Fearless Frugaleers Finding Their Feet in February

[SpottyTeacakes]

I've got fruflu

Well said Collie about Fuzz's dh's boss. What a noodle he is. I bet he's on disciplinary too and using Fuzz's dh as a scapegoat.

Thanks for the encouragement about ds Fuzz. I feel so confused about it all. argh.

I just bought a bike, so not very frugal at all, but sod it. I also earned £17.50 writing facts for the great and glorious internet. I may go and eat a spud in celebration.

Ha, that's an interesting point. I know he (the boss) had been applying for another job a while back but didn't get it.

sorry to hear about the boss and your dhs work troubles. he sounds like a cockwomble.

doing surveys now, ordered a vase from my shop and scan points for nans mothers day gift should it arrive in time. Ds breaks up at 2, next week will be spendy i feel i have had hardly any time doing anything fun with him lately due to being ill so plan to go swimming, library and generally do things throughout. Got some volunteer work planned and hes looking foward to doing the leaflet posting. funny child he is.

Hi all, sorry to hear that Fuzz you are having such a rough time of it at the moment

Ipsos would you consider letting your son stay at school for lunch as I really think a huge amount of socialising goes on at lunch time, thats when most of the friendships seem to get played out. Maybe try one lunchtime a week and see how he goes? I think the sports clubs for the holidays sound like a great idea, would he be interested in something like Beavers or cubs?

I think its good for kids to have a few clubs and interests outside of school especially for only children, dd sometimes struggles with friendships and I have always encouraged her to do as many different things as possible.

Its good that the school have picked up on it and can hopefully support you and ds.

I picked up milk and a paper this morning spend £2.30, got a few errands to run later but no more big spends planned. Am working this wend and dd is going her Grandads, decided to try the train as its only a 20min journey and costs £15.

Girlie I think we need to concentrate on getting him properly fed for now, but in the longer term, yes. At the moment we need to get supported practise in socialising and that means playing with me alongside to help.

Nsd as planned. Ds is just having a little lie on me (after his one hour snooze on the sofa I had to wake him up!)

He's getting his hair cut tomorrow

at cockwomble!

em Another good idea, thanks. I've text this morning but not had a reply. DH saw her DH this morning dropping respective DC's at school at 2am (Berlin trip drop off) and had a quick chat. It's pretty bad I think but we will help all we can.

fuzz I know you are feeling wobbly Get your DH to get a copy of the firms disciplinary procedure. If it hasn't been followed absolutely TO THE LETTER (I really mean TO THE LETTER), then you are in a very strong position. Someone would take your case or even talk to CAB. It will make you feel like you are taking action too.

ipsos I think girlie makes some fab points. Of all of the suggestions Beavers struck me as a really valid one. DS has done Beavers and is now at Explorers doing his Silver D of E award. It's safe, thoughtful, warm but sociable and active at the same time. Might be a super and less volatile environment than the playground, with the same benefits.

Also, I know you might not want folk at your house just yet, but how about soft play, where you can meet some mums and let the DC play? You DS gets a little independent play, sees you socialising, but you are there for him at the same time if anything got too rough and tumble?

It's been interesting reading about only children. We have a big family where there are tons of kids and our street is old fashioned in that the DC would always play out and be in and out of each others houses, so I've never had to facilitate much. But I now see it's important, so was glad to read the posts.

Today's spends have been £54 on the groomer for the dogs, £30 cleaner, £6 training, blimey, that adds up

Bold fail, sorry.

Also loving the word Cockwomble. His name begins with the same sound, so that's a nice alliterative name for him. (Unfortunately I can't share this with the DCs, which is a shame as DD is a bit obsessed with alliteration at the moment :o)

DS is enjoying Beavers BTW Ipsos - he didn't know any of the boys that go there but he's getting on ok. :)

Think we can get by for the rest of the week without top up shops so that's good. We did have our once a month McD yesterday though.

This week ended up with:
M - baked chicken thighs/legs with home made potato salad
T - corned beef hash
W - eggs/quesadilla for DCs, I had a cheap pie from the freezer
T - tomato pasta with sneaky tuna (made loads of sauce for the freezer)
F - oven pizza
S - probably jacket spud
S - pasta again I expect, determined not to get anything new anyway.

I'm terrible for forgetting the dcs are here and swearing so try to be inventive now it gets me caught out less!

Meals being planned has been less stressful and less resorting to junk type stuff. Just ordered the dog a harness as both going to vets Thursday and we only currently have one as they go out separately. Looking at buying a splitter and trying to walk them together not sure how well it go though our boy walks great sits at all the roads and is generally good but our girl is a horror and pulls whines and flips about.

Got dp a valentines card, it isn't very sentimental and is a bit rude we don't really do heartfelt emotion.

Just doing spends for last few days...

Tuesday:
£10 petrol for DSS (who drove DH to interview)
£10.30 DH bought DSS and DSD lunch while they were waiting for him
59p I got a drink to get change (and had massive caffeine cravings!)
£2.60 bus fare
£2.50 DD's writing class
£2.50 paid in advance for geography club (to cover hall rental)

Wednesday:
NSD!!! :o

Thursday:
£4.39 various food due to being disorganised. Left much earlier than planned as I managed to get a GP appt in town.
£3 photo sitting which includes a portrait on USB. One of these things where they do the hard sell for more than that no doubt. But meh. I'd been wanting a nice 'non-school school photo' and this was a cheap way to get it.
£7.30 bus fares (DH/DS - probably they should've gone home while I took DD to gym but TBH we are so stressed right now that we wanted to spend every minute together. And while they waited - I was busy talking to another home ed mum who is having a rough time - the lovely bowls club let DS watch them play, and told him all the rules, how sweet!)
£18.10 lunch at McD (including ice cream for the DCs, as a bribe for sitting for aforementioned photo :o)

I've had a text saying my prescriptions are in. That's about £25 I guess, as the GP prescribed new painkillers, and increased my regular one so needed extra for that, and I said I was running low on my ADs. Eek. I think I will need one of those prepayment certificate things, but I'll see what happens with our jobs first, in case it all goes tits up and we end up getting the exemption cards again. Anyway I shouldn't need any more prescriptions for a couple of months now.

£17 in Morrison. Must stop taking purse on lunchtime walks

You did better than me babs I managed £29 in Morrisons on lunch and assorted things I didn't really need.
Yesterday was £23.31in asda, mostly dish washer tablets (2packs as on cheap, will last 2 months), and loo roll.
Oh, and buggery bloody hell £85 on a stupid speed awareness course in March. Got flashed in the village we work in. So cross. But at least I can avoid points. Had to go on credit card, which is the last thing I wanted to do.
Suppose I shouldn't have been speeding

Thread moving too fast for me, sorry.

Fuzz unless I am wrong doesn't there need to be written warnings before being put on discaplinary?
Everything crossed for you both, glad you have a sympathetic Mum.

need very sorry to hear about your friend, everything crossed for her too.

NSD here today. DH's hearing aids really make the difference of being able to work or not, so while I wince at the cost I know they are necessary.

I've got ds's name down for beavers, but it starts at age 6 and he is only 5. The good news though is that it will soon be light in the evenings and our 5 neighbours will be streaming through our garden at all hours, so that will sort out our need for company. I'm seriously thinking about signing up for this sports club for the summer holiday as it has lots of kids activities and will get us something to do in the mornings, while the neighbours are out. Thanks for the ideas. I have quite a lot of ideas stacked up, so I think we are good actually. The main thing is just taking the time to talk and play and that means much less screen time for both him and me, which is probably good for us in all sorts of ways. :-)

Ds loved his new bike today and is riding it beautifully already. I was very proud of him doing it. He can even work the gears. :-)

Awww spotty. So cute.

Used left over bits to make a tasty frittata for tea. Shopping is due later. We're all desperately sleep deprived. Thank goodness it's Friday!

The only spend for this weekend is a photo frame and milk. Maybe some hot cross buns.

I'm really excited about Monday as DH is having his interview that he cancelled this week. I'm feeling so optimistic and strangely excited. calm down collie

Also going to order my 50 free snapfish prints. I LOVE having actual photos in the house. I've spent many years not printing off any photos and its a shame. So my new years resolution was to print some off every month :) they are on the fridge, in frames, I've given loads to grandparents who adore them & I've pegged some to twine. Looks so cute!

I think that's why his boss has suddenly decided to do everything by letter instead of email and in person. DH also told me that his boss wants two other people out from his store. I mean WTAF?! Power trip much? :(

He's printed out the policies and everything is, sadly, above board. He is going to have to jump before he is pushed, and his reputation fucked up entirely.

In other news, DH updated HMRC recently to tell them I'm on sick pay. But having looked at my online banking, my payment has decreased. Not by much but still, weird I think? Unless it was to do with the fact that my hours have dropped (in the sense that I'm not working them - the contract hasn't changed) - but then, we don't get WTC anyway, this is CTC.

Mum phoned again, told me my Grandma gave her £100 for me for Easter. Normally we would spend this on doing something fun but I think it'll have to be used to start the "we are screwed" fund :o

Ooh good luck MrCollie!

£11 on a new coat for ds1 for nursery. I bought is from eBay and it will live at nursery. His current one has just got a bit tight.

£10 charity donation, I need to stop this a bit as it adds up when I donate to everyone that asks.

Sorry to hear you are having such a rough time fuzz. I think the CAB is a great idea for advice.
Thanks for thinking of me ipsos, this week has really dragged but I've made it to half term albeit with a very sore throat! Going to have ics cream in a minute, purely for medicinal purposes you understand. I'm sure you already do this but card games are brilliant for helping children to take turns in conversation, especially ones where you have to ask questions and things on your turn e.g. Happy Families.
Managed a NSD today, my head of dept bought me a drink after work and actually thanked me for my hard work with one particular class who I've completely turned around. Nice my hard work has been noticed for once!

Awesome, well done Pointless :)

Agree on the card games Ipsos - I can never remember the rules, but Go Fish might be good. And Uno, just because no games cupboard is complete without it, IMHO :)

Card games sound great actually. That's just the kind of thing we need, so if you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them. We've been playing pictionary with the white board underneath our chins so that we get lots of eye contact while drawing.

We already do rummy and uno and ds loves chess but we can't keep up with the pace. Two chess games is really as many as I can manage in one day. The more time I spend working on this the more I realise that ds has phenomenal stamina. I think that's why I end up sticking him in front of the computer so much and why he's not had enough social contact. He wants so much conversation that I just get knackered by the constant chat and long hours. I'm trying hard though. Socks up!

We're visiting the sports club first thing tomorrow. Eye wateringly expensive but may be worth it if we get guaranteed company all day every day in summer.