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

[WreckTangled]

New thread, everyone welcome!

Oh girlie sad but for the right reasons. Pets are meant to reduce stress in a home. Not increase it... get a cat instead. They basically take care of themselves. Except at 6am when they hop on the bed and pat your face and then meow and yawn their cat food breath mouth in your face.

Today we are having a lazy day. I’m going to have a look at my subscribe and save things in a bit and work out whether I can cancel some.

Excited today as blue planet 2 is on tv this evening. Yay!

I think I'd look more haloweeny in make up, I put it on like a toddler.

Anyway, I'm doing the super glam job of moving soil in the wheelbarrow from here to there in the garden today. Dp is in a foul mood as he's still too ill cba getting up on time for a 70 mile bike ride, and it's a lovely day now.

My food budget it shocking, but so much better than it was. I'm going to seriously concentrate and slash it next year. We're talking at least £400/month. There is 6 of us, 2 dogs, spoilt cat, ferrets, chickens...but still. I don't even buy ready meals or any 'finest' ranges, and my branded stuff is very limited now. If my house was tidy I'd nominate us for ewfl, but I already cook from scratch, and I'm afraid I'd have to bludgeon Gregg Wallace with a blunt instrument.

Eugh people are queuing outside Lidl. I thought it would be quiet...

Girlie I’m really sorry to read that, you have to look after yourself though

Aw girlie :( hugs xx

Thanks for BP2 reminder em will let the Caglets stay up to watch that yay!

Oh girlie being a grown up stinks sometimes. I'm wondering if you'd be more suited to a terrier type, as you're used to your dads one. Girl dogs in season are a nightmare. It will have changed how she behaves, and the hormones make ever other dog (neutered or not) you meet way ott, probably why she was so scared.

em is right. They're meant to make us feel better, not worse. Well done for making a difficult call.

Good decision Girlie. Hopefully your cat will make up for it.

Lonely I've been out digging up the dahlias too. It was easier than I thought because the soil was dry and soft. I thought I was in for a week of hard graft.

Christmas I just looked at my best child-food-intolerance book and it has 17 pages of detail about how to diagnose the symptoms that your dd has. I wondered if it would help if I scan them and send them over?

It's this book:

Cure Your Child with Food: The Hidden Connection Between Nutrition and Childhood Ailments Paperback – 23 Apr 2013
by Kelly Dorfman

Sorry it hasn't worked out with the dog Girlie.

How old is DD Christmas? Is it a sleep regression. Best advice I had was to think of it as a sleep progression instead ie something they have to go through before it improves again. Also sleep development isn't linear. It goes up and down. It's still rubbish when you're in the middle of it though.

Forgot to say :o at the pork scratching advent calendar need :o there's all sorts these days isn't there! Caglets have their first Lego one this year, my friend brought over some lovely pressies for the baby and had bought them the calendar too! How lovely is that ❤️ Didn't want them to feel left out I guess bless her.

Still pretty wobbly but no more clots soooo hopefully all done now. I have had lovely snuggly naps. It's amazing seeing her little face every time I open my eyes.

Still no news from Meadow :( I wonder if she has had to be in hospital, best place though if needed :(

cag eugh clots. I passed one the size of an orange after dd2 (had a 1.5l pp bleed with her), I put it in the freezer, but strangely enough the midwife didn't need to see it It's very unnerving, and I'm a bit prone to panic.

Moved about 1/2 the soil, about 15 barrow loads so far. Coffee break, and I'm knackered already. I'm craving tinned ravioli on toast. Might have to do a tip run via the co-op.

Hoping you're ok meadow I'm guessing she's had to go in too. Not keeping even fluids down is pretty dangerous if it keeps going on.

DS is 5 weeks old today. EEEK.

I’ve been writing thank you s this morning. Am I mean to refer to mil as “grandma Mils name” she wants to be referred to as “maman” which is French for Mummy. But pronounced “momom” which is jersey French derogatory term.

I may also have accidentally told sil that maman is French for Mummy. My French friend sent me some onesies with “maman et moi” on them. So I sent a pic to sil saying how cute they were. She wanted to know where I’d got grandma onesies....as she thought mil would like for dnephew to wear them. May have let the cat out of the bag.

lonely an orange???!?!!! Wow. I hope you labelled the clotbox properly when it went in the freezer....

Thanks lovely peeps

Yeah I wonder if her hormones have been making her anxiety worse, will def keep in touch with the rescue lady and see if she thinks getting her spayed would make much of a difference. That said it still doesn't solve the problems of leaving her when i'm at work, I think she would do better living alongside another dog. Keep finding little blobs of blood everywhere, have changed my sheets and put all the puppy pads down. Tried putting a sanitary towel on her held in place with a pair of dds knickers but she looked so sad and refused to stand up in them!!

We managed a short walk and its now nap time.

My food budget is £40 a week for dd and I but realistically its more like £50, cat food is on top of that.

I was wondering about Meadow hope she is o.kay.

Wow, that's more work than I would be looking for in caring for a dog. I didn't that was part of the job.

There should be a different font for hair-raising bodily details on here. I am totally not ready for some of this stuff.

Yikes. I always wondered if that happened to dogs. Now I know! Poor thing.

Yikes lonely they are unnerving indeed! Freezing it an interesting idea :o

I have decided I need smoked salmon.

Trying to think of hair raising bodily things here....nope. None really. Apart from that time when I punched the really solid wooden door in our apartment (was aiming for our friends face - he’d apparently been practising yoga or something and didn’t feel pain any more....and dared me to punch him. I did. He moved) I broke my hand. Little finger and ring finger on right hand dropped down a bit. Dr at a&e said it was a text book boxers fracture but I had to have my hand set in “claw” position for 6 weeks. Bloody annoying that was.

Almost threw up at the X-ray though. Eugh.

I always wondered if animals had periods too. I've never seen one but wondered if they are kept indoors or something. I've only ever had boy pets.

Obviously felt fear though. What's Sanskrit for Tosser?.

I know female cats go mental if they aren't spayed & don't have kittens. I'm a bit Surpised they didn't spay her as routine.

Waitrose worked out £89. Just need furry boys cat food.

Thanks for that Em. That was really helpful. Lunch now... maybe.

Em your mil is crazy so write what you see fit impressive about your hand

£44 Lidl
£28 wilko but £17 of that was stocking fillers.* Their chocolate coins are only 50p.*

Oh no em a perma-claw must have been well annoying! 😡

DH just brought me a plate of French bread, pate, Brie and black grapes. Life is good. And crisps!!! I can eat crisps now. Although I'm not actually in the mood for them yet strangely.

fluffy haha! Yeah. When I saw dparents the next day (a Saturday) mum went into some sort of panic. And Dads first question was to ask whether I’d thrown the lunch thumb in or out. Obvs out. Would have broken it too otherwise! Dad was proud. He’d taught me how to throw a punch years ago. Essential dad self defence training. He also taught me a few other choice moves - Dad worked emergency services for years and had done a lot of self defence courses.

Said friend is a bit “alternative” always going off to find himself, rarely wears shoes (or clothes for that matter - usually just a pair of boardies) but is a decent guy. No filter though. The amount of swears he used in his best man speech at our wedding...my poor grandma...!!

£4.32 three weeks supply of gourmet cat food. It would have been free but the gfk rewards site was out of stock for Amazon cards.

It's a virtual card so I don't know how that can be out of stock so I'll save it & put it towards dhs Christmas present.

love wilkos.

Pink I bake bread too. A lot of my shop is just food. I make my own clothes detergent, I stopped using branded cleaning products altogether when I found out they test on animals.

Potatoes come from the farm shop in 50lb bags, tea bags are bought in bulk because their Tesco smart price & I don't go there often so I buy a years supply at a time. Costs £6. I started making my own drinking chocolate when I realised how easy it was. I do very cheap yorkshires that work out similar price to smart price but taste much nicer.

According to money saving expert branded cleaning stuff is the last thing people will switch from.

So, white vinegar 20p removes lime scale off the shower & softens the clothes. I pour it in the kettle once a week. Pour it back in when the scales gone & use it on clothes.

Caustic soda in homebargains 89p, 10 applications for cleaning the kitchen sink trap & the shower plug hole.

Multi surface cleaner in a big bottle from Waitrose essentials decanted into a spray bottle & watered down half. Buav approved. I use it on everything, kitchen, bathroom, utility, paintwork.

Dri pack soda crystals clean the dishwasher on its maintanance cycle. 65p a bag lasts ages & I chuck them in liberally.

Citric acid £1 de scales the washing machine element once a year & the coffee machine.

Cheap washing up liquid gets most stains out of clothes if you dab it neat & let it soak for 10 minutes.

Laundry gloop costs me £1.50 & will last me 4-5 months. I use it on delicates like wool & silk too.

Obviously ignore all that if I'm preaching to the converted.