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 🤗

Happy new year all. Checking in on this one. I really need a couple of weeks with NSDs or very LSDs! Got a couple of cat sits this weekend which covers what I spent on NYE. Had a lovely time seeing various friends during December but it was very spendy.
I've also bought theatre tickets (on offer) and advance train tickets for this month and next to visit my parents.
Going shopping with DD tomorrow as she has vouchers and money to spend. Will have lunch out as an end of holiday treat.
Dinners will mostly be using stuff up.

Morning.

Lovely to see so many new and old faces. Keep posting and we can keep each other accountable.

I use an app called Emma to budget - you can link your bank accounts (well, the major ones) to it, so spending is automatically updated. You can then add in pension pots, assets, investments, ISA accounts, any equity in property or whatever else you consider to be assets that you own that have value I guess, to get your net worth. You don’t have to have any if you just want an amalgamation of your bank accounts and to set a monthly budget and have pots for various expenses. There’s a free version and a paid for. Just throwing it out there if folk might find it useful - you can set up alerts if you’re spending a pot too fast over the month or switch these off - I have a few on and a few off as I find some annoying, some useful.

Spending.
£10 donation to do with dogs and I’m a sucker for dogs in distress.
£40 Amazon on bulk buys of items like oat milk etc.
£8 buying Spotlight the film from the Sky Store - which bizarrely we must watch about every 3/4 months as the acting is superb and the subject matter worthy of remembering.
£108 Ocado - we had friends over last night so quite a lot of beer and wine in that total, plus non alcoholic wine which was £££ and not that great. In fact, 2 small bottles of beer were consumed so I’ve an absolute stash now. Particularly if you count how much they very generously brought with them.
£75 Marks and Spencer - mainly getting posh nibbles for above and some fresh stuff - they had eaten beforehand so we’ve plenty of posh nibbles to now consume - DS will be handy for that - but something of an unnecessary spend - should have checked if they wanted feeding and made a chilli, or not.

I’m officially peopled out now after a very busy Christmas period and putting us into voluntary lockdown, with the exception of my 92 year old DM - although she’s usually too busy to come….!

Lovely healthy food, routine, calm, peace and quiet await this week. Hooray!

@needastrongoneagain thanks for the suggestion of Emma.

I'm the opposite. We had quite a calm Christmas with 2 kids as we've had so much minor illnesses and went away in October half term so didn't arrange much 4 small group family gathering otherwise just DH and kids. I found 3 days into the holidays kids were calmer and more content playing with toys. Now I'm ready to start chaos, of an inset day out with DDs friends then school and nursery and DH back to work. Allthough from the 12th I'll have peace and quiet on mondays as ds is doing an extra nursery day...I will tell my manager I'm available for overtime if needed. I do find the work/life balence a real conflict, but would like to do our first holiday abroad as a family this summer without using all our savings.

@pistachiosanscream the munch tins are super easy to make yourself and you can put in exactly what you like! The kids have had fun making them with me in the past. I’ve put in popcorn, we’ve made our own white chocolate pretzels, chopped up fudge, chucked in jelly tots and salty nuts. It’s a lot cheaper and actually nicer than the tins you can buy. Aldi and Lidl little packets of sweets help with variety.

I also need to buy far less treats this year.

I’ve downloaded YNAB. Which is so far so good. I’ve used it a long time ago but the app seems good. We are massively overdrawn so far this month so it looks awful. We have savings we can move, I’d like DH to do that so we can start February without being over drawn and then go from there.

We seem to be spending a lot on electricity, but I have an electric car. I might go and turn down the garage fridge and freezer and see if that helps.

No planned spending today, I did spend £4 in a card for step mum yesterday but also got £2.50 back from dunelm.

oh! I have bought a pair of trousers from vinted, but used my balance. I want to find another ten things to list this week.

Thanks @FurForksSake, I did make one already and really enjoyed it. I think for buying I’d stick to the peanut butter one as that’s harder to find the Ingredients for. I did find the homemade mix was a good way to use up some items we weren’t that mad about. Definitely good for clearing the cupboards a bit.

i think it’s a good idea to clear the overdraft if you have it in savings. The anxiety it causes isn’t necessary as long as you think you can stay within budget and not run it up again.

@pistachiosanscream l have just bought 2 pkts of finest chocolate covered popcorn from Tesco to replenish the merry munch tin , 82p instead of God knows how much. I have only bought it for my DH he loves the merry munch so much 🤣.
Shopping at Tesco £75
Petrol was 129.9 a litres so we filled up there £62.
Beautiful day but freezing 🥶.
@FurForksSake l am sure you will be absolutely fine re your overdraft very soon . Try not to let it get you down sweetheart 🤗

I am wondering where yesterday and this morning went!!

Ive been doing the calm Christmas winter writing sanctuary and I fell behind three days so I did some catching up yesterday and need to catch up on one more tonight when I get in. It’s been challenging me but I’ve enjoyed it and remembered how I used to love writing, especially before my mid teenage years. But it’s taken up a lot of time!! I’ve also bought a couple of her recommended resource books from Vinted, but used my balance so no actual cash was spent 😬

Ive also caught up with some household jobs but I desperately need to do some admin and finance work (including updating YNAB). Will fit that in tomorrow alongside taking the tree down (which I feel really sad about as I’ve loved my tree this year!).

I also started a sourdough loaf yesterday and baked it this morning. Almost a disaster as I forgot to turn the temp down after 20 mins but it’s turned out ok. However I have decided not to continue with baking sourdough…. Although I love that bread, the time and cost just doesn’t justify it to me. I might try a couple of bread recipes from a Paul Hollywood bread book I got for 50p!

I’ve also realised that I need to declutter more than I do. Not thinking about it at the moment as have too much else going on in my head and need to get sorted for my cruise, but if I see stuff I can declutter while going along, I will.

Low spend day here.
£3.50 in the local charity shop for a toy for my Dd she saw when doing some drop offs.
Bit old for her unfortunately and hasn't gone very well she she was happy.
Blissful afternoon with toys now.
My pjs are back on and stopping on for the rest of the day.

Sounds like you’ve got a lot on your plate looking after mums best interests @DirtyGertiefromno30, I don’t have a good relationship with my own mother and my father wasn’t around when I was growing up so I don’t have a relationship with him at all, this means I don’t/wont encounter these issues, DH on the other hand is the only family that FIL has so he also has lots to deal with as he arranges all medical appointments and has to take lots of time off work for these and also has to sort all of his finances etc and it’s a lot. ❤️

So many name changes here and I’m really confused - lol. I do hope everyone is feeling positive for the coming year, I find Jan/Feb very difficult months personally, I think it’s a combination of the cold dark days and the come down after Christmas festivities.

NSD today 🎉 dh and I went for a very fresh crisp walk early this morning - which was nice, we’ve spent the rest of the day at home, I’ve got major plans to clear the loft of every we’ve been storing up there for the last 6 years, I’ve already got together a bag of duvets, towels and blankets that ds2 is going to drop at the local dog rescue. Dd1 has got into the habit of putting stuff up there that she can’t be bothered to deal with, so I’m going to get it down and she can list it on Vinted, it’s largely dance shoes and costumes that don’t fit any more. This is a task that will take many days - and I’m under no illusion that it’ll happen soon, so my plan is to go up there for an hour or so each week and sort it bit by bit. We actually have two loft spaces, the larger one has mostly DH’s stuff in it so I’ll leave that one to him.

I also plan to utilise my diary properly this year, making a ‘to do’ list in the notes section and will hopefully continue to add to it during the year. I track spending, steps and bank balance in there daily, and usually also track what I’ve eaten.

Has anyone else come across the ‘No Buy’ thread on the style and beauty thread? I’m still reading it, but will join in the hope it spurs me on, I like that everyone has a different version of no/low but that they are following and it also seems like a very friendly bunch there.

Dd1 is going back to her uni accommodation later this afternoon, made some leek and potato soup so she can take some back with her, cottage pie for dinner before she goes, and sticky toffee pudding for dessert, she doesn’t have a great diet when she’s away at uni so I like to stock up on homemade stuff and freeze it so she can take some back with her.

Hope everyone is having a good Sunday. 😊

I've had a frugal/savvy/cheeky day so far today. I'd run out of moisturizer at OH house but stepDD left hers behind and didn't want it so I am finishing it up. I think it's aimed very much at a you get generation than myself as the scent is "sweeties" but tbh, it makes a nice change from my more mature musky scents and it's making me smile as I catch wafts.
We are off out for my niece's birthday party later. Family don't tend to eat when there as we are too polite. I've told them to eat the freezer food served as I'm not cooking when we get home.
Finished the 1p challenge with Monzo from last year and set another up for this year. Phew.

I was wondering, I have two very full and large bags of stuff I've decluttered over the last few months, I did sell loads on Vinted but this stuff is just sitting there with noone taking notice of it. Shall I keep it on in the hope it goes eventually or give to charity and start again? I too have realised I need to declutter more starting with the garage so would rather have the space...

I give it up to a month in selling sites unless it’s seasonal stuff to come the to the chazzer.

Back from holiday. Bloody freezing
75 Tesco
17 pet food

I delete listings after a month and then repost so they go up the rankings.

im being very brave and looking at my banking app, YNAB and snoop.

£50 refund from Amazon due
£30 from ds owed from December recouped
£20 refund from a different Amazon parcel

so £100 up today.

DH announced we were out of both marmite and peanut butter, I’ve jiggled the shopping to get both in the next shop and still under £50.

I’ve processed veg for dinner or the freezer. The fridge is looking clearer and that feels really nice.

Afternoon everyone 😊
It started to snow a little but nothing stuck it's very cold here , so cold my nose is running, tmi l know🤣
Thank you @Johaanah yes it's manic here ATM but l am hoping it will quieten down as the home recovers from the Norovirus and my Mum is able to get back on the cancer treatment once she is fully well. Fingers crossed.
I am a bit more optimistic today of her making her 94th birthday in 30 days time , so l bought her a nice pink top in the Tesco sale, funnily enough that cheered me up no end 😊

Life with small people and work is such a juggle isn’t it @Alwayslearning25 , I’m long past the days of little children, but do remember the constancy of it. We had very little money at all when DH first starts the business, our first holiday was after 3 years and was a few days at Center Parcs in the middle of November when it was cheap.

I send things to charity if they don’t sell in a month.

NSD.

Chicken dhansak for tea and catching up on last nights traitors and Night Manager episode 2.

I have been reading about this
It's called Preditatio Malorum
It's about being prepared and being stoical in times of troubles .
mindfulstoic.net/premeditatio-malorum/

DS commented, and not with pleasure, that there were far too many New Year walkers out and about today on his dog walk @Johaanah. I said not to worry, next week it’ll be muddy and raining so you’ll have the paths to yourself again you miserable sod 🤣.

Can you reduce the price of the things a little @Frugal25you might attract some buyers then?

You made me lol re your Ds @needastrongoneagain 🤣.
He sounds like my DH when he does his daily constitutional 🤣

That's really helpful @chimichangaz The amount I'm putting into Premium Bonds I'd only expect £75 back on an instant access savings account, so I'll see if I can win back more than that 🤞 then review next year, if they don't win anything then I'll move into something else. That said I've just tried to register and I already have an account I can't access - it's £100 that was invested by my DM for DS in 2006! Deep breath - I'll phone them next week.

Back to work tomorrow - I'm also sick of all the treats in the house.

Today would have been LSD - asked DH to pick up some eggs and he and DS also bought beer 😤. £21.85.

Tomorrow is another day as they say!

DH has started putting our savings into stocks and shares isa. I’d rather have the fun of premium bonds, we did it years ago and had the max but didn’t get much back. Ds12 has had quite a few wins from a small holding!

@DirtyGertiefromno30 so pleased your mum is doing so well, the top sounds like a lovely thing to have bought in anticipation. We will all have to raise a toast on her birthday.

AHH thank you so much @FurForksSakethat is so lovely of you ❤️

Ps. Come downstairs and told DS there's £100 sitting for him in Premium Bonds (with very likely no prizes in 20 years unless unclaimed), explained we need to sort that out so I can start investing and he said I need to think bigger. I was offered a S&S ISA via our work AVC provider. Popped it into my calendar to contact them when I'm WFH next week. They charge a fee to run a S&S ISA but so does the IFA that my Dsis uses. 🤔

This is really new territory for us so any advice welcome - think I'll go back to @BigSkies2022 advice from the December thread if I can find it as that was good!