Still frugaleering into Autumn.....

[Girliefriendlikesflowers]

New thread for us all to chat, support each other and hopefully save some money!!

life haha!! Nope. Not since I last checked. I'd know if I had though...right...?!?! 😂😉

Baby boy won't be getting much for Christmas from Santa. He won't know or care as at most he'll be 3'months old. He'll be totally spoiled by grandparents and aunts and uncles though!! I know for a fact dsis has essentially bought "all the things" in all the sizes for him. We're basically not going to need to spend money on clothes for him. Ever. 😀

wreck he does but it's rubbish. There's no law for pat leave here. He gets 2 days paid. And can take up to 2 weeks unpaid. But figured he'd be better off using up his annual leave otherwise as it's paid time off.

Until last year (I think) statutory mat leave was only 8 weeks. It's been increased now to 18. And obviously employers can decide to give more or less. On some things here we are waaaaay behind the times.

Spent the morning surfing! Yay!

All this talk about redundancy makes me nervous! We were both made redundant in 2012 and that's how we racked up ££££'s of debt. As we had to relocate to find new work. Still paying it off today! Then faced redundancy again when DS was newborn. Stressful!

Finally a day we can hang the washing out! I made sure to wash all the big heavy items first.

Have just booked a dentist appointment which is £38 but it's in mid October.

DH has forecast that we've ended the month with £25 leftover. We definitely behaved like payday millionaires this month. Oops! But we had lots of fun and a few treats so it's been 75% frugal 25% treat

em wowzers that's crap about paternity and maternity leave

£2.60 Tesco vitalite & dough balls.

Did you know you can make drinking chocolate? 2/3 sugar to 1/3 cocoa. It works out at 30p per 100g. Half the cost of cadburys etc.

It's been a slow day as you can tell.

I'm feeling really lazy. I need to sort the washing out and tidy/Hoover. But I also need to eat a whole pack of fig rolls

fluffy it just so happens I have cocoa and sugar in the cupboard and fancy a "dirty" hot chocolate (hot chocolate, cream & mini marshmallows)

I didn't find raspberry leaf tea unpleasant at all.

Spent the morning tying up our onions in shed & sorting the laundry out. Just had my lunch now and catching up with you guys & the rain has landed too so great excuse for not finishing onion job

Going to declutter for a few hours & then dc have a play date & Tesco are coming. Dc lunch was interesting as we're out of some of the favourite things.

Lonely dh is building a shed/extension as we speak. Current one will be more laundry friendly then - I've to climb & stretch to get stuff into & out of dryer at the moment. Luckily I don't use it very much

Tayto I hadn't heard that about Dublin marathon but wow the stress of that!

Cag you're right it's meant to tone the womb for a more efficient labour. I haven't had a labour without it so can't say if it's effective or not

Wreck I like the sound of sausage & butterbean casserole might steal that

Haven't thought about Christmas really much
Determined to fill advent calendar ahead of time this year not sneaking things in night before or morning of it being opened.

Laska fingers & toes crossed for you.
Em I predict tues eve labour for you not saying which Tuesday

Fluffy that's actually really handy to know as I've cocoa powder coming from Tesco later to make weetabix slices (like brownies) with dates/weetabix/cocoa powder/sunflower seeds & dc are out of hot chocolate so I'll just whizz some some for them!

Really annoyed with dd's stuff that I ordered from O'Neills. All size 9-10 but every item is a different size & one that is personalised & a half/half jersey can't be returned & is more like 7-8. Will be photographing them with measuring tape to show differences & looking for compensation of some type

Right have done another matched betting thing to get my free bet. Hope it works and I don't lose money

I think you might have an inkling em.
£77 matalan. Going to home bargains now for birthday sweets

Just spent £20 on hex bug stuff for ds' birthday. It's not until the end of November but they're a good price on amazon right now. Hopefully he will like them.

Big Aldi shop where I splurged on a heated airer from the aisle of random
Dc have them at uni and had been waiting for it to come back in.
Mini Waitrose shop -Moma porridge half price.
Free paper and tea .
Bizarre -you have to ask for a teabag apparently posh people grab handfuls otherwise !

Hi all, popping in briefly! Yesterday was the day from hell, work was awful, i got home late and dd had been struggling on her own as had fallen out with one of her friends so all in all a rubbish day!!

Hoping its just settling in issues with dd, she was sobbing last night saying everyone hates her, she has no friends etc it seems to have come to a head as there is a school residential next week and the girls are all grouping up and deciding who will sleep in whose cabin, apparently no one wants dd in their cabin Will see how she goes next week, its so tricky as she does struggle socially but its really hard to work out why!! Am hoping she just hasn't found 'her people' yet and hopefully will do soon!!

Thank you for those checking I was o.kay and asking after dd

Spoke to someone at work today who runs a small dog rescue place, am now seriously thinking about getting one. Apparently she has a shitzu who on paper at least fits the criteria (which is has to be small, good with children, good with cats, fine to be left for several hours a day....) she is going to email me some pics....

What set did you get wreck? I've been looking at some as it's one thing DD has repeatedly mentioned (along with "a screen" but since she's getting a phone for her 11th birthday next year that ain't happening :o). Presumably you can mix and match sets together? Or is each one standalone?

Girlie poor dd it's heartbreaking seeing them upset. A dog will make her happy

Cag I got the nano V2 hive and a couple of extra bugs. The reviews say you can add to it. I will see if ds likes it before adding though, this ones has really good reviews.

Aww poor girlieDD :( I don't remember residentials so early in year 7 being A Thing when I was at school or even when my now-adult DSCs started secondary. I can see the logic of making friends there etc but it would be very difficult if most people have found their gangs and you haven't yet :(

I am finding low carb very difficult today. SMH.

Cheers wreck that's one of the sets I was looking at too. I'm not entirely sure they will be played with THAT much TBH, but they will probably enjoy building different tracks at least.

Come to think of it I might do a smaller hexbug set as DD's "from the baby" present. That'd help me know whether it's worth getting a bigger one for Christmas

So, I spent £80 on a pallete of breeze blocks, which are cheaper than bricks. I thought that would be all today, but I do need some straw for the ferrets and I desperately need diet coke junkie so will have to pop somewhere once we shut (in 41 mins, not that I'm counting).

Have cleared the rubbish from dp's workshop area, thus filling the huge wheely bin.

That's awful Girlie, girls are so mean to each other. Congratulations on your new dog.

Oh girlie 🐩 for your dd. Girls can be so nasty. She will find her people. I also think it's way early for a y7 residential, as only old primary friend groups will exist just now. Give them a chance school organisers. She will love coming home to a nice wee dog. You can crate it during away times (so it doesn't eat the cats, or vice versa). We still sort of crate our boys when we're out (they have 1/3 of the conservatory) as they'd literally eat the house otherwise.

We went on our first residential trip in year 4. Then the IOW in year 5. France in year 7(?) I think. I'm dreading it mainly because of the cost and I dd will no doubt cry

Good plan cag

That's a lot of sugar. No wonder ds like our as he's a sugar addict

Baby update. Still no baby. Still preggo. 😂😀

We've been to watch a bit of the triathalon. It's a super league one of that means anything to anyone - it didn't to me- I went along because a) free b) never seen one in real life before c) sun is shining and d) dh promised me some sort of snack from a van. I had churros with cinnamon sugar and vanilla frosting dip. £4 but totally worth it.

Back home now feet up on couch.

Had to pee while we were out, nearest toilets were in the hotel at the waterfront area where the Tri was taking place. I went in and was faced with the worlds biggest toilet queue. So I played the preggo card. Quietly. Asked a couple of people if they minded if I went before them, supported bump and rubbed it a bit. Turns out, you can skip a huge toilet queue if pregnant. Win.