Frugaleers hurtling through November... is it too early to mention the C word? All welcome for money saving chat!

[Cagliostro]

Hi all, please settle in for chatting about all things frugal, and all things everything else :o

Nah fluffy he will always be my baby!

I'm in bed. Don't care.

Laska so exciting!! It will be beautiful

wreck I bet he is lovely.. DGS is 5 in a couple of weeks also ..I can hardly believe it ..

Actually the dc were really good today. I was really proud of them both when we were having breakfast, they spoke to the waitress and remembered all of their pleases and thank yous when asking/receiving things.

Our Xmas shopping is not progressing well because I do/organise vast majority of it and now I'm super ill so...sigh. Tbh my mental health is really going downhill now, when I was first super sick and had to go to hospital I was still able to browse stuff online and take care of my eyebrows and silly things like that but now I just don't have the will and feel so exhausted even though physically I am better than I was then .

DH has his driving test tomorrow, fingers crossed. I'm not sure we will get a car even if he passes but even if not it would be great to be able to hire for weekends away in the country and stuff that we can't do now.

Wreck Happy birthday to your DS. I think 5 is a lovely age. I love watching Secret Life of Five Year Olds on Channel 4.

DH has bought me a new hairdryer in the Black Friday sales from Amazon for like £20ish because mine has started making a strange groany sound and don't want to be caught out with it breaking one day as I have long, very thick hair so rely on it.

DF put a grand in my main bank account today and just announced it to me afterwards . He said I can pay him back later when I'm back at work and things. My payslip for this month is a lot reduced as I basically got paid half the month then SSP the other half. Sigh. I'm really lucky to have parents that are financially secure and also generous so can help us out when we need it. If anything they are too generous and insist on giving us stuff when I don't want it as I hate to feel dependent on them, feels embarrassing . Transferred the grand straight to DH's account as he's a few hundred in his overdraft with nothing coming in atm.

Laska Good luck with dentist. I'm due to go back in April and I am dreading it already as I can't look after my teeth properly atm with the HG. Almost every time I brush my teeth I vomit straight afterwards, have tried mouthwash and that made me vomit straight away and obviously vomiting a few times a day is acidic for my enamel and things argh. I've always looked after my teeth really well as well .

Nope mywhat it's the Android one on my phone. Haven't even got the iPad out of the box yet as Cagletini has been very hungry clingy and screamy!

Hahaha spoke to soon!!! ....and then I go on the JL website because i had a £5 reward voucher and another to use up !! But i have now completed my christmas shopping .. a lovely fairlise jumper for DGS and a cute Frugli tunic ( and JL leggings as frugli so expensive!!) each for the DGDs

and a Seasalt tunic dress for my Florence trip

I did buy some stuff from Hush last week , but due to a technical blip on their system they couldn't take the ££.. Ill be cancelling that order tomorrow in favour of the Seasalt dress.

Oh and i won the ebay auction , Galt mega marble run 100 pieces for DGS for £17 am v pleased with that as £10-15 more new .. ( he wont mind that its 2nd hand and even the box looks in as new condition)

Meadow you are going through it, , can you bear to rinse your mouth out with just plain water afterwards , that will help ..

Catching up:

fluffy I think the reason a lot don’t deliver here is because they would legally have to remove the VAT. If I email a lot of places after I’ve ordered they’ll refund it. But won’t do it automatically. But if we order anything over £250 in one shipment customs will add an extra 5% on top. Sometimes it’s still worth doing. Use my much lusted after handbag as the totally un-frugal example:
£975 less 20% plus 5% of total price = £828 so still less than original price and still less than I’d get it for here. So worth ordering online and paying the tax.

north cake looks yum!

laksa I was looking at Omega du ville for dh. It’s like the one Don Draper wears in madmen.

meadow if you’ve always been good with your teeth I think you’ll be ok. Do you use an electric brush? I had to switch back to a manual one during the first few months as he vibrations of the electric one made me want to throw up. I’m sure somewhere you can you those thumb toothbrushes? The ones they sell in pub toilets for handbags?! Maybe on amazon. They might be less vomit inducing. Might.

Oh Meadow you poor thing nausea and vomiting is just the pits, you have my upmost sympathy.

I have just spent £15 on Notonthehighstreet.com on two half price gifts, pay day tomos thank God this month has been a disaster money wise. That said I have done almost all the Christmas gift shopping so will just be food and bit and pieces left to get now. I will also start picking up a few bits for dds bday which comes 6 weeks after Christmas!!

Glad your boy had a good bday Wreck of course they were a credit to you, they have a lovely mum.

Will have to start thinking about my 2018 financial goals....

fuzzybrush.com/ These.

And they do sell on amazon.

That's a nice watch em I think he would like one of those.. (anyway that's a possible idea for a 'later ' gift . He has to retire first !!

After ordering the Frugli stuff from JL , I found one of the dresses and cute tights leggings reduced on the Frugli website (duh) where they have a lot of stuff 25% off (should have looked first ). I could have got JL to price match maybe, but ill just send the other dresses back.

Also, if are a new customer and buy one full price thing ( I got one of the pairs of leggings I wanted ) and you get 15% off your whole order with code CGSQ17.

They have lovely boys stuff also . ( expensive but maybe great to suggest to grandmothers to give as presents to your DCs?)

Ds is still awake. Dh has changed him abd popped him in his basket in the bedroom. He’s next to me. The sleepy sheep is on. But ds is full of beans. He was asleep on dh. He’s “chatting” and giggling to himself. It’s super cute. Butseriouskygotosleep.

I’ve videoed it (in the dark) and have sent it to my sister. She didn’t believe how noisy he could be

Em Good idea about the thumb toothbrush, will ask DH to buy me one. I use electric normally but have been trying it without it being on atm and that seems not to be as bad at making me vomit. The front ones are ok-ish it's just doing all the back ones which makes me sick blergh. Btw re: pregnacare, not taking a multivitamin atm but will bear in mind what you said. Atm I'm only taking folic acid with vitamin D but probably only about 60% of the time as I can't get it to stay down a lot of the time .

Laska Yes I am rinsing with water probably about 50% of the time post-vomiting, the other half of the time I can't bear to have any liquid in my mouth. I am struggling more with fluid than food tbh as I've got more types of food I can stomach now taste-wise but all drinks except orange capri-sun's taste weird and horrible to me now!

DH has just had to get an expensive taxi to PDSA pet hospital for emergency veterinary care for one of the DGPigs cries. I am so worried and obviously I can't go because of the HG especially as it'll be about a 30minute taxi journey. So me and DGPig2 are here alone and .

meadow if you’re managing the front teeth you’re doing fine. I worked on the basis that they were the important ones as people woukdbsee if they weren’t clean it was the back teeth that made me feel awful too. And ironically after throwing up the first thing isn’t do is brush my teeth.....

I’ve never tried those touthvrushes but may be worth a shot.

To add a bit of 330am humour - have you tried ginger biscuits or tea?!?! 😉😂

A friend of mine suffered horribly from hg and she said it cane funny the amount of times people suggested ginger would help.

Obviously in the morning I’ll appreciate this may not be funny. But right now st 330am with ds wide awake ginger tea is hilarious (still tastes rank though) xx

Meadow eating a small piece of cheese helps neutralise acid in your mouth although I appreciate that could make you sick too. You poor thing. I do hope you feel better soon.

Forgot spends yesterday. £15 Aldi on top up shop, Christmas cards and a bottle of wine for someone who I need to say thank you too.
£12 Wilkos on a few bits.

Still have fruflu. Aiming for as quiet a day as possible with the babies. I shall look after them and do a load of washing but that's it.

Ah meadow sorry the HG is still making you feel so grim. Good luck for your dh. Hope dgp1 is ok.

Meadow sorry you're still feeling so rough, hope you can find something that helps or that it just eases very soon.
laska well done on getting your Christmas shopping done, I started so well very early on, then other life took over & now I need to get into gear again and finish off.
I'm not working today but really need to organise myself well. Dh's parents are here until tomorrow so I need to get the advent calendar for dnephew filled so that it can go back with them. I'm hoping to order a few more presents and do some tidying & sorting. Could be a spendy day.

Forgot to say, the carrot cake is so easy to make. It's a mix all the ingredients together (oil rather than butter) recipe so very simple and is so delicious. Mary Berry, queen of cakes in this house!

Your teeth will probably be ok, bulimics vomit every day for years & you've only got another six months to go. I hope your Guinea pig is ok, I hate it when animals are sick.

em I see, it's too much admin then. I think you should ask for the bag. You'll look after it so it will last years, it will make you happy every time you use it, you can sell it if you tire of it & you've just had a baby. Your Dh could have bought a watch if he wanted to recently but he paid a lump sum off the mortgage didn't he?. You might look back in 5 years & wonder why you didn't buy it.

My Dh would have spent it all on a watch & a matching watch winder.

If any of you don't know what a watch winder is be very glad.

Quoted £300 for the car and hats with an nhs discount of £100. Spoke to the lease car people and they were really friendly and said to send them some pictures and they'll have a look too.

fluffy I showed him the bag online.

Today we are not sure what we’re doing. We usually go to a baby group on a Monday. But dh is Home today and doesn’t want to come with us but wants to spend time with ds. I suggested he take him/come with us. Nope. He just wants to chill. So I’ve suggested he stay home with ds while I do the food shop Christmas shopping and go to the gym. Nope. He wants to spend time with the two of us. But doesn’t want to do boring things like food shopping. Which is fine. I wouldn’t want to spend my holidays doing that either. I’d quite like him to fix the tv - on freeview it currently only gets bbc one. Dh ballsed it up a month ago when he was trying to watch an all blacks game on French tv. But doesn’t know how to Unballs it. I don’t know where the instructions are otherwise would have worked it out. I’m not hugely techy but can read instructions. Dh just pretends he’s techy and presses buttons.

Anyway. Today may be spendy.

Cag my thermos is a contigo. Best thermos ever. It was a mumsnet recommendation.

Contigo West Loop Autoseal Travel Mug 2.0 - New Model With Lid Lock - 470ml (Matte... https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B011LG9FHK/ref=cmswwrsmsscapii_cM-gAbWW76RYQ

Ah fab thanks!
Ordered other presents and baby essentials last night. £££
Super excited about DH's main gift though, Harry Potter card game cheaper from Amazon US. If it's not here on time I will give it for birthday in Jan instead

Cag BBC Breakfast are doing a series this week about how the education system is failing kids with SEN and about the rise in home education. I only caught the last bit today but it'll be on iplayer.

fluffy you made me giggle. A watch winder would be right up my dads street, but he does love winding them all by hand for hours

Am collating the presents, I think I'm nearly done for the dc. Dd1's camera arrived, it is amazing I know she'll love it, but be all shruggy teen.

Packing up parcels to post from ebay. It's very theraputic actually. I'm saying "goodbye, good riddance and get there safe" each time I seal up a post bag. Bit like saying "cook little cakes cook" when baking.

Had to buy dd2 a new blazer, £23. My bad. Someone dd2 left the car door (electric slider) open last night, so everything, including her clean uniform was drenched (hanging up, mum does it on a friday). So, at 0745 I hoyed it in the tumbler. Ruined. It was dripping wet or ruined but dry. Luckily nothing was pinched out of the car (2 flutes, a piccolo and a clarinet all drying off now). Sigh.

em you are so lucky ds is content to mill about at night. Mine would use this time to scream. But yes, how noisy! Wait until he's chanting 'mummy mummy mummy' from his cot!