Fearless Frugaleers Finding Their Feet in February

[SpottyTeacakes]

I've got fruflu

Sounds interesting Creme I have never tried artichoke. I like fried egg on pizza - Bella Italia do an amazing breakfast pizza (we got a free one on product testing for MN) which has one in the middle. Yum! I got the mushrooms replaced by roasted peppers.

Ipsos that's a shame about the sports club stuff. But definitely good that you've found out now, rather than paying out loads - at least you know that you're not missing out by not doing it, too.

I forget whereabouts you live, is there much touristy stuff to do within an easy distance? Train rides to a nice museum and suchlike? That would be a good use of a half term budget. :)

collie Have you got enough insulation? Are you closing doors to keep heat in & closing curtains at dusk?.

Fuckity fuck. Letter from DH's boss arrived. Gives date for meeting at the end of the month.

Arrogant git didn't even bother signing it himself FFS.

Fuzz time to gather evidence together. Policies they should be using and like need said check they have stuckh to them to the letter. Any correspondence re issues and between dh and his boss. Any witnesses? What you use will depend if it's disciplinary or investigation. Don't let then have originals. Seek advice from ACAS or a union if you can.

Sadly DH is not in a union :( never really saw the need before, how stupid were we :( I will get him to phone ACAS though.

I don't really know what option there is to fight it because if he stays there long enough to fight it, then he will have all this shit on his employment history, and he needs a new job - even if all this comes to nothing, there is absolutely no way he can stay with this company, he is heading for breakdown TBH

Thanks Fuzz yes I can definitely do better for ds in the holidays on a budget of £8 flat rate a day and £6-ish for children's classes on top. On that money we go to interesting locations by plane, never mind train. It's nice to start thinking of the budget in those terms though as there are zillions of things we could do round here with actual cash budget. There is a specialist children's lawn tennis club here for example, which I would never have thought of before.

Gah! Dd has come down with something. Temp went up yesterday, no sleep for anyone last night. Today has pretty much just been spent in front of Netflix with a short trip to the shop for some fresh air. Poor little muffin is very sorry for herself.

The result of this has been that dh and I had to cancel our evening out last night and we have missed a birthday party today. We are supposed to be taking dd's friend to a show tomorrow, but not sure she will be well enough.

Shame to miss out but on the bright side are have saved a fortune I guess.

Fuzz can your DH not get signed off sick with stress? I don't think they can do a disciplinary while he's off sick? Would give him time to find something else without having to quit?

Horrible weather here today, spent £18 in sainsburys. Not quite sure what on though!? A few extra treats, bar of choc and some cheesecake for valentines dinner. Oh and a 25p bag of cornflakes which DS is currently "digging" with his diggers in a big tub while I sit down with a cuppa!

Shame about the sports club Ipos least you know now though you can make other plans.

Hope all the poorly folk and little ones are feeling better soon. We are all still coughing two weeks on!

Ipsos is there a play association or any holiday clubs the school is running he could go to? A lot of local churches run different holiday camps here, you don't need to be a member of the congregation or a believer! I think most things will expect you to take him and leave him at school age so perhaps thinking of it as a mix of experiences and him doing the odd solo day ok?

The national trust run a lot of days too, worth a look. I know they are doing some next week for half term. Wimpole can't be too far from you I think?

I've been asking him to do that, 5min - it is certainly deserved IYSWIM, it is literally making him sick now. But he felt he couldn't. There's ridiculous pressure, he always has to go in because there's no staff. I do keep saying 'well they'd have to manage if you had [something majorly contagious/accident requiring hospital treatment etc]' but... he just felt he couldn't. And of course now with the targets he felt that any time off would mean he was even less likely to reach them...

And now that he's been given his written warnings it's just going to look bad to whatever he applies for. It's all very rock, hard place... ugh

An afternoon in with poorly DS has got me pondering about clutter and getting rid there of. I have loads of stuff to sell and am coming to my own realisation that I'm not going to get the time for a boot sale and can't face looking at the stuff anymore. So having gone on the kondo Facebook site in going to chip away. Couple of days on fb, week on eBay then chazzer. My Yorkshire heritage won't let me just give it away!

It's a shitty situation fuzz. Even if he jumps would they put on his reference that he was under capability? Some companies do when staff leave under those circumstances. It's so tricky cos if he jumps before a new job can you cope? Don't answer if you don't want to, if you have mentioned it before sorry, but just thinking.

£5.63 tesco stuff I couldn't get at lidl

£23 haircut for the dc. Totally worth it dd even got hair clips and glitter

Wow, I can't believe we're 11 pages in already!

Spotty Sorry to hear you haven't been well. Hope you're on the mend now. How's your DD's foot?

bootygirl are you any better now?

collie I was very impressed to read that you saved up the sum of £400. A shame you had to spend it on new glasses and dental treatment, but at least you had the money put by. And it's not like they were frivolous purchases. How's your DS now?

Laska I love your retirement plan. Heading off in your camper van . Oh, congrats on your new DGD. Her name is so sweet.

Girlfriend I was very jealous (in a nice way) of your spa day.

Em Sorry to hear about your card being stopped. At least you had access to your other account.

Adora I was very shocked at the cost of the hearing aids but I know it's an essential expense.

needa sorry to hear about your friend . You're very kind to help out with lifts for her kids and trying to cater for her.

fuzzpig I'm keeping everything crossed for your DH. I hope he gets good news soon. It must be horrendously stressful for him (and you, obviously). Why are you on painkillers?

Jeepers sorry to hear things are so stressful at work and now you have the added stress of DD being sick .

Ipsos congrats. on your raise. Sorry the sports club didn't work out for DS but at least you hadn't paid in advance.

Pointless nice to see your hard work being acknowledged.

babsmam hope DS gets better soon.

CremeEgg looks like you're not well either.

In general, there seems to be a lot of sick people about and a fair bit of stress too.

My aim is to be more organized re: meal planning and getting to a cheap supermarket more often. I rely on DH to drive us around (I've no car) and some weekends he's busy and we don't get to the supermarket and then I end up spending more in the expensive local shops.

Or, DH offers to stop off at the supermarket on his way home from work and I really stupidly agree. He spends an absolute fortune and buys all kinds of weird and wonderful ingredients but misses out on some basics. I'm starting to think it might be cheaper to shop online and pay a delivery charge. But Aldi and Lidl dont offer this facility.

I also need to be more inventive or creative about using up leftovers. I'm hoping you can help me with some recipe suggestions.

There's not much we can do re: bills as we've availed of all the offers we can (also, there's less competition in Ireland as we don't have the same range of utility companies as you do in the UK). But we can certainly make some savings when it comes to supermarket shopping and batch cooking and our disposable income generally.

Starting today, I plan to record all of my spending for a month and see what my spending picture looks like at the end of the month. I need to buy a small (and v. cheap notebook ) for the days I'm at work.

LSD today

€2.70 on groceries
€2 on vaseline
€2 charity donation to a local and very deserving charity

Total €6.70

I won't inflict my spending on you every day but it will be good for me to do an analysis at the end of the month.

Tayto I bought some of you today On offer, of course! Recording every penny spent would be useful, and an eye opener too I suspect. Please do inflict the spending. I do, it sometimes helps me realise how much I spend in a day.

Jeepers Hoping your poor DS picks up soon. It's such a shame you missed your evening out in particular. Money saved is good, but nice to go out too.

Fuzz I actually do mean check they have followed disciplinary 100%, we once got caught out by ONE SENTENCE and had to start the procedure all over again. Speak to CAB, speak to ACAS. Fight. This is not fair and you feel like you are powerless. I am sure that you are not.

babs My NYR was 2 items on Ebay a month, so as no not overwhelm me, then I procrastinate and do nothing, if that helps? Hope your DS is ok too.

Non frugal emergency bottle of Jack Daniels for DH, it's our anniversary on Monday (17 years!!) and forgot that I am out all day tomorrow. This is lack of planning on my part, a lesson for you all frugaleers

Having a lazy afternoon from now on, watching rugby and having a glass of red. Busy day tomorrow. DH and DD angling for pizza. I will cook risotto I think.

Ipsos at least you tried the sporting club prior to signing up.
Tayto feel free to do daily spends if it helps you.

I fear I'm a procrastinator too need. My time off is too precious to me especially as we only get one family weekend a month and dc hate me getting rid of stuff. I'll give it a bash.

Talking of Ebay. I have a horse rug listed. Perfect condition. Minimum £12.50 plus postage. That's very cheap for this brand of rug. Some cheeky sod has offered a tenner including postage. Er no!

DS old clothes I can pass on so they are ready. I will weigh in DD as I don't have a pass along buddy. And all you guys are too far away.

That's what I hate about eBay the innane questions and chancers

I know Babs. I feel I can manage 2 items and still feel like I am shifting unwanted stuff, without eating into family time as you say. I did list it on specific Facebook sites but I don't keep up with it enough and Ebay does have a wider audience. Bloody cheeky sods out there though!

Thanks, I am worried about what would happen with references, it's so hard to know what to do. Annoyingly ACAS is closed. It's not like we have any hope of getting a lawyer and all that stuff.

We have savings to fall back on in the event of him 'jumping before being pushed' which TBH I think is going to be what happens. I felt so embarrassed telling my mum that (I considered saying it was redundancy) but decided it was better to be honest, and she was really nice about it. She knows - as I want you all to know - this is really not just a snap decision, DH getting stroppy and chucking in his notice. He is not like that, AT ALL. He has kept going and going and just can't see any other way out. Sure, he can put up a fight, but the fear is that the longer he stays there under disciplinary and all that stuff, the harder it will be to find new work. I have been saying for ages that he should go off sick (this was before he was given the crazy targets/warning though) but then that could have a huge impact on his employability too, especially as given the circumstances it will really look like he's just playing the system to avoid a disciplinary.

Tayto I am on painkillers as I have CFS and Fibromyalgia (as well as POTS) it's a bit rubbish really :) unfortunately it has got worse and I am unable to work (my job, while AWESOME in so many ways, is largely manual handling).

Hi all

Just catching up, been at work all day been busy but not too bad.

NSD

Tayto my spa day was amazing was lucky my friend had a voucher for a free day so paid half my entry price, its very expensive otherwise but a lovely thing to do as a treat.

Its been freezing cold here all day so have put all the storage heaters on in the hope that the flat will warm up a bit, I hate feeling cold. Have been very impressed with my little electric oil heater - it really chucks out the heat.

Just spoke to my dad, he said him and dd had a fantastic day at Longleat - loved every minute of it!

Fuzz I certainly don't think you are making any snap decisions.

I don't either fuzz. Iirc he's been putting up with this for well over a year (that's as far as I can remember)