August Frugaleers Part II

[PeoniesforMissAnnersley]

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

My main treat is a pot of fresh coffee in the morning. Just enough for a couple of cups. I rarely have another coffee for the rest of the day. Yes, instant would be a lot cheaper.

And my nails, I have a shellac every 3 weeks. This makes me feel much better about myself, and also hides the dirt of having 2 dogs and a pony

And I must admit, my cleaner. I would give up the shellac before the cleaner. The cleaner makes a difference to my life which is immeasurable really. Working 3 days a week, away most weekends competing, training 2 nights a week, she keeps my life on the straight and narrow. Don't tell her though, at £20 for this house, she's a bargain!

£40 in Aldi and £60 in Morrisons. We have people staying this weekend and the cupboards were bare (apart from vegetables, DH would suggest...)

Been bag packing a selling raffle tickets today, fund raising for HOYS. People seem to be in two camps, wonderfully supportive or plain rude!

Once you've had real coffee though instant tastes awful. I'm hoping to buy a bean to cup machine at christmas.

Frugal treat is jus rol pain au choc. I cant have cows milk products and these are dairy free.

Welcome Godsave. It takes a few attempts to get into the swing of things sometimes. I used to think myself a genius for feeding us both for £60 a week plus £10 for the cat . That was only 5 years ago.

fluffy I am also non-milk (lactose intolerant to a very severe degree) and I love those pain au chocolats and the cinnamon danishes too! yum!

YY to the cleaner need except I consider mine an utter necessity not a treat

I think my favourite "treats" are my bucket lists. I love having stuff to look forward to and I love knowing I can afford it as I save in advanced.

I'll post my autumn bucket list when I am on my computer later. It may help someone else. Or a lurker.

Real coffee is definitely my treat. I inherited a grinder when my late father passed. Just a cheapo Moulinex thing with a liquidizer and a grinder attachment. DH bought me a fancy pants Siegen coffee machine a few years ago must start using the thing but I just use a cafatiere most days.

Spendy day today, trainers and accessories for hockey, mouth guards, shin guards etc, £148 in the outlet centre. Plus £30 in the butchers. That got me a free range chicken and their BBQ pack, 4x steak, 4x pork chops, 6x burgers, sausages, bacon and lamb ribs. Should feed the three of us for considerably more than a week. I'm working on moving away from supermarket shopping but there isn't a fishmonger in the local town.

£7 on a book, sounds crazy given our space sitch but it does make sense.

£2.50 on a fresh bacon buttie for DD2's lunch, from aforementioned butchers

£11- ish drinks and snacks for me and DD1. I could have killed for a bacon sarnie but they didn't have GF bread, so I had to settle for a granola bar, have run out of transportable snacks at home.

£60 -ish in New Look. We have set a budget for the DD's clothes/shoes/etc, other than school stuff, and DH has said they can have it all now in cash so they've made a start. Only he didn't give them the cash. And he is now not here to do so.

All spends other than my book were on the joint accont today.

Autumn bucket list: (in no particular order)

Pick up colourful leaves and make a collage.
Jump in puddles
Make a leaf print picture
Bake apple crumble
Fly a kite
Donate to a foodbank for harvest festival
Hocus Pocus film night & cinnamon popcorn
Carve a pumpkin
Reuse the pumpkin in soup or something else.
Bake toffee apples
Bake apple & cinnamon flapjacks
Build a mini scarecrow
Roast marshmallows
Do a large family jigsaw puzzle together
Build a cosy fort
Watch fireworks
Eat some popping candy
Write poetry with the children about autumn/fireworks/halloween.
Go stargazing
Make a halloween mask out of paper plates
Bake ginger parkin
Go for a woodland / forest walk & take hot chocs
Go for a rainy walk with puddlesuits, wellies & brollies
Family roast dinner with roasted parsnips followed by Harry Potter
Read some autumnal / halloween stories to children (Meg & Mog)
Dress up warm and visit a castle (free entry only)
Dress up warm and geocache
Enjoy the smell of chimney smoke whilst out walking
Collect pine cones and dry them out for Winter decorations
Play conkers (all ages)
Buy indoor sparklers to decorate a batch of flapjacks. £3.82 on Amazon
Autumnal wildlife checklist www.wildlifewatch.org.uk/explore-wildlife/season/autumn
Build a stick den in the woods
Make a mushroom soup in the slow cooker
Visit owl or otter sanctuary (budget £20)
Pub lunch by open fire (budget £20)
Visit cider farm & drink fresh apple juice (budget £10)
Make an autumn mobile with things from woodland walk. Sticks / pine cones.
Create a fox picture from Autumnal leaves
Write to Father Christmas
Refreshing all weather bike ride
Footprint investigating on a muddy path (monsters or wildlife)
Make suet bird feeders for Winter

That is my bucket list for September, October & November. It just helps me look forward to things and budget for the fun stuff. my DS is too young for some stuff but some of his friends / cousins are the perfect age. I can just reuse it for next year too.

Busy day. £60 tesco delivery and £10 impromptu dinner at a friends.

at jumping in puddles Collie When DDs were toddlers we holidayed in Pool, Dorset, and of course it rained. I was carrying DD2 because she had jelly sandals on. She saw a huge puddle and asked if she could jump into it, so I let her. It was a really warm day. A couple of elderly women looked on like then and laughed their heads off. DD2 was squealing with delight.

I like stepping on crunchy dry leaves.

Tomorrow I plan to harvest some blackberries I spied a couple of days ago.

Ipsos Is that an SSE statement? I cant make sense of it either. No way you've used more gas in the summer than the winter. Estimated=Fictional bill.

£2 on a wheat beer and 10p on two pork chops. I had to loiter by the fishcakes while he marked them down but it was totally worth it.

ipsos I have a coeliac son (not the same one with special needs! That's my 8 year old, coeliac is 3!) and husband, so while it's not as bad as having to cook many seperate meals, I totally get having to cook from scratch every day, eating out being almost impossible and constantly monitoring everything my 3 year old eats. I'm a sahm too, but tbh, I think that makes it harder sometimes. It's constant.
And fuck theatrics scary gas bill!! Do you think it's accurate? Seems insane for a summer bill!

collie you are amazing, what a wonderful list! Going to take some of your ideas, it all sounds so much fun! Quality time with the family. thank you so much for posting it!

My treats are:
Millicano coffee
Twinings tea
Monthly good food magazine, I get it on the kindle, so with the digital price and paying in sterling, it saves tons of space and approx €3 on the printed version. And I just love it!
I write in a journal. A nice, pretty, girlie journal. Love it!

Spendy day today! Lunch out, €30, two books for the boys €10, New cardi for me €11 (reduced from €28 in New look) and a blazer I've had my eye on for ages, reduced from €55 to €23 in Evans. Proud of that one, I love it. I've absolutely no colder weather clothes, so feel it's justified!

It's so dark this evening, the summer is definitely coming to.an end!

Ipsosthey must surely have overestimated.

Collie love your list. I roasted marshmallows last weekend! I have recently been trying to exercise more and am amazed how many free woodland/countryside walks there are on the doorstep. Just googled "Circular walks around [town]".

£30 on photo book of our holiday plus some separate prints for the family.

Fairly spendy couple of days. We took DS to Thomas Land with my sister and her family yesterday. £65 on entrance and cake, £10 on fish and chips for tea. We haven't been away this summer due to me being pregnant so a couple of £75 days out seem ok.

Today a Costco shop and a car wash came to £62, DH has gone out for beers so that's another £20, but he needs some male bonding time!

Tomorrow I think we will try to get to the council run farm in the morning and maybe take DS swimming in the afternoon. Only two weeks till he will be a sibling so trying to make sure he gets some attention!

I adore the bucket list and I am stealing it. It's brilliant.

Cheap thrills - my cleaner, I'd give up anything for the £20 a week I pay. If I become a SAHM this might change.

• painting my nails - I always ask for polish for Christmas and enjoy seeing pretty new colours
• fresh bedding. Costs nothing but always makes me feel better
• memberships rather than gifts, we have national trust and the local zoo and it means we can go and have a day out for nothing.

Thank you Collie for your bucket list hope you don't mind me using it too
All the windows are finished so since I had to move my desk away from the windows I have decided to paint the wall white instead of pea green before it goes back since I don't think I will be moving it again anytime soon
Dd1 made Gordon and his tender and dd2 Percy and his mail tracks with the clay I got yesterday
Went to our local pub for garden party the landlady organized to raise money for local children's' hospice, spent £10 on lemonade and some hotdogs and burgers for dc but went home early since they wanted to have a movie night at home
Bit of sunshine this afternoon but it's raining cats and dogs here again

Evening all

Amazing list Collie love it! Autumn is my favourite season, just love the cosy evenings and the weather changing. Will be doing a few of those things on the list as well!

Let dd stay up and watch Indiana Jones tonight and now she is 'too scared' to go to sleep

My treats are

Chocolate - I love chocolate and have a complete sweet tooth, to avoid being a complete pig I keep a bar of cheap but nice dark chocolate in the fridge and have a few squares every night!

My expensive max factor foundation, generally I spend virtually nothing on make up but I love this so I always find the money somewhere!

On my days off I allow myself to watch some truly rubbish tv (think those dire channel 5 films )

Can't really think of many others, would love a cleaner though!!

We had a proper storm here this afternoon thunder and lightening and everything

Hmm why are some of my faces question marks?? Mn is weird at the moment!

ipsos if SSE get on FB and Twitter - the same thing happened to me and within 10 hours of complaining on social media it was sorted.

I'm glad the list went down well

ipsos thats just terrible. Ofgem wanted to make billing simpler. It makes me so angry that energy companies can confuse people so much that nobody knows what they are paying for. grrrr!
I agree with MissA as I had multiple "final bills" from one meter reading before moving house and social media was the only way forward. They dazzled me with confusing numbers and £££ symbols.
Gits!

NSD, because the kids swimming lesson got stopped halfway through due to a huge poo in the pool £21 saved. ...

Got all my holiday washing done, an absolute scotcher of a day. My ironing basket is piled high now and no one can help. ..

My treats are green and blacks 70% cocoa choc, Jordans museli and clinique facial stuff- very pricey but lasts for aaaaaages.