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

[needastrongone]

New thread.

No way will I be staying up until midnight!

We are going out! Dd reckons she will be able to stay up, friend is having a party...

How's that going cag? Is she very aware of how the meds affect her?

I doubt I'll be up until midnight, unless I'm still making pies! About a kilo of leg meat and 1/3 breast defrosted, so will make 2 pies for us (the 5 of us who eat normally) and a dozen mini ones. So thawed, recooked and refrozen! Not everyones cup of tea, but I do it all the time tbh. We have turkey pie all year round, a firm favourite (it's in the JO christmas book, but theres no way I'm rolling sage leaves and chestnuts into puff pastry!).

Dp asked for (and got) a microwave from his mum for Christmas. I'm as only ever set the dye in yarn in one! All I know is popcorn and supernoodles. He thinks it will revolutionise us. I shall reserve judgement. "It's got a grill" he yells excitedly, yeah, so has the rangemaster, I use it all the time. I'm wondering now if he knows what the huge cream thing in the kitchen actually is! And this man can cook he just doesn't

Girlie I love it, I'm not** a big handbag person but love Orla Kiely and cath kidson prints, will drop hints for my birthday maybe

Love that we'll have a new thread tomorrow too, let's make it a three thread month

Em oh that's so irritating to want to get just five minutes to yourself and have it interrupted.
Dh came out with a beauty today that he's had no time to himself this Christmas, he was back to work night of 26th but had house to himself every day until yesterday when he came to my parents so we could all go to a show, this would be my idea of bliss only myself to look after for most of a week

She did keep asking for her tablet lonely it was more difficult this time as she was aware of not taking it (unlike the first time where I just didn’t remind her to take it so she forgot). But it wasn’t as bad as I feared especially considering she’d had lots of Christmas chocolate i.e. caffeine, which she is very sensitive to (like me), and we had her bigger siblings here too for game night. In particular she didn’t get super anxious which is the most important thing, she just couldn’t switch off. She dozed a bit but didn’t really sleep until after midnight when she came downstairs with DH. We have agreed that during the break if she needs to she can just sleep downstairs if she really needs to but has to still keep the routine of going to bed first, and will have to get up at the usual time as well. Doctor said 2 weeks off is best but we can stick to 1 if we prefer and if she does get really distressed to call it off, but hopefully if we just reassure her that we will let her sleep in with us (well DH really as I have baby in bed with me) it will be enough to get her through it. :)

DH and I on our own and staying in doing the 'just for us Christmas' little gifts this evening ( we always do this! but not usually as late as NYE )

Last night with friend was fun but I did really drink too much and paid fro it a bit this morning .the Porchetta was amazing even if I do say so myself . tonight we are going a bit lighter and having a mixed mushroom tagliatelle out of the Georgio book i bought myself for christmas and no doubt a bottle of something .

I also got on the scales this morning which was a mistake..

So NYRs .
Lose 2 stone before holiday in June
Retire
Get more active ( walk each day )
New hobby? (I dont know what yet )
Keep frugalleering!

Lonely we use our microwave for porridge, start of jackets sometimes if in a rush, defrosting bread and re-heating dh's dinner! Could live without it but it is handy.

The roast tikka chicken wasn't great I didn't think so won't do that again.

HAD the afternoon to myself. Dh took ds to see fil. Hoorah. I finished tidying up. And have vegged on the couch.

I had a nap and now feel awful. Eugh. So am in the process of getting myself semi glammed up for the party this evening.

It’s only in another apartment in our block so easy to get to and home again! I’ve said to dh I don’t think I want to stay until midnight and want to see New Years in just the 4 of us (catface included) but we’ll see.

Am going for smart casual look. Gold sequinned miniskirt thick tights boots and a snuggly black jumper. And I’ve found glitter mascara. Hooray!

I use my micro mainly for scrambled eggs and cooking veg (esp broccoli, cauli, beans and peas ) and for rice.. I have one of those lakeland microwave veggie steamers /rice cookers and its great ..

Is Catface worried by fireworks Em? I stick around when fireworks are due. Someone let them off on Christmas Eve round here.

NSD. Microwaves only used for defrosting & heating my morning espresso into a latte.

I'm old enough to remember microwaves being the great hope of cooking. We were going to be cooking everything in them by now according to tomorrow's world. Lying bastards.

Happy new year.

Lonely, we are having JO turkey pie tomorrow, I also will not be rolling chestnuts into pastry! It is so tasty, I am quite excited for it.

Em it isn't worth my while going back financially but I'm hoping to enjoy being back with some grown ups!

Happy new year all! No way I'm staying up either I get little enough sleep as it is.

Cag remember I have some baby clothes for you. 6-9 months.

I'm sat in my pjs. Rock and roll here. I have chilli Doritos though and fruity cider.

Happy frugal new year. Xxxxxxxxxx

I am glad I am not the only one who thinks midnight is too far away from now.

Our microwave gets used for clarifying butter and reheating mugs of tea. If the kitchen was small It would be first in line for the get rid pile.

I am going to give bullet journalling a whirl this year. I like lists and I find it I commit to something by writing it down it is harder to find a reason to duck out of it. Looking at the you tube videos of some of the journals it could be a fine line between being super useful and procrastination.

This year I am going to get fitter, eat more Vege, send birthday cards (and be a better friend generally, because I am a bit shit) and learn Spanish.

I have a plan for the Spanish- learn the conjugations for the 23 helpful verbs, create a 600 word vocab list (based on what I am most likely to talk about .... realistically the ones that Witter on about clubbing and going on cruises with my boyfriend who is an accountant are going to have limited value for me). The final bit is to sign up to one of the sites that matches me to a Spanish speaker who wants to practice English. You then Skype each other. There are loads of free ones which is cool.

Aah thank you snuggly! 💐 I’m going to be putting away aaaaall the newborn stuff at last, hopefully Meadow can use them or at least the neutral type stuff. I have been so lucky receiving such lovely clothes for Cagletini, I’m excited to pay it forward!

I am usually up past midnight anyway with the tiny person (she does doze in the evenings so I need to get better at actually taking her to bed then and getting an extra chunk of sleep myself!) but will just watch a movie or something.

A friend set up a huge FB group for getting organised in the new year so I’m enjoying that. Lots of things to do and I feel positive.

This afternoon I’ve finished watching the Miniaturist and otherwise have done absolutely naff all.

Ooh unescorted what are the 23 helpful verbs please? I am hoping to do some Spanish with the Caglets.

Hope y’all don’t mind I set up a new thread as we are bound to run out before midnight, but please do fill up this one first as missing out page 40 would be a shame! 😳

Link would help I suppose 🤔

Tadaaaa

I've the anniversary of my diabetes diagnosis today 18 years and I'm still alive! All hail the nhs

fridge the only thing I do to rock the boat with the pie is put a small handful of chopped up dried cranberries in. We like sweetish savoury stuff here, seems to get eaten quicker.

I'm yawning already. Sewing up camels. Two and a half down.

Happy New year to you all! I have been on the thread a year. I'm going to number crunch tomorrow. And make lists, and plans. And meal plans, and freezer audit... I'll do none of this probably!

Love the nhs

I actually have no idea how long I've been here. As you all know my memory is shit.

I'm addicted to chilli dortitos and can't find my Garmin charger for tomorrow step recording. May be spending a tenner on a new one, FFS not a great start to 2018.
Still dortitos and a cuppa will make it better

Fluffy 'Tomorrow's World' has a lot to answer for! I was sure we'd be flying around in our personal spaceships and/or rockets by now .

We had two NYE invitations but turned them both down. We're having a quiet night in. I think I'm turning into a recluse! We had omelette and baked potatoes (done in the microwave) for dinner. I'm enjoying a glass or two of wine.

Cag was 'The Miniaturist' any good? I tried reading the book but gave up after a few chapters. It was both slow and depressing.

NSD.

Happy New Year to all, may it be a frugal one all round 🥂

I enjoyed it, only 2.5hrs in total and yes definitely depressing but intriguing and quite shocking in parts. Not entirely sure I 'get' it though so may well give the book a go at some point.

That said I am planning to only use up what I have with books - if I get time to read at all (I should make time - I have plenty to MN while feeding so no excuse!) so I have a few charity/ex-library ones to get through, which will help declutter too, and a fair amount on my kindle.

Wow wreck! That's a long time.

Only a year Lonely no way?! I'm not sure how long I've been here but it's over 2.5y as I remember agonizing over whether to home ed (Feb 15).

Damn, frugal fail, totally forgot about the excess crudite I smugly bagged up on Friday and now it is inedible. Any advice on keeping things like that fresh? I think it'd be useful to prep stuff like carrot sticks in advance