Fantabulous February with the Friendly Frugaleers!

[Cagliostro]

Hello everyone, new thread time yet again!

They're amazing aren't they Tayto? I always get the feeling that those muffins are what humans are designed to live on in an ideal world.

cath you've been really lucky losing weight post dc! I breastfed for 6 years in total (4dcs!), and always stayed about the same. It has taken a concerted effort to lose dc4 weight (lost 3stone after weaned dd3 as too poor to eat for a while, twas grim), and still struggle to keep it off. I blame it on my age, as I was almost 37 when I had him. Dp wanted another, but I don't think my body would ever bounce back, so had a coil fitted!

Have spent £5.95 in asda on thick rubber gloves and strawberries for ds (a new and welcome food). Must get out in the garden and keep going. Clear and crisp here.

Gosh! Knitting I suppose different people respond in different ways. Sorry to hear about you being too poor to eat for a while. That doesn't sound like any fun at all. I'm glad that's not the case now.

I didn't really lose weight through breastfeeding and walking everywhere either. I ate loads though, probably more than when I was pregnant, as I was always famished.

I've just had a washing machine engineer out to look at my washer, which has been on the blink since Friday. It needs a new part, and the earliest date it will be here or he can come back is NEXT Monday! The nearest launderettes are both 5-10 miles away, on 2 buses. Feeling a bit panicky at the thought of it all.

Oh no Creme. Any chance your neighbours would let you do one or two washloads? I'd be happy to help out a neighbour if they were stuck.

Maybe, but I don't really know them well.

Oh no creme that's awful!

No tayto I'm going to ask at the garage today.

£65.50 lidl
£1.65 wilko

I had to jump on the scone wagon!

So sorry to hear that Creme. Washing machine failure is the pits isn't it? I've had that twice in recent years and always ended up giving loads of washing to neigbours that I'd never ever met until that moment. They were very kind about it. One time is was December 27th. Good luck with sorting it out.

Need I just did my daily 90 second sprint to school (and back). You would have been proud of me. For the first 30 seconds I felt as though I was carrying another person across my shoulders, but by the end I was sort of in a nice rhythm and enjoying it. Is that the usual way it goes?

Yum cheese scones are my favourite!!

£15 petrol in the courtesy car. It's a ford Ka which isn't easy with two massive car seats it's a new garage for us though and I'm happy so far. I'm going to park at my friends house and walk to the hospital later to save on parking. Kind of hoping she will have the children too...

We can get a new wheel nut key but it's £73 😭😭

I was the complete opposite of cath then bf made me hold on to any weight I had and I didn't gorge on food either because I was consciously trying to lose the post baby lbs

Triple choc muffins le yum

Dh called the engineer about our washing machine and he gave him a few things to try out first tonight to see if we can fix it ourselves. It's been on the blink since Friday. I had been staying on top of the washing though so we're not that far behind

Mammy was your baby incredibly chilled out and a good sleeper? I think maybe I lost weight because mine was a card-carrying screamer.

Too much talk of scones!!
I was supposed to be off today but ended up going in. Will hopefully be able to claim the extra hours though as we have 2 vacancies at the moment.
Have been doing some painting to try to get bothdc's rooms finished. It's just some wood work left to do so it's now primed & I'm hoping to get one topcoat done tonight & one tomorrow. Frugal as we've already got the paint left over from other projects.
Sold 2 pairs of football boots that ds has grown out of on ebay last night £18. Every little helps.

Neither of mine napped until they were 8 months cath and ds fed almost 24 hours a day until I stopped feeding him at about 7 months. Ds only started sleeping through the night at 2.5 years.

An App for Budgeting
For those who don't have ynab, I read about this app on another thread
^Now, this is how I budget...Just before I get paid I pay my credit card off in full and then when I get paid I move some money to savings, most of it over for bills and basically move money which can't be spent out of my current account. Then I use the app Totals, the budget feature allows you to input a figure which for me is whatever is left in my current account after savings etc, so it's spending money.
Every time I spend anything I input it into the app and watch my 'total' go down. Seeing the total decrease is really effective for me, I've never spent so little.

Then the day before I next get paid I pay off my credit card using the money which was sat in my current account all month knowing I had enough for it because my 'total' hadn't gotten to zero. Any money left goes into savings, it's amazing how the money left has been increasing since I started this method of budgeting.

I've been doing this for months now and it's really helpful seeing the total go down, the app was 79p to upgrade to the full version and it's been worth it.^

I like that idea, Mammy, I reckon I could do that.
£9 window cleaner, for once I actually had the cash instead of having to ask him to call back later which I always feel bad about!

LSD in the end. I got a small tin of beans and some cereal bars for DD's lunches - €4.20 in total. I had a stern talk with myself about avoiding the cake section (I had dessert on Friday night in the restaurant and a slab of chocolate birthday cake on Saturday night, so my veins are probably pure sugar by now).

Nsd
That's a good idea especially if you have a points credit card.

My metal slow cooker is losing its coating. I'm going to have to bin it and get a new one aren't I?

Day off and done a bit of shopping £12 on new socks, £7 birthday cake (although had £4 credit which I used), £3 parking. Also purchased a kindle book which was in daily deals and I had been waiting fir the price to drop.

Taking DH out for birthday dinner tonight.

Creme nightmare about your machine. Many years ago I had to hand wash everything and I would not want to do that again.

Oh no Creme I would be panicking as well!! Nows the time to lower your standards in terms of how many times you can wear something before washing it

And Wreck ugh - bloody cars!!

Cath I think you were probably just lucky with the weight loss! I was really ill during my pregnancy (gall stones) and ended up weighing loss at the end of the pregnancy than I did at the start of it its amazing how the body will sustain a baby even at the detriment to the mum.

Dd has come home from school in a foul mood post party tiredness I think.

Spent £46 in Lidls and got shit loads for that dds actual bday is Thursday so have a load of family turning up who will want feeding as it will be teatime. Went with pizza, wedges and salad - cheap and cheerful.

I'm really sorry folk that I have had a really busy day today at work, and haven't read a single post since my last one. But didn't want to not post.

NSD.

£20 petrol.

creme I'd swill everything through every night. I don't know my neighbours well enough to ask favours.

Oh no crème. That's rubbish. Not sure I'm coming your way or would take some. If it gets too much shout and i will come over

Mammy Gosh what a time you must have had with your babies. Well done for managing it all.

Girlie that's quite a business to have gallstones and pregnancy at the same time. Very impressive that your body and you coped with that. I know another lady who had that and she still wonders whether trying to breastfeed on a fat-free diet was a good idea, poor soul.