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

I eat lunch in one of these outlets about once a month, I may keep it for that & it'll cover me until July!!

Guys do ye know the joy lemon curd has brought to my life. Had a tsp in my porridge the other night as I was frozen & fluey - le yum. Now I've just had a two course breakfast pancake with spinach vintage cheddar & Serrano and a mini pancake spread thinly with Lemon curd
69c for a jar in Aldi

Recommended our thread on another scrimp/save thread

Em well done to your dh

Eugh I'm tired had a good night though.

Need to go food shopping this afternoon and get ds' hair cut. Have no enthusiasm for food shopping today!

Was party good?
I went from thinking of leaving food shopping until tomorrow to thinking I'll do it in late evening today & get it out of the way, that way it doesn't ruin my entire day

I'm fully ynabbed too

Hello everyone

Another busy week so am a bit behind.

Happy birthday to Cag and Laska (it’s this weekend right laska or have I got it wrong...). I’m with you Lonely, 41 next month. Eeeek.

Ah babywearing, I loved it. Sadly DD is now a very fidgety 11 month old so she’s not so interested in the snuggles. We’ve moved on to the ergo 360, but I miss my snuggly baby! Em we had an NCT close caboo, worth checking out as it can be used up to 5 months or so I think - there’s usually a good second hand market (must remember to list mine this weekend).

Wreck my DD1 is in Y1 and is struggling a bit with the whole emotional resilience thing. I’d love a copy of the book please?

Christmas have you made any progress with the sleep consultant? I am toying with the idea of hiring one too. Kerry Secker is one I’m looking at, any other recommendations?

Gahhh as is always the way DD2 has now woken up from her nap and is yelling her head off. She’s the loudest of the lot, it’s incredible!

Back in a bit!

Mammy we haven't got any food in the house at all. I've just given the dc frazzles for lunch it was a good night a bit odd as some of my schools were also there having their Christmas dos!

Lilly sure will send it over when I get a sec. some is group work so not relevant but the helping hands and bottle exercise are really useful.

Wreck we ran out of milk this morning when dc had pancakes & half a glass each, dh wouldn't survive if he was here because he's a coffee addict, myself & dc are fine with water!
Lunch will be ok too & bacon cabbage & spuds on for dinner.

We are fully glittered up here, with round 2 to go later (dd2 at grandmas). Dd1 was downstairs for 3 whole hours! It was very nice to see her. Polystyrene balls on wooden squewer, pva, glitter, poke into empty box. Easy. Thankyou Kirsty thingamy.

Have a piece of pork shoulder and a rack of ribs, so I'm going to chuck them into the sc for pulled pork for tea.

em time to yourself is vital. Being around little tinies with no respite is a bit much. I needed even more time once they were toddlers. When I was single I went quite batty as there was no one to hold the baby. The daft thing was, if I did get any "time off" (my dads phrase) I would spend the whole time missing them/worrying.

I love Kirsty Lonely
She so daft but its great TV !
Been in a whirl wind of Christmas baking but managed to finish a lovely cable hat -pour moi
DH also buying me something sparkly for Christmas and he has also so cleverly bought me 3 jumpers worth of yarn
He doesnt know yet
Off to go to Aldi and local market for fruit
Its freezing 🐧🐧🐧

False alarm, she’s gone back over.

Born well done. That first step is always the hardest! We were take away fiends too but have made a conscious effort to stop it. We now have one every couple of months as opposed to a couple every week!

Mammy great going.

Beautiful rings em and wreck. I’m still waiting for my fingers to go down post pregnancy, usually happens once I stop BF.

Sigh. Awake.

That's the one we've got Lilly I have this version www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B06Y2BBK6H/ref=mp_s_a_1_1_a_it?ref=plSrch&keywords=Close+caboo+sofia&dpPl=1&dpID=51rTcgHSy9L&tag=mumsnetforum-21&ie=UTF8&qid=1512777083&sr=8-1

Soooo cute and I love how small it folds up too!

Sausage and mash tonight with the rest of the reduced veg yay! And Tesco now do decent gluten free gravy so DH is happy.

I've used up all the easy food in the freezer so need to decide what to do for the next few weeks. I do have a few tinned soups left, so I'll use them up every day. I don't normally have them but I bought some when I was panicking about the gallstone thing as they are low fat.

I haven't had any more attacks though. Maybe I am one of the lucky ones for whom it clears up after the initial post birth issues... Fingers crossed

The soups are for me I mean. DS wouldn't eat any and the only soup DD has is tomato, plus the leek and potato one that I make (which is really good if I say so myself)

Autocorrect just changed myself to Mr elf. Festive times.

My rings

We managed the first week of dh's new job. Yay! He seemed to have a very large number of meetings and a lot of free lunches and one dinner. My food expenditure will be going through the floor at this rate, though I might only see him by text message now until he retires.

I have asked three neighbours if they can be my back-up if I can't get to the school gate and they were all very nice and said they would, so that was good. One of them helpfully told me about what it was like living in Burma in the early 30s which was also good. Neighbours can be very surprising.

Hi all, I'm very tired was the works do last night. Had a good time and stayed out til nearly 1am

Dds been riding this morning which was freezing, both our feet were like blocks of ice by the end of the lesson!

Am very jealous of all the lovely sparkly rings, unless I find a rich man to whisk me off my feet I guess I won't ever have a diamond ring poor me 😉

Managed a couple of Nsd, works do was all paid for and today we are hibernating for the rest of the day 😊

Back from riding and narrowly missed the rain. Phew.

Picked up my boots order. I love that I can click and collect again. Much easier.

Arrived home and dh is losing the will to live. Ds hasn’t napped. Dh has him in magic bouncy chair for napping (pointed out that this is why he won’t nap but got this look ) house is also a state. No washing up done. No laundry. Stuff everywhere. Bed not made. Sigh. Apparently ds had been difficult.

I’ve swaddled him to within an inch of his life and have put him to bed. He is now asleep. He’s out of the swaddle. But asleep. I worked out weeks ago that I need to wrap him up tight during the day for the after lunch nap. He then fights to escape it and wears himself out in the process.

He’s now happily snoring away in the basket arms up above his head dummy sticking in his ear (idiot). But he’s sleeping.

Hello all!

Gosh Em you are very lucky if DS will sleep from 9-5am. DD would wake at least twice in that time, probably more . She's currently waking every 2-2.5 hours in the night, which is abominable. Some of it is bad habit (sleep associations) but I think the main problem is still her reflux /stomach issues - she seldom takes more than 100ml at a feed which means she still needs to feed often, like a little baby. LLL I haven't made any more progress with sleep advice but will be researching it now! TBH I think I need feeding advice as much as sleep as I think that is a big issue for us and a big factor in the sleep problems. Bloody reflux

Last night was spectacularly bad - I went to bed about midnight after DD's late feed, then she woke up at 12.50am. Ug. I didn't want to feed her again so soon as I am trying to encourage less feeding at night (so she takes more in the day) so I held her for an hour till she got too restless, then fed her at 2am. She wouldn't go back down until well after 3am. I was just starting to feel sleepy after all that, around 4am, when I heard DS crying - went into his room and he was having an enormous nosebleed and was hysterical. Took about 2 hours to stop the bleeding, calm him down, change the bed, clean him up and stay with him until he was asleep again. In the meantime at 5am DD woke again -DH took her but she was wide awake and v noisy. I fell asleep around 7, up again at 8 with DD. 2 hours sleep total, DH not faring much better .

Still, I had a lovely day out with dsis yesterday, though afternoon tea was £65 each . I also bought some makeup in boots (not the posh stuff, I have give that up since stopping working and TBH I am just as happy with L'oreal foundation). We had a lovely time browsing. I got foundation, a proper red lipstick which I think I am too old and haggard for really and some nail polish. Then yarn for a cardigan for DD with JL vouchers. So not too much spent other than tea. We've just taken DS to Costa (his favourite place ever) for lunch as a treat for being so brave last night. DH paid. Ocado came this morning, £118 and I will still need to top up for fruit, ffs.

Mission this afternoon is to find where I've hidden the Christmas wrapping paper and get started. And to sort through the kids' clothes as they both need to go up a size (DD urgently!). And if I get the chance I will list some of DS's old Christmas jumpers etc on Facebook. I am trying not to waste the afternoon napping as I have loads to do.

Oh, and I have to bake for the PTA bake sale tomorrow at the school Christmas fete. I am also manning the cake stand for a bit.

Strictly semi final tonight!

Aagh I am on the horns of a dilemma so to speak.

Many of you will know we have been on the housing list a fair while. We are pretty near the top now which is exciting! But the difficulty is that many of the new houses are on a new development. So would have all the advantages of lovely new place, BUT it's a little way out of town. The bus that specifically goes there is only one every 2 hours! That should increase as time passes but no idea how fast. So we've been looking at other routes that stop nearby in the business park and trying to work out how we would get 'home' from there. It's near an airport so lots of roads aren't pedestrian friendly and it's hard to tell on the map.

Basically we are going to have to visit to figure this out. We currently bid on every property as we know we won't get it but we were only 10th for one of these houses recently! And if you get offered one and turn it down then it counts against you (whereas if you just don't bid then they aren't bothered). So we have to start being careful. It's basically my decision TBH as I'd be the one dragging 3 kids in and out to various activities every day. Eeeek the pressure! We do need to move ASAP but if we end up isolated due to lack of transport it could be a disaster. I have to consider my health too. Ironically before the pregnancy I could not have considered it but I am managing so much more walking now so that's a huge advantage, but I can't rule out flare ups again either.

However if it's workable now and likely to improve then it could be brilliant. Very exciting!

DIfficult one cag as you say, advantages of lovely new house but distance...

Personally I think I wouldn’t rule it out. As you say there are busses but maybe not regular at first. If it’s walkabke that would be great if you could manage it. When you have a flare up is it instant? Or does it come on gradually? What I mean is if you had walked out, didn’t want to wait for a bus and then walked Home is it likely you’d get a flare up on the way home or would you know beforehand that walking wasn’t an option?

I’d maybe also call local cab companies and see how much it’d cost to taxi from there to town centre (or the furthest point you would travel to) and then work out whether it’s be affordable to do the journey x times a week if you needed to. (And always keep the cab fare aside for an emergency journey if you needed it).

If it’s a new build it’ll probably be energy efficient so in theory should save you money on heating etc. But would the rent be higher? Would you get help with the rent?

Dh and ds have gone out. I am home with catface. I’ve hoovered. Sorted laundry. Washed up. Cleaned bathroom. And am now enjoying a hot cup of tea. Wooo.

christmas we are lucky ds is sleeping. I’m not sure why he is. But I’m all too aware that it could go the other way anytime. So am enjoying it while I can.

Just moved the Christmas gifts that have arrived. Some are from mil. There’s one to ds. One to dh. And none for me. I’m not going to mention it to dh as I think he’s probably noticed already but I hope he’s not upset by it. I’m not bothered.

Spendy day £60 hair for dd and I. Usual food bill. My nyr is to be better at food shopping.

What times are the buses? And how would they fit around activities?

cag is there a medical reason why both you and dh can't drive? Is one of you learning a real possibility? Would you qualify for a motobility car? Only if the busses are that infrequent (could take years for them to increase the service) you might find yourself missing HE groups and the like as you'll be kicking about for hours waiting for the bus home. It is a hard one. You need to go out and see the estate. If it's a huge faff to get there to look, I guess you'll have your answer.

saecow I want to come round and hold dd for you for a night so you can get some sleep I know it doesn't work like that! Poor little scrap. Is she on any solids yet?

Nsd today bar a little pressie for dd1 on ebay. Probably birthday as it's coming from China (why do they lie and say uk seller?), came out of paypal £10.

em you did send momon extra strong control knickers, anti-wrinkle cream, tooth whitening kit etc for Christmas didn't you? She's such a cow.

Christmas can I give another plug for the book "Cure Your Child with Food: The Hidden Connection Between Nutrition and Childhood Ailments"? It has 18 pages of meticulous detail on how to sort out reflux in babies, all cross-references with the medical literature in case there is any doubt.

I had the same sleep issues as you are having and then all my wheels fell off when ds finally slept through at age 4. I so much wish I'd had some better advice early on.

I’ve just ordered a sample kindle chapter of that book, thanks for the recommendation sunny

lonely haha! No. I sent a calendar of pics of ds to her. From ds. To Grandma and some of her fave perfume/body lotion which I know is super expensive in nz.