Fearless Frugaleers Finding Their Feet in February

[SpottyTeacakes]

I've got fruflu

fuzz I don't think no news at a week is necessarily terrible. I know someone who is recruiting at the moment and one of the people they asked for interview called sick so they had to reschedule for a week later so for everyone else being interviewed it would have added an age to how long they waited. I have previously interviewed for a post where I was warned it would be at least 2 weeks before I heard simply because their HR process is so slow.

Also it has been half term so people are more likely to have been on leave and not got final decisions made. Admittedly I work in local government and our recruitment process is glacial, so 7 days doesn't sound that long to me.

It might be worth him just giving them a quick call and asking if a decision has been made. He can then ask for feedback if it is a no.

Thankyou all for good wishes, you have galvanised me into action this afternoon, after I got home feeling very blue. So, I have...

1. Switched electricity supplier, saving £280+ a year.
2. Taken out an mbna credit card 0% 14 months, will transfer max and pay off within term, will help with the interest on the 'big' card balance.
3. Used an offer with quidco to make my first online shop, asda, should get £10 + £13.50 cashback, plus am having all heavy dog/cat food, loo rolls etc delivered for £1!
4. Batch cooked bolognaise, which did tea tonight, will make lasagne later, and freeze rest, padded out ++ with lentils (no-one noticed)
5. Made bread dough for garlic bread (tonight), and made and frozen 7 mini pizzas for ds (doesn't do tea well). The kids helped make the pizzas so we all had fun with that.

Now I can knit guilt free all night!
Thankyou thankyou for cheering me up

I have got fruflu my throat is on fire and got woken up by an almighty nosebleed in the middle of the night.

On a more positive note, nothing spent today. Had a nice hour tidying the front garden whilst DD whizzed up and down the road on her bike. Free fresh air!

I'm about to have a cuppa and a melting salted caramel chocolate pudding

Wow id good work.

I've made lunches for tomorrow, have researched and emailed a cushion maker and asked if they'll custom make a cushion for my sisters birthday.

Have set up new savings account so I can save for babies.

I haven't even unpacked the shopping I did 2 hours ago. You put me to shame knitting

Went way over y.day with grocery shop😞 Only have €35 left till 1st March. But I have loads in freezer so fingers crossed.
Dh off this week with kids. I am only off Friday but teenagers are expensive & I don't even think mine are that demanding to be fair🤔

Thanks all, I think we tend to err on the side of pessimism IYSWIM!

Pointless please don't play down how worried you must be about your cat, it's not a 'small' thing at all. Pets are a part of the family. I hope all goes well.

Ipsos only just noticed your post about playing piano - what kind of music do you like? Beethoven and Chopin are my favourites really but I love playing Einaudi too. Recently got a book of Clementi sonatinas which are fun.

Unfortunately though there are loads of pieces that I can't really play much - DD is incredibly affected by music, and anything with any strong emotion basically all my favourites then she gets really upset. It's the same reason she can no longer have music on at bedtime to help her sleep. Must admit I'm quite pleased she's so 'in tune' with music but it isn't half frustrating at times . I play to get my feelings out, so when DD is around I can't really do that. It's the one thing that would persuade me to consider a digital piano, as I could have headphones!

Pretty much finished the lady's book now. Eeek! Final proofreads to do and I need to sort out the pictures into Jpegs with captions. The really lovely thing is that I've been reading the printed version to the DCs and they are really loving it and getting right into the story, and loving her illustrations too. It's a sweet old fashioned adventure story.

Pointless hope your puss cat is alright, it is ridiculous how much the vets cost have you looked into pet insurance? My younger cat would have cost me near on £800 in her first year with various health scares, fortunately the insurance company covered most of it.

Fuzz my dd is very sensitive to some music as well, I have found her floods before now because a sad song came onto the radio!

Idstill thats is very impressive! Well done

Ursula hope you feel better soon - this fruflu is terrible.

NK where is the pain exactly? Hope its not your appendix!

Knitting Well done. Fantastic frugalling, your OH can do the offer again for next week for Asda?. Tempted myself actually.

Ursula Sounds nasty. Cold water always helped me when I had sore throats.

Well done I'd. How motivated are you.
Pointless its not trivial or owt to worry about pets. I'll be devastated when my old man's time is up.
Get well soon Ursula

I think I'm fighting something I'm just so shattered. Was having lovely sleep for the first time in ages when the alarm went off. Hope DS hasn't passed his tonsillitis on

Thanks for get well vibes! No nosebleeds last night thankfully. I tried hot orange squash as recommended by someone on here - mmmm!

I need help!! Have missed a friends birthday (well, it's today) I want to get her something spectacular as she is always super generous to me and my DH and DD for Christmas and birthdays. I had a plan of buying us tickets to the Harry Potter Studios but have just looked and they're £35 each! (Could I just get her one or is that weird?!!!!) She likes gin, crafting, food, singing and watching comedians. Thanks frugaleers!

Morning. Another. Another night of ds waking four times! We're off to the theatre today, I've already paid for the tickets but will need to pay parking and maybe something towards lunch as we're going back to my friends after for that. Will take snacks and drinks.

Laska hopefully DGD continues to improve. I was really lucky to manage to keep DD2 in until 36+1, was initially admitted at 24 weeks.

Monday £13 in Tesco for lunches.

Tuesday would have been NSD but I bought a car well, work have. It will save me about £150 a month in tax. Unfortunately it cost more than work will pay. I paid £1k deposit (my tax rebate plus a little bit more) and my old boss (still boss of the office I am based in, but no longer my line manager) is lending me the remaining £2k I went over budget. This will come out of my salary over the next year, which will be about £160 a month. So pretty even this year, then I'll benefit from the saving over the next 3 years.

£60 at the garage getting the error message reset on my existing car plus 3 different bottles of fuel additives trying to get it to behave until trade in.

Unfortunately DD1 lost her Oyster card on Monday. Not cross with her, she's only 8, bit cross with DS as she asked him to put it safely in his bag and he wouldn't . It wasn't on the train, mum is going to ask at the station to see if it was found. But it means getting a new card £10 and paying fares until it arrives. The new Oyster will be put on a lanyard around her neck.

I need to get myself in hand. I have a lot of expenditure coming up, about £500 for Center Parcs to pay late March (although mum is paying part of that as we got a higher grade accommodation to be closer to things for her, as she has limited mobility). Will also need to buy Eurotunnel tickets, about £160, but that can wait for a bit. Also need to buy roof box for trip (as mum is coming we'll be using 6 seats so a lot less boot, plus new car boot is shallower than old car) that will be about £400. And finally we need to buy plane tickets for the summer holiday. I'm guessing about £1k for that.

Must remind my sister she owes me £140 for her theatre tickets for my birthday, and mum and MIL each owe £70 for their tickets. Will need to pay those off this month.

I have a balance on my Barclaycard which the 0% us coming to an end on (next month I think) so will move that. Halifax have offered 21 months at 0% will use that. I will also transfer the overspend on my "current" card which I normally clear each month, as the fee is about what I am paying in interest each month. Once I have done this, I need to focus on clearing the current debt ASAP.

Eek, just looked at flight prices! Unfortunately splitting Easyjet into singles means paying the return in Euros, I can't cope with the translation thus morning. BA looked quite nice, but £330 each for the return for DS and I, but that was cheaper than Easyjet at €550 each.

I think I will try calling Easyjet tonight and see if we can book by phone so I can take all the kids out and the girls can return with DH, should be able to do it for about £1200.

Flight comparison sites tonight then. I often fly indirectly with the kids to go from Heathrow, will check Iberia later. BA have flights from Heathrow on some days.

Hey guys, I've been a bit awol recently..
Saturday: probably spent around £40 on a day out- was not budgeted for however we went with some friends who wanted to eat lunch whilst there, then we bought a photo and then a souvenir for DS. As well as some hot drinks as it was freezing.

Sunday: NSD
Monday: NSD
Tuesday: 25.50 for Ice skating lesson.
Today: NSD hopefully. I have about three different appointments to attend from 11am to 3.15pm so DS will be with grandparents for part of the day. He then has dentist at 3.15 and God knows what we'll do after that. I feel tired thinking about today.

I also have the next part of my dental treatment tomorrow, that will be another chunk to pay..

I've applied for 0% credit card over 24 months so I can put my dental treatment fees on that and pay it off each month.

Once I get back to work I will do some extra hours to pay it all off. Not ideal but has to be done sometimes.

Fuzz we just lay "teaching little fingers to play" and the usborne book of nursery rhymes and some christmas carols. :-)

Wow knitting you've been busy!
Thanks for kind words about Pointless Cat. He's had to fast since 8pm last night, this has not gone down well, lots of yowling in the night. We feel very mean.
Also going to Ikea today to replace the broken drawers in our wardrobe, will get lunch there too, shouldn't be too costly if I can resist the marketplace!
Hope those of you waiting on interviews hear something soon.

NK its a non negotiable 3 months the people who interviewed him said it wasn't ideal and made a big fuss about it. No idea when we'll find out if he has it or not. I'm not feeling confident purely based on the notice period dilemma.

Knitting you've been so busy! Well done :)

Another NSD here because I'm too tired to venture into town. I have the afternoon to myself and I think I'll take it as easy as possible. I also need to do the flipping weekly food shop. It's such a chore.

Lots of rain here.

wrecktangled similar night here with ds. He went to bed at 7.30 & straight to sleep, dd went up an hour later and obviously woke him. I spent from 9.15 until about midnight alternating between singing to him, telling him to stop talking, giving him bottles of milk and gritting my teeth. At 3am I woke as with the quantity of milk he'd had he'd saturated the bed. Then at 5am my alarm went off. I miss his dummy even if he doesn't

collie I hate the weekly food shop and February has been quite expensive too, aiming for absolute minimum this week to try balance the books some bit

nk I like the sounds of your car payment system, how does that work out though if you leave them?

ursula have you tried groupon or living social or wowcher for comedy tickets?

audit have you looked at the roofbox company online as they have a few bar and box packages that are good value with some good freebie extras. We are getting ours from there once I've saved up as they have excellent reviews

That's interesting wolf, we are also saving up for a roof box for camping.

Yay pointless we are fellow campers.

£3:10 parking for four hours. Not too bad I don't think. I need coffee though.

Sorry to hear about your granddaughter laska I have my fingers crossed she continues to improve
Bad news about work knitting and well done on saving money
Get well soon ursula and

Yesterday £44 at Tesco for the weekly shop with the last coupon and £30 for diesel
NSD today
Big dd has ballet rehearsal all day so took the other 2 to the library this morning, it's raining cats and dogs here so no fun in the park

£5 on a wrap and a Diet Coke scandalous but teaches me a lesson not to forget my lunch

£10 eyebrow threading ouch necessary. Eyebrows were taking over my face.