The friendly frugaleers natter on through November...

[blueteapot]

Hope you dont mind me starting a shiny new thread

Fluffy I will submit some meter readings later to see but it's hard to tell as some heaters are on now.

Welcome mila

Should be a nsd as not going anywhere today. Dd needs £5 for school panto which means taking £10 out and spending some to get change

Welcome mila.
I had a rotten day yesterday with poorly DD and DM to look after. Spent £59 in Asds inc 3 packs of nappies and cat food and litter so that wasn't bad.
Will catch up on the thread and post my meal plan later but I must mention the cauliflower and lentil curry I made in the slow cooker yesterday, it was delicious!

Lilac that's fantastic news! Well done. And not too fast too, which is also important. Great stuff!

ds had a great time playing with friends after school yesterday. More progress. :-) I had proper chats with several of my new parent friends too and that was good. Yay!

hi mila

Today will hopefully be a nsd. I'm in study classes all day dh has dinner in the slow cooker already.

"School" supply tea and coffee and biscuits so I should be ok. Popping Into work at lunchtime so I can meet a client and have a sandwich lunch.

Had a revelation this morning. I haven't used my overdraft since January. I was on these threads back then, then fell off for a bit but have been back the past 2 months or so. And am seriously starting to see a difference financially. I get paid next Friday. And am going to be able to see payday with over £100 in my account!!

Have really cut down, thought about spending and have been using things up - food cosmetics (see other thread in s&b ashamed of beauty product hoard) clothes. Everything.

House is tidier apart from kitchen I am happier.

Hope ur enjoying your new dishwasher lila.
I've been invited out on 4 separate nights out between now and Xmas. That's 2 meals, drinks with a friend and work Xmas party. Need to save up some more cash! Last year the charity shops pulled out all their party frocks in December and they had some lovely things e.g. Coast dress for £15. Might treat myself to an outfit for the party! DH also has his work do and his annual meet up with uni mates so it's going to be a spendy few weeks.
Need to collect a prescription for DD later so am going to get hair stuff for me too, I have a £5 Boots voucher that should cover it.
Meal plan:
Tonight - pasta/tomato/cream cheese/random veg concoction will leftovers for lunches tomorrow.
Tomorrow - carrot pilaf
Fri - homemade pizza topped with chilli from freezer and wedges.
Sat - burgers/quinoa burgers
Sun - veg casserole with herby dumplings
Mon - leftovers or freezer.
Have also made curried parsnip soup for lunches and am going to make carrot and cardamom soup when that runs out.

Welcome mila
NSD today
again about English school, ds started French in September, this week they changed time table and he is now doing Spanish and I only found out about it this morning because he lost his time table and wasn't sure when the homework had to be in so we had to do it after breakfast; so hopefully I can find out what's going on this afternoon
Meatloaf for dinner tonight with crispy potatoes and veg
There is an article in daily mail today from Jack Monroe about feeding your family on living wage and only buying British - yummy ideas I just wish I could get my dc to eat them

You guys are a good influence. I need new scissors. Not desperately but at some point. I also need some for Wilf as he wants to make a Christmas list for Father Christmas and I don't own toddler scissors. I also want to buy my parents new knives for Christmas. I was merrily adding all this stuff to my Amazon basket when I remembered I have £37 in my bank account. I have £3500 of overdraft I'd previously have just dipped into but now I took everything bar the £1.30 toddler scissors out of my basket and just bought those.

Well done what! I stopped myself from buying a soft penguin costing £8 for DD's stocking the other day for much the same reason.
DD and I have had some frugal fun this morning rolling balls down her play tunnel for the cat to chase, we all had a lot of fun, especially the cat, he's 14 but was running and pouncing like a kitten!

Well done em on not using overdraft that's super - how's the clean plate scenario going

Not using dw yet, dh must install it this evening. It is definitely a cheaper machine, it's a BEKO compared to Electrolux we did have (should have kept the baskets shouldn't I? ) but it is more modern - there's a feature to adjust the salt for the level of limescale you have and we live in a very hard water area so this will definitely help, plus there's a half load option too.

I've been busy buying on the 11.11 sale on aliexpress have spent €140 this morning but that covers 10 children's gifts & 2 adults so I'm quite please with it. I have €130 due in vouchers from shop and scan, may buy some gift vouchers as presents for 2 further children and 3 adults €10 each and remainder might buy me my new hoover, will run this past dh first but seeing as I do all the work with it he usually lets me make the decision on what to do with the vouchers.

Received an item from aliexpress last night - lovely little springtime outfit for dd but not what was ordered it cost €6.64, took photos and raised a dispute and looked for a refund of €3 as I'm happy to keep them item & it's been approved. A full outfit for €3.64!

That sounds great point! I set up Wilf's car mat for him for after preschool and he's being playing on it for half an hour so nicely! I'm finding being a SAHM to a newborn and a toddler very challenging and the weather and lack of funds and just juggling two at once is making it pretty hard. I was working full time till August and he was in full time nursery till two weeks ago so new to me and ds1 so a very tough period of adjustment. I didn't know how hard it would be.

lilac plate-gate is still happening.

I'm fully expecting to get home and find no plates. But a delicious dinner.

Can we borrow your dishwasher.

I bet that is hard, what. I find being with just one toddler all day twice a week exhausting. I try to plan a few activities the day before but that's probably the teacher in me, I find it terrifying to have a day with nothing planned!

Hang in there What. You're a brave soul to take it on.

I'm tried doing my writing again this morning, but doing it sloooowly so as to not wear myself out. I wasn't totally successful but at least I tried. :-)

Also trying to co-ordinate the efforts of a painter, carpenter and vinyl installer to get our house looking a bit ==less like a student rental==
nicer for Christmas.

Have over budgeted by £600 this month on Ynab - somehow got to make it balance

Saw a lovely idea on penny pinching christmas ideas on fb for children - a voucher book of nice things to do eg - jumping in puddles, day in the park, pj day, baking day, get out of eating family dinner & have something else etc. I'm thinking my 5 year old is a bit young as she can't read yet - might be useful to some of ye, kinda like collie's autumn list

Oh what, I do so remember those days very well. There's 18 months between my two and DH was working all hours. It was really tough and I have no answers for you, I was basically on my own for 2 years and was shattered. DS did watch far more Thomas the Tank Engine than would ever be recommended and is a straight A student now, so do what you have to to get by and don't feel guilty.

Em I am loving plate gate, I really am. I am sure you are not, but I do admire you!

Oops peppa

Well, my car has been sold, which is good as my new one is being delivered tomorrow. Absolutely chuffed to get nearly 75% of the purchase price, it's got over average mileage and isn't in pristine condition. First make and model to have a good resale value.

£3.50 in M&S, bread and chocolate, neither essential so not frugal.

Lila Elextrolux make crap dw, that's what our old one was. Or rather new one because the builders fitted it. Anything will be an improvement on that. Their stuff always soldiers on for years too so you feel bad buying new before somethings broken down.

Em Stand firm or you've got years of this ahead of you.

NSD.

It is tough with two. I think you have all these lovely ideas (I used to think I could sit feeding ds whilst dd dat next to me and we'd do stickers and reading together) reality was ds fed every hour and cried non stop in between it's all forgotten now though and it definitely gets easier

Home made potato wedges with veg and breaded fish for everyone else but bean burgers for me.

*for dinner

So today I withdrew £10. Spent £2 on the bus. £2.75 on birthday party bits and £2.70 on a huge pick n mix. for DH and I. I almost spent £20 on Boots and £17 on a Cardigan but I was very very good.

Then I went home and complained about the bank (they sent me someone else's pin number!!) And they gave me £50 compensation. They asked what outcome I wanted from my complaint and I said "additional training for your branch staff on following correct security procedures" Grrr!

I've been looking at jobs but there are none. Just none. Unless I want to do door to door sales for double glazing....

Then I did a job search up north and applied for loads. Also saw the perfect job in Cardiff! My heart sunk when I saw it. (I rarely feel that way about a job!) So I applied for it anyway.

The UK is my oyster doesn't sound very exciting does it!

Just arrived home. Plate gate update - things have been moved and stacked. So it looks a bit tidier but still gross

LSD today. 55p on some skittles to fuel my afternoon study.

dinner is slow cooking. Sausage casserole. With mash. Yippee. but it'll probably be eaten out of Tupperware

em. Love sausage casserole though.

Collie that's amazing (the bank and the jobs and resisting spending money!)

spotty it smells amazing. Dh isn't the tidiest understatement much?! but is a great cook. I'm so lazy in comparison.

Well done collie