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 🤗

Spent £26 today in TK Maxx on two shirts. I’m starting to think it would be cheaper to just turn the heating on.

I feel my 2026 will be like your 2025 @Nellieinthebarn. I’m crossing my fingers but am not hopeful. Well done on weathering the storm.

Snap @Holidaysandchocolate. Finding a new job is on my 2026 list too. Good luck.

Sorry if I’m prying @chimichangaz - what do you like about the writing? Writing has been suggested to me a few times as a way of working through things but I’ve resisted as when I’ve tried before I read back what I’d written and really did not like myself and threw all the notebooks out.

For the Vinted peeps - Do you have a price that you think listing is just not worth it? I have quite a few pairs of BNWT Marks and Spencer trousers (£25-35) and wondering if it’s worth listing them or not given the prices I have sold other items for.

Small frugal win today in that I found a charger in my random electrical junk box that fits my Karcher so I didn’t need to buy a replacement. Stopped looking at candles today thinking I have some that I was saving that I should use. No idea what I was saving them for. Am leaning towards not renewing my annual travel insurance as I can’t see myself doing much travelling this year.

Please wish your mum an happy birthday when the time arrives from us all.

I will do that thank you @MushyPeasAndMintSauce that is so kind of you ❤️

I use Vinted a lot and think if I can’t get a fiver for it, give it to charity. Works for me so far 😊

NSD today. Took dog for a walk with DH then walked back home to get my steps in. Consistency!

Continuing to eat down our Christmas supplies: last of the provolone at breakfast, Gorgonzola almost gone, just apples, pears, some radishes, radicchio, fennel, cream, Roquefort and nuts leftover. Ooh and chocolate truffles and lebenkuchen. Took one of the chickens out of the freezer and am roasting it for dinner tonight. Saving the last one for next weekend to make a coq au Riesling. I also have some puff pastry left and Parmesan so will make another batch of cheese straws.

it’s great reading everyone’s plans. And I hopped over to the S&B thread ‘buy nothing in 2026’ and now have another podcaster to listen to while I do my workouts! I don’t think I can/want to commit to zero purchases this year, but I have totted up what I spent lost year on clothes and shoes, and have set an intention to halve it. I also need to wear all my clothes and not live in the same handful of items on repeat. I think this is linked to shaking up my routines more generally and getting out and about more.

Hoping that the next few days will bring clarity and certainty on the income side of things for me and I can follow everyone’s example here in setting my own goals and systems in place.

Right, body weight mobility workout before dinner, Stranger Things and bed with a book after!

NSD today woop woop! Trafford Centre trip for a new blender and woolly tights but covered with vouchers, DH bought coffee and screenwash with anti-freeze as it was -6 this morning and due to get colder 🥶🥶🥶.

Spag bol for tea with extra for the freezer, home-made cereal bars for DH lunches (trying to cut down on sugar) and now settling down with wine, fire and The Night Manager. Both back to work tomorrow and not looking forward to it!

DD has premium bonds from grandparents when she was a baby, need to fill in the form for her to get access to the details and anuwinnings in the last 19 years!

Oh, I have just sold an item on vinted! I must have given myself good luck. Although some items have been on there for months and months so I'm giving them one more week now Christmas is out of the way and then ditching the lot to start again.
Oh @DirtyGertiefromno30thats a gorgeous gift for your DM. I shall remember in 30 days to say happy birthday 🎈 🎂

I'm eyeing up some vintage chocolate tins (nostalgia mostly as they are nicer than plastic) to make my own chocolates for next Christmas.... I won't press buy just yet. I have a year to think it over!

Back to work tomorrow. Back to the diet too and normality. Bit sad tbh. I don't like what I do and feel like I've sold my soul most days but it pays well and I'm determined to clear all debt this year so deep breath and odd we go.

You always inspire me @BigSkies2022 with your workouts and how you fit them in. I need to be more like you and sneak them in before dinner I think and get more fitted in during the week.

@RumBananaSundaeoh Hun, but you're amazing and lovely. I bet you're like me and you are your worst critic when everyone else loves you xx

Just wanted to say to @lifelongfrugaleergood luck tomorrow, we are all thinking of you , hope everything goes really well for you and we can't wait to have you back here with us ❤️

@lifelongfrugaleer as above. Holding you in my thoughts.

Ah thank you @Frugal25thats so kind of you sweetheart. So glad you have sold another item 👏😁

Thank you Frugal. The pre-dinner workout habit started years ago and was a way to get me through the tricky part of the evening when wine was calling to me. I’m afraid I’d built a bad habit of drinking on an empty stomach while pottering around the kitchen- it was a bad way of taking the edge off everything (job I disliked, menopause, awkward phase for DS)! The alcohol cravings disappear once I have dinner inside me, I find.

Sending love and thinking of you @lifelongfrugaleer. Xxx

Ooohhh love that you found a way around it big skies. Takes some doing sometimes I find. I hear you completely on that part of the evening. Mine is after dinner. Maybe I could do mine then. Good thinking batman. X

@lifelongfrugaleer good luck tomorrow, thinking of you x

@DirtyGertiefromno30 your DM is a few weeks older than my DM I think. 1932? Amazing 😍 that sounds a lovely present and hopefully the norovirus will have cleared off and you can have a lovely celebration.

I've missed it frugal but I hope everything goes aswell as it can for whatever it is.

Hello! Joining this thread to keep accountable as I try and cut down non-essential spending while on a career break.

After doing a review of our spending for last year the first step has been to make a month long meal plan that I’m hoping to repeat each month, with occasional swap ins for new recipes etc.

Hoping for a no spend day tomorrow

Thank you for the warm welcome back I am hoping to focus on this rather than dwelling on other issues I can’t control

I will start tomorrow as it’s been a spendy weekend due to ds 21 birthday today although he had no idea what he wanted for Christmas let alone his birthday so it didn’t look much as he was supposed to be going away next week and I offered to pay / contribute but that has been postponed til later in the year so when he is ready to book something I will give him the money

I remember @lifelongfrugaleerfrom when I was a regular I am sorry I have missed what is going on but I am thinking of you and hope everything is ok

Thinking of you @lifelongfrugaleer and sending hugs ❤️

@DirtyGertiefromno30 wishing Nana pumpkin a happy birthday when it comes!!

@BigSkies2022 like @Frugal25 said, you inspire me with your workout habit!!

@Lockin26 I think if I was due to get £75 from putting that money into a savings account I’d definitely go for PBs! The potential is good and the excitement of the monthly draw would be worth it for me!!

@RumBananaSundae you’re not prying at all!! I like the writing as it’s directed - in as much as you’re given a topic and a prompt to write about and it’s up to you what you write. Mine has been fictional stuff, I’ve let my mind be free (which for me is a big thing!) I’m a bit scared to be ‘loose’ so it’s done me good as it’s got me out of my comfort zone. I’ve also done the sort of writing I think you mean, as in journaling my thoughts. Like you, sometimes I look back and don’t like how I was feeling, or things I’ve said to people. I think it’s good to get stuff out on paper rather than keeping it in, and you could decide to be kinder to yourself (I sometimes think ‘would I be mean to a friend like I’m being to myself?’), or alternatively don’t read it back. Just use it as a method to release some emotions and then move on. I hope my thoughts have been helpful for you - obviously you and I are different but reading between the lines it seems we are both quite hard on ourselves? Maybe have a listen to her podcast (Calm Christmas) and take it from there.

She will be 94 on the 2nd of February @Lockin26😁 l thought she would never make it over Christmas but she's a toughie 🙏.

Ah thank you @chimichangaz don't worry l will regale you all bore you stupid more like lol with her birthday 😁

Good luck @lifelongfrugaleer for tomorrow 🤞

04/01 NSD Another quiet day, but most normal routines start back up next week - more temptation 😬

YTD: NSD 3, LSD 1, Spendy 0

Thanks everyone. Getting ready to go In so will
see you on the other side when I’m allowed screens again.

for the returnees and those who missed it I’m having a craniotomy for a tumour. (Ie a hole in my head for a nasty in my brain)

Good luck @lifelongfrugaleer

@lifelongfrugaleer I will be thinking of you today too. I hope it all goes smoothly.

@DirtyGertiefromno30 looking forwarded to seeing pics of your mum in that pink top next month.

I had a NSD yesterday. Generally it was a very lazy day with a bit of sorting and putting away the Xmas decorations.

I’ve got some things on Vinted that I need to rejig a bit - and dd says she’s got some stuff to add so will see how we get on.

Back to work today for me and school for dd. Neither of us are thrilled about it! I don’t have any planned spends though so hoping for a NSD other than tube fare.

@chimichangaz We are going to Barbados. I was looking at cruises but decided just to do a single destination this time. I’ve got a few items to buy before we go (some new t-shirts mainly - and toiletries) and also I need to start booking a couple of activities for when we are there. I have holiday savings pots which hopefully will be enough.
I’ve got another big holiday booked for Easter too so travel spends are going to be fairly high this year. Even more reason to be frugal in every other way!

Have a lovely day everyone.

Morning.

@life❤️.

@chimichangaz - thank you for explaining the writing. That’s really interesting. I toy with journaling, but then go for a run - which seems to be my release and reset!

@BigSkies2022 I totally and utterly relate to how you drank wine. It’s basically how I self medicated post DH and his stroke. Until I realised last year this was absolutely not serving me and I vastly cut back last year. I haven’t had a drink since Christmas Day when even a relatively small amount gave me the hangover from hell. I’ll just take one day at a time I think now.

It will be a NSD today.

I hope all goes well for you today @lifelongfrugaleer ❤