Remember remember it's frugal November

[LonelyOversharer]

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

£43 on dinner with a lovely friend, incl. tip. First time I've drunk half a bottle of wine in over a year.

I love you all... hic.

Happy drunk so @ChristmasSeacow

€5 ish spent on a west coast cooler & then had a glass of wine when I came. This teetotal thing isn't sticking for me is it?

I bought nothing on Black Friday

Busy weekend here. Dp Birthday so we spent the day doing things he wanted. Lie in first thing, made eggs Benedict for the first time around noon. I took dd out for a walk after that to give him some time to play games then handed dd to dsis to baby sit. The first time we've left her without either of us. Dinner was a lovely Italian place and the best bit was dbil had called ahead and paid the bill so frugal win for me! They even gave us a free bottle of wine on the way out to say Happy Birthday. Just a chilled day ahead now. Some tidying and more birthday celebrations.

Fluffy What do you do to make Waitrose work so well? I find their food works much better for us.

I finally realised today that vitamin supplementation is actually a cost-cutting measure. The reason our food is so expensive is that ds and I have food intolerance problems that mean we can't take vitamin supplements.

Ds suddenly changed a year ago to being able to eat rice krispies and ready brek and that knocked such a lot off our food costs. Now if only I could find a cheap source of iron and thymine that I could eat. The naturally good sources are mostly meat, which is not cheap.

Also, I think our microwave is on the way out.

Mammy Black Friday isn’t for two weeks.

Got a birthday party to go to today. Ds is invited and dd can go but I need to pay for her which is fine.

I got a leaflet on the sainsbury double up but it's still in the cast and I'm lazy.
15-21 November. Will post more details later.

Birthday party today £10 present and need to pay dd in.
Ds now has a croaky voice so no footy.
Cakes look fab lonely. Well done on eBay start and Etsy. I'm trying to get my friend to knit me a Nativity as it's so hard to get a complete details to my very specific requirements.

Wow amazing cakes!

Seacow that's fantastic about DS and DD 😍💕

Today will mostly be fuelled by lucozade sport

Sunny

I cook from scratch a lot. Vegan soups & hm bread for lunch, eggs & toast for breakfast, no snacking because I have big meals.

I'm allergic to sugar derivatives & potato products that have been sulphited. So a lot of food is off the menu now unless organic.

So, all the meat comes from Waitrose, cheese, butter, frozen veg, iodised salt, red lentils, beef dripping, lard. They do really good meat offers 3 for £10 & the loyalty card gives you 20% off selected items.

Things Aldi do better like oven chips, Mayo, white sliced, white vinegar, coffee beans I buy there.

Potatoes come in 54lb sacks from the farm shop.

Tea is Tesco smart price bought yearly in bulk.

I'm allergic to cows milk so I buy organic soya in morrisons/Tesco.

I make my own laundry detergant so that saves me loads. Cleaning products are all smart price Waitrose or basic chemicals like caustic soda & soda crystals that are multipurpose.

The last Waitrose bill was £89 minus £9 cashback off a Halifax account I set up especially for food shops. Because I do three week shops they send me regular money off vouchers.

The top up shops are £4-10 a week. So for three weeks the bills £30-40 incl top up.

I buy frozen chicken livers for iron, it's got most vitamins in it & would have been our main source of Vit c in pre-historic times. Their very mild tasting compared to lamb livers.

Lonely The cake looks lovely. Well done on the etsy orders.

Great news on the easy orders lonely
if you can't beat em, join em mammy, hope you enjoyed your drink out.
Em we were with dh's family last week & his mum can't stop giving opinions on how her dd & sil are parenting their ds (20 months). Be confident in what you're doing, it sounds like you are doing brilliantly.
Cag and Seacow your stories of your ds' starting to be affectionate towards their baby siblings are just lovely.
Yesterday we had a brilliant day. The weather was actually good in the end. Ds was spending the afternoon with his girlfriend so we planned to go out for a walk with dd. I suggested asking her friend so she came along too. What a difference it made! No moaning from dc about how far it was or how steep the hill was, they just kept chattering & kept each other going. It's one of my favourite walks as you can do it in a couple of hours but it combines woodland, riverside walking with fairly barren moorland & brilliant views. Yesterday the Lakeland hills were crystal clear in the distance. I tried to capture it but my phone camera couldn't do it justice. We took sandwiches & crisps with us & then stopped at the end for drinks & cake/ice cream £18 total.
Today I'm working 12-8 and dh is mostly going to be gardening I think.

Ds wouldn’t settle last night. Dh was “exhausted. He’s been crying most of the day...” pointed out that yes. This is what he does. This is why I’m tired.

At 9pm last night he was still wide awake. So I popped him in his basket and took him into our room. In the dark.

Apparently at 7 weeks he can now (apparently) be taught a sleep routine. So that’s today’s job. Try and settle him asleep at about 8pm. In our room. On his own.

Trying to catch up but keep losing posts. Love the cakes and hedgehogs!

life made to order stuff is pretty much what I do. The pics below I've lifted off my etsy page, one set is tiny, 3" figures, the other 5". I generally do miniature stuff, but have all the yarns and more to make larger stuff.

It is glorious here so we are heading into the garden. Dp is shed building, we're only using timber harvested from the shop just now, we took down the back room, and have loads of carcass stuff.

Lonely I've said it before but you should change your username to Crafty and Talented

lonely wait...you made those?!?! Amazing.
Dm has the nativity dsis and I made. From toilet roll tubes paint dried pasta pipe cleaners wool and glitter. So much glitter. I was 7 when we made it. Dsis was 4. There is still super glitter on it.

Every year it’s lovingly unwrapped we all go “awwww the glitter-tivity” then spend Christmas laughing at it basking in its glory then lovingly wrap it up again in January. I’m 33 now. That thing has lasted well!!

Dh is in a foul mood this morning. I’ve just got back from yoga. Hooray. Ds is screaming because he’s hungry. Dh is making a bottle. Apparently he’s been crying since I left. Dh has had enough. Apparently it’s. Ok for me to swan off and leave him holding the baby. I pointed out that during the week I can’t do anything for myself/on my own - ie gym etc. Unless I ask someone to help me. Luckily Dm and df are more than happy to help. But still. I need the weekends. I need dh to be home and to do stuff with ds.

I’m also pissed off because we were told to feed him sitting up as much as possible. Dh lies him down on a cushion as it’s easier for him. Ffs. I’ve told him again and again.

On the plus side - I asked dh earlier about a budget for Christmas so we’ve set one and he’s given me suggestions as to what to buy him. He looked when I said that ds also had to buy presents.... apparently that’s not the done thing. Kids done get presents for their parents. Do other people not do this?!

Wow lonely those are amazing 😍

We do the whole present from the baby thing. I have a cuddly Cheshire Cat that DD1 bought me as a 5 month old :o it's just a bit of fun really and an excuse to give more pressies, but as the Caglets grow they become more involved in the choosing anyway

My cat sends me Xmas cards with paw print signatures. Hibvvu.

I do wonder if men think babies are quiet and content etc & feel robbed when it's actual shit, puke & crying.

We have similar discussions about housework when Dh is off work. Apparently he doesn't have to do anything because he's on holiday. Well then where's my holiday? Hmm?

We don’t tend to do presents from the dc to us as we can’t afford it.

Fluffy That's really interesting that you have a similar situation to me. I will have a think about all that. I need to learn to operate the Waitrose stuff better. Do you have a lot of storage space?

Well I would if Dh moved his tools out of my sodding pantry cupboard

I can't buy much stuff in tins so everything's packets, bags of flour, semolina, rice, long life soya milk. Stuff like that. I have a three drawer freezer & everythings portioned up & frozen in wilko freezer bags on the day it arrives. The sack of potatoes lives in the utility to keep it cool but under the stairs would work too.

Looking back I was allergic to sodium metabisulphite at university but didn't realise. I just knew lime cordial made be get random red dots on my face & neck.

I dream of a walk in pantry & a huge tall freezer.

NSD.

We didn't do presents to us from dc as we couldn't afford it, but two years ago the (then much littler) dd's got quite distressed that we had nothing to open. So now I get 4 bits of nothing from them for us. So far I have a mandolin to cut waffle potatoes! Dp has a swish boiled egg opener. Always under £10 each, the rest will be socks and chocs.

em the transition to parenthood is hard. They do get it in the end sometimes I basically switched off "me" for 10 years, but that was my choice. I'm back now though (I do have a lot of dc or it wouldn't have been so long). Ex was not willing to give an inch. Dp met me with dc, so doesn't know any other way. He was straight in the deep end with nappies and endless laundry, I think it's why I like him so much.

But yes, dc give presents to their parents, and at some point (late teens?) They start buying them themselves. My dc make me a range of odd items, dd1 usually makes me a piece or art that I frame.

We actually don't have a nativity of our own! But I have funded christmases from selling donkeys and camels, when times were very lean.

em we get presents from DD now although we we had some very lean years when we couldn't afford to buy for each other. Usually I buy DH a few things and then split them so he might get three presents from me and two from DD, or whatever. She's older now so I consult her about present choices. We still have some of the artwork DD made over the years at primary school and they're put on the Christmas tree/displayed every year. Although I did eventually throw out the photo frame made from dry pasta pieces because all the pasta pieces were falling off. But don't tell DD!

Those are amazing Lonely!

That's interesting Fluffy I need to learn more from you. You clearly have it sorted.

I'm on a venture to Big Tesco to see if they have a microwave for me.

Sunny we have a Panasonic microwave which is currently over ten years old and still going strong if that’s any help