Festive Frugaleers gather round the (best value and carefully researched) Christmas Tree for support, advice and chat. All welcome.

[needastrongone]

New thread.

Bargaintastic day today for me

Bought a couple of gorgeous Fat Face tops in the charity shop for a tenner cos I have such a shortage of them

Then onto Morrisons for mark down time. Got a large beef joint for £4 which I've put away in the freezer for xmas. 10p salad for DH lunch. 10p carton of soup. 13p GF loaf. Result

Lazy it's so inconvenient being ill at this time 
Em your ds is so beautiful
Girlie I think I'd also say no to dd in that case but dh would probably bring it in to her 

Tayto great post explaining how you budget things, wow if your dh gets a company car

My car will cost me a bit next week - it's leaking coolant, also I need two new tyres as well.

Today I'd to pay for diesel as I couldn't find my fuel card - au pair may have it or it could be in depths of my handbag. Haven't paid cash for fuel since last February! €45 including a nakd bar.

Gained €100 Christmas tip also

I bought Neilmed sinus rinse online €16 for 100 including delivery vs €20 for 60 in boots 

Need that fruit & veg delivery looks amazing 

Welcome @LittleDorritt & @Littlechocola

2018 goals (financial) - eliminate credit card debt, I no longer have an overdraft, start a fund for car repairs on my ynab, a fortnight ahead in my ynab ie living on money earned two weeks previously instead of week to week

No idea why my bold text didn't show on last post

Hi everyone! Hope you're all doing well and hello to the newbies.

I am still plodding along in the nightmare that is HG, struggling to keep a grip on my mental health, sigh, so don't really see the point/not motivated to post much here anymore atm as would just be moaning all the time plus finances are just not a thing I'm really thinking about atm as every day is an NSD for me now and DH is just having to sort everything. Grim...

Some good news though:

• Guinea pig has recovered and is back to his usual self .
• Had dating scan on Friday and everything seems to be fine with baby. I'm 13 weeks now.
• Got signed off from work by GP til after Xmas which is good I guess.
• DH's aunt bought us our first Xmas tree and gave us a ton of second-hand decorations (she's one of them people whose house looks like Santa's Grotto at this time of the year so she had tons to spare lol), so we have put that up and it's pretty and makes me smile when I'm stuck sitting here all day.
• Have been slowly spreading the word about baby and have been getting lovely happy reactions which is nice .

Em the way our babies are, you will be going back to work not long before I go on mat leave which is pretty funny.

Good to hear from you meadow

"Tayto, move in with me please? That’s fantastic!"

Honestly, it's taken me years to sort it all out. I'm the sort of person who traditionally paid all my bills in cash at the post office. But DH is very high tech so he set them all up to be paid by Direct Debit. It really wrecked my head because I couldn't figure out why we had loads of money one week and then we were broke the next week (answer: a load of direct debits came out). So we had to sit down and work out what bills come out and at what point in the month (and how much, obviously). It's a bit laborious working it all out but once it's done, you're a lot clearer. The same with my Tesco online shop. It took me hours the first time but I re-order a lot of the same things, so I just keep a spreadsheet and make minor adjustments as necessary.

My financial goal for 2018 is the same as Dorritt - set up savings accounts for different things e.g. college fund, Christmas fund, holiday fund, car maintenance fund, home heating oil fund etc. I think I'm doing ok but then we run out of home heating oil or the car breaks down or something.

Hello!

I'm just starting to resurface from the tooth removing. We did manage to separate ds finally from his tooth, and also apparently an abscess, so I'm glad we got that done. The private hospital was very nice indeed and the nurse was lovely. Having time and space really helped to undo some of the PTSD from his early years (both of us), so it was well worth the eyewatering price.

Still feels a bit like there's been an earthquake here though, so we're taking it easy and doing lego and computer games.

Oh bless him sunny glad it went as well as it could and that you had a better experience, definitely sounds like it was the right thing to do.

meadow glad piggy is all better but sorry you're still feeling rubbish, well done on surviving the first trimester

Thanks Girlie, yes it did seem to be good. It was like an upmarket hotel with no medical equipment visible really and the nurse was happy just to take his pulse with her finger and forget everything else but his temperature. It really helped.

It was still pretty harsh experience but at least he's old enough to discuss it with me and that is much better than the experiences we had at 14 months and 2.5 years when all his trust just went up in smoke, with no possibility of discussion to make things easier.

I'm knackered now though. Poor dh is still slogging away at work after it all.

Ffs. Dh is Home from his works do. I woke up about half hour ago to crashing about noises. He’s making a cheese toasty.

He is stupid drunk. But swears he isn’t because he can make cheese. Not a sandwich. Cheese.

If I wasn’t so cheesed off that he’s blind drunk I’d think it was funny. But I know what’s to come next. He’ll crash about to bed in a bit (instructions to sleep in the spare room) then crash about to throw up than back to bed. Then will sleep until about 9 (he’s got tomorrow off) then stagger about moaning and will be sober enough to be trusted with ds at probably 6pm. usually I wouldn’t care - but ds is here now. So I’m not a fan of blind drunk dh. I’m also annoyed because I was going to go to town solo in the morning and blitz the rest of the shopping leaving ds with him. That’s not happening now because he’ll be in no state to take care of himself let alone ds (coupled with his swollen eye it’s just not a good idea to leave him in charge of anything).

Babies are good for hangovers though right? Their cries are right at that headache inducing pitch. And their poop is just in the right side of stinky to really help....

I will take ds with me wherever I go though. And it also scuppers my Christmas tree buying. Can’t fit tree and ds in the car. True usually gets transported on the back seat. 😪

Pleased you got through the first trimester meadow. We don't mind moaning if it helps.
Pleased things went well sunny
Sainsbury basic chocolate is fine too easy and in baking
Em, babies and hang over are hell.

Nsd today, work buffet so just about to make cheese scones

Can you split the back seat em and put the tree through the boot into the back seat. Roll down the front passenger seat too if needs be to get the tree in?

Can't you put ds in the front with the airbag off, em? I would be really cross too.

Work today. Our network is going down so I think we're going out for lunch.

The dc's school are all going to a pantomime so won't be back until 5, not sure if dd will make it to swimming but this is the last one before Christmas so I feel like she should...

Re the tree. What I might do is drop ds off at my parents for an hour and get the tree take it home then swing back around to pick him up.

The seat in the front is a good idea but I cant move the car seat base - haven’t got the strength in my fingers to unclip it. Dam isofix.

Dh is awake. I can hear him booking the kettle. It better be for s cup of tea for me.

Ds is awake and has been fed. He’s extremely perky and I was toying with the idea of taking him into dh in the spare room and leaving then to it.

Dh is currently faffing with catfaces litter. Apparently she’s just pooped. That’ll be fun with a hangover 🤣

Ds hasn’t pooped since Tuesday. So I’ll make sure dh does that nappy #mean

Did anybody else read about wholesale gas prices going up because of the pipeline being shut off - Fluffy maybe? I'm wondering if this means all our gas bills are suddenly going to double.

Dh read it out to me yesterday morning.

Eek! That doesn't sound good about the gas sunny! Pleased toothed extraction went well.

All that veg looks amazing Need.

I'm really struggling with meal planning at the moment and also worrying about our cc bill. It's not horrendous but since we've been doing online food shopping for a month now paid for with cc I assumed that the money would be in our account as we haven't been using the debit card at the supermarket. There isn't enough left to pay it though. I'm hoping it's because of dh's weird company paying him mid-month as he will be paid before cc is due but I still can't understand what's happened.

Also a bit worried that we still have Xmas presents to buy. I might go late night shopping tonight and just try to get it finished.

I'm still in bed, trying to get the will together to get up!

That's good you were able to afford private sunny it's what the NHS should be like for everyone really. Maybe if Jeremy ends up as prime minister you never know!

Oh dear em hang overs and babies are hell, that was part of the reason I stopped drinking!

I need to go to the post office , post Christmas cards and one small parcel so hopefully not too spendy today...

Thanks, Girlie, yes I wish the NHS was, for the medics as well as the patients. I feel bad for the medical people being so frazzled always.

My ds goes to an nhs dentist that’s amazing. He’s autistic and they let him play with the instruments before they use them so he can see what they do and what noise they make. Very non clinical and friendly. I’d love to go there as I have panic attacks each time I go near mine plus it’s an hour and a half drive but very worth it for him.

I’m a frazzled nhs worker so would love to see what Jeremy would do can’t break it much more than it is already.

Or you can put DS in the front seat if you disable any airbag.

Been a very busy and sleepless few days. It's become apparent that DD's terrible sleep in the last couple of weeks is the result of her stomach problems getting worse so we're off back to the doctor - I suspect she has outgrown her medication dose and needs it adjusting. It's really made me more confident that medication is the right thing for her - she's like a different child when it's working. The last few days have been horrible as she is clearly in pain 😢

I've not been spending much but then again ive not finished the Christmas shopping. I need to do that this week. I've not managed to keep up with the last couple of Christmas bargain threads, which, bargains aside, are great for present ideas. I'm still stuck on DM and MIL . And DS's teachers. They might just get Prosecco.

Glad you are hanging on in Meadow, must feel good to get the first trimester out of the way and to see baby on the scan. I hope the HG improves soon.

I started this post at 8am and just realised I hadn't posted it, so there will be lots of cross posts! Currently sitting in the hairdressers with goop on my grey bits and DD on my lap. There's lots for her to stare at,her eyes are on stalks!

@seacow Im sorry to hear about dd. Hopefilly the doctors and the medication can help her feel better

Spendy morning. Estimate about £300 spent.

• coat and hat for ds from joules (with voucher) £47
• shorts socks and training top for dh local sports shop £63
• books from Waterstones £27
• hoody and socks white stuff £53 for dh
• voucher for surf shop for Bil £30
• paperchase - cards and glittery festive dinosaur baubles £17
• gin from local shop for dh £32

-£2.85 parking.

And I had a text letting me know my ring had arrived so picked that up too. Oooh shiny.

(Must get my other ones shined now...hey look filthy in comparison)

BUT. Christmas shopping is done. Save for the tree.

Seacow I'm doing paperchase voucher for ds' teacher.

Em soooo pretty! 🤩