February Frugaleers United in Saving Money, Swapping Recipes & Supporting each other in finance, friendship & family life : )

[mammymammyIRL]

And so we continue ....

Making watercress soup for lunch.
DH is driving me mad-asking what I want to do ,all the bloody time.

Short term pain long term gain it sounds like em
Life will improve when ye have new house and your dh can change jobs it's just hard playing the waiting game, least tomorrow is the weekend and you'll have your dh home with you and ds. Once your dh isn't being taken for a mug and it's actually part of his job though.

I just got a bunch of annual leave approved
Half day for my birthday, week after next. I've got a spa voucher, I may use that or I may go to cinema, I will definitely lunch out the possibilities I will do something for me definitely
2 days at Easter, covering au pair's holidays, she'll be away for almost a week but it crosses over a bank holiday weekend and I can't get one day off so have asked my friend to have them that day and another day in September when au pair is away again - that might extend to a few days.

Sitting in a massive traffic queue tantalisingly close to Colchester Zoo. But. Massive. DCs are being pretty good but I think we are on borrowed time now.

Unfortunately I think well paid jobs that don’t require people to do ‘whatever it takes’ are quite rare. I am basing this on the London market, where I don’t know anyone, in a senior and /or well paid job, who gets paid overtime or who clocks off on time all (or even most of) the time. My DH more or less does but he’s not especially well paid. And he’s an analyst who doesn’t have management responsibility. Every job I have ever had has required unpaid overtime, but that’s mostly business consulting /healthcare senior management. The only job I’ve ever had where the workload was realistic for the contracted hours was in a central government department. It might be different in other cities and towns as it’s definitely partly a cultural thing in London. Though I suspct the nhs is the same everywhere.

I do believe it’s possible but if it’s management and on a high salary, it’s rare! If anyone can point me in the right direction I’d be very grateful

..Ok ..so boss has acknowledged my retirement request .. he has to consult with next layer up ...am now waiting to see his boss say.. then if they are minded to look at it they have to get statement of figures from pensions dept ( its public sector don't you know. so could take a while .)

em I fell for the basil lime and mandarin body wash this morning and got some soaps also.. I am going to stop now.. but some special birthday and christmas gifts freebies or mum and friends sorted.

need i also ordered a couple of things from the Hush sale with my discount.. one was something i had wanted fpreviously and reduced to 27 with the code.. v pleased ..

Oh seacow that's a bit rubbish. Hope you're there now.

Laska is it possible you'll be ready to retire for good by the time they get back to you?

Probably wreck

I know how sad this is but I'm thrilled to have read the Lidl email and found that my favourite toilet roll is half price this Sat/Sun, will stock up
Since last Fri 10 toilet rolls have been used in our house
They also have 4pack of twix/mars/snickers for 99c but that'll do nothing good for my waist so I'll leave them in the shop

mammy I feel your pain, dd1 and 3 use over a roll between them a day. I don't ask. Just as long as they are clean. Add in the rest of us it's a lot of loo roll. I also love the lidl (formil?) stuff, the ones with dolphins/leaves/ducks on especially. We do buy from costco too.

Yesterday we went off piste and met my sister at the local soft play. Ds' eyes were on stalks, last time he was there he was about 18m! neglectful mummy £15 entry (for 3dc), and they had a good time. £42 in tescos, lunch, 2 packs socks for ds (he has outgrown the last sock size overnight, I must get his feet sized), a toy for ds, as he's poorly.

Have cleared the space in the garden for my chicken hut, I'm off to wickes when the dc are ready, and will hopefully construct tomorrow, stupid snowy hail bursts permitting.

Half term has flown by. The dc have been so good, I'm pondering taking them out for a treat at the weekend.

£13.50 ds hair cut

Frugal lunch as Dh and ds didn't eat all the sf chicken i got for while I was away. Sf chook butties for me! Beef stew thrown in the slow cooker for tea. Expenses put in but I'm a bit freaked out as it's bounced up the chain to a very senior person due to absence.

Frugal fail, forgot my railcard. £13.10 train to mum’s. £1.40 on tram. Used my disabled pass on the London bus woohoo! I assume I can’t use it on the tram so used my debit card as usual. Hideously packed so very glad I didn’t bring the buggy.

DS talked to strangers about the periodic table on the bus :o that book goes everywhere with him ATM. I had a chat with a mum of two autistic children too. That’s one of the nicer sides of public transport, frequent random conversations. :o

Ah seacow don’t blame you for being knackered. I’ve been lucky this time I think, she is quite chilled and doesn’t have any of the reflux etc that you’ve been dealing with. I think PND may be creeping in a tad but I’m in a much better situation now with a good bunch of friends and lots of reasons to get out of the house etc

lonely it's the floralys I'm getting there's a duck on packet
I just don't know where it all goes. Prior to this au pair & ds toilet training we used 3 rolls a week

I've never willingly taken ds to softplay, dd only once. They go when there's birthday parties on but other than that I'm allergic to them and I'd prefer to be with dc when I'm off but I understanding they are a lifesaver to parents who are at home with their children. My friend takes her two most Fridays to let off steam and she gets to have a peaceful coffee with her friend.

Expense claim rejected. Not entirely surprising but annoying especially as the responder didn’t bother to put why they rejected it which makes me think they just couldn’t be bothered

ssssshhh I may have made a purchase for Christmas 2018
Lego Mission to Mars set reduced from €49.99 to €39.99 it won't come down any more than that. It's a new set. The yellow Creative box cost me €34.99 in December ds will love it

Work/life balance in my firm is pretty good I think from what I've seen. I can't speak for the actual solicitors though, I suspect that may be a totally different kettle of fish - when I was staying til 7 every evening cos of going in later, most of them were there every evening and I bet they come in no later than 9am too. Us lot at the almost-very- bottom have crap pay though so...

I am home as had to go to my second scan and I couldn't be bothered to go back to work after, I will just stay a bit later some other days to make up the hour and a half I could have been at work for. Baby was still not very cooperative but at least is laying on its back now so they could check the heart properly and that's all fine. But still head down so they couldn't take a new head circumference measurement and my photo is naff as baby wouldn't move it's arm/hand from in front of its face . I hope this isn't an omen for things to come, it's not very cooperative !!

Spent £1 on wedges and cheese in my work canteen for lunch, £5.20 taxi to hospital from work, then £2.50 on a hot chocolate at the hospital after my scan as a treat for being super brave and going all on my own (anxiety was awful so it's a miracle I made it at all), £1 on chocolate to break into a £20 to have some smaller change for taxi home, then that was £6. In theory I can claim back the taxis as I'm on the NHS low-income thing but neither taxi driver had any receipt papers left .

Laska Good luck with your retirement plans! Exciting.

DH is at uni and is then going to meet up with an old friend he's not seen in years so I will be having a peaceful evening to myself .

Also I daren't even put the valentines card I got DH on here . There was an offer on Wuntu for a card from Thortful for 65p so I went nuts and bought a NSFW one . He was a bit shocked but loved it haha. He just got me a big mushy card that literally says 'wife: you're so amazing & beautiful' on the front, bless him.

Wolf Can they do that?.

Quite How is the meter reading going?.

Spends;
£9 the ordinary face peel.
£3 Tesco. Just bleach for scrubbing the concrete windowsills, Mayo, cheap shampoo for delicate washes, apples.

Money in;
£60 in nectar points from e rewards
£25 refund from BT. Putting both towards the weekend away if Dh ever books his frigging annual leave.

I thought I resigned yesterday but my email didn’t suffice. So I resigned again today in a proper letter attached to an email plus printed it out too 😂 I obviously don’t resign often enough to get it right.

My new sofa arrived while I was at work. I cannot wait to get home. It is massive apparently!

em I remember always being so desperate for DP to get home from work while on mat leave. I missed/needed him, mainly to maintain my sanity. I hope your DH can find a better balance soon.

My train breakfast didn’t materialise. So...
£2.65 hot chocolate
£5 sainsburys
£2.85 on a baguette

oohh Boss has spoken to his boss . he's sent me an email thats says its looking 'very positive'.. That's about as good as it can be for local govt first response ..now have to wait whist they get the figures.. Hopefully that wont be many weeks...

love Doesn't "bye, missing you already - not.. " count as a resignation any more? .. gad to hear that they came halfway on pay.. Are you deferring your PS or can you move it.. I deferred sort of by accident when i moved previously and then again when i took a pay cut to move to this job .. actually its worked out well because the first one paid out at 60 and the next pays out at 62 ! my current one is 66 unless i take a cut which i will be doing if i do this flex retirement but as its the smallest of the three it wont matter so much

Can I join please (not sure if I already asked - but basically have an attic conversion to fund and discussing one of us reducing hours to make home life more manageable with 2 year old).

Need help with learning to meal plan and organise food shop accordingly. Have about £200 a month for 4.

I try getting things cheaper eg clothes from charity shops, checking discount stores. But DH will undo it all by not shopping around as he does food shop eg he will want one thing in ASDA and do whole shop there instead of going to ALDI. He doesn't get it when i say money will be tight to fund conversion.

Nsd.

I’ve packed up 3 boxes. Hoorah.

Dh should be on his way home.

Flying we're a family of four and right now I'm struggling to keep food to £75 a week, hopefully we can inspire each other!

Welcome Flying. Can you take the food shop off him? If he's not coming to the party on saving money?. I can whizz round Aldi in minutes if I go at opening time on a weekend. It's not fun I'll grant you but it gets the job done. I fling everything into two blue ikea bags at the checkout & I'm out of there.

The Facebook page "feed your family for £25 a week" is good. Lots of ideas.

Fluff thanks for tip! I need to get used to using these cash back sites. So I can price up Homeserve separately, then compare with my current home insurance ( which will doubtless go up) or buying separately.
Not N or even L spend today. Chiropractor £40, but will now go monthly as sciatica has eased. Sainsbury’s (unfortunately) but needed coffee beans, Ecover washing machine liquid, tissues, then bought hummus and carrot batons as a friend was dropping by & wanted to offer something edible ( beside toasted stale bread!) She ate nothing, so DS enjoyed it.
Then Halfords as front bulb out -£21! Next time I will change it myself - cannot be that hard.
Em re DH. Difficult to change these work cultures on your own. As a boss myself, my staff work contracted hours, and focus is to get the job done in the time allowed. TOIL is very restricted. This greatly improves efficiency. My view is long hours work cultures are very inefficient & much time is spent unproductively -meetings, anyone?

Ok, so I spent £92 in B&Q, wickes had nothing in stock and is the glommiest store (Carlisle, hasn't recovered from being flooded out). And I have built the base frame from 3 £7 deck boards already. 5x frame hoops first thing in the morning, then I can fix on the corregated plastic, which was £2 a sheet cheaper in b&q anyway. The bolts cost the same as the plastic.

Other than that I forgot to get dog food (wet topping) gravy tonight.

We are on day 14 of my meal plan. It really works! (Like duh). Written out and on the fridge, it totally takes the guess work and panic tea buying out of eating. I will do another 2 weeks over the weekend, and then the targeted shop after the dc go back.

Moan Yes, try seperately but some insurers offer more CB for insurance and home emergency cover.

Lonely How much you reckon it's saved you?