The friendly frugaleers natter on through November...

[blueteapot]

Hope you dont mind me starting a shiny new thread

I'm still in bed as am feeling meh. All achy and completely exhausted.

Have had breakfast. And tea.

Must get up soon though and get started. Have a few loads of washing to do and some study.

I think there's some chicken soup lurking in the freezer too.

star I store soup in the freezer in soup bags (they have a flat bottom so stand up while you pour) and use a sistema soup cup to take it to work.

Welcome L
Good luck lilac for tomorrow
Great news collie
star you can keep pot of soup in the fridge for at least 5 days, I guess it depends how much space you have in the fridge if it's easier to have one big pot or several small ones ready to take out in the morning
Horrible wet and windy day so dh has decided to stay longer at work since we can't work on wendy house; he normally has Sunday off but they asked him to come in for couple hours to help in the warehouse and now he is out doing deliveries
I guess for me it will be a day full of housework, some baking with dc and hopefully sewing the curtains for bathrooms

Em I would like some of those soup bags but have only seen them in Lakeland, does anywhere do them cheaper?

Star - I'd either do individual containers, or else if you have an empty plastic bottle with quite a wide neck this works well for transporting in one go.

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone. It is a big cut in hours and a loss of almost £900 a month. At the moment it leaves us around £130 a month short for our essential outgoings so I need to find a way to cut back. I'm currently waiting on permission from our landlord to switch gas/electricity supplier and told DH he needs to cancel our sky subscription. Those two changes alone should cut our outgoings by around £60 a month.

Landlord is also finally replacing the faulty gas fire in the living room in a couple of weeks time. We've got a really old, inefficient boiler and if my maths is correct by using the new, super efficient fire for two hours an evening instead of the central heating we could save around £30 a month. We have electric blankets on the beds so I'm hoping we wont miss heating the whole house in the evenings.

I'm going to look for another part time job to try and top up our income but I'm not too hopeful. The two main industries in my area are tourism (which is seasonal) and the oil industry (where people are being made redundant left, right and centre). So there's an awful lot of competition for very few jobs at the moment.

Off out in a minute to buy cat food. Had a 33% off voucher arrive in my inbox yesterday so I'm going to stock up. That should be the only spends for today though.

need and then at insurance premium! Mine was up for renewal last month & I was working 7am to 6 pm 5 days plus up by night with ds so I just didn't get a chance to shop around, it wasn't more than last year so it'll have to do.

Thanks for all the well wishes what will be will be. I've €870 saved for a 10 year anniversary break away it can pay mortgage & dh's share towards other stuff for a while & a lot of Christmas shopping done very cheaply already so money saved for that can be used too.

Spent the morning making rice crispie buns and top hat buns for ds' party later he's going to sleep now while I'm mumsnetting & should be dressing & sweeping kitchen floor! Glad dishwasher was ordered before dh had this news because it wouldn't have been if we had news first it's on buy now pay in 6 months interest free so if we're under pressure that can be postponed a bit.

I can hear my mother sweeping woo hoo! collie did you ring your mum fri morn? I also leave at 7am or sometimes 6.50

Fingers crossed lila.

We've just got back from the cinema and I persuaded dh we didn't need KFC cutting your nose off comes to mind but now we're having cheese and pickle sandwiches my favourite!

Dh bought the dc's snack boxes so nsd for me.

Need to sit down with dd and so her homework. Roast chicken for dinner can't decide between roast potato or boulongere, whatever we don't have tonight we will have tomorrow...

pointless these are the ones I use. I think I got them from waitrose. But we wash them out after each use dm just throws them away

Lila, enjoy your DS's party today and fingers crossed for tomorrow.

Welcome L.

I think I might have a UTI. I have never had one before, but I keep getting bad stomach cramps, like bad period pains or the cramps you get when you have a sickness bug and it hurts when I use the loo. Does that sound about right, anyone?

Creme if it burns or stings when you wee and/or you get a really sharp period like pain at the end of weeing it's likely. Other symptoms include frequent weeing even if you don't pass much urine each time.

I personally think OTC cystitis remedies aren't worth it and you should get a nurse/dr appt tomorrow.

Thanks Spotty. I'm not going much, but the other symptoms fit. I'll see what I can do, about getting an appointment tomorrow.

Keep drinking plenty of water in the meantime. Hope you feel better

Must be the season for UTI running a bath to soak in first d it helps..well it did at 4 am this morning.
Made lots of soups yesterday ~ I save butter tubs and use them to freeze soup rather than spending on bags. Thanks for the spicy sweet potato soup recipe which was on this thread I've looked back to see who posted it but can't find who it was.
Another small savings is changing from shower gels to a bar of soap lasts absolutely ages. Enjoy your Sunday evening

Afternoon.

I hate cystitis.

Sometimes Aldi does the pour & store bags. I have also seen them in Hime Barginis & Wilkos - but all 3 are a bit hit and miss on the stock. For soup I freeze it in the shape of the vessel it is going to travel in. It can be put in a bag for its freezer life once it is frozen. I usually save other peoples fresh soup containers from work.

What is popcorn chicken like - the kids keep saying their will be significantly shorter and greyer without eating it, but I just can't imagine it to do a fakeaway version.

Hime Barginis that well known Spanish discount store with the blue & red frontage.

Popcorn chicken is like nuggets but the size of marbles.

Thread moving at the speed of light as always :o

Minions film was good, and for the first time we remembered to take sweets with us and avoided the concessions stand altogether (thank you almighty Halloween stash).

Picked up supplies at Hobbycraft for a costume (thought my days of such projects would be over without school, but we're going to a themed education day at a museum and dressing up is encouraged!) and they had mini glue guns for a fiver! I had to get one. I've always wanted one, as I used to use my mum's friend's one a lot when she looked after me, she always did loads of crafty stuff. Of course now I have no idea what I'll actually use it for... any suggestions please? :o

Thanks spotty I can see why the manufacturers like them - how to reduce the amount of chicken even further.

fuzz anything you would normally use a nail or solder for if our house is anything to go by. I am always being sent to the art shop to get the sticks.

lila I am so sorry that must be unbelievabley stressful. Let's hope for the best.

I save butter tubs for soup too. They survive the dw well.

collie Google the moneysavingexpert mortgage overpayment calculator and see how much shorter your mortgage term would be with some of that £1000. I bet you'd be mortgage free in no time.

NSD.

Thanks Em, washing them out is a good idea, environmentally friendly as well as frugal!
Accidentally bought cakes to go with our free drinks at the garden centre £4.40. DD loved seeing all the Xmas lights, decorations etc.
Following on from the success of poking straws through the colander last week today's game has been putting coloured balls in a muffin tin, another frugal toddler activity!

Miserable day here but made the most of it with rainy beach walks and planning the big move.

We took back our bathroom storage and exchanged it for a similar, slimmer item as we had original packaging. Also picked up the £5.99 polka dot double bedding set in Argos. Needed bedding and this is was an amazing price!

Cystitis is horrible. I get it regularly because my bladder doesn't empty itself fully. It's so miserable.

Pasta bake for tea with cinnamon apple crumble for tea.

I had a UTI a few weeks ago - my first ever. Awful abdominal pains that sonetimes spread to lower back and a weird sensation when I peed. I spent a week thinking it would clear itself up before I got scared reading about how uuntreated UTIs can turn into dangerous kidney infections. Then I went to the doctor and got antibiotics, it was gone in 24h. But apparently cranberry juice is supposed to be good if you want to try to get rid of it yourself. I read that a good proportion of UTIs can just go away on their own.

NSD here!

Thanks everyone for the advice. I think I will go to the gp, if I can tomorrow. I'm a bit worried I'll have to give my Pilates class miss tomorrow night, if it is a UTI. Another NSD here. Absolutely horrid day outside.

I got my first topcashback payout. It should have been £7.87, but they took a fiver for fees! Have I ticked the wrong level of membership or does everyone have to pay some fees?

Creme you only pay £5 a year