Saving into summer!

[SnugglySnerd]

New frugal thread.

Fluffy do you need a dr?

Fluffy I hope you feel better soon, what do you think it is? Is DH ill too?

Wreck glad you are on the mend. Bagels and cream cheese is one of my favourites.

Not going anywhere today (DH has gone to a 5k race and is then going to work) so should be NSD as long as I can manage to make dinner

I don't think so, NHS direct says 4 days is normal & today is day three.

I'm still run down from my chest infection I had last week.

Pleased you are feeling better wreck.
Hope you start feeling better soon fluff

Get well soon Fluffy and Wreck.

A strange thing happened last night. Both babies slept all night. It was weird waking up at 6.30 and realising we hadn't heard them. I went rushing in to see if they were ok! One was still asleep the other gazing at his hands in wonder! Let's hope this continues...

snuggly awesome!!! Hope it continues for you!! (I haven't forgotten the "treasure" in the post by the way...will post tomorrow xx)

fluffy I think seagulls are protected yes. However they are a right pita here. Because people like to feed them they have ventured inland and bin pick. And steal sandwiches and ice creams.

My ddad has essentially tamed one. It lives on their chimney and likes to sit in their garden. It had a bad wing and couldn't fly very well so he fed it. And it kept coming back. If he's in the garden seagull will swoop down and will sit near him. Not too close. He also chirrups and clacks his beak when ddad is there.

Beautiful birds though. But having seen one up close God they're big!!!

A neighbour has bravely picked baby seagulls up and has popped them up on the lowest portion of roof. Mother bird tried to bomb him. I bravely watched from window hopefully they'll get back to the nest. They were just waffling about in the carpark in danger of being squished.

snuggly twins. May it be the start of many good nights sleep!

Hello! Been awol, but git a bit embroiled in an online casino! Not as dodgy as it sounds, I joined to match bet, took the free bets, then one's casino gave me £10 bonus, another free spins. So, the first you had to rebet x30 (£300) to withdraw, the other £197 (odd amount). And I got a bit determined. So last night I cashed out £40 and £50 respectively, completely free, bar pushing the 'spin' button a few thousand times.

This week I am £144 up from the bookies. Added to my meagre wages it has been a very good week for me!

Did a top up yesterday in tesco, plus pets at home for ferret and fish food. Friday was a naughty maccy-d's for the dc I used petty cash from the shop, naughty

I'm going to garden a bit today and we might go swimming later.

need looks awful, how will you survive?!

Glad you're feeling better wreck and keep hydrated fluffy try to do nothing at all until you feel better.
snuggly yay! but that moment of panic when you wake and the house is quiet !

We're plodding along enjoying the holiday here. Nice weather and not too hot, and not spending too much money.

I hope you feel better soon Fluffy and Wreck. Sounds hard work what you've got.

Ooooof. Just walked 7k! Boom!

We picked a lot of blackberries too. About 600g I reckon. These are currently being washed and will be frozen and turned into jam once I've foraged for more. We've been saving jars so won't need to buy any this year. I love jam. Only spends for jam will be jam sugar but I have some left from last year and it's not horrifically priced (about the price of a naice jar of jammy jam jam). Last year we had about 3kg of blackberries and made about 15 jars.

Frugal win!!

Currently sat on couch recovering from walk. Dh is making me a sandwich. I'm drinking sparkling apple juice.

Such a lovely day out there. Sunny, nice breeze. Not to hot. Yay!

We just bought a bed

Well done em you've reminded me that the wild raspberries are ready here. I must go for a bit of a walk with a pot. They're tiny, and very pippy, so only good for jelly, but so packed with flavour. Our blackberries are still tiny green things, goes to show the difference in climate a few hundred miles can make.

wreck !! As you do. I take it you needed a new bed?

Have been twisting in my willow hedge. It has gone bananas, and grown about 1.5 meters since I put the sticks in in February.

Oh, if you access to apple trees em you can use a load of puree in with the blackberries and your jam will set without special sugar, just ordinary granulated; as the apples are loaded with pectin. It didn't affect the taste at all as the blackberries overpower the apple the time I did it like that.

Mmmm raspberries and blackberries! Two of my favourites.

I'm grumpy because the fridge is freezing stuff again (rock hard cherry tomato anyone?), the bread went mouldy suspiciously quickly and the Caglets appear to have eaten all the yoghurts in my favourite flavour (actually it happens to be blackberry and raspberry flavour). Not a great day food wise!

lonely it was crazy how many we got.

I've tomorrow off work (yippee) and have chores to do - food shop etc but am fitting in lunch with the parents. Going to try and convince them to go to pub near to a super good blackberry spot. May as well make the most of the extra hands while I can!

Last year we did blackberrries, sloes, and chestnuts. Made jam, gin and coffee and chestnut cake. Maybstick to just blackberries this year.

Tomorrow I'm going to try out a couple of recipes Nadia off of the bake off made on her show - cheese and pickle tart, and square bakewells (bit like posh grown up pop tarts).

Dh has worked out apparently I'm not very good at sitting still for long! We're currently sat on couch with sandwiches but I'm itching to get going again. He's making me sit still until at least 2pm! Haha. I know I'm not meant to overdo it but I slept so well last night (probably thanks to the fresh air and walking) and have a ton of energy!

lonely thanks for that too! I did not know that. I'm pretty sure the teeny apple tree in dms garden is growing at present. May sneak some from there. Almost free jam!!

That's great em you'll be making the most of that energy when you're nesting :)

I remember getting that burst of energy when I was pregnant Em I get why they say you 'bloom' I also had fab hair and nails which was a first for me make the most of it as it all goes a bit tits up once baby arrives!!

Brilliant Snuggly good babies

Doesn't sound good Fluffy if you still feel crap tomos def see your Dr, might need more antibiotics. Hope you are feeling better Wreck for both of you.

I have had a productive morning, am more or less ready for camping now. The hallway is full of stuff God knows how will get it all in the car!! We are getting the train up to my dads later as we are borrowing his car for the week.

Tomorrow is going to be like a military operation as need to get the cats to the cattery, sort my car out thats still at the garage, sort out insurance for the new car and hopefully leave to go on holiday by midday

Todays spends are £5 on gas canisters for the little camping stoves and however much the train tickets are (approx £15.)

Been off line but just caught up.
Mammy, I would ask the au pair how much she thinks she should contribute. I agree there must be consequences.
That car sounds an excellent deal Girlie.
Em, I have just been out looking for blackberries. Some are just ripe. So much earlier than last year.
Poor Need having to cope for two whole weeks. DD and DSiL have just booked for us all to go to Italy. Their treat. Because I helped a lot when DGS was have his surgery. And taking DGD to York next week
Yay, Snuggly sounds like you've turned a corner with the babies. Are they 4 months now?

Yes lonely we do need one! Ours is almost ten years old and was cheap when we got it (I think mattress and frame were about £400 together) and we're getting achy joints in our old age

Girlie it sounds like tomorrow will be busy but will be worth it

Enjoy your holiday, Girlie

Wanna swap places, Need?

Sorry to hear you feel so awful, Fluffy.

I saw a couple of ripe blackberries in Durham yesterday, Lonely. I think we're a good 4-6 weeks behind Em in terms of when our fruits and vegetables are ready to eat. Enjoy making Jam, Em.

Spends: £23.70 in Asda, which should keep me going for the week.

£2.20 on coffee (haven't had one for aaaages and it was very good!)

£1.79 Aldi - bread, leeks, broccoli

£1.39 local shop on milk. We're transitioning to full fat milk from formula and have been through 4 pints since last night. Maybe formula would be cheaper 😂!

Pleased that I've had a LSW - helped by no drinking - alcohol leads to snacking leads to chocolate leads to frequent trips to the corner shop!

Wow waitress that's a lot! Neither of mine were ever that keen on milk, dd was ff and hated it. Ds bf and as soon as I stopped didn't really have any milk (he was 10 months then though). I have a friend whose ds is almost two and he still has about five bottles a day though!

7k in your condition, Em? I'm impressed!

I was thinking we had a NSD but just remembered we bought bananas as the ones we had went black. Made a cake with them though so nothing wasted.

Need I made another recipe out of our favourite Jamie Oliver book today. The pasta with sausages, chili, tomatoes and broccoli. Adapted it slightly to use veggie sausages. It was delicious and happily there's some left for my lunch tomorrow.

Fingers crossed for another good night tonight. I'm not holding my breath!

snuggly I wasn't expecting the walk to be that long. We just ambled around the lanes near our building. But yeah - I was pretty impressed with myself. Really feeling tired now though.