The Friendly Frugaleers Keep on Chatting (and having babies!)

[WreckTangled]

New thread, everyone welcome!

Girlie our cat had that anal glands thing, and we took her to the vet and he emptied them by squeezing them. It helped, but was very weird. Handy to have a dog that can use a catflap.

Ah fluffy, didn't know that about Clinique, I'll pass on it once I've finished the sample pots. I'm still Emma Hardie Moringa Balm mad tbh.

£36 on fish and chips and drinks for four. Will be our only meal out and it was lovely. Full day out at the beach and walking along coastal paths. Happy family times. I adore Scotland, I could move here tomorrow.

Just teething issues girlie, you might have struck lucky with this little dog. We've had the best day with ours today, pets do give so much without knowing.

Hoping you are okay cag

Glad you got the medication meadow.

Yaaaaasssss!! Managed a nap!!! Woohoo!!

And ds too!! He’s still asleep. Will wake him after dinner if he hasn’t woken up himself.

Salmon and lentils for dinner.

Spends today - £9 at Waitrose. 4x diet cokes (no caffeine), biscuits and batteries for the magic sleep sheep.

£15 Morrison's.
£102 parking for the next 17 weeks
£15 r h fitness. Got to read up tonight on the videos

About £20 on top up shopping, mostly fruit, bread and some pork mince to make meatballs.

Plus £117 (of thereabouts) to join the National Trust. It would have been almost £35 to get in today and I think it will encourage us to get out more, so done. We took a picnic so no other spends.

Em respect to your mum, what a star!
Girlie Rizzo is mine and dd's favourite character in Grease too, not sure for a dog name though...
Hope Cag is okay
Collie maybe spotting a hare needs to go on one of you seasonal lists? Is the card payments on buses across the county? We are going to be far west next week & it's handy to know if we don't need to collect change. We like travelling around on buses, then if an inviting pub is spotted, we can both have a drink!
Fluffy I saw the bank switch deal too but I've only just switched so think I'm tied to current bank for 12 months.

I had a busy but productive day at work today. Only one and a bit days left before a week off and I have quite a long to do list. Frugal win, my manager is letting me be paid for some extra hours I'm working tomorrow rather than taking the time back.
I've just booked next year's summer holiday. It's not the extravagant one we had hoped for (as ds is going to Tobago in Feb) but looks fabulous. 11 nights in a 3 bed apartment (400m from a 3km beach) in N Spain and travelling there & back by ferry. £200 cashback through tcb brought the price under £2500, not bad for 4 of us for 2 weeks in August.
I also have a to do list for home before we go away on Friday.
Finish advent calendar (so that it is able to be hung up)
Finish Tesco order for cottage when we arrive on Saturday
Get all clothes washed & packed!
Need to crack on now & get away from the screen...

I am starting to feel a little concerned about Cag as the day wears on, I must admit. Hope you are not having a torrid time Cag

While we are all waiting anxiously it feels a bit wrong to keep wittering on but I shall plough on anyway....

A question. I have made meatballs roughly the same size as the ones you buy in Tesco, coop etc (bit smaller than a ping pong ball). How many would you say were in a portion? DH and I have different views on the appropriate amount of meat.

Girlie I'm with you on the dog name. I'd go old fashioned. Or even 40s/50s - the adults of the 60s/70s... those names haven't come back into fashion yet and there's probably a reason for that . I agree with Meadow about 2 syllables though. Nicer to shout. Andy Murray has a dog called Maggie, I really like that.

Very glad you are back Need. And about Scotland.

Seacow I would say four but dh would say six.**

I too hope cag is ok.**

My antibiotics are still making me feel ill.* Yuck.*

I hope Cag is ok. We're all thinking about you Cag.

Thinking of you lovely cag hopefully you’re enjoying squishy baby snuggles and some rest.

seacow id say 5 meatballs. But I like odd numbers of things on plates. It looks neater somehow.

Salmon on lentils here for dinner. With rocket. Yum.

Watching eat well for less. The woman reminds me of dm. I’ve just texted her and told her to watch it.

Hope cag is doing ok

Hope wreck and meadow feel better soon

Holiday sounds great north

£480 on a new fridge/freezer arriving Sunday. Eeek

I did make £40 on a one hour focus group this evening. £20 of it will get a sainsburys voucher towards Christmas.

Holiday sounds great value and fab North

Just hoping you are okay cag xx

At the risk of outing myself, my dogs are Harry and Hector. Suits them.

Hope cag is ok too.
Frugal fail garage freezer door left open. A full bag of chicken nuggets gone. Have managed to save the rest or it wasn't so defrosted I couldn't refreeze

I watched that as well.
Loathed the husband -giving her 6/10 mine would be wearing his dinner .
Some of the swaps were unbelievable -£800 on pizza
NSD
Hope Cag is ok and busy with her new baby

Just checking in for news on cag - no news is good news, right?

Two of dd1's brace fixings have pinged off. Have left a voicemail for them. Bit cross actually.

We watched the priates of the carribean 5 tonight. Um. Its not brilliant! We love them and couldn't understand why we missed it at the cinema. I'm guessing it was too crap to be released widely! Will still watch it again though, there's always loads of detail you miss on a first watch.

life that's a pain re the freezer. Happens a lot to us, as dc help themselves to lollies. I just shut the door and refreeze it.

We don't have meatballs much. I love them, but the dc don't eat them well. No idea why really. They eat spag bol, but not spaghetti, tomato sauce and meatballs, surely the same meal split up differently.

lonely is captain jack sparrow still in it?? If so I’ll give it a watch just for giggles. I love captain jack. (Well Johnny depp really...) but mmm captain jack. See also Russell brand and dave Grohl. Oh and Hugh jackman.

Dh hasn’t helped me at all today. Sigh. And he barely noticed ds. Which made me sad. He (dh) does have the startings of a cold and is tired so is trying to make himself better quickly. I’ve told him I won’t entertain any moaning or nonsense re his cold. If he needs to rest that’s fine but no lazing about the house. Confined to bed for resting. Also he’s out gallivanting tomorrow evening so if he’s well enough for that...

Ds and I are heading to town tomorrow. We’re meeting dsis and are going to have a browse about the shops and spend our vouchers. Maybe. Yay.

I’m also going to go to the riding shop and look at hats. Getting back on the pony next week. Eeek. So excited!!!! Just a hack around the lanes but I haven’t done it for aaaaggggggeeeeesssss!!!

I’d say 4-5 meatballs for an adult portion.

I’m also getting slightly worried about Cag. Hopefully we’ll hear from her soon.

I thought EWFL was interesting. I googled the husband (as you do) and he’s a Partner in a London commercial real estate firm. I don’t quite understand why they need to save £80 a week on their shopping, he will be on a very healthy wage... I think EWFL should really challenge themselves and pick a family that already shops frugally to see if they can help them cut costs further, but then i guess that wouldn’t be seen as such good tv. I liked her kitchen too - so much lovely light!

I now have holiday and fridge-freezer envy to go with my dishwasher and cute dog envy

Yes em he's in it all the way through. It actually wasn't that bad, just some truly corny lines. Parenting isn't optional. Once you have a child, it's needs trump yours however ill/tired/hungry you are. Hope your wee boy gives you some peace tonight.

cag hope you've had your tea and toast by now!

Second an empty cot being safest. I had a scare with DD2 in a bassinet. After that it was cots with nothing other than mattress with fitted sheet. We used those sleeping bags that they wear instead of sleeping “in” iyswim. They do up at the shoulder like a body suit.

Spent just under £10 today, bits that I forgot on the delivery.

Hope all is well with Cag

Just placemarking really.

Been watching that eat well for less is it called. I don’t watch much telly but I gravitate to this kind of thing. Usually it’s tell your nan to suck eggs kind of advice but the one today about cooking from acetate was actually quite good I thought.

Got me thinking about I have found once you ditch brands, brand loyalty and recreational shopping. Ditching anything with advertising helps too. Anyway once you have been off the grid for a while it all
Feels very weird and naff. This is all related to food btw.

The only brand I have any loyalty left for is Coca Cola. I’d rather not bother with it if I can’t afford it. So I buy it when it’s on a very good offer and drink squash the rest of the time. No cash saving revelations there I’m just amused I have only a single brand left I give a monkeys about :-)

fluffy will update you as to how the wine making goes, could be a disaster as was my last wine making efforts in 1995 with potatoes! Feeling inspired by tonight’s Eat well for less, unfortunately I could relate to the mum very well. Tomorrow I will empty the cupboards and meal plan.

She's here!!! :)

Rowan was born at 7.30pm yesterday, 6lb 9oz. ❤️

Yaaaaaay!

DD just woke me up and I refreshed because I've been slightly worried (and in fact I was just dreaming about you!)

Wonderful news, congratulations. Fabulous name, and she is beautiful.

How was it? (Tell us when you have time) x