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 💐

Oh sunny I meant to comment earlier on your friend and the Pin thing Eek! eek !eek !..

No worries em I also have a sim only deal but it's no as good as yours!

Sorry you didn't get the job meadow hope you're taking it easy tonight

unescorted definitely a dick

Super building work lonely wish I could do this...having said that we are having to fix a gate we had a handy man put up for us so will soon have the opportunity for DIY

Yes cag I think that's exactly how I feel about Hawking's death also

NSD today but I have some purchases I need to make
-shoes for a wedding I'm attending (ideally the type that don't sink in grass)
-we booked a moss/scarification treatment for the lawn last year, I'd forgotten, they came-need to pay
-new passports

sea DD didn't crawl or roll. It isn't that unusual. Personally I think it shows amazing self belief..... All that walking before they can crawl.

I meant to say I find tiling really therapeutic.... Measuring the spaces, cutting the tiles, putting on the right amount of adhesive, combing it through, lining up the tiles, tap the top tap the bottom check with the spirit level, ease the spacers in..... heavenly. And plastering is like icing a really large cake. Painting sanding and wallpapering - I hate.

Spends: £18.20 on bus travel.

Sorry about the interview, Meadow.

Glad about the fishbone dislodging, Laska.

I like the DIY support group idea, Sunny!

I'm just great at starting diy. Bloody awful at finishing it! But these steps have got to be built. The mud between my new wall and the gas tank is currently the only route up the almost meter into the garden. So slippy in the wet. Bought the bricks, mastercrete and sand ages ago, and we have a cement mixer (gotta love ebay), so no excuses really.

I've been helping dd1 finish her kite for gcse textiles tonight. She did so well by herself, all hand sewn, all I did was a few eyelets and looking for tiny curtain rings (which of course I had, halos for tiny nativity figures!) etc. She had got herself into a deadline tizz and burst into tears. My big strong bolshy teen was suddenly 5 again needing her mum.

meadow very well done for putting yourself through that interview. I guess you know a bit more about the type of people you work for/with now. Onwards and upwards.

Meant to say but didn't. Nice brick work lonely.

Not had a very good night sleep as my anxiety had sky rocketed. FFS.
Also dd came in for a cuddle and fell asleep. She is too big to move but now had a whole king size duvet to her self.

Wow I’ve finally caught up, sorry I haven’t felt like posting for a few days. Meadow so sorry the interview didn’t go your way, your employers sound like arseholes. Life fingers crossed you get your results soon and it’s positive news, pleAse could you share the interview questions link with me? I have an interview on Tuesday.
Mammy good news about the family being supportive.
Em sorry the flat move has pushed back again.
Unescorted it sounds like dh is being a dick, you have an awful lot on your plate at the moment and we are all hear to lend a virtual ear

Lots of spends on event and other stuff after being away with work, need to find time to sit down and do claims today if i can as it’s substantial money

Had a bit of a breakdown on the boss yesterday (not his thing nor is it mine) but I was just so unbelievably exhausted I couldn’t do anything but cry. Still a week until blood tests so at least two until results and lots of important work shit, including interview, in the intervening period. Not quite sure how I will manage it all but I will try. On the plus side I’ve gone right off booze so there will be no wine in our shopping for a while, I’m sure that’s frugal in a wAy

Have a good day everyone

need love the pony Houdini!
lonely impressed here too with the brickwork and with your advanced meal planning, I need just a fraction of your 17 days planned...
laska glad you're bone free now.
Christmas I can understand your anxiety re dd, but as others have said, they are all different. Fingers crossed she does something soon to allay your fears. Hoping for good news from your dad too.
meadow sorry about your interview, doesn't sound like they handled it very well.
wolf I get completely where you're coming from, lately I have had too much on my plate and it just feels overwhelming.

I finally got a better night's sleep last night after ds had his op yesterday. It all went well and we saw the consultant afterwards who was able to tell us he is very confident it was a simple bone cyst and nothing sinister...woohoo! Ds was a complete star through it all. He dealt with it pretty much all himself (his choice). We were spare parts really. He is 16 so we weren't even needed for consent. It felt very strange but I was really proud.
My dmum hasn't been well for a while (on top of her chronic chest condition) and has just been referred for investigations under the 2 week rule for possible cancer. It's hard because I'm an only child, my relationship with my dad is poor at best but my mum means the world to me. My manager is being wonderful and letting me very flexible so I can get to as many appointments as possible with mum & ds. I keep going because I have to and if I stopped I'd never get started again! I had a real wobble on Monday but am just trying not to think about the possibilities for mum, best to wait & see.
Finances here aren't as good as I would've liked but frugality just hasn't been a priority. I need to meal plan properly, shop accordingly and then stick to it. I did remember to ring Virgin & renegotiate our TVs/broadband deal which has saved a few pounds a month.

Manic week made much worse by relatives shitty (seriously shitty ) behaviour.
On the plus side my DSis finally gets it and has woken up to the fact that this is abusive behaviour and is going to get help.
Sigh
Everything hurts -shoulder and right hand/wrist .
FML

May be an indoors day today. My goals are:

Clean ensuite.
Hoover bedroom floor.
Change bedding.
Sort ds’ clothes and put away.

We may go for a walk around the lanes.

Spends yesterday £51 M&S on two basic cardigans (black and navy) to replace my ancient ones. And also a jumper with a cat on it. I think dsis will like it. But it was only in my size. She’s one size up but is humming and has lost some booby weight recently. So it may fit her. If it doesn’t I’ll wear it.

Ds was awake at 645 this morning. Which is good. Ish. I want to start getting him up earlier so we’re ready for nursery and work. We left him in his cot for a bit and he flipped himself over. That kid needs to learn to flip himself back. Less worry for Mummy that way!! Ha!

Still waiting for response from lawyer. I found out how other apartment here sold and we’ve done exactly the same as them. Agreed to leave £5k behind for work to be returned to us in 6 months if work isn’t done in that time. If some is used for work to the apartment we’ll get the balance back.

It’s a huge amount. But we feel confident that any works will not cost that much. I think in reality they’ll be somewhere between £500 - £1k. But money where mouth is and all that. Helps that it’s the same figure as upstairs neighbour left.

Nothing to add, but placemarking

Eyebrows booked for later €7
Takeaway booked on justeat app €10.50 15% back on my ptsb rewards
Balance left in my fun money category for bank holiday weekend €4

Any fun I will have will be with dc and I've budgeted €20 in fun category on joint account also.

Also downloaded the restaurant app and will get 10% off the first time I use it.

I downloaded the app for bank where I hold my main cc also.

so only cc2 can't be accessed online now.

I reset my password for my Apple ID you see

I hope the lawyers/bank go for that em it sounds very sensible. And being in limbo must be awful.

Blowing a hooley here, so far I've walked 1/2 mile to retrieve an empty dumpy bag and tarp that the wind relocated from the front garden. I think it is an inside day today, but dp is threatening to mix me some more mortar. Not fecking likely.

Me too lonely if they don’t I’ve said to dh we stop and wait until we have this bloody fire cert.

Our buyers are comforted in the fact that we haven’t shown the apartment to anyone else (technically we could...) so fingers crossed.

I’ve just received invoices for ds’ nursery. 😭 £447 for April. £968 for May and every month going forwards. That’s 3 days a week. Eeep. Thank god it’s not full time 5 days!
Have set up the one off payment and the monthly one.

Ds is happy now. He’s rolling around on the floor. Keeps flipping himself over. Can’t flip back but is enjoying doing it. Washed his sheepskin (because it was covered in porridge) and it’s taking forever to dry. Apparently I need to fluff it after it’s dried.

Hi

WigWig I’m about to buy my first drill I’m sick of spending stupid money on handymen to do things! I expect it’ll take a few years to get our new place how we want it saving as we go to do stuff.

Sea my DD didn’t really crawl she did this side sweep then drag herself along and she didn’t walk until 19 months but I had he same worries and even took her to the GP to get her checked out.. I don’t think anybody could have said anything to me at that time for me not to worry anyway!!

Em im supposed to be having my Invisalign permanent braces today but my throat is so swollen I can hardly open my mouth and I’m super contagious with a horrid bug that DD gave me! Funny that the first time she didn’t get her vitamins properly and she picks up a bug straight away from the nursery germ pool! I dunno... feel rotten.

Our little Ebay shop is really nothing fancy just something my mum and I do happy to DM info if anyone wanted it kind of worried I mentioned it now not sure about rules / not on here to sell anything!

Fell off a horse (not my horse because my horse is still crazy and I can’t hack her out alone or in big groups yet) so decided last minute to just hop on one of the oldies and did this really daft slipping off the side of her 45 minutes away from the farm in the rain - what a depressing walk that was!! I’ve been told time and again horses don’t like hacking alone and I just don’t listen sometimes I’m stubborn!! (And have lots of daytime when DD in nursery free not like the other 9-5ers so miss some of the main hacks). Bit fed up of owning a horse this week after laying on the beach and coming back to the cold, muddy and knackering slog... sick of these scans on her legs called mud fever and sick of the poor hung being stuck in a Tony paddock ankle deep in mud as were waiting for the grass to come in properly (which is how things are with inner city farms). Spent £600 just on my farm bill this month on her, £260 part livery incl food, £160 special shoes with gels as she has flat feet, £130 10 lessons, £50 on a few extra days and some extra hay I felt she needed grrrrr

Last month was a “watch every single penny in envelopes” this month has completely run away from me!

I need to reconcile our account and do my life planner book but on the whole ( excluding holiday) our spending is NOTHING like it was before Feb!

Every purchase considered properly and that impulsive feeling gone over buying....

I’ve got 50 pieces of my clothes on Ebay now, I’ve another 50 items sat in the guest room waiting to be taken photos of them listed here and there, I’ve sat down and taught my mum how to Ebay too so we’re quite excited to work towards a fund for things that are “nice to have” for the house!

Totally lost my place sorry ladies!

NSD today!

Em can you get tax relief on it?

Nofilter I would be interested in anything boys age 5+ and girls age 8+.

Work is boring today I have nothing to do. Trying to set bil up with someone at work

wreck yes I think we can. The nursery will issue us with a tax certificate for this year in December (our tax runs jan-Dec here) not sure how much we can offset but anything’s better than nothing.

One load of washing on. One in the dryer.
Ensuite cleaned.

We’ve been for a walk. 5km around the lanes. Up the hills. Ds was zero help. He just sat their in his pram. Laughing at Mummy struggling to push his 20lb weight plus pushchair up the hills. Ha! But. We did it. I listened to the radio on the way.

Have also found the podcast function on my phone. Anyone got any recommendations?

Scrambled eggs with spinach and cheese for lunch. And a Diet Coke.

Hello, sorry I didn’t get time to post yesterday. I really appreciate the kind comments about my worries re. DD’s development, and your own experiences of things not going by the book but being fine in the end. (Laska no worries, I knew what you meant and think that might be what’s going on with dd too!). I know I shouldn’t worry too much but I am haunted by my experience with DS where I went from mild concern to stomach-clenching fear in the space of a couple of weeks. It was the hardest time of my life.

Anyway, we’re back to basics now with loads of tummy time. She doesn’t like it much so was very noisy and grumpy yesterday. Also had a very disturbed night and i had to go into her several times, which is unusual these days so I didn’t know what was going on. But this morning I found her absolutely streaming with a cold and a fever so I guess that’s the mystery solved! I will go a bit easy on her today as she is a sorry slimy wee thing!

North I’m so glad the op went well. I though of you guys yesterday when I was listening to the radio because they were talking about children over 16 giving their own consent for surgery (I wasn’t sure whether your DS was quite 16 but I thought thereabouts). Still your baby but yet now deemed ‘competent’! Anyway, a big relief that it's not anything sinister. Will he need any further treatment?

I’ll have to read back, I caught up with the thread late last night but retained pretty much nothing

Oh, impressive brickie skills though Lonely!

Christmas I kind of know what you mean there. I have a very good friend with an ASD ADHD diagnosed son, and watching her lovely younger daughter growing up, I'm very aware of any deviation from normal development. I hope things are pottering along well there for your little lass. I bet she's a real ray of sunshine.

Lonely I'm a starter too. I know exactly what you mean. You should see me sewing on Beaver badges. The language is not at all proper for the activity.

I went out and bought very expensive shoes for ds to help with his running mission. My neighbour says his clarks ones were too heavy and stiff, so we've bought Biomechanics ones that are light and soft. She examined him and says he's got quite double jointed hips, which may be why he's struggling to drive his legs hard when running. We've to do lots of hip wiggles to make the muscles strong.

We are painting at the weekend & my language will be similar sunny.

£9 cat food
£1.89 eggs.

Finally took the bastard shoe cabinet to the tip, 12 years I’ve been trying to get rid of that thing.

Kerrygold butter is on topcashback groceries, £1 back & some other Irish stuff.

www.hotukdeals.com/deals/beko-dfn04210w-a-rated-12-place-setting-dishwasher-15920-co-op-ebay-2909482 Cheap dishwasher.

Good luck with the DIY projects nofilter
Your neighbour sounds great sunny is she a physio?
Hope your DD feels better soon seacow
Thanks for the tip cash back recommendations fluffy

Didn't achieve a NSD or ESOD, I did manage a 'damage limitation day' though

Medicine
Nappies
Diet Coke
Sweets

Obviously first two essential, second two could have done without

Then I mooched round town and didn't spend anything else so pleased

Continuing my constructive streak I opened up some savings accounts for the children, put my money to better use

I keep thinking of how much money I've frittered away over the past 10-14 years and it's astonishing, at least I'm taking steps in the right direction though

I contacted fitbit when a piece came off the back of mine, purchased it from ebay so it wasn't their issue. When ebay complaint came to nothing, as item was purchased in July 17, fitbit have graciously give me a 25% discount on a fitbit from their current range. It would mean spending €120+ and the one I have is working perfectly so I probably won't purchase one. Great company to deal with though