March Frugaleers continued. In which we report spends, share money saving advice, chat about pretty much everything and post pet pics.

[Cagliostro]

Welcome one and all! Newbies and lurkers always welcome 💐

wig yes. Sim only deal. But sadly you can’t have it. As it’s a local company - we don’t have the likes of O2 Ee gifgaf etc here. Not allowed.

cag chips after swimming is like a right. They should really just include them in the price.

Dm fed me and ds lunch. Yippee. She gave ds his porridge and let me have my hot cuppa. Ds has also been napping in his travel cot at theirs since 2. I ran home, did some washing tidied up washing up laundry away hoovered and have posted my eBay sale and picked up two eBay buys.

Am annoyed at one as it absolutely stinks of smoke.

I’ve reported to eBay and left feedback. I’m sure it’ll be ok once I’ve washed it but not the point.

Ugh em not the point that it will clean, but ugh, how grim.

I have built some wall! It will be steps up into the garden, but is a wonky, curved wall just now. Feel gritty with brick dust, so might treat myself to a long bath later. I have £46.50 in my £2 and 50p smarties tubes. How quickly it adds up. Bear in mind I usually save nothing, and spend on credit, so to have even this little bit (and my £1 a day in my isa) makes me happy. Both laska ideas iirc, so thanks

lonely you are totally amazing! The things you can do are endless...
I would still be sitting thinking - I wonder if I should get a quote to get a wall put up - whilst you've already started building one 😂

I cancelled a totally unnecessary spend today - I was paying £5 a month for a VPN thing I bought on holiday about 4 years ago. It was through PayPal and really easy to cancel... so why didn't I do it years ago?? I have spent £225 on nothing

That wall's amazing Lonely. I feel silly for hiring someone to lay slabs now. I wonder if I could have done it myself? wonky slabs LOL!

I wonder if we could do more DIY stuff if we posted pics here to encourage each other along and get advice when it's going wonky? I keep thinking I should be able to tile my own bathroom, but I struggle with things like that if I don't have someone to talk to when I'm doing it. Maybe we could be a DIY general cheerleading group too?

The news says that Toys R Us are selling off their stock cheap before shutting. Has anybody been?

Tiling isn't easy sunny you need spacers and a level and a tile cutter etc etc

I went past a toys r us at the weekend, the sign said up to 25% off which I didn't think was enough to make me go in

Negative spend day - returned both of the leather jackets as I'm caught across the shoulders in them and a bigger size would swamp me, hoping Littlewoods will leave the €15 credit on my account

Dc were at the doctors with H, I haven't checked bank account yet to see what it cost but necessary. Dd has been to doctors three times this year.

Lonely I love red brick, that looks really cool

Payday tomo, first full one since jan can't wait

I cleaned my car, I'm now 55c richer
Cleaner couldn't come but that's a deferred spend.

Wreck that's what I was thinking. I suppose it's just because of the really harsh competition of online shops over bricks-and-morter ones.

Having said that, I went to our local independent shoe shop today and got a fantastic pair of shoes for ds, chosen by a really good fitter who knew exactly what she was doing, so there is definitely still a market for local shops. Phew!

Oh yes we always go independent for shoes

Snuggly was planning to go to toysrus at the weekend.

I also go independent for shoes for dc.

Holy moley €101.80 €50 for Doctor and balance for pharmacy, 2 creams - one of which we're not to use(why buy it then?) and calpol 6+ because they're too strong for Parapaed(first story, second was pharmacy didn't have it) and paralink which is suitable from 2 months to 6 years for the same children who should be taking calpol 6+
We have never used calpol because of the extra additives compared to baby Panadol

sunny tiling is hard. I can do it. I did our kitchen floor and walls.

I watched a million you tube videos and dh made me start on the floor in the bit which would be covered by our undercounted fridge.

The walls are mosaic tiles so not as bad if you mess up.

Dinner - salmon fishcakes, rocket salad and poached eggs on top.

I actually welled up at the news about Hawking this morning and DH was very upset too. It shocked me just how upset I was tbh. He was a great scientist but then that's not why I admired him so much tbh, it was more because he was a great and powerful voice for vulnerable people in society, he wasn't afraid to get his voice on the record about things like the damage austerity does and how the NHS needs to be protected etc. His voice will be really missed.

Cag Em When I was little and my dad used to take me, my brother, and sister swimming we always got chips from the café after!

DIY is not a thing I will ever be able to do tbh, my coordination is too bad cos of being on the autistic spectrum. DH on the other hand has good coordination and generally gets quite enthusiastic about that sorta thing which is useful.

So I didn't get that job, unsurprisingly. It's so unfair and underhand how they've been about it all. The other lad who applied also didn't get it, so apparently we are both so terrible that it qualifies as "exceptional circumstances" for them to hire someone externally. If they're following their own recruitment policy.... I also got told the decision would be made in the Team Leader meeting, yet we both got our rejection e-mails about 2 minutes before the managers all then disappeared into their TL meeting. Then there is only one of them who we are meant to ask for feedback who promptly responded and told me it would have to wait til next week as she's conveniently off all the rest of the week. Except she didn't even leave for about 3 hours after, how much would it have been an inconvenience to spend 10 minutes with me to talk about it? Absolutely fuming about it and tbh I'm actually angrier that the other lad didn't get it either. The new company we work for now are just trying to recruit externally to shake up all our teams and it's so unfair. Still, only like 10 weeks to go til ML...!

My spend today was 45p on an apple in the canteen to go with my lunch. It was a brilliant apple too!

meadow 10 weeks left until ML?! Wow! So is that 12 weeks to go then (assuming you’re taking 2 weeks to yourself/selves before due date)?

Exciting times.

I’m sorry you didn’t get the job. It’s a shitty thing they did.

That's rubbish meadow totally in understand why you're pissed off.

I was sad about S Hawkins as well, his will to survive and the fact that he continued to work even when so ill was inspirational.

Have been playing board games with dd, found our old othello game which is fun although once dd got the hang of it could easily beat me!!

DIY is a funny thing really, I am fine with decorating but am a bit more nervous about putting things up that require drilling which is silly really.

Dh started prepping our stairway for repainting. He filled some bits and started sanding but then he decided the whole thing was in an awful state and now there's no paint on the wall at all and we're down to the plaster

Sorry to hear that meadow.

meadow sorry to hear that.
Need kind of... I don't know if it his way of dealing with the stress of waiting for my referrals/ results. Failing that he is shagging a 20 yo and wants me to blame for his guilt. Or we can revert to stereotypes and say he is a typical Yorkshireman. AKA a dick.
Laska glad you are boneless.
Sea it is tough my M&D have both had recalls with their cancer diagnosis. My Mum is fine Dad is still waiting.

Apologies the last month has had an award winning amount of misery lit plotting in. I just need a repressed memory of sitting under the stairs.

Pleased Laska's throat is sorted.

Sunny that's an excellent idea about encouraging each other with DIY. We have wasted £££ over the years on handymen because we were too scared to have a go ourselves.

Yes I did go to Toys R Us. Bought a few things for upcoming birthdays but I'm waiting to see if prices come down more before buying a few other things we would like.

Have just updated ur spreadsheet and realised it is top up shops that are killing us financially. We often need fresh fruit or something between shops but end up listing lots of other things to buy while we're there. We did 4 top ups last week. Not good. I've also realised that on the odd occasion dh has to buy lunch he gets a tenner out of the cash machine, spends a couple of quid on a sandwich and presumably fritters the rest. I've told him all about this amazing modern technology where he could do a contact less payment on his card and just spend what he needs to

Unescorted I am sorry your going through all this. It’s so hard to bear.

That's rubbish Meadow. At least you tried and for that you should be proud after how sick you've been.

Aw Meadow, sorry , but yes it does sound like that they didn't want either of you and had l already made up their minds.. Grim.

So back to the 'rolling over' posts above. its amazing how babies do things back to front sometimes.

My DS didn't crawl until after he walked ! but he walked at just 9 months.... he was a right pain though , he could roll and shimmy early on but he would not move and yelled blue murder if you left the room. v hard as a single parent to do anything when they are like that .. so then i got him one of those baby 'dalek' walkers ( I think they are not recommended nowadays) I 'walked' him holding onto my two fingers for what seemed ages ,. and then he decided after walking that he could crawl! .Duh!

I've been enjoying eating again today , but soup and soft stuff swallowing is ok but tender , bread hurt a bit .. then I tried a gulp of wine just now.. throat is still not liking any of that kind of thing.. (ouch that stings!) so ill be still gargling for a few days yet i think. .

I will be eating fish again though , but being extra careful..I love fish and have never managed do that before.. I blame French philosophers! we were having a bit of an impassioned debate on a quiz clue which featured one when it happened -- and what i know about French Philosophers could be carved on a fish bone!- )

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Pleased the fishbone had gone now. YY to gargle for a few more days though.

Christmas that post might not have sounded so positive for your DD but what i meant was that my DS wouldn't roll of shimmy much by himself either ( even though he could ) he was just determined to be eithercarried about or to get up on his feet using me as a support .. once I had the baby walker he was like a thing possessed , then he walked within weeks having missed out the crawling stage completely