Keeping our Fru Year Resolutions! Frugal January thread two (already) - all welcome!

[Cagliostro]

Eeek so the other thread filled up fast. January 10th must be some kind of record!

We freeze bread so we always have it and it doesn’t go stale.

Ds has just started making a noise like a pigeon. He thought it was hilarious when I ducked down behind the couch then popped back up again. Half an hour I did that for...

Dparents suggested they take ds for 2 days a week once I go back to work instead of 1 day. In theory this could save us £0000’s must y’all this through with dh.

As far as I’m aware catface has never popped up on the kitchen counter. Never been interested. Either that or we have never seen her do it.

She does sit in the bath though.

Ok, £48 on dog food, and £43 on car parking for DH to go to Spain on Monday for a week.

That's very kind of them. Do you get free nursery hours at 2 there?.

£10 wine. It was on offer but now it's ended & Dh is no mood for tescos

Our house gets very cluttered. I also come from hoarders, so have a high to,era de. How wer, downstairs was cleared for Christmas (I.e. All checked upstairs) and I like the ckearer look, so am working on keeping it that way.

Need to tackle upstairs though

Not at 2 fluffy at 3 here and it’s means tested. At present “they” (being our government who don’t live in the real world) say that any household earning more than £70k is not entitled to free nursery places. That’s average wage of £35k pp. which is the average wage here.

Free places should (according to govt) go to low earners, part time earners or those on benefits who are out of work (to encourage them to work - but at around £70 a day how is this going to encourage full time work if it means spending more than you earn in some cases?!)

There is a massive campaign here (which I’m fully in support of) to give free places to everyone. Or no one. But equality.

Fluffy, yes absolutely! I make my own stuffing for roasts but use packet for meatloaf and toad in the hole, you could absolutely use home made for the recipe though and it would be lush

I’m not bashing anyone on benefits by the way. I fully believe that if you have a genuine need then fine. Sadly it's super easy here to claim. And a lot of people do for nothing other than pure laziness. When I had my “interview” to claim my Maternity benefit I was given a form to tick boxes renother benefits I wanted to claim for (clothing food etc).

Gosh lonely that is cluttered. I can see why it gets you down. If you ever want help I love a good decluttering, happy to drive over.
Mines a bit messy at the mo will put up a photo on a bit.
Nice hair audit.
£71 sainsbury and didn't get everything but we are extra time poor as dh working this weekend. Didn't get take out so cobbled together quorn stroganoff. Booked our pizza take away for next week. New pizza place only book certain slots so the never get too busy for customers.

Haven't tidied yet

Just checking back in. No dc here so can't comment on the nursery places, except to say that I remember SIL being very stressed out but it taking around 75% of her wage!

I haven't actually left the house yet today, been sorting through my clothes and cleaning the house.
I decided to miss my usual trip to watch a local sports team play. It's £10 per ticket and I go to keep DH company mostly so he went with a friend instead - and while he was gone I've found a cinema around 20mins away that costs £3 each so we're going to see the greatest showman tonight.

So being frugal is helping massively - I also made sure DH bought some treats so we don't buy while we're out and organised for tea to be ready in plenty of time (as out downfall is usually arranging cinema or something and then it becomes that, a meal, some drinks and possibly a taxi home )

Also, DH did the shopping. £70 split between Aldi and Tesco.

Quite -,don't want to get school involved at this stage, don't want to make a massive fuss for daughter, we will just get her a,new one this time but if he does anything else to her, i will contact school. It's a stupid game the year 10s play.
NSD ! Same tomorrow and Monday. Yey!

Organisation is key Money. I realised this week that if I bought one extra chicken per shop I don't need to buy a bag of frozen breast strips at £6. A chickens £2 cheaper.

If I'd been more organised I'd have bought tonight's wine on Wednesday & saved £2.50.

The trick is keeping it up. Meals out are so expensive too

To be fair i’m as at needs immaculately tidy kitchen as I am at lonely kitchen

NSD

Took DD1 to a birthday party. Don’t seem to have done much else today as that took the whole afternoon.

DD2 is accepting the nappies have all gone and has been dry all day. Not so keen on the potty for a poo yet- fortunately I was out and DP has to sort that

Wow love it's always such a shame when you aren't home to help with such mishaps

Polly that's terrible you would think yr10s would know better. Surely the school would take a very dim view of this. Yr 10s are massive in comparison to yr7s

Loving the kitchen pics, mine is somewhere in between the extremes!
After a frugal week we've had a spendy day.
£1.20 car parking
£5 on cakes to take round to a friends. Usually I would make it myself but just too busy.
£95 on groceries (including some takeaway pizzas). Shouldn't need much in the way of top up shops this week now though.

£28 on groceries
Meal plan:

Refried bean wraps with paprika peppers, spicy corn, guacamole and salsa
Sausage and tomato pasta (courgetti for me) and salad
Roasted veg, hummus and couscous
Baked enchiladas (squash and sweet potato)
Red lentil, squash and kale soup
Bubble and squeak with poached eggs
Need 5k more steps to get to 20000 - about to force myself out for a walk

Phew just caught up! Living the kitchen pics, mine is def somewhere in the middle!

Your hair looks lovely audit mine desperately needs a cut, I can't remember when I last had it done and it's way too long now.

I've had a busy day at work and we went wassailing tonight 😆 that's a somerset thing! £5 on bacon rolls.

Ds is asleep in the Moses basket in the cot. #mummyforthewin

I’m in bed in the spare room with him. Although that’s more for me than for him. Catface is here too.

We’ve just finished watching The Sinner on Netflix. OMG it’s gooooood.

Em I think it's great that when you went to apply for MA they informed you of other things you might be eligible for at the same time. Here something like £13bn a year in benefits is unclaimed, because people don't realise what they are entitled to.

Ooh speaking of Netflix, I've just watched Atypical which is about an autistic teenager and I thought it was mostly very good. I cried now and then because I thought a lot of the portrayals of HFA were very good and it's a bit overwhelming for me when the main character is overwhelmed with things I get overwhelmed by too. But I would recommend it, DH has recommended it to his aunt & autistic cousin.

Today was our first spendy day in months, DH took me on a date as we haven't been out since before I got HG. We went to Las Iguanas for lunch and then to the cinema to see The Greatest Showman. Tbh I wasn't that impressed, not sure what I was expecting. I mean I did enjoy it but I feel like there's more they could have done with it. Not that I would be able to do better . Anyway it was so nice to go out and feel normal and have a nice time, I am feeling much more positive about things although I have already started getting pain & discomfort in my bum, lower back, tailbone, underneath of my bump etc especially when I'm sitting at work .

Oh meadow I've just got back from watching the same film. I hadn't read anything about it before, all I knew was that Hugh Jackman was in it - I was impressed and am now completely in love with him. I really enjoyed it!

I hope you can find something that helps - a colleague of mine had a backrest on her chair, a footstool under her desk and cushion under her bump when she was struggling.

Am currently mentally organising food for tomorrow so we don't fall into anywhere for breakfast

Not caught up yet but spends only £10.09 lunch with friends. I have bought stuff on amazon but using my Christmas gift card (a game and DD’s cutlery, and need to get her friend a birthday present shortly)

Cagletini has discovered her own feet today. Fascinating stuff :o

I live that Cag, DD very keen on hers too.

Very unusually for me I’ve been in the pub all evening with a lovely friend. Quite tipsy now. Sadly DH is asleep as I am feeling quite... jolly.