Fantabulous February with the Friendly Frugaleers!

[Cagliostro]

Hello everyone, new thread time yet again!

NT can be paid by direct debit too.

I'm already a member of NT and I need to convince DH to start taking sandwiches I think.i work evenings and weekends but should start taking sandwiches to long day events when I'm at fairs etc.
That's a great place to start anyway Girlie and Cathode

Nsd.

I feel quite stressed today must have been work. There was a fallen tree on the way and I start at 6;45 so need to be the first one there plus four way traffic lights then someone had a heart attack.

Anyway came home to a lovely surprise parcel. Ages ago there was a request on mn from a lady in Switzerland who worked at a museum and wanted to do a display on British Christmases. I sent her some photos and details and today I received a photo of her display (which included two big photos of my dd and a little write up about her!) plus a big box of Lindt chocolates! Wasn't expecting that at all, had forgotten all about it tbh.

Am just roasting a chicken and will have chicken wraps for dinner.

You can join the New Zealand NT for £40ish a year for family membership. It's valid in the uk.

Took about two weeks for mine to arrive.

Lindt chocolates eh? Nice one.

Mmm

That does sound uber-stressful wreck especially when you've just had a job interview. Take it easy there and spoil yourself a bit if you can. You're a hero doing all that.

I'm enjoying having a nice rant to my friends on facebook. It's nice to say what I'm really thinking on there for once. Free too.

cag it usually means all the tenants. You could ask for the agreement to specifically state just for dds portion of the rent though. That's what mum & dad did for my sisters when she went to uni.

Long day. But I did start the wheels on the house move. I spoke to an estate agent today. Eeeek!! Scary! And have been given examples of things in our budgets.

I've also been following zombies threads and just learned now that she passed on today. Sad news. She was from all accounts a mn institution.

That's awful, did she rehome her cats in time?

I Think so.

In her honour we now have a new emoticon thing

There is a "Candles for Candy" thread, if anyone wants to leave their condolences and a . It's probably on to part 2 by now, as it was busy when I posted last night.

wreck that was kind of you to help out, and equally lovely of the lady to send you that parcel.

Just got word on the grapevine - I'm getting a 4.5% payrise!
I'm not a union member but they looked for 5%, company offered 3% and they've settled on 4.5%. Other employees were putting pressure on myself and my work colleague to join, I agreed half heartedly. We've a much reduced workforce to what we had a few years ago, maybe I should.

Just got this email - it's 2.5% backdated to Jan 1st and a further 2% next Jan, all helps

That's wonderful news mammy. Well done!

Any opinions on unions?
Think it costs about €4.50 a week

It's a company wide raise, it's a small workforce. Our third rise since I started in Jan 2008.

Oh no, I have been reading zombies threads for ages. I dipped into one around Christmas and it was clear how poorly she was. Tragic. Life really isn't fair sometimes.

Tea was smoked salmon risotto (done the old way) - found the salmon in the freezer, a bit frost burned, but tasted just fine. Ndn gave us some pheasants! He's a ghillie, I hurridly chose to walk the dogs while dp plucked. Slow cooked phesant casserole for tea tomorrow!

Thanks for the shiny new thread Cag

Lovely pic of snuggly babe

NSD for me today, DH bought printer paper, £16-ish

Sainsbo's delivering Tomoz, £106 but £16 is DD1's shopping for which she will repay me

Au pair away for a week in March dh & I taking 3 days off each so one overlapping, this is a major step as usually it would fall to me to either take the time off or arrange for someone to care for the dc. Dh even offered to take the full week off

I think you should join, if you can afford it, Mammy. I know it's not much of a pay rise, but it's more than you get now, and it wouldn't have been achieved without the help of the union.

That's very sad news about zombie I didn't read all her threads but knew she was very poorly.

Great news on the rise Mammy. And re the shared leave.

I would be too soft Adora with my own DD

Knitting That's my philosophy re food, if it tastes and smells okay, that's okay for me.

Lovely gesture Wrecked.

I knew there was another NT that you could join, thought it was NZ. The Fluffster mentioned it a few months ago.

Joe Wicks chicken tikka masala for tea. Smells lovely but I'm waiting until after my class.

Just done my end of month spends thing, this is my 'head out if the sand' resolution for the year.

Jan supermarket £375, average 2016 £673 (spent over £800/month 5 times in 2016, phew)
Other spends £145, average 2016 £371 (all spends outside supermarkets, like b&q etc)
Specific pet spends £80, average 2016 £63 (dog fud on offer, have 17kg left for feb)

This is with extra spends for dd1 birthday, I am super impressed. If I can keep this up for a year I will be back in control and have my head well above the water. Its posting on here which makes me think, so I hope you don't mind me drivelling on, it really helps!

Oh no, poor Zombie :( that's so sad.

id great effort, well done.
bean your commute sounds long, must be very hard for you.
Newbies can I mention my blog again, sorry I wont say it again, and feel free to add a comment supermoneywoman.com (black and white photos).

We have no hope of paying off our mortgages it will be at least 60 as we only got on the property ladder properly last year.

This cold weather is me down, but I went into town today to pay in a cheque and said to myself I don't want nor need anything, so I didn't walk around the shops browsing. Am.pleased with myself.

My activation code actually arrived today. Of course the system is crashing.

This form is confusing A.F. 😂