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.

Thanks strawberry and Cag. Yes it's odd. Sunglasses and things like that don't seem to help, which is a shame. I think it's just going to be a few years until the technology is sorted out and then everything will go back to normal. Fortunately we live in a city and are totally surrounded by churches which are all interlinked, so wherever we end up, it can't be very far away. Cag that library thing does sound very odd.

On the plus side, I've noticed that cars are getting much better for LED lights. The hyundai i20 that we rented the other day was great, and so is the ford focus, the older ford mondeo, all the vauxhalls, and the BMWs, so there is definite progress going on out there.

strawberry that's interesting that your have that same trouble with screens. Glad it's not just me.

Sunny no your the only one all, I have the brightness turned right down on my laptop and phone and we tend to use a projector to watch films and TV programmes as it's a softer light if you know what I mean, colleagues complain my work screens too dark though!

Well that's very encouraging then. Tbh, I've noticed that younger people tend to be affected and people over 70 never are (as far as I can tell) and our church congregation is almost entirely retired people. I think that if we leave then almost all the remaining people will be at least over 60. I suspect that is partly what is going on.

Frustratingly they do have an overhead projector, but they want to appeal to the youth so have splashed out several thousand quid on screens that we can't look at. Time will sort it out, I'm sure. The screens will probably go bang after a couple of years, just after the warranty finishes.

Hello all.

Sunny Sounds like a big thing to move churches, I hope you find one that is better suited to you if you do decide to take the leap. It's a shame about the screens.

Cag I'm glad about your relative, I hope they have a speedy recover.

Today should be NSD as I'm staying home. Planning chores & revision although tbh not many chores to do as we blitzed the flat yesterday before our friend came over. We had a lovely meal out, was spendy though: £26 for our two all-you-can buffets as we went to a world buffet restaurant and then £15 for a bottle of wine. I can't actually add that up in my head .

What do you all think about John Platt losing his case about holidays during term-time? I disagree with the judgement but I'm a law student, not a parent, and on a low income, so interested to hear all your views. Lady Hale is my legal idol but she gave the leading judgement here so I am very disappointed!

Meadow I just got a funny email from a church friend saying that the screens very rarely work, so in practice they are almost never turned on, even though everybody claims they are used twice a month. LOL! Sounds more promising.

Meadow I'm not a parent either but my understanding of it came from my mum being a teacher. There were always lots of kids who would be out of school for too long on holidays and who really needed that time in school. However it needs to be applied with some flexibility. We've got family members who have been refused to go to close family weddings taking place in their home countries when they've literally never taken a day off before for example

Ok quite a successful mornings work completed from home and new phones arrived (really quickly, less than 48 hours from when I ordered it!) but no micro sim so still need to use the old one where the battery keeps disconnecting for now, not ideal but hopefully sorted soon.
Pot of pea and ham soup on the hob for lunch, I've been determined this week to use up things in our freezer and cupboards to the extent that part from a bit of cheese and yogurt I've not done any food shopping!

So. It turns out the agent took it upon himself not to pass our offer forwards to the roof house people. I am raging. Absolutely raging.

But will use this to my advantage. When we put our place on market with the same agency I'm negotiating their fee down. Can't trust this guy to decide for himself what's a decent offer.

Met dh for lunch. All he wanted to do was talk houses. All I wanted to do was not. He's adamant that I need to understand "the plan" and the tone I got was that he thinks I'm a bleeding moron who doesn't understand what we're trying to do.

I left him too it. Bought my sandwich and have had a wander round. Looked at more prams. Mama and papas and an icandy (?) one. Latter was super pricey.

Also popped into our social security office and picked up info re maternity benefits. So one useful thing done.

Oh no, Em. How annoying!

That's appalling, Em. Definitely use it to negotiate.

I'm a teacher. Yes it can be disruptive for students to take holiday in term time, especially in yr 10/11 BUT some parents cannot take leave in the holidays, some families cannot afford to pay holiday-time prices and I genuinely think that family holidays are important so I can't get too upset about term time holidays. I just wish I could take my holiday in term tine instead of paying over the odds to go away at the busiest times.

I think you're right Snuggly. When dm was ill recently we weren't allowed leave to visit her unless the situation was terminal and then only a week. The system seems very harsh indeed at the moment.

Oh I should probably have also stated that no doubt my reason for not being against them - in situations where children have otherwise good attendance as a qualifier - is influenced by my own experience of having a parent who is an immigrant from the middle east. The cost of flights for a family of five was vastly less during term-time so we left a few times during term-time (usually the week or two before a term had ended rather than right in the middle of a term or something). Without this we wouldn't have been able to visit our extended family as often and I think that was really important and valuable for all of us. Our attendance otherwise was good and both myself in particular and my brother too were very high achievers at school and my sister plodded along averagely, so it wasn't detrimental to our academia and I think benefited us very much so in other ways (improved our skills in the foreign language; emotional health from extended family bonding; experience of different cultural norms etc). It would be different if we had really bad attendance records but we didn't and were certainly never behind (in fact myself usually miles ahead but that's a different story!).

Need Well done . Ocado are usually so good too.

Em I wouldn't even use them now after that little debacle. Guy sounds a bit of a cunt. You're Dh is on thin ice too. Never trifle with ANY pregnant animal.

£5 door mat in lidl.

They've not been great recently Fluffy, hence I did lose patience yesterday. My frugal win today was a free eye brow wax as last time, the therapist slightly burned my eye lid. They are usually brilliant, this is the first time ever.

Em I would be beyond fuming. That's not the EA's call to make. I would be seriously complaining in those circumstances.

Term time absence. Difficult one. I see both sides. There's no way I would allow my DC time off for holidays at this stage in their school life, Y11/12.

Actually, our school and I expect most schools are sensible and look at each individual case. The guy in question said his DD's attendance was good at over 90%. Personally, I don't think that IS so good, that's 10% of time actually off school. 10% of learning gone. 97/98%, fair enough, and achieving well, but otherwise, it's the schools call. Years ago, when I was a Governor less than 90% attendance was a safeguarding concern, I guess that might have changed. Dunno, maybe I'm just weird, but if either of mine were dropping below 90% that would worry me too

Spends.
£24 feed shop.
£45 - Marathon entry for 2018!!!!! Remind me about this when I'm moaning about running 20 mile runs in the depths of winter that I had a choice

Fluffy I suspect we may have similar door mats.....

*learning done at school I should say.

Hi all, am feeling slightly more zen than ystd

Worked all day and its been a NSD, dd loving her holiday club so thats good. She is coming home filthy and tired so money well spent

The holiday thing like Need said I can see both sides, some parents would probably take the piss if there were no restrictions but i feel it should be up to the schools discretion. I have taken dd out for various things but never more than a few days and its always been fine.

Dd is watching The Good Dinosaur, hankys are at the ready!

girlie we were not prepared for the good dinosaur. Sooo sad. The poor little critter, could take or leave the dinosaurs! We had to put it away for a while.

Have no bias on term time holls. We, as a family of 6 cannot afford a holiday, full stop. Its on our wishiest wish list. Plus running your own shop, which is largely seasonal doesn't help much either.

Spendy today, but 3 more rooms led'd up, and got some substrate, mice and habitat for a new baby snake, arriving tonight. For dd3 who's praying mantis turned out to be an adult when we got it, and died last week. We owe her a long lived pet. google rainbow boa

Just sorting kids tea, then I have the joys of the vat return to do tonight.

OMG I googled rainbow boa beautiful! Shame about the mantis. Those are cool. If I could choose any pet at the moment it'd be a crested gecko.

Bloods done. Had a letter about my scan... 2 weeks tomorrow. Bah.

He's coming from a specialist breeder in Brighton, there are such folk as reptile couriers, who knew! Not had a gecko, but the are super cute...we are on a no-new-pet agreement, but we did owe dd3. And dp bought it from his own 'bike fund' pocket money, which I though was lovely of him.

How many weeks do you thing you could be cag you could be like half way in! That would be epic, it was waiting for forty-one-two (come on baby) weeks that I found frustrating!

I've told dh he needs to deal with the agents going forwards.

He made me fried potatoes chorizo sugar snaps rocket salad for dinner. With pitta and humous.

Dh has bought a doormat too. What are the chances? No one buys one for 3 years and two turn up on the same day.

Cag bloody hell you'll be crowning by then.

😂

Nah I reckon I'm either 10 weeks or 14 weeks now but definitely no further than that

Evening all, it's been a day of anticipated expense and unanticipated expense.

I spent €14.40 on 20 stamps. The lady in the Post Office informed me that the price of stamps is increasing from next week - from 72c to €1 . So I saved almost €6 by buying them this week instead of next week.

The unanticipated expense was DH getting clamped . That cost us €80. Ouch!

3 door mats if you count mine

2 weeks will feel like a long time Cag but at least you now know when you will know, iyswim. Also good chance of a heartbeat and decent view as unlikely to be less than 6-7 weeks, so that will be reassuring.

Snakes are not for me lonely. I can appreciate their beauty but I've no wish to be in close proximity! Shame about the holidays for you guys, I can see the shop difficulties though as well as money. Always difficult for those who run their own business I think.

I have mixed views about the holidays. I wholeheartedly agree with Need that 90% attendance isn't brilliant anyway. And I can see that if it became commonplace it would have a generally disruptive effect with people constantly on catch-up. I'd prefer not to take DD out of school in term time anyway but might do it for eg family wedding or other special reason outside of our direct control. My only reservation though is that with his ASD we are really going to struggle to take him away at only peak times. We can go to a cottage in the middle of nowhere, or a quiet resort abroad, but if we want to take him to a museum /theme park /major attraction I just don't think he could manage it in the holidays . I feel really sad that he therefore just may not experience a lot of those things at all. It might be a conversation to have with school at some stage, see what they think.

Had 28-week growth scan today. Baby is 3lb already, right on target, and I could see her suckling and waving. My mum came too and I think was really pleased to see it. She only ever had one scan (back in 1979) when her doctor was worried about sudden weight gain - it turned out to be twins. She was too shocked to take it in and there weren't any routine scans for anyone then so no second chance. £2.50 parking, and then I took mum and DS out for a toastie lunch for about £13. Got myself some dinner too as DH is out tonight - I bought a microwave pasta thing to avoid cooking but I think I might just eat a pile of avocado and tomatoes and freeze the pasta for another time. I might even eat some of DS's strawberries (usually I only buy them for him but they are very reasonable now so maybe I am allowed some too? )

Started that post when DS was in the bath so cross posted with Cag. Maybe up to 14 weeks - blimey!