Fantabulous February with the Friendly Frugaleers!

[Cagliostro]

Hello everyone, new thread time yet again!

NSD yesterday and today.

Another shorty here but not the skinny variety. Seriously overweight.

snuggly do you have a recipe for the slow cooker curry you made? I worked late today so my mum did a tiffin of food for me to pick up on the way home. She's lovely, my mum.

Nsd. I'm on the short side and slim, used to be skinny pre preg days.
We are trying to eat one or two veggie dishes a wee to save money and its better for the environment. Had root veg stew tonight with nann bread and it was yum.

I'm short too. Ds is really tall though don't know where he gets it from.

I walked away from lots of cheap stuff in charity shops earlier. Like books and games.

But now I'm regretting leaving something. A flute for £25. Always fancied learning... I have pocket money to cover it, I may go back and see if it's still there tomorrow...

I put up with NO shite Fluffy

Consider me one of those angry purple minions from Despicable Me 2 and you get the picture.

10 miles run tonight. I did 2 classes and a run yesterday. I am a fit angry minion.........

£25 for a flute Cag. Did you clock the make at all? If it's decent, it might even be worth buying and selling on Ebay. I got £175 for DD's Trevor James one.

Another busy day at work so no spending here.
Interesting chat about personal visibility. I'm not sure where I fit in. I've never felt invisible and am able to assert myself as and when necessary!
Meadow a 2:1 sounds great to me.
Cag well done on keeping up the pressure to get the letter right.
Thanks for all the comments about the quilt. I'm actually not naturally a patient person but quite like that I have to be when I'm quilting and I've definitely learned to be more patient through doing it.
Another early night for me tonight.

I'm short (5'2) and sort of slim (size 8-10) but I have a large personality I can't afford to let the kids at work ignore me.
Having an early night - trip to theatre with school tomorrow, fun but a long day. Also I have to pay for the meal
Upfront for my class then claim
Back which is annoying.

cag I'd say yes for the flute! I can just about get a note out of dd1's. She's about to take grade 4, and I got her a picollo for her birthday last month (she was playing it in 10 mins). Even dd3's lurid pink starter flute was £125. Never seen one as low as £25.

Just got another special order on etsy, have to think and make up a pattern. But money into my paypal is like pocket money, it's really the only money I spend on just me, even though I want to buy fruit trees with it at the moment.

£25 for a flute sounds like a bargain Cag!

I have just sat down, worn out but all ready for the birthday girl in the morning am very pleased with my Poundland balloons, will upload a pic tomos but they are very cool smiley face ones!!

Aww happy birthday for tomorrow GirlieDD!

Thanks all re: the flute. I may well have missed it - it was middayish we saw it so might've been snapped up in the afternoon. And if so, well, nothing lost really. But I've got the shop number ready to phone as soon as it opens tomorrow :o maybe they'd put it aside for me as I'll be in town tomorrow anyway.

Might be interesting from an occupational therapy point of view anyway. Something for my brain and something for my lungs as well.

DH has his first PT session tomorrow. Friend is picking him up from work then they're going to the park (floodlit in the evening). Loooong day for us, new pupil in the morning for maths, then gym, library, St John and piano teaching. Actually my earnings from tomorrow would pay all but 99p of the flute. :o

Meant to say that's so cool about the etsy orders Knitting well done! I wish I was crafty. :)

Well done knitting about Etsy, that's really good pocket money for you and you enjoy doing it as well.
I'm 5'2 and size 12 ( well, may 12and half, now) and don't get bumped into, but I am quite assertive./positive.
Cag, that flute is a bargain. Hope you get it.
£1 today for a raffle ticket (didn't win)
Happy birthday girlie DD for tomorrow.
You don't sound a bit scary Cath. You sound really thoughtful, concerned and a bit shy. A thinker, but not a scary one.
And Need, I always think you sound assertive, but good for you.
I often think that one of the problems for girls and women is that we are ashamed or embarrassed about things we are good at. We often don't celebrate our achievements in the way men do. And we should do.

Work today. Aiming for nsd.

Happy birthday girlie's dd 🎂

I'm 5"4 and can be assertive but was also massively shy as a youngster so have mixed experience. I have to be actively assertive iyswim.

Happy birthday girlie DD

Yesterday £14 Morrison's and same Iceland.
Have bought lunch all week as too busy to make at the weekend. Naughty and expensive.

Thanks trying that's really kind of you. I think you see me as I am. As I'm growing up I've come to sort of alternate between being a doormat and flying off the handle in a slightly overblown attempt to stand up for myself. One of my great plans at the moment is to learn the middle ground of polite friendly assertiveness.

I have great hopes to go to a proper meeting at the department where I volunteer today. That's a big step as it's with very senior people from my old career. I would really like to go though, and just dip my toe in the water again. I'm going to get my bike out ready to go after school drop off and see if I can muster the courage to do it.

Cag the flute sounds lovely. I also covet instruments like that. Might be a good idea to check that the joints are sound. I had a present of a clarinet years ago but it cost about £100 to get the joints recorked so they were airtight. I have no idea if that is also a thing with flutes but it might be. I also have a viola whose neck periodically snaps off. Can be surprising mid-play.

Thanks so much for all of the thoughts about height. I hadn't realised what the advantages of being tall were, and I shall go out and be sure to enjoy the things I have now.

Fool it was a bit of a concoction based on what we had in. I finely chopped and softened an onion then added a heaped tablespoon of curry paste. Tipped it into the sc with chickpeas that I'd soaked overnight. Tipped in a tin of coconut milk and swished out the last bit in the tin with a little water. I cooked that in high for about 4 hours then added chopped squash (I had half a one lurking in the fridge which was about the right amount), turned in onto low and cooked for about 3 and a half hours. Served it with rice. It was really tasty!

Cag my mum's a flautist it's a lovely instrument. I think there are a lot of tutorials on YouTube now. Many of the kids at school have taught themselves instruments like that.

It's funny about being assertive, I really am at work. The kids don't mess with me! It's just when I go out to the shops I feel invisible. I must switch in and out of work mode subconsciously!

Need to make a car decision today. It's urgent as we need a bigger car before the babies arrive.
MIL has kindly offered to lend us quite a lot of money. Options are:

1. Voluntarily terminate our PCP deal & buy a second hand car outright then pay back MIL as and when.
2. Upgrade our current car to a bigger one using MIL money as deposit. This would actually make the monthly payments cheaper than they are at the moment but we'd have to pay mil back too and in 3-4 years we'll be back in the same position.

I like option 1 except that obviously the car will depreciate and might mean we have to buy the next one after this on finance again anyway.

Any opinions welcomed!

Id go for option 1. Its your car then. You'll not have to worry about contracts or money worries. You could keep it for 10 years in theory as its yours. Plus if you chose option 2 and crashed or scratched it you'll have the stress of losing money on it when you had to give it back. Remember you'll be driving with 3 kids and if like me you'll forget how to park when they are all screaming in the back 😊

Off out to lunch today.

That's true! I think that is what I'd prefer to do really but not sure if we can just end our current deal without paying some money back?? Terms and conditions are a bit ambiguous.

Morning all, sorry to be behind again, it's been busy here!

Snuggly I have no idea about the best car finance option, I'm afraid. What are you thinking of buying - do you need 2 back rows or can you get 3 car seats across the back of some cars?

Flute sounds good Cag, hope you get it.

Interesting about heights - seems a few short people and a few tall, not so many in the middle! I am 5ft 5 and a bit plump. Quite assertive at work but still occasionally invisible at a bar. I have been told I have a scary look though (like the Paddington hard stare) - people don't mess with that!

Happy birthday GirlieDD.

Meadow a 2:1 is a good degree, keeps all doors open. Don't be too hard on yourself.

Can't remember who made cheese scones but you've got me going now... I love cheese scones even more than the jam and cream ones. However DH doesn't eat cheese so I have to eat them all myself

Yesterday was busy but good. We had a meeting with DS's new educational psychologist - previous one was rubbish so I asked to be reassigned. Anyway, new one seemed promising. We are starting the process of putting together an Education and Heskthcare Plan for his support in school. Bit daunting and will all come to a head around my due date but hoping for a good outcome. Might be a bit of a battle though.

Went straight from there to my 20-week scan. All okay so far - I was a bit anxious as I haven't felt definite movement but she said the placenta is at the front so I won't feel it as strongly /early as before also I am a bit fat. Anyway, baby wasn't lying right so they couldn't do all the measurements. So far so good but I have to go back for the rest. Feeling much better now.

Cane home and celebrated with a nap - I was worn out! Should have hoovered/mopped but never mind.

I needed to but done greetings cards as we have a lot of birthdays etc coming up - went to local shop and it cost almost £20 for 7 cards . I won't be doing that again!

Top up shop of c £20 and parking c£4. And amazon order of £35 for gifts and another massive CD storage pouch (nearly there with clearing the CD shelves, btw!) . So spendy day!

Will be spendy again tonight as I am out for dinner with friends. And then again tomorrow night as it is my birthday. Spend spend spend! Eek.

seacow can't believe you're 20 weeks already! I had an anterior placenta with ds and never felt those big movements like o did with dd. Some one likened it to having a mattress between the baby and the outside.

Snuggly I would go option 1. I know a few people with three seats in the back.

I'm happy with 3 seats in back so long as the middle seat is easily reachable without killing my back. We also want plenty of boot space for double buggy/camping trips.

Sorry, posted too soon. Pleased everything looked ok at your scan, Seacow and you get to go back for another look!

Glad the scan was good Seacow!

Snuggly I know zip all about car agreements (or cars for that matter :o) but I'd prefer option 1 I think. I hope you can find a good deal on a nice roomy car! Bear in mind that the car seat rule has changed so you will need a proper high back one for longer (I think).

Snuggly, we have been looking to downsize to a pugeot 308sw (but have decided to wait). This is one of the rare 7 seaters which you can remove the middle seat in the back, so you have a 2+2+2 seat set up. This means the back seats can be reached by a little centre isle. As you'd only need 5 seats, you don't even have to buy the 7 seater (the seats don't come as standard, but the fittings/sest belts do), you just move the full size middle seat to the boot. Huge 1/2 boot left and easy access to strap baby or dd in the back. We had on 6 years ago, and it was excellent. Nearly new they are pennies too. If your mil is lovely I'd borrow from her and buy outright, it gives you peace of mind.

We are stuck with our chrysler grand voyager, which is just about the thirstiest car on the planet. But we love it, and it's too good still to be traded in for the 50p it's worth just yet (this also has a 2+2+3 seat set up), I see mums at school opening boots to get kids into the back row of seats as they have car seats on the middle row, so that little isle was a godsend for us!

Disclaimer... am not a pugeot salesperson!