Frugaleers - joyfully jumping into June

[ememem84]

New thread. Xx

Cag, well done on surviving the assessment. They are difficult to get through. Even they find she has a "learning disability" it doesn't mean she is "thick". It may mean she has perceptual difficulties or similar. It may help to explain some of the issues she has.
Snuggly, how is DS?
NSD at last. Totally broke. Bought too many Lego cards.

Cag It's a bit mean to leave you hanging like that. This is nothing that you can't get support for either.

People have always had learning difficulties, we're just better at diagnosing them now.

I'm switching matched betting service from oddsmonkey to profit accumulator. It's £3 a month more but they have more offers.

Hi, hoping my post will post. Mn was not allowing me to last night. grr

cag I agree with fluffy a dx will give you answers or reasons maybe, but she doesn't need it for school and you won't have to fight for it/worry it's not enough and gets the extra support from you. You're ace

We had a lovely trip to the zoo. Always great fun, it's been 2 years since we last went. I didn't have any bread in, so spent £20 on the way on sarnies etc, and then £65 in the gift shop offset a bit by the dc's 'spending' their money, but I bought myself a t-shirt. Daft as it was ££ but I wanted it! Dp pre booked the tickets and bought me a coffee.

We stopped to see mil, her GSD is a bit of a lion, and held me and the dc hostage on the sofa after dp bimbled off to help mil with something. It was patrolling past us with a really sinister glint in its eye! and snapped at me and ds Then turns into a teddy bear when mil comes back in. I'd asked dp not to leave us alone with it, but he did

Teenage tantrum on the way home, which resulted in us driving past Macdonalds and having cheese on toast for tea.

Today I have transferred £8k from my 0% almost run out lloyds card to my new 24 months 0% barclay card, and my debenhams card, which rolls, and I've never paid it off. Once this lot goes through, I'll shift the balance from my expensive card (£100/m interest!) to a new 0% deal on my lloyds card.

Spends £40 topping up dd1 lunch account.

Thanks all. Have had a nap and a cry and feel a bit better now.

Thankfully DD didn't hear any of that stuff. She knows that we are going to find out if she has autism (a positive attribute to her, lots of her home ed friends have it) and although she was nervous about going off to play in a separate room with a speech therapist, she did it bravely and seemed to enjoy it in the end.

TBH though I have had wobbles about HE lately, so this was probably not the best time - I am freaking out about how I can possibly help her, I feel like I'm out of my depth. But then I also remember both of her schools giving her no support, and dismissing our concerns both academically and emotionally. So I know we did the right thing removing her. I just worry about her achievement and particularly self esteem (the bully has been making comments for ages about her being stupid, it turns out, so obviously that doesn't help).

Hello, may I join in please? I've been lurking on this thread for a while learning lots from all you lovely people but until now I've not been able to post - I have a 12 week old baby and am disabled, so it's been a long although happy slog to get to the point of feeling I can contribute.
I am a very frugal by nature but still have learnt lots from quite a few of you and think this thread is a really lovely sub-community on MN.
My frugal goals/situation is that I was made redundant 3 months into my pregnancy, which turned out to be a good thing really as I has a very difficult pregnancy and birth, and have ended up more disabled as a result. So, I've got to keep my spending as low as possible so that we can eke out our savings for as long as we're able so I can stay home with baby, and eventually to try to set myself up working from home.
I'm also finally going to apply for PIP and other benefits so that I can get services I need such as Careline and be able to pay for taxis to get out and about a bit more without impacting my physical health - I've been inspired to do this by reading about Cag and Meadow

Sorry just realised this is a mammoth post but wanted to say - Cag - I know what you mean about feeling broken but I really admire you and I think you and your lovely girl are going to be just fine because you've done exactly what she needed to, to care for her, protect her, and to let her bloom in her own time and way

Welcome Dotcom, congratulations on your baby!. What kind of work will you do from home?.

Thank you fluffy! I am thinking about copy editing and proof reading services as I have some experience in this, but am also considering looking at tutoring for English Literature and Language. I think the difficulty will be finding a sufficient market for it though as people don't have a lot of extra money generally at the moment. I'm also looking to generate some income from my writing but I feel like that is a long-shot and probably a very long term prospect rather than quick and easy.

So who knew baked risotto was easy??? Not me! I said to dh I'm going to try and find easy but healthy dishes i can do when im off on mat leave. This is absolutely one of them. It involves rice and lemon zest in a dish. Stock poured over. Chuck in oven for 35 minutes. Then stir in peas mint Parmesan and Philly cream cheese and vlcj pepper. Mmmm. And made enough for 4. So dh has some for lunches for the next 2 days.
Frugal win

Sent back some maternity clothes I'd ordered from asos. So £35 back on my card.

Had a wobble at lunchtime. All the shops have their big summer sales starting this week. My fave local dept store is having a special cardholders sale evening on weds. 50% off everything for cardholders. Then on Thursday it's back to all 30% for the non cardholders. My fave stores are in there - warehouse Oasis white stuff joules miss selfridge river island. And I realised that none of the cute stuff will fit me 😭 And there's no point buying now for next year as I may not be the same size 😭 #vain

I got over it though because I'm just too excited for squidgy baby boy. 😀

I will hit the sales for clarins though. They always do great offers. And I may as well stock up while things are reduced.

Have listed some things on eBay to go on Sunday.

Catface let me pick her up this evening 😀 Just briefly so I could pop her on the table to do her flea stuff.

Oh and welcome dotcom congrats on baby. Ds or dd?

Welcome dot and thank you

I am somewhat biased :o but if you're offering tutoring, do you know any home educating families? If you have an 'in' then it could get you some work. It's normally more casual and flexible, but you might get kids studying privately for GCSEs etc too

Catface is trusting you more then. Their so vulnerable picked up.

Welcome Dot.

Sorry you didn't get the feedb acknowledged today, Cag, but it gives you some time to process things and think about any questions when you have your review for your DS. Try to see it like that.

Baked risotto sounds delicious, Em. Must give it a go. We had falafel, houmous, salad in pitta with some chips. Le yum!

Spends: £4.20 buses and £6.16 Aldi.

feedback*

creme omg I love falafels!!! Mmmm.

We bought aunt Bessie's veggie chips last week. Carrot sweet potato and parsnip. Mmm.

Welcome Dot. DS or DD. congrats on baby either way.
These Lego cards will be the end of me. DGS ( the heart op one) had decided he needs an album. But the entire country have sold out of Lego card albums. Would you believe that.
DGD needs 5 more cards. So of any kind person has numbers 7,38, 90, 129 or 113 and would be good enough to post them to me I will happily refund the postage ( and be your slave forever) PLEASE.
I am going to phone Sainsbo's head office tomorrow to see if there is a store in England with albums.
So, not only am I broke but also demented because of these cards.
Dot, have you checked your energy and other stuff to make sure you are on the lowest possible tariff? And make sure you go through cash back sites....I learnt that here.
And you could change bank...there are some good incentives.

£1.50 on chocolate in Sainsbury's while trying to get this bloody album.

www.hobbs.co.uk/product/display?productID=0117-6822-1144L00&productvarid=0117-6822-1144L00-CHAMBRAY-BLUE-12&refpage=promotions/sale-tops

For laska. Second picture of pony was last year, sadly.

Cag, you poor thing. What a trying day for you. It must be dreadfully draining emotionally. I've got no understanding but lots of sympathy.

Posted more cards Copper.

NSD here.

Welcome dot, can they make you redundant while pregnant,I wasn't sure that was okay?

Not sure if this works

www.hobbs.co.uk/product/display?productID=0117-6822-1144L00&productvarid=0117-6822-1144L00-CHAMBRAY-BLUE-12&refpage=promotions/sale-tops

Thanks for all the lovely welcomes! trying to remember all the questions now.....

Baby is DD, love her so much, and she's worth all the trouble
need the process began before I knew I was pregnant so unfortunately was totally legal, but tbh like I said it was probably for the best anyway since I wouldn't have coped with my disabilities through the rest of the pregnancy and I wouldn't have been able to cope with the job's physical side anymore.
Cag I was wondering about how to find out about local home ed families.... any advice?
copper due to lurking I've done all those things except switching accounts so I'm going to have a look into that in the next week. Also I set up a budget spreadsheet via MSE so I need to check and adjust that.

Totally craving risotto now!

Funny old day today. Got home from work before 5pm unusually, but decided to multi task and cook dinner and ring Vodafone. Was on the phone ages with Vodafone and still not sorted as the guy was supposed to ring me back at 7.45. Trying to be frugal can be time consuming

DP and I talked through finances last night. Sadly I won't be giving up my job before the summer. Sensibly financial choices will involve sticking it out at least until the end of the year. Sigh. But we are definitely agreed this isn't sustainable or what we wanted our family life to be.

But I might consider going back to uni or doing a post grad OU course in two years time when both DC are at school.

cag sounds like a tough day

Welcome dot

Ok so I admit I am no Lonely ....but i give you my first granny square in well over 40 years!! (Slightly wobbly) ..

Falafel are super cheap to make. A girl called Jack has a recipe.

Switching banks is very easy. I changed one the day the mortgage went out & it still got paid. I make Dh change too.

The money saving expert email usually flags up good deals.

Cag, I've been thinking about you and DD. before you have another wobble think what DD would be like if you had left her at school. She sounds like such a nice young lady to me. Remember what that other parent said about her last week. She is a credit to you. You are doing brilliantly with those DCs.
Go easy on yourself. You have disabilities and poor quality housing but a great family and that is probably down to you.
Lecture over.

www.hobbs.co.uk/product/display?productID=0117-6822-1144L00&productvarid=0117-6822-1144L00-CHAMBRAY-BLUE-12&refpage=promotions/sale-tops

Last try!!!!