The Friendly Frugaleers, figuring out our finances with furry feline photos!

[Cagliostro]

Hello all :)

Girls can be so mean Girlie. Sometimes, parents do need to get involved. You've tried to let her sort it out, but now she's upset. Time for action. Bless you. Not a good day.

6 miles with the club tonight, very enjoyable.

Found an Amazon voucher in a drawer and bought the new Jamie Oliver book. Cheaper than a takeaway trying a new recipe.

Oh that's crap, Girlie. Definitely raise it with the teacher.

Sorry to read that Girlie it really does seem that girls are far worse for this kind of thing :( we had similar with a neighbour recently, I ended up saying to the mum that they had to have a break from each other. I agree, it is good to hold back at first as often these things do sort themselves out, but yeah time to step in now. Poor DD :( hugs.

I'm feeling vaguely, quietly optimistic about tomorrow. Film is 2pm Leicester Square so don't have to rush. Ideally I'd like to grab a bite somewhere with a book. Some people hate the thought of eating in a restaurant alone but I relish the opportunity :o the question is of course where to go. I was also hoping to visit a few museum/gallery shops looking for Christmas presents etc but that may be pushing my luck a bit.

Let the insurance sorty it girlie. How you get dd sorted. Girls can be horrible.
Have a good day in London cag.

Nsd planned today

Ooh cag enjoy London today.

For lunch, try wahaca. There are loads. Mexican street food. Yummmm.

cag enjoy London!

Our tape measure has been shredded by the cat. She obviously had fun!

Just did a long Nectar Canvass survey, took 15 mins of my life for 100 points. When I completed it said "sorry you aren't suitable for this survey!" Grrrr!!

Will probably need to buy new tissues today. And maybe some more lemsips.

Have drawn my happy face on (serious make up today...to hide my dark circles and my spots ) and am off to work. Have a homemade fruit pot and a sandwich for lunch and am taking some earl grey tea with me (used to have a tin at work but someone kept nicking it and not replacing).

collie I hate that, I have my email open at work and immediately after getting an Irish Opinions survey email I opened survey to be told "they'd reached their quota for this survey" I literally have just received the email!

I lost a really long post last night, it probably would've bored you guys anyhow
girlie I'm so sorry for your dd, I hope the teacher can be of assistance to you. I was bullied by a girl at her age and I told the teacher who kept her back after class, and I saw the bully with tears rolling down her face that evening and it has stayed with me ever since, we went on to be best friends for years in our twenties actually
Your poor car, there's nothing worse. My two accidents were as a result of black ice and didn't involve any other cars either time.

Little bit of advice, dd attended a dance & drama class last year from 6-7pm week night locally. She's 6 and gets emotional when tired. This year class on offer locally is 7.30-8.30pm Wed night - there are classes nearby 4.30-5.30 & 6-7. It's same teacher, different children but she would have met them at shows. Au pair tells me that dd is not really participating just watching. Asked dd what was happening, she cried and said she was thinking of quitting and blamed new teacher(which is new teacher at school not class so not relevant at all, deflection!!) I don't want her to quit as she loves it usually but I also think local class is too late on a weeknight. Could I compensate bedtime mon & tues night to allow for late wed? Or aim for her to get through this.

Sorry to hear about your car, Girlie and I hope school can help sort things our for your DD. Hopefully today will be much better.
It's another lovely day here today, have already got washing on, going to try and get bulbs planted and avoid going anywhere. Checked online banking last night, somehow we only have £500 to last the month and have to pay electrician £140 out of that. Goodness knows how we are going to afford Xmas. I don't know what has gone wrong in the last couple of months, we seem to have spent loads.

cag have a lovely day in London, highly recommend patisserie valerie for afternoon tea if it's in the budget, chill, drink tea, read a book, eat nice food le yum

electric I've also brought a packed lunch today. Tesco delivery came yesterday so eating like a queen today.

Multiseed flatbread with black pudding, egg and sugar free ketchup for breakfast.

Snack - mandarin segments, strawberries chopped & served with tsp flaxseed and some greek yogurt.
Lunch - Bacon, Spinach & Tomato sandwich on multigrain bread with extra light mayo - apple if room for it le yum

Made frugal slow cooker chicken curry yesterday - 2 chicken fillets, onion, end of bag of sliced frozen peppers, leftover curry sauce in fridge, leftover curry sauce in freezer. bunged in slow cooker for 4 hours le yum

need your running is going well
girlie your bubble run sounds fab did your dd enjoy?
Myself and my sis doing a 5k on an airport runway at 8.30pm to raise funds for cystic fibrosis on friday night, can't wait

Just checking in. I haven't forgot this thread! Life's just taken over.

Will catch up properly later.

snuggly I know it's overwhelming but could you sit down and list out what expenses you have from here to Christmas and also what income will be coming in and do your budget from that.
Cut out adult gifts completely and focus on the dc. Is there anything you could sell to make a little extra for Christmas.
I can't remember the age of your dc but all I can tell you is I don't remember what I got from Santa most years but I do remember the selection boxes from my uncle, going to mass with my parents, visiting relatives & daddy sitting inside all day to watch tv with us instead of being out farming.

Yes I think we'll have to do that. Hopefully we'll get the vet money back from the insurance soon which will help. Also got car tax reminder yesterday. It's only £30 but could do without it.

I'm coming to yours Mammy, for your food. . Tricky re your DD. 6 is very young for an 8.30 finish I think, by the time she's in bed it will be well after 9pm.

Enjoy London Cag.

Have you checked the bank, see where the money went Snuggly. Have you lots of food in the house?

Should be a LSD, possible NSD.

Can you put the car tax on direct debit Snuggly?

Enough food for a week or so, we've been running down the freezer so it's pretty bare!
I didn't know you could pay car tax by DD but it hardly seems worth it for 30 quid!!!
I have some birthday money that I was going to use to buy some maternity clothes but that might have to wait.
I think it is the vet bills last month that have caused the problem. DH and I have each had 1 night out in the last month but only spent about 20 quid each. Other than that we've been staying in and not buying any alcohol so we should have saved money!

snuggly don't panic! A frugal Christmas is usually the best kind.

Can you withdraw any leftover from that £500 after food, electrician & petrol etc? Even withdrawing £25 cash can go a long way towards Christmas. Hide it in a pot somewhere.

A NSD for us today, tomorrow and all weekend. We're going to go for autumnal walks with homemade ginger cake and hot chocolate in a flask. We may go to the museum too which is free for us.

DSs favourite thing at the moment is collecting leaves & sorting them into colours. He also really loves finding acorns and chestnuts - he lines them up with blackberries and makes the squirrels a "tea party picnic". Toddlers are so cute!

I'm a little stressed about the move. Moving is to costly! I hate seeing the figures decline

I'll be reading all about frugal Christmas ideas today and this weekend. I need ideas

Agghhh! Just remembered it's my mum's birthday in 2 weeks, we were going to treat her to fish n chip supper.
I had been saving towards Xmas but that was before we knew we'd be needing a twin buggy and a new car in the new year! I don't feel like I can justify using it for Xmas now. Luckily I've been buying a few books, crayons etc for DD's stocking throughout the year and her main present is a scooter which shouldn't cost too much.
We usually make Xmas cakes for older family members so I can get all the ingredients from Aldi to keep the cost down.
Don't need any decorations but I might get DD to collect some cones and glitter them, she'd enjoy that and I bought loads of cards and wrapping paper in the sales last year.
Someone has offered us a second hand twin buggy too at a good price, hopefully we can delay collecting it until we have been paid! It is a friend so they won't sell it to anyone else.

We were thinking of caving this week and getting a cleaner, but instead we've made a housework rota. It's going quite well so far. Mostly it just means that instead of tidying and cleaning all the time, I look at the rota and think "nope, it's not your day today; feet up, eyes shut". Zzzzz. So far I like it.

snuggly ooo the twin buggy sounds good! I've never made a Christmas cake

I love the pine cone idea! I forgot that we have been collecting them too.

I went to The Works yesterday (for the first time ever!.. I was in a different town) and it was full of really good stocking fillers for little children.

Curly drinking straw with duck (a bit random though!) £1
Drawingpad A3 or A4 £1
50 x colouring pencils £1.50
A box of wooden dominos 59p
Colouring in books £2 (for boys and girls)
Giant bubble wand £1
Lots of story books £2 each
Sticker box (with 400 stickers) £1

Just in case anyone else has a The Works nearby. If you do free Click and Collect you get 20% off when you spend £10.

Snuggly I'm sure your mum would understand if you made a special dinner at home rather than buying it. My mother's birthday was a month ago and I didn't buy her anything yet, will be meeting her next weekend though so must put thinking cap on! She's into crafting & really enjoyed a voucher for art & hobby shop before so it may be an easy option!

It might only be £30 but if you're going to go overdrawn for it, it might be worth switching to dd.

The Works is great. If you go on Quidco they do the high street thing - I registered my/DH's debit cards on there and get 10% back whenever we use them in there.

Yes she would still enjoy that and DD could help to make and decorate a cake.
I love The Works, Collie I get cheap craft stuff for DD in there. They also do nice children's jigsaw puzzles which make good pressies for little ones.
We have enough Nectar points to buy a substantial chunk of the xmas food anyway.

If my maths are correct, and I think they are because I've used a calculator & shit, we've only spent £130ish on gas since the beginning of January.

4108 X 0.025 = £102. Plus £3 a month standing charge.

I need Dh to fit my chop cloc, I reckon we can switch our heating off for 30 minutes every hour this time of year, I did it last night and after two 20 minutes bursts of heat the house stayed warm & I switched everything off.

He wanted to fit mils ceiling light but I've suggested looking closer to home for DIY jobs.

The electrics static at £4 a week.

Ocado dropped my fabled order off an hour early.

cag ooo good tip! We dont have many of the stores down here. Had them when we lived up country but we didnt have a child back then. Theyre brilliant!

fluffy we've only used £165.95 since January! I'm pretty pleased much less than I thought.