The friendly frugaleers natter on through November...

[blueteapot]

Hope you dont mind me starting a shiny new thread

Unescorted I truly am tempted to contact Dispatches from the stuff I've heard lately, it's a very trusted national brand and I'm sure everyone would be shocked at what goes on behind the scenes.

Hopefully not too spendy today. Getting a business phone hopefully as email is making my personal phone fall over, and it means I know when it's clients!

Repair will cost around £80 instead of £60 which isn't great so I need to be a bit more frugal this month. But I'll try and bring a bit more work in this month.

Spendy day already. £8.20 for a steroid prescription :( and I shouted at a woman because she was being a twat and I flipped. I hate confrontation. It'll be on my mind for days now.

blue I didn't probe too much as that just sets off verbal abuse and silent treatment etc, I think the 'meeting' didn't exist and he didn't run with it because I didn't react in the way he expected - panic and what will we do etc so there was no drama.

Finally got my garage bill €340, happy enough with that as had saved for 12 months car tax €710 and just paid 6 months €394 so I've only €24 to add to my savings to pay the garage.

Does anyone do mystery shopping? I know the pay isn't great but now I've got extra time on my hands I thought it might allow us a few reimbursed treats that we couldn't otherwise afford.

NSD yesterday, hoping today will be the same. Also had £7.66 turn up in my quidco account yesterday. The in laws send us Amazon vouchers for Christmas and birthdays that we've been saving for a new TV so I've withdrawn the cashback as more vouchers to add to the total. We've around £220 saved so far so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that something suitable will come up during the Black Friday deals. Will hopefully be a nice treat.

Also have £90 of boots points saved up that I was hoping to use for Christmas presents, but no one seems to want anything that I can buy from boots. Worst case scenario I can use it to reduce our spending on toiletries over the coming year.

And a huge result this morning. I went through DH's bank account a couple of weeks ago and found he was still paying for a mobile phone contract that had been cancelled nearly three years ago . He called them to complain and this morning a letter turned up saying a refund of £526 was being processed.

€5.31 on humuss and spelt crackers for lunches at work for the rest of the week, to go with my frugal homemade soup.

Houmous, even

Thanks for the tip, ipsos.

It is 18 degrees here today. Yes, you read that right. 18 degrees. In the north of England. In November . What's going on?

Great Frugaleering, L.

The temperatures are insane at the moment. The new sets of thermals I bought in preparation for this winter aren't getting much use.

I can't decide what to do with the heating either. Storage heaters not much use in this weather.

Well done L shake an head at dh for not noticing this was going out of his account!!

Luxy, just dull and cloudy here. Incredibly gusty too. I slept very poorly last night, due to the wind.

need I'm Trying to stay strong. But at some point in going to cave. I know it. There are 8 plates. Two of us. So in reality we can last 4 days. We shouldn't have to though. He should be doing his bit.

I've asked for a cleaner for a few months for Christmas.

Electrolux what age is your DD? Is it the travel is the issue which would make you bring her out? Was your DF helping with childcare or money? Would she be eligible for a bus pass or anything I wonder?

Lilac you are a better person than me, I'd have flown off the handle!

Leftover spag bol for DC for lunch and I had some random leftover cheese / crackers to use it up.

Need to make a bit of a meal plan and get to lidl over the next few days. I saw that show about Aldi and not sure it was particularly unbiased :/

Trying to catch up after a very busy day but this thread moves super fast
yesterday £12 at Asda plus £42 for delivery from Sainsbury's
£15 in couple shops in town mainly for dh birthday present and couple bits for Christmas box appeal for homeless
I have also started another job, it's only 2 hours a week cleaning kitchen at our local pub but it means dh had to put dc to bed last night and little dd had to sleep in leggings because he couldn't find her pjs
electro if your dc are in their designated school you should be entitled to free transport to school, just contact your local council and ask about it
Very windy down here with rain on and off so I have "Chinese" laundry again in the bathroom
It's dh birthday so he got to pick dinner tonight - homemade chicken kiev, wedges and coleslaw and I need to make his cake too

blue I'm on a slow simmer instead - we have a 5+ hour car journey ahead of us on Friday 2 hours of it without the kids I will get my chance to draw it down but last night when I was tired meant all that was going to be achieved was a row. I'll wait it out a bit longer, see what transpires.

Ememem I'd be fuming and probably would've caved by now but sometimes I'd stay strong and only wash my own plate when I needed it.

I'm very excited my new dishwasher was delivered today - I'm at work though so can't marvel over it! Imagine a machine that will wash and dry my dishes, not like the one that has been alternatively washing & not drying or drying and not washing or leaving grainy residue on glasses for the past two years +

Love were they her own leggings? My ds has been put to bed in his sisters clothes on occasion by dh, but better it happens by night than by day. Current au pair often put ds in pj's by day - the difference is more obvious now that it's winter though

The Loop energy monitor people are looking for a family to be interviewed about their experience with a loop energy monitor for the Mail on Sunday, to include their name and a family photo, in return for £50. Anyone keen?

ah! It seems that they have found someone to do the article.

L Consider it a savings account that has matured, interest rates are low anyway so you've hardly missed much in that regard . I never find Boots all that cheap tbh.

lila As I mentioned in my post last night, I have lived with bi-polar in DH for a very long time. And coped with some hugely uncharacteristic behaviour during the highs and the lows. But I don't think you can put verbal abuse and silent treatment on bi-polar, that's just bad behaviour. Don't excuse everything to MH issues as I did and my GP reminded me when I came close to the end of my tether.

I too am not sure that the Dispatches programme was altogether unbiased, so I'm glad you thought that too, blue

Bastard dentist - £118.
£31 in M&S on crackers, wrap, 3 for 2 offers.
£10 in Wilkos, they had some Lynx box sets for £2.90, good for DN and DS for Christmas.
£7 Amazon for Doug and Daisy (or whatever the hell it is) beading set for god-daughter.

Today has been expensive.

Could I just say thanks again for all the encouragement I get from this group? I'm getting all sorts of things straightened out here. Partly the money stuff, but so many other personal and family things that lead off from that. It's great to have a group of like-minded and sympathetic folks to talk to about all this stuff.

Today I have lined up a bunch of tradesmen to sort our tatty hall woodwork and flooring, and change the vinyl in the bathroom and kitchen. That should make for a much improved Christmassy feeling home in the coming weeks, and all made possible by my new-found budgeting skill. I also have another play date lined up for ds, helped along by the confidence that I've got from this group. :-)

I have cut my work hours down a wee bit and given the house a good tidy up and feel that all is well with the world. :-)

Wow L that's great!

Got a letter at work saying we all have a pay rise. Would have gone up in April anyway but they could have waited and didn't (yes my wages are that shit) effective from 1st November and Christmas bonus will be in November wages will prob be about £25.