Join the Fantastic Frugaleers for a February full of frugality

[northender]

Shiny new thread ready for Sunday. Newbies very welcome. This is a wonderful thread full of encouragement and support

I haven't watched that programme yet, I thought perhaps it might make me mad plus I've been a value brand convert for quite a while now. I'll give it a go later.

In fact, we bought some heinz beans a few months ago and they hung around the cupboard for ages because we didn't like them and prefer the 25p ones!

Fuzz I've never frozen cheese sauce either buy could you do just a small amount as a test so that you don't waste loads if it's a disaster?
I'd have thought that if you par boiled them first the sprayed with oil (I put them in a plastic bag with a tsp of oil and some smoked paprika then shake) then you could grill sweet potatoes. Or could you fry them?

Really spendy day yesterday

Stationery after pricing it in six shops: €22
Sports gear for DS:€10
Treats for DS: €4
Friends birthday present: €20.50
Birthday cards: €1.50
Coffee at work: €1
Contribution to work collection: €5
Aldi: €12
Calpol: €8
School outing: €10

Total €96

On the up side I spent hardly any petrol as stuck at home with DS2 being off! So saved €54 on petrol ect.

Hoping for NSD today

Ooh a test is a good idea.

My word am I glad it's Friday. Well not totally as I'm working tomorrow :o but I love just getting in from school and sticking a DVD on to snuggle up with the DCs :)

TMI sorry but AF arrived today and I realised that, while I've still been fairly anxious (hence all the posts yesterday ) which tends to go hand in hand with PMT, it has been DRASTICALLY better this month. I didn't even realise I was due. The reason I mention it is because I went back to taking evening primrose oil for the last few days. I'm going to do that every month to see if the effect stays - well worth the price (and it's pretty good value IIRC, on Boots 3for2 vitamins) HTH if anyone suffers :)

Freeze the sauce!!!! We do it all the time and it's just as good once defrosted. Such a time-saver!

£72.29 food delivery. Will catch up later

Re all the bullying I really think schools should have a zero tolerance stance. One strike and you're out.

I totally understand your view Spotty. I just can't believe kids can be so cruel.

I was gutted just now, walking along to the junior school DS was chatting away to some of his classmates who were going to after school club. When he scooted off they were laughing about the way he speaks (he has a speech disorder) :( these are six year olds FFS. I will be bringing this up with the SENCo next week - I've been told in the past that his speech doesn't impact him socially but seeing it right in front of me has really made me doubt that.

Thing is, this girl who is bullying DD has her own very difficult home life, assuming what she's told DD is true. It sounds like she needs help too, so I really really hope the school sort it.

One bit of good news - I was chatting to another mum about childcare and she was aghast at the price of our old CM - so it looks like even here in the SE it was unusually pricey, and therefore if I could find another one during school hours it may actually be affordable! :)

£5 on lunch with a friend, who very kindly treated me to coffee and cake afterwards. £6.34 on my debit card in Lidl. And later on, I will give DS £20 for his Scouts subs and 80p for his bus fare.

Fuzz, glad to hear you sounding a lot perkier. Expecting, I hope your meeting with the school goes well.

Happy frugal weekend, everyone .

And thank you, if you've frozen cheese sauce successfully then I shall give it a go! :)

Spotty, I've been gradually catching up on the thread today and wanted to say also I hope you get answers ASAP with your blood tests. I've heard that Vitamin D can be injected which may help a lot.

Yeah it can. They've given me tablets for now. I just really don't want lupus on top of anything else and I just want to know what's going on but the results take ages. Feeling a bit sorry for myself so dh and I are going halves on a take away

I think a takeaway is well deserved TBH! Lupus is one of the things I was tested for before I got my diagnoses (CFS/ME and POTS). I seem to recall though that the lupus indicators (can't remember what the letters are!) can also be raised by much simpler, more temporary issues - so just because the markers were high it's not necessarily that. I know it's a horrible worry though got my fingers crossed for you!

Just had DSD on the phone, she asked to come here tonight instead of meeting me tomorrow and is bringing a friend to keep her company when she babysits tomorrow. Which is cool obviously but I always feel bad that we've got hardly any food left by this time of the week, so not sure what to feed two extra hungry teens! I might order Tesco for tomorrow instead of Sunday so at least they'll have food in for lunch (DSD usually does scrambled eggs but there's only 4 left). Not sure about tonight though. Pizza anyone?

oh balls tesco is full til 2pm tomorrow anyway. hmmph.

It was my ana that was high 1.1280 which is the second highest reading you can get. A close female relative has lupus but I don't think I do. I get aching wrists, headaches, hives and am usually in bed by 8:30, 9 would be unusual sometimes it's 7:30. So I don't know. Pizza sounds like a good idea. We didn't have any food in before our shopping came either I hate it!

And thanks

Spotty - I wrote on your other thread in health... Good luck.

I wanted to ask, did they do an esr and crp test? These are inflammation markers and are part of typical range of blood tests in the area of immunology/rheumatology...

Those came back today normal.

Hi everyone

An egg smell has been evident in my kitchen for two days. I thought it was egg shells in the bin but I could smell it - fainter - when I got home today. I hope it's not going to be anything expensive such as broken drains(!) currently giving the washing machine an empty boil wash although I don't think it's that. I'll get DS1 to have a look at the u-bend in the sink if it's still there tomorrow. Trouble is, you become sensitive to it almost as soon as you get in the house so there's no time to sniff out where it is coming from.

Bank: £264.47 (was £346.47)
Purse: £16.73 (was £19.02)
Jar: £26.95 (was £29.15)
Grand Total: £308.15
reduced by by: £86.49
Days to payday: 7

Spends:

£52.00 – footy tickets has debited
£30.00 – Petrol has debited
£2.08 – birthday cards x 2
£2.41 – bus fare

Budget looks like this with one week to go...

Account interest to debit £16.08
Sports & bus fares £15.60
Petrol: £48.28 – pretty sure we won't need any before pay-day
Groceries: £123.15 (last big online shop will get delivered tonight and be debited on Monday but I will have to go buy some snack / treats as I forgot to get any in my online shop)
Leaves £105.04 for incidental spends

Just watching the eat well spend less programme from last night - even at my most frivolous I have never managed £350 a week and 17 trips to the supermarket!

Well crp did not sure about esr

LSD. Went for lunch today with a friend. (and got a free pastry...mango ganache, raspberry puree topped with meringue..yum).

finished first week in new job. exhausted.

currently enjoying a glass of prosecco with DH. (a gift) and then fish fingers and chips for dinner.... (because we're grown ups)

£12 in Waitrose for DH's birthday tea and £1 on coffee for a guest at work.

Spends today.

£10 pony conditioning cubes.
£4 DS karate.
£20 uniform for karate

Tired tonight after a busy week and DH being away. Decided on a take-out, but that is frugal in a way as there's just DD and myself to feed tonight and there would be 4 of us on Saturday, including dustbin DS so at least double the cost.

Too tired to care, been on the go all day and shattered.

£26 today but that was top up for weekend and into next week. Busy day today workwise, lots to do and I was at the mercy of my email all day. Old friend got in touch through facebook, another friend got a new job so it's been kind of good news this week. The school seem to be making headway with the bullying and things appear to be calming down, DS is much happier today. Hugs to all whose schools appear to be useless on that front, can't believe that they don't tackle it.

Going out for lunch tomorrow with friends and then working Sunday as need to prepare some work for Monday.