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

[Cagliostro]

:)

Christmas, thanks for the moon pics. They're wonderful. I was able to go out and see it in all it's glory late last night when the cloud cleared.
Cathode, glad you changed GP. I hope you notice a big difference in service as well as the fact that it's easier to get to.
Mammy....very impressed with your book haul.
I too have a frugal mindset, but there is no point in being cold. I think you can be frugal by keeping doors closed and closing curtains etc without being cold. Being cold is so miserable.
I have my wood burner going full blast. Cosy.
£1.70 on chocolate. This was a definite need, not just a want. M6 motorway brings out the chocolate craving always. It's so bad it needs a residents' association.

Fab moon pics, thanks for posting those. I could just make out a faint light through the cloud last night but couldn't the moon.

£5 odd on coffee and chocolate, put with DH today, he paid for lunch.

Sainsbo's delivering later, about £80 I think, can't remember what I've ordered now.

I hate being cold, it actually has a depressing affect on me if the house is cold.

hope your appointment and packed tea go well Wreck

Cathode I'd try the fuse, the circuit board fuse & then go from there. Dh has a hand held device you hold on the walls to see if there's power or you can put it on the appliance itself. Might be called a multimeter?

I'd love a wood burner. Stupid new build house with a narrow lounge plus my stupidly big sofa & footstool that I refuse to admit is too big to Dh

£8.58 homebase, Window film & two extra bright LED bulbs. I redeemed £17 of nectar points. Homebase won't be accepting them from the end of this year.

£20 petrol
£2 cat food.

i think being frugal is about spending money wisely and not wasting money - ie heating will keep you well which means you are able to save the money by cooking well and good food (not sure if thats a good example but ykwim)
Saying that we didnt have the heating on at all yesterday as its so mild, or so far today.

Ditto the spending money on feeling good and sorting out a situation, sometimes throwing money at it is the only way but the long term output is better.

Its a pain when parking is cut Em, especially when its for work.

"2.50 parking but was only in 30 mins so gave my ticket and space to someone else. Parking is a nightmare at the hospital and there was 1.5 hours left on it.
£47 Amazon on playmobil
Have other stuff in the basket but waiting for a discount - might have to move DH#s birthday......
Went into sainsbo to get my double up only to be told it doesn't start until tomorrow - the lovely lady put a trolley full of my shopping away. i did however get my vouchers as they are expecting it to be very busy at the voucher tills.

So much for making effective decisions - will be pleased when this application is done.

Oh em - some of the Christmas lot messaged amazon and if your prime runs out in the offer period they have been matching it.

Hope it goes well tonight wreck

Yes, I agree. I close the doors as much as I can (damn those teenagers...) and close curtains etc, don't expect to be sat here in shorts and T Shirts. Same life, it's so mild here too. But I refuse to be cold in my own house. DH would freak anyway.

I'm not great with loyalty card. Must try harder.

£18 in M&S.

Salmon tray bake for tea with roasted veggies.

I waited until the 17th October before putting the heating on this year, and I was miserable through cold for the last few days before putting it on, and I probably spent just as much using my electric towel rail to dry damp towels and bathmats, as I would have if the radiators had been on. I'm on a meter, but I budget for 4-6 hours heating a day, and could go up to 8 hours, if it goes below freezing.

Beautiful moon pictures from last night.

Spends: £1.39 loaf of bread, £4.20 cake and coffee out and £42.61 will come out for Sainsburys shop later.

Oh, I spotted TWO Christmas trees up, when I was out earlier. Has anyone else seen any yet? Bah humbug!

Hi all just catching up.

Still no news from Italian? She must have had her baby, hope she is o.kay and just busy enjoying a squishy new born!

Cath I am dreadful for procrastinating over stuff like that, now we have moved I keep thinking I should move dr surgerys as well, for slightly complicated reasons dd is at a different drs to me and it would make more sense for both of us to move to the closest ones......

Need this month has been dreadful here as well, I think it always is this time of year as the weather changes and we start getting geared up for Christmas. I will start again in January! That said agree with spending money wisely, I would feel awful in a cold house and would rather spend less in other areas. Also spending more to get a decent pair of shoes seems wise when I am on my feet so much etc.

Today is a NSD so far however dds football club will be £25 later and I am paying £75 towards a spa days in January! Very excited about 2 whole days at a Spa!! We managed to get 2 days at the spa which includes a 3 course meal for £100 so not too bad..... I deserve it right?

Thanks for the welcomes!

Haven't heard anything about the job yet... Got an interview with an agency tomorrow, fingers crossed for that one.

£10.20 today at the local cafe meeting my friend... Expensive weekly routine I can't really afford to continue so will make my excuses once I finish work. Was nice to catch up with her though.

Hope you've all had a good day!

Frugal fail guys. I decided, for my own sanity, that I would be better to use macdonalds tea as a form of bribery dr is running late but not too bad only fifteen minutes so far... Plus I have cash in my handbag that I can use for macdonalds.

You'll never believe this but my car has packed up too. I was meant to take ds to a hearing test so I got him out of school early. The battery is flat (which it often is) and I melted the plastic off the jump leads trying to fix it. Taxi firm said the roads were gridlocked and couldn't take us.

The lady who I am seeing about trying to get fixed from being burned out says I need to be less perfectionist, so I decided just to make my peace with it, and took ds on a play date instead. (Check out the positive thinking here. ) I also booked a car electrician for Friday though, as our car has had a short circuit for years.

Fluffy yes a multimeter would be right except that the oven still gets sort of warmish, just not hot and the fan doesn't run.

Not going to be a no spend week for me. Mwaahahahaha

Definitely deserve it Girlie.Is your heating sorted now?

Spent £10 Waitrose on top up food. I only went in for bread !

Cathode we had a problem with our oven once like that. It turned out to be a loose connection at the back - it would connect and disconnect with the heat. It was relatively straightforward to sort out but our oven was still under guarantee then.

I bet YouTube has a video on fixing ovens. It's very odd that it's capable of heating but the fan isn't running.

Wilderness unfortunately not Redrow (the people who built my house) are disputing liability so we are locked in a bit of a stand off now, I am not going to back down as there is no way the heating should have broken the first flipping time I turned it on!! Will ring again on Thursday which is my next day off. The chap I had out last week has done something so that I can turn the heating on by using the thermostat upstairs which is fine as as temporary measure.

Big spend today but also frugal in a way. £4000 paid into my pension.

Feeling proud of myself. Saving for my future and all that.

And have made an appointment to speak to someone about my anxiety. And ironically am anxious about that. Hey ho. Baby steps.

I didn't get to see the moon last night. We're fogged in. No post. No papers. No Sky (sky sky not tv sky) just fog. It's eerie.

Clients are meant to be arriving tomorrow but they may not make it because planes can't land.

italian if you're reading this I hope you're ok. X

Wow em that's awesome well done.

Appt went ok he didn't really want to talk about much once I told him about my 'stomach issues' he just wanted to refer me straight to gastro to rule out gastroparesis.

£16.95 macdonalds
£1.60 parking

Meant to get petrol as it's cheap in town but it was late and the dc were tired and hungry.

Em I know just what you mean about being anxious about talking about anxiety. The thing I find helps is that once I get to an appt about it I at least don't have to hide the problem any more, as that is what I'm there to talk about. It sort of takes the edge off if I'm not trying to keep is secret, iykwim. Good luck.

Em, make some bullet points of your main issues and bring them along. I've done this before for counselling and even for gp and consultant appointments. The act of writing it down gets it out of your head and takes away the anxiety of forgetting to mention it.

Gah, lost a long post, will try again later.

Waiting to go into the theatre. Have a feeling I may fall asleep 💤

Just spent £30 on some boots on Amazon Black Friday in my defence I had them last year and the year before and they're so comfy but I wore them out.

creme good idea re the list. I hadn't even thought Of that. I like lists. I find them soothing.

Happy to be of service, Em.

Watching "The Secret Life of 4 Year Olds" on Channel 4 now. I love these programmes, probably because I teach Nursery!