August Frugaleers Part II

[PeoniesforMissAnnersley]

Thought I would start a new one since the old one is full!

Whats

Unless your all having baths and wash up by hand you might not be using all the hot water.

Try 45 minutes twice a day instead, if that works knock it down to half an hour.

There should be a thermostat on the side of the tank, it's round with a screw fixing a cover over it.

Keep it at 55-60c.

ipsos oops, are they dry clean only?. I've done that too but they were the landlords silk curtains from next that the cat wee'd over.

It's here it's here it's here!

What's there?

It's all in its space. Let's hope it gets plumbed in before Christmas

NSD yesterday and almost today - OH just needs to buy milk on the way home from work

Very busy day yesterday, had to chop a huge branch which half fell down on one of the old out buildings we use as a dog kennel (Apache is a Husky so he is better outside) and my gardening shed. It took us nearly all day to cut it up into logs for our woodburner and we also shredded the branches so we could cover the mud in the chicken run again. Dc were really helpful until my dd left the gate open and the chickens had fun in my veg patch. Luckily I only lost couple leek plants. Cut the grass as well so at least the garden looks better. Had BBQ for dinner and brownies for pudding I made with ds.

Found some old white t shirt in the loft my older dd had for PE and since white is not the best colour for my 6 year old mucky pup, I let her pick purple dye on Friday at Wilko, so for £3.50 she has 5 purple tie dyed shirts now.

I do Christmas hampers for grown ups in the family with homemade chutney, jam, cookies, fudge, box of tea and dc usually make a tree decoration. I have been keeping jars from mayo, curry sauce, honey etc. and looking for baskets in the charity shops.

Well done Spotty, let's hope you can get it plumbed in and use it soon.

Thanks for the explanation, I turned the tank down the other day, down to about 42, see how that goes. I'll try cutting the length of time the hot water is on to find our level, we never wash up by hand and it's 1 shower a day and 2-3 toddler sloshes a week so we don't use a hell of a lot.

42c is a bit low, most bacteria die at 50-55c. Hats off to you for doing it though. A lot of people have no idea where to find the stat.

If you shower in the morning cut the afternoon session out, if you shower in the evening cut the morning one out.

I hope Mr Spotty realises we are all waiting for him to plumb it in. He doesn't have just one woman waiting for it to be done but about 30 of us.

Thanks fluffy, that's great advice, really useful.

Anyone know if my love of having the fridge on 4-5 out of 6 on the dial is costing us much? Husband turns it down to 2-3 but I don't think it keeps things properly cold at that level and I like my fridge drinks cold!

I'm going to start a "dead tights" bag to use as stuffing for a draft excluder for the front door. Also trying to think of ways to keep my husband warm in winter. He works from home and likes the heating on a lot. I have a rule that he must have his slippers on and a jumper over his shirt before he can complain he is cold, but I still feel he could try harder to stay warm.

I think MrSpotty should have to do all the washing up until it is plumbed in...

Tbh unescorted he does most of it anyway

Since when did swimming become so expensive?! £20 for two adults and one child (ds is free).

That does sound a lot! Mr whatabout has just gone swimming with DS, he's got to go and buy a Woggle first though apparently. Sounds like today is going to be the opposite of frugal.

So far today DS gym - £4
DH coffee - £1.70 (he's switched from Americano to filter though, so this is a much cheaper treat!)
Liners for the travel potty - £9
Four Christmas activity books - £10 ( to be put away for people and a saving of £25)
Woggle and float - £10
Top up shop - £5 (I forgot peppers and onions for fajitas.)
Swimming - £10?

So approx £50? Hmmm this is why we don't have any money at the end of a month!

Uniform shopping this week ... managed to get some essential bits today in Sainsbury using Nectar points .

£20.50 on Christmas presents. Christmas is so expensive even if I lit it. My family don't expect presents but I still feel like I should get them something even if it's small.

spotty at £20 swim! I'm always flabbergasted that it costs us £8 as a family (2 adults @£4 each and DD free as she has lessons) - since having free council swimming whilst pregnant I feel it's my right to free swimming! lucie well done for utilising nectar points...I have some clubcard vouchers which I need to find the best use for. missa did you say this was your 8th anniversary? What does Mr.Peonies expect!! We're out for a 'mini-versary' tomorrow night and I can guarantee il drink too much and fall asleep before 10pm!

I've had another NSD! Really pleased as it's usually more difficult at the weekend. We've had a 'full' day again too - met some friends for an early dog walk and play in the park, invited a friend over for lunch and have spent the rest of the afternoon playing out in the street with the neighbours. DD is now shattered and curled up on the sofa watching a film.

It's freezer surprise for dinner :)

Will have to go and buy pickling stuff for beetroot and sugar and lemons for jam.mhave a load of stuff ripe at once.
Any top tips for pickling beetroot. I'm bamboozled by options

Surrey prices tbf it's a massive pool with slides, a big play area and wave machine. We have smaller, closer ones but they're freezing and just bog standard pools.

ipsos take measurements and look on ebay - we just moved and all of our curtains have come from eBay, at totally bargain prices. I typed in blackout curtains / interlined curtains and sorted for lowest price, I did need to be persistent but I ended up with some real bargains! Best ones were 2 pairs of cream interlined curtains for bedroom (4 curtains in total) for £30 inc postage and a lovely pair of floral ones, also interlined, in william morris fabric for £15 which are on the landing.

ursula it was our 7th anniversary he's a very optimistic guy

Fridges

I keep ours on 1-2. Dh turns it up to 3-4.

Neither of us will ever back down.

NSD.

We have huge windows and get our curtains from eBay. I like the John Lewis ones but we can't afford them 50% of our windows need 90x90"

Hi everyone. £1.60 on sweets for DC after swimming.

Went to Sainsbury's as needed a few bits. Spent £90! That included a scientific calculator for DS, rubber and pencil sharpener. DS and DD1 each had a notebook. I also bought a lunchbox including 2 small boxes, plus a set of 4 boxes and a set of 9 different size boxes. All useful for my Slimming world packed lunches, plus some mini bottles for salad dressings when out and about.

Went out for our Cafe Rouge lunch. £27 on top of the £50 voucher for 5 of us, plus £2.70 parking.

Bought DD2's school shoes and plimsolls £50, still need trainers for DD1, school shoes for DS.