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

[WreckTangled]

New thread, everyone welcome!

Also mammy get you, so keen!

My last working day for Christmas is the 15th, so is dhs, Last year I worked the 23rd, some of them didn't pay me till June.

What would happen if you quit? Can you afford it?. Can you get another job in time to claim maternity?.

Common sense dictates I don’t quit fluffy . Sometimes I really wish I could though. Six months full pay maternity plus contribution by employer to final salary pension scheme also says to stay put at least until the end of any potential mat leave. We could just about afford it especially with the money PIL are due to gift us but that would be better spent on a new driveway and contribution towards a replacement/bigger car

Sigh. I just need to keep plodding along

Common sense is what keeps Dh going in every day. It's a fucker.

Did you know iodine levels in uk food are quite low due to levels being depleted in the soil & the salt not being iodised anymore? If you're on the side of low or under active thyroid you can buy liquid supplements of Amazon for about £10 & iodised table salt in the supermarket.

Thyroid affects pretty much everything in your body so it would help your fertility, at least a baby would get you out of there for a while.

Dhs goitre doesn't look smaller but about two weeks after starting the supplements he stopped snoring as badly unless he has a cold.

We've been to the ent surgeon in the past about it & they just want to remove the whole gland, no ones ever suggested it could be iodine related & he eats little of the foods highest in it like seafish or non organic milk & you'd have to drink pints of the stuff all day to get what we need.

Love you sound clued up on the financial side. One of the reasons I’ve kept working FT is to keep my hand in with my pension as my employer runs a very generous scheme.

I’m hoping that if I stick it out for a few more years then I’ll have accumulated enough cash to quit my job and wait for the pension to pay out. It’s a bit of a pipe dream at the moment though given my inclination to fritter away my paycheck on stuff for the kids as soon as I get it. Hence why I’m here! I need to learn new habits.

Day 3 of packing a flask of tea. Contigo travel mugs are the best I’ve ever tried, my tea’s still at a perfect temperature despite me leaving home over an hour ago. Remembered the lunch this time but didn’t pack a snack as forgot to get any yesterday.

Mammy and Need you two are inspirational with your commitment to a healthy lifestyle. Please tell me how you do it! I haven’t managed to get to the gym for 3 weeks

Dreadful night with DD2 so feel like I’m wading through treacle. And I’m late for work. Oooops. Zzzzzz.

Fluffy I've been thinking about iodine recently too. Ds is okay, but I don't think I have any in my diet, which is not ideal. Pondering.

Hi all, checking back in after a bit of an absence 😳 work has been all consuming for the last few weeks, and the cross country season is kicking off so I've been busy entering teams and organising stuff in every spare moment. For some reason I have to be in a fairly good mood to post here, although I like reading what everyone's up to regardless. I think it's because I'm an introvert.

Anyway I've missed too much to comment on everything, but I have to say congrats to cag on a beautiful baby 😍 also thanks need for thinking of me and well done on your time. Thinking of those of you who are ill or struggling for any reason

Ds was fed and we then had a nice snuggle in bed. Lots of smiles and noises from him. ☺️

We went to see dh at 7 (he’s been sleeping in the spare room) and I handed ds over. In the last hour I’ve made coffee, and had breakfast. Have had a shower and got dressed (in my riding gear already - jodhpurs still fit! Hooray for stretchy pants) Made a bottle for ds and have taken washing out of machine. Now having a cuppa.

Happy November y’all. Now only 54 days until Christmas...

😍 Oh Cag, isn't she gorgeous? I might be well past childbearing but I still get a wee bit sort-of broody 🙄
I'm getting my new washing machine from a local small business; I looked online but this chap is not only cheaper but it includes him taking the old one and installing as well.
I was very pleasantly surprised!
Well done Lonely for making the decision. I retired early last year purely because I simply couldn't carry on doing ridiculous hours a week. A combination of working at high levels in the third sector plus driving for over an hour each end of the day as well as all over the county meant my sanity was suffering. I was simply grinding to a halt.
It does mean that money's getting tighter and tighter as no state pension for another two years 😡
i haven't even begun to think about C........... yet ☹️, 11 birthdays and other celebrations between today and then 😱
Ho hum!

Sorry you've had another bad night Seacow. I wondered about a cold. I think you've said before DD is putting on weight and otherwise healthy. It's a tough call summoning up the energy to teach to self settle/sleep train. Maybe DH could have a day or two off and tag on a weekend?

Being fit and healthy is just ME really, it makes me feel better mentally, and actually and strangely generates more energy. I rarely don't sleep. Thank you though for the kudos I've been given on here, which is kind.

Mammy Go you!

I love the XC season Holly, just such good fun and a brilliant team spirit usually. Love the mud me!

Fluffy I knew iodine levels in certain states of America were low, I didn't know about the UK.

Lilly You are having a bit of a time too with DD2 in terms of sleep. Hope you are okay.

Lonely I get the decision. You have to have passion for the business area you choose but it has to pay too. You don't do it for the money, but you have to do it for the money too iyswim? No point working silly hours and not getting reward. DH does it 'cos I do think it's wrapped up in his MH issues and he's driven anyway, but also because it gives us this lifestyle, even if that was never the starting scenario.

Today frugal things

• shift the soup meal to today to use the bread that is just getting a touch stale.
• take drinks to the comedian we are seeing tonight.
• NOT checking out my Sophie Allport order, the discount ran out last night. I didn't need.

Spends will be £20 for the physio just to iron out niggles but that's it

Tiddly We've tons of birthdays at this time of year too. I thoroughly recommend getting lots of stuff in the sales. I am proud to say that I have taught Fluffy a trick, split up beauty/smelly-type gift boxes. Great for raffle prizes and presents.

Just placemarking so I can catch up later.
Hope everyone is ok.

Another frugal win is that there are going to be a lot of pumpkin related foods that I will be able to make from my giant pumpkin that I didn’t get round to carving. I’m on tray four of roasting in the oven and have a least a third of the thing left to do!

Roasted garlic, pumpkin and chorizo soup tonight and I’ll freeze the purée from the balance.

I’ve gotten out of the frugal mindset recently, which is stupid really being on the thread but pretty onto it now.

Half an hour queuing for the car park so far...

It was like Christmas here this morning.

4 X £10 off a £100 spend in Waitrose vouchers, that'll do my next three week shop with them.
£40 vouchers for presents
£100 Amazon voucher off sun life for setting up a over 50's plan with them for Dh. That can be cancelled now. £92 net profit because two premiums were paid. It will go towards dhs present.

NSD.

need would love that pumpkin soup recipe if you have a moment. I have one to use up too. I love xc season as well - doing all the entries and co ordination can be a but of a hassle but I love the races themselves, and xc training sessions too.

I am using some of my pumpkin to make these:

www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetable-recipes/leftover-squash-pancakes/

I make them quite often with squash for DS as he loves them.

By some miracle DD went into her crib around 5am and woke up in a very jolly mood at 7am. She still has a cold but is lovely and happy. I feel a bit better for 2 hours of sleep in a horizontal position but could do with 12 really!

That's a good haul Fluffy

I've spent £5 in boots on Sanpro and ibuprofen, and around £8 in Tesco topping up on fruit. I am buying a lot of fruit because DS loves berries and I am eating more because of slimming world. I do feel a lot better for getting a grip of my diet, even though is not cheap. I'm not eating out or doing coffees etc though. School also want £5 contribution for 'rights respecting week'. Not sure why rights cost money

There's a 'mum's that run' group starting here. All abilities welcome. I'd love to try but am still severely hobbling with plantar fasciitis. Still, that's a goal. I could probably do with losing a couple of stone before stressing my knees anyway!

Home after a nice trip out to meet friends smile managed a feed while there (although I went into the empty children's library to do it) so feeling a bit more confident now. Was then surrounded by friends and kids but she was comfortably feeding by then and not showing anything IYSWIM (nursing tops for the win!)

So glad DD slept in her bed for a bit seacow that's awesome!

The 'smile' was meant to be :) - copy and pasted it because I posted this in the wrong thread... 😳😳😳

£32 riding - private hack - just me and instructor which was nice. Beautiful sunny crisp clear day. Perfect for horses. Yay! Rode my fave pony too. Double yay! After I hopped off once we got back to the yard instructor asked how my legs felt. Wobbly. So I’ve got my horse legs back - wobbly is normal apparently for first time after a break.

£9 something in boots (was £11 but had £2.09 left on a gift card) - nappies, breast pads (some serious leakage last night TMI as I stopped wearing a bra to bed and just my pj top so had nowhere to stick pads to and keep them in place) and sanitary pads (I think that my period has come back (which may explain my meltdown at dh at the weekend...) I say think - because I’m not sure when it’s meant to. Sigh. I enjoyed not having to do this every month.

£11 something in M&S on fruit. Yay.

Dm and df watched SS while I went out riding. He cried for the first 20 minutes. Then was wide awake. No sleeping. No smiling.

I wander back in and he’s all smiles.

Dm did notice that he seemed to be hungry - he has been feeding a lot. She suggested that we should be giving him more formula. I checked the box and she’s right. I think. We’d been going by age - not weight. So now I feel like a bad Mummy. But not too much.

Dm also removed the “bats in the cave” from ds nose. Well. They fell out apparently. And she kept them. They were huge. One was the size of my little fingernail. So. Gross.

em I have these tops which have an extra layer, I'm not leaking much yet but they are comfy for extra support so might be good as a PJ top and the pads could be stuck in the inner layer?

Don't feel bad about doing the wrong amount, that would be based on a FF-only baby anyway and DS has been having milk from you too.

YAY for pony ride ❤️ But booo at possible period. Ugh. Mine came back quite quickly after DD (also mix fed)

cag that’s what I was looking for. Or those annoying “secret support” tops. M&S used to only sell pj tops with secret support. Went in the other day and couldn’t find any.

Hadn’t thought about the mix feeding part of the feeding. Duh.

Eugh. Periods suck. I didn’t realise they’d come back so soon. I knew they’d be back at some point. But so soon...?! And I have my 6 week Check at the doctors on Tuesday where I suspect the doctor will have to investigate the fanny region. Sigh.

Not doing anything this afternoon. All the things I was going to do - sort and out washin away, tidy up etc appear to have been done by Dm. Absolute legend that woman.

My throat is sore. Which could also be to do with my period. But could be dh’s cold. I’m on the couch watching mindhunter on Netflix. Have taken a couple of paracetamol and a vitamin c drink. Now on hot squash and a bucketload of water.

Have you tried the implant contraceptive Em? I think mines stopped my period. I had a very light bleed a few weeks after insertion but nothing this month.

It made me very hungry & my hair greasy for the first 8 weeks but that's all stopped now.

fluffy no - but contraceptions on the list to speak to the gp about. I was on the pill so was just hoping to get back on that. There’s part of me that while hates periods have the comfort in knowing that they’re there. But am going to look at other options.

Right all caught up now.
I'm still having bad nights too Seacow. It's the worst isn't it?
Have managed to have a nice day though and not spent any money although there is still time!
Welcome newcomers.