Money-managing Masterfully into May - Frugaleers unite!

[needastrongone]

Thread continued for old faithfuls, new posters and anyone else that would like to contribute.

Financial talk, tips and discussion, with quite a lot of other stuff too.

We are a friendly bunch and there's lots of support for new and old.

£54 in aldi although £10 was garden stuff. £20 Iceland, £3.60 card warehouse. £3 charity on a holiday dress. £1.25 baker's, £6.12 butcher.

Going to a share park this afternoon, DD into town, probably out for tea. £££££ no doubt

I have been and bought beaver uniform now. They only had them in huge sizes so I am shrinking them in the washing machine on 60 which is probably a good idea anyway. Don't want to have them shrink after the badges are on.

That was about £28.

Should be a NSD

DP has just got the bread maker we were given second hand about eight years ago out of the loft. Think it was only used once. Tomorrow will get ingredients to try it out. I was thinking home made fresh bread could remove trips to the shops just to buy bread, plus all the other stuff that then falls in the basket! Anyone a fan of a bread maker?

DP also used the pressure washer for the first time to transform an outside plastic playhouse which we were given for free.

Lots of jobs to do around the house today.

Tomorrow we plan to take the cot sides off DD's bed. We were going to do it whilst on holiday but decided we'd rather she first got herself out of bed on days when we have to get up early. Concerned we might be getting up at 5am though! Hoping to get the baby gate attached to her door frame. She keeps trying to climb over the cot side so it's definitely time.

I was never a fan of baked in the maker bread but used it to make bread dough we shaped and pizza dough every week.

Beaver uniforms always swamp then at first but remember they are there until they are 8.

£5 skatepark, £3 metro for dh and DD to go to toon. She picked the wrong patent to go shopping with. He's tighter than me ....

We'll see then life with the bread. My original plan was to get it out the loft, hoping it was mingling and mouldy, so we could get rid!

Think it depends on the maker. Mine was a morphey Richards and a bit rubbish. Panasonic are meant to be the dogs whatsits but they are over £100

Busy on here .
Intresting discussion re savings made by not working, definitely worth doing the maths to work out the most financially viable hours etc. Then it keeps changing as they get older. I have increased my hours now DC don't need childcare (and seem to be getting more expensive by the day!). There is a tendency to feel richer and therefore waste spend more though.
NSD yesterday as at work then we all went to DD show ( already had tickets ). Df loved it as he used to be a scout leader.
Spends today : Wilko £14, Asda £7, dvd of show £7.

NSD.

Had some terrible news from my home town this morning. A father and son who were well known died in a house fire in the early hours. The son was great friends with my sister and brother-in-law and they were related to an old school pal of mine too. So even though I personally didn't know them well, I've been shaken up all day. Death in a house fire is so, so tragic.

Sunny Please don't think that I am interfering but, having gone through many years of Scouts, hang fire with the shrinking!! What genuinely swaps a child will hardly fit them by the time they leave that section. Transferring all the badges is an absolute PITA. Roll the sleeves up.

Oh Creme . No wonder you are shaken up, that is dreadful news. What awful circumstances. Take care.

No experience of bread makers to give sorry.

So far, NSD but some art has just been dropped off from the gallery and is wonderful. We may invest.

Seacow Will you share your menu please? You always have wonderful ideas.

I'm sat in a T Shirt, it's lovely here.

£9 online at M&S, but used a £10 voucher that comes with the banking facility. That will be total spend today at least.

Oh creme that's awful. Sorry to hear that.

£20 sainsbury on dinner.
Dh and DD spent about £30. I spent another £3 on pizza

Thanks Need and Life. I think the whole town is in mourning today.

Oh no creme that's so awful :(

Had a nice day, hope you all have too. creme how ghastly, no wonder you've been shaken. We will all check our smoke alarms tonight. A house fire is about as grim as it gets.

Top up shop in aldi was £49! But I got a monkey banana tree, have wanted one for yonks.
£20 petrol (boo) £12 tesco, mostly lunch for dp and yoghurts for next week.

My mil is coming down tomorrow "you didn't forget did you?" translates into "I just decided and am telling you now" luckily she's lovely but scatty and a bit nuts and doesn't mind our mess. Pulled pork sliders (is this the right word, little burgers?) will stretch.

That's horrible, Creme

Asda have a baby event on for any of you who need to stock up on nappies etc.

Slightly spendier day as DH found cheap geomag in the charity shop, I'm getting a takeaway and I've asked DH to get some ginger beer from work as apparently it's good for nausea ! Worth a try! :o

Creme how awful fire is one of my big fears.

We have had a nice day, weather has been fantastic - really hot!! Managed to get two lots of washing done and on the line and have done well with using up food today. We had pitta bread and tuna/sweetcorn/cucumber combo for dd, chicken/salad for me at lunch, jacket spuds with cheese and salad for tea.

So we have a new little hamster, super cute and dd has named him Freddie. We deliberated for ages about getting two but I was concerned that two may fight and poss they might have made an error with sexing them didn't want 10 more baby hamsters in a few weeks!! So we have just got the one, he was £10, also got him a new water bottle which was £2.

Just went to the park this afternoon and also spent a nice hour or more in my garden reading

Cag how did your dd get on with getting the bus on her own? I need to start getting dd used to doing the odd thing on her own as she will soon be walking to/from secondary school solo.

Cag anything with ginger in is good for nausea, also fennel tea is helpful. Did you get morning sickness with your other two? I was really bad with dd but it was like a switch went off at about 12 weeks and was totally fine after that!!

creme that's sad news.

I love love live my Panasonic Bread maker 🍞 best thing since sliced bread! Paid £120 on Amazon. Amazing the different types of bread I can now do and so much better than the shop.

NSD whoop whoop (plus I went out for curry last night and didnt eat or drink as said I had no money and they were all cool and saved myself £20).

Thanks Life. Ds is 7 already so only had a year of Beavers. The uniform will be fine. I am an old hand at this stuff.

Need Would you mind staying disengaged from me as you said you would? I would really appreciate it. For some reason all of our reciprocal posts end up just feeling really unhelpful, and I'm really very happy just to chat with the others. Thanks!

Oh that's lovely about the new hamster, Girlie.

I lost someone I loved dearly in a fire 16 years ago, so any time I hear of another death in a fire, it opens up some old wounds. Apart from the death of a child or a murder, I don't think there's anything worse.

Sunny, Need was just trying to point out that Beavers' uniform has to last a couple of years. DS went through Beavers, Cubs and Scouts and was drowning in the uniform at the start each time. She was just trying to help.

That's terrible Creme, awful way to go.

Well timed extra cash there Sea.

NSD.

Creme Yes I know, but I'm not daft. Ds is already 7 which is a year later than most children start, and I know how big he will be by the time he is out of Beavers.

need said she was happy to disengage from me and the group is much much more useful to me that way.

She and I are very different people, in almost all ways, and she doesn't really understand me. Because of our natural differences her advice tends not to be helpful to me and in response to her, I end up just endlessly justifying my own, perfectly sensible decisions, which is a waste of time.

I would really find the group so much more helpful if need could either just ignore me or accept that I can manage perfectly well without her advice. I'm sorry and I know this sounds conflicty, but that's what it is, and I'd much rather solve the problem than have to grind on gritting my teeth.

Ok sunny. Didn't realise DS was already 7. I was thinking of our 5.5 year olds who start our troup.