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

[lilacclery]

Thought I'd start us off!

I had the opposite problem at school, wreck. I loved reading and could read at an early age but it has always taken me a long time to read a book (still does). In yr7 our English teacher gave us a book and told us to read the first chapter for homework which I did. Everyone else in the class read the whole bloody book and it was discussed in all the lessons while I sat there not understanding anything they were talking about! This happened with every single book we were set right up until our GCSEs!

Em, our cat is indoors. Not really our choice, we rescued him aged 9 and he'd never been out before. He sometimes wanders round our garden and sunbathes but he's happiest asleep on his chair or my lap!
Supermarket this morning.

Oh snuggly that must have been so hard!

Will be nsd #3 today hopefully!

Wreck, just do what I did and continue to read a variety of books with your DD, all at the level you want her to read. Let her read the school book too, and write the obligatory comment in her reading record. Job done. I promise this will not matter at GCSE.

Beautiful pram Italian, an old fashioned pram, lovely.

Don't tell them Laska!

Girlie Worth having a word with your CM?

I've written a cheque today for £70 for 2 re-marks for DS's GCSE's. You get it back if the mark changes but I'm a bit cross, as it's precludes folk that can't afford to do so in the first place. He's one mark off an A* for both subjects, so worth a punt.

Hopefully get to Aldi later too.

£60 dogs groomed yesterday, they smell lovely and look neat and tidy but it won't last.....

I wish my kids were good readers, they have to be bribed to read a book.
The potential cat sounds exciting Em.

Should be NSD today as just heading off to work. DD complaining her new school shoes hurt. Hopefully she'll break them in, she has lived in trainers for the past 11yrs so proper shoes take some getting used to and she has miles to walk.

Today I'm taking DS1 for a haircut ready for starting school on Monday.

Don't think I need to spend any more today other than getting a loaf of bread from the bakery. Might go to Lidl to see if there's anything nice in their baby event.

I also need to look at pet insurance. Renewal docs came from The Kennel Club quoting £40 a month - hoping I can find decent cover for rather less money than that. (And do it through Quidco, which I've not used before.)

Nice one laska
I lost another 1.5lbs this week at my Unislim class, who'd have thought stopping teaching classes would help me to lose. I've a lot less stress in the evenings now and am sleeping better as a result also.

girlie not knowing your dd at all but just throwing this out there, would it be anything to do with change that she's not keen on cm or an attempt to have you at home a bit more? I'm not cross as a rule but have been known to shout at dc on occassion

wreck last night I took 16 books out of ds's bed when he was asleep and 6 out of dd's.

einstein said “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” this quote is in my local library. I'm going to get it printed and up on their bookshelf.

snuggly I was like you (in reading). When I was 28 I finally found out that my eyes were not quite pointing in the same direction, but it was so subtle that no one had noticed. I got exercises to straighten them and now I can read very well. It was have been a heck of a lot easier if someone had noticed when I was a child though.

Just reading back through the thread - someone asked about gas/electric and broadband. I signed up to some sort of collective bargaining scheme with the council so we're now about as cheap as we can get with that. Broadband is a bit more tricky - I live near Hull which has its own phone system (Kingston Communications) and I don't think we have any other providers. I like KC in general but they aren't exactly cheap!

Duchess I had no idea that Hull had its own phone system! Interesting but it must be frustrating for you.

Yesterday's £10 budget was bang on. Including a book for DS. He loves the Alfie books - we have them all now but he keeps asking for more. I need to find something similar.

Today DH had to buy milk but that's it.

Tomorrow is a NSD.

On Saturday I need to buy DS some reasonably priced pyjamas.

Shopping done - just under £54 including 2 bags of the posh cat litter. Pleased with that.

I don't think it helped me that pretty much all the books we read at school were really boring classics that were difficult to follow. The only one we read that I really enjoyed was 1984.

Iceland shop done £50, I think we can now safely last for 3 weeks apart from milk and fruit etc. I now need to meal plan with what's in. I've just opened some sub accounts on my Halifax online current account, I've named them Christmas , holidays and house. I'm hoping to decorate the whole house over the next year, have 2 nice but cheap holidays and have a stress free Christmas. Any eBay/ overtime profits will go into these accounts, and any cut back savings. So I've just put £40 in the Xmas account as I budget £100 per week for food, I've kept £10 in my purse for milk etc. I just need to keep it up.

Dear God! I'm (mildly) shocked at how expensive my pet insurance quotes are. Any recommendations? I'm with The Kennel Club at the moment and trying to beat their renewal quote with comparable cover.

I'm with Petplan, not sure how they compare to others cost-wise but they are very good.

Thanks all, I'm defn loving the pram. It's super light and easy to pack in the boot...
My surprise pack from smafolk came today and I'm defn impressed, got a dress, stockings, leggings, blouse and linned for approx 30£, which is a bargain. Also went grocery shopping, spent 50£ approx but got loads of veggies, fruit and 12 packs of baby wipes which will do us for the rest of the month.

Em: good luck with looking for a cat. Our cat kinda found us, but we wouldn't wanna be without her, she's a real comfy snuggly lazy cat and her patience with dd is amazing.

Wreck: I have always been a very fast reader and could read in 3 languages when I started school, so I followed the normal curriculum and then my teachers would find me extra books to read for fun. I was really encouraged to read as much as I wanted. And j can already see now on dd that she is loving books and trying to read letters so we are encouraging her without pushing...

Lila: love that quote, might steal it and write it over our snugly book corner.

We don't have pet insurance, it was to expensive for a cat her age, so instead we add a bit of money to the saving every month that is for in case of vet bills. It seems to be better value for us. Here you also mainly have insurance for dogs, which the law also states you have too...

.

We're with Tesco for pet insurance for about £9 a month, but that's for a cat.

italian those clothes look gorgeous!

Duchess. Pet insurance depends on whether you want 'lifetime' cover or not. So, if you don't want a particular injury or illness excluding at renewal, it will be more expensive. For example, Ddog2 was attacked and his leg was broken as a puppy, that leg will cause him issues at some point and may need further surgery. We are with Petplan, who continue to cover, but some don't. My thinking is that further treatment may cost £££££, so I will continue to insure, but it's up to you.

Aldi, £40, but I got new food containers and 4 pairs of sports socks for me, dishwasher tablets and aslo cutlery for the horse box.

Anyone back on books? I've gone off the Kindle and back to books. Treated myself to the Book Thief, which I have never read, £3 on Amazon.

Good planning Frazzled

I'll have a look at Tesco - PetPlan was a lot more than the Kennel Club. We have just put a claim in for £600 or thereabouts so is worth it IMO whilst we can still get it.

Thanks Sierra... The normal value for the clothes are 60£ so good bargain I think. Have ordered my cousins baby girls baptism gift, a flag for the table from georg Jensen, we are 3 sets of cousins who's joining in so each pays 20£. So they'll pay me back

need we read actual books but we go to the library and just get a huge armload out every week. It's mainly picture books for ds but dh gets three each week too.

Beautiful, Italian. So is the pram, by the way.

I've always been on books, Need. I mainly get them from the library now, but my mum brought me over a few too when she was here recently. Let me know what you think of "The Book Thief", as I think I'd like it. I have a kindle app on my phone, but I hardly ever use it. I make a list of books I read every year and then aim to beat the target next year! Goodreads is handy for that. I'm on my 26th book of the year so far, which I'm pleased with, as I normally manage 15-20. In common with several of you, I was a voracious reader as a child.

NSD so far.

The Book Thief is excellent but DH and I both found the style of writing took a bit of getting used to at first.
I have a Kindle and I like Goodreads for getting recommendations and I like keeping a wish list. I then go on the library website and reserve the books I want to read as it's free and I prefer actual books, especially as I like to read in the bath!
My mum has very kindly bought DD's new shoes which has saved us some money today. We've just been for a lovely walk in the sunshine to test them out.
DH filled the car up last night so that was another 50 quid or thereabouts. Aiming for NSD tomorrow.
I'm starting to look forward to some autumn walks, already a few acorns and conkers on the ground round here!

Thanks, Snuggly, for the review. Is"The Book Thief" translated from German?