Frugaleers Marching on!

[Cagliostro]

Hi everyone, new thread as previous one full.

All welcome to chat all things frugal (and a whole lot more besides) - do jump in, we are a friendly bunch!

Haha Em I think that's par for the course in France!!

Grotty day here. Paediatric review with DS, so I am slightly stressing about that because there are literally 4 parking spaces at the child development clinic and then controlled residents' parking fir miles around . Last time I was with DH so i could take DS in while he circled for 20 mins to park but today I will be on my own. Eek.

Should be NSD unless I get a parking ticket!

Nsd planned today

My language skills are zero but i do make the effort when abroad

Fingers crossed Seacow, for the review.

Sorry guys, I didn't have time to get online yesterday as I got back from my race and started cooking as we had family round for dinner.

Knitting I did wonder what weather you got. Hope you've dried out. Well done on the cakes/rolls and race overall. You must have been shattered.

Thank for asking about the race. We got gales. Always interesting on an exposed course. However I must have been in the zone yesterday.

Set off at a much faster pace than 3 weeks ago. I go on RPE rather than a specific pace. Felt okay but did wonder if I was going to blow up. I didn't! Just kept cracking on. Ended up with 72 minutes for a 10 mile race, way closer to my previous times that I ever dreamed of at this stage.

Was 30 female out of 450 and 6th in my age group (45-49 age). There are some excellent runners well into their 40's and 50's, one of the reasons why I love running so much. In fact the lady that won my category was 2nd overall. Put the work in, get the reward.

Good day at the office!

Frugally, made dinner and desert for 10 people without taking a trip to the shops. Roast chicken x 2, lots of veg. Lime drizzle tray bake and chocolate guiness cake.

Right, need to go to work. Sorry that I haven't had chance to read back. Work, then dogs then training!

Wow need fantastic 🌟

Frugal stir fry went down well yesterday :)

BrI'll isn't, Need.

Em, that would be brilliant.

Well done need you're right, you get out what you put in. You could see easily which riders had let go a bit over the winter, spat straight out the back, and the ones who had trained carefully finished well. Weather was truly grim though. Next race is in may, so hope it will be nicer then.

30/450 is bloody brilliant too, and you're not back to full running strength yet (I think from what you say)

Still feel chilled today, have got 2 jumpers on at home - would have been warmer riding my bike than standing at a junction with a flag!

I've lost track a bit here due to endless car shopping. Most impressed at all the French reading going on though. I lived in France as a kid and did a lot at school. I dream of coffees at the lovely glass-roofed cafe in Printemps.

Awesome need!

Our new storage heaters are pretty cool. They're digital! You can also set the room temperature with them.

The sparky has torn our new Lino 😭 he feels awful though so I don't want to make him replace it

Wow need you're a speedy gonzales! That was a super place overall and in your age group. You must be so pleased with yourself.

I'm hoping to do 10k on Sat in under 75 mins you're doing miles in that time. But I'm 30 seconds faster per kilometre than I was & I'm competing with myself not others. What's RPE?

In frugal news - I enquired about laser hair removal before Christmas and was told to watch out for their offer on facebook in February. I checked in quite regularly but managed to miss their one line post advertising it, every other offer had images and lots of text so I emailed to know if it had expired and they said they'll honour it for me. I think it's about €300 exactly what I've got in my Christmas Club at work so I'm going to get that paid into my account this week and get going on it. Underarm hair is the one thing that makes me feel unclean.

Currently reading crap with money thread on money matters board, is interesting. Someone recommended a free desktop software called VT cashbook for recording spends and you can print out from it to show where your money is going, might interest someone here.

Weck I think he needs to pay for the lino. I know you don't want to make him feel bad but it's either him who pays, or you and your dh and it wasn't your fault.

Ipso he's a subby so I'm going to contact my housing association once he's finished

Oh no, Wreck! Don't tradesmen have liability insurance? Expect he could claim off that if so.

£51 vet, could have been worse.

I read War of the Worlds in French once but that wasn't long after doing GCSE. I doubt I could remember enough now. I can get by in France but actually one of my biggest regrets is not doing A level French, I was quite good at it at school and I enjoyed it.

He's being very affectionate today

Is it badly damaged wreck? Or can you live with it?

Dds birthday is coming up next month, last year we shared it with a boy in her class. This year his mother is not giving him a party. Options available to us vary from €10-15 per child or €300 flat fee. I hadn't attended any party at the €10 place so we asked dd what she thought of it as they'd been there on a school tour & she raved about it so dh will check it out tomorrow while she's at swimming lessons. It's also very close to us distance wise too & nice to give the business locally. Think we'll be inviting about 15 children plus cost of cake & present €200 ish

Snuggly I loved French too, just because I'd spent my early years trailing around listening to my Mum speaking it in shops. I did Higher French and it helped a lot with getting me in touch with something that was in some ways my home culture. You must have been really good to read that book. I never could do things like that, but partly because we weren't really taught the reading grammar, just the speaking stuff. (past historic and all that)

It's quite bad mammy. I'll post a photo later.

Nsd so far. I bought lunch but with a voucher for the cafe. Yay!

Also have been given a promotion at work!! Yay!!! (And a nice bonus and payrise). Promotion totally unexpected I cried in front of hr director who told me. 😀😭😂

Well done em!!!

Sorry, just read first page and wanted to say about foundation, if you go to different make up counters, and ask for a sample, you can get a month's worth of foundation for free!

Do you want to know further car shopping intrigue?

I have been testing ford focuses but I still like my Mondeo better. I phoned the used car garage and ask if they would knock of the price of having the work done here so I could have my local garage do it and they said they would.

They also said they'd take the car to an independent aircon specialist and find the price to have that fixed. And they said the warranty is not with them, it's a national thing, so we could take it to any vat registered garage here. If we take it to Halfords, then the garage would do the billing and I don't even need to do the paperwork.

Very tempted really. I like Mondeos very much and they run for donkeys years usually, and drive like a Bentley. I may be about to enter the classic car market...

ipsos you observed on a test drive how heavy the suspension is on the ford focus, I'd the car a few weeks before I figured that out, and it irritates me no end.

Mammy Yes that's the thing that is getting me about the Focus. It really bangs had when it goes over seams in the road and I feel as though my brain is being rattled going down even normal city roads. That's what's making me think about the Mondeo again.

I had the Focus from Saturday morning to Monday morning which was a good long time to test and think about it.

I'm glad I did, as I wouldn't otherwise have had a clear idea of how it feels. I did the same with a corsa a few months back, and with both I was really relieved to get back in my Mondeo at the end.

Also we live in a tiny city where we walk almost everywhere, so buying a cheap second hand car does seem to make a certain amount of sense, as long as it works. We drive so little that I only visit a petrol station twice a year.