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

Hi all this thread is moving ridiculously fast

A work day so NSD, off to dds swim lesson in a min may need to get milk on way back.

collie they're mostly things I'd be buying anyhow just with a Christmas theme. Dh's pjs may be a Christmas tshirt because he wouldn't wear pjs

Just spent £17 in Tesco on shoes, new drink bottle for DS, anti freeze and a new washing up bowl. I ruined ours today marbling mugs with nail polish. Oops.

Just got an email about the Nectar double up event.

Nsd. Yippee!! Well so far. Dh hasn't been to the shop yet.

Spent my Tesco fresh fish voucher and got 4 salmon filets for £2! Also 4 pints of milk £1.

Biggish shop required tomos as fridge empty also need to get cat biscuits and more meds for girl cat.

Anyone in Ireland? I noticed that the cheapest slot has dropped from €4.50 to €3. Definitely worth using a couple of times per month to avoid dragging two around the shop stressing myself out

NSD for me!! That's two in a week. Tis a miracle

£5.60 in Aldi - tampons and sanitary towels, Christmas cards, two packs of asparagus and some mini stollen bites!

So excited about the stollen! DH is away at the weekend so I'm planning an evening of being festive, wrapping the presents I have and getting started on cards. It may sound a little crazy but I want December to be all about the pleasure and none of the pain (in the bum!) I am yet to try the stollen but have heard good things :) [santa]

Wirral - hope you and DD are OK. Lengthy days/weeks in hospital are no fun

NSD here too, that's 2 this week and I don't think I'll spend any money tomorrow or Friday either. Already started next week's meal planning, it's going to involve a lot of lentils as we have somehow ended up with two 1.5kg bags of them!

hmm spendy day unexpected evening out at cinema with DS followed of course by mum buying dinner out .. but it was good , we went to see the new James Bond.. good old-style entertaining stuff.

so £13 in cinema
£19.38 pizza express.

also spent £7.99 in boots earlier on toiletries and medicines

the next couple of days wil also be spendy as DGS and his mum coming over .. il be buying his birthday /christmas present as we most likely wont see him again until after,.. that will be a pedal tractor , then ill be taking them out on Friday (and no doubt paying)

but its all in th e budget...

I've hatched a plan.

I've got this job writing copy for websites but I don't have time to do it and the housework. Ds is being a trooper, doing the dishwasher in the morning and dh has been folding all the washing, but now he's back at work he just doesn't have time. (He's still doing it and not complaining, but I can see he's rushed off his feet.)

I was thinking that I might offer to pay ds £1 a day for continuing to do the dishwasher and also folding and putting away the washing with me after school. One of the benefits of this is that he's an only one and I am his only company so it would mean he would be doing something with me, rather than staring blandly at the computer screen on his own for the whole time after school.

I wondered if anyone had any thoughts on how that would pan out?

I did think of paying someone to come in and do housework, but that would be much more expensive and I've no idea how I'd find someone to come in once a day for an hour.

My writing job earns me about £10 a day. What do you think?

Sounds like it's worth a shot ipsos. Jobs still done, work coming in and a chance to catch up with ds.
Nsd planned today.

I think that's a great idea ipsos.
Aiming for another NSD but it is 7 yet and DD has already spilt a drink on the carpet so it could be a long day! Luckily I am escaping to work!

Several NSDs. Another today probably although got pay for bonfire night on Saturday.

Ipsos - great idea. I do that sort of thing regularly, but it depends on how much I have in my purse. Sometimes it's 50p!!

Hoping today will be a LSD. Have lunch today with a friend I think but there was walk of her putting it down as "business development" and getting her work to pay for it...she wants my advice on something for a client of hers.

Other than that. Nothing.

Dh spent £45 at shop yesterday.

Could have been a nsd but I think we will go to toddler group this morning as its raining. That'll be £2 and I need petrol will do £20.

Sounds like a plan Ipsos. Your DS loves magazines doesn't he? You could maybe buy him one on Fridays rather than pay him money maybe? Sometimes, kids value something such as this rather than money?

With regards to your husband helping. It's good that he is happy to contribute. I would let him still do it. This is called 'you both working'.

On my working days (3/4 days a week), DH is up 45 minutes before the rest of us. So, I come downstairs to an empty dishwasher, washed non dishwasher items, chickens let out, dogs fed and a fresh pot of coffee for me. Dogs will be walked too in the summer. I think you can imagine just how many hours DH works. Or maybe not, it's a lot.....!

He doesn't do this when I am not working, and clearly can't when he's away, as he is now, I also try to get up at the weekend and let him lie in, but when we are both working and here, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect both partners to contribute, as we are BOTH busy, stressed and rushed off our feet and we ALL live in the house.

I think you undervalue yourself, I honestly do

I had a little spend last night, courtesy of the Christmas thread.

I bought the DC and DH thermal mugs. DH has had about 4000000 of these in the past, but always loses them or leave them at work, so I thought it was a good stocking filler. They were £4 for a massive one at Millets, plus 10% off. I went wild and bought a folding colander too, for the horse box, as we have pasta a lot when we are away. Both DC like to take a mug of tea on the school bus.

I also bought 3 dresses from ASOS, I will keep only one, or none if they don't fit. It's DH's birthday Saturday and we are going out into town. I have nothing at all suitable for this type of thing and didn't want to buy from Next, like I always do in panic.

Morrisons order coming later too, just nudged over £70 to get extra points by adding a couple of Christmas items. Unsure if I will be able to find enough for the whole 6 week offer period to spend this a week though.

Going to take something back to Tesco for a refund so that's £5 saved.

Off to bake Sticky Yorkshire Parkin for fireworks tomorrow night. I'm hoping a NSD today but if I see any good present bargains I'll snap them up.

Hi all, hope you are o.kay Wirral sounds stressful

Ipsos could you look into having a cleaner for a couple of hours once a week, they could do things like the bathroom, hoovering, dusting etc which just leaves day to day stuff to do. I am working on getting my dd to do more but its tricky, she is meant to do a job every day this can be empty the dishwasher, tidy bedroom, run hoover round, sort washing etc when she does this she puts a tick on the calendar. At the end of the month if she has managed a job a day she gets £5, last month she got £2.50!!

Tbf we are both time short, by the time we get in in the evenings, have tea, chill out for a little bit then bath and reading/homework there doesn't leave much time for anything else. I would like a cleaner but just couldn't afford/justify it at the moment.

Need to get going as have run out of food, am going to go to Asda as the trousers I got for dd are no good so taking them back. Am still at a complete loss for winter trousers for her but eventually she will realise that cold legs are no fun and be a bit more helpful in finding trousers she will wear! The jogging bottoms that I thought would be a safe bet and are too big on the waist apparently

DS helped me empty the washing machine just now. Piece by piece. It was beautiful he's only 2ish.

DH and I share the housework. There's only 3 of us & a cat so its not too bad. Housework became much less of an issue when we decluttered & bought adequate storage.

Ipsos the housework in our house falls to me - DH works long shifts a 90 min commute away so the time hes at home hes pretty much asleep apart from weekend afternoons. When I was full time before going off with DC2 on mat leave (going back 4 days end of Nov, argh!) Im afraid I just used to have to crack on with it once everyone was in bed. A cleaner did cross my mind but I couldnt justify it as Im such a tidy person id have been cleaning on the days they werent here. It was far too much though hence cutting back a day to keep some sort of balance. If my DC were old enough Id totally be having them help (probably to earn their pocket money, we used to do it to earn our pocket money on a saturday and mum used it all week as a bargaining tool lol!)

Well my room redecoration went well and is now done. Was completely 'free' as I used bits and pieces that were already in the garage (half tins of paint, brushes etc) so im quite proud. I have a pic but worried it will out me lol!

DH needs 4 new tyres so that'll be about £200. One step forward, two steps back!

Also need to do a big shop for friends coming this weekend. And theyre foodies so this is gonna get spendy :( (lovely people though!)

Glad the redecoration went well blue

I think I would resent that blue, then I would bang and crash about the house muttering under my breath!!. DH works a ridiculous amount of hours, goes with the territory of running a business. 25k miles a year travel in the UK and all over the world but mainly the middle east abroad. He can still get up and empty the dishwasher though In all honesty, I am eternally grateful to my wonderful MIL, big busy family, DH had no choice, which benefits me immensely.

I've just stuck banana and chocolate cake in the oven. I got some reduced rich chocolate truffle sauce reduced at M&S the other day, which I am going to smother it in, for extra sin!

Then I am going to mop all my floors, scrub one bathroom (not that the cleaner doesn't do a good job, but she's not expected to wash all the tiles down etc etc). Swap over washing, strip the beds, get my Morrisons delivery, do my work emails, walk the dogs, vacuum the house (maybe), pick up some pony food and make spinach and mushroom lasagne for tea.

I'll sit tonight and do some Christmas shopping online.

DD's room was a tip so I have chucked everything in a huge pile on her bed, so she knows I'm pissed off.

DS's will be next.......