The Fantastic Frugalleers Meander into May.....

[Girliefriendlikesflowers]

Thought it was about time I started a new thread

M&S and FirstDirect.

You'd have to check the t&c. Apparently there's another £50 after 6 months.

Hmm I had first direct. I'll look into it, thanks!

Ah cag bless you. You will be OK

lilac it's a Jamie Oliver recipe made with gram (chick pea) flour, ground almonds, eggs and loads of seeds. It's yummy, nutritious and really filling.
That Astonish cleaner sounds good, I'll look out for it.
Going charity shop shopping tomorrow, I'm a bit too excited!

Thanks babs I do feel better now :) and it's not like I'll never be back - it's a public building that I use as a customer so I'll still see everyone and be involved in the event I created, they still want my input which is nice. :)

Purple I looove charity shops :o

Hope everyone had a lovely bank holiday. I spent mine in the garden digging up the lawn...well patches of it to make veg beds.
I have planted courgettes and dwarf French beans and have leeks ready to in tomorrow. DP fitted 2 water butts for me as I have a water meter and watering all these veg is going to push my water bill right up.
Just as he finished fixing them it started to rain heavily so they are filling up nicely
Lila your budgeting is really paying off and well done on the counselling front....and for your mature judgement.
Hope you feel better soon EM
And Girlie have a wonderful holiday.
Cag, don't be a bit sad ( well ok, miss all your friends) , but you seem to be making a real success of working independently as well as educating you DCs. Remember it is so much harder to be self employed, and it's even harder to do it well...which is what you are doing.
Right, going to wash all the mud off now.
It's freezing here, just lit the fire.

Cag - onwards and upwards

Trying that sounds like a very industrious day!

Purple charity shops are just fab, I love all the bric a brac - enjoy!

Another summer cold here! Slowly dying of a sore throat and headache lol. Was at work today, took my own lunch so a NSD. DH has cut the grass which saves me paying someone to do it. Frugal pasta / brocolli / cheese sauce for tea which used up a head of brocolli which had seen better days.

Fluffy can't you transfer money in & out of account to make up the £1750

Awake since 4am just bought an Otterbox for my phone got 10% disc for signing up for newsletter, still expensive but I need to mind this phone €31.49

Used all my coin yesterday against my credit card bill poor cashier

Thanks for that purple will check it out

Happy holidays to everyone heading off, I'm getting into holiday mode. Bil fiancé came mon night & we had a lovely big glass wine & a chin wag(I've about 20 bottles of wine since we went to France three years ago this weekend as dh doesn't drink it & I don't like to open a bottle for myself), had a half day from work yesterday while dh was getting snip, had a lovely lunch out, did some bedding plant shopping dh paid both of these.
I paid off my mothers frame €65 & bought dd shorts & sports socks for school to take advantage of good weather & 2 bottles of water. Came home & cut the grass myself

cag hope you're doing ok today, that was a nice send off

Fluffy can't you transfer money in & out of account to make up the £1750

Awake since 4am just bought an Otterbox for my phone got 10% disc for signing up for newsletter, still expensive but I need to mind this phone €31.49

Used all my coin yesterday against my credit card bill poor cashier

Thanks for that purple will check it out

Happy holidays to everyone heading off, I'm getting into holiday mode. Bil fiancé came mon night & we had a lovely big glass wine & a chin wag(I've about 20 bottles of wine since we went to France three years ago this weekend as dh doesn't drink it & I don't like to open a bottle for myself), had a half day from work yesterday while dh was getting snip, had a lovely lunch out, did some bedding plant shopping dh paid both of these.
I paid off my mothers frame €65 & bought dd shorts & sports socks for school to take advantage of good weather & 2 bottles of water. Came home & cut the grass myself

cag hope you're doing ok today, that was a nice send off

Need to get dh birthday pressie and the dogs too as he turns 17 so will be spendy today

Yesterday was nsd. Yippee.

I'm having sleep issues again so have booked myself in for accupuncture. It really helped destress last time. I think it's because of all dh's mother crap. I find things v difficult to let go. So need to work on this. Have looked up meditation classes here to help clear my mind. So will see what those are like.

Holiday is all booked now (all hotels/apartments booked via top cashback so at least £10 back on each one!) managed to get a great deal on a hotel right in he centre of Florence. Rooftop pool and what appears to be a suite instead of just a room for just over £300 for 4 nights. It's a bit more fancy than I'd usually go for for a city hotel but it's a 4!place and was on a deal. Usually over £500! Other places I was looking at were 3 and were more expensive and no pool.

Lunch made so hopefully Nsd. Gym tonight to try and tire myself out

Morning all! Thought I'd share my pasta concoction that I made for tea last night, apart from the asparagus which was a non-frugal treat it was a using-things-up meal:
Chopped and fried half an onion, added chopped asparagus stems, frozen peas, crushed garlic clove whilst cooking pasta in a separate pan.
Then I added the asparagus tips and some spinach leaves until the leaves wilted and added some finely chopped mint from the garden.
Finally mixed it all into the pasta and stirred in cream cheese and black pepper. Topped with grated parmesan (well, the cheap sort) and toasted pine nuts. It was delicious!
Will report back on my charity shop findings later!

Sounds delicious purple! I have some asparagus in the fridge, it was the cheapest pack from lidl though

Em that sounds amazing and such a good deal!

Lilac no it doesn't include internal transfers for the bank account.

I'm not sure what to do today as I don't really want to spend any money I will be spending £6.20 booking the spinning class for next week. Eek!

purple that sounds delish! Will have to remember that one!!

wreck it was such a good deal on hotel! We figured that because we'll be in the middle of Florence in the middle of August when it's hot hot hot a pool was necessary. Also Dh and Bil said to me the ther day that they're not keen on all "that cultural shit" and just want to relax. Have pointed out that maybe florence is not the best place to be going (but it's too late all Things are booked) as Florence is the home of "cultural shit"

Am wearing my floweriest of flowery skirts to work today. It's super. This is the pattern. Weather is grey and dull so figured my skirt must make up for it!

Love the skirt. It's freezing here and the dc are being dicks.

That's a lovely skirt, Em. Sadly it is pouring with rain here so my winter boots will be going on again!

Lila I wish I could claim my picnics were all home-made flapjacks and fruit medleys but unfortunately my extra spends were on cartons of juice, cheese strings and chocolate treats !! And after all that the weather is looking dodgy so we're heading to soft play anyway!

Babs your dh is 17?

Just catching up with the thread since I'll be away from it for a few days. Still got so much to do this afternoon before we leave at 5.30ish!

PPI cheque has cleared. Thanks to that and my unexpected paid notice period, I'm now several hundred in the black, for the first time in... erm... and that's despite recently paying for holiday/DD's birthday stuff. Definitely feeling a lot more positive about finances now. Obviously I won't be getting any more wages but at least we've got a lot of the big spends out the way and have more frugal things going on (reduced internet bill kicks in this month, and after the holiday I'll be doing the packaged account fee reclaim thing etc).

We're setting aside some money for the convention as we know we'll end up falling in love with a board game or two while we're there, and I was also given a voucher (one of those use-pretty-much-anywhere type things) from my colleagues yesterday so I'll have a little extra for a treat, which is awesome. :)

Ipso where do you get your electronics supplies please?

Ursula was the batter mix for pancake/yorkshire pudding type batter? As that's something that is really easy to do from scratch substituting GF flour for regular, and it's pretty much the only thing we've made where the GF version is actually as good as the regular one.

Lilac I had an Otterbox case on my old iPhone a few years back, I liked it. It was recommended by my uber-gadgety friend, and I know he always researches everything like that.

Em I've heard Florence is lovely. And yes, definitely a centre for Cultural Shit :o but you can always ditch him at the hotel while you take in the sights yourself. :o

£15.35 in tesco on reduced pitta, soup, two tins, spaghetti, squash, plum tomatoes, goodies biscuits and oaty bars, coffee, raw bites and protein bars.

Cag you've just reminded me that we haven't heard from Barclays yet.

I did well in the charity shop. We only went in the two closest to the car park as it was pouring with rain but we spent £12 and for that we got:
A brand new denim pinafore dress and some M&S shorts for DD.
A big floor puzzle and a toy camera.
A small purse as she likes to play at "shopping", I've also cleared out my purse and given her some train tickets, old business cards and things to put in it.
Best of all we got a Happyland dolls house thing complete with furniture, dolls and ponies for the grand sum of £3.49! Result! She's been playing with it since we got home.
I might go back on Saturday without DD and see what else I can find.

That's an impressive haul purple

Brilliant purple. I never find anything amazing in charity shops.

I can't decide what to have for dinner!

Veggie sausages with roasted med veg and feta

Or

Spaghetti with pesto and left over roast chicken. Probably some grated cheese and grilled asparagus.

Bearing in mind I'm trying to be healthy!

Your so lucky to have a decent charity shop. Ours is rubbish.

55p pedal bin liners.
94p nuts and pop.
£5 petrol.

Sent a top back to boden but no word from them yet. I want an exchange.

Need is awol

purple well done! Great hail!

It is freezing here today. 13 degrees. Grey and ick. I threw out all my tights. So am bare legs or bear legs until winter!