We are Resolutely Frugal! Frugaleers continuing their new frugal year. All welcome!

[fuzzpig]

Hello! I hope nobody minds me starting the new thread :o

I suppose the question is, what do you have to do to grass to keep it on its knees. I'm wondering if I could let it grow really long and then cut it almost to the ground repeatedly. That's what lazy gardeners do, who don't like mowing and it's meant to be really bad for the grass. It might just help a bit.

There are some quite nice fake grasses you can get now, otherwise could look at getting some of it paved or decked?

Yes I wondered about fake grass, a lot of the area is under a pear tree which drops literally six wheelbarrow loads of fruit every summer and they all rot to mush within hours of dropping, but the drop takes several weeks to complete. So I'd inevitably end up with the fake grass covered in pear mush.

I have been laying the area out as a kitchen garden with several square beds surrounded by flagstones so that takes up a lot of the space, and if the pears fall on the stones then I just need to sweep them into the beds and they rot nicely there. So now I just have the areas between the beds. I did think about block paving them (with those nice red bricks) which is relatively cheap, but the ground is a bit bumpy, so it would be very tricky work. I think it would look nice though.

I already have some of my garden done in these bricks:

www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Block-Paving-200x100mm-Brindle-488-Pack/p/221001

It's like a long undulating curve with holes in the paving to let alpines poke through. I quite like it.

Thanks all for the friendly welcome. ipsos gardens can definitely be expensive. That's one of the reasons we need to get our act together. We need to do the back garden, and we have more renovations to do on our house. We will be going for Astro but we're in a townhouse and the area that will be "grassed" is pretty small.

I have just made my lunch to take to work, and have done a bit of meal planning for the week. I love to cook and I don't have an issue making meals out of whatever we have in the kitchen, but I need it to go further so I'm being a bit more thoughtful about it. We also switched to Aldi a few weeks ago and I am frankly mortified by the amount we must have wasted in big supermarkets over the years. Also did a couple of big batches of soup (baking bread is my passion so we always have a loaf or two knocking around) and I have carefully gone through the fridge checking use by dates to minimise wastage.

Anyway, baby steps... 😊

Avoided pick n mix at cinema so nsd.

eBay items sold. £151 in PayPal account. Transferred the lot to my credit card.

Some are bagged up waiting to be posted tomorrow. The rest will wait till Tuesday as I ran out of customs labels. Sigh. But £151 better off.

Did a wierd thing today. Went out without a bag. Just pockets. Just essentials. V strange.

Didn't get meal plan done. But will crack on with that tomorrow.

Walk was nice but have blisters on both heels now and no blister plasters!!! Have savloned the shit out of my feet. And am sleeping with socks on.

Film was ok. Saw the Leo di caprio one (the revenator?) was only ok. Amaxjng scenery. And it was a bit violent. But only ok. Bit disappointed actually considering its Oscar nominated and everyone was raving about it...

Yesterday, £5 on eyebrows threading, £2 potatoes and £15 on fish.
Should be an NSD day today. :)

Spendy day, halfords, top up shop, fitness, and I need new jeans.
All depending on DS being fit for school as he's full of cold

I think today will be a nsd. I have nothing planned but want to do something. All my ideas involve coffee and cake

Oh I know. We will clean ds' bike he will enjoy that. Yesterday was vet muddy!

em any advice for successful eBay sales? Have lots of dresses which I put on Facebook selling group twice and hadn't any interest. Some never worn.

Yesterday spent €20 in local shop never got milk in weekly shop as I don't consume it at home! Needed extra yogurts as had play date at mine yesterday and the four children had two each

Made soup yesterday so that's lunch sorted for 3 days & I am only working 4 days this week.

Have spent weekend preparing for being away there's pancakes made for kids breakfast on sat, beef stew for dinner one day & lasagne another day & a pizza for a third day. My mother will only need to think about lunch one day as they have a birthday party one of the days

Had two envelopes of sterling in our safe from last time we were there £30 in my envelope £50 in dh's

Lila start at 99p a ten day listing ending between 8&10 on a Sunday night.

lilac I set mine to end at about 8.30 on a Sunday and set start price low. Most of mine started at £1.50.

The majority was all cheap stuff (new look/ primark) with some nicer brands thrown in (next, fat face, banana republics). I'm suprised that things went for as much as they did to be honest. Some went for more than I paid for them!

Have listed a lot for my mum this week (starting yesterday) most of her things are brand new with tags from monsoon so I hope these will sell well for her. She has a bit of a shopping issue as can't seem to just buy the item she wanted, always has to buy 2 items. And the unwanteds never get returned just sit in the wardrobe.

We found over £500 worth of new with tags clothes lurking in her wardrobe on Saturday.

Hi! New Years resolution here to sort my finances out - haven't got very far but have some annual leave this weekend so am on it!!

lilacclery I'm going to try some ebay selling too, I think it is my only hope for balancing the budget in the coming months. Will aim to list some things on Thursday.

Yesterday: £4 on coffees with a friend - now logging my cash spending with the YNAB app.

I need to eBay but have been waiting for January payday for people. I will have to do a week though. Thursdays are a nightmare here

Thanks for advice em and spotty
I've only ever sold one thing on ebay Gina Ford's book, by the time I'd posted it I made €0.00!

Will try those tips and see how I get on, if I only make a couple of €'s it's better than making nothing at all.

spotty if that's his bike I'd hate to see his clothes

I actually took out the hoover at 7am this morning, the guys and their friends played in sandpit for wall building yesterday and it was everywhere.

These were some of our clothes! We all fell in the mud even me it was lots of fun.

Ah great craic!
Mine had to empty out their shoes & wellies at the door and you could make a sandcastle from what came out but they'd fun

Sorry not been around dh admitted to hospital Fri after choking on dinner Thurs eve as couldn't even swallow own saliva well long story short he can now swallow many investigation n severe acid reflux n have taken biopsy n hopeful discharge today been on my own with boys and realise how far away from family ypou are at these times as ours are all 200miles, a few friends offered to have boys for me or do shopping etc but I am a stubborn independent moo and declined all help.

With ebay and the like is the paypal set up quite easy to use? Thats the only thing that has been putting me off If we move will be looking to sell my oven so def need to get to grips with it.

I am seeing a financial advisor later on to hopefully help me make some decisions re mortgages etc. He is a good friends husband so know he won't give me any dodgy advice!!

Have an oven cleaner coming over later, thats £40 but having had the oven nearly 7 years and never spent any money on it don't think thats too bad!

Am so annoyed, went to the post office to send passport off and again was told there was a flipping problem with it!! Apparently my writing has gone outside the white boxes on a few of the letters can't believe I will have to ask my friend to fill it in for a 3rd time so annoying!!

Girl fingers crossed passport is third time lucky! Are you going anywhere nice?

East no apologies needed, glad your dh is doing ok

Oh east hope he recovers quickly!

Girlie that's really frustrating but at least you got it checked. We always fill ours out online then they send it printed and it just needs signing.

Well £2.80 posting an eBay parcel (wtf it's so expensive)
20p sweets for ds.

Ds scooted to the shop he did so well, he usually only uses his bike so I'm glad he had a good go he was really fast by the way home.

Have folded two loads of washing, just about to hang another load and have hand washed ds' jumper.

Have washed ds' bike it's still a bit dirty on the wheel arch bits but dh will have to do that at some point.

Now we're going to have some lunch.

I haven't got much else to do an dh hoovered, polished and cleaned yesterday. After lunch I might watch a film in bed with ds! Also doing a roast for dinner yum.