September savers/frugaleers continue into October

[574ejones]

All welcome!

Excellent result with Vodafone!

All I'll lose is my deposit if I cancel anytime prior to beg of December. That was only small so I'm happy to lose that.

Will deffo ring Irish Water, the afternoon is quiet at work so I'll probably get a chance to do it today.

Pointless enjoy the shopping, love shopping with vouchers! It's free shopping

£2.50 on a copy of The Big Issue, then I decided to get the bloke a coffee so that was £2.45, and my coffee and granola bar were £4.50-ish. I am going to stop buying coffee out but this morning had an early appointment and couldn't face breakfast first thing

Boiler service this afternoon. Don't know what that will cost or how it will turn out.

Will try to cath up later, hope everyone is well.

Pink I think it does sound similar. I've ended up on a very weird diet but I think it's because of a post-baby hormone-type issue that has made my taste buds go all weird. When ds weaned I was left with symptoms that fit more with pregnancy and I can only eat a very small range of things at the moment just because other tastes disagree with me. I hope that it will just gradually go away and then presumably I'll end up on some other mystery diet that my body approves of. Initially though, I was on no-wheat, no-dairy no bananas and no apple juice. I just missed out the things that didn't agree with me and that seemed good at the time.

Good luck with your wheat exploration. I really hope it helps with your difficulty too. Mind and get some rest if you can. I think living on adrenaline is also not good for all this stuff.

See that's my quagmire too ipsos work long hours, 2 kids, extra job two evenings per week, dh who's unhappy at work, so this spills over at home too. Stress on top of stress! Managing the budget, managing diet, etc it's all work & stress. Hormones could be an issue too - was on implant for 12 months didn't lose a lb despite actively trying to, went from that to nuvaring for a further 6 months - no proper period in all that time (sorry if tmi!) so now I'm hormone contraceptive free, dh is getting counselling, work is still the same but I enjoy both my jobs.

Is it stress, is it wheat, is it hormones who knows but this is worth a shot just like anything!!

Does anyone know when the next Tesco Clubcard vouchers / Coupons etc come out? I've lost track!

Lilac I think it's probably a bit of both stress and wheat. It sounds as if it would be worth deluttering your diary a bit if you can though. I was severally stretched when all this started and although the wheat-free diet controlled symptoms for a while, my health still declined and I eventually hit a sort of crunch point where I had to stop and rest. I ended up house bound for a year and dh had to take three months off to care for ds as I couldn't manage it any more. Overwork can really creep up on a person, it seems.

I had a mild form of this I guess while pregnant with ds and afterwards. When pregnant I got vomiting bug and ended up being off work for almost two weeks eventually ending up on a drip for ketones in the urine. After having him I'd a pph. Following this I took on a cleaner to eliminate some of the stress.

I usually do as little as possible at weekends & the evenings except for spend time with children & the usual things like laundry, cooking etc. I was attending a class one night per week for last 8 weeks but I've decided to cut that out - dd is in school now and 3 nights out of the 4 nights of homework for me to be missing just isn't on.

Dh's work is unstable so that's why I do the extra job and it means we can have a little bit of a life and I enjoy it, if I was home I would be doing everything for the children, house etc due to his long hours whereas this way he has to do some of it too

Life won't always be like this - this image springs to mind.

Ipsos that was a major life changing experience for you. Are you through the other side now?

Lilac that cartoon is what the gastroenterologist said to me really. Yes it has been life changing to hit that crunch. I'm not through it yet. Still at home putting my feet up, but I can now get out and drive every day and see people a bit which helps. Keeping ds's health stable is key to it. If he is well everything else is easier, and diet is key to that. Hence the very complicated cooking, that means I can't really save much money on my grocery budget. Having the company of the frugaleers is helping such a lot though. The hard part is having the discipline to rest when I have the chance, but I am working on that.

My ds is now almost 23 months, he didn't sleep the night more than once a week until 21 months and had an op two weeks ago which meant more sleepless nights. It's all going to change once he's 2, everything will be miraculously different!

Of course it's easier for you once ds is well. You don't have extra worry then.

Gosh, yes you've had a time as well then. How is your ds after his operation? Do you see any improvement?

I've found that my ds can eat ready brek now, and he has also had a chocolate brownie without mishap. It's like a miracle, except that for everyone else that would be totally normal. Life is weird as a parent.

Lilac is your ds still bf?

pink rang them up and got account number, form filled out for myself & dh can do his later on tonight! €200 in the can!

Ds is grand not a bother on him. He wasn't ill he just had surgery to correct a birth defect. He's now teething again

No ds is not bf anymore, I stopped at 8 months as I had to have blood tests done and they required me to be finished bf, the results were inconclusive after all that.

Hi all good to be back, did not like not being able to log on last night!

Ipsos you sound like you have been through the mill, having children I think messes with your brain as well as your body a bit! I hit breaking point the beginning of this year and have been seeing a counsellor for a while now. it does help but also made me realise how much guilt and shame I had been carrying about with me, no wonder i felt like crap! Have been rereading Louise Hays You can heal your life which definitely makes me more conscious of how thoughts can adversely affect your body.

Had a shocking nights kip last night and felt like crap today because of it, typically have organised to go out with a friend to a pub quiz tonight but not going to stay out late and will only buy one lemonade!

Adora That was a really kind thing to do, re the coffee. Which I hope doesn't sound patronising!

lila You have a lot on there, be kind to yourself.

ipsos You have been through a lot. Poor you. Hoping you see light at the end of the tunnel. You know best, but I would be pushing for a specific diagnosis for your DS, based on the premise that 'knowledge is power' and you not feeling like you have to feel your way so much with his diet.

I've spent years thinking I am a nailed on cert for osteoporosis. I am very slender, it's in the family, I spent years running competitively, and being told my joints would be buggered. Erratic diet as a teenager and highly erratic menstrual cycle, plus contraception with a known risk. I've just had a bone scan, and my bone density is totally perfect (god knows how!!). Not a diagnosis as such, but knowledge never the less.

My much older DS had his teenage mates round all weekend for his birthday. I've had to do a top up shop as it is like a plague of locusts had decended on the house, £60. It's got me thinking how you manage the diet of kids this age as they are obviously more autonomous? Sowing the seeds of eating good food and making sensible choices I guess!

I haven't spent much last few days and will get to pay day in credit.

£20 for a cross country day Sunday for DD.

£62 for 12 bottles of wine, using M&S vouchers and 25% off 2 boxes. Put away for Christmas but just a smidge over a fiver a bottle for a decent Sauvingon.

Tomato and mascapone pasta bake tonight with extra veggies and salad. Will grill 3 left over sausages and chop in, as DH and DS don't think it's a meal without meat!

lilac brilliant to get that sorted, especially as their is a limit on when you can actually apply for it. Wonder how long it will take to actually get the money now though...

collie I think the next lot of tesco vouchers are the Christmas mailing, so should be around the end of November, as far as I can remember. I've been saving mine all year, so should have about €100. Will be a huge help as I'm hosting Christmas for 12!

Gosh listening to you talk about how hard parenting is is very comforting. I've been through a lot that's very similar. Stress, illness, infertility, pnd... things are coming together now though. But I'm 8 stone overweight and am feeling the effects of not taking care of myself for the past 5 or 6 years. Need to get my act together, no excuses anymore. Most of the reasons behind the stress are gone now.

NSD.

That's great that your ds is well lilac. :-)

Thanks for letting me know about the Clubcard theonlypink

I ought to put Clubcard statements, TU sales, Next sales etc in my calendar for 2016! So I roughly know what happens when. That'll help loads as they're all roughly the same time of year, each year. Even if I'm wrong by a few weeks it'll help.

Must do a meal plan tonight for the next 7 days. Can anyone recommend any simple and healthy filling food for a long journey? I want to avoid service station costs. Needs to be suited to a toddler. I was thinking carrots chopped up. And I'll make breakfast bars. Can't think of much else.

Would hard boiled eggs do Collie? My parents take them when they travel and they keep for two days.

Nsd.

Last night I made a shepherds pie with 250g of mince. There was enough for another night to put in the freezer and I put the other half of the mince into bolognese, enough for two nights, so I can get four evening meals from 500g of mince which I think is pretty good going.

Could somebody please give me a kick up the bum and tell me to stop spending money please?

ill -> stressed -> chaos -> throwing money at it

ugh

I agree with girlie about counselling. DH is bi-polar. He's been diagnosed for over 8 years but has only taken medication for 18 months. It's been very tough at times for us all. DH found counselling brilliant for dealing with a lot of 'stuff'. I was recommended, as I had a lot of anger towards DH, as he really put us though the mill by refusing to take medication for so long (medication improved him beyond description, but he felt he could manage the condition). I know the anger is unreasonable, as it's his illness and his choice, but it affected us badly (especially DS as DH was often very angry), but it was there anyway.

Should probably get some for recent events, but I am too busy to think too deeply at the minute anyway.

ps - finally watched EWFL. I actually really liked the family and thought they ate really well in terms of home cooking and fresh food, just the spending was out of control.

Thanks for the sympathy. :-) I am putting my feet up with gusto here and it's doing me a whole lot of good.

Hang in there fuzz

Collie sandwiches, fruit, mini cheddars, cheese, raisins, little pots with cereal in....

Tbh when ever I travelled anywhere with dd (and we did quite a lot of long car journeys - couple of years ago went from Somerset to the lake district!) I would take loads of snacky type food, some healthy some not so much! On one hellish journey to York which took 9 hours dd ate something like 3 bags of mini cheddars!! She was only about 3yo and didn't sleep for the entire journey, I kept passing her food to stop her having a huge boredom paddy!!

Today has been a NSD so far, pay day is Friday - can't wait!!