Friendly Frugaleers chat their way into February...

[Ipsos]

Just setting up the new thread for the chatty Frugaleers.

By popular request - copied from last year

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/other_subjects/1324074-For-those-who-cant-afford-to-use-central-heating-this-year-How-are-you-going-to-cope

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/1543785-your-top-tips-for-money-saving-and-a-more-frugal-life

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/1600030-Small-money-saving-habits-petty-even

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/1628874-Gas-Elec-Bills-monthly-and-SKY-so-angry

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_classics/1911061-NO-MORE-COLD-MUMSNETTERS

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/2209167-Slow-Cookers-are-shit

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/2224969-saving-money

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_money_matters/2258202-Debt-mutual-support-thread-number-6-start-the-new-year-with-a-clear-purpose-and-keep-moving-forwards-even-by-tiny-steps?

orchard.tesco.com/ Sign up to this.

www.topcashback.co.uk/home And this.

www.quidco.com/home/ And this

www.moneysavingexpert.com/ And this

www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheapenergyclub ditto.

www.checkoutsmart.com/ Plus this.

www.hotukdeals.com/all/deals/new?page=3 Check this daily.

Fuzz when I was a teenager 8 of the mums in my street had CFS at the same time and they all made complete recoveries. They just had to be sensible and rest, and their bodies eventually fixed themselves.

My dd loves tinned pears and greek yogurt

Had a lovely quiet morning, went to bed at 9pm last might as was sooo tired and feeling much better for nearly 12 hours kip

Am reading the new Bill Bryson book More Notes from a Small Island (on loan from my dad) and its making me want to go and visit lots of places!! He mentions Tenby is gorgeous so have just added that to places to visit.

Should be a fairly restrained spending day, £15 to dds riding lesson. Still need to pick up some sweets for dds party bags - the party is next wend eek!

Beautiful day here have hung the washing out

Waves at everyone on lurgy bench from a safe distance. Hope you all feel better soon but I don't want it.
£5 in Morrison's and £4 beavers yesterday.
Did some ot today to help February pay day.
Pay day yesterday so need to do budget and meal plan to go shopping. That's the shopping I had to do yesterday!
Nowt wrong way tinned fruit especially in juice. Cheap and still counts towards daily intake

Welcome back sporting, sorry to hear about your ceiling.
Also sorry to hear about so many poorly people.
Our chimenea has blown over and cracked in the wind. Don't know if we'll replace it, we barely used it last summer but the weather was a bit rubbish anyway.

We're having a very inexpensive time here still.

I'm finding this "Pacing" thing quite enjoyable. I'm not bothering so much with housework, or projects or trying to achieve things. I just make sure to do enough to keep the house civilised and then sit down and read the newspaper.

Then I'm continuing to take ds to the library and he is loving that, which is more to do with his age than anything else.

The heating is quite cheap because of the weather.

I feel as though I've found quite a good grove. :-) Hope it lasts. Fingers crossed!

I've had an idea for the summer holidays and I wondered what you all might think?

Ds needs to learn to swim before the school starts taking him to the pool, but the public pools are expensive and very busy here. I thought about joining a proper sports club for the summer so we'd have someone really nice to go, that is indoors, so not too hot in the middle of the day.

There is this place called the "David Lloyd Sports Club" near us. It's £130 for two of us for the summer holidays and there would be lots of free kids activities that we could do, and hopefully friends to talk to. They have a nice pool that I hope would be less busy.

Has anyone else ever tried anything like that? Our public pool is £10 a visit, so the club would not be much more.

Fell off the thread. Caught up on half of it.

Just checked out that meetup.com as it sounded interesting. The only group within 5 miles is about sexology and tantric. Wasn't quite what I had in mind I may need to widen the search area.

Checking back into the lurgy bench. Went out riding. Got absolutely soaked.

Am now home have had a hot shower and have a huge sandwich and steaming mug sports direct mug of tea. Am not moving from the couch.

Sporting welcome back! Yikes what a rough time you've had.

Ipsos thank you. CFS is a weird one, as it's technically incurable, and yet some (if not many or most - I don't know the statistics) do recover by themselves. I have heard that the younger you are when you get it, the better your chances are (I was 25). So I'm not giving up hope don't worry - it's more that I need to accept how things are at the moment IYSWIM. :)

Super I would've killed for a cabin bed at 11! I know teens who have them, I think if he's up for it then why not. One with a desk under one end might be good for his homework and stuff.

Speaking of bedrooms, DD was saying the other day that if we ever move and they get separate rooms, she wants something particular in her bedroom.

A science lab. :o

Ipsos if £130 is not too much of a stretch, that sounds like a great idea! Interesting idea, to have a summer holidays membership. How long is the holiday, 6 weeks?

The cheque from my mum arrived so I will be able to do the bus pass ASAP, woohoo! She sent it in a card that I think has been in the 'spare cards' box since I was about 5 :o it was a get well soon card, and she addressed it to her 'coldy baby' :o made me smile.

Welcome back, Sporting. Sorry you haven't had much luck lately though.

I was only diagnosed with CFS at 36, but I have probably had it since my teens. I used to lie in bed all day at least half the week during the holidays until 4/5 pm; unable or unwilling to meet my basic needs of getting food and water and absolutely desperate for the loo. I thought I was just lazy then, and really up until my diagnosis. IME, the illness waxes and wanes, but pacing really helps.

I had to go back to the dentist for a clean and scale, so I walked there, as it was a lovely, sunny morning. I spent £4.28 at the Co-op and £1.80 on the bus back home, so £6.08 altogether.

Meal Plan:
Today- Thai red curry (£2 posh ready meal from Sainsburys).
Sunday- Quorn fillet with rice and mixed veg.
Monday- tofu and veg stirfry.
Tuesday- vegetable pasta bake (homemade and from freezer) with garlic bread.
Wednesday- lentil and mushroom cottage pie (homemade and from the freezer).
Thursday- gnocchi, pesto and veg.
Friday- probably cheese omelette, wedges and salad.

Thanks fuzz I thought it might be a good idea too. They have a big warm sitting part in the swimming pool with air bubble coming out of the bench. I reckon ds could quite enjoy that. Also he always craves company in the holidays, and their organised activities might help.

The £130 is for three months, which is the minimum contract length, but all activities are free after that, as far as I can tell.

That was a nice card from your mum.

Fuzz your mum sounds lovely.

Creme I've never had gnocchi what's it like? We seem to have similar tastes (apart from me eating meat!) so I reckon I would like it

spotty gnocchi is delicious. Proper comfort food.

I love it with pesto. Or baked with cheese.

Lilac I wondered what you would think about this article about weight loss? It sorts of fits with my experience. I'm only eating potatoes and brown rice, leafy greens and unprocessed meat and I'm very slim now. I figure that fits with what he's saying.

mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/well/2016/01/07/rethinking-weight-loss-and-the-reasons-were-always-hungry/

Gnocchi is delicious. I would give the really cheap stuff from lidl a miss though. It wasn't one of my better buys.

Gnocchi is awesome. I'm the only one in the house who eats it though. I usually have it with my tomato and veg sauce. It's kind of soft and chewy dumplings, Spotty :) they're so quick to cook too, like 3 mins in boiling water.

Yes mum has been very supportive lately, we are spending more time together now too which is great :)

3 months is even better then Ipsos I'd go for it! :)

I'm not sure his type 1 diabetes/insulin explanation is quite right. Which makes me wonder about the rest of it.

The reason that type 1 diabetics lose weight is because in the absence of insulin you can't get glucose from the food you have eaten into the cells. The body is forced into breaking down fat and muscle tissue in order to get the energy it needs for cells to function.

In people with normal physiology I'm not sure that happens.

Need I don't have a nespresso but the pods tend to be cheaper on eBay. Plus you can buy cheap lidl ones for when you have people you don't like round. We all keep cheap stuff in for that don't we?.

Laska The cooking bags use polystyrene balls. Like in bean bags.

Girlie Houses fall out of bed all the time, just because it's under offer doesn't mean it will sell. Let's hope you get it.

Ipsos That sounds like a brilliant deal.

Fuzz Fingers crossed for dhs interview.

£25 on Thursday for a litre of shampoo and a litre of conditioner for aging hair. I have a cashback cheque for £21 to pay for it & I got £2 cash back. Should last me a while.

59p yesterday on soya milk Nearly bumped into dhs ex who hates me in Aldi.

£38 today on food.
£30 in la redoute on 4 tops.

I'm snuggled up watching sky fall. Dh keeps coming in and saying real men don't look like that, he's deformed

Rafa

I think it does, but it won't kill you like keto acidosis can, because you're still producing insulin.

Dd has had a cold as well for ages and has been going through a phase of coming into out bed at around 10.30pm. We have always co-slept so it is not that I mind her in the bed, is just that she seems to appear just as me and dh get all snuggled up.

So, in an attempt to get some time with dh I have just bought dd a gro-clock so she knows when it's OK to come through and a vaporiser to help with her cough and bunged nose. £35 in all, but if it means I get a chance of getting laid in the next few days then I will consider it money well spent.

I have also just spent an hour hoovering, dusting, and airing her room, and I've changed her sheets, and stocked up on paracetamol. Can you tell I'm a little bit frustrated right now

I love gnocchi! I might have a go at making some with gluten free flour. I could probably make loads and freeze it. Mmmmm...

I love gnocchi as well (or anything potato related actually) DH doesn't like it though so we don't eat it much.
Despite DS barely sleeping last night he has perked up today and is running rings around me and DH. On day 4 of the lurgy and I'm still feeling awful, urgh, was hoping to be better by Monday so I can actually leave the house. (Plus DH is driving me bonkers)

I like your determination Jeepers! Ds is awful for waking up at our bedtime so we tend to erm go to bed straight after he does at 7, then get up again. Not ideal but needs must haha.

That's a sweet card from your Mum Fuzz and good you can get the bus pass sorted too.

The gym thing sounds like a good plan Ipos how old is your DS?

£40 on a small Tesco shop as our cupboards were so empty, won't be any other spends for this weekend though.
Found out we missed out on the mid market flat we applied for, a bit gutted about that.

Sorry if I've not name checked anyone else my brain still isn't working that well.

Totally recognise that frustration Jeepers - DD is awake til all hours! Not as bad anymore as it's not epic anxiety attacks and meltdowns keeping her awake (she just can't 'switch off') but still it does get a bit wearing when she keeps getting out of bed.

Not that it matters right now, since we are so snotty I'm not sure we want to be anywhere near each other :o

Plus you can buy cheap lidl ones for when you have people you don't like round. We all keep cheap stuff in for that don't we?. :o

Afternoon.

Washing on the line? It's flippin' snowing here! I've been outside in the cold sorting the pony and then taking DD for a riding lesson and I am freezing.

Thanks fluffy, I've already ordered from Ebay, after doing a bit of looking around for deals.

Sorry for all the poorly folk.

Spends -

£88 - diesel for horse box. Will last a month as training is close this month.
£5 Car wash.
£50 - cash out.

And whatever a chinese is when we go to friends later.

Some lovely menu plans.

Sorry, that last sentence was a bit of an incomplete thought. You will break down fat and muscle if there is not enough glucose available from your food intake even with normal physiology. The rate of fat/muscle loss will be lower because the insulin allows you to utilise the available glucose in a way that doesn't happen in T1 diabetics.

I don't think it follows that the size of the insulin spike is the cause of that. It's a reflection of what you are eating. The sorts of changes that go with switching from a high GI diet to a low one usually also involve people inadvertently cutting their calorie intake too.