Frugaleers, keeping their frugal resolutions in the new year. Keep on, erm, resoluting!?

[Cagliostro]

Hello everyone! :)

Going to bed now but just read the last page or so and wanted to say so snuggly I hope everything goes ok with your bambinos . I guess you just need to try and stay as calm as possible and at least know that the professionals are aware of it and monitoring it all to give your babies the best care.

Met my sister for dinner this evening and we went to a Greek restaurant They had an early bird special of €18.95 for 3 courses. I had calamari for starters, a lamb dish for the main course and baklava for dessert. A glass of wine, coffee and a tip brought it up to about €30. We had a lovely evening and it was nice to catch up.

Also spent €10 topping up my travel card.

Will catch up with everyone properly over the weekend.

snuggly sending positive thoughts your way.

Thank you all for your kind words. Strange how the words of people you've never met & yet feel you know well can be such a boost (strange in a very good way ).

Absolutely, north - it's amazing isn't it, I really feel this thread has got me through a lot of tough times :)

Hi, nsd yesterday and Tuesday.

Just read 2 days worth.

Sending positive vibes to all.

trying yes if I'm really really insistent she will do it my way/our way. But a 15 minute job takes an hour.
I spoke to the hr boss yesterday who and said that with the distractions and the time it takes it's actually quicker for me to do it myself. Which defeats the point of the help.

Tempting for me to just hide away from it/ignore it. But I can't. It's almost appraisal time and I don't want there to be any surprises for her. I don't want to be mean. And do appreciate and understand that she's had a really tough time but at the end of the day she decided she was fit to work and she came to work. So I have to take the past out of the equation and no special treatment

Anyhoo. Payday today 🤑🤑🤑🤑😃😃😃😃

wreck your right we do pay quite more in tax than in the U.K. But a lot more is then "free" because it's paid trough the taxes.

Haven't worked in a library but worked in a book store throughout my student period, and have worked at a publishing house too, in the account department but still close to the books. Love books and read every night before bedtime and read for dd1 every night.

Thanks all for the encouragement on tackling the dietitian. That really helped.

Yes need I could pay for extra sessions, but they are still currently covered under insurance, so that's fine, and I can reintroduce foods myself whenever I want to. I just have to do it by trial and error as only I can find out what works and what doesn't.

Good luck Fluffy and dh. I hope the answer comes back soon.

I'm crossing my fingers for you Snuggly. How far along are you now?

Wreck, thanks, yes me too, on negative feedback. Oh well.

Em I'm a total softie, but I think I would give her a formal warning and fire her. Sorry.

Cag Thanks so much. ROFL here too now. I'm eating lots of lovely things, if that helps. steak for breakfast

Fabulous that you enjoyed your trip to the library. Very nice to hear.

cath woah!! That was not what I was expecting!!

My legs are hurting from spinning. But I walked in today. I am doing the 1000km in 2017 challenge again. So only....another 980 to go!

Dh bought me a latte too. Yay! I ❤️ Payday

Thanks for kind words everyone. I slept surprisingly well.
Lots of questions, will try and answer them all!
1 more week at work and then there should be about 6 weeks until the babies come unless they decide to deliver them much earlier which wouldn't surprise me. Pleased I bought those things in Asda yesterday now!
Fluffy I used to belong to Costco but both of them are about an hour drive away from us so I ended up never going. On the occasions I did go I always came home with a lot of doughnuts etc!! I used Asda nappies for DD, 3 packs for a tenner which wasn't too bad. I'll research Amazon subscription thingy too I think.
Italian that's all together for the twins plus we get about £82 a month already for DD so it all helps.

Nearly the weekend!

Ooh just got paid for my editing work. Guess they were happy with my final edits then! :)

Em Yes, check out my hidden shallows. But honestly that sounds like insubordination and just being willfully obnoxious. I would worry that if you don't take a firm line it will only get worse, and will undermine everyone else's good behaviour. I've supervised people like that in the past and that kind of behaviour is incredibly counter-productive.

There was an article about this stuff in the Financial Times recently, and they were saying about how to deal with toxic personalities in the workplace. It said that good, positive, team behaviour is needed as part of the job, and that one bad apple can really bugger things up for everyone else, especially with a bully who makes life hard for everyone and takes no subtle feedback. It said the thing to do was to express clearly to the person what their problems were and make it a responsibility of their job to sort those problems out. Then if they didn't, you can say that they are not doing their job and let them go. That's what it said anyway. I've never actually done it, or seen it done.

Good luck there. The Tesco delivery man called me "Mate" about 14 times last time he can and I was ready to strangle him when he left, so you have my sympathies.

If anybody knows what the polite way is to tell the Tesco man not to call me "Mate" I'd be immensely grateful btw. I'm good at polite nodding and angry letters, but lighthearted verbal corrections are not my strong suit.

I nearly had an NSD yesterday but then caved and bought ds a magazine. It was a close-run thing though.

Cag Well done, I hope it gives you confidence to take on more editing.

Cath Someone's getting their mojo back

I have to go food shopping soon 😭🔫

Should be nsd today. Left overs for dinner. Have 120£ till payday which is duable because the freezer is so packed that no more stuff can get in.

snuggly hope next scan shows improvement for your littlest baby

I'm not generally on this thread, but popped by to say that if you like nice toiletries, Boots are having their 70% sale today of the xmas gift sets. I now have enough very-cut-price shower gel to last me the year...

Thanks fluffy.

Keeping my fingers crossed here for your dh.

I need to go food shopping too I think. In person even as the things I need are not on the delivery site. It's going to be epic.

Aw Snuggly it must be so worrying. However, you are being monitored and if the medical team get too concerned they will deliver you early. You are quite far along so if they do have to deliver early the twins should do fine after a bit of Tlc. hope they hang on a bit though, I am sure you have stuff you'd like to get done first!

Cag regarding your daughter's interest, have you come across The Mighty Girl? I have it on my Facebook feed though it is also a website at www.amightygirl.com

They have one or two features a day about women who have done something remarkable (or men who have supported women's rights) . A real mix of scientists, social campaigners, contemporary examples of people making a difference... all sorts. it's really good. Most entries recommend further reading too.

Congrats on the first solo drive Wilderness, I remember it well!

And Cath on being assertive and getting your money back from the rubbish dietician.

Fingers crossed you get a quick and happy answer soon Fluffy

Just rushing to meet mum and DS after midwife appointment. Will catch up later!

Holy cow. Just been to asda, as I needed laundry powder and a few branded things, and in the month or so since I last went, the prices have gone up so much. Like massively, has anyone else noticed? I won't be going back until I need the things I got today again - hopefully a couple of months, but planted the Costco seed to dp.

So I spent £75, put it on my asda credit card, for my whopping 1.5% cashback.

Lidl and aldi from now on!

Still horrified I boomeranged into Hobby Craft, and spent £11 on things I don't need.

cath it's difficult isn't it. So far this morning I've dealt with grumpiness. A shocking bad attitude and basic general rudeness. She's done things so wrong it's unbelievable. I've amended told her where to find the right answers and have kept copies of the "wrongness" (stupid things like getting someone's name right - if you're meant to be sending a letter to a gary don't address it to john) to show to hr.

It's bringing us all down. We had bacon this morning. Best thing ever. But she brought a downer on it as she's on a diet, it's unfair. She could have had something else but because my email said bacon and coffee she took it literally. And went without. Then got shitty when other colleague had scrambled eggs and tea.

In other news I went to boots. And took advantage of their 70% off gifts. Two soap and glory sets (one of which I'll give to my sis for her birthday, one for me for holidays) the sanctuary huge star box (reduced to £12 for dm for either Mother's Day birthday or next christmas) and some guy stuff for dh.

Saw one woman struggling with 10 sanctuary star boxes....offered to help her carry them to the till but she refused for fear id nick one.

Am signing up to a series of mindfulness and meditation workshops. £55 for 5 sessions.

And that wasn't even a weekly shop, it was a loo roll/ diet coke /fairy liquid type of shop. I didn't get food, as the meat, dairy and dry staples seemed so much more.

Still [shocked] is this a sign of things to come brexit wise?

em soup and bacon rolls for tea tonight here, your pic has made me very hungry! I'm with cath sounds like your colleague doesn't want to be there and needs to go. Or, she's worked out that she can get you to do all her work, and still get paid for it, which isn't on either.

knitting yes I've noticed that some supermarket prices have nearly doubled. I think that this is certainly what we should expect from Brexit, at least where European imports are concerned. On the one hand, things will be more expensive. On the other hand, local produce will be more competitive because of the increased prices, so if you want to go into business selling your knitting or growing and selling food, then you might be on a better bet. Having said that, we may get better import prices from non-EU countries, so it might all balance out in the longer term. It's going to be interesting watching though.

Em That sounds like really very clearly bad behaviour from your colleague. I think that keeping notes is a good idea, for when a formal warning is issued. Good idea on the meditation too. The listening lady taught me to do that when having anxiety symptoms and it's very effective.

Em there is a fab free mindfulness course on Futurelearn. Also, have you heard of th Smiling Mind app?