaSundae l have literally done zilch today except visit my Mum and fine the washing 🤣
This weather has been all over the place, honestly mad @Frugal25 🤣
Turning up like a drowned rat then discovering a free spa in the basement and coming back looking like a model is brilliant 🤣
New GHDs on the cards methinks though sweetheart.
That’s a great LSD too 👏 stamps were cheap and £14 on a CD for OH for Valentine’s is a win. I’d be chuffed with that. Petrol’s boring but at least it’s budgeted for 😊
Thank you re my Mum l am just taking each day as it comes with her the good with the bad 😊❤️

@RumBananaSundae Yesterday sounds like the perfect day, Uniqlo, lunch, cocktails and dinner (that you didn’t have to cook) with a friend AND a show, the chef’s kiss of days out 🤌🏻

Ooh what show did you see @RumBananaSundae?

It was a LSD for me today. A pack of cookies for DD and a jar of instant coffee. Under £6.
DD was sent home from school yesterday feeling sick and today I got a phone call from welfare saying she felt sick again, but was just having a lie down rather than needing to go home. Trying to get a GP appointment for her as the headaches and sickness have been going on for quite a while now. She had an eye test on Monday and her vision is fine so it’s not that.

January is starting to drag for me too. I felt like I was doing really well frugally up till the weekend but now feel like my allocated pots are looking low. In reality I’ll be fine - but there’s definitely a tipping point each month when I start to panic. Not sure if it’s the same time/amount each month as bizarrely I don’t really recognise it until after it’s passed so I’m going to try and be more conscious next month.

My freezer is absolutely full of lovely foods I need to eat. I am not going to spend any more money on food for me this month (well, other than maybe a takeaway on Friday when my friend comes round 😂)

Shnout- ocular migraine? Does your daughter experience visual disturbances before the onset of the headache? I had this for a long time before seeking help and getting a diagnosis. Sometimes called migraine with aura. I find Migraleeve sorts me out.

Book group was fun tonight- big turnout, good discussion. DH answered my plea and topped up my account, the joint account and DS’ account. By many multiples of what I’d asked for as well. I asked if he was a secret millionaire and he said he’d been trying not to spend anything this month, so had extra sloshing around. I apologised for rinsing him, given his goal has been parsimony, but assured him that a chunk of it would get recycled back into the house(alarm system replacement, floor repair, more lighting all spring instantly to mind).

@BigSkies2022 actually although she hasn’t mentioned that recently- she did say before that her vision was sometimes odd during headaches. Thanks. I’ll get that checked.
Im glad your book club was good. What book did you read?

No big spends planned for today so should be a NSD or a LSD at least.

£362 gym refund
£268 car refund as pcp now ended

@Shnoutwe read The Employees- sci-fi. Not something I would ever pick up unprompted but a rewarding read, so I am glad I made the effort. Next reads are Wuthering Heights for one book group and Brideshead Revisited for the other. I have read both before but decades ago, so it will be interesting to see how aged me rather than late-teens/20-something me responds. Good luck with investigating your daughter’s headaches.

Thus talk of reading reminds me I must pay my library account -£16.30 for a year of reservations, loans from other libraries, renewals.

Nice quiet morning for me:admin, chores, workouts with podcasts burbling away. Mum and dad this afternoon, then an uninhibited food shop, courtesy of DH’s intervention, on the way home. I am definitely getting some daffodils if I see them.

Afternoon! Car insurance went out, £331, another date to add into YNAB. Fingers crossed it’s pay day tomorrow and I can start very, very carefully tracking.

Happy Thursday everyone.
I hope you find out the cause of the headache for your DD @Shnout good shout by@BigSkies2022

£66 in Lidl. I paid cash so it didn't hit the bank account. I found some delicious yellow stickers in that and they have gone into the freezer ready for valentine's night. Trying so hard to be savvy this year.
£28 for DD gymnastics class for the month

The tester paint pot has been used up already. I shall order another next month. I had new radiators put in 5 years ago and didn't paint behind them. It's bugged me for 5 years. Thought it would be a big job. Turns out a small paintbrush did it nicely! Got one left to do so that can wait til next month. Another month doesn't matter on top of 5 years.

Went through my veggie seeds and found I have lots left over from last year so will just buy seed potatoes this year.
@BigSkies2022lidl have daffys. I found some this morning xxx

I feel like I'm missing a payment to tell you about....I'm sure it will come to me
Petrol last night was £20 bang on.

And now £150 for drum lessons. There will be choir and violin and keyboards bills coming through too. I think this is for the summer term, so hopefully can build up my YNAB budget for September so I don’t hold my breath when the bills arrive!

Great to hear you had a lovely day with your friend @RumBananaSundae you've had a tough run of luck lately.

thanks @DirtyGertiefromno30 mum is fine this was just a routine appointment but was eye related so she couldn't drive herself.

@Johaanah definitely still a no spend and even better to declutter.

how nice to have those facilities in your work @Frugal25

I am also feeling the january fatigue. Feel today is my blue monday and i've managed to not check out about 3 baskets of stuff that i definitely don't need.

I do need to post a letter but don't have the motivation to go to the post office. So its going to be a NSD as long as i cave to the shopping impulses.

I've prepped most of todays dinner and will cook 2 dinners tonight as tomorrow is a late work day and its better to have it done beforehand. Really realising how we don't need masses of food in order to eat healthy as volume is as important as the types of food. There really is only so much we can eat so i need to be better at just buying less. i hate food waste so it makes no sense to be buying more than we can healthily eat.

Afternoon.

@Shnout - sorry, I’ve forgotten what age your DD is, but migraines can also be very common during periods where hormones are in a lot of flux. My mum had dreadful ones during menopause, which subsided when that time period had passed. I get them, but not as badly as she did. Just wondered if she was in that age range where things are changing.

I saw @lifelongfrugaleer sneaking in a sly £9k…

Hugs re the miscarriage chat. I had one in between my two DC, I try to think that I wouldn’t have DD now as I was pregnant again so quickly afterwards but I was really badly affected at the time for sure.

Deep in the admin for DF’s death at present. There are some associated costs that I have incurred relating to his estate and outstanding care home fees, the estate will reimburse me for that. I’ve ordered about £130 of clothes for myself and DH for the funeral, which I may or may not keep depending on what they look like when delivered.

We did manage to see Song Sung Blue today at the cinema, I think I’ve just about stopped crying. Just a lovely film with amazing performances, I note Kate Hudson has been nominated for an Oscar for her role, but Hugh Jackson was also brilliant.

Sorry forgot
£25 cinema
£10 drinks at cinema

My ‘payday’ tomorrow and we are under budget in most areas, over in holiday costs and DH’s care costs and dog expenses, but will recoup these next month.

£5.65 on odd things in Asda. I found an avocado for 18p in the yellow stickered fridge. Some eggs and (yellow stickered) tangerines in Marks and Spencer but they were on a gift card so I’m not counting those.

Do they have massages @Frugal25? That I would love. We used to have a mobile massage company come to the office. It was brilliant.

Oliver @Shnout. Sorry your daughter is still suffering. Headaches are unpleasant things. I wondered the same as @needastrongoneagain. It took about seven years for me to grow out of mine.

Keep thinking today is Friday. Tomorrow will be a shock. Am having soup mix for the next few days. I am trying it in a type of shakshuka with soft boiled eggs. Marks and Spencer eggs are very hard to peel. Will go back to Waitrose. They are the easiest.

Hormonal migraines are and were an issue here for teen DS and me

not confessing the other £4,100 either for the bathroom 😆

Went to a garden centre today with Dmam. She got the cafe so I will next time £5 on scissors & seeds

I see nothing @lifelongfrugaleer!!! Just scrolling past not seeing £4100!!! Ha ha ha what style are you going for? How exciting

18p avocado is the dream. I find them so expensive and yet I buy them weekly

Thanks everyone. Sounds like a fairly common thing for this age then. She’s 12 @needastrongoneagain so it could easily be related to hormones and periods. Especially with the sickness too. The welfare woman at school thinks it could be anxiety which also makes sense. I guess it’s probably a combination of things - but I’ll get her checked out just in case.

Ive not read much science fiction at all @BigSkies2022. I keep on meaning to reread some of the classics though. Actually I think I’ll take Brideshead revisited on holiday with me next month. I wanted to name our dog Aloysius but DH and DD vetoed it - which is probably a good thing really 😂

i often think it’s Thursday instead of Wednesday @RumBananaSundae. Such a disappointing thing to do! I hope tomorrow doesn’t drag too much for you.

I kept spending under £10 today. I bought dd the expensive green juice she likes (which is nowhere near as healthy as it claims to be but at least has a few vitamins in it) and that’s it.

A few refunds turned up in my account today- including £200 for something I didn’t send back! So now I’ve got to add ‘returning the refund’ to my ever increasing to do list.

£66 in Lidl with yellow stickers for Valentine’s night is excellent @Frugal25and £28 for DD’s gymnastics is money very well spent. Also your radiator painting after 5 years finally done apart from 1 is brilliant well done you 👏.
@lifelongfrugaleer that was a very respectable garden centre outing… £5 on scissors and seeds is practically saint level restraint 🌱✂️
And yes, absolutely no need to mention the tiny £4,100 bathroom detail 🤣 .
Love the refunds too £362 from the gym and £268 back from the car is brilliant 😁👏.
@RumBananaSundaeWow, £5.65 well spent! That avocado for 18p sounds like a proper bargain 😁. I know what you mean about the days , thinking it’s Friday when it’s actually Thursday . Shakshuka with soft boiled eggs sounds lovely 😋. Soup mix for the next few days sounds perfect for this weather too 😊.
@needastrongoneagain
Wow, sounds like a full week! Well done staying mostly under budget fingers crossed payday helps.
I’m sorry about the miscarriage memories, it’s awful how it hits even years later 🤗 Big hugs ❤️.
DF’s admin sounds exhausting, but good the estate will reimburse you. £130 on funeral clothes seems good to me l hope they work out well.
Glad you got a lift from Song Sung Blue it sounds beautiful, and Kate Hudson and Hugh Jackson must have been brilliant 🤗