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

[WreckTangled]

New thread, everyone welcome!

Good morning! I hate the clocks going back, I've been waking up at 4.45 every morning for absolutely no reason whatsoever ☹️
I have every sympathy for you all with babies and non-sleeping DCs. DD didn't sleep through the night until she was 28months old, and she gave up daytime naps at a few months old unless in the car.
As someone who needs lots of sleep it was torture! DS was the opposite, I used to have to wake him up to feed him.

Hopefully a nsd. Dc up at 5:45 again. Stupid clocks.

Going trick or treating in the village where the school is later and the dc are being picked up by my friend which has saved me £10 on after school club (frugal win!).

I’ve woken up with a horrible chesty cough

Hope the cough goes away! Caglets were up early too. Was already awake with baby though (had a reasonable night).

DH taking Caglets into town later I think. Last minute Halloween bits.

Woken up here with a bit of a sore throat. Damm dh and SS and their colds. Not cool. Not cool at all.

Was up twice in the night with ds. Feeding him again now just waiting for dh to get up and take him for a bit.

Should be nsd today. Need to go through the bags of baby clothes I picked up yesterday and need to complete ds passport form

Bonus this morning as it's midterm here I only had to prepare lunch for myself, plus I'm away on Friday so I've only two more days at work

Jobs for today:

Find the case first my sunglasses. My lovely lovely in dangerous of getting scratched aviators. They had s lovely brown leather case. It’s in the house somewhere. I can’t carry on just throwing them in my bag with my keys.....ray bans will not fix them if they weren’t looked after properly.

Carry on with thank yous and maybe persuade df to take a bunch of stuff to the dump. If I asked directly he’ll moan and say no. If I struggle doing it myself when he comes over he’ll take over and do it for me.

persuade df to take a bunch of stuff to the dump. If I asked directly he’ll moan and say no. If I struggle doing it myself when he comes over he’ll take over and do it for me.

This is totally a thing here too. What goes on with that?

My favourite was when I was struggling to work a new printer, and dh ran into the room, elbowed me out of the way and started pressing buttons to try to operate it. The ds, aged 18 months, ran into the room, elbowed dh out of the way, and started pressing buttons in exactly the same way. It was hilarious.

Morning all,

Having just got over a cold I’m feeling all sniffly again too.
Main weekly shop being done this morning. I’ve planned and written a list but I bet I’ll still struggle to keep within budget, everything keeps going up and up doesn’t it?
And I’m down to my last 30 miles of fuel so that’s another expense.

Good news is the soup I made at the weekend is gorgeous, and so filling I’m going to get 3 meals out of it instead of the 2 I thought it would do!

Df does it because he’s annoyed me and my sister are grown ups and don’t need daddy’s help so much anymore. He likes to feel useful. I suspect he’s more annoyed he taught us to be stupidly independent...and not rely on other people to do things for us. Plan backfired as we are fiercely independent - but we play the game and let him help us occasionally.

He’s called me this morning already. Dm is heading into town Christmas shopping. He wanted to know what we were up to. Did we fancy meeting him for a coffee.

I said we could but I had to take things to the dump, and get lightbulbs as some of our living room ones have gone and wasn’t sure how long I’d be as lots of stuff etc and ooof heavy and not sure if I’ll get it all in the car blah blah blah but I’d give him a shout.

He’s on his way...

em sly but effective!! It annoys dh that I'm independent too, why didn't you call me to do such and such, because I can do it myself! If I can't do something obviously I'll ask but most things women can do just as effectively as men! and probably more efficiently and more tidily too

I just read a ynab email that taught me something about ynab I didn't know and am going to put it into practice for Novembers budgeting.

em

We woke at 5am, even before DD2. Stupid hour change. Will probably stay on this sleep pattern until Friday now so I can go to work early

Food shopping done. Various reduced items for tonight’s dinner

DD2 looks like she is about to nap. It would be blissful if she would

Unfrugal question Has anyone tried clearblue ovulation tests? Useful?

Love I have - I thank them for both of my DC! I used one of the monitors with sticks. It does work out expensive (but not as expensive as IVF, was my rationale). You can also buy cheap ovulation sticks on Amazon which I expect do the same thing, but without the digital readout. I bought sons of those to try in parallel ;with a view to HSJ v them instead of ClearBlue) but gig pregnant before the experiment was concluded!

I am happy to post my old monitor to you if it might be useful? It's not the latest model but the sticks still work with it.

I disappeared for a few days because mn logged me out. And if course I had forgotten my password. And real life got in the way of faffing around and resetting it - done now though forgotten the new one already

DD has caught DH's cold so she's a bit of a sorry wee thing. I am pretty much entirely sleeping upright, but feeling less cross about it as I feel sorry for her and just want to squidge her anyway. Very behind with pumpkin carving efforts etc though after a couple of bad evenings as well as bad nights... might not be a good display this year.

Back later, I still have lots of catching up to do.

Sorry for typos - trying to eat and holding DD and hurrying

Df was super helpful. We’ve been to the dump and dropped off a ton of stuff and had a coffee in town. Yay.

May take ds for a walk later on. Super sunny here. Yippee.

Oooh love I haven't used ovulation things but I have heard good things about the cheapie sticks also, I think it was sunny who recommended them when I was concerned about my cycle being a bit odd. Does this mean you are hoping to join meadow on the preggo frugaleer bench..? :)

I'm on a bus on my own with Cagletini, the others are already in town having done some shopping. We are going to get something to eat. Good thing too I am absolutely ravenous today!

bacon will that push you into your decision re staying at home fulltime?
I've made a decision that will cost me a little bit of money but make for an easier life in some ways - gym will charge €4 for an hour in the mornings, I'll only be attending for 20 mins twice a week but it means not running in the dark

Maybe cag and mammy But before you get too excited, both my other DDs took two years to be ‘made’ and I only read when I was pregnant with DD2 that having an under active thyroid can affect fertility. Also turned 34 this year, whilst not old, may not improve things in light of previous times

That’s such a generous offer seacow but only if you are sure? People sell them second hand on eBay so you could make some £s on it

Mammy the thing about the goals? I read that too. Must give it a go!

Love I used the Amazon cheapies when planning DS. They were good but a bit of a faff - the two lines have to be exactly the same colour so if you want convenience then the clear blue ones may be the way to go.

Payday today. YNAB updated and closed out for October, and November budget set. I keep going over budget on food and having to move money from other categories to cover that spending so this month I’ve given myself a higher budget but will focus on chipping the spending down as much as possible.

Frugal wins: I packed tea and snacks again this morning

Frugal fail: I forgot to take my lunch. It was right there when I opened the fridge to take out my fruit pot and I didn’t even see it. Sigh.

The monitor helped us conceive DS2. I know the bonk that did the job, thanks to it! I got mine second hand off eBay and sold it on again.

Just back from the weekly shop. £120 but that included wine, a bottle of prosecco, a fillet steak at £7 and £8 on flippin lightbulbs to replace various ones that have gone around the house.

@Love hope your lo is napping. And hope all the other babies on here are napping too!

Afternoon all, dd still poorly so quiet day again. Did make it out to Pets at Home to pick up boycats insulin £60 should last 4 months or so though. Also stocked up on cat biscuits £20, am going to get stricter on measuring out the correct amount as seem to be getting through it way too quickly.

Also went to Morrisons, had an early lunch there £10 and picked up a few more bits for Halloween and calpol £15. Am still working on dd swallowing normal paracetamol tablets the price of calpol is shocking.

Spendy morning all told

Really hoping dd is better by tomos as i'm due back at work.

Ha ha curls well it was worth remembering

DD has not napped. She is doing lots of nappies today and my lounge smells like a barnyard

Our pumpkin had turn into a disintegrating mould ball this morning so have fed it to the compost bin

£10 petrol.

Fluffy which survey website do you use again? Someone on another thread suggested Panelbase? She reckons you can easily make £20-£30 a month on it...

Very sure Love. I think I've had my money's worth out of it, I'm just so thankful it worked and I'd be thrilled if it helped someone else.

Let me take a pic later of the model so you can check whether you want it or want to go for a newer model.