We’ve had our Merry Thriftmas, now bring on the Happy Fru Year! All welcome as we Frugaleer our way into January 2018.

[Cagliostro]

A new thread in case we are too tipsy (or in my case, asleep on the sofa) to remember later.

This is a friendly group where we chat all things money related and all things everything else related. Everyone welcome so settle in and let’s make 2018 the year we save money!

cag mine still haven’t arrived. Sigh. The weather here has caused a serious backlog in post. Hoping they’ll arrive today.

Nsd yesterday.

Hoping for lsd today. Meeting friend for coffee.

Spoke to dh re London. Told him I don’t feel ready to leave ds overnight. He said that I might by the time we have to go so why not book the flights. I also pointed out that I might not. So wouldn’t go. Oh and I’m not going. One day maybe. But not now.

I think he’s a bit miffed. It would have been nice just the two of us but I’d have spent the whole time worrying. So not worth it.

Cag I only ever liked Tesco nappies! And I tried all of them.

Mammy maybe you had a fever?

Today I'm going out for a quick lunch with my old manager after a meeting then later I have a hospital appointment so need parking. Predicted spends £15.

Need I also have star anise taking up cupboard space. I've been adding it to my slow cooker rice puddings. I don't like rice pudding but it goes down well with everyone else and is very cheap to make.

Cag I've found the Lidl nappies fine but mine are older and eating solids so we can perhaps get away with slightly less absorbancy!

Maybe wreck although my temperature was ok
Mad stuff happened though - mental health emergency team arrived 5 in a car because of a distressed woman in our house @ 7am, I was wondering how they knew I was distressed and then looked outside to see a woman was performing a protest and had 20 women with placards with her and she wouldn't leave, meanwhile indoors au pair had told me she was leaving for an emergency medical appointment @ 6am with no prior notice and I didn't know how I was going to sort out the dc and the other two she's minding today, and 4 people arrived with handcuffs to collect her, ds was climbing along the banisters upstairs which overlook our hallway and swinging off them over the free edge and I couldn't get him to stop. Then dh and I were alone in sittingroom and saw visitors coming and didn't want to see them so they cut that room off the house and we floated out to see, and that meant 4 children under 7 were alone in the house with a mad woman protesting outside

So antibiotic is twice daily and I've taken the next one so we'll see how it goes tonight

I also have star anise hanging around since I did Nigella's turkey in brine a few years ago
em can see both your points of view regarding night away. I remember dh insisting I go to local village with db and dsil for a few drinks one night, I didn't want to go, they basically forced me, I had a horrible time and just wanted to come home to my baby, I went to my hen party willingly when dd was 2 months old with no issues but that was my choice not anyone else's.

Oh my goodness Mammy that's crazy! I thought my day was off to a bad start when all 3 kids woke up at 5 am! Hope you are OK.

I’m really itching to head to a big shopping centre today for a potter and struggling to resist. I don’t need anything and there’s no point filling my head with ideas!
I do need to get laundry, housework and cooking done but they don’t seem so appealing right now.
mammy how long do you need to take the antibiotic for? Honey, if you can manage it will soothe the lining of the throat which helps stop the coughing getting worse, or sucking a marshmallow if you can’t bear honey. DH has a night time cough at the moment and refuses to try either and it’s like sleeping with a dog on a bouncy castle at the moment

I'm fine snuggly it was just a bit mind boggling!
Did they sleep up to that time?

ann avoid shopping centre or go and leave your purse and cards at home Would making a list of jobs to do and tick them off be any bit more satisfying?
Antibiotic is for 5 days twice a day so 1/5 done.

I have the Strepsils Extra and am using them, and drinking water at night but think a hot lemon and honey in a travel mug might be more soothing tonight. Has your dh tried extra pillows to raise his head to relieve the cough a bit? Never heard of using marshmallows but I don't mind honey anyhow.

I've decluttered my email - two mse ones to read now.
This is my usual email address and I've another for spam and mailing lists, might mark all emails on that as read too

Tomo is car insurance quote day!

I need a fireguard, our last one is falling apart for past 18 months, and has now cut myself and dh several times. I admired a friends one at Christmas 2016 and now see that it's half price in homestore and more, will send dh as I'll just want to buy more when I'm there
That'll be €25 well spent

I always crave scratchy things when I have a bad throat, I usually get sweet chilli crisps. :o

Gosh fluffy that's terrifying added up like that! It's good though as it'll keep me on the straight and narrow hopefully. I'll tell DH too.

Also must get the Caglets their bus passes as fares go up again on the 16th, may as well renew before that.

cag it was adding the little things up that swayed me to save money. Take away coffee did it for me. £2 average a day 5 days a week almost £500 a year. Eek. On coffee.

Cag - I am in the habit of nipping to tesco for bits while DS1 is in gymnastics. I have 45 minutes to myself and I don't like the waiting room. Sadly it is on an industrial estate so not good for going for a walk. One of the mums goes for a run, sadly I can't run so that isn't an option. I really need to find something to do in that time that feels worthwhile but isn't spending money. When he goes up a class he will be in for an hour and there is a chance I could get to aldi and do the weekly shop and get back.

Cagliostro when DS got his tonsils out last year they recommended scratchy foods! He was looking forward to a steady diet of ice cream and jelly and when he came round after the operation they gave him toast!!!
Mammy I’ll give him an extra pillow tonight and see how that goes.
I had great intentions of saving weekly for Christmas but I’ve already skipped two weeks. I don’t know why I find it so hard to take cash and set it aside but easy to fritter it away on stupid stuff. The last couple of years I’ve spread the cost by buying over the year, but then I end up buying too much, or the dc change their interests, etc.

My friend was told before cag that crisps are great for a sore throat as they scratch out the infection on their way now

fridgecut do you read or have a smartphone? The Kindle app is free on smartphones and if you sign up to Bookbub you'll get books for free. Also if you've got Netflix you could download an episode of your favourite programme to watch while you're there

ememem it’s really eye opening to work out the annual cost of things!

if you've got Netflix you could download an episode of your favourite programme to watch while you're there
Genius! I’m going to do that this afternoon for swimming and bring my own coffee

annwithnoe
I've got a rabodirect account specifically for longterm savings (Christmas, Holidays and WoodPellets, actually I guess they're actually short/medium term savings really and we don't have longterm at all until we get debt free) and have a weekly direct debit to it, it earns marginal interest but I can't access the money at weekends and it keeps it safe from impulse buying.

I'm lucky too that work do a Christmas Club so I could have it all come out of my wages there too and what you don't see you don't miss.

DS is on nap no 2!!!

So I’ve called estate agent to come and give us a valuation. Booked that in. Put washing on. Folded laundry and had breakfast. Brioche and French apricot jam. Mmmmmm.

ann it’s staggering. Last year I sat and worked out how much I’d spent on toiletries (I only buy at boots or feel unique so was easy to work out from my bank statements) staggering. Almost £800 and nothing to show for it. Would much rather spend that on a pair of shoes. Or a handbag. At least you have something physical for it iyswim. Not that I spend that sort of money on bags and shoes any more....happy to accept as gifts though

I’ve also checked my fitbit and have done 1900 steps already. I’ve not left the house yet....

ann genius - glad you think so!! Wear headphones and no one need know what you're smiling at!

I did what em did with my weekly lunch from deli counter €5 and promptly switched it to a monthly deli counter lunch and I look forward to it a lot more now and reduced my lunch spends by €200!

I do read on my phone, I could have a nice hour just reading my book, I hadn't thought of that. And watching something might be nice, I hadn't thought of that either!

Glad to be of help fridge - I sometimes spend time like that doing my online grocery shop or doing meal plan, but mainly for dd's activity I'm close enough to go home or I go for a run.

My MIL is at home looking after my 2-year-old, so I don't want to go home. My gym is the other side of the city and I am banned from running due to an injury awaiting surgery.

I really must plan for this time and use it, without drifting around Tesco. Before Christmas, I went to Poundland and did Christmas shopping, so that was reasonable-ish.

Yes mammy they slept until then. That's good for the twins but not good for DD1. Not sure why she was up so early. I can just about cope with babies at that hour as they just roll around and gurgle while I drink tea but the older one actually wants to interact with me! I'm not a morning person.

Definitely crisps for a sore throat. The salt is soothing.

I keep thinking about chocolate digestives. Must resist!

OK nearly time to collect the dc from school and it’s a busy afternoon with activities that I have to sit and pretend to watch while actually watching Netflix yay so I have survived the awful lure of the shopping centre for another day.
And I poached a chicken, portioned and froze it, so I have curry for tonight, soup for adult lunch tomorrow, breasts in freezer for sandwiches/meals and bones in freezer for eventual stock. Not quite the mythical mumsnet chicken, but pretty good. I even whizzed up the icky bits for the cat but she turned her nose up and demanded regular cat food
Also got round to putting rashers and sausages in freezer too. They are handy to have to hand but better not sitting in fridge tempting me to have a big fry-up!
Apart from fees for dc activities there’s no reason to spend today.