NST; January Challenge- The Money Saving Game

Bobarella

liltdiddylilt wrote: »

Bobarella - thank you! I still feel guilt over it. I know I would be devastated if I lost £5.

As for BT - :rotfl: I fought that battle and won. 7 months on I still have not paid them for a single thing, as I live off the vast credit they put onto my account. Well worth kicking up a giant stink. And also calling back repeatedly until you get the person who listens. It took me 3 months, my own personal complaint manager and endless emails and phone calls, but hey, at £40 a month - free for 7 and a half months by the time the credit runs out... I'm happy :rotfl:

I guess that makes me one of the people who is not easy to deal with... :huh:

Good for you. These companies trade on us being stupid basically. My mother always taught me to write and complain if something is wrong. And I have taken that lesson all the way through life. Yes complain in person or verbally, but get it in a letter & get it sent. I am glad BT sorted you out, however unwillingly.

Bobarella

[/QUOTE]Bobarella - Wow, you are a money roadkill magnet! Have you got any tips??

Fmess - Hope you feel more upbeat soon! Recommendations for dropped money- supermarket car parks and generally outside shops. I think Bobarella will have some great tips!

[/QUOTE]

I do have a few. Walk as much as you possibly can. I walk the school run every day and I usually find about 6p per day easily. Normally in pennies. It all adds up.
Just look all the time, think about it when you go out, think that you want to find road change. If I hadnt been looking I would not have seen the £1 on sunday, or the other £3 in £1 coins in December. I take the view there is always something to find whether its money, coupons, or mcdonalds cups with the bean token still attached. I have also found beautiful throws for my sofa, a wicker basket, a new sofa pillow, all in immaculate condition. Not to mention sellotape, pens, all sorts. Good places to look are where people may have been careless like self service tills, or the shelves under tills in shops, always check. Coin star machines are worth a look discreetly, as are any machines that do self service, car parks, bus stops, always in front of convienence stores as people seem to come out and throw away small change (why???) Good luck everyone. Remember. Hawk Eyes:rotfl:

thriftylass

Good morning!

As usual I didn't report much over the weekend but here it goes.

Saturday, hubby came down with some tummy bug and was in bed most of the day. He now missed his second christmas night out that way (was meant to go out with the boys from 5-a-side).

So the kids and I braved the weather went food shopping (about £30 on mostly fruit and veg in Lidledy. Also bought an off cut of wood from B&Q for 50 p for the blackboard I'm making for a friend and £3.49 blackboard paint from Am@z0n as it was way cheaper than B&Q (0.5l for 11 quid!).

Came home and made more soup, froze some of the ham I bought and bread as I want to avoid the shops till Friday night and last week some ham went off before we could eat it. Told hubby I won't go to the shops and will make do. Will bake a fresh bread today too. Last night I cooked bolognese for the freezer and bulked it out with veg I had lurking in the fridge. Will also add some red lentils as it is still a bit too watery anyway.

Also done a bit of decluttering again, a drawer in the living room, the kids clothes and a shelf behind DS bed. Slowly but surely I feel less overwhelmed looking around the house as these little deeds make a difference.

My laptop is ancient and slooooooow so I didn't have the patience last night to list things on ebay (Sat I was too knackered after having the kids all day and looking after poorly OH) so ill try again tonight on OH's laptop. Not too busy at work so might try and type up the descriptions etc.

EDIT: might just do the listing from work actually as you now can determine the listing start time/date which is great as I didn't want them to end at a silly time.


Dry January going well. Had a wee laps on Friday though and tried to smoke a rollie. Lit it from the wrong side though and it just went up in flames, doh. Served me right....

Have a nice day

liltdiddylilt

Hello all.

Not a SFD here, as had to pay for childcare for the month. £36 gone directly from my food budget as I had already moved everything possible into my new savings account to make my account squeak until payday! So will have to see how this pans out. There is 2.5 weeks till payday.. :eek:

While I was doing so, I went to get nappies from Lidlidl and got some biscuits, choc, wraps and a tin of rice pudding as won't be going in there again this month and these things are necessary and much cheaper (choc, is necessary... :rotfl:) and will last the month

Dropped a tiny £6.20 cheque into the bank which covers half the Mr L shop and then came home, scrubbed up the house and batch cooked a giant chilli & a big bolognese for Jelly, with 500g beef mince and a lot of red lentils between the two. Really bulked it out and is the best chilli I have ever made. It was so tasty! There are another 7-8 portions of chilli, and 6 or so of bolognese for Jelly so thats the freezer totally rammed again & dinner sorted for a couple of nights!

Jelly is in nursery for the whole day. I've paid £12 for the extra 3 hours but it is so worth it. Spent more of my weekend with her doing things that we enjoy, baking and stuff, and ignored the housework. And then got it all blitzed today and will do some organising and planning this afternoon before collecting her, then tomorrow I get to chill a bit!!

Off I go. Hugs to all, and well done thrifty on dry January! And lol at the misfire on your rollie!! Trying to tell you something eh! xx

LINKYPIE2009

Hi All,

Sorry been MIA - not very well at the moment...but on a plus side....see my signature.....little steps towards this month....

Off to try and read some diaries.....

Post later

Linkypie xx

dolly84

Hi all.

The wind brought me a gift this morning. Rolling around in the road outside my house was one of those two handled garden buckets the wide, rubbery type. It is now safely stashed in my garden.

Have done a gym session today as I cannot get out on my bike due to the wind and it is bothering me now. I am a keen cyclist but it is just too windy for safety unless you really have no choice.

Did a lot of tidying and decluttering yesterday, cleaned out one very untidy kitchen cupboard and reorganised it which makes me happy to look at it now.

shyspender

Spend day yesterday, travelling back from the OH's. Needed some food and didn't have time to take anything from OH's as we were a little pushed for time. Not a bad spend though, but it was junk food.

Will be a spend day tomorrow too. Need some veg and fruit and I want an indoor brush for my new wooden floors. Trying not to buy too much other food as I have loads in and could do with running down the stores to get a handle on what I have and better organise. Since moving things were just kind of shoved here and there.

Exercise bike is not gathering dust just yet. My knees are creaking a bit from the renewed exercise. Walked over 3 miles at the weekend too. Went to see the SS Great Britain in Bristol. It was really good fun and we were all adults.

I have a question for those of you that are gluten free please?

Is it possible to make a bechemal sauce? Do I need to buy gluten free flour or is there an alternative? I have a friend who is gluten free and I want to plan a dinner party and don't want her to have to have seperate food to the rest of us.

Bobarella

Hi All
Managed an NSD by cycling and walking about 4 hours today. That was rather extreme cheapskate of me. I don't know if I'd do that again but it saved me £4 in bus fares.
Found 5p roadkill.
Have meal planned for 5 days of this week which uses all our food.
Nice to read all your days.
Lilt - how old is Jelly? Being completely nosy

Bob

Bobarella

shyspender wrote: »

I have a question for those of you that are gluten free please?

Is it possible to make a bechemal sauce? Do I need to buy gluten free flour or is there an alternative? I have a friend who is gluten free and I want to plan a dinner party and don't want her to have to have seperate food to the rest of us.

yes you definately need gluten free Doves plain flour to make a bechamel sauce. It is just butter, milk & flour so you need the thickening agent the flour brings.

However if you are planning lasagne don't forget the lasagne sheets will need to be GF too.

apple_muncher

Today I am extremely grateful for the paramedic service, for A&E, for wonderful doctors and nurses, for xrays, and for getting to the root of dd's poorliness. Yep, twas a 'different' set of weekend activities....!