Saving into summer!

[SnugglySnerd]

New frugal thread.

Get well soon copper. Hope you are okay.

meadow. Today was crap, tomorrow will be better. Today has no baring on tomorrow. It's a new day. A new slate. You can cope with more hours because what happened with your DF has no relation to how many hours you work. Put this negative situation to one side and not let it influence your future. Xx

Okay. We paid £60 for tonight's meal. 4 adults and 2 courses!! We were the only brits in the restaurant. Formica tables. 7 euros for a LITRE of amazing red wine. Had to walk for 10 minutes down a main road to get there! This is my main. Home made ravioli, stuffed with Gorgonzola and walnuts, in a cream sauce and sprinkled with pistachio nuts. 6 Euro.

Mmm I love ravioli!

Meadow my lovely you did not fuck up! Your dad was mean. Of course it had an effect on you I'm really glad you got out for ice cream after though, that kind of thing, helping yourself feel better, is so important

I am browsing maternity clothes on tesco. I hate shopping for clothes online! But virtually nowhere does maternity ranges in store anymore. And while I'm still in my normal jeans (they were a bit big before the pregnancy, I'm not saying I haven't expanded :o), t-shirts are getting a bit short now and I've still got 14 weeks left!

cag the chicken thing was:

Fry chicken in pan with onions and garlic (red onion 2 garlic cloves) and a handful of cumin seeds.

Add passata/chopped tomatoes two tsp of chipotle paste chicken stock and juice of a lime. Cook down.

Then serve with lime coriander (leaf) rice

The avocado is: green chillis, coriander, lime juice, avocado, garlic clove salt and pepper and sour cream all whizzed and drizzled on top of chicken.

It was lush!

Thanks for sharing em that sounds amazing!

I've done the Tesco order, cheaper at under £70 this week as we have a reasonable amount left and I'm planning to use some of the batch cooked stuff. And my fussy Caglets will have to put up with a baked potato one night, the poor things

Just place marking as I've read up to this point but I'm going to sleep now so amn't posting a proper post

DD has excelled herself tonight - she was awake and crabby from 6pm up until midnight, and one or other if us had to walk around with her the whole time (we were not allowed to sit down ) . She and I went to bed /sleep at midnight and she woke up again half an hour later. So here I am winding her again.

She had better smile at me nicely tomorrow!

On the plus side I finally booked our holiday in Devon. It's not Italy and we'll have to eat my cooking as no babysitter but the view from our cottage would give Need a run for her money! I am excited now and writing lists. Best thing is DD will get to meet her great granny.

I also fell into the ELC website thanks to the bargain thread. ££

Our house looks like a jumble sale. Somehow we have water getting into our garage and have had to move various stored things into the house. I have also been sorting stuff from the loft and have clothes everywhere (my work /casual /fat/ thin/ maternity) as well as the kids'. I need to be ruthless and cull it all (if DD ever lets me put her down!) . Seriously, there are bags and bags of clothes . I should read that Kondo book for starters!

Christmas Is it possible that there is a food intolerance things going on with your dd? My neighbour and I had similar problems with our dss, but they both turned out to struggle with various foods. My neighbour has had a second child now and if she feeds those foods to the child, or eats them herself while bf, then the baby is just like ds1, but if she keeps those foods out then the baby is fine. Just a thought anyway.

Our househunting has got quite interesting. My parents found a house they like but now they are having to really think hard about whether they are prepared to jump ship from their home community. It's a very tricky decision. They go home on Thursday, so no pressure at all.

meadow. I thought I would share my Brave Thing. I got up this morning at 5.30 and ran. For 4 miles. Up an extremely steep route. Because of where we are I've been worried about this, really worried. You basically have to run on the main road as there are no paths. Strangely, I was worried about being killed

I tossed and turned most of the night to be honest. But I got up and did it as I would have felt worse not doing it. And it turns out the Italian drivers seem to be very used to it and I didn't even become close to being killed. And I had a bad nights sleep for nothing. And it wasn't even anywhere near as bad as I imagined it to be (apart from the hills).

Even those of us that probably come over as practical and capable worry about random stuff. Not that it's the same, I know that. Xx

My mother can upset me deeply at the drop of a hat. It never gets any better. Wish I had an answer to that I'm afraid and I could share it for your DF.

And I wish I had an answer to unsettled babies, particularly second ones, that don't sleep for knackered parents like seacow. No words, just sympathy here.

But I'm very chuffed to hear of norths amazing weight loss. Bloody well done.

Sat now having a strong cup of Italian coffee, feeling virtuous....!

Today will be a better day meadow

I got really dehydrated yesterday and went to bed feeling awful. DD2 got me up at 5am (having been so much better for the last two weeks ) and I still feel rubbish. Hoping DP wakes up soon so I can go back to bed for an hour or so before he goes to work.

Chicken recipe sounds good em

I might have preordered the Jamie Oliver new book, you all know how I hate him!

The idea is that you use 5 ingredients in each recipe (assuming spices might not count) to keep things fresh, quick and simple.

I might go and get the dc's school shoes today so could end up being very speedy. Our local shoe shop tends to sell out if we leave it too late

Wow need that sounds scary! Brilliant that you got out there and did it. Love the sound of JO's new book too. I'm often put off by long lists of ingredients.

Argh sorry about the restless babies :( my friend's eldest settled much better in a swing chair as it moved constantly, might that be worth a try seacow?

Well done, Need! That ravioli looks delicious. I ate something similar in a local restaurant in Italy once and it remains one of my best meals ever. I might have been considering ordering Jamie's new book too

Cag it drove me mad that the shops didn't stock maternity clothes because what you really want to do when pregnant is to keep taking returns to the post office.

Lentil bolognaise in slow cooker for tea already. Should be NSD. The weather is making me seriously consider stodgy food like shepherd's pie. It's August ffs!

£1 parking

£95 school shoes

Got the JO cookbook on my watchlist now

Do any of you buy cookbooks for kindle? Is it annoying to not be able to flick through the book easily? I only use my kindle for fiction so far but figured I could do some meal planning on the train. I have some digital credit to use up

Another Jamie fan here. Book is on my wish list.

Am mightily hacked off with work today. I've chased (again) for my return to work date after mat leave. No decisions been made.

We can't sort childcare until we know this. I've called a couple of nurseries already and a few have spaces to to secure a spot need a months fees as a deposit (so over £1000 for full time space) and others have a waiting list.

Have mentioned this to work today. Have stressed that I need a decision by the end of next week otherwise I'll have to "consider other options"

Oh and to answer an earlier question - no. I haven't caved re laundry mountain yet. Dh has zero clean clothes.

Ha! Good, serves him right.

Does anyone here have one of those huge fridges that have a water/ice dispenser in the front? And if so is it plumbed in or do you have to fill some kind of tank? If the former I don't really understand how that works!

We spent the weekend with family at a seaside resort. We thought it would be nice to visit the beach and have a barbecue etc. But the weather had other plans and it rained steadily for the full day we were there. Oh, well. Instead of going to the beach, we took the kids swimming in the pool. MIL and FIL love the one armed bandits so I said I'd go with them one evening. I can't say I'm in a hurry to repeat the experience. It was a bit of a sensory overload between the flashing lights and music from the machines. And it was very sobering to see some of the customers playing two machines at the same time . I don't think I'll be planning a trip to Vegas anytime soon! I spent about €17 there. DH took DD swimming so he paid for that. It was a cheap weekend otherwise, as we didn't have to pay for accommodation or food.

One of our friends is looking for second hand bikes for her kids so we're going to offer her DD's old bike and a Bratz bus for €20. We'll put the money towards the cost of doing up DD's play room.

£75 paint.

Dinner is chicken sausage pasta bake. Just making it up really, olives in it or not?

I would say hell no but I hate olives so am not the best person to ask :o

Just had a nice quiet cake stop £4.60 after getting a couple of tops (one is a nursing one), also got hooded towels and a basic bouncy chair that were on sale. £51.99

I may have also wandered into hotel chocolat £8.75

Been looking at a different pram which is cheaper AND includes car seat. So will have a proper look on website etc. Also it's a funky colour. And looked at other stuff like play mats etc, and discovered that Moses baskets are like £60 😱😱😱

Dunno, olives aren't usually paired with sausages, not English sausage anyway.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/sponsored_discussions/3000621-Tell-Lidl-about-your-weekly-shop-50-voucher-to-be-won?msgid=71025708#71025708 £50 voucher.