Frugaleers chatting and saving even further into August...

[AGenie]

Just setting up the new thread for the chatty Frugaleers.

Useful links copied from last year:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/other_subjects/1324074-For-those-who-cant-afford-to-use-central-heating-this-year-How-are-you-going-to-cope

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/1543785-your-top-tips-for-money-saving-and-a-more-frugal-life

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/1600030-Small-money-saving-habits-petty-even

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/1628874-Gas-Elec-Bills-monthly-and-SKY-so-angry

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_classics/1911061-NO-MORE-COLD-MUMSNETTERS

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/2209167-Slow-Cookers-are-shit

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/2224969-saving-money

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_money_matters/2258202-Debt-mutual-support-thread-number-6-start-the-new-year-with-a-clear-purpose-and-keep-moving-forwards-even-by-tiny-steps?

orchard.tesco.com/ Sign up to this.

www.topcashback.co.uk/home And this.

www.quidco.com/home/ And this

www.moneysavingexpert.com/ And this

www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheapenergyclub ditto.

www.checkoutsmart.com/ Plus this.

www.hotukdeals.com/all/deals/new?page=3 Check this daily.

Was very strange. I always wanted to be on tv. But not those bits of me.

Am off to meet lovely friend for a lovely big cold glass of rose. She needs wine. I need comforting so I have a "wine pass" this evening from my no drinking month. One glass of wine, a croque Madame (with the fried egg on top) chips to share and maybe a waffle and ice cream naughty

Thanks for the welcome all! My only spend today was £2 on the bus as DH needed the car to work overtime so sometimes you've got to spend to earn I always find the weekends harder to control my spending so really going to make an effort tomorrow

Its Friday woo hoo

Sorry to hear you still have tunny trouble ipsos could it just be a flair up of the IBS rather than something you ate? I get random flair ups from time to time, sometimes stress/anxiety related sometimes not. Have never really found a pattern to it so just go with it now but can be a bit erm inconvenient at times....

Em glad the appointment went o.kay, its good that they have checked you out but yes totally weird to see your cervix on screen Dd was born by emcs and one of the surrealist moments of the whole birth (there were a few tbf) was the consultant saying to one of the trainee drs, we just need to move the bladder out of the way no wonder my bladder has never been the same since

Dd now has a diagnosis of sensory processing difficulties which I don't think she should have got even a few years ago, def more awareness of these issues now.

Work has been hideous this week, am fed up with it constantly running from visit to visit with no time to really catch up or sort things out properly. I'm normally quite positive about work but this week feel a bit beaten down by it oh well

Spends today
£26 to pay off old energy company
£3 on a birthday card, chocolate and a drink.
£7 on fish n chip tea for me and dd.

I made £10 today by selling dds old school sweatshirts so can cancel the last two spends out I def need to get more organised food wise as eating habits to seem a tad unhealthy at the moment

Ooh waffles and ice cream. I would like that! DH has just gone to buy something sweet and puddingy to help me get over the end of the holidays blues. I actually cried about it this afternoon! Other than that and not including whatever DH got me for my birthday it has been an NSD.
We've been looking at larger houses on Rightmove, some lovely ones not too far away so we had a bit of a drive around/nose at them this afternoon and came to the conclusion we like where we live more! I think we will try to extend in a couple of years.
Cag, it certainly can be hard to spot ASD in girls. A girl at school was diagnosed with Asperger's, none of us picked it up. She was hiding it well at school by copying what other girls did to fit in but having complete melt downs at home from the stress of it all. Poor thing. Luckily she got support once diagnosed but she could easily have gone right through school without it being picked up.

Hippos I struggle at the weekend too!

Mmm waffles. Le yum.

I made £10 selling the gro clock today.

Need to properly meal plan tonight for food shopping tomorrow, I've been doing it as I go along recently which doesn't work.

Lots to catch up on..
8 I have that benefit and its real peace of mind, I think I pay less though, I think I with axa.

Regarding passports I kept my name when I married, and dc have a double barrelled name, on their birth certificate and passport. So that's their name now - both me and dh.

Dh spent £40 at lidl to last the week. Will need veg though. (that did include wine, but I'm.impressed as it would normally be more).

allthebest, I think I will take it. At the moment I am overpaying the mortgage by £150, perhaps I will overpay by £125 and save another £25 from somewhere else. I just needed to see how my budget would stretch :(

I want waffles now too! Better not, have SW weigh in tomorrow morning . Sorry work was a bit crappy girlie and that you're dreading going back so much Snuggly

He def loves me

Awww, he's gorgeous wreck.

Spent 90£ in supermarket but that includes a big box of diapers, a wool hottie for baby dd, a wool whole suit for baby dd and 2 body's for dd so quite pleased with that.

That's interesting Cag and Collie that you were even younger, and that you've also noticed the tendency to more diagnosis Em. I've also noticed that in schools. Adora interesting that you have seen diagnoses in the 40s for things that pre-existed. Maybe we all just get organised at this age to figure out what's been going on all along?

Need That's interesting that you have no autoimmune diseases amongst your friends but you still have a friend with a proper named condition.

Sierre I'm sorry to hear about your parents' generations' troubles. Glad to hear your friends are mostly well though.

Wreck we did a deedpoll name change. It's definitely free, unless you want a copy of it put in a vault in London, and then it's a lot of money. We just kept a copy ourselves. My parents are really into genealogy and this really stuffed up their heads.

Girlie yes it could be partly IBS. Creme taught me this fabulous thing called "pacing" which works a treat and has been keeping me well for months, but I dropped the ball totally because of having ds 24/7 in the school holidays. I was due for a crash last week and I think the odd chicken just put the tin lid on it. You're quite right that it's inconvenient.

Snuggly that's interesting about the girl that got an ASD diagnosis. What sort of support did she get once it was diagnosed?

Thanks for all the different perspectives on this.

needastrong Jack Wills outlet is great for gifts-huge reductions.

fluffy what is tip abut NT NZ? We are up for renewal but can't face £££.

I've not had many named diagnosis recently but quite a few sudden deaths/very serious life threatening illnesses in friends/their children this year. I feel very aware of my own mortality at the moment and am certainly not sweating the small stuff and enjoying life's simple pleasures more than I was 12 months ago.

Forgot to add, very strange couple of days in terms of £££ for us.

Spent about quite a bit on trial 2 night camping trip (£40 food, £28 site, £40 entertainment), however, has been invaluable in making us realise we don't want to do long camping holiday abroad next year (which is what we were saving so hard for). Instead, we are still going to budget but use saved money for more smaller treats throughout the year and have a shorter UK break next year. Really think trip we'd planned would have turned into a nightmare and so I'm really pleased we've realised this now for £108 rather than scrimping all year then being annoyed and frustrated when it wasn't at all fun/relaxing.

Can't remember who was after a cheap paper advent calendar

rusty-and-friends-christmas-advent-calendar

Try again:

www.dotcomgiftshop.com/rusty-and-friends-christmas

methenyou I feel that same. It makes me want to throw caution to the wind and just try the things that I wouldn't normally.

I've been thinking about writing a science grant proposal to ask for money to fund some home experiments and I think I'm going to do it. I've never done anything like that before. In previous years the grants I was involved in were written by other people to fund me. This is a step up, even if it is rejected.

Spent £25 in the butchers, meat for 10 days, I would like to start getting a veg box delivered, then just do a monthly food shop for tins, packets etc. has anyone got any recommendations? There are no local greengrocers here so would have to be online.

Yep Snuggly that is basically DD as well. Nobody at school believed us about her struggles as she holds it all in and got on with her work (with great difficulty due to being so flipping stressed) and never got in trouble.

Evening everyone. LSD here just £3.50 on sausage butty with colleagues to be sociable ( that's what I am convincing myself).
Well done Em. These things are never pleasant, but a hell of a lot worse if there is something there. There are not many women who have seen inside their own cervix.
I am a little older than you lot. Friends certainly seem to be diagnosed with named stuff, but what I find surprising is how many young people are diagnosed with mental health issues.
I think a lot of it is to do with society's demands. When my DCs were younger there were " must have" things. ( not that they got many of them as we couldn't afford them). Now, though, it's " must have now".
I think a lot of young people feel pressure to conform and have this stuff.

Trying that's a good point. Ds knows that I order toys from the internet so when he's saved up money for something he now escorts me to the computer to order the thing and then asks constantly when it's coming until it actually arrives. When I think of me waiting 28 days for my Frostie club card and badge is all seems a bit bonkers now. I may just be a soft parent though.

I met my ten year old neighbour recently who was in his garden bouncing on his trampoline. He said "Mum says she'll give me 10p if I do this for 15 minutes." They definitely have a different exchange rate in their house.

methen

If you join nz heritage you get into NT places here plus English heritage.

I bought ours on a credit card and they worked out the cost.

frazzled a lot of the veg box companies do freebies or special offers for trying them out initially, so it's probably worth mixing and matching to start with? We've never tried any I'm afraid.

Agree about the pressure on kids nowadays. I certainly remember certain toys being the latest must-have when I was young (I'm under 30) but certainly not like it is now. There's more and more and more, every day being bombarded with adverts and brands. It makes me cross, especially as Christmas (sorry :o) approaches.

It's ridiculous, some of the kids at the local junior school have their own iPhones and that kind of stuff. I just want my Caglets to be happy with who THEY are you know? Not feeling like they need to define themselves with Stuff. It's all good so far, but I have to admit it is a lot easier since they left school. The aforementioned juniors where DD was is rife with bullying and a lot of it is wealth related. We're in a relatively rich part of town and in this school the divide between the Haves and the Have Nots may as well be a battlefield. It's disturbing.

Yes while it certainly doesn't account for all childhood MH problems, I do think this constant pressure is damaging.

Also I think that's why DD was so confused the other day (I posted about her 'friend' bugging her about why we don't have more money etc) - to her it's like yeah, we don't have enough money for xyz no big deal TBH. Not something we're embarrassed about. Stuff is just stuff, it doesn't matter unless it's books and board games and it certainly does not define us. So she was surprised to hear it framed as a problem, or something to be ashamed of.

Update on the 'friend' actually - today one of the other kids called her out on acting like a bully (she really was TBF, I could hear them all outside), and she said 'well I have no friends, so I may as well be a bully' :( :( :( I think I need to speak to her mum don't I?

I got a free education pack from the UN in the post today. Aimed at KS3 really but thought I'd have a look. It's a book with a CD, worksheets etc. :) DD is excited as she wants to help stop war. :)