Frugaleers Still Saving into September

[Laska5772]

New Thread!!

Welcome nocuts

Have you looked at which household bills you can reduce as well as spends?.

Now winters on its way it's a great time to run the house frugally.

Should be nsd today. My dad dropped the girls off an hour ago and we have sunny weather so been on a walk with them.
I looooove perfumes. My fav is bioterm yellow.
Snuggly I can totally relate to everything being excited when your a baby
An orchestra have 60 years anniversary in town so lots of concerts and tattoos being performed this weekend so taking the girls in to see that later

Late up here! The shop opens in an hour (slovenly saturday) so we'd better get moving. Dp and I are quarraling over who gets to pedal in. Its a bright sunny day here, and I'm contemplating a proper rollerblade along some cycle paths.

Need some chicken food, so will have to go via shops anyway.

We have smart (as in clever) Garmin scales that bluetooth to garmin connect. But we got them trade and technically they belong to the shop. But they're ace and pump out bmi, water and fat% etc. I have only used mfp to track food. Its very good. I'm off it now, and have stabilised my weight between 8st 12 and 9st 2. This is perfect, and much better than the 12st 6 I was 2 years ago! I need to tone up, but the bits I'm bothered about are pretty much knackered I think, below what was my belly button and my poor empty breasts! Clothes is the answer, always wear clothes. Roll on autumn and base layers!

Have to measure dd1 foot so I can order some petit from Sofie Schnoor termo boots.

I am onboard with a frugal winter.

We are going to have to stop ourselves from spending on baby boy. I mean obviously if he needs things we will get them but no doubt we'll get given a ton of stuff.

As I'm going to be home more often I'm going to have to be careful re heating. It usually doesn't go on here until at least mid Dec. Depending on weather we could still do this - as it's never that cold here really but baby boys room will need to be at a nice temperature. Luckily we had smart rads put in a couple of years ago. Which can be set to only go on once a room hits a certain temp. I need to work out how to do this. But it's doable.

I'm also a fan of windows open in winter and lots of fresh air.

The nursery we've picked is also a fan of this. "Scandi napping" apparently - babies go outside all wrapped up in their cots for a nap if it's dry.

em love the term scandi napping. Here all kids nap outside both in summer and winter and rain. We just have rain cover the pram. Our pram is 96cm in length so plenty of room to snuggle in to.

Hi! I had a bad night last night. DH went to stay at his cousin's and I was feeling horrible and low but I wanted him to go obviously and see his family. Plus his little cousin is like 14 and was very excited to have a sleepover with him so I didn't want him to be disappointed! I managed though and am feeling quite a bit better today. He will be back late afternoon and my family are coming to see our new flat this evening. It is properly habitable now, just a few bits n bobs yet to sort and the spare room is currently just a dumping ground.

Today should be NSD for me as I shan't be going anywhere (haha, shan't. I don't think I've ever said that before!).

I'm hoping my mam will bring us some jam that she made from the berries in her garden as she made tons of pots. That will be a little yummy frugal win.

Re: perfume, I'm currently using a Little Mix one . It was a gift and I think it smells lovely so -shrug-. Also v. frugal! The one I used before was Tommy Girl which I got in the sale in the airport so was also frugal. I wear perfume most days but only a few little spritzes so it lasts me ages. I'm with other people who like a different one each time though otherwise it gets boring. And I don't like heavy, musky, overpowering stuff either, bleurgh.

What are smart scales? We have Salter bathroom scales (digital) and I can't remember what brand our little digital kitchen ones are.

Ok I've caught up with you all.

Italian welcome back! I've been wondering how you are and how baby is doing. The pictures are lovely. DD2 looks like she wants to climb out of the pram and go cycling with her big sister.

need so pleased DPony's been given a clean bill of health.

Seacow big day for you (and DS) finishing up at nursery. Sounds like you went through a journey together. It must be such a relief having DH off for the week. Enjoy your holiday. Annoying about the versatile skirt. And of course, it will turn up as soon as you get home.

em it must be re-assuring to know that the nursery is booked. Had to laugh at you standing on a rogue fishfinger . Can't believe you're due so soon!

Sunny sorry to hear about DH's job . Hope something else turns up soon.

Meadow hope you feel better now. Don't worry about annoying your colleagues and supervisor with questions. When I have new staff, I know that I'll have to devote a lot of time showing them how to do things and answering questions. But once they get familiar with the work, I can leave them to it. It's short term pain for long term gain. And if they're not sure of something, I'd prefer it if they clarified it, rather than ploughing ahead and doing it all wrong.

mammy good news for your friend. Hope you get to see her today and maybe have a cuddle with the new baby,

Laska glad the exercises are helping

Snuggly that Lego Masters programme sounds good. I'll keep an eye out for it.

Lonely I'm rubbish at crafts myself but I love reading about your crafty projects. A local lady knitted a nativity set and made a lot of money for charity by selling raffle tickets for it. DH and I were joking about it because there was a knitted Baby Jesus but Mary was also pregnant . It's great that the money you make covers the cost of Christmas.

bacon how's DD2 today?

nocuts welcome to our friendly frugal group and good luck with the wedding planning

north hope your big DS enjoys his 16th birthday. The cake sounds divine.

Some people were discussing perfume. I like it but I'm very fickle and I usually go off the scent before I get half way through the bottle. I wish they sold half bottles. And it's soooo expensive - anywhere between €60 and €80. I'm on the lookout for a new perfume at the moment so I'll try some samples and make sure I love it before I buy. DH has a trip coming up so I might get him to pick it up at Duty Free.

There's a weather warning (rain) for this afternoon right through until tomorrow sometime. I've washing on the line so I'm keeping a close eye on it.

Hi to everyone I've missed and hope you all have a great weekend.

I'm wearing silver supergas to a wedding because I have learnt that it's better to be comfortable than fall over

Found the shoes for dd1 so they are ordered

I went into Dunelm, in the sale, and didn't buy a thing!! Was pleased with myself for being good. In truth there's nothing we need for about ten years

£30 in lidl on just food, will get us through to midweek.

£33 in feed shop, chicken food x2 sacks, bedding and tins of gourmet gold for my fussy cat (on offer).

I won the sqabble and peddled in, 12 miles. Have paid the music bill (thankyou credit card), and set up parent pay for dd2, and topped up both lunch accounts £60. Thats enough for one day!

Hi all I am creeping in to confess all my spends have gone a bit mad for some reason and had a spendy few days.

Right
Yesterday £34 in Dun Elm, this was for a new set of plates and bowls and a few other bits, the curtains I wanted for dds room weren't available in the end.
£5 in the cafe.

Today
£10 Greggs for lunch
£5 in Coffee 1, i treated my mum for a change!
£7.50 on some new sun glasses as old ones broke, they were half price in Accessorise sale.
£12 in Boots on toiletries
£1.39 in Card WareHouse
£34 in Superdrug, i bought my Max Factor make up which was on 3 for 2 so saved £13 and also bought lots of other bits that were on offer or in the sale which I am going to use in my gift hampers that i am putting together for friends bdays.
£5 Poundstretchers on a few bits.

Need to seriously stop now or going to have no money for the rest of the month!

I also can't join in on perfume chat as all perfumes tend to give me a headache my mum is the same, I will wear it occasionally for a night out but thats it.

Wreck I guess you will know when the house is right, i looked round one that was a similar 3 person swap but I knew it wasn't quite right (was in a not great area) so didn't go for it. At the time I felt really bad for letting everyone else down but it was 100% the right decision as I obviously went on to get my dream house. That said personally the changing school thing wouldn't be a deal breaker for me as you will in theory be in the house longer than they will be at school, the primary years whizz by.

Found out today that the riding school dd goes to are stopping group lessons from the end of Sept need to look into finding somewhere else now!!

Oh just remembered another spend £6 getting dd a key cut!! Very scary thought that she now needs her own key....

Thanks for asking tayto. DD2 slept until 6am. But then took herself off for another nap between 10.15 and noon again today .

Spends:
DP spent £63 in Tesco which may only last until Monday but we bought stuff for filling the freezer
£4 Argos on 2x reduced bratz doll clothes for Christmas stockings
Almost £10 in home bargains

Whilst DD2 was napping we made 3 x pasta bake dinners and 3 x shepherds pies for the freezer ready for back to school.

I still haven't started labelling DD1s new school clothes. The iron on labels came off in the tumble dryer last year so I use sew on ones and use a laundry marker. So not a quick job. On the plus side she can start the term in summer dresses.

So what are people's autumn/winter frugal tips? I am looking forward to snuggly jumpers, warm pjs and my black ugg Boots. I will also dig the slow cooker back out as DP found lots of frozen meats like roast beef in the freezer.

I didn't win euro millions . And I only noticed today it cost £2.50 so no more will be purchased.

Welcome nocuts

You didn't get everything duplicated 5 times then like my builder then? Blasted things are locked in one of the safes. One sets with mil in case we get locked out of the house you can't get locked out of because the doors don't work like that 🙄

£38 over the knee boots. £2 cash-back. Dh said I wouldn't buy any so I bought them to spite him. Supposedly originally £99. Free returns in case I look like a prositute in them.

£7 in mb. Might do a casino offer later.
£3.95 from green jinn app stupid name, their probably hipsters

Sainsburys sent Dh a coupon for 200 nectar points this morning & a code to enter on the website to get another 250 points. My card got nothing.

I've been looking at a girl called jacks recipes again & im going to use them for my winter lunches with things like veggie stews with proper beef suet dumplings, veggie chilli & kidney bean burgers. It'll be very cheap but really filling. She serves her burgers in pitta bread too, somehow easier than buns. Lidls are 39p for 6 & don't contain too many ingredients, they taste home made too.

I'm trying to find catering size packs of dried beans but the supermarkets are coming up cheaper.

Tomorrow I'll make falafel & cost the recipe.

Btw Girlie lrp effaclar duo is third off in boots. Extra coupon on the app if you spend £15.

Ooh girlie that's a scary step
No massive spends there just when they're combined.

€15 this morning on newspaper, battery for smoke alarm & drinks & deli brunch for myself & dc between bootcamp & camogie blitz.
€5 bootcamp
€13.75 on bottle of wine, 6 pack of water & baby card for my friend.
Getting takeaway with my sis tonight I just bought the wine maybe she'll pay for takeaway

Dd won €50 on a duck race, she didn't even know I'd entered her & ds

Found a bootcamp that suits me better 6am to 6.45 twice a week & I'll be able to attend full class before work rather than leaving halfway through, going to start after half marathon. Will do that twice a week & run twice or three times.

Lonely you've just reminded me I never went to animal feed place, must put it on my list of jobs for next Saturday.

Tayto I'm going to see friend & baby sounds like things are going well for you these days.

All the perfume talk passed over my head, I love Hugo, any type but last few times dh or dss bought me perfume it's been something else. Bring back the Hugo what they're buying is probably more expensive but just not for me. I just forget to wear perfume so I now keep a bottle in car & toilet at work so that they get used sometimes

Speaking of weather warning we got drowned at camogie blitz had to strip dc to underwear in car once it was finished & put them into bath as soon as we got home, obviously didn't strip myself .

Meadow well done on being brave last night, I think smart scales are those that analyse body fat & save profiles for different users but I could be wrong. I've a salter bathroom scales & kitchen one is Aldi's finest, works well once you change battery often.

Wiking I love that dc nap outdoors in Scandinavia, I believe someone in Donegal in the north of Ireland is now doing a nursery like this, have you heard that tayto ?

Lonely I'm using mfp currently & like convenience of it remembering products I use & copy function, if I could only master the meals section it'd be great!

Lonely that body gave you your beautiful children I hear you with the empty breasts

Pic & recipe north please, can a cake be too fudgy happy birthday to your ds

Em that's fabulous that they take such care of their customers at Thai restaurant, worth testing her theory out I think

Thanks Fluffy I know I got my cream with the 25% off, couldn't find the face wash I normally use though which is a bit annoying. Hope they haven't discontinued it as was only £7 and lasted ages.

Have been crunching the numbers and reckon have about £90 to live on a week for the rest of the month, as long as I reign in the spending this should be doable....

I made chicken casserole before I left €4.80 - pack of casserole mix €1, 3 chicken fillets €3 half pack of bacon medallions €0.80 potatoes, carrots, onions and turnip from dh's veg garden it looked & smelled gorgeous.

Fluffy falafels would surely boost my protein content of my lunch, maybe with hummus as the sauce
I'm resisting protein powder would prefer to get it from my food.
My cereal is going to be less frugal going forward, have discovered all bran golden crunch it has 5.9g fibre per 45g serving but also tastes good. 8 servings €3.45, it's no competition for cheapest of porridge

Bacon get you super organised with all your batch cooking.

Ok. Back home.

Hair took 3.5 hours. In that time I drank about 2 litres of water and my hairdresser sent onenof the girls out for food McDonald's for me. £128 later it looks awesome. So am very happy.

Popped into see dm and df on way home. Been given french non alcoholic beers, chocolate, buttery biscuits, a couple of bottles of wine, pain d'epice (mmm) some cidre, a couple of bags of spaghetti, a bag of Madeleine's and....some dead hornets (there was apparently a nest in the chimney in mum and dads place and one day the bugs sort of got out...) the hornets were in with the beers - squashed in the bottles. Eugh.

mammy the Thai place is my fave place to eat here. They're super quick super friendly and really reasonable. Food is excellent. We have to be careful When ordering though. It's a family run place and the wife is Thai. When she's in the kitchen you don't order medium. You order mild or baby mild. She was in the kitchen last night. Dh had a super tasty salad but made a rookie mistake and ordered medium. Then realised he hadn't seen her serving. He got a sweat head. His salad was delicious though. But man the chilliest were SPiCy!!!! The restaurant itself is small, pokey, and from the outside looks like nothing special. We went there the night before we got married with our friends - booked out the whole place - 20 people. A lot of our friends from the uk turned their noses up at it because of the way it looked. But we're blown away by the food.

Dh has done nothing today except nap, watch tv and play games on his phone. He was meant to do some housework. Sigh.

Hi all, not had time to read , so Im just place marking as havent posted for a couple of days.. and maybe wontagain for a couple more.,.as away tomorrow for DH cousins funeral Monday and not back until Tues pm ..

Perfume ( which I dont wear that much) is L'eau de Issey ( suspect
that might be a bit 'boring') . Id like to try Jo Malone basil and lime but keep getting put off by the price!

North was it you who said the exerciss might be Mackenzie extensions? I looked that up and it is..
I Am doing them but back is sore now instead of leg.. (but im told that is what should be happening though!).
Dh making chilli for dinner it'll be mega hot then! (ill have to douse it with mucho ) ..

Oh, frugal win (small one) we are using some of our dried runner bean beans for the chilli.. they taste fine!

I was out in garden all day and see we have loads of blackberries down in our 'wilderness' (AKA the bit at the end we rarely venture into! )

Aww happy birthday northDS!

Had such a lovely day. Spendy though.

£8.70 train
£3 Poundland - mealworms for our hedgehog visitor and a DVD (not for hedgehog)
£1 cake stall at charity event
£10 Caglets monthly pocket money
£27.50 board game, DH and I are pooling our pocket money for it as we both fell in love with the app version
£40 dinner. During which DD put her hand on my tummy and felt her baby sister kicking for the first time ❤️❤️❤️ Her face was such a picture I nearly cried!!!

I just watched the video of MacKenszie extensions Laska, it was very interesting. From what the man says, it sounds as though it is a very good sign that the pain is in your back instead of your legs now. It sounds as though the disc is moving away from the nerve, which must be helpful.

We blew the bank a bit today and went to the zoo and a fort as a last holiday blast. It really cost a lot but it was our only expensive outing for the holiday.

Ds loved the zoo and had a great time playing with a tiny little boy that he met and invited to the climbing frames with his Mum and Dad. (£25 entry and £11 for lunch.)

We then went to a ostensibly children's fort/castle place that turned out to be a bit horror themed (ooops). Life-sized Frankenstein's Monster with canned screaming put the tin lid on it, and ds had to be carried out screaming. I wrote and complained at their advertising a horror thing as fun-for-all-the-family. The Frankenstein's Monster bit was called the "toy museum". (£31 entry - not a good use of cash)

Now home and dry.

Em service like that is worth paying £128 for! Pic ?

So happy to have seen my bff & her baby who slept the whole time I was there she had a tough time but looks well I was worried I guess cos I've seen her very sick in the past. Now my mind is at rest.

I ate at a restaurant similar to that but Indian near Stansted poky Indian restaurant on one side, poky Irish bar
the other side amazing food, we will go back. I've never experienced food like before or since you're lucky to live near one like this!

Ooh blackberry picking coming up laska what will you make?

Cag I missed that you found out you're having a girl that's lovely about your dd having that experience.