First Frugalling month of 2018 almost done , so Forging forward into Feb we go

[Laska5772]

...and here we go !
Welcome all!

My ds won two swimming races at school swimming today. Yay!

He seems to be enjoying school swimming. It's about time he had some luck/fun come his way.

My two watched hours of horrible histories yesterday

Spicy pheasant and veg Tom Yum soup made with extra ginger garlic and lemon juice ) ...One bowl downed .. West Wight Penicillin .

We've not been to the W&D for several years .. must go again sounds like they have lots more there now..

I love the Weald and Downland museum, I haven't been for about 7 years though! Need a car to get there.

I've bought the train tickets for the holiday - £95. Also paid £50 off the water bill and set up as direct debits for the other payments. Also changed a load of direct debits to my new bank account.

Yeah you can get a bus but not very convenient really. They only come every thirty minutes.

Duchess & wreck Also in W Sussex - I have found W & D museum slightly odd & also pricey for a one off visit - amazing an annual pass is only just over the cost of a day pass. My D.C. are adults, tho, so with young uns it makes sense, what with their various festivals.
I do have a National Trust membership, mainly for the parking. DP wants to go to Petworth for an exhibition, but he will have to stump up the entry fee. I can get in gratis

Moan that Park is v v close to me. I haven't been to w&d for ages. We have fishers membership but I don't think I'll renew as it's extortionate.

Successful nsd so far am in the office but waiting for colleagues to come in as I have some questions.

Pondering what to do for dinner. Have a choice of lentil dahl, chickpea and lentil soup with cheese toasties or jacket potatoes.

oh god ...ive found a new Timewasting website thaks to the the Mn thread on Flightradar24.. Ive been watching can see all the little helicopters on the north sea oil rigs , Whats flying over our house and the fight path to our holiday destination..

its Fascinating (in a geeky way) .. Ive often wondered where exactly we are flying over when we go down to Greece and now can see! as we've done it such a lot it seems quite familiar and some of the places look amazing from above and we'd like to trace the journey down in our campervan when we get it

you can do [[http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-0.2/centery:50.6/zoom:7 ships also }]

ill do that ship one again

He must feel on top of the world Sunny

Norbett Don't forget cashback when you change phones.

Cag I knew you'd love the soup maker. Try Jack monroes red lentil, tomato & chilli. I could live on it.

Money out £10 petrol
Money in; £5 nectar points, £6 cashback from my Christmas food shop & £3 from Royal Mail from an old pre-pay account in 2013.

So that's my new tops well & truly paid for. Plus one usually ends up being returned anyway.

Spent£6 in charity shop😲 forgive me for i have sinned, but I'm £35 in credit with my council tax and £3.50 in credit with my water. Twas the pound rail in the charity shop and i got a lovely Laura Ashley skirt, jacket and 2 dresses for work, a silk night shirt (river island) and q gorgeous vintage shirt, so may be i can stone in Feb, i don't need anything for my birthday...

Moan, if he wants to go with you to the NT places he could join the Malta or new zealend trusts and get in that way. You get the free parking then. The only place near us that charges for parking is run by a council so even members have to pay.

Hope you all get better soon! All you ill people like i was last weekend...

Laska I've been on the flight radar thread too. I love it. I live near Gatwick so like to see what's flying around me.

I've not read back as there's pages and I've only been busy for 24 hours.

mammy, you definitely have what I would describe as flu. Poor you. And you for feeling poorly too laska.

em, I think when you are a reasonably self sufficient person who generally copes pretty well, then folk stop asking how you are, I think you fit that description. They assume you are fine. Nobody ever asks me how I'm feeling, and usually that's totally fine but we all need help or to be listened to sometimes. Maybe it's time to let them know you've got a lot on at present and have also had a baby in the last few months.

I'll just post frugal stuff as I haven't kept up. Frugal positives this last month.

• massive saving on the mortgage.
• ensured all my deals were current and best value.
• I spent nothing on beauty treatments this month (small frugal short term goal).
• wasted no food.
• had my allocated amount of NSD's that I set myself.
• got some clothes and crockery in the sale, planned spends.
• saved a really decent chunk of money

Negatives

• said chunk of money spent on a new washing machine as my old one blew up.
• had a splurge at the weekend on some bedding and new bar stools.
• food bill (being utterly honest and including cleaning products and beer wine) was £170 per week. No coffees or meals out though. One take out.
• the pony was costly in feed but it's winter.

Next months goals

• I'm going to be a switching tart re bank accounts as ML calls it.
• no beauty spends again.
• save a chunk to go towards summer holiday.
• allocated number of NSD's
• bake all treat type food.

I ran 17.5 miles yesterday, forgotten marathon training long runs. Legs a bit weary today but I'd also forgotten they are my favourite type of run.

Oh and use TCB more, I'm really bad at remembering this.

Lastly, now that I have caught up with the washing then I'm going to use the eco wash programme only.

Tax return submitted earlier. Yay! Just realised I need to pay registration (includes uniform) for taekwondo for DD. CBA to move. 😳😳😳

Paid my car insurance €482.77
Collected money for dress sold €50
Doctor €60
Chemist €11.80
Sweets €1.70

Cag Your doing really well, no more procrastinating for you!. You are on it.

Just spent a happy hour customising a superdry trench coat. I've removed two surplus belt loops, three buttons, a weird metal clasp thing at the neck & a four inch label inside saying SUPERDRY.

Now I just need to remove all the other stitching saying SUPERDRY (they really like everyone to know its superdry) & some Japanese writing too. That probably says SUPERDRY.

Then I'm dying it navy blue & putting 14 navy buttons on it or Dh is. The buttons also say superdry. Just incase you missed the 4 inch square label or the stitching. When all of this is done I'll hopefully be able to overlook the fact that despite being an XS it's always been slightly too big

I bet Audrey Hepburn never had to do any of this shit. It's easy to look chic when Hubert Givenchy dresses you in couture.

been for a walk this afternoon with dais. we walked around the track at the sports centre then walked to the lighthouse and back. 5k walk. woop. then stopped at the sports centre cafe for a donut and a hot chocolate carrot juice and a broccoli

am now at dparents - dh is out tonight and they haven't seen ds for a few days. they're feeding me tonight. yippee. have brought my laptop so i can trawl the agents websites and catch up on emails etc, and they can entertain ds. i was going to pop in this morning but this makes more sense.

i've asked for help. they've said they'll take ds one morning a week to start with in prep for him being with them 2 days a week when i go back to work. so actually asking for help works .hoorah.

need yes am fairly self sufficient. i don't like relying on people to do things for me. would much rather get stuff done myself.but i can recognise that i sometimes need helps.

£3 something on snacks at sports centre cafe.

That's great that they are helping Catface.

Fluffy that's brilliant stuff you're doing. I kind of wonder if people like Audrey Hepburn got to where they did because they pulled off this kind of stuff in the early days. I remember the lead in the Pride and Prejudice BBC remake saying she got the part partly because she dyed her eyebrows really skillfully for the audition.

My tops that I remodelled yesterday turned out really nicely and have gone through the washing machine and tumble dryer without a hitch. Pleased about that.

Aw thanks fluff it's nice to read that as I don't feel at all on it atm. Maybe I'm finally raising my standards from rock bottom 😂 I am just moody today though. £13 in coop, frugal fail. Run out of stuff at home (in fairness the running out is due to unexpected visitors on Saturday). Knackered. Annoyed as I have done really well for most of the month.

Plus PMT. It's also making me realize what a nursing aversion is. Sadface. Hormones are shit.

Mammy hope you feel better soon

Dd chose chickpea and lentil soup for dinner so I made that and have some left over for lunch.