The friendly frugaleers natter on through November...

[blueteapot]

Hope you dont mind me starting a shiny new thread

Where are you IPSOS?

I should be alright, I think need. I don't make mistakes often. It was just slightly unfortunate that it was so expensive. Same mistake on anything else and it would have cost pennies.

Collie - weather is horrible in Buckinghamshire too, I don't think we will be having an afternoon out! I've also got a bad throat and a fever so will be doing crafts with toddler this afternoon to keep him busy. I have some sticky back plastic and a tub of craft bits so he can make a big picture. Yesterday he had fun sticking stickers on to a big roll of paper I bought in IKEA. We had it laid out on the lounge floor so it was novel.

Nine week old threw up a whole bottle during the 4.30 feed. I was feeling so smug that he'd been asleep since 8pm. I had to change. I had to change him. I slept on a towel and borrowed the duvet from the spare room. I was annoyed I'd have to pay to take the duvet to the cleaners (not annoyed at the baby, poor thing was havjng a weird cough), but I had bought a washable duvet and it fits in my machine! I just have to put it in the tumble dryer and hope it comes out ok and then remake the bed. I have a bad back and hip so I don't usually do it, but it's that or sleep in the spare room and there won't be room for the baby in there.

Pointless good news on sleep and feeling better.

Lilac have a lovely weekend.

Fuzz dancing sounds great!!

Em - enjoy your soup!

DM has taken the kids to toddlers this morning, thank god for that and paracetamol!

Raga mistakes definitely happen, to err is human afterall

pointless I've cried plenty at work, I wouldn't worry about it. Hope you feel better today.

DH has gone off to work, late into an early shift so we wont see him until tomorrow night as he stays up. He has hatched a plan to stay up for free from now on which would help.

Rafa* stupid autocorrect

LSD today, just going to buy some fresh fish after school run from the greengrocer which sells local fish, hopefully they will have pollock again to make homemade fish and chips

what hope it was just one off with your little one, these incidents were my main reason for buying 9kg washing machine so I could wash duvets at home

fuzz my dds do ballet, tap and modern but they would love to learn ballroom and latin as well so your dancing lessons sound fab

It was very wet and windy this morning so I didn't put the wash on and now it's still windy but dry with lovely blue sky
Dh came home after his morning shift since they had no morning deliveries for him today and finally hung up the new curtains in the bathroom I made on Sunday. I just need to make some tie backs since we had to use the wire instead of the pole

Sorry need! I got totally carried away with the house improvements. I have now arranged the following:

Kitchen, bathroom and toilet: New vinyl

Bathroom, toilet, hall, landing: new skirting boards and architraves.

Hall and landing: New engineered wood flooring.

Hall, stairs and landing: to be painted.

I've got all the people booked and ready to do it starting next week, and we just need to buy the wood floor stuff tomorrow and choose a carpet for the stairs.

I spent today tearing up our hall, stairs and landing carpet and gleefully throwing out through the front door. It's a disgusting old student rental house carpet and I've been living with it for 11 years. You cannot imagine my joy at chucking it out today.

Sorry I haven't been back to check in for a couple of days. As usual I'm being stupid about not resting and just doing far too much, but it will be so nice to have the house not look like a squat. Wooohoooooo! (and hurrah for learning to manage money so that these things become possible.)

Thanks for noticing I'd gone too spotty. It's another one of those "disappeared into the attic" weeks. I seem to get periodic house improvement urges at the moment and then disappear for days. Ooops!

I hope every one's well. I'm only about three pages behind so I'll catch up soon.

Well, you are forgiven for your absence, given all the hard work you have been doing. I love your hallway, it's a lovely size. We have engineered wood pretty much everywhere downstairs, a lovely light limed oak. I absolutely love it, looks amazing and so practical - brilliant investment for your frugal ways. I don't ever plan on changing mine, it's down for life, which is why we spent a little more initially. But I think will even gain financially long term.

Just gutted DS's room, 4 bin bags of shite. Well, some of the stuff is the transition from child to teenager. Lots of broken lego models and old games that are no use.

Got soaked to the skin walking the dogs, to the point where I had to shower and change when I got home. I don't plan on going out for the rest of the day, bar taxi service duties, so a NSD.

Well actually, I will get a Chinese, so £20 max.

Judicious use of the word 'love' there, sorry.

Looks great, ipsos. Very smart!

Hope you're both having better days today, Pointless and Rafa.

Hope Blue and Whatabout and her little one feel better soon.

Yesterday was spendy, as I had errands to run and items to collect and then we went out last night to Lumiere, a lights at night event in Durham, that's run every couple of years, so had our dinner out. Some of the installations are amazing, but we got absolutely drenched. Of course I was wearing my Converse too! To be fair, even Wellies wouldn't have made much difference. Still, glad we went anyway.

Today is an NSD; just pottering around and doing lots of laundry.

Happy frugal weekend, everyone .

I also got rained on. Horizontal icey rain. the wind chill has made it very very cold here. DS has been really lethargic and not into his toys. Sometimes I worry that he's bored but he's only 2. I wonder what he's thinking about. I tried to take him for a walk but the rain was unpleasant & icey and he wanted to come home. I worry that I'm not doing enough fun things for him. I wish we could hop on a train and go somewhere exciting. But the trains are pricey and everywhere is shut now it's out of season.

Sorry for my rant / moan. I just feel so guilty. We don't even have a park nearby & he wasn't into his arty stuff today either.

Ipsos the work sounds really good! How exciting for you.

Have listed some shite on eBay! If it sells for 99p I'll be happy. Not actual shite. That would be horrendous

We forgive you ipsos

Collie how old exactly is ds? Does he talk at all? It's funny dh and I were saying the other day 'imagine how much ds wanted to say to us before he could talk' (he was a late talker but doesn't shut up now!). He's two and is happy to play on his own tbh but he loves play-doh, painting, riding his balance bike inside and out! Going for walks, toddler group, seeing friends etc. I'm lucky he's pretty easy to please he also loves watching tv

£63 tesco delivery.

Spotty. He's 2 in a week. He does talk and he usually plays really well on his own, he usually loves everything including rearranging magnets on the fridge. It's just today he seems a bit out of it & very quiet Cbeebies have helped considerably. Maybe he's just having an off day. We all have off days I guess!

Just wish I could distract him with trips to the park or town or something. But we live in a bleak part of a semi rural town. "Nothingness" describes our area quite well.

Maybe he's coming down with something? Seems like there's exactly a year between him and my ds!

Sorry to have vanished on you there. It's lovely to be back.

need is your house expensive to heat with all that wood? I like the idea of wood floors as I'd not spend my whole life chasing dust around. I figure if I chuck out the carpets then I also chuck out the pesky dust mites.

Collie I had the same trouble with keeping ds entertained at this age. I totally woosed our and bought him an old laptop off ebay and he played an embarrassingly huge number of computer games for about two years. I felt like such a crappy parent for it, but it turned out at the end of that that he'd taught himself to read to 7 year old standard without my even knowing. So I would say: Don't feel bad about whatever you are doing. He will be making immeasurably more of it than you can possibly imagine.

Also, this is great: www.acool.com/games/Lego-Duplo-Games-3.html

and I found that youtube videos of old proms concerts were hugely popular with ds. Particularly John Wilson Proms concerts and the Prom Yeomen of the Guards:

In bad weather you can also bring a ladder into the living room and let him climb on it. That was great for us. Either lay it flat on the floor or if it's a U shaped one make it into a climbing frame.

If you need more ideas just shout out. This phase was long, slow and difficult for me, but we got there.

Thanks creme and spotty

btw I've been spending loads of time in the playground after school helping ds make real life friends and it's been going quite well - but mainly because you all are there with me in spirit. Thanks for that! Ds owes you one and so do I. :-)

I meant to mention last week that it seems like you are making good progress with your DS Ipsos. Of course we are all there with you!

Ref heating. Obviously, I have nothing to compare as we have been in our house since new and the flooring has been down since then, but we pay just over £100 for dual fuel. I keep on top of the providers and do switch regularly. It's a large house and none of us are great at closing doors to be honest, although it's not open plan.

North that's great that you're a physio and were able to catch your ds's difficulty early. That will be a huge help for him. Well done on the sewing.

Tricky one on the loop packaging spotty.

Sorry to hear about the heavy week pointless. I hope things improve for you. I always feel that people crying at work is a sign that they feel strongly about getting things right in their job. I'm sure your colleagues see that too and understand.

Thanks need I think things are going well with ds. He has several friends now and we have playdates lined up. He also bought a wheat pudsey bear biscuit without my permission and ate it at school today. I asked him if it was okay and he said he hadn't noticed. Score!
Sounds as if your heating costs are fine with wood floor.

I'm all caught up now - though 3 whole days behind on the FT (Shocking!).

My Loop monitor says if I switch I could save £300 a year. I wrote to SSE and asked if they could just charge me £300 less a year to save the trouble of switching.

Has anyone else considered making a Liberty Bodice? It's really cold here, and I think that this calls for some serious undergarments.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_bodice

Hello all - its Friday woohoo!!

Been at work, wasn't quite as crazy busy today thank God! Spent £2.50 in the shop on the way home on chocolate and a local paper (a Friday night treat!)

Did an online Morrisons shop last night, spent £43 and that is for a week or more also includes a load of loo roll and massive box of washing powder, getting it delivered for £1 Monday morning, was a bit annoyed to see that they would charge me for carrier bags though, is there a way round this? Also need to work out how to save my shopping so the basics are there week on week iyswim?

Ipsos your house looks lovely.

Collie I wouldn't worry too much, i think its good for kids to be bored sometimes, forces them to learn to play independently and use their imagination. If he is more lethargic than usual I would put money on him coming down with something as well (sorry )

Also £3.50 to dd this morning for a school dinner and non uniform day (CIN)

Much better day today thank you.
ipsos your house looks lovely.
what DD did the same to me last year, it was hideous!
We had the central heating serviced today and got controls fitted on all the bedroom radiators so we can finally turn them down/off. Should save money in the long run.
Going out to get drunk with friends tonight! Don't do it often, getting a taxi and everything!

girlie I use Morrisons every week, spend about £40 and am very pleased. Save the bags from your order and hand them back on the next delivery, or unpack and hand them back there and then. They will refund each bag. You can save your shopping bag, or use the favourites list. I do the latter. I find Morrisons the simplest supermarket website I have used.

Agree - I love Fridays!

Still waiting for Morrisons to offer online delivery in my area.