Frugal Living 2011 - the preparation stage

itsallinthemind

Oh CW a man with baking goods in his cupboards, arn't you doing well?!

Oddly I was having a conversation about things people used to make when children and left home alone, weetabix buttered and dipped in sugar was one, don't quite fancy that, although probably healthier than vinegar or ice cream topping sandwiches!!!

Can't quite see them making it on to my meal plan frankly, we can stretch a bit further thankfully!

cw18

itsallinthemind wrote: »

Oh CW a man with baking goods in his cupboards, arn't you doing well?!

:rotfl:

Oddly I was having a conversation about things people used to make when children and left home alone, weetabix buttered and dipped in sugar was one, don't quite fancy that, although probably healthier than vinegar or ice cream topping sandwiches!!!

Not sugar on weetabix - that one has to be honey

(Apparently his other favourite butty filling is ready salted crisps with tomato ketchup...... told him to hold the crisps for mine thanks )

CRANKY40

This may not be a good idea for everyone, but my plan this year yet again is to pay as much as possible with my Amex credit card. I have online access to it, it's set up in my online banking and I pay everything off it straight away. I use it to pay for petrol and my grocery shopping too. The nectar points that the card accumulates can be used in Argos. By the time Argos did their 3 for 2 toy offer this year, I had £100 worth of points, so the house elf's christmas didn't cost much at all. £150 worth of toys for nothing. If I can do the same this year, it will really help my christmas budget. I think some people do the same with Tesco credit cards?

itsallinthemind

cw18 wrote: »

Not sugar on weetabix - that one has to be honey

(Apparently his other favourite butty filling is ready salted crisps with tomato ketchup...... told him to hold the crisps for mine thanks )

This just goes to prove, that despite the world we live in being absolutely crazy and unexplainable..............Clearly the saying, that there is somebody for everybody is the only thing we can be assured of :rotfl:

mooomin

CRANKY40 wrote: »

I think some people do the same with Tesco credit cards?

I use my Tesco card as at the moment I'm doing a lot of travel with work so am racking up the points

I don't have kids so tend to use the points for meals out. I have £50 of Pizza Express vouchers to use when myself and Mr Fresian go for our four day break to York courtesy of the £9 Travelodge sale. Very frugal

Erme

I've had a crazy few days (see below but not going to put the links in code) and not enough sleep (2x6 hours) so official PJ day today ...yay....


Sorry half of this is cut and pasted and sorry if some of you are getting this twice but this has been me for the past 2 days...:p

This was wednesday - new espresso machine day (had a fixation)

http://www.johnlewis.com/230878166/Product.aspx

Confession time I just bought a new one only I didn't get the above cos they didn't have it in stock...:(...but the above is seriously gorgeous and Dr. Who it's what you need cos like it does pods and ground...I have the cheap model @ £50 (http://www.johnlewis.com/230906933/Product.aspx - and I can't believe in 2 days it's just gone up by £15)
but it alone is really good - plasticky but good....

Or else just get the following if money is tight

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/4233268/c_1/1%7Ccategory_root%7CKitchen+and+laundry%7C14418476/c_2/3%7C15701302%7CCoffee+machines%7C16527134/c_3/4%7Ccat_16527134%7CEspresso+coffee+machines%7C16528262/Trail/searchtext%3ECOFFEE+MAKER.htm (though I don't think they have it in stock right now)

Though they do have the following

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/4236021/c_1/1%7Ccategory_root%7CKitchen+and+laundry%7C14418476/c_2/3%7C15701302%7CCoffee+machines%7C16527134/c_3/4%7Ccat_16527134%7CEspresso+coffee+machines%7C16528262/Trail/searchtext%3ECOFFEE+MAKER.htm

Dr. Who I'm astonished at your lack of household management buying a machine that JUST does pods..

The cheap delonghi from Lewis' doesn't do pods (but the first one on this list does) but is like really easy to clean etc...

---

Then yesterday the vacuum (the one out of a skip) died...so two hours of research later finds me getting the following

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0037L1Q2U/ref=s9_simh_gw_p79_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=1FNT8Y9ZNEMAVW2SYDB5&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=467128473&pf_rd_i=468294

Only I got it for £149 from John Lewis(yanks that's a really big dept store near me. It has excellent customer service and price matches )...it's really quiet and powerful. I could hoover in the middle of the night though only just fits in the cupboard and is heavy (had a job getting it home ). So £200 into overdraft in 2 days :eek: I hate being more than £200 overdrawn...so that's me mega frugal for the next 3+ weeks.....Whilst I didn't get the most expensive of any item I praise God I got the Which subscription on Tuesday (have it on trial for a wee while but think I need it for the illness to stop me buying 3 of an item before I'm happy with anything....if I'd done that with hoovers I'd be not £150 worse off...more like £250 and if it wasn't for the excellent customer service I got at Lewis' I'd be an extra £150 worse off on top of that!!!...exactly...freaky or what????)

I got a cold weather payment today so that's paid for the ebay whoopsie nicely ...yay...(well bar £5).. Thanks J and n for the card and pic of the children I got the other day. Have a huge headache but now the burn from weeks ago has scabbed over I can shower every am and like I am using homemade deodorant (bicarb and cornflour) so all is well.

Not alot of sleep last night...was watching one of my forums on Iplayer (they revamped a shell of a house for a forum member on DIY SOS. It was amazing and well deserved..the forum btw was moneysavingexpert. Kate I think I forwarded the details to Mr Frugal aka Dr. C. Why else would Dr. C insist on giving me back a 10p cookie box LOL).

Anyhow quarter to and still half asleep so shower time and breakfast. Guys please pray I can get the spindle or whatever it's called (disc holder?) soon or find it for the food processor..

Ta

So much for my rainy day fund...I also discovered recently I'd had more than one other small whoopsie spends on the OD so the savings I had (note past tense) have been eaten up... No rainy day fund till the end of the month. Praise God for cashback (literally) else it'd be a whole lot worse.....I'm going to get this fixed seriously am...and within a couple of months max the loan will be less than 3K :j so yeah...this is a blip but like I say 'it's not going down that's the crime but staying down'...(or in this case going into the OD but staying in it). I have a similar illness to bipolar (though not 100% the same) and frugaldom pays for the illness. So glad for you pinknumbers.....don't worry about your next manic spell till it happens just do what you can now to keep you safe in prep for it..my loan is gotten from being manic about 6 years ago and not being diagnosed and having inappropriate care and treatment...it's going down though now ...at least my head is out the sand - that's always the first step.. Rome wasn't built in a day

Nuala am still praying for you hun re your disability monies...keep us posted with any news...

E

alec_eiffel

CRANKY40 wrote: »

This may not be a good idea for everyone, but my plan this year yet again is to pay as much as possible with my Amex credit card. I have online access to it, it's set up in my online banking and I pay everything off it straight away. I use it to pay for petrol and my grocery shopping too. The nectar points that the card accumulates can be used in Argos. By the time Argos did their 3 for 2 toy offer this year, I had £100 worth of points, so the house elf's christmas didn't cost much at all. £150 worth of toys for nothing. If I can do the same this year, it will really help my christmas budget. I think some people do the same with Tesco credit cards?

We do this with our cc. Buy everything on our cashback cc and pay it off each month. Because we budget for everything there's no overspending so no worries that we don't have the cash. Then there's the little bonus of extra money each month *yay*.

Kerry_Woman

Cheryl - Hope you enjoy yourself on Saturday.

Sending hugs to those in need of one at the moment.

Lily_The_Legend

Hi everyone! :hello: Blimey, I have some reading back to do! :eek:

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas. :A

I had a really nice time and got some fab pressies. DH's uncle gave us some Tesco Deals vouchers, which I was really chuffed with, as we can use those for meals out at Pizza Express! :j

I got some towels from BHS in the sale with some of my Christmas money. I also got some cards and wrapping paper from there for next Christmas. :T

This week I did my first ever Tesco online shop and used some Tesco Clubcard vouchers towards it. It was really quick and easy, and seemed to be quite cheap, so it shows how many impulse buys I usually get when wandering round Morrisons on a weekly basis!

We're off to my mum's tonight with my MIL. We're each doing a course for dinner. We had some puff pastry in the fridge leftover from Christmas so I'm making a tart with pesto, tomato and mozzarella on.

I hope everyone has a fab and frugal night tonight! _party_

NualaBuala

Morning everyone :wave:

Wow, this thread is barreling along at a fair old speed, isn't it! So forgive me if I slip in and out of lurking!

(((((Erme))))) sounds like you've got things in perspective hon. I love how you've climbed straight back on that frugal horse! :T Glad you're having a PJ day and hope you catch up on your sleep too. You are kind to ask - I've sent a letter to say I am appealing the disability thing but am waiting for a letter from the rheumatologist - and not holding my breath for that as he STILL hasn't written to my GP with his diagnosis even though I saw him months ago. In the meantime I'm on an interim sort of emergency payment which is not quite as much as Jobseekers or Disability and doesn't entitle me to any extras like cold weather payments but will at least stop me from starving in the meantime! Take care hon x

Re the stockpiling. I have quite a big stockpile - enough food to last me several months and enough of some stuff to last a year. But part of me has the urge to run down the freezer and the storecupboards. It's part of my deluttering mindset I think! I have this urge to get rid of everything I don't know to be useful or believe to be beautiful (there is some William Morris quote about that I think but I only half remember it). But as it is parts of the house are chaotic and overflowing with stuff so I've got my work cut out for me!