Money Saving Marches on....frugal living, friendly chat, no judgment

[ememem84]

Hello. Took the liberty of starting a new thread...

Ooh that’s handsome Mammy

So cute Cag, she’s grown loads!

Not feeling too bad at all today, I paced myself with water so no hangover. I was a little annoyed though as I took 2 bottles of wine that I bought in Coop en route and the Beaujolais was corked . But I defo wasn’t carrying it back home last night to take back! Up today at 7am to make pancakes for everyone (except me. I was still full of cheese. All the cheeses were Italian Snuggly, in keeping with the meal. Mmm. Friend will be eating cheese for weeks though)

DH has just gone to ikea to buy some toy storage for the family room (now the carpet has been cleaned we are rearranging things a bit). I’m a little irritated with him actually because he’s insisting we keep 4 tall CD racks in a spot that would be perfect for a nice big Kallax. The only other place to put it will mean it sticks out past a corner shelf thing and blocks the telly. But he’s insistent thst his CDs can’t go in the loft (even though I’ve not seen him touch them in at least 5 years). Grr. We’ve so much stuff and I hate rooms looking crowded so this annoys me a lot. I know iabu as it’s his house too but

Anyway, a Kallax and a Trofast coming to bespoil my nice room soon. About £115 I think with boxes. Hope DH isn’t too grumpy about Ikea, he hates it. But he offered because he wants to watch the football later. I need yo batch cook done chilli for the freezer for those cba days. I’ll get my serious big pan out. Also considering lonely’s flapjacks.

Watching DD go mental in the jumperoo as I write

cag cute!!!! Is she sitting up on her own ds isn’t yet

Nsd so far. We’ve been for a walk. In the sun. Absolutely beautiful day.

I need to start thinking about ds’ next lot of clothes. He’s 5 months now. Eeeek. May have a squizzy on eBay for a bundle of 6-9 months.

Aargh €150 saved arranged to go see it between 2 & 4 as dc at a birthday party, she just messaged me now that some guy came looking at something else so she sold it
€40.90 in smyths €30 voucher for birthday party, missed the little girls sisters one in Dec. Dc had €15 each so they spent that & I bought 4 sturdy buckets for the beach. Noticed au pair has been using the metal Halloween buckets & they'll get rusty so now no need to bring them. Each child will have a bucket each too so should be less fighting at beach too.

I'm going to collect my free iced doughnut from spar for my birthday today & dc can share it.

Just brought a bottle of water from my boot into party I'm not paying €3 for one.

Does anybody know what it costs to get sensible sunglasses made? I have these interesting new apricot coloured lenses to help with LED light and I need to get them made up into sunglasses to wear over my normal glasses. I have a vague feeling that my usual optician will want to charge about £300 for .

I've never bought sunglasses and I just wondered if any one might know where the line is between the price of ones that work and the price that is just a rip-off for no reason?

Afternoon. I also am sad that I missed tipsy seacow but it's been a busy few days.

Our pony is a gentle eater but he does like to head butt you in a show of affection. Got me right under the jaw last week and did get told off for that...

We took him to his first competition yesterday since before the accident and he did fab. Dd was a bit rusty but will get sharper.

Did parkrun yesterday and 22 miles today, in deep with marathon training so not posting as often.

Spends

NSD today.

Yesterday
£6 at the competition including raffle tickets.
£20 fruit/veg box
£50 tickets for a concert.
£140 Sainsbury's but very little of that food, some booze for presents, some home stuff.
£60 fuel.

Ouch wrong, bloody ponies are a money pit aren't they?

sunny not sure as I don’t buy prescription sunnies. If you’re having the lenses made could you buy an off shelf pair of sunnies and ask whoever is making them to fit the lenses? Or do you have an old pair of glasses that they could be fitted into? Or will they just clip onto glasses?

Spent nearly £40 at The Range, mostly stuff for dds room, used cash from the stuff we have sold recently.

£5 in sainsburys cafe.

£33 in sainsburys on some food, cat food, and a heap of half price baby clothes for my best friend who just had a baby girl 💖

wrecked. Just picking up on your comment about not spoiling your DC's fun because of your own feelings. I relate to this. I feel it's important to remember this sometimes. They are their own people and sometime that means facing our own anxieties and doing stuff we'd rather not. I does make us stronger though, good for you xx

Need I would never let the dc see my anxieties. They've already got some genetically I'm sure but whatever I can do to minimise it I will!

Same, dd is inherently like me and a bit stressed over getting stuff 'right', as is DS thinking about it. I absolutely hate driving the horse box, but that would compromise DD's riding, which is her favourite thing and gives her so much. So I do it. As do you. It helps me in a way face my fear, which is an irrational fear really (but real to me).

Sleepeovers - not fussed here, both DC have had them, sometimes both at the same time.

The car choice is narrowed to Octavia, focus or cmax. Will crunch the numbers and then test drive.£12 lunch for DC, £10 us.
Wander round NT near car garage as it's a lovely afternoon here.
Full boot load to the tip this morning too. Waiting for car boot to start Easter weekend.

Ah cute caglitini and C previously.

Busy day here, I took the Kracher to the patio, it was thick with moss/mud/dog poo. So I could then hang two loads of laundry out without doing the poo avoidance dance. It looks so nice clean. Then my mil appeared. About 2 hours early. Luckily she takes us as she finds us. Roast pork lunch, and did a microwave steamed syrup pud (determined to use the pointless thing). Walked the dogs, with her gsd, who frankly scares the shit out of us (all of us except mil and dp, even my dogs are scared), he's a very good dog, but I'm under no illusion that he couldn't eat us all if he chose to.

So I'm sitting with the Marshalls seed catalogue...I may have made a small list. Theres so much to do outside, but I need to start the toms and cues and courgettes pretty soon.

Dd1 and dd2 have had one sleep over each. I hate them, and our house is truly not up to it. Horses always bite me. It's like they sense me and come over for a nip! Luckily we have no land, as I couldn't stop dp having one if we did.

My chickens are much happier, 3 eggs today.

Cag Shes so beautiful, I love her little cheeks.

veganhuggs.com/creamy-vegan-potato-leek-soup/ Made this, it was lovely. I didn’t have half the spices & I didn’t add any milk.

I’ve found a way of getting two lots of “stock” out of a chicken, cook it in a roasting bag & cut a corner off when cooked to drain the juices into a jug. Scrape the fat off when cold & freeze the juices. It melts into soups really well.

Em nah not really, she can hold herself up in the forward/backward sense, but if that box was wider she would’ve plonked over sideways for sure :o

Shame about that cabinet mammy it’s gorgeous :( happy birthday for Tuesday.

Bought some more storage tubs and started packing them. They are ridiculously cheap (£2.50 20l, £3 30l) and we’ve had so much stuff just hanging around in random shopping bags which is ridiculous really. I know we will need to get cardboard boxes when we move, but I figured we may as well have some boxes that we can keep using after the move too.

I also bought a coat. Not an amazing one if I’m honest. But there just isn’t much around ATM and I really really hate doing that sort of thing online so for the moment it’ll do and I’ll keep an eye out for a nicer one. This one was £25, is two sizes smaller than the previous one :o :o and is very warm so not too bad I suppose.

I love Trofast, we have two tall units and a short wide one used for toys and home ed stuff respectively. Will be getting at least one Kallax when we move as they are perfect for board game storage. Since we will be getting delivery anyway I’ll also replace the Trofast buckets. Would like to sand and paint the units too as they are very tired.

Just picked up my free topaz treat for February a snickers and a can of Coke. Other option was bottle of water & nature valley bar.
Fuelled car using fuel card approx €40
€6 on soft play extras

Left doughnut until tues because there was heavy traffic because of a football match, dc will enjoy it more when they're not full of cake & sweets anyhow.

Ya definitely pity about unit but hey ho

Thanks for birthday wishes
Lonely spoke to a fellow hen lover last night who bought a new house for €70 for her chucks, going to order one. Ours is falling apart and would cost similar to put right

Life good luck with number crunching love my focus saloon but had passing Volvo dealership today

Tiny cag is adorable!

Spendy day today... Paid for lunch/drinms for dh, mil & I. & cakes to take home. About £50. Won't spend much during the week though.

What beautiful weather though! Had a lovely long walk with the dog.

We have had a couple of sleepovers but their bedroom is just so tiny it doesn’t really work. However when we move we will be getting those triple sleeper beds (single on top with a fold out double futon beneath) so people can stay over. I don’t like it either but then I used to absolutely hate it when the neighbour kids wandered in and out too, and I’m really used to that now (although I do sometimes tell my two they’re either in or out as it’s getting cold!).

Is the skip gone now lonely? Money very well spent by the sound of it, amazing progress. We’ve been very slow with getting rid of stuff lately and I’m painfully aware we could be offered housing in the next couple of months. Hence the rush to buy boxes today. Think I’ll head upstairs and continue packing stuff - similar to em it makes sense to pack as if we are moving now.

Need. I know. In theory with them all roughed off and our own land they shouldn't cost much. But somehow..... ..lonely I am contemplating sowing various things. But then I stick my nose out the back door. It's so cold. Today 15 mile dog walk and lunch out. Dp paid. So just petrol 32.

Ooh forgot to mention frugal win - after all my debating about a travel cot, my mum’s friend gave her an old one! Already set up in the spare room! So I’ll buy the £15 mattress recommended on here. I think she even had bedding for it, woohoo!

Smaller frugal win, currently munching free chocolate, DH did an event advertising fair trade stuff and had leftovers. It’s the Coop 39%, sooo creamy. Le yum

Loving the baby pictures.
I was very badly bitten by a pony as a 3/4 year old. It had me round the shoulder and neck and lifted right off the ground - awful bruises that lasted a long time. I have ridden since but horses are not my favourite animal but I do enjoy hearing all the pony stories here

Tires were only 50p in the end so even more frugal than planned.

Made spicy cannellini beans, toast and fried egg for lunch. Making meatloaf for tea although I’m struggling to get the mince fully defrosted given how cold it is here.

Cag I spend my life saying 'you're either in or out!' too!

Oh that’s awful, I would have never ridden again. That pony must have had a right Mardy on it.

Luckily the cat only chews Dh. We don’t bite mommy in this house.

So gorgeous fluffy!