Frugaleering, cakes and baby talk

[Taytocrisps]

Just starting off a new thread as the other one was getting full.

[SunnyLikeThursday]

Thanks for the thread tayto!

[CollieBobs]

Thanks Tayto :) you beat me to it

Life hope he's ok! Sounds so painful :( Gums heal quickly though. DH fell out of a tree & wrecked his baby teeth and gums and MIL said it healed so so quickly after a trip to the dentist. She always tells us that story (probably to warn DS about trees!) X

New mattress is coming tomorrow. Very excited!

[Cagliostro]

Thank you for new thread! Love the title as I feel there will be a LOT of baby talk :o ❤️

OMG am on the bus and the people behind me are talking so bloody loudly! Just SHHHHHH!

[mammymammyIRL]

Thanks tayto for the new thread!! Am I going to have to eat more cake now? because I'm not going to join the baby brigade

[lifelongfrugaleer]

Very apt title tayto thanks

[lifelongfrugaleer]

Ditto mammy, no more babies here

[SnugglySnerd]

Thanks for the new thread.

Paid off cc last night and had a look at Bank account. Scary! DH has already been paid and got a bit extra this month for some reason. The whole lot is already accounted for. Don't know how much I'll be paid. Think mat pay must stop this month. I did a KIT day but don't know how much I'll be paid for that or if it will be taxed. Hope not!

We have about £500 to spend on Xmas which seems like a lot but probably won't go very far. That doesn't include food though as my mum will chip in quite a lot for that and we've been saving Nectar points.

Anyway have a couple of frugal ideas I'd like opinions on please. Firstly we spend a fortune on fresh fruit and veg. I know frozen would be cheaper and I often use it for things like soup and smoothies. Would they work just to eat on their own? Eg raspberries/blueberries. Does anyone just defrost them and eat them and are the ok or do they go all squidgy?

Second thought is Xmas. Not keen to spend much money on babies who don't know it's Xmas but need Santa to visit for dd1's sake. Thinking of getting the babies and toy and a book each for their stockings. When DD1 was that age we bought and wrapped clothes that she needed anyway but we really don't need to buy any baby clothes. We have an attic full. Do you think we could wrap up clothes we already have to give them? I'm sure DD won't recognise her old baby clothes so long as we avoid any that are in photos.
I hope you don't think that's really tight but we have a tight budget and also a small house so I don't really want to add more clutter!

I've also told DH we are not buying any booze, chocolate or biscuits as we always get given loads so probably nobody will get us any this year!

[SnugglySnerd]

Sorry for very long post all about me btw!

[Laska5772]

It will hav eto be cake for me! although I can look on in adoring Grandmotherly sort of way,,.

em love the name it suits him.

I am at home to tadey awaiting a parcel (lkea chairs for our conservatory) which was due to come today and they kept emailing me and texting telling me it was due today...

BUT .. they tried to deliver it yesterday and then took it back to the depot because of course no one was in!!

Could that be because, strangely they were not supposed to deliver until today??!!--

I logged on last night and asked for redelivery today , but am not convinced they wil; be coming because despite getting a confirmation number. Ive had no text or email confirming its coming today. .and the trackin gon the website still says they have been taken back to depot!!

Not impressed .. but maybe I am misjudging them ..

[Laska5772]

ooh forgot yo add, ... thanks for the thread Tayto

[Taytocrisps]

I'm done with babies too but I'm enjoying the baby talk. Brings me back to those newborn days and the agony and ecstasy of it all. The agony of the sleepless nights and colic and baby puke and the ecstasy that is a new baby - baby cuddles and cute little baby clothes and the smell of Johnsons baby bath.

And I never say no to a slice of .

I emptied out the fridge this morning and discovered a pack of radishes we'd forgotten about had turned into radish sludge . I wouldn't mind but I don't even eat radishes. I'm banning radishes from the new fridge.

[Taytocrisps]

Snuggly I agree with you 100% about not spending money on babies who are totally oblivious about anything except where their next meal is coming from. Just be careful about wrapping up DD's old clothes. DD has the memory of an elephant and remembers the oddest things from way back when. When we wrapped up her Santa presents (all in the same wrapping paper), we always put the leftover wrapping paper straight into the recycling bin because there was a good chance she'd remember the paper and wonder why it was in our house when it's Santa's elves who wrap up the presents.

[mammymammyIRL]

Will explain from pc

[SnugglySnerd]

That's a good point Tayto. The babies would probably be happy with just boxes and wrapping paper, that's all dd was interested in for her first Xmas.

[mammymammyIRL]

snuggly I can highly recommend Yes Bebe for small wooden toys which last and they do an discount code if you're a member of their Bebe babble facebook group. It doesn't sound tight to me at all it sounds practical but my dc remember things from when they were quite young too and you don't want this to be something that triggers dd's memory. I love lovely long posts

I put up a pic just there of yogurt with 80g of defrosted berries, yogurt was plain white before berries were added, loads of juices comes out of them when they're defrosted so they're fine for adding to yogurt/crumbles etc but not good for eating defrosted in your hand

Our santa wrapping paper gets put in attic immediately after being used

Oh tayto radishes are just horrid fresh never mind rancid
laska can you call depot?

[CollieBobs]

snuggly my mum used to steam frozen mixed veg and serve it to us on the side of main meals. I loved it. Also you can get frozen veg like corn on the cobs. Luckily DS loves peas. we use frozen fruit for crumbles and smoothies. But never defrosted them - that's a good idea. We have the same predicament with fresh fruit & veg. I tend to buy fresh carrots, cucumber, baby tomatoes & courgette. I used to buy loads more but it was getting wasted and was so pricey.

I find bananas, pears & apples last well in autumn / winter. We store the apples & pears in the fridge and fill the fruit bowl periodically so it stays fresh for longer.

We did try frozen broccoli which was really good when steamed. And frozen spinach for curries. Which both worked well. We found we were wasting potatoes (the type you roast). Not Jackets. So we started buying frozen roasties and that's saved us a fair few ££ over the weeks.

Sweet potatoes seem to go off quickly in our house but I still buy them. Maybe I should try frozen sweet potato wedges.

I also think you're spot on with your Xmas ideas. We bought DS very small gifts for his first 2 Christmas's. He was more excited about the fairy lights than any gifts. I think you could definitely wrap up some clothes. We wrapped up some toys that my DN donated to DS (DS didn't give a hoot at that age anyway).

We have also found that we tend to automatically binge buy food & alcohol for Christmas. It's silly because usually we are all fed well and too full up to eat anyway. We wasted so much last year.

We have started to buy 1 item for Christmas in our food shop. Like juice, stuffing, Pringles, fancy hot chocolate that was on offer & foil. It all helps come December. I think the price of foil shoots up in December.

[Cagliostro]

FFS reception booked me with wrong midwife at wrong surgery. Thankfully got a cancellation so just have to wait longer.

Snuggly we have the same issue, even DD still believes in Santa so he absolutely has to visit her baby sister too! I will probably just do a teething rattle, buggy book etc but we don't have any of that already so it's easier I guess. But even something like a dummy if they use them would be seen as a present by DD1 if it had an animal face or something?

[WreckTangled]

Oh no life don't feel bad you did what you thought was best at the time.

Snuggly I agree with not getting the babies lots of stuff dd will be so excited with her stuff she won't notice if they get less.

Autumnal here again today (I stopped to take this photo)

[WreckTangled]

Cag that's so annoying!

[ememem84]

Will catch up in a bit. But we're going home today!! Yippee!! ds just needs a check from the dr. I've had mine and all is good. Ds has had his first bath and is nice and clean and snuggly and is taking a nap. He did not enjoy the bath. He also farted in it which was hilarious. he didn't think so and gave dh the stink eye

[Cagliostro]

I may have cried when they told me fucking hormones appointment ended up great though, my MW is so so lovely and just totally understood. We talked about going back on ADs and I think I am starting to accept that I need to go back on them :( so will make appt with a GP. There's also a counselling service I can use which given all the crazy stuff going on (particularly with the whole bullying thing - I have come to realise it wasn't just the girl bullying DD, her mum was bullying me too) might be really helpful. She agreed though that a lot of it is not something that can be changed (like the impending yet unpredictable house move) but the ADs might just help me cope with it better.

[Cagliostro]

Ooh xpost em yay so happy you can go home! Awesome!

[Taytocrisps]

Collie that's a good point too about the excess food and drinks we get suckered into buying at Christmas. I've been guilty of this in the past. Spent a small fortune on food and drink and then we were so busy (either visiting other people or having other people visit us) that we forgot about half of it and ended up throwing it out in January . And of course all the tins of Cadburys Roses and Heroes that they sell in the supermarkets from around October (maybe they're in stock already?). I'm sure lots of people buy them early 'for Christmas' only to end up eating them and replacing them.

[Taytocrisps]

Sorry em cross posted. Hopefully DS passes his check and you'll be home soon.

Cag sorry to hear about the ADs but glad you've such a lovely sympathetic midwife.

[Cagliostro]

Thank you tayto

Yes I think there are threads every year saying "AIBU to break into the Christmas tin of chocolates" :o I know I would TBF so I don't buy any treats too early!