The Friendly Frugaleers, watching the pennies as we wait for sunshine!

[Cagliostro]

Hello, all welcome!

em good. Multi storeys give me the creeps as you can't just escape. Sirens are worse.

Thanks for the good wishes. I got over being petulant after lunch, and my birthday tea which I didn't cook and cake which I didn't bake were lovely. Cash from my parents (phew!). Dd1 did me a beautiful drawing, I think I'll get it a frame.

Home now and just the dogs to walk left today, have lots of work, so may as well get on with it!

Em has he just got a huge pile of dirty laundry then somewhere?! What does he say when you say 'just put it in the basket'? Honestly this is why i am single I would divorce someone for less than that not really, yes really

Have had a funny sort of a day, both dd and i have been grumpy - not a great combination, think through tiredness. Culminated in dd being really rude to my mum tonight will get dd to ring her later and make amends, have already had lots of tears about it.

Have done about 10 loads of washing and still have a few to do, had to put the heating on for about 20 mins to try and get some stuff dry, the weather has been grey and cold here today.

Been spendy as well,
£29 Morrisons (included wine to give my dad as a thank you for the use of his car this week!)
£22 petrol
£72.50 to the cattery, both cats now home. Boycat disgraced himself in the cat basket on the way home so that was ummm a pretty grim journey home!!

Am psyching myself up for spending £3800 tomos

girlie yep. There's a pile on his side of the bed (near the window) and also on the floor next to the laundry basket. The next to basket one annoys me the most. Although it's now mostly worked it's way behind the bedroom door. He's promised to put a load of washing on tomorrow. we'll see

Are you buying a car Girlie?

It really does pay to complain! We switched house insurance recently and the bank contacted us looking for details of our new insurance policy/provider (it's a condition of our mortgage - we're obliged to have house insurance). So DH e-mailed the policy off. A week later we got another letter from the bank. DH e-mailed the details off a second time. Then the bank got in contact with us to say the we hadn't responded to their requests. DH sent a letter or e-mail of complaint about the whole thing and they wrote to us today to say that they would gesture us €100. Woo hoo! Mind you, they won't be long recouping the money once the new bank charges come in next month. Still, it's €100 we wouldn't have if DH hadn't complained.

I am Sunny a little red one!

Em thats grim and so lazy not to put it the basket well done for standing your ground and getting this issue sorted before baby arrives.

Sunny what did you do to get those vouchers? Sounds like something i need to sign up to!!

That's great Girlie. I hope you enjoy it.

The vouchers came from a local company who are going about installing energy meters in people's houses in order to test these new energy meters. I think it's only in my county though. They did say they were looking for more people to do it though.

Em I agree with Girlie about the laundry problem. I'd find that quite concerning in a grown man.

Worryingly, a friend of mine used to have a dh who behaved like that, and she indulged it because she though it was machismo stuff and found it a bit cute. Then it turned out he was cheating on her, and she didn't find that cute at all. Now the dh has been chucked out and he has the legal right to take my friend's dc away from her on holiday with the OW. Looking back, I so much wish she'd just addressed the minor stuff properly right from the beginning.

I feel much more positive about your DH because I know he is great about cooking and other stuff, and generally a good bloke. Do you think he maybe just has a blind spot on laundry?

In the airport, not frugal. See you in 10 days.

Re dark pain, covert it in a coat of grey first. Just cheap will do.

Have a great time life

Oooo life have fun! Not jealous at all

Have an amazing time life

Laundry update. The pile has moved. There is no longer a pile by the basket. I woke up about 20 minutes ago and dh wasn't in bed. There was a cup of tea on the nightstand for me. And I could hear noises. The pile is now in the machine. Well pants and socks are from what I can gather. Tshirts etc seem to be piled up on the kitchen floor waiting for their turn.

As much as I want to go back to sleep I'm fearful if I do this will all be a dream!! Haha!!

If dh did nothing around the house and just sat and expected me to get on with it because I'm the wife I'd have left a long time ago. As it is he does a lot and I can usually let the laundry thing slide. And actually the flat is a bit messy at the moment because we'll neither of us have been bothered. That's today's job. Put things back where they belong and have a bit of a clean.

I'm meeting a friend for coffee and cake later on. So should be lsd.

Good news em hopefully all dirty washing will now go in the wash basket!

Dc want to go to the farm park today. Will pack a picnic. Might buy me a coffee but that's it.

Have a fab time life. Relax and enjoy.

em, I don't let DH near the laundry either (my choice). He's too impatient to sort it or not throw an entire washing basket full of stuff in one wash. But he does clean out the shower of my hair more often that I do. And mow the lawn. You just fall into a pattern sometimes don't you in marriage of 'designated jobs' that work for the marriage.

By happy coincidence, some friends are here at the same time as us, so we are meeting them today.

DH did a fab spat bol last night and me and the DC cleaned up.

It appears your point has been made em And no, he doesn't sound like one of those DH that everyone on here will advise to LTB. And he put the washing machine on without having to ask for help DP had to ask me a few months ago where to put the washing powder

Welcome chaos!

Have a great holiday life :)

Yay em glad you have made your point. Particularly pleased that he is washing his own stuff - I was half wondering if he might just shove it all into the basket and you'd then be left with a huge backlog of his clothes. DH and I have some designated tasks too, laundry is mostly mine and he does washing up.

Housework to plough through today and I need to get some food to take to a friend's tomorrow - child free meet up :o

Hi hope ok to tag along- have reached stage where need to start taking control of finances and actually pay off credit cards rather than making just minimal payment; huge part of this will actually be making the effort to schlep out to aldi rather than spending a fortune in the village shop where a loaf of basic bread is nearly £2!

Oooh and we've been looking at huge fridge freezers. Very excited about the prospect of a bigger freezer* - we can fit so little in ours and can't keep everything that we'd like to use, for example frozen veg is great for me as I don't have to use energy chopping/peeling, but if we keep lots of bags of various veg then we have no space for batch cooked stuff. It would be lovely to have room for lots of tubs of home made stuff AND lots of different frozen veg and fruit to use in other meals.

*I accidentally wrote bugger freezer at first, but that would be something quite different

Welcome Regina!

Moring all, glad the washing is on Em still find it bizarre that he seems physically incapable of putting it in the laundry basket though!!

If that company wants any testers in the South West then let me know Sunny

I have been looking at cat flap fitters as decided this morning that this is now a priority, I honestly think not having one is detrimental to my mental health!! Going to investigate the options this wend.

Have woken up aching all over for some reason, honestly 4 days of camping and i'm wrecked, clearly too old to sleep in a tent now my neck is particularly painful.

Wish me luck with the car buying today....

girlie me too. But we'll deal with that tomorrow. Baby steps. Baby steps.

I have spent the last half hour or so panicking. I jumped to a conclusion on aFacebook post from an ex colleague. Everything she's posted for a while implied she was pregnant. So I asked. Then panicked. What if she isn't??? What if she just thinks I think she's fat...?!! But it was too late. I'd put it out there. Luckily she's just messaged and she is. But mannnnn that could have been awkward.

That's great that things are looking up there Em. I have to go and make eye contact with out washing pile now. It's getting a fierce look to it.

How do all your pet owners have time to deal with their needs? I keep thinking I should get a cat for ds, but I can't barely keep up with the house work and my one child. I kind of wonder if it might be easier if there cupboards in our house. We have no cupboards at all, which makes tidying and cleaning extremely complicated.

😴morning have slept in a bit. Will catch up

Could you get some storage with the JL voucher then sunny?

sunny we deal with catfaces needs fairly easily. She gets fed when we get up (usually around 630/7am) we (or rather dh now) sorts her litter box out before work. She comes and goes really. She has toys she plays with (currently scattered around the living room) during the day or she finds a comfy spot to sleep in (bed, under bed, couch etc - never her basket...) then she gets fed at around 6/630 when we get in from work. After we've had dinner she likes to hop on the couch when we're watching tv for a snuggle. And comes to bed with me. She stays until dh comes to bed then she toddles off to the couch and sleeps there/plays with her toys.

We play with her as much as we can and give her tons of attention when she's around. At present she's on bed with me so we're chatting.

We have the vets next week for her boosters. She's fairly easy to look after. Doesn't wreck too much around the house. And isn't hugely noisy any more

I would love a dog too but we just don't have the time or the space (no garden and both work full time) to give it the best life. So it's not fair really.