Remember remember it's frugal November

[LonelyOversharer]

Woo hoo! I've never done the new thread before!

Sunny my parents and in laws are both a 2 minute drive away, I could walk to both of them.
When the kids were little, my mum would help out a LOT. I went back to work after my first and mum had DS1 1 day a week to help cut down the nursery bill. When I had DS2 she used to come over every day and make me lunch as I was pinned to the sofa feeding. Bless her, she did all our ironing for about 6 months!
These days mum comes over on a Tuesday night while I go to fat club, makes the boys their tea, etc. I nip over to them at some point during the week to see them and both sets of parents will always babysit or have them overnight to stay if we go out.

It’s funny because as close as we are, we don’t spend ‘quality’ time with them, it’s just an ad hoc thing. My brother and his family live a good 3 hour drive away, so when my mum and dad visit, they spend the whole weekend with them,go out to places, do stuff with the grandkids, etc.

Sunny my parents split their time roughly 50:50 between London and Scotland. When they’re in London we don’t tend to see that much of them in the week because they have a terrible habit of whipping the kids into a frenzy of excitement and then leaving me to scrape them off the ceiling at bedtime. We mostly see them at the weekend for a few hours. I think you’ll find your own “New Normal” after they’ve been down for a few weeks. Exciting.

sunny I used to see my parents once a week at most but now I’m off and ds is here they get withdrawals if they haven’t seen him every day! Haha. We pop in maybe every other day or meet them out somewhere.

Em that's tough, but you definitely don't need to be managing things with mil, that's most definitely dh's job. In terms of seeing his family more, do some of them live closer that NZ then? Sunny "Wifework" comes from a book by Susan Maushart where she writes about all the roles that women tend to take on in a marriage/long term relationship. I've read excerpts but keep meaning to read the book.
mammy & Tayto even when I give dh a list he manages to go off piste with it!
Productive day here yesterday. The most exciting finding was that if you have a manky iron (burnt stuff on the sole plate), turn it on to full heat and then rub the burnt mess with a paracetamol (well in my case 4 paracetamols as it was pretty bad!) and it just melts it so you can wipe it off with a microfibre cloth. Weird but effective!
Working a late shift today & then straight to book group, not having read the book . After a lovely week off, I can't say I'm looking forward to work.
Have a good day everyone.

north yep - Fil lives here as do some wider family. Fil isn’t kiwi and all his family are here - Aunts uncles cousins etc. Mil Bil and sil live in nz as do Mils brothers and heir families. And Bil and sil live in Aussie.

I’ve spoken to dh again. Have said I will help him stay in touch with family etc. But won’t do it off my own back. I do my family he does his. He pointed out that we see mine more often than his but that’s not my fault. I don’t engineer that. He’s rubbish at keeping in touch then blames everyone else for being rubbish. Which admittedly his family here do think someone else should always get in touch. Fil didn’t speak to his own brother for a year (they live across the road from each other) because “he (brother) should have asked me if I’m ok after mil left...”

Families

Ds and I are going to the dr today for our 6 week Check.

Must have a shower and get ready. Appointment is at 1030 and it is only just down the road but still it takes ages to get us out of the house. Gone are the days of me going from bed to outside in 20 minutes (including shower and washing hair...)

Should be a NSD doubt I'll leave the house, DD woke up a couple of times but apparently I slept through it according to DP. He said she needed cuddles and went down again.

@Em hopefully your DH does step up. I find myself arranging my family and DP family meet ups so I know how you feel.

@North I hope your first day after time off isn't too bad.

mo I’ve been not doing it for years and letting dh step up. THis has resulted in mil receiving nothing for her birthday (which I suspect is why she no longer sends to me) and neither bils receiving anything. I remind him in advance of last posting dates for Christmas etc and he forgets. Fil received a box of licorice alsorts for his birthday this year. Bought a day after the event. It does make me sad that he can’t think ahead enough to put the effort in. But then I think I have enough to do with my family.

Fil and gf haven’t decided whether they’ll be hear for Christmas this year - last year they were away. Dh is sad that he hasn’t spent a Christmas with his dad for the last 4 years. But he won’t invite him to us as “hell leave it to nearer the time and then mention it” so by this point they’ll have made plans. (we’re at my parents this year but an extra 2 wouldn’t make any difference - my mum and dad know Fil from waaaaayyyy back and they enjoy his company. They’ve never met his gf but I suspect they probably know her from waaaaay back too - it’s a small island!)

Anyway.

Ds the little bugger my perfect angel has gone to sleep. So now I’m goinf to have to wake him up and get him ready. Gah.

Feeling better after some sleep. Dp and I routed to Tesco for a costa (5 something) and I spent £17 on food in store (almond croissant for breakfast).

Got a lot to sort out in the shop today, so had better pull my finger out.

They don't sound like a family who are good at staying in touch Em. I've stepped back from that & taken over dhs repeat prescriptions instead as wife work. I've achieved a 100% reduction in "my preventers nearly run out" & "I can't find my repeat prescription", and late night GP appts to get another prescription.

I need to do two meter readings today & clear the downstairs loo out of detritus from DIY.

Frugal win; Dh likes marrowfat peas cooked in the little slow cooker which saves me buying bachelors at 50 p a tin. It works out at about 15-20p a serving instead.

Lonely Have you considered an Aeropress coffee maker? You both seem to like a coffee. Once you've had nice coffee using arabica beans at home Costa tastes vile because it's too hot & brings out the bitterness of the bean. There rumoured to use robusta beans in their coffee. Cheaper but high in caffeine.

Sometimes I am very grateful for having such a small family! Unfortunately it's only so small due to a lot of dysfunctional stuff/abuse in the past (both sides). But it means there's not much crap to deal with on a daily basis really.

HV visit a success, DD2 has put on 5oz since birth :o :o yay! Apparently it's growth spurt time (13/14 days) so I should expect more feeding today and tomorrow.

I am super hungry also this may not be frugal if we go near any shops

I get tired of doing all the “wifework” type organising but I do draw the line at arranging meets ups and gifts.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed with organising life at the moment after forgetting to send in DDs homework the other day so desperately trying to get back on track today. Rang various people up as can’t find appointment dates.

I have an unusual issue. I have too much money in my current account following a generous gift so gone over the good interest rate limit. Any ideas where I should put the excess? Needs to be instant access (for now). Interest rates are rubbish!

DP fixed the gunked up washing machine which is a result as thought we were going to have to buy a new one

I am reading but brain is a bit full at the moment!

Re “wifework” I have no issue doing it if I’m asked to help. It’s more the assumption that I’ll do it and then I get the blame when things don’t happen.

We are at the drs. She is running half hour late. We are next. Ds is asleep still and snoring like anything. Haha.

love you'll struggle to find anything over 1%.

You could open an instant access isa via Topcashback. Some of them are £100 cashback or more depending on the amount you feed in per month.

I did it last year with shepherds friendly. Paid in £30 a month for three months, got the cashback & rang them to cancel. Got £100 cashback.

It's official - I'm a proper frugaleer/mammy bought 60 toilet roll & 12 kitchen roll on groupon for €29.88 & will get 5% cashback

Awesome job, Mammy!

I’ve just done the weekly shop and got it down to £113! This is unheard of for me, very chuffed.

I'm getting the warm fuzzies off all this frugality.

The £25 of Amazon vouchers have all arrived off mobile xpressions, Ipsos I say & gfk internet monitoring.

www.incompass.me.uk

I've joined this panel, it's a media tracking app on my phone. £20 Amazon vouchers for the first month & £10 a month thereafter. Joined on Saturday but only got the download through today.

I have three tracking apps on my phone.

Thanks for all the thoughts on having family close by. That was really helpful.

Fluffy any advice on thermals is gratefully received. I feel like a brand new person in my warm trousers. For the last few years I've been sure I was having mild panic attacks at the school gate, but the whole problem suddenly got much better the last couple of days just because I had warm legs. If only I'd known I was just cold...

I’ve been considering bulk buying. They seem to do it in America a lot. Dd watches this YouTube thing where they bulk buy razors, shaving foam, san pro, shampoo etc etc

I think you've got it sewn up Sunny. Mine are all Tesco, M&S & lidl.

I like the saying "there's no bad weather only bad clothes" or something like that.

Have you got a Barbour? Mines only thin but it's so toasty. They do a really good sale after Christmas.

I hardly wear my other coats now & it's machine washable.

Wreck have you seen that crazy American programme where they bulk buy using loads of coupons? Some people have whole garages full of all their bulk-bought stuff. Goodness knows what they do with it! Many seem to buy stuff with coupons whether they need it or not.

@Snuggly I've seen that! Extreme couponing! I was very jealous first watching it, have since realised I don't have the space or time to be that dedicated.

snuggly extreme couponers?! Love that show!

sunny agree with fluffy - get a Barbour - mines about 10 years old now and is awesome. I tend to wear mine more than any other coat - just wear tshirts and jumper underneath it.

I haven’t seen it but I feel like it would make me feel inferior. I’m off to look at groupon...

The American supermarkets have a different system for coupons than here.

They'll accept coupons for things you haven't even bought & give you money off eg coupon £1, item on promo so only 50p = 50p off your shopping. Some places will do it over here but it's at management discretion.

I've never had the nerve to ask. Sometimes it works at self service but never asda as they only take their own coupons.

Wreck the snowsuit arrived today! I agree it is totally adorable 😍😍 Cagletini will be very snuggly in it. Thank you so much 💐 Xx