The friendly frugaleers natter on through November...

[blueteapot]

Hope you dont mind me starting a shiny new thread

I see what you mean, yes. tbh, I have so little time every day. Ds comes home for lunch, so I have 2.5 hours in the morning and 1.5 in the afternoon. It's barely time to catch my breath, let alone do everything that needs done.

I thought maybe I could find a way to make the writing feel meditative, and have it as a healthier alternative to staring blankly at ebay in the evening, but that seems to be a tricky thing to pull off. The weird thing is that I enjoy doing it. Is just can't seem to make it feel relaxing. Do you think that comes in time?

Oooo! The man who is employing me came online and I asked him if it would still be useful to him if I did a bit less each week, and he said yes. He says he's been meaning to do the writing for a couple of years so getting it done slowly is better than not getting it done at all. That's good then.

Thanks for all good wishes dh is very melodramatic always so I haven't started to panic yet but this is a genuine situation, I'll wait to see what today brings.

ipsos cleaner could do some of the laundry, hoovering/mopping floors/bin emptying/cleaning the hob/fridge etc too I know they're all only small jobs but they add up to time too.

girlie that was a lovely find-deffo use it for a treat as it was money you wouldn't have had otherwise.

It's wet wild windy & cold out I need to get up & get going but I really don't want to!!

collie and anyone else with a tidy house what do ye do with shoes?
Every time I think I've this sorted it ends being a mess again! Had a basket in hall under coat rack which solved hat gloves coats problem but dd's shoes & boots have gotten bigger!
Mine are in a large drawer in bottom of my wardrobe & dhs are meant to be in a canvas 20 pair holder under the bed.

They're everywhere again! We don't have a utility room

Wow girlie!

Lila we have a similar problem. We only have two rooms downstairs with no hallway the front door opens into the sitting room which opens to the kitchen. Shoes are a nightmare!

Should be nsd today.

Morning all.
Just in case you weren't aware Debenhams have a sale on.
OH making my lunch so I don't need to spend anything at work

Ipsos I agree with lilac, get the cleaner to do the bits that don't need the concentrated effort you put in and give you time to do the rest. Like hoover, mopping, initial dusting, folding washing, pots and pans etc. Good news about the author thought.

Today could go either way, plumber coming and need to look more at cookers.
Dd needs to go back to the doctors as her knee infection hadn't cleared.

collie does floradix work? I remember taking it but I can't remember it working. I'm so tired and run off my feet it's unreal.

Have a good week everyone. Pray that I get through this week ok, get my bags packed and onto the right plane on Saturday am!

lilac we have one of these shoe racks: www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/3916782.htm
It's brilliant. E ven ds gets excited about tidying his shoes on to it.

I think you're all right about just getting the cleaner to do anything I can think of. I'll work on that idea. Thanks!

I'm off work today as daughters school have teacher training day. I expect we will go out wandering somewhere (with no shops!). Good luck L with stopping smoking. It was the best thing I ever did for my health and my finances!

NK the tablets made a huge difference to me. They wake me up after feeling sluggish. I was very sceptical when DH spent £12 on them but had to own up & thank him in the end I hate it when he's right. I guess it depends what minerals your body is lacking.

We have an Ikea shoe cabinet & keep DSs shoes on top as theyre so dinky. We keep shoes that arent worn often upstairs under the bed. The shoe cabinets are so sturdy and slim. They fit in the hall nicely www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/50248428/

We have two shoe cabinets, one for DP and one for me. DSS only has a couple of pairs here so his usually just live in the middle of the living room floor in his room.

My shoe cabinet is overflowing though. I was thinking I should take out all my summer shoes and put them away in the basement until next spring, thus freeing up more space for winter shoes which need more space per pair. Could you do something like that lilac?

Today should be an NSD if all goes to plan. Have got tuna mayo and a jacket potato to take to work with me.

We put the summer shoes upstairs. Far far away. In a plastic box so they don't get dusty.

And we keep our current shoes, downstairs in a closed shoe cabinet so they don't get dusty.

really helps!

Maybe I need a trip to IKEA Dublin, haven't been since it opened. Bought everything for our house in IKEA Belfast as Dublin wasn't there yet.

It's more shoes that in constant use than summer ones really. I must clear out ones that are too small for the kids though a ten minute job really just to do it.

We only got our shoe rack recently and it has really helped. Previously we had to buy far more shoes to have any chance of finding two the same at the critical moment when we had to leave for school. Now that they're on the rack we can always find them so we don't have to buy extra shoes. Yay!

lilac I'd love to go to Dublin. Is it toddler friendly?

That's a great question Collie. I've been to Dublin a lot to visit family. It's just like any big city really. The tricky thing is that eating out is very expensive there. I often have gone out of a cheap-n-cheerful lunch for one and been shocked to get an £11 bill at the end instead of the £5 bill that I would get here. Other than that, it's just the same as here though.

Hope you get good news today lilac.

nsd yesterday and Saturday.

Going to Lidl today and my sister is down tomorrow so going out for lunch and shopping. Could be quite a spendy couple of days.

Best of luck today Lilac. Sorry I forgot to mention it. I thought about you earlier too.

For some reason I just imagined Dublin wouldnt be pushchair friendly. Cobbles etc. I'm a right daft banana. Haha!

My mum used to make me drink Floradix when I was young. The horror

Heard nothing yet from dh

We live in the country so I wouldn't even contemplate Dublin with my two until they're bigger. We've gone to zoo etc when we'd have car and means of getting around without using public transport. ipsos is right about eating out too

Dublin is quite a trek(3+ hours) for us but I need to go there myself in January for a work event so maybe I might take the car rather than train and visit IKEA on the Sunday of my weekend there.

Collie Dublin is okay with a pushchair. The main street is quite crowded as most cities are, but otherwise it's okay. A lot of people travel by bus and it's just the luck of the draw if you get one with space for a pushchair.

tbh it's not the first place I would think of going with a toddler, but then neither is any city.

Good luck with today for your and your dh "Lilac*. All fingers crossed here.

I think there are some other nhs employees on this thread, if you aren't aware of Health Service Discounts, it's probably worth registering. Free and all you need is your work e-mail I think. They seem to be heading towards the idea of 5% cashback for most shops/restaurants they work with but there are some better deals to be had i.e. 20% off at nandos 50% off at Dominos.

Has anyone used Barclay's Blue rewards before?