Austere April Advances (even though it's mid March.....). Frugaleers Unite

[needastrongone]

New thread. Can't link.

I wondered where you'd got to Ipsos. It's a lovely feeling to be solved.

Audit is missing too

Em we swim in the sea here too, it usually May - September , darn cold in the Channel tides, though it does warm up eventually (though I was surprised that CIs were so much colder , but then it is the Atlantic really ) , I like sailing too so pretty hardy actually.

Maybe ...though I (might) have got a bit spoilt but our lovely Greek holidays in the summer and swimming in the Med!

NSD. Cooked a veggie roast dinner, washed up, washed, dried and changed DS's bedding and put away all the rest of the clean, dry laundry on the airer. Going to read and relax for the rest of the day now. Sounds like everyone is having a lovely Sunday. Keep in touch, ipsos. Great news about your DS. Aw, lovely, Wreck.

We have just been to messy church itsvon once a mth n we try to go as often as we can ds1 loves the craft and then its short bible story n sharing a meal we had jacket potatoes tonight followed by cake I like that the children get to experience church without it being rammed down their throats or boring

Pleased your meal was ok wreck, how lovely to be a bridesmaid!
Spent over £100 on new pillows (2 for £7 in Next - really good value) plus a mattress protector, duvet set and light shade. Still need to get curtains, light fitting and a new laundry basket. Redecorating is expensive business!

I've been a bridesmaid 7 times but not since I was a lot younger!

Spends

£30 shoes for DD2
£16 food
£4 ice creams for DDs
£2.50 on chocolate to split a £20 note
£40 cash for the coming week, 30 for school dinner and 10 for sundries

Returned to shops, my shoes £60, other shoes £50, suit £85.

Hi all, been a busy wend working am tired now. Weather here has been lovely as well, it just needs to warm up a tad! Spent 87p today on a drink, no other spends.

Day off tomos thank Goodness!

A successful NSD. Been very tempted to buy new garden stuff and new clothes for DH and I. But I resisted.

I don't know what's wrong with me lately. I just want to spend spend spend

Sorry, I've lost track today.

Spends.

£20 hay.
£6 training.
£16 seeds.
£5 Amazon.

Most of the stuff I bought from Next needs to go back, but I have ordered some school blouses for DD.

Tired.com.

It's all the adverts we see, the better weather comes & you want to spend.

I think I am going to have to get some new work shoes, am slightly concerned my toes are going to start coming out the ends

Anyone know of any shoe shop sales? (Try saying that fast!)

Girlie office and schuh had pretty good sales recently :)

Lsd £5 busfare to my mums, had a lovely day and she cooked an amazing roast and £28 on some anime dvds from amazon (was all vouchers I had so don't feel too bad!)

Currently looking into legoland for summer holidays - we have enough nectar points to pay all our entrys and as a family got given £40 at Christmas which I was saving for a day out (will be £64 travel on coach) but is it worth it? Seems alot of money which could be better spent elsewhere but dp has fond memories of it. Anyone been who has any advice? :)

We like legoland but my one piece of advice for summer holidays is AVOID. I've known people only manage three rides in the holidays and other people have complained it's been so busy. We went on the last day of the holidays last year, it was a Wednesday and it wasn't too bad at all, lots of schools had already gone back. I think any when else, unless you have Q-bots, would be a waste of money.

Girlie Have a look on eBay for "hotter stream". I wear them for work, it's the perfect hcp shoe.

Fugly, but so comfortable. But fugly.

Sooooooooooo comfy though.

Sometimes I wish I could wear them on the weekend. There, I've said it.

Lovely lovely day. Now in bed.

Tomorrow I have to pay money in to the bank. just money dm owed me which is forgotten about. I'm finding that not actually having cash or credit card on me is helping to stop my spending.

Should find out about bonus and payrise this week. People at work are talking about 10% pay rises. Unlikely. So they'll be disappointed. although it's be great if that happened

Told dh yesterday that my bonus is being saved. As is any "payrise" part of my payrise (if that makes sense). We can survive well more than survive on pay as it is and need to cut back.

As of payday on the 21st I'll be proper saving. Every penny. or at least every other one

Hello again. I just managed to catch up three days of posts which is about 20 minutes of reading these days. :-) So I'm properly caught up again.

Was up all night last night with ds with a v bug and now sitting up myself feeling a bit odd, as-you-do, so had a chance to catch up properly.

That such great news about dh Fuzz. What a lovely compliment to be headhunted for the new job like that. Fantastic.

Good idea to look at the house Em. You never know when a good one may come along.

I'm so knackered. It's been all go chat-chat-chatting with ds and not a minute to sit and think. I've get a sort of endless chest virus thing now and haven't done any upwork writing for days, and struggling to keep the house civilised. Also there was nothing in the house to eat today and Tesco bill came to £160 (!?) Frugaleer-fail.

I've been thinking again about getting a cleaner, but it would use up all the money I earn and negate the effort. I'm a bit confused about what to do. (less writing/more outsourcing?)

Poor ds is still knackered from over-work at school. I asked the senco about it and she says they do work them far too hard but have to or would be marked down by ofsted. I find that so sad for little kids, but don't know how to help ds escape it.

Hum.

Ah no might have to look into more reviews on legoland - massive crowds make me a bit panicky and dd1 doesn't cope well. Problem is we dont drive and the coach trips are only on specific days, also I cant take time off term time. More thinking needed then!

em im the same if I don't have access to money im much better, just need to be brave enough to leave my main debit card home when shopping not having it as a backup!

ipsos could u explain to school he's struggling and relax the workload at home, when dd started reading in reception she struggled massively so I told them I would not push at home and will go at her pace. If that meant reading once rather than every night so be it. Rather that than put her off reading and learning - needs to be enjoyable and not a chore which results in tantrums and a battle.

nocuts The thing I don't understand is that he seems to be in the top group for various things and plenty of kids are in the middle spelling group or whatever. Surely he could be moved down, but the school insist he is "coping". He doesn't look as if he is coping to me. It seems mad to me that he has to learn so much, so fast. They say he'll get behind if he's moved down. But he can't expect to be best at everything, not in a school that is 1/4 mile from the centre of Cambridge University and crammed full of tiny brainboxes. That's just daft.

I started a separate thread about schools elsewhere so no need to discuss here really. Thanks I should go to sleep now. Zzzzz

NSD planned today. Not sure I'm going to like working 5 days again!!!!
Ipsos school just seems so ful on these days.
Girlie sign up to brantano online they apparently always send vouchers and sell scetchers which are v comfy

Oh wow fluffy. Those shoes actually look really comfy! I don't blame you for wearing them. I'm already panicking about what I'm going to wear on my feet when I'm bridesmaid with all my ishoooos.

Going to be spendy today as I'm getting my oven cleaned very in frugal but I'm so excited.

Just realised dh took £60 out of the joint account for the meal yesterday so not sure we will have enough in there for everything we need. Will have to borrow from savings.

Hello! Checking in. Got back from Athens on Friday midnight and then child 2 vomited at 6am. Nice.

Spendy month I think. Paid off cc but had to move money from elsewhere. Don't know how. Methinks we need to stop frittering away money again. £30 here there everywhere adds up!!

Job that didn't happen (London one) emailed and asked if I'd talk to them. So I'm heading to London on Thursday for an 'open chat'. Not sure what they want to chat about. It has to make financial sense! End of.

Happy work week everyone!

ipsos. Sorry your DS appears unhappy. I happen to agree wholeheartedly with you, that kids should be allowed to be happy first and foremost, and to basically be kids, and not put into some attainment box, and that the former will lead to the latter. Can you articulate on here specifically why you think he's not coping? Not for us to be nosey, but to help you choose wording that you could take into school to explain to his teacher? I always found I never explained myself particularly well when it came to expressing any concerns, and often wished that I had written it down

Hopefully a NSD, unless I order dog food, which I need to do this week at some point.

Interesting report on the radio about a 'help to save' initiative in the budget.