Frugaleers saving and chatting through April

[SunnyLikeThursday]

Newbies welcome to join us for a bit of chat about budgeting, saving, paying off debt, and everything else that comes along.

Ah poor hammy. Tis for the best though.
Well done on the Dentist and travel.
Pleased the appointment went ok cag.
Oh mammy that's so sad when things escalate to that point.
Well done on the roller skating. I'm going to look into that for my core.

Nsd today. Got some jobs done with DS being off.

Sunny You need to get someone in, damp shouldn't be there. Is there a damp proof course?.

Is there any mould growing on the damp patch?.

Thanks everyone for the hamster sympathy, dd has been up and down today tbh - she is such a sensitive soul bless her. Dhammy had a nice send off in the garden and we will make sure a nice plant is planted there.

Had some amazing news this afternoon, my solicitor emailed to say they have been holding nearly £500 for me was a complete shock and have no idea why or where the money is coming from but not going to argue with them!! It couldn't have come at a better time as this month was looking seriously dire, it will pay for our little camping trip, dds school trip and top the savings up

Booked the holiday today, it came in at £184.

£20 Amazon, that was £10 clarinet stuff and £10 on 12 plants for the garden.

Also rather frugally have used up a load of weetabix (dd has decided they are gross ) and made weetabix fudge which is delicious!

Well done Sunny on managing the trip, hopefully that might give you the confidence to try some more little trips non dentist related! Keep meaning to ask is your mum all recovered now from her hip op?

Wow, Sunny major achievement. Well done to you and DS.
As Fluffy said, check if you have a damp course or if you have, is it breached? Those poor families in Ireland. When that sort of thing happens there are no winners. Both families have lost in different ways. Such a tragedy.
I have been sticking up on tinned a packet food because I think prices may rise with Brexit. Just buy an extra tin of tomatoes or something when I go to ALDI.
2 different friends have each given me 6 eggs this week from their crooks and, of course I had just bought 6 from other friend. 18 eggs,
Good job DP is here staying at the moment as I was able to make big Spanish omelette for tea. Only 12 eggs to go.
Neighbour has just texted to ask if I will swop a jar of honey for 18 eggs 😧😧😧

£47 coop £39 nails. Spendy day.

We ventured into baby shop today and looked at Prams. Bugaboos and stokke ones. Purely because they were the ones they sold not because that's what we are getting.

Lady recommended a stokke one as they are a) scandi made b) more ergonimical c) long lasting. Apparently it'd last 4 babies. (And at £900 it better do!)

We took a catalogue. And some of the furniture they make is amazing. We've found a cot/crib/tent/canopy/bed/changing table deely. Again expensive but we need to work out how much it's be to get all separelty. Something that could convert (and still stay cute) may be better no? No decisions made yet.

I've also looked at Ikea. So am tempted to place an order. but will hold off. Exciting though.

OOOOH baby shopping :o :o awesome! I guess for buggies you'd particularly be looking at things like how easily it fits in your car, and also maybe if it's going to be easy to use at the beach? Not sure if inflatable tires are better or worse for that sort of thing, puncture risk and stuff?

Copper don't feel you have to say yes! Could you say you have too many eggs at the moment but suggest a swap in say a week's time?

Apparently ikea high chairs are good. The tray goes in the dishwasher! Anything that goes in a dw is ok in my books.

White company stuff always looks nice. I do like the f&b nursery school with the soppy decals on the walls.

Way better than Winnie the Pooh

I still have DS's Stokke highchair, 14 years on! I use it as a step ladder now. I even managed to paint the kitchen/diner ceiling with it last September!

cag ideally I want a light weight all terrain easy to fold cute looking one that doesn't cost a bomb. Poss wishful thinking though.

Ikea looks good. Cots etc up to about £290. And as with stokke still only flat pack. I trust Ikea over other flat pack.

Ikea high chair is in my list.

If I'm honest a lot of the Scandi looking stuff is on the list as it's fit with our decor #shallow

fluffy oh the white company. so many beautiful lovely things. I'm not meant to go in there. Especially when they have a sale. Last time I went in for a look I spent a small fortune on bedding. Oopsy. But absolutely worth it.

I had a silver cross three wheeler and loved it. It's wasn't small to fold but we had an estate car. I could walk the dog with it, push it 1 handed, fold it easily and it was light to lift.
My double was an out and about loved that one too. That may be worth a look em as it too was 3 wheel all terrain.

The thing is with buggies comfort to push and does it go where you want it, ease of folding and lifting and will it fit in the car.

Tired this morning. Police helicopter was about twice last night.
I'm supposed to be going to the gym tonight but CBA already.
Nsd planned anyway.

Loving these brighter mornings they make it so much easier to go to work.
Bootcamp this morning & I can finally do a full push up, I was doing them from my knees up to now. I feel so much stronger and capable since starting bootcamp.

I think nursery furniture is probably a waste of money - think chest of drawers with changing mat topper rather than changing table. Sink & bath insert rather than baby bath etc
For a buggy there are ones that can be adapted to hold a toddler as well as baby perhaps good in case ye have a second baby within next few years.

Eggs can ge frozen separate I believe. Our own eggs when we had them lasted up to three weeks.

Em I had a Stokke pram for DS. Loved the height (and the look) and being parent-facing but it is not the easiest to fold and takes up tonnes of boot room. I still have it but probably won't use it this time as i also doubt I can steer with one hand and I have to hold on to DS. However, the Stokke high chair (Tripp Trapp) was hands down my best pricey buy, DS still uses it now as an adjustable seat. We will probably buy another for this baby rather than evict him. I think the Ikea ones are also a brilliant design and really functional.

I think all-terrain and easy to fold buggies are possible - lots of three-wheelers with bigger tyres about. They are not always the most fancy-looking though and don't tend to be pram /travel systems so depends on how swayed you are by design beauty! Most people end up ditching the fancy ones later and getting a folding buggy anyway because nurseries often insist on them for storage, also some airlines. Might be worth finding out whether that will be relevant to you before you buy or you may end up buying twice (although you can just get a cheap umbrella buggy if need be).

Midwife appointment today I THINK - they made this next appointment at my last one but didn't write it down on my notes and I couldn't get through to anyone to check yesterday. So I am going by my memory from more than 8 weeks ago. This might not be reliable

ASD event later - I am going without DS as he is at nursery but I'd like to talk to the other parents anyway. Not sure when I am going to get all the housework done this week!

em we took out a free subscription to which magazine. They rate car seats, push chairs etc on there. We choose the best price, best value travel system and it came to under £350. I also bought the carry cot that went with it from eBay as they get very little use as babies grow so quick.

As others say, nursery furniture is not a necessity although nice. I'd prefer to spend more on more grown up furniture for the child's room once they can appreciate it! We just bought ikea drawers and wardrobe.

strawberry did you hear back about your job interview? I may have missed it.

Also agree that you will probably get fed up of a bigger pushchair and want an umbrella type one as soon as baby gets big enough. I couldn't wait for DD2 to be big enough for the umbrella one at six months. My McClaren has lasted two children and is my favourite.

Bacon We bought a maclaren buggy for a big holiday and then nursery (airline said it had to be umbrella fold, ditto nursery) and it was excellent. The one we have lies completely flat so is suitable from birth, with an insert thingy. We could use that for dc2 but it is quite low down and only forward facing so since I have other options I will probably use something more pram-like at first and migrate again later.

Ikea for bedroom furniture for dc2, definitely! It's a tiny room anyway so once we've got the cot in there we'll just fit a chest of drawers and an Ikea Kallax thing. Maybe a chair. We have a massive bathroom with a big surface like a kitchen worktop with cupboards under so baby changing happens there. It's one of the best things about our house actually!

Must get showered and dressed (v lazy today)

Another lazy day here. Still sitting drinking tea in dressing gown
Do I hard boil eggs to freeze them? And then shell them?

The single best buggy I've had was my turquoise Quinny Zapp. Unbrella fold to tiny and still looked great. Needless to say I've had many buggys. I'm loving not needing one now! The biggest mistake was the first, like many I suspect, the salespersons see the first time pregnant families coming. Stupid all terrain 3 wheeled (brown exp picked it, was truly hideous) thing. We actually got a shogun sport to fit the sodding thing in. Only advice from me is do your research, and get carry cots/extras second hand, as not all babies will enjoy a 'pram' not one of mine did A frame that fits car seat/carrycot/buggy seat seperatley is the most versatile.

We are all a little streppy today. Dd2 is in at the doctors later with a very sore eye, dd3 clearly had a cold coming on, ds is barking like a seal, and me and dp don't feel great! A sad bunch today! Not got much on though.

Copper I googled last year when I had about 100 eggs. You freeze the yolks and whites separately, just in freezer bags. I have only used them defrosted for cakes, and they came out ok. It's like freezing milk, so wrong but works out fine!

I float test eggs! Some of ours can hang around a long time. Plus I always break them into a glass first, so any off ones don't ruin a mix. I'm a lot less squeamish than I used to be, but there's not a lot worse than a rotten egg, maybe a rotten potato...

Doing nothing but housework today, DH's last day off so want to get lots done!

Good point about Which subscription. Customers can access it free at our library so I must do that later on. Need to look at washing machines too as I think ours needs replacing soon.

I had a Mothercare travel system at first which was great apart from the tyres, then an uber cheap umbrella buggy but that was definitely false economy! Silver Cross travel system which we used for DS was much better, it didn't have a separate carry cot bit but it sort of folded out. We sold it but if not it would've been fine for this baby as it lasted really well. No idea what we will go for this time, obviously ability to fit in a car isn't a priority for us but then it does need to be easy to get on buses (although I must say buses here are pretty spacious, compared to greater London when we had DD). I'm also wondering if I can get away with using a sling for some journeys but it depends if my muscles can take it!

I think we would be getting a Moses basket this time (we never had one before, we just used the carrycot bit from the travel system) and then when they're out of the newborn phase, a cotbed rather than a cot.

Fluffy yes there's fine white fluff growing all over it. Is it the surveyor that we ask or something like that? We are definitely meant to have a damp proof course.

Thanks Girlie yes we do hope to get away again for a proper trip soon. That would be nice. So sorry to hear about your hamster. That's a bit of a life event for your dd, experiencing that. I learnt so much from losing a guinea pig when I was small.

My dm is home from the hospital and eating and practising walking. Such a relief to have her back home and getting better again. Thanks for asking.

Glad to be home today. I managed to get a high temperature on the train yesterday, so I'm going to try to chase it off with hot drinks and warm baths and resting today. Seems like a pretty nice plan for a day even without a lurgy.

I hope you are all getting on well.

Hello hello! Quick catch up here

girlie we just did a trial camping sesh with a ready pitched tent and it was FANTASTIC! It was so good that we want to go back asap. Ours was only £45 a night. Definitely recommended! Sorry to hear about hammy!

We're currently living in limbo land regarding house & jobs. Will be back properly when it all sorts itself out I'm not very organised. At all!

You need a few specialist damp companies to come out & give you a quote.

I wonder if that white fluff is bacterial or fungal?.

It might be salts leaching out of the wall. We currently have that in our leaky conservatory but it wasn't not mould (the black mould followed later!).

Camping sounds brilliant collie. Would you recommend the campsite then?

Thanks Fluffy I'll look up damp companies and ask them.

It's a bit hard to photograph the mold because it's behind my computer desk, but here it is.