Fantabulous February with the Friendly Frugaleers!

[Cagliostro]

Hello everyone, new thread time yet again!

Wreck that's very odd about the washing hanging up.

I had an actual NSD yesterday.

There's a thin layer of snow everywhere here but due to melt soon.

Meeting friends who I haven't seen for ages for breakfast & a walk. Then a late pub lunch and then nothing! Instead of coming out with us, ds is going round to sil's for breakfast and some baby cousin time. Ds is 15 & was well and truly eclipsed/sidelined by his sister with the baby yesterday so it will be good for him. He's their only cousin so I want to make sure they both make the most of these baby/toddler times.

Outfit in penneys was awful so all I spent there was €6 on black pants for work - mine are so thin now I freeze in them. They're possibly 5 years old think I got my money's worth.
€18.50 on 12 vests- 6 each for dc, pack of knickers for dd, and two tubs of finding dory reduced to €2 for ds.
Left boots to cobblers to be reheeled that'll be €7 on collection
€10 incl €2 tip to wash my car, it's now cleaning
Circa €50 Iceland circa €100 Aldi including monthly pack of nappies for ds. They're now doing 0% fat Greek yogurt (fage is €3.50, theirs is €1.85) hope it tastes as good.
€7.49 on a skipping rope for me & €28.99 on a litre thermos for dh for a practical valentine gift. Both from Argos
Used loyalty points at mr price to buy valentines card & an engagement card
Approx €40 on drinks & takeaway out last night, dh drove so no transport costs.

Wreck is that not making hanging the washing more difficult for dh sifting through to find his own clothes in a wet pile they're his dc too right?

Yesterday I installed Simons build 3 on our android box, it's amazing things are so much more accessible & very few failed links

Trying what a nice treat for yourself, spendilicous though

Girly we will miss you
Wreck for me it's the coziness of the quilt over my shoulders that I love ❤️

Adora how's teddy now?
Knitting ** at that woman

Well his clothes are much bigger so he just pulls them out on the plus side he always cleans the bathroom so it's swings and roundabouts I suppose. I have told him that as I'll be working e dry day of the week soon he will have to start helping a bit more during term time.

What was the reaction to that wreck?
When do you start? How did your work take it?

Morning all.
Still in shock here at spending all that money. Still it's on the cc.
Nice to see pic of dog Adora and how is Teddy?

Oh my god wreck if DH did that with the washing I would fume !! Luckily DH is super helpful around the house on his days off (when he's at work he works 12hr shifts so wouldn't have time for chores). Our housework is shared pretty equally.

Last lonely day at home for me today as back in uni tomorrow. Counting down the hours until DH is back from work lol...weather grim and rainy here.

Today will be NSD for me although DH will be buying himself something for lunch from the canteen because we didn't have enough bread left for him to have sandwiches.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes.

We had a great day, apart from the dreadful weather. The food was good too. I had a mojito, posh garlic mushrooms, roasted aubergine with lentils, veg and yogurt, tiramasu pavlova and a chocolate orange espresso, and DS had fried gnocchi, sausage pizza, a brownie and a hot chocolate. I very rarely have starter, main and dessert, but the portion sizes were quite small, so it was manageable.
Spends: £7 bus fare; £23.05 train tickets (booked in advance with rail card); 0.89 on a doughnut for DS from Cooplands; £5.70 Costa; £18.30 lunch in York; £22.70 Primark, replacing some basics, and funnily enough, Mammy, a skipping rope; £65 Jamie's (£7 of it was the tip) and £6.40 on Prosecco from Sainsburys. Total: £149.04. Ouch!

We are going out for a delicious Sunday lunch in a pub today and my Sainsburys delivery is coming too, so back later with spends and meal plan.

Sounds like you had a lovely day Creme. Food sounds lovely. Love Jamie Oliver.

Wrecked I wouldn't actually put up with that, as you might well guess! DH does loads and works silly hours.

Spends today will be
£7.50 lesson for DD.
£80 fuel for horse box.

I'll meal plan and come back.

Might draw inspiration from others meal plans this week.
Today's plan is traditional meat pies, overheard a conversation about these at my course & had to interrupt as dh talks about these meat pies his mother used to make & I can't find a recipe or a supplier. Hoping they work out but if they don't the ladies said they'd teach me how to make them.

Au pair made tomato & basil soup last night & I made homemade brown bread & scones this morning so that will be lunch. A friend of dh's has arrived but there's plenty to go around luckily.

Tomorrow will be roast beef in slow cooker.
Tues is dds valentines menu - wrap pizzas, home made chips & ice cream.
We're off on the road Friday so I'll bring dinner for lunch & bring some sandwiches/snacks for journey so just wed/thurs to fill.

I bought a 3kg bag of pasta in Iceland yesterday so perhaps pasta/pesto/chorizo/peppers/onions mishmash

Now I'm down to one dinner left! I've cottage cheese & tinned salmon so I think quiche/frittata

Thanks for yer help guys

The thing is Dh thinks he does loads which, I think, just goes to show he has no idea what I actually do! He would have hung their washing up had the clothes horse not been full of dry stuff which he could have folded.

I just got back from visiting my sick aunt with Ds as its her birthday. Dh stayed home and did homework with dd (junk modelling so not awful). I came in and started folding the dry washing (which I did yesterday) so I could hang up the washing I did this morning. I asked him to do the dc lunch and he sighed really loudly so I said 'oh sorry is that too much trouble for you?' Dh 'yes it is when I've just spent the last two hours doing homework' me 'well I'm trying to sort the washing I'm not sure why your time is more important than mine' Dh 'I didn't say that but the stuff I do is just relentless' me 'the stuff you do??' Gah he's pissing me off today. He has a cold so thinks he had the right to wallow. Dick.

Sorry for the rant

That's okay to rant.

I'm a bit cheesed off too, because I went out to have a nice walk to town with ds and dh and then felt rubbish and had to come home. Not quite got back to my usual self after that last virus. Oh well.

The books I've read so far this year, this is probably more than the whole of last year

Wreck my dh is like that, he looked on you going out for the morning like you getting a break mine is like that too.

I got up with dc this morning, dh slept on until 11.30. I'm tempted to go for a nap 😴 but think I'll sort laundry first & eat lunch & maybe after that. It's his turn to take over with dc right?

Oh gawd wreck sympathies here. Dh "tidied" yesterday. This means moving his floordrobe from the bed back to the floor. And moving the crap from the dining room table to the bedroom dresser.

We had the "you assume my time is less valuable than yours" conversation a while ago. This stemmed from dh always Being late out of work. He finishes at 530. I finish at 5. I have time to dawdle through the shops or pick up things if I need to then usually meet him in the car. I was waiting until 6 for him to turn up usually.

We had the conversation and I said I'd wait until 545. Then I was leaving. I'm happy to wait or come back and pick him up if I'm given notice etc no issues there. It's the assumption that I'll be there waiting.

Twice now I've left and haven't come back. He was late because "he lost track of time".

We've been for a super windy walk. Was nice though. Now having soup and toasties for lunch. Yum.

Nsd.

My dh is quite civilised about all this kind of stuff. He happily does the dishwasher or folds the washing. He's always tidy and nice about house stuff and always helps out without complaining if I need it. I'm not quite sure what I did to land such a nice bloke really. It's odd that. I'm sorry to hear that yours are harder to live with in house stuff Em and Wreck. That must be frustrating. It's definitely possible to have a helpful dh though. Mine is living proof.

Don't get me wrong dh is great in other ways. He cooks. Basically cooks all our meals. I barely have to lift a finger in that regard. And he's also qualified in nutrition. So we eat really well.

Anyways.

Meal plan for this week:

Monday - something with sausages
Tuesday - pasta and meatballs
Wednesday - ricotta burgers (from Nigel slaters show on tv this morning)
Thursday - leftover burgers crumbled into pasta with sun dried tomato sauce
Friday - either pizza or tapas board.
Saturday meal out with family.
Sunday - gammon.

Mine is brilliant too Ipso, his only real 'fault' is being untidy. He really believes in equality and his family is always put first. The bi-polar can be tricky, but that's about it really.

Bless him, he's doing the riding lesson and will come home and take the dogs out.

Meal plan.
Prawn and fennel risotto.
Enchiladas.
Veggie bolognaise.
Pork chilli.
Beer butt chicken.
Stuffed peppers.

But we have our moments and he's a workoholic

Am sneaking in quickly before my laptop goes to the menders has been a mad busy few days with dds bday on Thursday (still can't believe I have an 11yo ) I spent £30 ish that day on various bits for the cats and dds bday.

I think Friday, Saturday and today have been NSDs

Am so sorry not to have caught up with you all, Wreck have skimmed read - have you got a new job? Well done, thats brilliant if so.

Happy belated birthday Creme

Half term now, my aim is to live on the food we have, the fridge, freezer and cupboards all seem pretty full so should be do'able. Plan lots of cheap/ free things to do during the week....

Am optimistic that may finish the month without going over drawn

Oh and its nice to hear not all men are useless, as a long term singleton it gives me hope that some men are worth looking for

My ex was awful. Totally his time was more valuable than mine, saw all jobs as mine, childcare was mine (he got in a huff with me once as I 'foisted' his child onto him, so I could cook him a meal), money was his, you get the picture. In the end it was either stab him to death or split. So, after 2 years on my own with 3 little dd's, I met dp. He is none of the above.

Poor bloke. I think he gets a rough deal from me, as I won't take any shit now. He pulls his weight or gets pulled up on it. We actually get on really well.

Have spent the morning digging in the snow. Made a huge inroad into the heap of soil that shouldn't be where it is. Cleared the small greenhouse too. Made pancakes for lunch (mass catering, 400g flour, 4 eggs, a litre of milk) they were gone in seconds. Roast chuck in the slow cooker for tea. Snowing hard but not sticking.

Stuck to my meal plan for last 10 days, all but friday which went from 'freezer things like fish fingers' to bought fish and chips, but we were late as the car wasn't ready; so I'm pleased all in all. Will do a new one tonight.

Tbf Dh really isn't useless and he does do things like cleaning the bathroom, the dishwasher, general tidying, any washing up anything in the garden and all diy it's just not enough sometimes 😜

girlie yes school nurse assistant term time only!

Definitely there are good blokes. I have known many many dodgy ones, but somehow managed to find the good one in the end (pick axe and night googles were needed).

@ Ipso.