Still frugaleering into Autumn.....

[Girliefriendlikesflowers]

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

sunny I'd be one of those "only a couple of days?! Pah easy!" People probably. But I hate it when dh goes away. I'm usually all independent and such. But when he's been away I get THE FEAR! I'm still not sure how I coped for 2 weeks earlier this year when he was in nz. I barely slept on night one because I was afraid of "something" getting me. total irrational fear I only get scared when I'm on my own in the dark.

Is there anything you can do to make it easier for yourself and ds?

wreck even a nanny who works for a family must be enrolled in the pension scheme (1 employee). Your DH sounds bloody minded about the whole thing. His boss can get huge fines for not enrolling your DH. Bit silly as the fine would cover the first few years of pension payments.

DS has woken in an awful mood! that's Saturday ruined.

I wish my nails looked pretty mammy do you do it at home? I'm so clueless about stuff like this

Thanks for the new thread girlie. Life is ridiculously busy at the moment so I'm still struggling to keep up, will do my best though.
wreck I second what need said re pensions. I'm on the cricket club committee and we have to offer all staff pensions (1 full time person & several casual bar staff).
I have circuits this morning 9-10. Sil & family will arrive from their damp Lakes holiday soon after, she and dh are going to football together. Bil and I are going to watch ds in his last cricket match of the season. Dd is scoring for the first team. We have the end of season party tonight which I'm organising (as social secretary). I'll be relieved when it's done.
Sil & family are staying until Monday which is good, they are easy guests.

wreck and sunny just to give you both an unmumsnetty (((hug))) from me. Your Dh ,wreck, seems to have head totally in the sand about childcare and workplcae pension it must be so frustrating for you.
Sunny i think Cags ideas sound great especially about meals.. can you make and portion up meals for freezer?

Final days eh em?

Sounds like you have a busy weekend north, I'm secretly pleased when the pony season ends! I just going to mention how well you are doing with the fitness regime, it's really part of your life and routine now isn't it?

mammy, we had a similar tea, when's the half, tomorrow? I've dropped 3lbs this week, god knows how that's happened, I think the coaching has focussed me onto diet too. I was 7st 4 this morning. I am 5ft though and an endurance runner is the massive caveat. Keep at it, you is doing brill

Wreck others are right, your husband's boss is not exempt from offering a pension. They can just use NEST or something similar but they have to do it. The only way they wouldn't have to do it is if your dh works as a self employed contractor, but it doesn't sound like that is the case, or if your husband opts out, but also doesn't sound like that has happened.

mammy excellent carb loading 😊 Is your race this weekend?

My race number arrived for my marathon today 🙈😬 scary times. Not training enough because of work so think I'll do as well as I could

*don't think I'll do as well as I could!

You'll do fine holly, you work hard and have moved and had weddings etc to factor in. I always think actually doing the training is the hard bit.

I agree also, your DH can opt out, but the employer has to automatically enrol him, and he would then need to formally opt out. It's actually called auto enrolment.

sunny have you and dh got support options or is it a case of planning strategies to get through it? I think you said your parents are far away so presumably they are not able to help?

Thanks need. 21 miles to do tomorrow then starting to reduce mileage. Will be glad to get tomorrow's run out of the way.

I'm looking at getting a memory card for my phone as I keep running out of space, and I'm hoping if I do that I might be able to keep my current phone when my contract is up later this year and go onto a cheaper sim only deal. Has anyone else done this? Does it work, and what size memory card is best?

need yep. Waiting game now. Dh asked before whether I'd be happy for the baby to arrive early. Errrr yeah!!! If it means I can sleep comfortably again!! Haha! I mean I'd like some time to myself but he'll arrive when he's ready. And the earlier he arrives the longer I get to spend with him.

Must must get out of bed. Meeting friend at 930.

Payday on Thursday. My last "big" payday. Then I'm going to have to watch it a bit more closely.

I will have zero pay from work from December. No mat benefits after end of Feb. So must squirrel some away for march and April and May. I forgot although I'll be going back in may I won't get paid until the end of the month... ha!

of those dropping weight!! I have put on a stone over last year and cant seem to get my dieting head back on .. i did really well at 5:2 and lower carb. Anyway must stop moaning and just do it.. ( big birthday coming always a motivator)

Caberet concert tonight and hotel but this all paid for. But bound to be spendy day as we have food drinksand ferry tickets to buy. Tomorrow we will be mega ££££ as buying new sofa and footstool in JL . But old sofa over 25yrs old so as you can see we dont do that ind of thing often!!

Holly I haven't tried it but it makes perfect sense. I had a sim only O2 contract off E2Save.co.uk & every third bill of £10 I sent off a redemption form & got a full refund. I got a bit of cashback on it too.

They paid me to have a sim only deal

Now I'm on iD, fab 4G reception.

Holly you might need to get your phone unlocked if it's tied to Vodafone or whatever, but most of my family use GiffGaff sims. Super cheap, I pay £7.50 a month rather than the £5 DH does as I use more data (you can put actual credit on there too in case minutes/texts/data run out). I like that it's no contract, you can set the fee to recur but it can be cancelled anytime

Your in the right place to be frugal em.

Good luck for the 21 miler holly, don't go much over 3 hours would be my only tip. You would get no particular physiological benefit, obviously mentally yes, but not physically. Sorry if you know this.

When actually changing contracts, Giff Gaff take some beating if you have a phone already.

Ha - spooky cross post with Cag. Anyways, I've been lazy this morning so cracking on now! Xx

On the train. Spending starts. £13 one way for a 30 minn journey. £2 tea

@Fluffycloudland77 
@WreckTangled what does £85 a month get you at farm?

I had my nails at a fab length but neglected them & they snapped, back to it again Monday 

Em sound like you're getting real close with discomfort levels rising. That breakfast sounds good . I'm having breakfast out too paid for by the birthday girl 

@CollieBobs They're fake nails from primark €1.50, glue & go! Line up nails for each hand first then stick on, always bring pack to event because you're bound to lose one!!

@northender Sounds like a lovely weekend all our family visits are easy as they're all easygoing luckily

@needastrongone ya tomo, at racing today so food kind of out of my control 🍔 & 🍟 count as carbs 
I know you're shorter than me, I can feel myself getting faster even with 9lbs gone on my 5'2" frame. I'm sure that 3lbs will assist you too, guess it's just tightening up your diet really you eat well anyhow

@HollyTheHarrier when's your marathon? My halfs tomo. I couldn't commit the time to training for a full at this point in my life - maybe when ds is a teen?

@Laska5772 don't become a couch potato with that new sofa you had that accident off scooter & had to comfort eat

Cag Thanks so much for your kind reply. This is exactly the kind of stuff that I'm thinking about.

Actually, really thinking about it in detail, I think that the school run is the biggest critical factor. Sometimes I just get a dodgy stomach for no particular reason, which makes the school run really awkward.

I'm thinking that maybe I could ask one of my retired neighbours if they could be my backup for that, just for that couple of days. There are several I could ask and I'm sure they wouldn't mind. I think perhaps that is the thing to do. I constantly help my neighbours out with their stuff and I'm sure they wouldn't mind if I asked for help in return. Now just have to pluck up the courage to actually ask. :-)

That's an interesting thought about getting clothes ready in advance. I usually like to stick to the routine as much as possible, but when dh is away I always find that the extra work of having to do everything myself means I have less time for ds and that leads to more conflict. I wonder if I could figure out a way round that too? Thanks for your reply. That has really got me thinking.

Wreck I see what you mean. tbh tax credits are a bit out of my area and definitely outside of db's area. Sorry about that. It does sound tricky.

Oh my! The page reloaded and I realised I missed about a million posts. Reading back...

Yes Wreck he us definitely not exempt! I understand it will be hard for DH to confront him over it but it is too important not to. Naughty man

I also think the childcare vouchers scheme has changed. I am sure there is a new scheme where you enrol directly through a govt website, not via employers. So his boss doesn't have to offer the scheme for you to enrol. Terms are slightly different to the old scheme but still a tax break. I don't know much about it as we're not paying for childcare at the mo but worth doing some research?

@mammymammyIRL I don't understand what you're asking?

@SunnyLikeThursday I think your neighbours would only love to help. I've enlisted dsd to take ds to preschool 2 days next week, the hardest part was asking

Actually got up early and have so far done 2hrs work, and made 2 trays of rocky road. Trying nigellas recipie as the "melt the marshmallows" ones are so bloody sticky to make. This is just melted butter, choc and syrup. I only licked the spoon a bit.

Have to shop for ingredients today (and some tights for tomorrow) but it won't be too bad. Tesco and lidl, plus need sinking fish food. I bet I buy a right load of unneeded crap...I need to write a list.

My foam seat pad for the sofa turned up yesterday, so I split open the sofa seat. It is filled with hair ugh. Tight curly hair. I may vomit removing it. We'll drag the safa outside so I can do it by the big commercial wheely bin, but gross!