The Friendly Frugaleers, saving and chatting as autumn arrives

[AGenie]

Hello all :-)

I've downloaded that app! Thanks fluffy

Beautiful cat photos. It's coming up to the 2nd anniversary of my 16 year old tabby passing away.

Right, spends: £120 deposit towards a school trip for DS. I've emailed the school and asked if they can help, as DS receives pupil premium. I've also told DS he needs to contribute £100 towards it, as the total cost is £470, which IMO is a lot for 5 days away in this country. The trip is in July, so we have time. Also, £20.20 top-up shop in the Co-op and £1.90 bus fare home. Apart from milk and bread last week and this £20 top-up, I haven't done a shop since the 28th September and that one was under £45. but in a good way! So, meal plan until Friday is:
Today: I had an omelette and salad after Pilates and DS had pasta and pesto.
Tomorrow: macaroni cheese with spinach.
Wednesday : same.
Thursday: veggie sausages, mash, mixed veg and gravy.
Friday : veggie burgers and chips with salad.

Don't forget the doggies.

You are so going to cry em. Try to hide your stress though so catface doesn't pick up on it.
Ah crème ((hugs))
I like the parental leave suggestion with the exclusion period.

£1.09 on blue food colouring. Ordered £60 of meat from butchers pick up sat.
Cheeses scones were planned but cba

Hi all, quick sign on!

Think I have managed a NSD.

The Mary Poppins show is amazing, magical

Creme i am dreading all the expensive school trips once dd starts secondary school, they sound amazing but not cheap!

I found out (finally) what caused that house fire a little while ago - apparently it was a tumble drier scary stuff, they still haven't moved back in.

Had my flu jab this morning

Glad your boy is feeling better wreck but yes managing sick kids and work is a nightmare. I still feel guilty 6 months on for going into work the day dd was taken into hospital would be much quicker to take time off in future I think.

She went in her box! On her own. Let's hope she does it again tomorrow.

I scoooed her litter out before ick worst job ever and took it outside. She looked concerned but I promised her I'd be back. Walked to the bin and turned around and she was in the window. Watching me.

wreck it turns out that Sweden already has your idea of paid parental leave for when kids are ill. Who knew?

matadornetwork.com/life/reality-parenting-sweden-will-make-rethink-raise-kids/?utm_source=fb&utm_medium=social&utm_content=inf_10_49_2&utm_campaign=bos&tse_id=INF_9d1d25508e3611e6b6db4d0235f40af5

I agree with the paid parental leave when DCs are ill. It was a nightmare when mine were younger because I had a very sickly DS. Very bad asthma. But I think it ought to be paid on top of CB or something by the govt. if the company is very small and only if there is a doctor's cert. very small companies may struggle I think.
Hope it goes well with Millie boobs.

When ds was sick & in hospital last winter work very kindly paid me for two days & the other two came from my holidays. This year I'm hoping with having taken him to salt rooms quite regularly that he won't get so sick

Mammy, what are salt rooms?

Creme that sucks. I'm dreading school trips too it's so expensive. I hope the school help out.

Boobs amazing progress!

AGenie of course they do! Sweden is the best I want to live there.

My mum has said she will have him, I do feel bad as she has all the same chronic health probs as me so hope she doesn't catch anything. Plus she lives completely the opposite of direction to work

Oops. So much for my vow to keep on top of the thread! Belated thanks for the new one genie

Many congratulations to ursula!

I still haven't bought a vacuum

I have had to dip into savings for this house move. An extra £540!

I've just hired some totally unknown painters to fix and paint some rotten wood high up on the roof of our house. I've been looking for someone to do it for two years with no success, so I'm taking these guys and crossing my fingers. Yikes!

Part of my reasoning for being at home for the next few years is child sickness. When I was working full time with wilf in full time nursery he seemed to get ill a lot and juggling that was hard. Both my kids have a lot of Appointments even though they are getting fewer. With my job if I needed a day off it was very hard as I was an integral part of things and it could be very hard.

Need peppers and sour cream for wraps tonight. That will be meal three from my pork shoulder. Trying to work out a forth. Yesterday we had it sautéed with carrots and onions and the leftover roast parsnips and potatoes served with a fried egg. The joint cost £5 so if I can get 4 meals for two adults and two kids I'll be pleased.

trying Here is wikipedia's description of the saltrooms
The term “Halotherapy” comes from “halo”, the Greek word for salt. Simply put, Halotherapy is the use of salt vapor to treat respiratory ailments, skin irritations, and combat mental lethargy. For centuries, monks used naturally-occurring salt caverns to treat respiratory ailments

Basically where we go the salt is piped into a room which has loungers and toys and a tv and for 45 mins I/au pair read a magazine, ds and sometimes dd play with ikea toy kitchen and salt in a sand table and inhale the salty air. The dc seem to sleep better as a result and ds has not used the nebuliser once this year It costs €100 for 10 sessions but the benefits to us outweigh that, no worries, sleepless nights checking for breathing, fighting with ds to take nebuliser, pumping drugs into ds are all gone

Our joint account balance is lowest I've seen in a long time but there's food in the cupboards(Aldi €110 last night plus €7.98 on a pair of pjs for each for ds and dd), the mortgage is paid and bills are met. We're paid weekly so it's ok.

mammy we don't have salt rooms here but one of the spas has a salt steam which is great! Unfortunately to use it you either have to stay at the hotel it's located in (at £400 a night) or buy a spa treatment (minimum spent £80).

I survived the vets. And so did catface.

There was a bit of a struggle getting her into the box. She hid. Hissed. Spat. Clawed. And eventually as we were running out of time I had to scruff her and pop her in. I cried at this point

The vet was lovely. He answered all my questions. He weighed her (3.8kg) he advised we should feed her the 4kg amount of food. And he popped the flea treatment on her for me. She's in great condition apparently.
£68. But I think I can claim some of that back on insurance.

Now sat watching tv having tea and toast before I head into work at 1.

Ok so I've caught up now (well, on this thread).

Toaster that pear, almond and raspberry sponge looks amazing.

Ursula congrats. on the birth of your twin girls. Lovely news

Collie sorry to hear you've been so ill! Sending some to you.

Noitsnot sorry to hear about the tumble dryer. That was bad timing. You seem a bit worried about the cost of some building work. Have you actually committed to it yet? If funds are tight then I'd only get building work done if it's absolutely essential.

Trying hope the building work goes well. Are you getting anything exciting done?

Wreck Poor DS. Glad he seems to be over it now.

Shesgot "I have a fanny that smells like roses so I'll probably attract a hive of effinng bees." That made me laugh!

Wilderness What a beautiful cat!

CremeEgg £470 does sound like a lot of money for a UK trip. At least they gave you lots of notice.

It's Budget Day in Ireland so we're all hoping the government will reduce the USC (emergency tax they introduced when the recession hit). Our economy has improved quite a bit in recent years. However, there are a lot of concerns about the potential impact of Brexit on our economy. For example, if the sterling rate continues to drop, it may pose difficulties for our exporters who trade in the UK as our goods will be more expensive to buy. On a personal level, the sterling rate drop has been beneficial as it makes it cheaper to order items from sites like Amazon. I'd pretty much stopped ordering from Amazon as the sterling rate was so high and then we've to pay postage costs as well, so it actually worked out cheaper to walk into a shop here and pick it off the shelf.

I'm putting together a shopping list for a Tesco delivery at the weekend. I've kind of got into a routine with it now. The first order after pay day (DH gets paid monthly) is the most expensive as I stock up on cleaning products and freezer items and treats like a bottle of wine. Then I stick to the basics for the next few weeks until pay day rolls around again.

Hi tayto [waves at fellow ROIer!]
I haven't read or heard anything about the budget this year, have been busy so haven't been reading/viewing/listening to news in any shape or form.

I've been taking advantage of amazon & sterling lately tayto using parcel motel and last order have used AddressPal with post office 45c cheaper and they'll hold for 5 days.

That's a really good idea with Tesco delivery I do enjoy getting stuff from them now and again, we get paid weekly so wouldn't have the €'s to do a big monthly shop but if I did the bigger stuff with child benefit and only small fresh top ups maybe that could work out well or I could use money I get at christmas to build a fund for big monthly shop.

electric at price of salt therapy there, I thought it was expensive here If it keeps ds off inhalers, nebulisers and out of hospital it's a winner and essential to me

mammy I get my shopping delivered as I don't have a car. If I had a car, I'd probably just do a cheap weekly shop at Lidl or Aldi and avoid paying a delivery charge. Although I must admit, getting my shopping delivered is soooo convenient. Even if I had a car, I'm not sure I'd give it up now. I'm careful about meal planning and I do a thorough inventory of stock (a fancy way of saying I check what's in my presses and fridge/freezer) before I make my shopping list. I check the unit price of everything and may buy items in smaller or larger quantities depending on the unit price. Tesco often have offers such as 'Buy 2 x €1.80 items for €3 so I take advantage of those kinds of offers but only if:- (1) it's something I actually use and (2) it's something with a decent shelf life so there's no danger it will go out of date before I get to use it. Also, I know in advance what the total cost will be so there are no nasty shocks when I get to the till. If my total is running a bit high, I can go back and take something out. So far I've been using my Clubcard vouchers as I go along but next year I might save them up and use them at Christmas. It's such an expensive time of year that I'd probably benefit more by using them all together when I do my 'big' Christmas shop rather than making small savings throughout the year.

Mary Poppins is a win in more ways than one - usually my mum buys so many ( too many) presents for DD and we just don't have the space, especially now there are three of them! So earlier in the year I suggested mum 'do' something with DD as her present. I think they're going to have a lovely experience together with memories that last a lot longer than a bag of toys.

£4.98 on two kindle books

Have booked biscuit in at the vets tomorrow will ask about long term treatment for his allergy. We're over the first 14 days of insurance now so I can claim if it's more than £60

Trying Can I just say thanks for mentioning the effect that parental leave would have on a small business? Great that folk think it should be an entitlement, super. We are a small company. There's no cover for an employee if they are sick or off, it doesn't work like that. If there's no cover, then we can't fulfil our orders. We can't fulfil our orders, customers find someone who can. We don't then make money. We can't therefore pay tax or take on other staff. What does our corporation tax pay? It pays for education, the NHS, roads, infrastructure.

We treat our guys very well. We always pay full pay when they are sick. They can go to the doctors or dentist or whatever and not have to book leave. We pay them a substantial bonus each year, overtime and way in excess of the minimum into their pension scheme. We must do something right as no one ever leaves! Most small businesses do. But we can't pay for everything and frankly, I resent the fact that it's considered that we should.

Quite often at high school you get a lot of notice about big trips Girlie. I mean like 2 years! And a payment plan usually, which makes it far more manageable. If they take the payments online, easier still.

LSD, just some stuff from M&S. Not going out for a few weeks with DH being away on business, so I don't mind a few treats.

NSD and still haven't bought a vacuum.

We have a very good handheld one which is doing a great job (does take a while though!)