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.

Ha! Ironically, he's brilliant with sun cream and has been for years. However, the damage must have already been done. They are concerned with how fast it's grown, but hopefully it will be ok. One step at a time.

Fingers crossed need.

Just got back from dd's play was v sweet she was a sheep.

Nsd.

Collie def learn to drive it will stop you being nervous of other drivers I promise. No the meal was cheap this is the recipe. I added the tesco mint raita and feta and left out the spring onions because I didn't have any

I'd done so well not spending any of the overtime this year. I've spectacularly fallen off the wagon today though.

£147. I now have new bedding, a shredder and have bought enough cleaning stuff to last about a year.

I feel admonished, thank you!
I've been looking at cheap/free toddler activities for the winter. Plenty of ideas on Pinterest...if it snows!

My carpenter has finished and gone. That's everything done except the painting now, and the hall looks so much better. It seems like hardly the same house. We are vigorously resisting filling it with rubbish (boxes woolly hats, slightly bent white board, and big bookcase.)

This is us with new wood floor, new plastered wall, and now skirting boards too. Woohoo!

I love it ipsos

Looks lovely, ipsos. Make sure you keep it like that and don't let anyone keep "stuff" there!

Glad you enjoyed the Nativity, spotty.

Really pleased you were able to reach out to your friend, Need, as you need RL support too.

All necessary spends though, Rafa.

Hall looks amazing!

Looks fabulous Ipsos

I just bought a new dress for £9! It's my turn for stern looks

pointless I bought pavement chalk a few months ago. We have a patio and DS has so much fun drawing outside if its dry. It disappears after the rain.

We also have fun with preschool torches in the dark as it gets dark so early.

DS also LOVES building dens at the moment. Sorry my ideas are a bit poo though.

As well as pavement chalk (£1 in the entertainer) you can 'paint' outside with water. I know it's cold but they don't care. I do though I hate the cold

Nice hallway

Nsd. Boom.

Met lovely friend for drinks after work. Couple of wines (free thanks to my pub points card) and a good catch up.

Ready for bed now. Absolutely exhausted. Spinning tomorrow. Yippee....!

Thanks. :-) Pleased to have had it done. Also pleased to have the house quiet again.

The hallway looks lovely. Very jealous.

After 3 years where I've had to count every penny jut to have enough to eat, it's more than necessary Creme. Everything I own is threadbare. Since the tax credits are staying for a bit, I might start to replace some stuff a bit at a time.

Also, it's exactly a year to the day since I last spent anything on the credit card. I seem to have broken the habit of packing and putting stuff on it just in case.

That's brill Rafa, looks like you have developed good financial habits, despite hardship.

Lovely hallway ipsos, very spacious.

at em, who is always cheerful!

Thanks, need. TBF it was helped quite a bit by getting a sun of money from the sale of a family member's house in August. I owed most of it to my mum but had nearly 2K left. Trying to keep that and/or increase it is a much easier motivation Imo.

2016 is the year I'm going to really get it under control. And hopefully deal with the anxiety.

Well done Rafa. I was in your shoes a few years ago. For a long time I had no mobile phone and lived in trousers that were far too short because I had to choose between food and clothes. (This was on an academic research salary, would you believe?) Keep up your excellent saving habits! You never know where it may lead you.

The great joy of my tidy new hall is that I'm no longer chasing round an inch thick layer of ancient dust in my hall carpet, which was previously making ds and dh ill. Today I cleaned the wooden hall floor with a wet tea towel, and it was properly clean at the end. Sorted. Very happy indeed.

Oh, btw, I got the phone call back from writing to the vodafone ceo. They had nothing useful to say. I think it must be quite hard at vodafone just now.

need I met with lovely friend last night who told me about this seminar she'd been to, run by a Buddhist monk. He told her that we should always make the best of everything. Be more mindful. And be thankful for those people and things who annoy us mil I'm looking at you it makes us better people.

So yep. Always find something to be cheerful about.

Smile and the world smiles with you and all that...

Today might be lsd. I have to pop to sewing shop to get zips.

Well done, Rafa.
We chalked the patio in the summer, I forgot about it while we had autumn leaves to play with, I'll have to dig them out again!

ROFL about the MIL comment Em. Working hard here at being mindful about indigestion.

I know this is widely off-topic, but I wondered if I might pick people's brains a tiny bit?

I read this interesting thing about ASD online yesterday (below) and I identify with a lot of what it says, but then I did Simon Baron-Cohen's ASD test online and I come out well inside the neurotypical range. What is up with that do you think?

www.tonyattwood.com.au/index.php/about-aspergers/girls-and-women-who-have-aspergers

ipsos oooh. Poor you. Hope it relieves itself soon.

I'm not sure where I stand really re mindfulness. I like the concept. But sometimes it's so difficult to be cheery. Like today. I'm tired. It's Thursday. And I have to go to work. It's still dark. And I think it's raining.