Amazing April Austerity.

[CremeEggThief]

Hi All,
Taking the liberty of starting a new thread, as I went to post spends on the old one and it's full.

We had a lovely day out at the seaside and visited an old lighthouse as part of it. As we rely on public transport, that's always a big part of our days out spend.
£9.60 bus fares.
£9.60 train fares (with the family railcard).
£6 lunch from Sainsburys ( £3 meal deal each).
£4.50 entrance to the lighthouse.
£7.10 coffee, hot chocolate and cookies in a café afterwards.

Oh and DS needed a haircut, which I think was £6.50.

Found you! Yay, thanks for new thread.

ipsos dd2 had her ears hoovered, it was actually quite interesting, as we could see it on the screen. She felt a lot better after as the wax was causing pressure on her ear drums, was so tightly packed (ugh). She didn't need grommets and at almost 10 has no problems now (was picked up in reception).

Have been on a spendy bender, well, back to my old ways gor a few days! Spent around £200 on clothes and stuff from argos, lunch out as the dcs are off school etc... am back on it now. But, other than that, I was really good this month. Exp money went in on time which is unheard of. Paid £809 off my credit cards (plus the shifting of 3.4k onto 0%), and was only £800 overdrawn when exp money went in, it used to be £1300 at least.

Non spendy day today planned!

Yeah bees

Thank you for the new thread creme
Well done bees

Congratulations Bees.

Ipsos, glad to hear you have an appointment. Even getting rid of the wax will probably help lots.

Girlie, enjoy your quiet day. Don't spend it all on housework! Sorry to hear that about your brother.

Lilac, my DS is 13. He never wants to go out, but always enjoys it when we do.

Just need to pop to the chemist and buy bread today.

Hello
To Drs this morning so £££ for abx and other meds
So fed up
Been ill for weeks hope the abx sort it out

I fell into The Works this morning Ipsos I got that Usborne coding book you told us about the other week! Bargain :o and a couple of other bits.

So my manager reckons that the redeployment people haven't found anything as if they had, they'd have contacted me straight away :( I'm getting less optimistic by the day.

Just spent £40 on an m&s hamper as thank you gift for my friend who went above and beyond last week, she visited my flat twice a day to sort my cats out and even took on boy cats insulin injections, don't know what I would have done without her tbh.

Dd really tired so having a cuddle on the sofa and watching a film.

Sounds like she deserves the hamper girlie.

Fluffy Yes, I think DD is glad to be home, I am certainly glad to have her home. We are very close indeed and I missed her. Her body clock is all over the place though, she slept until 2pm and has now gone to sort the pony.

My slow puncture is sorted. £20 at the garage in our village. Even offered to give me a life home after I dropped the car off and pick me up when it was ready, village life eh?

Badders

I also picked up my first order of veg from the farm shop. What a lovely idea. There's a list of the produce available and a big set of scales for you to weigh an appropriate amount. It's picked in the morning and you collect Friday's or Saturdays's, all organic. I got onions, potatoes, parsnips, purple sprouting broccoli, kale, pak choi, a lettuce, a big bag of salad (my choice), wild garlic, a big bunch of fresh picked herbs. They will open up especially if we are away competing and I can't get there. Another 'village life' bonus I suppose.

I've also downloaded a free pedometer app. I am astonished at just how much activity you have to do to get your 10,000.00 steps. If I didn't have spaniels who need a lot of walking, I wouldn't be close. I bet I don't get close if the DC or DH walk them. I consider myself a really active person who rarely sits down too

Today I've already done 12000 steps as I've done both dog walks and then walked a mile to the garage and back. Yesterday was about 8000. 5 miles is about 10000 steps for me.

No wonder we have a bit of an obesity crisis in the UK. It's been very interesting.

That's the plan Girlie. :-)

Useful to know knitting. I'm hoping that the wax is the main problem as one of his ears has popped twice since the test, which makes me think the glue ear on that side can't be that bad.

That's great that you found that book Cag. We like it a lot.

£18 something on tickets for the London eye Sunday I'm being spontaneous with a spare £100 I have. Going to London tomorrow too with a friend £17 train ticket.

Girlie that's a lovely gesture :) and great that your friend stepped in.

Badders sorry you're poorly :( hope the ABs work!

Feeling a little deflated due to impending time limit on my work options. Have been told we will have the next level meeting in a fortnight so that'll be the end I think. Also, was officially diagnosed with fibro today by a specialist - who discharged me because they can't actually help.

BUT on a more positive note I did want to share something that happened yesterday. We had another home ed family over to play. The boy, 9 and with SN, suffered horrendously at school and has been terrified of anything that looks like 'teaching' or 'lessons' ever since. He's only just (2 years later) started to be open to it. His mum has been amazingly patient and never pushed him. Anyway, as soon as they arrived, he went to the piano and started pressing the keys. And then he asked me to teach him. So I did, and he played a few pieces and even sang along. He was so proud and his mum was just sitting there in very happy shock! I keep welling up thinking about it. :) :)

Hope you feel better soon Badders

Hope it works for your ds ipsos if he does end up needing grommets its a really quick op and results were nothing short of miraculous for dd.

Need thats lovely that you and your dd are so close, I worry that as dd gets older we will lose some of the close bond that we have now - reassuring to hear thats not necessarily going to happen! I probably haven't even done a 100 steps today but then today hasn't been very typical tbf, my new fitness plan is skipping - I am aiming to do 200 skips on the skipping rope every day!

Cag thats lovely although slightly worrying that school can be so damaging to a young child are you entitled to any disability benefits now you have an official diagnosis?

Dd has gone out to play with her friend and I have had enough of tidying so am enjoying 5 mins peace

Thank you
Have any of you tired the wonky veg boxes at the jig supermarkets btw?
HSBC have got back to me and told me I need to go into the branch so I will go on Monday

Funny you should say that, Need, as I have been thinking the exact same. I have the fit bit app on my phone, which I use as an approximate pedometer and am amazed how much you need to walk to hit 10,000 steps. I haven't got the patience to use it on me inside the house, but it would be interesting to compare, as surely housework equates to a couple of thousand steps? Apparently, we walked about 16,500 steps yesterday which is 7.25 miles! I'm feeling it today in my legs.

Need, all that veg and salad sound delicious. Lucky you, having that farm shop close by.

Cag, that's a wonderful story about your latest pupil. Don't give up hope on re-deployment just yet.

Wreck, you can't keep away from that there London lately! Have fun on the Eye.

Spends: £1.96 on bread and 3 secret creme eggs (3 for £1) and 75p, posting a letter. That's it for today, as I don't plan to leave the house again until tomorrow.

I've got to figure out how to use some of the veg though Creme, I realise how much I use the bog standard stuff and don't venture too far away from the norm.

That was a great total for yesterday. I too can't be bothered carrying my phone all over the house, but figure my app is a bit sensitive, so it probably works out. I'm still a bit agog though, and at least a silly free app has focussed me into walking the dogs everyday at the very least.

Yep girlie, I am very close with DD. She text and messaged me loads while away, which was lovely. I have an er, dysfunctional relationship with my own mother, so this is all new to me and it's lovely. I'm really close with DS too, he finds DH a bit too intense at times, he finds my laid back approach far better suited to his personality. But the mother/daughter bond has taken me by surprise too.

Lovely story cag, heart warming. School must have scarred the poor kid terribly.

Badders I tried one of the wonky veg boxes. I was very impressed with the quality, variety and volume. I've still got red onions and parsnips left from mine, which I bought 2 weeks ago. You could get a fair few meals from one box. Especially with some value beans, or eggs, cheese etc.

I think yesterday and the day we went to London zoo (Easter Sunday?) are my highest steps totals. The kale would be nice in soup or a smoothie with almond milk and a banana and the pay choi would be great for a stirfry.

I keep not getting a pedometer as I have a sedentary job and it would demotivate me. Bit more active at this grade so may reconsider.
Cag chin up and good news with the friend. Nsd.
Need I hope I'm closer to my dc than to my Mam too.
Gws badders

Girlie your friend will not expect that, what a nice gesture, does your brother normally take interest in his niece? They can be clueless

Well done knitting
I've had a few spendy days on clothing for kids and food out but reflecting on it, it was planned spending and nothing frivolous.

While visiting my cousin & family I'm going to buy ds some runners, I only buy their shoes in two shops and one is in the town she lives in.

Just spent £4.47 on American m&ms. Peanut butter, mint and birthday cake flavour. In wh smiths. Extravegent yes. But delicious and reminds me of holidays. or coming back from holidays when I ate a family size bag on the plane back from New York....

Aside from that nsd. Thought I'd have to buy lunch but my sis brought me a sandwich into work. Yay!

That's so nice need I hope dd and I are close when she's older.

I know creme I also know it doesn't sound like I'm being very frugal but it's through budgeting that I've actually got spare money to do things and we have some savings too so I don't feel too guilty!

Failed again, went to b&q, morrisons and bought seeds online. About £100 all in. Am taking my debit card out of my purse and will use cash for a bit. Must get a grip.

I have a garmin running watch (I don't run). I do about 8000 steps a day, about 4 miles. Am upping this to at least 10k as I badly need to lose some blob. I will admit to jogging on the spot watching telly once everyone else is in bed to up my steps especially now with the light nights as I take the dogs 4 miles on the bike each night instead of the 2 mile walk they usually get.

Creme buying creme eggs, shocker! :o

Yes, it is really shocking what he went through. And what's worse is that his experiences are far from unique even within our group of HE friends. :( Usually where ASD/ADHD were not well understood or supported. It was some pretty bad experiences that led us to home ed but we're counting our blessings that it was nothing so traumatic as some of their friends'.

I don't think we will be doing proper lessons, although my friend did mention it when I first started teaching (but understandably was holding back so as not to put pressure on him, and the DD is a bit young still) - we live pretty far apart and none of us drive! But it was so lovely just having that time with him. We will take it slowly and just have a little play when we visit each other as they have a keyboard stashed away somewhere. He's a very smart lad so they might look at some of the online tutorials (one of my other pupils likes them).

Girlie re: benefits, TBH I doubt it as they always say it's not about the diagnosis but how it affects your life. This was fine a few years back when I first got ill, and I did get DLA then, but I have heard so much about the ever tightening rules that I'm really not banking (ha!) on it IYSWIM - though of course I will try (I'm waiting until the work issue is resolved as I feel that it will at least add some evidence of what I can't manage). A friend of mine is incredibly all the time, many different illnesses and horrific symptoms that mean she's had to give up pretty much her entire life. And they still refused PIP. It's an utter joke. I'm not sure I'll bother with ESA, as I will be hopefully increase my teaching anyway (I think I heard that you are allowed to earn a small amount from self employment while on ESA though).

I saw an ad about the Princes Trust doing courses for people up to 30 (I just squeeze in :o) for finding employment so I might see if there's something suitable for me to do with them - maybe there would be something that would help me find something desk based, admin etc as I don't have any qualifications in that field.

Nor should you, Wreck. I never feel guilty about coffee/lunch/days out or the odd weekend away. As long as one can afford stuff without getting into debt, treats are good.

Looks like I've many years of my ds going places with me so he's only 2 creme!

Cag, believe it or not, I resisted them until the week before Easter, this year. I kind of like the thrill of hiding them in the salad drawer and secretly eating them, without DS finding out. Mwaah, haa, haa!