Oh come all ye frugalers, joyful in December, oh come ye, oh come yea and chat

[babsmam]

New Fred, hope I've done it right I've never done one before.

Good afternoon. Weather is hideous here, we were supposed to be out with some friends for a long dog walk and Sunday lunch, but that has been cancelled, so we have an unexpected day off.

Means I have caught up on some chores, baked ginger and treacle tray bake, DD is baking scones, I've cleaned out the horse box, cleaned out my chickens and am not menu planning, having sat down to watch the Davis Cup final.

I don't have experience of mice, sorry.

Welcome Steven

Menu plan (no particular order)

Thai sweet potato soup
Lasagne
Pumpkin and chick pea coconut curry.
Roast lamb and trimmings.
Smoked mackerel and leek risotto.
Lamb tagine.
Morrocan pork.
Cauliflower pasta and bacon bake.
Bacon, egg and chips.
Devilled eggs.

Which part of the UK are you in Need? I just realised that I have no idea where you are. The weather here is windy but dry and not very very cold. I'm sitting at the open French windows getting a little bit of sunshine.

I think the mice come free with older houses. Newbuilds and houses newer than about 1960 don't seem to have as many holes to let them in.

I just got the money through for my website writing job. £179. Yay!

Hi Steve. Buying chocolate is my weakness.

Ds has just announced he doesn't want some of the stuff he has put on his Christmas list gah!

I need to plan stuff but feel too overwhelmed to do anything

Nice one ipsos
I haven't read the article but couldn't do a no spend year.
Glad you had a good time girlie and are feeling better em
Poor fluffy cat. Astonish do an odour neutralise spray for about £1 which is good, or bicarbonate on it.

It's miserable here. Wet and windy v dark. I just fell asleep on the sofa

Oh dear, blocking up holes not really an option - we're a house with a 2 bedroom attic conversion with build in wardrobes and then in the back of those doors to attic access left in the edges of the eaves (and one attic store room), theres also a little door to the water tank. Too many holes to block and theyre coming under the doors to the eaves access which we cant block, leaving droppings / wee all over our stored baby stuff (threw so much away yesterday) and all our attic storage stuff. Can't have that so I'm afraid it's going to have to be some sort of poison to clear them. There were loads of those old 'sprung' style traps in the eaves when we moved in, so clearly not a new prob but they've never been noted by us before. There's no food up there so goodness knows what they're eating!

Not as bad as our student house when I lived in London which had rats coming in from next door

Ipsos (?I think it was ipsos that asked) I am a trainee GP so we move around practices for a 6 month then a 12 month placement, this is my 12 month placement.

We put mouse traps down when we had them. How are you finding work blue?

Babs my ds does that every year, but he likes what he gets in the end.

Thanks blue, yes it was me who asked. I think mouse poison is necessary, unless you fancy buying a polecat. I'm not sure which is worse with kids around: mice, mouse poison, or pet polecat.

£4.37 in the shop on monster munch and Dr Pepper.

Ragu smells amazing in the slow cooker.

Weather is atrocious here. So am watching tennis mnetting and trying to finish sewing project.

Yes's! Absolutely delighted with tennis result!
NSD.

Hooray for the tennis.

ipsos I am just on the North Yorkshire border, pretty rural. It's mild here too.

blue My friend is a partner in a GP practice. She fear not enough doctors will enter the field, let alone enter a partnership.

I am putting ragu into the SC now too, for lasagne later. My SC cooks pretty quickly though.

Em your snacking habits crack me up. I've been off every moderately interesting kind of food for years, and it does me good to be reminded that things like monster munch and Dr Pepper still exist.

Need Good to know. I always assumed you were home counties, for no sensible reason at all.

Yaay from here for the tennis too. A great rally and great shot to win it with too.
I've been away from the thread for a few days so rather than try to recap the whole thread, I went back as far as yesterday morning.
Em well done on the exams, collie, pleased to hear about your test results.
Fluffy the slow cooker fudge was always something that made me laugh on the slow cooked wonders fb page, there is no end to the variations!
Adora glad the Chile house has sold eventually. I think it had been for sale for almost as long as I've been on this thread
ipsos hurray for getting paid!

Dh and I went to Liverpool Christmas shopping on Friday, planned ages ago with no idea about Black Friday! Anyway we survived and managed not to get sucked in by any of the offers (which didn't seem that good anyway tbh). We have spent quite a bit over the past few days but most of it has been necessary ie a new waterproof coat for dh as he walks quite a bit of the way to work so needs decent protection that he wasn't getting from his ancient one.

I've got brisket cooking in the slow cooker for tea.....yum!
Monday will be leftovers in some form
Tues Chicken curry
Wed ds is making bolognese at school which we'll have for tea
Thurs Jack Monroe carrot & kidney bean burgers
Fri Fish (not sure what yet)

Its wild and windy here!

Not sure I see the point of a no spend year wouldn't you just end up with no friends and no life?! Plus virtually impossible with a child unless you are going to find someone to donate them shoes and clothes for a year!

I have a Bolognese in the slow cooker, does a ragu differ much needa? I don't think I knew you were in Yorkshire either my dads family are from York but I am a proper Southerner these days, I consider going to Bristol as going up north

We ventured out to get some milk and margarine so can bake later, also picked up a magazine so spent £2.50 ish. Popped into a charity shop and ended up getting 3 books for £6, one was the Guiness Book of Records for this year which dd wanted so should give me the money for and another one looks brand new so will be a gift for someone.

Welcome back north.

Gabriel and I have spent a very dull day at urgent care. He has bronchiolitis. Went to sainsvury to pick up his inhaler and spent £21. Oops. This is why I don't go shopping. I spent £33 on new Christmas lights this morning. We have been needing some and these were half price. Feeling a bit like money is disappearing again. £95 yesterday on a meningitis vaccine for ds1, he'll need another in 8 weeks. £20 last night on pay day take away. It was Chinese and disappointing.

Lovely photo what. Are you in Ireland if you are paying for baby vaccines?

Poor little baby, why do you have to pay for vaccines?.

£1.29 on bicarb (that's tesco prices for you)
5p on a tub of waldorf salad.

Older children aren't eligible for the meningitis vaccine on the nhs. It's only just become available and therefore lots of people are having to pay. I paid for mine to have the chicken pox vaccine might look into meningitis one. Is that for both doses, what, or each? Love a squishy baby photo hope he recovers quickly

Good grief. I had cp at 18, it wasn't fun.

Oh need I'm on the north Yorkshire border but slightly in the next county (border 1-2 miles away) my family are from near one of the touristy sea side towns.
Poor baby G hope he feels better soon (and is super cute)
Pleased about the house in chilli, must be a relief.

Who suggested slow cooker saddo. It's great apart from it fills my Facebook.

Nsd went to dm for lunch.

As spotty says the NHS are only giving the meningitis vaccine to newborns so my two year old missed out. I feel it's financially ouchy but so worthwhile so we've gone for it. It's £95 per jab at boots so £190, but you get boots points! And I has an offer for an additional 500 points when you spend over £50 so that means I now have £10 on my card. Not in Ireland, I am in the land of concrete cows.

Welcome Steve

A no spend year would be misery.

what hope he gets well soon. Poor little bean

Just had a look through the Christmas decorations. They are all crap and I'm SO disappointed. I thought we had some nice stuff. I must have been dreaming. We have 6 nice baubles and the rest are awful. So we need a new tree and new decorations. And new lights.

Collie I know it seems rubbish now but do wait until after Christmas! John Lewis have 50% off all their Christmas decs straight away. It'll be Christmas again before you know it and then you'll be able to use them.