What small DFW things will you do this week? w/c 16/01

Bobarella

Hi All

Carrie thanks, it has made budgeting a real headache. But thanks to a windfall of £77 from my business bank, which is a refund for a mistake they made months ago, I'm scraping by. Well done on your dining in run.

Yorkshire The whole inherited wealth thing is a box of worms isn't it. From the other side of the table, I come from a family who through various issues had nothing to give at all to help with big events. I have struggled hard to get where I have. Swore early on that I would not be the same, and view saving to help my children as high on my list of priorities.
But I do have mixed emotions because I have fought so hard for everything, I want to make life easier for those coming behind me. But I don't want to take away the drive to save and be sensible in them.
Without writing an essay, I do think things are harder for children now. House prices, university costs, employment. I feel parental contribution wasn't expected in previous generations, because conditions were easier for the big things. As in lower house prices. That said, expectations are now so different for other things like weddings and standard of living in the young that dare I say they make a rod for their own back??

Determined I will be very interested in your experiment. What's your aim for your annual spend?

Bob

1LuckyLady

Good afternoon all,

Its very cold here today but lovely blue sky

Today's list
* Ys bread for toast for breakfast
* Rang specsavers using inclusive mobile minutes to find out if hubbys glasses were ready to collect
* Applied makeup & perfume from my use up stash
* Dh was concerned that I might fall on the icy pavements so suggested I wore my high boots (I've not worn them in ages and ages as the top of my calf is too big for the zip really ) So I put them on under my jeans, not quite fastened to the top but I'd forgotten that they are nice and comfortable, so I've been able to knock boots off my "wants" list and will make do with what I have
* Got ds1 to try on a few of his fleeces that he's not worn in a while (as he always seems to just wear the same 2-3 favourites!) and its meant I've been able to pass several items onto ds2 Ds2 is thrilled with his "new" clothes
* Parked the car near my parents house and walked into town, so no parking costs
In town we went to .....
**get dh's new glasses and they've adjusted the pair from last week as they were making his nose very sore Also put his old 2 pairs of glasses in their charity box
** Called into Debenhams as I had a £6 voucher in the post, bought a xmas toiletries set down from £35 to £10.50 minus £6 = £4.50 this is to be stored away as a fab xmas pressie for my sister
** Handed a bag into the charity shop (had a quick look too but nothing caught my eye )
** Took the boys to the jewellers to look at watches, they both bought what they wanted but this is from their pocket/xmas money anyway Nice that they have something decent out of their money
** Kids asked if we could go to mcd's we said no, said we'd get something nice from co0p instead
** Called into the library, took a couple of books back, dh got some talking books that he likes to listen to in his car on his way home from work, ds1 got a book and after seeing Dawn mention the Eat Well for less cookbook, I picked that up from the library as well I love the library and am glad that we have such a good one close by.
** Obviously called into co0p as usual on the way back to the car, got YS carrots/potatoes/chocolate/sausages/2x spatchcock chickens and full price French bread
Chicken will start off being our sunday lunch Still need to go and amend my planned mr T delivery for tomorrow to take of the planned carrots/potatoes
* Home for lunch, French bread with some cheese (leftover xmas blue cheese for dh) with some crisps, carrot & cucumber batons (left over from last nights tea ) with a big mug of coffee. The kids enjoyed having that followed by one of the fairy cakes that I made yesterday, I hope they enjoyed it more than a Mcd's!

Still to do
* DH is wanting to give ds1 his kindle, I'm less keen as I like the fact that he reads proper books from the library that doesn't cost anything. We can get ebooks from our library but they aren't compatitble with amazon devices, so he sometimes reads those on the ipad.
* Clean kitchen using microfiber clothes and stardrops
* Relax with a film from our stash or Now Tv with the kids later
* Update freezer list

Have a lovely weekend all.

determined_new_ms

carrielovesfanta wrote: »

Morning all,


[*]B/L/D from stores. Unbroken home dinner run since at least 23rd December now. We deserve a medal! We will be having dinner out on Tuesday with a friend. This is the longest we've dined in for YEARS.

Have a good one all

clf x

great work clf! :money: being as tight fisted as I am (actually just poor!) We haven't eaten out since 25th November when it was my birthday. I always feel like whatever we have I could do just as good a job at a fraction of the price. So for example I ALWAYS want to have a roast out on a Sunday but then I think well I could buy a leg of lamb (our favourite but least regular roast due to price) & a bottle of wine for less than what we would pay for 2 1/2 roasts and have plenty of leftovers. It's an obsession!

determined_new_ms

cheery daff I'm so impressed with your tenacity with decorating your house! You put me to shame each day. There are loads of things we should be doing in our house but laziness puts me off!

determined_new_ms

bob my current budget for groceries is £2160 which works out at £180 pm which is what I brought it down to last year. I would be happy with £150 pm but even happier if I could achieve the £1pdpp mark oh might leave me though...

Am now in negotiations with oh over household contributions. currently he pays 3/4s of household costs and me 1/4 but even after he has paid that he has more left than I get paid a month. He just got a payrise so I've suggested I pay £50 less and he £50 more. He's not keen at the moment. It's a work in progress!

carrielovesfanta

determined_new_ms wrote: »

great work clf! :money: being as tight fisted as I am (actually just poor!) We haven't eaten out since 25th November when it was my birthday. I always feel like whatever we have I could do just as good a job at a fraction of the price. So for example I ALWAYS want to have a roast out on a Sunday but then I think well I could buy a leg of lamb (our favourite but least regular roast due to price) & a bottle of wine for less than what we would pay for 2 1/2 roasts and have plenty of leftovers. It's an obsession!

We sat down and examined our reasons for going out a lot.

A lot of it was to do with

• my job, which I find increasingly stressful so I find it hard to think of what to cook, or face doing anything in the evening.
• OH finds it hard to make decisions (due to his illness) so faced with no meal plan and no recipe he just won't do anything (sample line "I thought I'd treat us tonight" translates as, I don't know what to cook for dinner so I cooked nothing)
• We don't get a lot of time together, so being out means that we can chat happily without having to think about cooking and dishes
• As we don't have kids, we weren't constrained to the house or a schedule too much

We have basically swapped out the "wanting to have fun" part of the meals out for a coffee at our fave wine bar or making sure we have a cup of tea at the end of the meal while chatting to make sure that we get that proper time together.

The meal plan helped a lot as it was just downloaded and there. It meant that I wasn't chasing OH around to pin him down to setting a meal plan with me. I admit that I was being a bit stubborn and childish and I didn't see why I should do all the planning and shopping, when I am the one working full time. So this way, no one has to feel put out.

The silliest part was, as you say, I usually can make something better as I'm a fairly good cook (so is OH when he puts his mind to it, but I think he's a bit out of practice)

Lottebear

This week I have

- Taken lunch to work, no extra food.

- Went to collect ebay purchase of a child's bike but no one was in so a utter waste of time, they have offered to drop it off but not confirmed a time, which is annoying. I haven't paid for it so it is no loss. I have had a look on ebay and there are others and cheaper so if it doesn't come off then there are options and I have plenty of time.

- Off to a birthday party this eve, so I have bought a non alcoholic bottle as I am driving and present from the stash.

- I bought a new car, I have got an ok deal and it will be in before the tax rules change therefore £20 a year.

- I have made one extravagance this week, which was ordering a stunning birthday cake for my daughter, although her birthday party isn't until July, I saw a wonderful cake from a small local business and it will be part of the weekend of family celebrations and I think it is important to build great memories.

- Made a token payment against my CC until payday, I had spent more Christmas than I realised, although part of that was an extended warranty on my car which will be refunded once my new car arrives.

- I have got quite a bit of food in so I can avoid doing an internet shop for the early part of the week.

Bagpuss741

Today I have/will:

1. Checked online banking
2. Been into Cardiff on bus to stock up on cat food in Wilko as her favourite food and soup are both still on special offer.
3. Free latte in Waitrose
4. Scan laptop with free antivirus
5. Meals from stores
6. FPL
7. Surveys
8. Beauty course revision
9. Read free book
10. Continue to use fruit/herbal tea stash (currently drinking green tea with mint and it tastes like melted butter mints:))
11. Continue to unsubscribe to emails

DawnW

Afternoon / evening all
Unimpressive list again today, as I have been babysitting GD:
Heating was on as it is really freezing again today :eek: Downstairs radiators (lounge and kitchen) now off, as the wood stove is alight. We only ever have the bathroom, airing cupboard and loft conversion radiators on (don't want any frozen pipes up there :eek:) upstairs. Does anyone else have loads of radiators that they keep permanently turned off?? We never use the ones in the hall, landing, dining room, OH's 'study' or our bedroom :huh:
NSD
We made little cakes (her choice) and mince pies and a meat pie thing (my choice, as I am on use up, but she loved playing with some of the pastry and made 'pies' of her own which I baked for her :rotfl:)
Used a small portion of leftover stewed beef that I meant to freeze yesterday and didn't, to make an individual meat pie, also added some leftover stilton. OH will gobble this up
Mixed leftover cranberry sauce (are you seeing a theme here ) with a part jar of mincemeat to make mincemeat and cranberry pies - just like mince pies only a slightly milder flavour Almost used up leftover Christmas stuff now! I thought I had bought quite modestly this year, too!
Did a load of washing and dried on the line - freezing cold wind obvs good for drying washing
Pasta bake made yesterday will do for dinner

Oh, and this one is quite impressive - my dental water flosser thing stopped working. I need this, as I have gum problems and wasn't looking forward to buying a new one, as they are about £80 :eek: So I tried descaling it, and it worked :j Obviously it needed rinsing out loads before I used it, but it is back to working fine

Cheery_Daff

determined_new_ms wrote: »

cheery daff I'm so impressed with your tenacity with decorating your house! You put me to shame each day. There are loads of things we should be doing in our house but laziness puts me off!

Thanks DNMs You should know that we've been doing this for TWO YEARS after several years of what can only be described as wilful neglect :rotfl: Mr Cheery has lived here for 27 years, me for 11, and there has never been a programme of rolling maintenance... Mr Cheery is an excellent interior designer but his preferred method is drapery, pictures, and dim lighting, rather than paint, wallpaper, plaster and the like :rotfl:

It's been a steep learning curve for both of us, and probably highly unnecessary as someone will likely buy this place and rip lots of things out anyway but we have gained many skills and had much practice in the meantime. Who knew how much I'd love plastering?! :rotfl:

Good luck with your household negotiations. You are right, of course I once had a conversation with an ex boyfriend about his friends, a couple who had very different incomes. He was convinced they should contribute the same to the house, even though the bloke earned much more, because 'he earns it, so he must deserve it'. Kind of wish we were still together now I earn more than twice as much as him :rotfl: :rotfl:

Me and Mr Cheery just bung everything in the same pot and both feel like we're diddling the other one - I earn much more now, but he's spent 25 years paying the mortgage off and I now own half the house having done little to contribute to it Source of such arguments between some people though! :eek: Hope you get things sorted out in a satisfactory way xx

CLF, really impressed with your considerations about eating out! :j Most grown up. I think we might have similar conversations when uber frugal Jan is over about takeaways :eek: We rarely eat out but order a takeaway about once a week :eek:

Right, I need to make a pizza