The Friendly Frugaleers, saving and chatting as autumn arrives

[AGenie]

Hello all :-)

I can't work out when next started forcing it into account, im sure I used to be able to choose to pay by card.

Hi all, have managed a NSD up to now but need to get £20 out to pay for dds football club (that has come round very quick!)

Interesting re the parental leave discussion, I get what you are saying need but at the same time no one should have to feel (like I did) that you can't take a day off even when your child is seriously unwell. Although TBF (and I have been thinking about this a lot) I would now always take time off as I would never felt as guilty about missing work as I do about leaving dd when she needed me

Off to footie now

Same here mummy about Next. It was definitely an account style when I bought some maternity trousers just over a year ago, but I'm sure I've paid by card previously. They also used to automatically add on a Next directory for £3.50 2-3 times a year that you had to call them to opt out of!

Hello. Back fromaccupuncture. £58. It's been an expensive day. Sigh.

My posts are a weird green too. They used to be purple.

I don't like the post changes. Too pasty
£5 into the guide dogs charity.
£47 in sainsburys

Dinner was superb and it used up so many odds and ends! Pleased with that.

Dinner here was strange. Chicken cooked in yoghurt and spices. Corn on the cob and 4 sweet potato chips. 4. Because dh had 10 chips and I had the corn on the cob. We must must go to the shop tomorrow. neither of us can be arsed today we are out of food. Almost.

Friends with catface now.

Gah, water off in the town. Sent dh to shop for bottled as gasping for a cuppa.

She will realise it's out of love boobs

She seems to be back to normal. Sat on the window sill looking out. .

Yay.

Tomorrow I'm going to the gym. Spinning to be exact. Eeek. Haven't been for ages.

Cats get used to it when they realise that they come home again. It's a minor inconvenience in their life of living rent free and doing cat stuff all day.

Just back from the Owen Jones talk. It was good, but similar to his book. One of the points raised was statutory politics at school, to explain how politics work, which would hopefully give people more understanding and vote, which I would agree with.

So, spends: £3.80 bus there; £2.30 on a coffee for me and Sprite for DS and £15.50 for the taxi home, which is usually closer to £20. Total: £21.60.

Couple of frugal wins today. Finally downloaded the bus ticket app onto my phone and realised they have a new type of ticket called 60 Minute. Instead of buying a single at £2 you get an hour for £2.10. I bought two in case I was in town longer than expected but I didn't need it - managed to get to town, buy chocolate what I needed in town and get on a bus home within the hour. Bargain! I felt properly shit this morning too - ended up sticking a nature documentary on iplayer for the Caglets while I slept so pleased I managed to get out a bit.

And I just read on my emails that I've been selected for a Ravensburger product test, it was one where I had to write why I would be a good reviewer, link my blog etc, so I'm really chuffed with that. Apparently if you write well you get added to their regular reviewer list. :)

Big day tomorrow, we are off to the royal albert hall for a primary school concert! So excited, never been there before. Going up as soon as peak time ends so we can take our time, we're hoping to get a double decker bus (funny how they are a massive excitement to the Caglets, as where I grew up all buses were double!) from Victoria. I'd really like to get in a visit to NHM or science museum after but we shall see.

£3 on fruit in town, £11.90 on post School snack with DDs, only time this month.

Kitchen now useable so groceries only £69.45, that included wine on offer. Bloody dog snaffled the bread I forgot to put away

Frugal win, ordered 2 ítems on líne as couldn't decide and one ítem was wrong, like a Biker jacket instead of the sweater invoiced. I called and they have given me a £20 e-voucher.

Will try to catch up tomorrow, stuck at home for trades people, again.

Need I'm always really impressed that small business owners manage to accommodate the rights of their employees at all. I tried sole trading as well as jobs in big organisations.

In the big organisation jobs so many people spend all day doing personal stuff at their desks and getting nothing done, and yet somehow seem to still get paid. Then when I switched to sole trading, it's almost a miracle if I can get a day's wage at all, as so much time is spent on minutiae and finding clients and talking about contracts, before the paid work even starts.

It really impresses me that a small company that is in the middle between these two opposites can manage to provide consistent work, and a consistent salary for employees, and still accommodate their human needs at the same time. Hats for your dh, I think. He must be doing a fine job.

Having said that wreck when I look at it from your side of things, I do think it would be well worth your dh looking into an occupational pension scheme. Retirement income is hugely important and I'm quite sure he's working hard there and deserves to have some retirement income laid down.

Hats off to your dh I mean. MN very slow to load today.

Good morning all, thank you for the new thread!
I had a not so frugal but much needed break, but now I'm back:) having a very early coffee with Himself the cat next to me.

Sorry to hear people have been poorly, wishing you all speedy recovery!
Gosh, what was it with all the appliances breaking?

One frugal win, I bought some lovely knee high leather boots for 35 euros! Very pleased with that as they're much needed for the winter :)

So now, back to frugaleering! I need cat litter (desperately) and some veg. I still have £8 off a £40 shop with waitrose, will set my preferences and see how much I can save further. I also need some dry food for the cat.
I have lots of washing to do. As in silly amounts, at least another 3 loads on top of the 2 I did yesterday.
I also need to pay the balance for DD's bus fare.

I am having a huge family meal soon (I must think of a menu). ExH decided he must have DD one night this month and he chose it that very weekend. I said no, he is insisting it's the only one he can do. He's being an arse because he feels left out, so he needs to punish me. There is no way he's joining us, like he's angling. Not fair on leaving the decision with DD, she is the child. So we'll have a fallout nice, and then he'll moan about it to DD, how nasty mummy is.
Oh well.

Spendy day as have the vets later. Ds has swimming this morning will try not to buy coffee

Enjoy the Albert Hall, Cag.
Managed my meal plan, off to supermarket this morning.

Oh yes Cag that sounds so fun I'm really jealous!!

8 he's being a dick ignore him. How old is dd? Can you tell her her dad wants to see her this month and you've said he can have her any night apart from X as you've got your meal so you'll wait and see which date he decides?

Need this reminder every now and again!

Just back from the doctor. No more anti inflammatories for a while and I've been referred to hydrotherapy. Gotta go back to the Doctors on Friday for another check up.
But that cost me £1.25 on the bus. Also bought lip balm for £1.19 as my lips are so dry and spent my boots points on an autumnal nail polish.

Home now and no more spending for the rest of the day.

at the dog Adora.

Enjoy the day Cag.

I agree Girlie. No one should feel guilty at taking time if they need it. Our guys would be fully supported. They know this. There's a greater resource and financial cost when employees are few, as Genie says. Although the small business is still expected to be able to accommodate all the legislative protection an employee rightfully has, within the economies of scale that the NHS, for example has. It's proportionately harder sometimes to be a good employer.

Thank's Genie. That's kind. You sum it up well. DH does feel the pressure to effectively pay 10 peoples mortgages every month. He's bi-polar too, so I think he manages everything quite amazingly, but I'm biased.

I've switched the heating insurance over this morning to Scottish Power. £10 pcm saved, 4 months free and £30 cashback.

The Jamie Oliver squash and mac cheese wasn't something I would make again. Okay, but not great.

Glad you're on the mend collie and they seem to be looking after you!

8 that is annoying, why do men do this? Its things like that that make me glad dds dad has no involvement at all, although that has its downsides as well obv. Glad you had a nice break though and good to see you back, how are you finding the new pad?

I am enjoying a day off, the plan is to take the car to the repair garage for an estimate on the cost to repair it after I was hit last week, pop to Morrisons for a few bits and poss go for a swim.....

Its gone pretty cold here now, we had a frost ystd morning

Not forgetting our other furry friends!