Springing into the New Year with the 2017 Frugaleers

[CathodeRayTube]

Just setting up the new thread for the chatty Frugaleers.

By popular request - copied from an old thread grin

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/other_subjects/1324074-For-those-who-cant-afford-to-use-central-heating-this-year-How-are-you-going-to-cope

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/1543785-your-top-tips-for-money-saving-and-a-more-frugal-life

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/1600030-Small-money-saving-habits-petty-even

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/1628874-Gas-Elec-Bills-monthly-and-SKY-so-angry

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_classics/1911061-NO-MORE-COLD-MUMSNETTERS

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/2209167-Slow-Cookers-are-shit

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/2224969-saving-money

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_money_matters/2258202-Debt-mutual-support-thread-number-6-start-the-new-year-with-a-clear-purpose-and-keep-moving-forwards-even-by-tiny-steps?

orchard.tesco.com/ Sign up to this.

www.topcashback.co.uk/home And this.

www.quidco.com/home/ And this

www.moneysavingexpert.com/ And this

www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheapenergyclub ditto.

www.checkoutsmart.com/ Plus this.

www.hotukdeals.com/all/deals/new?page=3 Check this daily.

That sounds more positive, Peonies.
Em salted pineapple sounds delicious. I sometimes fry it in butter with dessicated coconut and dark rum, it makes an amazing pudding with ice cream.
Hoping for NSD. We don't really have much planned and it's pouring with rain. Might do some baking with DD.

Aw thank you so much seacow I shall pm you my address. :) Don't blame you for avoiding the PO with DS in tow BTW! Things like that are hard enough with a four year old, more so with autism thrown in. I forget, are you able to get an EHCP thing for him? Presumably he is starting school this September? It is good that he has been diagnosed young at least.

Cath jolly good luck for today, I hope you get lots of advice and answers. I'm assuming you've had loads of blood tests already to check levels of various things? As those are essential for a CFS diagnosis, in the sense that it's a diagnosis of exclusion so the only way to do it is to rule everything else (lupus etc) out.

We are entering the Weekend of Form Filling. I need to write up the PIP form, finish the housing form, and errrm do my tax return .

I have started my spreadsheet though so going forward I WILL have a detailed record of all my teaching. It's my third second attempt at keeping a full log so please bug me about it! I have some new people itching to start lessons as well for all 3 of my subjects. Yay!

Home ed budget is going well so far. I figured £20 pcm as that's the same that DH and I each have for 'pocket money'. Nearly halfway through the month and we've spent £9 so far (3 non fiction books and a poster) so seems about right. It'll be saved if we don't need anything else and we do have a few things to use up already. Although DH will be in a charity shop today while DD is dancing so we shall see... :o

Today I have to do my tax return. Blah.

I'm hoping I can get my rate down loads. The system works slightly differently here I think. Everyone starts on 21%. Then forms get filled in and we get deductions based on salaries pension payments mortgage interest etc etc etc. Must dig out paperwork. 😭

Dietitian visit was a total waste of bloody time. The woman seemed to think I knew nothing about food at all, refused to give us a word in edgeways and gave a loud didactic lecture about basic nutrition that went on for an hour and a half.

She wouldn't let either of us take ds out for a walk and when I said I wasn't very well and asked if we could stop and continue another time or by phone she refused that too and just kept on barging though her talk.
I just ended up sitting their wilting and wishing it would come to an end.

She was a pediatric dietition and was advising on ds so for myself I will go back to a different adult dietitian that I know is much better.

bloody hell

hope other people's saturday has started better.

Sorry it didn't work out, Cath, that's very frustrating.

Thanks Snuggly. I've written to another dietician I know who can run a food diary though a computer programme that will tell me exactly what is missing in percentages. I found that fantastically useful last time. She works with the specialist adult gastro people so should understand my situation better.

It's odd, but when I pay a lot for medical advice I always expect it to be better, but it isn't necessarily any different at all. It's like hiring tradesmen really. If you don't get someone on recommendation then it can just be like chucking money away. Odd.

That's really, really shit cathode, you help patients much more if you listen to them & tailor your advice accordingly.

What a disappointment for you

Recipe

Close up

Sorry to hear that, Cath.

Last one

Oh no cath I'm sorry :( I don't know how private healthcare works but is there any way of complaining? It's not unreasonable to expect a useful consultation for that money!

My car failed 😩😩 £350 to get it through its mot. Including the tyres it's cost £500. I need to get rid of it this year. I think I want to get one that you just pay monthly for and you don't have any other bills. I know I'll never own the car but I'm not bothered.

Thanks all. It's nice to have someone to rant to about it.

Fluffy Glad to know that tailored advice would be normal in medical care. That lady may as well have just recorded her speech.

Cath I think a lot of the difference with private treatment, much like private education is the availability of resources rather than the quality of the doctor/teacher etc, they will have done the same training wherever they work! My MIL was a nurse who worked for several years in a private hospital. She would never go to one as a patient as they have no resus team for instance and sometimes no doctor overnight. She says they are great for routine stuff with absolutely no complications.

Sorry to hear that cag.

Cath, sorry.

£66 sainsburys, £13 butcher

I'm so sorry Cath. I really am. How bloody annoying and disappointing.

I can give my experience fwiw. We have medical cover. I also have very close friends who are medical, one of whom is a Big Cheese. Way too busy in NHS to do private work, which says something in itself....

I never liked to bother them when my back was really bad, as I am friends with them because they are our friends and not to glean medical knowledge. I saw 2 consultants who, like yours, were utterly shite. When my friend found this out, made me promise to talk to him before I saw another. As he was in a position to know who was worth it basically.

Basically it's having someone 'in the know' to help you find a decent consultant, which isn't great is it? And when you are paying for that, even more galling. And some are doing private for money, which pisses our friends off no end.

So really, it's like the NHS. There's good and bad. Paying for the joy of seeing a medical expert doesn't make then a good medical expert.

Which you have found out to your literal cost.

In other news, my Hush skirt has arrived and, Life and Em, I like the colour more IRL than online, which is a bonus!

Thanks for the recipe Life. I didn't think about coconut cream but that would get around the dairy problem. I might give that a try.

Sorry your consultation was rubbish Cathode. I know a lot about private healthcare as it happens (professionally, not as a patient though I have paid on occasion). You do get same people, same training etc (with medicine anyway, not necessarily with non-medical disciplines that are not necessarily as highly regulated). However, in my working life I noticed that people didn't get to have large private practices without either being exceptionally good in their specialty and /or having a wonderful patient manner and providing a good all-round service. It's a market that is strongly supported by personal recommendations. I wonder whether your nutritionist is quite new to private practice or not actually very in demand? It would be surprising if a lot of people were prepared to recommend that experience to each other, unless they tend to have different needs to you and DS and she suits them, if not you, iyswim (though being lectured and not listened to tends not to please many people!).

SnugglySnerd That's good to know, thanks. I hadn't thought of the training side of things. I suppose you're right.

The main difference from my point of view is the length of the appointment. 5 or 10 minutes is common in the NHS, whereas in private care I can choose the length of the appointment as long as I'm prepared to pay the fee. In private medicine I often get seen much sooner and can choose a date. I can also go back to ask further questions if they come to me, which isn't always possible with NHS consultants.

Having said that, I find that NHS people are often very committed and competent, whereas sometimes private people are kind of less interested.

Need I think you're totally right. I need to get my network sorted out so I can find the good people. I'm getting good at this with tradesmen, but not so much with medical people.

One of the advantages of having moved to a GP surgery that is closer by is that suddenly all the people at Church are fascinated to know how we're getting on, so I think I will start asking more questions of them. I'm sure they must know things that I don't. Good to have your confirmation that that is what's going on though. Glad your skirt is nice.

btw the dietician told me that ds and I need chocolate and ice cream, and not just some, but lots. Rock on!

I also agree with Need, ideally you need to get recommendations from within the profession. Easier said than done of course.

I'm in the middle of catching up...I don't want to stick my big newbie nose in Peonies but is the issue with DH and children that he thinks they will inherit addiction issues?

My father was an alcoholic for most of his life and while I was the usual binge drinker in my teens and twenties I now barely drink at all and no addiction issues.

Chocolate and ice cream?? She sounds wonderful!

Another cheapish but delicious vegan dessert after something spicy is caramelised bananas.

Non-vegans can have ice cream with it.