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.

hello all,
thanks for the tips about the books. they aren't fetching much but DS is helping me with them, and is really driven so I'll let him help. I've got a ton of work related books to get rid since I'm moving jobs so I'll do that soon.

I'm going to be shredding/recycling a lot of work stuff next few days - I am pleased the boss is currently 'travelling'...:) and when he's back, I'm off on a work trip. so...

have spent a bomb today - paying school photos (£26x2 and £13), swimming (£112), and all my credit card bills. We are going to be quite strapped this month but hopefully it'll be all fine. my freezer is full!

Hmm it's actually only 55p more for the train so I think that's worth it for the convenience/speed!

I know, Collie. I knew I was jinxing it! of your lovely weather. It's 7 degrees and raining here.

Collie me to, don't feel too bad now so hoping it was a one off! Yy to stationary, dd is also obsessed with nice pens, notebooks and diary type things.

I have been tidying and sorting, not made it to the garage yet hopefully this afternoon. Got someone from a removal firm hoping over in a min to give me a quote - Eeeeeeeeeee!!!

Also measured out my rooms to compare to the new house possibly should have done this a while ago anyway all the rooms are bigger other than the kitchen which is a fair bit smaller. Was worried I was going to lose space in my bedroom but no it is bigger (albeit in a slightly more awkward shape!)

I missed the sainsburys stuff before-am I reading right that they'd expect you to pay £2.70 for the cheap basics stuff??

Hairspray, I wanted a pair of 30p rubber gloves from the basics range, which they were out of, so they tried to substitute a £2.70 pack of vinyl gloves instead! To be fair, it's rare that they send me substitutions and when they do, they're usually a better match than this.

Oh, ok that's doesn't sound quite as bad as I'd thought, but still not good!

Thank you for the pressie ideas, I was also a stationery addict at that age, I still lust after the notebooks in Paperchase but I can never think of anything to write in them!
DD is napping but we're going to have a look round the shops when she wakes up.

Don't they price match like Tesco, CremeEgg? I always get excited when the value cat litter is out and we get posh on price match. I lead a very thrilling life .

Oh God removes firm quoted £275 - that sounds loads to me, he said it was really cheap anyone know if thats reasonable or not?

creme frozen spinach is great. We use it loads. I tend to throw it in everything!

And you get way more than if you were to buy the leaves.

Returned a pair of trousers today. £14.99 back.

Spent £4 on fake tan (my legs are so unbelievably pale...) and ( went into our local department store to find that they're reducing everything! So spent £20 on a salad bowl and bamboo tongs by Ching-he Huan whichever as originally £45. We only have a plastic tipper wear one. And we've been meaning to get a proper one....

That does sound really quite reasonable for a movie quote. Look at a man and a van and compare?

NSD here, I've joined checkout smart and shopitize and earned about £4 already! I happened to have bought two jars of Schwartz at the weekend and had the receipt. I've requested a payment to my bank as that had no fees. I hope I did it right!

It doesn't sound too bad at all, Girlie. I've paid £250 for each of my moves in the last 3 years; about £50 an hour.

Good to know about the Frozen spinach, Em. As you say, a big bag of it costs as much as a medium bag of fresh.

No Ben & Jerrys here

Last night was a big frugal fail & diet fail with a teeny frugal win thrown in. Spent €14 on chicken satay skewers and pad thai, the chef mixed up the order so I got a bag of prawn crackers complimentary to say sorry, the food delivered out to my car to save me coming in again for it and when I opened it up the bag there was another bag of prawn crackers and a can of coke by way of apology. The pad thai served as both dinner last night and lunch today, the coke will go into fridge for a later date and the chicken satay was amazing. Took a walk in the sunshine today at lunch to balance out the indulgence

Off to catch up on about 10 pages now

Sorry haven't had time to catch up properly but I hope since dc are back at school I can keep up again with this speedy thread
NSD today
Burritos /chilli mix already in the slow cooker

Wreck just saw your post about Saturday shopping with the dc. That's precisely what my dh would do too. Next time give him the list of shopping to do after his haircut or hand them over after he comes back I'm good to come up with these suggestions not so good with carrying them through

I have a quick question about the selling books thing - So, I've zapped some of the work books and lo and behold they are worth more! :)

do I provide my own packaging? If so, what sort would you recommend??

thanks.

Nsd just got back from work. It's 18 degrees and sunny here lovely

cag what an awful conversation to have, that line manager had no right to speak to you like that. Thanks for support re counselling. I am telling my dm what's going on this weekend. A few things have made me more determined to change my situation
1 - the lack of apology to me by dh, apologised to dd for how he treated me and to the au pair, not to me, and even though it wouldn't make it alright it would be acknowledgement of the fact that he was wrong.

2 - I thought dd wasn't too badly affected by knowing dh pushed me as she called it, but she has told me numerous times in past couple of weeks that she is there for me and if I need her even if I'm at work just to ring her, she's 6 next week, doesn't even have a phone and she has started coming into my bed by night regularly
3 - I thoroughly enjoyed my night out with my family and experienced life as a normal woman in her 30s, not what I've been living
4 - I spent 2015 expecting things were going to improve thanks to dh going to counselling to find out he hadn't even gone, and I don't want to waste another year like this.

5 - I've been thinking about the future and don't want to hit 40/50 waiting for dh to change, if he does he does, but I need to prepare myself for the fact he mightn't and for a life separate to him if he doesn't.

Sorry for epic post, just find that you guys are a great bunch of supportive women, and I guess aren't close enough to home to know me personally too

Its 20 celsius here and proper hot - love it

Car cost £37 in the garage, wish I was a bit more car savvy as am sure an oil top up and bulb change wouldn't be completely beyond me. They did also fix the electric window button though - which would be beyond me

O.kay so that is reasonable for removal man was hoping you would all say 'no thats really expensive it should be about £100'

Also spent £1.99 on a hot chocolate while car was in the garage.

£3.64 in Tescos on top up shop however used a voucher so actually spent £1.64, pleased with that as got quite a bit.

It's been a NSD so far here. Only spends today is DS ice skating lesson which is accounted for out of my budget.

I've been at work this morning so picked him up from his grandparents. Got home, made our lunch and had a chilled out afternoon. We've just baked flapjacks with ingredients we already had in and popped chocolate on top. DS enjoyed licking the spoon lol.

We shall take a leisurely walk/scoot to ice skating later and will take own snacks/drinks as we usually do. I find he usually is rather hungry just before and after.

Dinner tonight is sweet and some pork with noodles. Yum yum.

I'm hoping tomorrow is a NSD and so is Thursday.

We go away Friday. I'm going to cook up a spag bol mix later on tonight and then freeze it. I'll then take it out Friday morning to have for tea at the caravan Friday evening. Save us messing about when we get there and I'll only have to cook some spaghetti as will just reheat the bolognese mix. Hoping to take most of my own food to the caravan and buy as little as possible. Friends be cooking food for the Saturday eve. And we'll have a carvery on the Sunday.

I'm planning a trip to London end of May. So I'll be on the lookout of things to do!

£28 on parking pass for the forest. It's £4 a time so we need to go 8 times in the next year.

£55 on birthday presents for my sister, she is turning 18.

girlie, did you call a removal firm or a man with a van? And how many miles? Sorry if it seems personal, but I am about to do the same and have no clue as to what to expect

Girlie Yep, chiming in with the same song here, seems reasonable pricing re the removal costs. Tut tut, I did tell you moving is always more expensive than you think

£60 petrol.

lila . These are all feelings I can relate to, with the exception of the lying. I waited over 3 years, nearly 4 I think for DH to accept he needed medication, and only after I threatened to leave. Your situation isn't the same but I can understand to some extent what you are going through. I'm glad you are having counselling, I didn't and I had a lot of anger issues re those 'pre-medication' years that I ought to have done. Take care and keep talking.

Gammon for tea.

purple I would throw those kind of odds and ends into porridge scones
I made amazing avocado and nut brownies on Sun, they were amazing and used very little ingredients too. Avocados are on super 6 in aldi this week so think I'll make more and freeze into smaller portions so that I can have a little treat. Will pop recipe up here if anyone's interested.

I may have to work on Sat morn, I don't like to because it means au pair minding dc's again as dh is never home and dd missing her swimming lesson. Will see if I can organise it that I come in for an hour or so and bring dc with me.