Super Scrimpers sashay, save & --squander-- their way through September

[lilacclery]

Thought I'd start us off!

She's charging about in the other room. But she's playing. Like a proper cat. (I'm just glad she doesn't have the jingly bell balls cos that's get annoying).

Can I take ALL the credit please? Clearly not stroking her while eating was the key.

Joke......

You can all have the credit. Being supportive. Cheers guys!!

am secretly hoping that she's exhausted herself and will sleep through

:) NSD, 4th in a row. Yay!!!

Yay, Em, success. I used to have a long red ribbon (several metres long) and my little cat used to chase round the house after me as I pulled it along. And my friend has a small laser light that is specially for cats and her daft cat chases after that.

Yay for Millie

And yay for another home edder :o

DH has got 11 kids for sports tomorrow! Not including our two!

Couldn't resist a card game in the charity shop today. £1 brand new and has been on my wishlist a while (at £10). And £2 on a Divine chocolate bar I haven't been able to find for so long I thought (with much misery) they'd stopped making it (dark chocolate and raspberry)

There was a sign asking for volunteers at the Oxfam shop, specifically for sorting/pricing books. I've emailed to see if they'd let me do some with the Caglets, not sure if their insurance etc would allow. Worth a try though.

I'm definitely finding cash only is helping me spend less. I'm much more aware of it.

cag that chocolate sounds amazing!!

I've done some internet shopping. £39 in newlook on a pair of trousers for work and a shirt dress. And a pair of leopard print flats from accessorise. Both via top cashback.

you have no idea how happy I am that Millie is playing. I thought maybe she didn't know how. (But she was living rough and catching rabbits from all accounts). Reminds me of dms cats who used to have a mad hour before they went to bed. They wouldn't chase anything but would just dart about the living room. Like crazies.

I'll pop my head in briefly and wave while trying to avoid the Fruflu - hope everyone feels better soon. Great progress with Millie em! Sounds like she's making great progress with you.

LSD today, just £3 fare to pick DC1 up from nursery. Getting her fringe cut tomorrow but that hopefully should be it. Her nursery fees were covered by DH's childcare vouchers this month, so I've banked mine to use when DC2 starts in January.

Did another couple of surveys which should have upped my total enough to claim a voucher once they've registered. Boots or Sainsbury's do you think?

NSD

Yeah for Millie cat.
Need I think it was entirely your advice.
I love the fact we can have the craik and it's fine. Love a bit of banter.

Welcome back Lego

Going to the range and home bargains to buy baking shite today. It's an addiction I had conquered. Ah well, not many years of cake making left

Great news em!

£1 on jeans for genes day

Need to pay hospital parking later probs £4

How's the cold today Em? I know what you mean about the funny eyes. It's definitely a sinus cold this. On the plus side, I haven't spent any money.

Glad to hear that Millie is happy. Well done there.

Yai for Millie the cat you get so attached to them so these little progresses makes it all worth it. Should be nsd I think...

Brilliant news about Millie! Our cat has a little bell on his collar I love hearing him around the place with it, but he is outside so I guess it's easier to live with
cag hope weather is good for your dh's sports class
I had brought my irish opinions balance up to €15.75 and had intended building it up to €20/€30 but dh's gd is coming tomo and we're heading out for afternoon tea to celebrate her aug birthday & she adores reading so I got €10 in an Easons ecode and going to let her shop online to purchase her own book books which will then be delivered to her house next week, think she'll love it she's 9!

A health food shop I purchase from online does free delivery over €30, I hadn't ordered from them since Feb and they're cheaper than the supermarket or bringing dc to healthfood shop. I ordered Wed & will receive delivery today, I knew the way they give a monthly discount code so used that to get €4 off my total, this morning I got an email with 10% off because I hadn't ordered in a while, grr it would've only been a few more cent

wreck how are things with dh now. My dh blows up like that over silly things like the comment you made too, not so frequently now since he's been getting counselling. I totally get where you're coming from when you're constantly trying to micromanage your budget and do good portion control and then he just wastes food like that. I bet in his eyes he was being generous to you all because he loves you

How's it going with your DH Lila, if you don't mind me asking a personal question. Just that I've been there and done that, so I can relate. My own DH has had a bit of a trough lately, but nothing like before he medicated.

Today I will spend £30 on some sedation for Dpony, so I can clip him as he's hairy and sweats too much when worked.

I've put £30 in a card for DN, who is 18 today. We are also going out for tea tonight, involving taxis and a fancy meal and cocktails which will be expensive, but DH seems to have done some form of cash deal and has money in his pocket..... this is rare to be fair.

DBiL turned up randomly last night at 10pm wanting a bed for the night, but has gone already. Told him he knows where the linen cupboard is, and where the towels are kept etc.

5lbs off so far just moving more and not eating shite.

Having an Ocado delivery today, first one. I will report back but seems expensive. I got £20 off the first shop though and free delivery.

Girlie When the kids were small, between them they had a club on 6 days of the week and I did it all as DH was always away. It's knackering, I feel the pain. DD also put on a little weight while developing into a teenager, it went though, although she has to naturally be more careful than the rest of us.

Need I'd be interested to know what you think of Ocado. I've tried them a few times but find their minimum order price very high for me, since I don't want to do a whole shop there.

I also have the option of a Waitrose delivery, which for me means largely the same range of groceries, but with a much lower order value. I tried them for the first time last week and they have sent me three coupons for £12 off a £55 shop, if I go in person. They have free delivery too, whereas Ocado costs a lot for delivery for me.

It's all a bit puzzling as I do my main shop in Tesco, so getting up to a big minimum order value is tricky, but Waitrose have some thing we really need, that Tesco don't. I'd be interested to know what you find in your experiments.

This is totally off-topic but I just read this wonderful thing about helping kids avoid nastiness bitchy behaviour in the playground. It really hits the spot with me:

smceducationblog.tumblr.com/post/150629869120/girls-and-their-frenemies

Thought I'd share it in case it help others.

Cag I'd be especially interested to hear what you think.

Happy to hear Millie is playing! That's bloody brilliant.

We had a full night's sleep last night. Yay!! DS is MUCH better. I was so worried. The weekly shop has gone up to £75 to include his new dietary requirements. It will be easier / cheaper from now on because the more I read - the easier it is to cut certain things from his diet. It's only a trial to see if it makes any difference - it was the GPs idea.

Also, the car needs TLC. A little warning light has come on & the tyre is wearing unevenly and so it needs a trip to the garage. Sulk!

Conveyancing and estate agent are really getting me down. There's hidden costs around every corner.

I feel like I'm losing control of money and it's scary. £70 here, £70 there, £70 on the car - it's going to add up faster than I can say fuck off.

He hasn't spoken to me since lilac but I haven't spoken to him either. He did give me £2 for parking

collie That's wonderful that your ds slept well. What a relief! Sorry to hear about all the expense. Hang in there.

I'm really happy recently to discover that ds can manage rice krisipies and coco pops as well as Ready Brek. Once of our great difficulties was that he didn't get on with fortified food, but I can now reliably get him all the vitamins he needs every day. Phew! He is very rosy cheeked from all the iron these days.

I'll read that later today Genie funnily enough DD came out of Brownies the other day saying "Mum the other girls at Brownies keep staring at me" :( no idea if it's actually happening or if she's getting paranoid (due to the neighbour who is definitely a frenemy). She said "why are kids mean to the ones who are different or have autism and stuff like that" :( Going to email brown owl and see if she's spotted anything. DD does have a couple of really good friends there though.

DH is down at the park doing the first sports thing, I'm heading down later. One person has texted to say they aren't coming now due to illness but they are the one who paid by PayPal last night. So now i have a dilemma; do I give the money back, or save it for the next session so they don't pay then, or just leave it? In future once we have the groups properly set up I'll be taking advance payment a few weeks at a time, so then it's basically going to be tough luck if they miss one (that's how it works with gym, trampolining etc) but not sure if I should do that now or not bearing in mind everyone else is just paying cash on arrival?! Argh! Any thoughts please?

Cag I think it depends whether you need people to commit, or whether you can have people turn up adhoc. The usual options are:

• Pay a term in advance
• Lose your fees if you cancel less than 24 hours in advance
• pay on arrival.

I suppose it's all down to how much competition there is for your class really. If there is a lot of competition then you can ask people to commit to a term in advance. If there is no competition then letting people cancel and have their fees back will encourage them to stick with it.

I'm always a pay on the day person, and don't sign up to pay-in-advance classes as would lose a stack of money that way.

I hope that article helps your dd. It about exactly the thing that she's talking about in Brownies and she's such a thoughtful, analytical person that it might be right up her street.

Sitting at Burger King, stupid I know but feeling lousy today...dh been acting strange these last couple of days, been unengaging and grumpy... So now I txt him and told him it, because it's impossible to get trough to him in the evenings... Not sure what's going on but have a feeling that it had nothing to do with me but I'm getting the brunt of it...
Sorry for the essay, not frugal talk I know...

Today's spends £2.15 on a Danish and a orange juice

havevhad 2 glasses of prosecco. Boss' 60th today.

Now waiting for dh to leave work for lunch to buy me a sandwich. He's always late...

Oh Italian, we all need a little treat from time to time. I hope you enjoy it and feel better soon.