Stampeding through a sensible, scrimping September!

[PeoniesforMissAnnersley]

Thought I'd do the honours

With kids back at school and autumn weather drawing in we all need a very sensible September. I'm putting up my thermal curtains and refusing to put on the heating until October. Who's in?

15£ today on groceries. Went for lunch but my friends paid

Well that way it starts dissolving in water while the waters being heated, rather than dropped out of the dispenser when the waters hot.

I do the same with laundry, detergent goes in the drum not the drawer.

Thanks fluffy! I so rock on a Sunday... Googling how does a dishwasher work. Will try powder next time round although whilst googling that, came across an old thread about dishwashers on mn and pigletjohn updated the which dw top list and the Aldi and Lidl ones came out tops!

Will try and cut the tablet in half too to save especially since I don't really use it that regularly.

Another silly question if I may...
Do you save all your dish washing till it's full/end of day? I usually wash the breakfast things after breakfast as we are out the whole day. Then it's dinner stuff to wash up. A lot of the time it's then 'only' 4 dinner plates, 4 glasses, 4 sets of cutlery and some other serving plates. Pots and pans we hand wash.

Sometimes we leave things coz running out of time. So I load bf stuff in too and it feels more frugal as I wouldn't have washed in the morning...! Oh I'm getting into too much detail aren't I?!!!

I load everything during the day and put it on after dinner & switch it on the Eco cycle.

I'm way more rock'n'roll than you because I checked the manual to see which cycle used the least water & energy (it was the 30 min cycle but it was crap so I use Eco).

I read an article in which? Or good housekeeping institute that said in there tests hand washing used 180ltr of water each time because of all the rinsing. A dw uses 12ltr or so.

NSD today should be one tomorrow too. I've already racked up 4 more hospital nights which will be £200 from work health insurance, plus any post op nights although I really hope it goes well and I can go home quickly.
Have been pondering just chucking the stuff I had saved for car boot when I get home later this week - it's been in be garage for about 7 months on the other hand a colleague went this week to the same sale and made £140! We are saving like mad for house deposit and every bit of extra income really helps.

nk in our house the dishwasher is called 'the cupboard where we keep dirty plates' by dh. He is very insistent that it only runs when full. One time we were going on holiday and some friends were coming to housesit have frugal holiday of their own and I was going to run the dishwasher but he told me not to as there was still space for a cup. I was but I didn't want a big argument before we started our 3.5 hour drive so I just sent an apologetic text to my friends. It comes up regularly and we all laugh at his weirdness . Fluffy put me onto Daisy powder a while back. It's good and seems to last forever. We usually do one wash a day (whenever dw is full!).

I was thinking I've finally achieved a nsd but I've just remembered that I've bought some stuff from ebay. The dc need new winter coats and now is a good time to buy as there's very few other bidders so they were cheap. If I waited until mid October they probably would have cost more. That's how I'm justifying it anyway.

Thanks for the stories on dw!!
Am away from home next couple of days but if water usage really is that significantly less in a dw then it makes sense.

Am away in Europe for a couple of days for work. Will check in mid week.

Have a good week ahead.

NSD Sunday

Yesterday €2.20 on newspaper and 30c on jellies for dd who made me feel guilty for going running & not cuddling up on couch!
€2.25 posting a book my mother wants & €12 last week to buy said book! Rest of day there'll be no spends as left work after 45 mins to come home to nurse my head cold.

Good luck for today missa.

spotty sounds like you had fun. What a win, getting upgraded.

NK5 hope the party went well.

iamnot your DH sounds like my mum.

NSD yesterday and will be today as well.

MissA thinking of you today and hope it goes well

Karen I have the same problem with milk - we seem to go through so much I sometimes think it would be cheaper to get a cow! What I do about my milk for my tea is pour about half a pint into a jug and then put that on the top shelf of the fridge at the back, and then I can relax knowing that 'my' tea milk is safe. DH, DD and her assorted friends can never find anything that is staring them in the face in the fridge so they don't notice my jug!

I am going to try the Daisy powder now. I have converted many friends to big box washing powder as they were buying capsules and tablets which work out so expensive. I buy huge boxes of Persil for £6 when they are on offer in Tesco and this does 50 washes I think and lasts ages. Sometimes I am greedy and buy two, but then don't have room in the cupboard so have to have one 'resting' in the hall for a while. I would rather that than not have my lovely cheap supplies

MissA I hope they fix it this time

Iam oh dear, you sound like you're married to a male version of me. You poor thing. Dh would sympathise with you.

Fanta, have you tried laundry gloop for coloureds? I wash on cold & it works well for me. I've got tescos smart price bio for whites.

I am flipping determined not to spend anything today.

Go compare & confused.com are doing fairly good cash back on tcb for doing genuine quotes, you can't do more than 3 for each of them online each calendar year but it all adds up.

fantasea I'm the same with washing powder, got a great deal a few months ago on a bucket of fairy non bio & now it's starting to run out & I'm watching out everywhere to get a deal as good.

missA hope you're being looked after today.

spotty hen sounds fab

Fluffy no I haven't tried laundry gloop, do you have to make it? I buy the persil non-bio on offer or Tesco own big box at £3 for colours.

lilac I love a bargain washing powder in a huge box, how sad am I?

Yes you make it.

It's two bars of white soap, grated by hand or in a food processer, 250g soda crystals & 7ltrs of boiling hot water.

Dissolve the soap in 2ltr boiling hot water on the stove, add the soda & stir until dissolved. Then transfer to whatever you want to store it in like a bucket or Tupperware and add the other 5ltrs hot water.

Leave it to cool and use a cap off an aerosol to put one cap in each wash.

It took me ages to make the first batch but now I can do it quickly.

You can add essential oils to fragrance it too. It separates out as you use it but I pour the liquid into the drum.

Hope things are going well today MissA

We load everything in the dw and run it in the evening. My DH also prefers not to put it on unless really full but he was cured of that after he decided not to run it when we went away for three weeks. You can imagine what was growing when we returned

I keep meaning to try laundry goop. I currently do the same as you Fanta, my 'resting' pack goes in the garage. Which reminds me, need to restock the emergency supplies out there. We keep a supply of food in case of another large earthquake but DH keeps appearing with a can of fruit he "found" and then school asked for non perishables to send to quake victims up north a few months ago.

Today should be a shopping day, DDs are still off school and so still asleep I'll wake them at 10.

I have considered the laundry gloop a number of times, but just can't seem to get myself going on it. I think what is putting me off is the whole "science experiment" aspect to it. I need to get past that. Plus I need to figure out where to keep it. What consistency is it when it's done? Literally "gloopy"??

Finally ordered my new vacuum today, so definitely not a NSD, however I've been muddling along without one for weeks, and it's doing my head in! I wanted a lovely cordless rechargeable one. My wallet didn't. The wallet won this round - I got a Henry vacuum, as it had excellent reviews and my friend has one and highly recommended it. About half the cost of the one I really wanted - so £100 less spend than it could have been today, I suppose.

Another failed NSD for me! Bought a congrats card for my friend who's just had DD2 and a birthday card for my nephew. PLUS bubbly for the friend (she has been going round sniffing beer mats for the past 2 months ) and a present for nephew. That has GOT TO BE IT for this week.

fantasea we're all saddos so!
Ds 10months has sensitive skin & even other non bios don't agree with him. I've boxes of other powders in shed with washing machine which can't be used. So can't go with whatever's cheapest or gloop. Will wash without powder if haven't found good offer before I run out. Anyone hear use eco egg loads on cloth nappy group do

My dm has a Henry its great.

Fluffy you make pita bread don't you? Would you mind reminding me how you do it please? I want to try it with corn instead of wheat, trying to get DDs off their staple sandwich for pre lunch snacks in school.

www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/pitta_bread_97296

It was this one but I low carb now.

Roll the dough out really thin, some of my early attempts were very....filling.

Fluffy ah ok thank you for the recipe, I might have a go at that

Adora I can't 'rest' my supplies in the garage as it is too damp out there, so I have my spare powder in the hall, so at least it smells nice when I open the front door. Last Christmas the huge Persil was on offer and I wanted 2 for myself and 2 for my mother, and I wasn't going to be seeing her for a few days, so I had one in the cupboard, one in the hall, one on the stairs and one on the landing. Worth it though

lilac it is hard when they have sensitive skin. DD used to be like this with eczema, but it has got better as she has got older.

LSD today. $20 on psych appt for DS otherwise all good.

Nsd yai today and my application for benefits have been approved so getting more than I earned in NL, quite funny actually

Thanks for the link Fluffy

Fanta I can't stand the smell of washing powders, not sure what I'd do if I couldn't keep it in the garage. Glad it works for you though.