October continuing into Novemeber frugaleers part trois

[Lovetoknit]

Hope it's okay to start the new thread since the other one is already full
£1 at Cornwall Ambulance shop for 3 books for dc after I dropped off my old slow cooker and some books and £1 at Prospect hospice for some wool and fabric
Just made cauliflower cheese with some bacon and cavolo nero for dh who had it for lunch and there is enough for his dinner too, the rest of us are having homemade burgers, buns and wedges

Pass, yes an odd thing happened to me with freecycle recently. I cleared a corner of our loft and freecycled a lot of stuff (a wooden bed frame, a full-sized 1980s electric keyboard with stand, a digital tv roof aerial, and other things so it was really a lot of stuff). The weird thing was that it was all taken by one person who kept coming back over and over again. I didn't mind because I strongly suspected that it would be a waste of time to ebay it, and at least she was a convenient removal service, but it was very odd.

I like the November goals so far, ill have to have a think but definitely:

*make an inventory and use up whats in the freezer/ cupboards
*no clothes buying
*buy wine only at weekend ( and only 2 bottles )
*Read all my Kindle books before buying more ( unless one of my old wish list comes up at 99p.. probably not likely )

• ebay my Dune boots ( they will never be comfortable due to the back zip grr)

Hmm that’s not bad

so today ....., Have I stuck tojust buying veggies and dairy ? .. Almost !! lots reduced at lunchtime so some ham and hummus - reduced vastly - also found its way into bag) also a bottle of as its the weekend)

Got lots of good bargains though.. including 2 packs of Portobello mushrooms for 39p.

3 packs of basil at 29p each
bag of salad also 49p.. (it looks perfectly fresh , we'll eat it tonight)
also some reduced olives and pesto

I found 2 steaks in the freezer last night,... so we'll have a Friday might feast! steak with h/m focaccia and salad

Tomorrow will be mushrooms stuffed with mozzarella ( also reduced!) and pesto..
YUM..

BTW energy supply movers don’t forget the Uswitch £30 cashback on Quidco!!

Hello! Been reading but not able to post as been v busy at work. Was home at midnight last night from work in London. Unsustainable this work lark.

Today v spendy. £107 for hair cut and colour and dd's too. Ds hair cut £9. Lunch £27. Halloween broom £1.25. Halloween costume £12. Bus fare £2.90. A huge donation to the poppy appeal.

Hi all am feeling slightly sorry for myself as have had another flipping headache all afternoon and am now in bed! Have started a thread about the headaches as seem to be getting more and more frequent, they are esp bad around the time of my period.

Don't think I realised you worked full time Pass what are your tips on making the home/ work life balance a bit easier? I work 30 hours now and am struggling tbh, am so tired and nothing seems to get done at home! Agree with you re giving to charity shops over eBay, I feel like I have done my bit when I donate to a charity shop as don't have time or money to contribute in other ways!

Ipsos hope you are feeling better now?

Good luck 31weeks
Hope you are feeling better now ipsos
girlfriend36 make sure you have enough to drink and if you have heavy periods you could have low iron which can also cause headaches

NSD today
Another wet and gloomy day so stayed at home and worked. Fish and chips from freezer for dinner and made with dc chocolate cupcakes with Halloween sprinkles I got from Aldi last week and some cookies with cutters I got from Poundland which we are going to decorate tomorrow.
I used to sell dc old clothes on eBay but now I usually take them to charity shop or reuse them in another way - t shirts in a rug, ds trousers for a draft excluder and I am keeping some dd old dresses for a quilt.

Hi Girlfriend sorry to hear you're under the weather. I'm still dealing with this virus unfortunately. Phooey to viruses. Grrrr etc.

I hope a bit of a rest helps you. Is it a tension headache sort of thing?Thanks for asking about me too.

Hi all, horrifically expensive day today.

DD1 school dinners £63.50, had £8.25 credit and will build more this half term due to panto needing time off. DS compulsory dinners £76, again will get a credit as he is off on a trip for 3 days, plus will gave 2 half days in December for a show.

School trip balance £145, although the letter says £140, I thought easier to overpay as not much time to query it.

Also £41 in Sainsbury's, including birthday presents £19 less 25% and cards £3, ingredients for homework and a few bits.

For the trip, school shop is saying £145, I didn't just decide to overpay.

girlfriend I guess what works for me is that I generally don't enjoy sitting down and watching tv in the evenings!

I pick up the kids 2 days a week, one day is a mad dash to beavers so that's pasta night (with meat/veg added) and the other (fri) is oven foiod. DP picks up 3 nights per week so one night is spag bol/lasagne/shepherds pie, one night is pizza and one night might be cold chicken/pittas/salad - he is no good at whipping a meal out of nothing so needs clear instruction. On the day he picks up I work later, get home at 6.20 and eat while barking out homework instructions. I do washing pretty much every night and iron on Sundays. I get to wfh every couple of weeks and that's when I will wash the kids floors. What I don't have time to do is Xmas shopping/shoe shopping/clothes shopping - amazon and internet shopping is my friend.

I get my main shop delivered one evening in the week (cheaper) and then do a top up while ds is at a class on Saturday morning.

My house is always a bit of a mess but I don't have time to have people round anyway!

girlfriend I work 49 hours in my day job(but has been extra busy past 3 weeks so I've worked more so haven't been able to keep up with this thread) plus run two weight loss evening classes as well.

Oh and dh is home even less.
Slow cooker is my best friend plus prepping stuff at weekends. I've a cleaner 3 hours per week. I do three nappy washes per week but ds almost 2 just trained by day so this will be gone soon, I do 2/3 washes mid week and rest on Saturday or Sunday. Washing machine & dryer are in shed so put something on when outside feeding the cats. Internet is my friend for shopping & try to make it to aldi after class or dh does it on his way home from work.
Hate oven fodder & jars so try to double up with dishes that can be repurposed. Eg bolognese made into lasagne following day.

I do use dishwasher & dryer a lot.

Dishwasher hasn't been working right for almost 2 years now, it's hit & miss. Littlewoods offered me a discount code for Christmas to buy now pay 6 months later interest free so I'm getting a new dishwasher I'm beyond excited
Need to replace Hoover too but that will have to wait. One subcontractor gave me a €50 tip this week so my trip to get my highlights done this afternoon just cost me €5 plus €5 tip

Just home from an early bird with two friends €20 each including tip for 3 courses

Did my tax return today, due tomo & looks like I'm due a rebate. And remembered I'm out of contract with mobile so must shop for sim only plan.

lila - jealous of your cleaner!

Thank you everyone for well wishes, I'll be 38+3 so she's pretty well cooked, and it's my first baby. Would reply to everyone and what's going on but sooo busy. Nesting is proper crazy, but at least it's nearly here! When I'm sat up with night feeds no doubt I'll have time to properly catch up and reply to people. Hope everyone that's poorly is feeling a bit better and that everyone's generally had a good day! not me, I spent £60 in primark on crap and £20 in asda

Girlie I suffer with headaches too. I used to think it was hormonal but now I wonder if it's the anxiety or even the diabetes. Either way my poor dc are sick of hearing 'mummy's got a headache!'

Off to lidl this morning aiming for a cheap one but who knows....

Good luck 31weeks! Hope all goes well. Exciting times ahead for you. Pumpkin carving this morning in our house and I took my weekly cash out yesterday. Let's see how it goes

Good luck 31.
Girl a woman I work with has horrendous migraines and hormones are a trigger for her. Have you had them checked?
Ipsos thanks for the tip. Dm has a black and gold singer which I covet. I'm going to price up a service but if it's too much might sell for spares and repairs and save for a new one steal dms
Hope the bike weekend is going well, was that need?
Spent £10 yesterday in the range and home bargain on dust sheet and boxes. Let the mess commence.
Will go and pick our pumpkin today and there is a Halloween birds of prey event on so about £15 there

Good luck 31! Hope induction is fairly speedy for you, not too long till baby. Accept all the help and stay in bed for a week and be weighted on.

Yesterday I took both boys to a Halloween circus at the garden centre, paid for it ages ago so felt free! Had lunch with friends at the garden centre after, £15, £5 was for friend as she bought lunch last time. Then went to waitrose for formula (mastitis and bronchitis made my limited supply disappear sadly) and bits and spent £27. DH home from traveling for a week so we had pizza for dinner £27. So a very expensive day. But DH has been away so long it was a celebration.

Today DH and ds1 are going for haircuts. Don't think there are any more spends planned.

Happy Halloween

So the pumpkin that gps bought the dcs seems to be leaking goo at the bottom, slimy stuff that crystallises up. Dp hasn't carved it yet...will it be gross? ? to tight to buy another

Of to my mums so lots of petrol and then free food!

Babs I would definitely save the service money and borrow dms machine. If your machine needs a service then that means it's probably going to need an annual service which can really mount up (Perhaps £70 a time). Your dms machine will run like a dream for 40 years without oil. The only downside is not having a zigzag stitch which means you can't use stretch fabric but if you're happy to make things like shirts out of poly cotton then that's fine. If you get great with the singer straight stitch then you can think about getting a good zigzag machine later. That's trickier and involves shopping around and maybe buying secondhand through a good sewing magazine for-sale page.

Pass That means that there is fungus growing in the skin of the pumpkin and degrading it to watery goo. It's not a disaster but could be messy. Best thing might be to slice the bottom clean off with a big bread knife and sit the pumpkin on a plate with the candle inside on the plate. I grew four big pumpkins this summer and one went that way last month. Once they're going they disintegrate very fast.

Happy Halloween! We're pumpkin carving this morning too and then making soup.
My friend is coming round later to bring us some apples from her tree so we might make an apple pie too. Should be NSD.

Thanks for the advice ipsos. pick your thank you gift

Morning all.

Yesterday's spends - £4 on lunch. Went out last night so lunch was a bit of a carb fest.

Had an eyelash disaster last night. Dropped one of my beautiful fluffy feathery full lashes down the toilet. Sigh.

Today's spends - £25 riding lesson. Nothing else.

£44.11 in lidl
£40.95 in sainsburys but got dh wellies which he will pay back and dc new pyjamas which they're desperate for. I also get my pasta from sainsburys because 1) they're the only place the does big packs of wholemeal and 2) they're only 25p more than the tesco one for half the size!

Babs gosh thanks! I like feel useful. :-)

Had a rare night out yesterday with DH so £30 on tapas and drinks. A bit of Christmas shopping done today £25.

I'm going to spend this weekend making soup for lunches, freezing apples and getting some washing out in the glorious weather.