Fantastic Frugaleers Continuing Austere April!

[Cagliostro]

Hello! :)

Good grief loads to catch up on. Hi karcheer. Lots of good advice from the guys. The chicken will be fine if it's been in the fridge.
Crème brrr. Every time I looked out of the window different weather. You name it we had it. Pleased ds is on the mend
Collie freeze a bolognaise and defrost it as you travel. Cook pasta and tada. Will act as a cool bag ice pack. Maybe a curry for the next day? Veg soup also frozen and bread
Horses can be very scary. I admire you as I would bottle it these days
Girlie. It's a faff but if it helps I would defo leave it over night.

Fluffy, I meant to mention that I didn't know you had an equine history?

We've just had hail!!! And a rainbow.

Collie when we go away we always take something frozen eg. Bolognese, chilli, curry etc to have on the first night. It defrosts during the journey and keeps our milk cool in the cool bag!

We do that too for our first meal purple an ice cream tub full of bolognese is often still partly frozen in the cool box after an overnight ferry crossing and a few hours driving.
The week is going well so far, minimal spends. Tomorrow night will be madness as dh & I are both at work all day, then dh & ds both have cricket matches but in completely different places & dad has drama class so I will be taxi driver extraordinaire! Just trying to decide what meal to get the dc to do for tea as I'll get back from work at 5 and we'll need to be fed & out by 5.20. I'm thinking sausage & chips, done in the oven or spaghetti carbonara.
Having another clear out at home so need to pick some things out to try and sell

I was thinking frozen stuff too. It would defrost in 5 hrs and you could bung it in the oven when you got there.

Or pasta with garlic bread and jars of anti pasti from Aldi. Or a ploughmans.

Karcheer I'm using airers, it's important not to dry on the radiator because it cools the rad so your boiler has to work harder. I have a spin dryer which wrings loads of water out so things dry quickly. You can buy them cheaply second hand on eBay. It's quicker to spin a pint of water out of the washing that way then tumble. It won't take as long so will cost you less.

Need Different lifetime.

Fluffy I'm very interested to hear about your horse stories too. I had no idea you had had experience with such interesting breeds.

We had also had very strange weather today. Biting cold and ds and I were out building the climbing frame under a gazebo in heavy snow. I was torn between the enjoyment of making the such memories and the worry of having us both freeze solid

I just did a Tesco shop online and narrowly avoided accidentally ordering 750g of potato salad. I thought it was 100g and fortunately noticed in time. Yikes!

It was a local families horses, I suspect I was supposed to be a groom for them long term but I have zero interest in the mucking out etc. There such high maintenance animals.

You have to really love them to put in all the effort.

I know what you mean Fluffy. I loved horses as a child and read books about them and had toy horses, but I could never own one. I'm glad that other people do though, because I love to look at horses and daydream about them.

ipsos I'd love a pony but can't justify a) the cost or b) the time you need to spend to look after them.

I'm lucky in that for now I can afford my riding lessons and get the best of both worlds. I pay to ride. And also get to do some of the other stuff. I sort ponys feed after my Saturday lesson (lunchtime) and untacked and groom.

karcheer I second the spindryer idea. It seems old fashioned but really works. It's a much faster spin than a washing machine but energy efficient as its a horizontal spin so doesn't have to overcome gravity. fluffy converted me and I've never looked back

Just sat down, dd really enjoyed the football pro coaching so thats good but does mean Tuesday evening are going to be quite hectic! Also need to get her some football shorts now.

Karcheer I dry the clothes on a clothes horse near the storage heater, not ideal but not much choice! If its dry the clothes go outside, even if its cold it will dry them off.

Collie could you not just do beans on toast one night or get fish n chips?

Girlie DS and DD1 are appearing in War of the worlds at the Dominion in Tottenham Court Road. They gave 2 shows left, and will have done 40 shows (39 for DD1 as she is on a school residential and had a night off).

Tomorrow I need diesel (but can reclaim that from work). We will all need tea at the theatre, I usually take ready meals, but haven't been to the shop. Might ask mum to grab some. Hopefully traffic is a bit heavier than last week, I had to pay the congestion charge!

Slight frugal win today, had done a quick (£60 ) shop in Morrisons (lots of ice lollies as ds lives on them (food fuss extrodinaire)), when dp texts to say we need coffee and milk for the shop. So popped into Aldi and got the little trampette I wanted a few months ago reduced to £10 (from 19.99). Think this will do instead of a treadmill for now.

Wild weather here today too. But the freezing cold was consistent at least.

Am intrigued about the spin dryer idea, I tumble almost all the time as I'm out all day and it rains so very much up here, things stay out on the line for days getting wet/dry again.

Current account looking very poorly, so april has been spendy spendy. Will do much better next month. Hoping exp puts the money in on time this month (due tomorrow).

Gah. I'm not getting paid properly for my increased hours on Friday. Have asked for a bacs advance for the difference.

I'm popping into work for a couple of hours this morning whilst ds is at pre school as I have so much to do. I need to buy a few things but won't have time this morning so not sure might have to get dh to get it on his way home but he's working miles away.... Dh is owed four figures in overtime hopefully he will get it soon. I want to save it all for a lovely holiday next year

I accidentally spent £29 on stuff for dd in the fat face sale last night. I'm going to save some of it for her birthday. (2 scarves) but the leggings and jeans she needed as she falls over so often hers all have holes in.

It's my little sisters 21st next week and I have no idea what to get her!

Knitting Spin dryers are awesome little machines. Have a look on eBay & see what's local to you. You can't spin delicates like woollens but it'll get a pint, sometimes two out of a load of clothes in 10 minutes. Ours is 400w, so 4p an hour on our electric tariff.

So it costs us under a penny to spin clothes. Whereas your tumble dryers going to be 3000w an hour to run. If you can reduce the time taken in there the savings add up to a lot over time.

I'm saving for a heat pump dryer but I'll still keep the spinner to reduce the cycle time.

I love War of the Worlds Audit, is that the same one David Essex was talking about on the radio last week? You've actually just given me a brilliant idea - DH would love the soundtrack on cd, DD could get him that for Father's Day.
Need to buy milk today and I need some foundation but can't really be bothered to park in town so might try to spin out what I have left for a few days.

It's service day for the car today..
I've been paid and tax credits have been paid.

Just checked my account for my next payment and it's gone down 300 quid. Ouch.

I'll have to make sure I do lots of agency week for the next couple of months to add up.

Feel a bit bleurgh if I'm honest now.

So far this morning I've spent £118 in the post office. £18 on posting various eBay items. And £100 on my Israeli money. It's real. It's actually happening. Now I'm flapping about the flight. breathe just breathe

So. No more spends for me today.

Hello,

I'm going to the hairdressers in London today, so it's going to be an expensive day. Normally I get a coffee at the station and have lunch at the hairdressers, but I'm going to get a coffee at waitrose for the journey, and in a sec I'm going to pop to Tesco and get some bread and a bottle of water, make a sandwich and eat on the train Paddington style :)

I'm really :/ about changing my gas and electrify supplier I worked out who I wanted to swap to, but after putting in accurate meeter readings yesterday I now owe my current supplier a lot, they've upped my dd by £30 a month. So I either swap for a cheaper tarif but pay them now what I owe, or stay with them and overal pay more for the gas/electricity but not have to pay the lump sum in one chunk. Urghhh! Thoughts?

Pay day!!! Thank goodness. I hate the feeling of living pay check to pay check. Trying to enjoy our lives but the financial worry is constant. We are stable enough but every pound i spend I feel guilty about unless it's good for dd.

£2.01 spent at tesco. Bread, a banana and 6 sparkling highland springs.

Just had a banana, and cheese and pickle sandwich on the train. Made a lovely mess as the only cheese I had was grated cheddar dh has got at the weekend.
My builder dropped me at the station so no coffee but that's ok.

Tonight we will have chicken & veg curry. All things I have at home. Dh likes all the little samosas etc I had a dig around the freezer and found some so he can have those as well.

I'm going to get some eggs on my way home aswell and make some blueberry muffins to keep in the freezer for my breakfasts.

karcheer I have just discovered frozen blueberries, cheaper than fresh and perfect for making muffins, pancakes etc.
I have a cold