The super savvy savers continue steering their way through September

[northender]

Thought I'd start a shiny new thread as we've filled the other one so quickly.

Sending good vibes lilac ds's way.
I love babies and cooing over them. I'm always made up when people have babies. Do it again myself, feeling broody, hell no.

Hoping for nsd today. Lunch is already packed up. Snacks for work are ready. I'm going to the gym once work is finished. And then walking home.

No need to spend today.

Lila ds had an operation at 15 months so you have my sympathies! I get a pang of jealousy every time someone gets to coke out of hospital with their dc, nine were both in nicu for two weeks.

Ds' first day of pre school today! I haven't paid yet not sure how I will... Anyway I will probably end up staying with him the whole time because I'm THAT MUM!

Hope his first day goes well spotty I'm sure he'll love it.
We'll all be thinking about you and supporting you lilac

Congratulations and welcome baby gabriel! I still get smooshy over babies lol. We were discussing whether 2 was our lot but then DH brought up maybe going for the third so I have been hanging onto our baby stuff :D DD only 7 months so i think we'll give it a while, I definitely dont get the pregnancy announcement jealousy anymore!

Yesterday ended up a NSD as we didnt leave the house, DS played in the garden in thr afternoon. Depending on weather today we might head to my folks caravan for a wee visit as they are down for the week, or maybe hit the park, cant keep DS cooped up again today. Frugal fail we did painting yesterday and it soaked into and ruined one of my stripped pine (cheapy ikea but I liked them!) chairs... :/

Poor DD has a cold so its been a long few nights. Might treat myself to a dolce gusto coffee from the machine.

Dinner tonight will be boiled ham / spuds / veg with leftover ham for pasta bake tomorrow hopefully.

I need to crack on with christmas now, I started ages ago then stopped so not as far on as I wanted to be with it. ??10 per niece / nephew budget as there are 8 of them, then we do a secret santa amongst the adults there, then its just both folks, my siblings and a few of the closer uncles / aunts. Oh and work. And my own kids. Just a few things to buy then ;)

Lilac thinking of your DS. Good luck with first day spotty! Sorry to anyone else I havent mentioned!

lilac will be thinking of your DS.

he'll have a fab day spotty

My LSD will be a spendy day now as the sippy cup broke. A replacement is ??4. And DSs tops are getting stuck on his head so we need to get bigger ones. Wish we had a primark or H&M :( I will probably have to get them from Next or M&S.

I'm going to put his old clothes on eBay to pay for his new clothes.

ds up at 5.15 am this morning, he sensed me exiting the bed I'd say bet he'll be impossible to get up on Friday morning when we need to leave for the hospital at 4am

Best of luck at preschool spotty

story! DD5 took her bike while au pair brought ds in stroller yesterday to the beach 2 miles away. Last night I tried to wash dd's knees to discover they were covered in bruises her legs have gotten longer and they were knocking against the handlebar column tights for school today!

Collie where do you live?? I find tesco / asda kids stuff fab and can order it online? Much cheaper than next / m&s and very durable!

blue down in Cornwall. The far end. We have a Tesco but they don't sell clothes. Have a Sainsbury's though. Could try in there.

I just remembered I had tickets for a London show in December. I don't want to go now and the tickets are selling for ??80 on eBay. :) I paid ??60 and completely forgot that I had them. so I'll upload those tonight.

Congratulations need! He looks like a big boy! Hope he gives you some sleep!

ipsos I am slightly like you, though not about illness, I remember the sleep deprevation (hence the comment!)

Just booked my MOT, there is a 50% off and ??5 extra for booking on line, cost ??22.42, though I bet they'll find another way to charge me extra

collie shame we're not neighbours...I have 2 TT sippee cups that are no longer required sitting in my drawer.

Thinking about booking Panto tickets - ??64, we have funds atm and the kids would love it. The last 2 years I left it too late and then the money was gone....

Am thinking about putting some stuff on freecycle, a travel cot and a high chair booster, nursery curtains and pictures. Our FB site never gives me any success and the youngest is coming up to her 6th bday...

I bet they'll find another way to charge me extra
They'll probably find a bulb has gone, so we always check those before we take them in , and tell the guy we have checked the bulbs when we checki it in.
Since we did that, no more bulb surprises.
For servicing, DH supplies the oil himself rather an the garage selling you that - they have no issue with it.
Today am gathering apples from the tree for apple crumble

lilac sorry to hear about your loss. Will be thinking about your ds!! Hope it all goes well!

Very quiet here again today! Will be another nsd, I'm thrilled with myself, apart from the tesco delivery and petrol, I haven't spent anything in 6 days! This is huge for me, I'm terrible for frittering away money on nothing.

Ds went off fine will pick him up in half an hour and see how he is! Got the invoice though and have no idea how I'm going to pay it forgot about that...

Lila will def keep your son in mind, hope goes well for him. My dd had grommets done at a similar age and although only a minor surgery was still a worry!

Ipsos I know what you mean about babies as well, last year I felt a bit broody but have to say this year not at all think its to do with dd now being quite independent (9.6yo) and being able to do fun stuff with her without all the considerations you have with young children/babies. Am happy with my only, there is def advantages to having only one as well in terms of time and money etc as well.

So day off today, been sorting out getting my car repaired (a woman scrapped it in Lidls car park a few weeks back!) tbh it has been a complete palaver and puts me off going through insurance in the future. However it is now booked in, am meant to be able to get a hire car whilst mine is being repaired but they wanted to charge me ??15 for 'petrol' I pointed out there was no way I would use ??15 worth of petrol! Anyway long and short of it is I won't be having a hire car!!

Feeling a bit chilly here but am holding off turning any heaters on!!

Wowzers. Just saved myself ??32 by buying something on Amazon rather than Firebox. Incredible I had ??40 in credit on Amazon so I used that. I thought I better get them now before they put the price up or run out of stock. Frugal win I think.

And that's two awkward people ticked off the Christmas list! For under ??5 each.

lilac and Pink, thanks for your comments on the difficult baby years, I'm so glad it's not just me.

Lilac I'm so sorry to hear about your lost baby. What a time you must have had. Good luck with the surgery. Mine had that twice as well in toddler years.

That's hilarious about sports day digger. My ds thought he won too in spite of coming last in the running race. He was quite disappointed that I didn't win the Mum's race, which is also hilarious because I am really not a runner.

Good luck with pre-school spotty. I was that Mum too. They chucked me out but said I could come back after 20 minutes to check on him. After the third time I came back they chucked us both out. It was nearly a whole term before he stayed longer than an hour. There's no need to rush, so just take it easy.

I took back my broken slow cooker and am now having a go at making slow cooked lamb in the oven. If I can get that to work maybe I can branch out to a slow cooker later. ??2.10 on parking today.

spotty great to hear he went in ok! My ds 2 started last week, he loves it. Can you have a word with them and see if they are ok about excepting payment a bit later? Or pay them monthly?

I think I'll just increase my overdraft it's a cash flow problem really...

Ds is back and had fun, he wants to go again next week. All that worry for nothing! It helps that there's only a handful of children there maybe 8?

Should be a nsd anyway.

lilac I am sorry about your lost baby I have also lost the twin early in the pregnancy with my younger daughter. I went in for the scan because of the bleeding and mentally prepared myself for the bad news and couldn't believe it at first when they showed us her heartbeat and then explained about her twin. Big hug for your ds

Sorry to read about lost babies, there has been a lot of sadness like that amongst our close family including a lost twin so I appreciate how hard that must be. DH found it very hard to get excited when I was pregnant because he was so worried something would go wrong. We didn't buy any baby items at all until a few weeks before the due date.
My meeting at the bank went well. They basically upgraded our joint account and my ISA. If I pay ??300 into my ISA over the next 12 months they will give me ??10 per month and if DH also opens an ISA he can have the same. We currently save ??50 a month so if we split that between the two ISAs we'll get ??240 extra!
I was impressed that the person I saw was honest enough that when I asked about a savings account for DD she said their interest rate wasn't very good and I should shop around. They also think they can do our mortgage 0.51% cheaper if we switch. There are no fees and they'd give us ??250 cash back. It sounds great and we'd reduce the term rather than the monthly repayment but I'm sure there must be a catch. DH and I will need to go together to sort that anyway so I haven't agreed to anything.

pointless sounds good! DS has an account with Foresters Friendly. It's nothing special but they are lovely people to deal with. Last Christmas he randomly received a cheque for ??10 because they had funds left over. So they gave each child ??10!

Sippy cup was ??2.99 and the bus was ??3 for a single. Didn't find any decent clothes for DS. I think the shops are reducing stock ready for Christmas stuff. There were lots of empty corners. Especially in Next and Boots.

Gosh, sorry to hear that lovetoknit. I had no idea that that could happen.

I'm doing heroic cooking efforts here, trying to make slow cooked lamb in the oven. I also bought a big packet of pork chops to put separately in the freezer to use later, but when I took them out to put them in freezer bags they are all grey and nasty looking, so I put them in the bin instead. Tesco gave me a refund.

I seem to spend a lot of time returning things for refunds. Very good for frugality, but not to for time wasting.

Does anybody have any thoughts on this electricity monitor and the associated gas one? I'm wondering if I could learn things from it, or if it would just end up being a waste of money?

www.amazon.co.uk/Loop-Smart-Electricity-Monitor/dp/B00BQCG7RQ

I've never heard of them collie but that sounds interesting, I'll look into it.

Nsd! Yay!