The friendly frugaleers natter on through November...

[blueteapot]

Hope you dont mind me starting a shiny new thread

Wireal it sounds really grinding. I don't know your situation...can only suggest hot water bottle s? Lots of jumpers? How long do you think it will be before you can start to put the heating on?

I have had a NSD here, two in a row now.

Unfortunately though DP is having problems getting the second hand oven we bought at the weekend working. It keeps shorting the whole house. We have phoned the guy we bought it from and he is supposed to come round and either fix it or take it away and refund us...lets hope he's good to his word. This is always the issue with buying second hand through individuals...

Hi need. I'm going to hold off with ds for while. He's just starting to experiment with food himself and if he gets to the point of being frustrated enough that he wants to go through the difficulties of dealing with medics then I'll do something then.

Peppa thanks, yes I see what you mean. I've kind of forgotten what it was like just to do housework once a year for a bit of fun, and live on pizza. I've got a plan for how to make best use of a cleaner and I'll see if I can make that work.

Wirral - fancy a trip to France? I have not one but two broken ovens here needing repair!

wirral the daily grind is the worst. Just keep reminding yourself that it will get better. Can you mither the executors? or is it HMRC who are taking their time?

My dh has excelled himself.... the dishwasher is fixed and he is still alive

Wirrall, . I know exactly what you are going through. The only reason I am feeling a bit better today is because I had enough to get out of the house on the bus and do the weekly shop in Aldi and Asda, and that's only because I sold some books and cds! Lots of NSDs in a row are NOT good, when you don't have a choice about them.

Spotty, what a meanie of a Head Teacher. She handled that badly.

Sporting, really sorry to hear about your DH's colleague.

I made it to Pilates, but I bet I'll pay for it tomorrow. So another £1.80 coming home on the bus.

Creme I can sympathise also on antibiotics now, downside was the cost of prescription
Might investigate a pre paid certificate as also on medication for rheumatoid arthritis, yet another auto immune disease.
Lilac have you heard anything yet, we went through something similar 2 years ago, so understand the nightmare..waiting for information was terrible.
I've realised that I can't type in bold not sure why.

Sporting I missed your post. That must be a huge shock.

Thanks for all the good wishes remember I told ye I think dh is bipolar but not diagnosed? Well he says today he didn't mention anything about an important meeting today & that he just knew there was a meeting on Wednesday I don't know if he did it to get attention because my mother was here or what his agenda was

Sorry to hear about work accident, I work in the office of a dangerous environment where safety is paramount. These stories make me shudder.

wirral I hope you get sorted soon. Fantastic to have no debt!

Hi all just skim read through the posts, ipsos is there no possible way your ds could have a pack lunch even one or two days a week? I think that would make a huge difference in how much time you have to catch up on things.

I would also be looking at ways to reduce how much cooking you're doing, do you really need to be cooking a cooked breakfast, lunch and dinner? Just thinking about that makes me feel tired!! I know you all have various dietary needs but you may find esp with your ds that you can relax things a bit as he gets older. Agree with Needa that will be virtually impossible to police his diet once he gets older and starts staying at friends houses etc.

Wirral sending you warm thoughts, are you down South? its been weirdly mild so far for November.

Creme the best thing you can do for UTIs in drink as much as possible!

I have managed a 3rd NSD in a row feeling pretty good about that.

Lilac What did you say to him??

Wirral I'm sorry to hear you are finding things tough :( there are a few threads about keeping warm around (might help a little). I think I must have missed your back story reading through, this thread moves so fast! Agree with others, NSDs are not fun when they're forced. I hope things begin to look up for you soon.

Sporting That accident sounds awful, that poor poor man.

Creme hopefully the antibiotics will kick in soon

Bad day today spending wise, £240 on DH tyres, £35 in diesel, £60 on xmas present for my folks (was the think I wanted for them which I have never seen any less than £100 so I pounced despite not really having the spare cash this month). Started out this morning with a reasonable bank balance and now we have about £110 to last 3 weeks! (Can take some out of savings to cover the tyres, but I'd really rather not :( ). Its my birthday next Sat and I know DH is planning a meal out / will want to buy presents etc. I don't want to sound ungrateful but I'd be happier with the money in the bank at this point in time. Can't say that out loud though lol but I can say it to you guys :)

nSD. Yippee.

Am still waiting for health insurance to refund me. Sigh.

Will follow that up tomorrow.

2 more things sold on eBay. A necklace and a top. Must post tomorrow.

blue I know what you mean, but maybe you CAN say it to DH? As lovely and kind as the thought is, could you talk about trying to stretch the budget? I find conversations with DH hard about money, he's pretty gung-ho about it all!

lilac As you know, my DH is diagnosed bi-polar. He hasn't ever done what your DH did before, although every case is very different. My GP told me eventually that being bi-polar doesn't excuse unreasonable behaviour, that I couldn't always try to make excuses about his MH issues (I won't go into the specifics). I would at least try to get your DH to understand that this has caused you unnecessary worry and concern, which isn't fair. I KNOW that's hard, folk with MH issues can be a touch self absorbed through no fault of their own, in my experience anyway.

Lidl have some offers from today. Their stuff is quite cute at the mo!

Girls winter leggings £2.99,
Girls fleeces £3.99
Ladies slippers £2.49
Ladies slipper socks with non slip soles £2.99

NSD today :)

Hmm blue you could ask him to postpone the meal out? Or something. I know what you mean though.

Should be a nsd I woke up seven minutes before my 5am alarm panicking it hadn't gone off! Actually might get bread.

Tonight will be our third meal out of the chicken we had Sunday. Going to make soup again and have it with cheese toasties.

We've had to put the heater on in the dc's bedroom as dd'd asthma is bad: bad cough high temp etc trying to avoid chest infection, is that possible?!

Sorry to hear about those living on very tight funds. I was like that in my 20s and I remember the frustration of having to choose between having trousers long enough to reach my feet, or having food, or having a mobile phone that would enable me to make friends. You're quite right to stay ruthlessly away from debt. Hang in there.

Girlie thanks for the ideas, especially on cooking. He's gradually outgrowing some food issues, and learning to identify and work with the ones that matter himself. Wheat intolerance is not such a huge problem here as a lot of people are wheat intolerant, and there are tons of cafes around here that serve non-wheat food.

One of the big plusses is that coming home for lunch is making him much more confident about being in school, which makes life so much easier, so I think I will keep the home lunching. However, home lunching is getting easier and easier as he gets more enthusiastic about going back after lunch.

I think we may also takes steps towards getting rid our carpets. I gather that dust mites mostly live in carpets, so if we throw away the carpets then we also throw away the dust mites. That would take away a huge part of my workload I think.

Creme if you're keen to find work, have you tried UpWork.com? I found paying work on there very quickly, although I'm now stressed to the eyeballs trying to get it done. Maybe you could find something too? There's a lot of work available on there proofreading written English for people from China and the middle east, so that's very easy to do for someone with your good language skills and you could work up from there.

Sorry to hear so many of you are having a rough time of it. I have no useful advice but am thinking of you.
Pleased yesterday as I managed to get in and out of the hospital car park quickly enough to avoid the charge but then noticed we were out of petrol so that was the best part of £50. To be fair it had been a long time since I filled up.
DD has had a terrible night and we've had very little sleep. Think she might finally be getting more teeth. Have banging headache and am sitting in bed fully dressed to keep warm until she gets up!

Interesting Dispatches programme on Aldi last night. Was always aware that certain corners were cut but at the extent of it.

Hoping for nsd today. Am in study classes all day.

Dh is off work this week so I am on strike. No housework this week. Waiting to see if he does anything. He's promised to take care of things until my exam (end of the month) but so far three days of washing up is stacked up on the counter and the washing has piled up. Sigh.

Em, I would be caving by now, hold firm!

I need to go to the dentist today as I have chipped a filling, so that will probably cost me £10385783293 or some such ridiculous amount.

I also need to get Christmas cards and wrapping and bank some work cheques.

Also, washing capsules. I have 18 washes since Friday!

Also need to clean up my car, as it's getting valued tomorrow. New car is ready, so we need to get rid asap. At the right price.

Needa at dentist fees!

Spotty I'm not sure you can avoid chest infections, if he has a temp I would wonder if its an infection already? Having the heating on will def help in keeping the air warm and less harsh on his chest though.

I have a fairly busy day planned, have to go on an hours training in a min, also meeting friend for coffee, need to get my girl cats meds at the vets as well as pop to town and pick some bits up as well as get milk and bread - all before 3.15!!

LOL! need at the dental fees. Know what you mean. :-)