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!

Snuggly- it's like that here, all budgets in place then work dropped the bomb they only have one day a week, so im looking at going to a temp agency until they have more hours then it turns out my MIL is having some serious health issues. I'm just head down sorting the practical stuff like telling hours to make up the financial short fall and being there for DH. I cant stop and think about it because if i do being peri-menopausal i will unravel with worry. So onward regardless I go...hope it improves for you....NSD! Another one in the bag.

Sorting the hours * silly phone...

Polly Why does being peri-menopausal do that? I think I had that going on for the last three years, and then just suddenly it got a lot better as my cycle also changed radically. It was really odd.

That sounds strestful Polly. I hope you get some extra hours.

Polly That used to happen to me too when I was agency. I hope they come up with something else for you.

£1 sains, paid the other £2.50 in nectar points.

I had a matched betting offer come through from betfred so I've put a bet on. Either way I lose 20p. Hopefully it will spark a free bet.

www.freebets4all.com Free matched betting forum etc. I cancelled profit accumulator ages ago but I'm going to try again with this one.

At last I have a day where there is nothing urgent and hugely important to be done. So zonked though. I've had a good stop. :-)

Finally got my car insurance back to price I wanted to pay - the initial quote was for starting two days early and the proper one was €100 more. Will pay that tonight with my Christmas bonus prepaid credit card and there'll be €17.23 left for me to spend

polly what a nightmare with work, hope your dMIL will be ok

I have sorted my craft haul at the old shop. When I had ds I lost my "craft room" (6 foot square room taken off huge bedroom). So the random stuff went into 3 boxes and 6 years later I have sorted it all out. This definatley counts as decluttering. Most of the stuff has homes (ribbons, beads, felt, yarn etc), plus I found my much loved waterman fountain pen.

We were so cold we went to Macdonalds for lunch, £12 but dp paid. I took £10 stuff back to asda, and spent £22, so £12 really. More school trousers for dd3, who must eat them, and slippers for dd2 as her feet have grown (again).

Girls developing is such a random thing. At 8 dd1 was well on her way moody wise, at 10 was in 30dd bras, and 5'3". Dd2 is 11.5 and is just starting, dd3 is almost 10 and is probably further on than her 21 month older sister. Gah. Tiptoeing around moody girls is very frustrating!

I feel bloody awful. Very achy. I hope its not the flu. I'm classed as the healthy one who didn't need a vaccine. Have got home, am in my bed momentarily, hoping dp will bring me a coffee unprompted.

Oh FFS. Does anyone here (a) use a cycle tracking app they can recommend and (b) use washable sanitary towels?

Oh well at least I now know why I have been a moody fishwife from the depths of tartarus grumpy and achy today, and I did feel like I ovulated a couple of weeks back but thought I must have imagined it

Frugal win, I still have two packs of slim maternity pads to use up. But I've been pondering using washable for a while (can't handle the thought of a mooncup).

She's only 12 weeks old, I had 11 months period free with DS! :(

Sorry for TMI

Bad luck Cag breastfeeding kept my periods at bay for over a year with dd1! I'm afraid I'm old-school and count days on the calendar.

I love your posts about your children lonely. It's so great to hear from an experienced mother how different they can all be and that that's really fine.

wreck dd was similar age 9yo but then everything seemed to calm down when she was 10 and has only just started with the being very hormonal again now nearly 12!! Still no periods yet thank god 😯 am dreading her starting.

Stressful day at work but successful Nsd.

Fitted two new tyres planned since before Christmas, will pay tomorrow €150
Need to check au pairs car too

Nsd today for me, sent dh to Aldi for the list and he took the DC to KFC as it's next door. I've just had a lovely plate of chicken and veg. I'm really into this now. I had done choc yesterday and it didn't taste great, bit of a waste of calories. 650 calories left but I'm not hungry

Sorry cag no experience of either.
Dd is 10.5 and we seem to have a surge of hormones ATM.

You can buy cheap silicone menstural cups on eBay for a few quid. I used to use tescos smartprice pads but they are quite old fashioned, or Aldi tampons.

I've only had two in 5 months thanks to the implant, I'm hoping mine have stopped now.

It's not too late to have the jab Lonely, £5 at asda.

Oh cag what a pest for you. You have, um, sorted some contraception?? I got "caught short" while bf dd2, didn't get a period. Got dd3 though (and a different life!!).

Tonight was cheapie tea. Baked spuds. Ok, ok dp's microwave did the potatoes very quickly. Still stuck them in the oven for 1/2 hour as well though. Beans/cheese/bacon, and tuna mayo for the beans refusers. Ds had a pot noodle

I originally started reading cag’s post and thought it sounded like your announcement of cagletini. Ha!

I was officially a hated, cold lurgy filled person in the office today. I actually got properly guilted for being there, the person did have a good reason, but I am paid to be there and I had to be there for a meeting which would have been unfair to cancel. I don’t try to share my germs.

Thankfully I worked my other day already this week so once DD2 is asleep I will spend my child and work free day tomorrow in my bed. I cannot wait to go to bed tonight 🤧

Frugaleering went out the window today
£4.70 parking
£2.65 hot chocolate
£3.20 pastry and strepsils
£2.85 lunch

Lonely Wow, one of your DDs was my usual bra size when she was 10 ! Girls bodies often grow too quick I think, like it doesn't match up with their brains properly. At least I think that was the case for me for awhile . Hope you feel better soon too .

Cag Hope you're ok . I genuinely despise menstruating and all my adolescence and again for awhile when I was in-between hormonal BCs for my year abroad I have had horrendously heavy periods that I found very distressing and have left emotional marks (leaked quite a few time as a teenager etc). So I feel you .

Girlie I was in my first bras for when I started secondary school although I'm sure could have waited longer really. And I remember I started my periods when I was about 11 and half, it was in the summer holidays before I started secondary school. I was so jealous of the girls at school who didn't start menstruating until they were like 16. I had horrendous heavy periods that really impacted on my life.

Lonely DH makes our jacket potatoes and he does half and half with microwave and oven too. Takes less time but is much nicer than a purely microwaved one. Yum.

NSD as usual. Spoke to HR and decided I will try and do a full day on Friday. Dreading it but I need to start somewhere. Also been sitting on a memory foam pillow for the last two days at work and it's making very minimal difference to my tailbone pain even if I fold it over so it's super thick. At one point today it was so bad when I was getting up that my eyes watered . Decided I will need to bite the bullet and speak to my manager about it on Friday when I have my meeting with him to review my hours. Just have to get through the next afternoon and then Friday...too scaredy to talk about it before then.

And DP bought dominos for dinner

meadow please do talk to your manager about your chair etc. A good company should be able to get someone to help adjust things for you. You really won’t be the first pregnant lady there with chair discomfort

Cag I invented a brilliant game today, which is basically La Crosse played with two sieves and a rubber egg. I think you would enjoy it. It's just throwing the ball back and forwards, but the egg goes in totally unpredictable directions, and is totally hilarious.

cag oh bugger.

I’m always intrigued by washable sanitary towels. In theory I like the idea. But don’t fancy soaking them etc. Same with nappies. Can’t do the disposable ones.

I have a mooncup. But have never used it. Can’t bring myself to do it. May give it a while next time.

Spends

£59 coop on weeks shop. Including flowers, smoked salmon pieces, tonic water.

£20 Riding. Should have been £32. Instructor asked me to ride different pony out for a hack (as pony had a bad leg and needed a walk) and then gave me a full hours one to one lesson on another different pony. We worked on my canter. Since having ds I can’t do it. I’m having to re learn. She broke me down today. Pony I rode is more “go-ey” than “my” usual one so once I got him to canter he kept going until I told him to stop which made it easier for me to work on my seating and leg position etc. My poor abs and thighs. They are going to ache. Instructor kept telling “seat and leg and seat and leg and seat and leg” and “again again again”

Spent the afternoon at home. I have cleaned the house. Estate agent coming over tomorrow to take pictures. Yay.

Leek risotto for dinner. Mmm. And a gin. Mmmmmmm

I have a friend who swears by reusable sanitary towels, can't remember which make she uses but will try and find out. She said they are amazing, I might try them one day but am a bit put off by the ick factor!

When you think about it, does the staining matter?. I mean they go in your knickers & no one else is going to look at them.

It's not like a shirt or a top.

Ick factor here too and with moon cup.. luckily those days are well behind me .. It was so wonderful the day when i threw away all the sanpro stored in the bathroom basket after realising one day that I hadn't needed it for two years !!

so I took the Tkmaxx top back - the neckline was just wrong .. £16.99 refund , but spent £18 in Next on some thick navy leggings..

no other spends ..