BOO! The Freaky Frugaleers prepare for Halloween and beyond. All welcome!

[Cagliostro]

:)

snuggly, how old is your current child(ren) - are they old enough to fetch wipes and make themselves generally useful when you have one baby on each arm? I am an older sister to twins and my mum got me trained up from the get go. In fact I was required to pick things up from the floor for her after about 30 weeks pg because she couldn't get down and back up again! It must have been v hard work for mum in the early days but she did a grand job and I am very grateful as I am very close to my siblings.

christmas

Lofts need ventilation to air so I don't think the insulation usually goes to the edge, if the boarding over has disrupted the ventilation then it could cause condensation & as that usually collects at the bottom of a wall/window I'd check under the lagging.

Have you checked the items you've stored up there for mould?.

Alternatively there could be a leak in the cold water expansion tank if you have one.

If you post in property there's several clever people who will know what to do.

Hi collie did you move?

My friends have suffered dampness in every rental they've lived in but they very rarely turn on their heating & their dc are always coughing & getting chest infections Christmas you're doing everything correctly so don't deserve it!

Our heating cost €180 to put right because dh could do most of the work himself. I imagine it would've been close to €500 otherwise.

New electricity provider includes free boiler insurance for a year

NSD today, I've got a very tired and grumpy child, I made a decaf coffee with some Bailey's, got a couple of candles on, chucked the kid in the bath, now for some relaxing.
In a minute I'll fold the dry washing and get the kid out and go to bed, because I'm about to explode at the said kid.

It's been raining all day here and very miserable. Hope it's not heading your direction tomorrow.

Nsd today

Fencing ds is infuriatingly energetic tonight & I don't want to get cross with him because i see so little of them in evening anyhow.

We got our dates for Christmas holidays today, we usually have 2 weeks off but this year we've a week with weekend on either side so 10 days, feels very short. Will be good to not use up annual leave early in the year too though

Thanks for the advice Fluffy. When they installed the lagging and boarding they didn't go right to the edges so it should have been okay but obviously not . I am not sure whether I need a roofer or builder or damp person to look at it, will post in property as you suggest. The stuff up there is mostly baby stuff from DS, lovely clothes etc. I haven't dared to look at it yet but I fear the worst!

Thanks everyone :) No we didn't move. It all went a bit crazy. Will try again next year! Massive frugal fail!

girlie definitely call the developer. Tell them you have been told that the wiring is "dodgy". We need to get hold of our developer too as our bathroom floor has gone horrible. had a bathroom fitter / plumber come out to say we definitely don't have a leak though! Phew!! The lino itself is under warranty.

Carbonara was amazing! Le yum. maybe a smudge too much garlic though

I've been reliably informed by the bank the strange payment was for a petrol station. Near us. Which we do use. But I can't for the life of me work out why I'd have only topped up£5.30. Hm. But maybe I stopped for stuff.

In bed. Feeling a bit wibbly. Really overwhelmed by everything this evening. No idea why. It all just hit me.

Dh caught me on the couch crying and ushered me off to bed. I've got a hot water bottle and a mint tea. He's said he'll speak to me about it tomorrow. He's been reading some book or other about how to deal with anxiety when it's someone else suffering I found it the other day so I assume this is what it says. Don't force them. Let them work it through then deal with it.

No other spends other than the food shop.

collie on man so frustrating for you but if it's not meant to be it's not meant to be. Next year. Onwards and frugally upwards. Xx

Welcome new peeps!!

italian I hope you're ok and hope that you've had your squishy cute little baby face. Xx

Hope you feel better tomorrow Em
Welcome Christmas and Mummy. This is a great thread. Really helpful and supportive.
Oh Collie, I hope you are ok about not moving. Don't unpack. It will happen for you soon.
Christmas I think you seem like a lovely person and your DS has the best ever mum.
Had to go to Aldi on way home tonight as I had actually run right out of butter. Only went in for butter. Might have accidentally bought some (4 bottles ) wine for Christmas. It was reduced though. £23. Should have just gone without the bloody butter.
Put lined curtain ( with fleece blanket inside) up on door from lounge to conservatory. Can't believe how much warmer it is. Cut it to fit from curtains in previous house. Frugal win.
Was -3 degrees here this morning. Frozen car.

It's the 8th today and have had 5 NSDs so far. Living out of the freezer.
Please can you post the apple chutney recipe as my freezer is full of apples and I love chutney.
Hope Italian has had baby DD

Oh Collie thats frustrating for you, I know its cliche but I do think when it comes to houses there is a certain element of fate (as well as luck!) at least you won't be moving just before Christmas!!

Anyone else a bit nervous about the American election? The thought of Trump being president makes me feel queasy!!

Hope you are o.kay Em the best book i read for helping with anxiety is called Panicking about Panic by Josh Fletcher, you can get it on Amazon and its very good, down to Earth advice. When my anxiety was at its worse I went for some counselling/ therapy and found it so helpful in getting my head straight. Its a horrible feeling

Hope you feel calmer tomorrow Em
Oh Collie I feel gutted for you. Here's hoping something better is around the corner.
Need how's your leg? Hope the antibiotics are taking effect
Welcome Christmas, I really admire you and hope it works out, you'll get lots of support here.
Cag glad you found your glove!
Mammy great frugal win with the bins!

NSD here as dh and I were both in work. We took my HM lentil and floppy veg soup for lunch and there is enough for another lunch tomorrow. Tea was spag bol which I cooked in the slow cooker last night. I added lentils and made enough for tonight, 1 for the freezer and I've made a lasagne for tomorrow after which we'll be all bolognesed out but it works as I'm working tomorrow too. I'll do something with chicken on Thursday when I'm at home.
We've had some extra expenses recently due to the vacuum cleaner, tumble drier and spin drier all giving up the ghost and having to finish ds' revamped room and the new loft room. Anyway I've spent a while tonight rejigging the budget pots to allow for the extra spending.
Ds has had 2 days off school ill which is really unusual for him but he's much better now so will be back tomorrow (2 days dinner money saved!).

Hi everyone NSD sun and mon
Today £5 slimming world
Went to soft play with mate from home Ed group just us and boys was lovely but £12 approx there included lunch for ds .

Bloody pip has decided to knock dh back to basic mobility despite lifetime award if DLA . This means mobility car is affected there seems to be something all the time . Dr come to house managed to get dh to stand but in report said can walk a bit when he has a relapse bollocks !!
And to top it all clip on tumble drier door has broken so have wooden IKEA step holding it shut . Ok moan over

Oh yes forgot finally( bullied ) persuaded dh to agree to get rid of SKY it does includes sky sport which I do feel bit guilty about but £70 a month to totally ridiculous so finishes Dec 2 . We have had 2 phone calls already about magic discount that ties us in to new contract for another year .

We did month trial with Netflix and love it £9 month but my mum has one of the screens so we have 3 running and she has one so confused contributes £5 to it each month despite us not wanting it but you can say no to my mum .

Sorry about the house move Collie. Did your buyer fall through? As others say fate will take you to the right place but it is very unsettling to have been on the brink and then it not happen.

Watching the election results. Feeling pretty sick.

Oh no collie, I'm sorry to hear that.
How frustrating Lego about pip. Is there an appeal route? Good news on sky thought.
Today is a new day em, hope a night sleep helped.
Hope the leg is continuing to get better need.

Nsd planned today. Looks like trump is in the lead.
Snow is falling here too. The town will grind to a halt, joy

Oh, Collie dear, sorry to hear, I know how much you needed this to work!!!!

EM, hope you're feeling better this morning.
More lego, you guys are having a hard time too, so sorry to hear!
Snowing, really?!!! How cool!!

Lego that's nice of your mum to help out with cost of Netflix I guess she doesn't want to be taking it for nothing.

Em hope you are feeling better

Need hope you're resting that leg and that it's getting better.

I've been asked to cover a class tomorrow night, hopefully it'll be busier than the last time

I also volunteer with local credit union & have been asked to be a member of the board. It'll be interesting I think & good for cv also. Disclaimer I love my job & will happily stay there as long as they'll have me so cv not so important but you never know do you

We've eeked out the weekly shop by only getting a small top up on Saturday, need another small top up now or a full weekly shop a few days early might be more effective I think.
Will suggest to dh to get bread & milk today & ill shop after class tomo night

lego we ditched sky about 18 months ago now. For the same reasons £70 a month was just silly.

We have Amazon prime tv and switch between Netflix and now tv. Topcashback do cashback on now tv.

Feeling much calmer today. Had a good sleep. So am ready to face the wet windy day.

Think I'm going to ditch virgin. £70 pm for phone, TV and broadband. Will have to get a TV Ariel run back in but I'm sure that will be easy.

Em I would agree about the counselling for anxiety. I developed bad anxiety after weaning ds and hired a good private clinical psychologist to help.

She just let me have a long long rant and say all the things about people that I've not been able to say before and it clarified a huge amount for me.

I've been gradually turning life around since then and am beating out bush fires right and left. I'd really recommend it. You don't have to think of it as therapy. It's really like hiring private management consultancy for managing family situations. In hindsight I feel that good family CEOs like us need the very best advisers on board and I'm glad I did it. Glad your dh is helping.

Very weird about Trump. Don't know what to think.

I'm not thinking much about money this week, really just about changing GP and mostly about telling previous GP (wibble). Must get it done really.

I'd been doing really well anxiety wise. So it frightened me that I had a wobble last night. Much better now though.

cath in my experience you don't need to tell your old GP. I just registered at new place and they transferred my records across.

Wish I had today off too. It looks awful out there....