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 💐

em that’s so annoying! But your DM is so lovely and helpful.

My new boss keeps looking at me like i’m a moron each time I ask something. Apparently it is his normal look, but I am not liking it. At all. I really need to give this time, but I think school summer holidays will be my cut off though for if I stay. I’m not dragging this out for 13 years like the last job . If I quit, I think I will do some studying instead until DD2 starts school the following September. Either HR or accountancy are my top choices. Do our accountant frugaleers recommend the AAT courses as the best route?

Got offered Wimbledon tickets in the ballot. Court no 1 on the last Sunday, but I doubt much will be happening then? Anyone know/been?

£115 Road tax

Packed lunch taken as well as for DP so now two lots of lunch purchases being saved

Afternoon.

Thanks guys for the reassurance, kind thoughts re DH. You are right unescorted, it's the draining nature of being someones crux for long periods that's the hardest. The long troughs are the hardest. I'm incredibly self sufficient and 'unneedy' too, god knows how I'd cope if I were!

I'm really sorry the day didn't go to plan seacow, I guess now that I can see that your DS might be overwhelmed. Perhaps as parents we sometimes get lost in what we think our DC might enjoy or benefit from, rather than what they actually do need and want, but it was definitely too good an opportunity to miss.

Hope your planning and interview prep is going okay life.

Bloody house sales em, there's a reason why the saying is that they are one of the 3 most stressful occurrences in life for sure. Especially when folk give you conflicting information and you are not the expert.

Tayto Was it what you thought? Hope you feel better soon. Lease you'll feel better pretty soon now.

Yum to Turkish food Creme.

Laska Are you okay? Has the bone dislodged do you think? Might be worth taking Girlie's advice.

Mammy has your DH mentioned the conversation again, or is it 'ignore what you said and it never happened' kind of a situation?

I've managed a NSD and 2 shitty, rainy dog walks...

Yesterday, DC got me a running bobble hat, wine and running socks. I ran 21 miles in thick and disgusting mud, so was knackered and in bed by 8.30pm, DSIL made tea though so bonus.

Three more bags to charity shop. And £34 petrol. Df came with. He started getting annoyed at me when I was getting petrol. Because I only put £34 in. “Fill it up!” “I have!!!” “Don’t be stupid you’ve only put £34 in it! That’s last me a week....” he then tried to put more in but duh full.

He also then told me off for not having a petrol cap (a twirly one which goes in the petrol “hole”) and for just closing the “petrol door” on the side of the car. Pointed out that we’ve never had a cap. It isn’t designed for one. He wouldn’t have it. Had to check himself.

Stressful day.

On the plus side I collected ds’ new twirly car seat. Woop.

em is your df a man who thinks women know nothing about cars? Glad you were proved right twice.

Twirly car seats are the best and resale value is really good too. Mine sold for a good price 7 years after buying it and it serving 3 children in the interim (one of whom wasn't mine )

need exactly what you said, ignore that the conversation happened and it'll go away, increased joviality when dc are around and ignores me completely when they're not, suppose he's painting a picture for them of how nice it is to have Daddy at home

Lovely gifts for mothers day, totally you!

bacon sorry to hear things aren't going well at your new job, will it improve do you think?

I don’t know really mammy , it is too soon to tell so I will keep going for now. The job I did have my eye on there which could get vacated as soon as later today, appears to be massively underpaid for what it is but could be good experience. But I don’t really want to swop old job stress to new job stress iyswim.

Sorry to hear DH is not really getting the message. What is your next step now?

Love What's your new job?

Mammy Acts can't go on forever. I hear sil is very calm when new dp spills drinks, that will change 😆.

em I think parents still see children as 5yo, old enough to wipe their own bums, not old enough for anything else. I have never known a house sale go this close to the wire like yours is.

£7 Aldi bulk bought cleaning stuff and body stuff.
£1.65 sains spices and yellow split peas. 10p bananas
£6.50 parcel but dh will pay me back tonight.
£5 catfood.

Life Good luck for tomorrow I hope you get the job.

Bacon, I haven't been before on Men's Finals day, but I'm a HUGE tennis and Wimbledon fan. You should see the finals of the Mixed Doubles and possibly Ladies' Doubles, and wheelchair and veterans' events on no.1 court, especially if there's been bad weather and they gave a bit of a backlog to clear. I hope the job situation improves for you soon.

Always nice to have an understanding GP, Sunny.

Well done, Need. 21 miles!

Fingers crossed for tomorrow, Life. Very best of luck.

NSD so far.

Holy fuck. Ds just rolled over. Like just twirled himself over. Clever boy.

mammy sort of. He’s a guy who thinks he’s right all the time...and because his car has a petrol cap and takes a gazillion litres and costs a fortune to fill up mine should too. He’s always taught me to be superbly independent though.

fluffy tell me about it. It’s frustrating to say the least. If we don’t know anything further by close tomorrow I’m going to suggest we push to next week. All property here has to be registered in court and property court only sits on a Friday afternoon. We don’t have to present for selling (we can) but do for buying. We go, put our hands up when our name is called and then they do the key switch.

Thanks, I'm saying my competencies out loud and trying to thing of what questions they may ask

Rubbish stressful day but didn't spend any money. Just checking in quickly, have lots to do.

Hope everyone is doing ok. I come on the thread and then when I come back 8 pages have gone! Can't keep up at all I'm afraid.

Life Good luck with interview. I have mine tomorrow too. I feel sick with anxiety about it since this afternoon when I found out a lad from another team is applying for it too and he was supposed to have his interview on Friday but it got moved cos of my LM's availability as he is interviewing him, I didn't even hear about interview until the Friday. I feel like I have been treat so underhand the whole time it has caused me so much stress and I guarantee I won't be getting that job as someone somewhere does not want me to have it. Maybe just because I'm going on ML soon. But I'm sure either way they will let us know tomorrow and then at least it will all be finally over!

Em Sorry house move is going all wonky, it must be so stressful. Have some .

Fluffy My parents think I'm about 13 I reckon. They never seem to have moved on much from me being that age.

I did have a quick flick back and need don't worry I agree re: my parents. Well I say parents but tbh it's mostly just my dad. It has been hard to learn that actually I'm doing fine and will never be able to meet his absurd expectations of me because even if I met one benchmark there would always be a new one etc. It's just hard to get out of ingrained thinking habits and things. And Seacow I did an entrance exam when I applied to Oxford but it wasn't an Oxford-specific one as the course I applied for there is a nationwide exam that Oxford wanted rather than their own specific one. I did very well on that too. I did for the most part have a great time at uni though and have fond memories of lots of stuff about my uni and my time there, I would recommend it to people. It was full of people like me who had originally planned to go to RG/more prestigious unis and used it as their insurance (although not an ex-poly).

DH and I had a panic yesterday when I checked my balance at an ATM and realised our Dublin holiday things only went out a few days ago and I'm going to be in my overdraft this month now. DH has been in his ever since he finished FT employment in August really I've just been giving him money to his account now and then but I've not been in an overdraft since about February 2017 so it's a bit gutting to being going back. We've already booked our holiday and that now though so there's not much going back, just need to try and tighten our belts in other aspects. I've asked DH to do some matched betting but then I asked him months ago and he didn't...I'm doing 5 hours overtime on Saturday for a bit of extra cash.

Em I suspect thinking you're right all the time with no research needed is carried on the Y chromosome.

Is baby boy surprised he can roll? Catface had better learn to hustle her bustle.

Meadow it’s very confusing but matched betting gets easier. He might end up being an absolute genius at it.

fluffy yep. He’s so suprised. But grins when he’s on his tummy. We’ve cheered it so he’s just doing it loads. For the last hour everytime I turn away he’s on his tummy! Haha!

Catface has been watching him. We sat next to her earlier and he tried to pat her. He gets silly excited and smiley when he sees her. She bumped her head against his hand. I am so proud of her. She had a whole bag few dreamies for that.

To be fair to df he taught me to do my own petrol, change air filters, change wipers and I know how to change a tyre and check oil.

Gosh this thread moves incredibly quickly!!

Supermarket 35
Cafe 13.50

Feeling bad as, aside from the loaves of bread and pyjamas I bought, definitely were not essential purchases!

The more I commit to frugal living, the more I see patterns of behaviour

Issues:

1. supermarkets and their 'deals' seem to be a particular downfall, I seem to come out with more than I went in for

2. the children, I'm very good at being frugal for myself but struggle to extend to family... I know they don't need new toys but find it hard to say no

Need to think up some solutions

Right off to read all the new posts

Supermarkets are the epitome of retailing psychology though, it’s easier to be sensible in a clothes shop but a supermarkets spent a lot of money working out the best way to get us to spend & it works really well. Martin Lewis calls them cathedrals of consumerism or something like that. It’s you against them.

You could set up a random toy budget per child. Set it low not high and when it’s gone it’s gone.

Good luck for tomorrow meadow. If nothing else it’s interview experience.

fluffy it’s general admin so reception, producing invoices, doing some accounts work. But then also making sure the workshop is working to the right deadlines and taking customers in and out. The customers sometimes make you stand outside in the rain for 20 mins while they ask all sorts of questions. I hadn’t appreciated the last bit, i’m more of a sitting at a desk kind of person.

creme if we can get a babysitter then we will buy the Wimbledon tickets as our birthday presents. The travel will be costly too. So excited about going!

Good luck life and meadow for your interviews tomorrow

Good luck life and meadow

Thanks fluffy I have actually ordered a Martin Lewis book (second hand of course !)
So I'll look forward to reading it when it arrives ....
Congrats on your LO rolling over!

Wig I often get my dc stuff from the charity shop. They also LOVE going to the library. We have loads of books at home but they still love borrowing different ones.

£25 swimming lesson for ds. Think I'll need fuel tomorrow which is annoying as I'm not going anywhere that has it cheap

Good luck meadow. Even if they say no, make them work.

Ah em he's doing so well, as it's catface. Sorry the sale is dragging on

I'm not feeling confident but I will do my best. Who knows.

Also, I can't believe I didn't say, thanks for the well wishes for DGuineaPig. He went back to the vets today and they knocked him out with opiates and sorted his teeth out, they had gone all funny and wonky so needed filing to the right size and shape again and he has a wound on his mouth where his funny eating with his teeth has been cutting his gum, poor little mite. He is still losing more weight so deffo not out of the woods but has pain relief and he is happy to eat his pellets just very slowly, he's going back in a week for a review but fingers crossed he should be ok.

Good luck for tomorrow life and meadow. Life I know it is short notice but if you are doing a CS competency based interview go to jobs on gov.uk & selected Homes England as the organisation. In the candidate pack there is a full set of sample questions....

Em frustrating re the completion date. But great news on the Roly poly DS.

Need just shout if you need a sympathetic ear. Dh suffers from depression so understand the conflict of wanting to be sympathetic to their situation but at the same time needing your own head space.

I have managed to do a nsd.... Not intended just turned out that way.

Is there unescorted. I can't see them. Can you pm me a link?

Def go to Wimbledon if you have the opportunity, tickets are like gold dust!!

I've had a nice day, went to see my best friend and their new baby who was very cute. Spent £10 on food, I took lunch for both of us and £33 petrol.

I've got a meeting with dds year head tomos afternoon and am nervous about that, hopefully will come away feeling reassured though.....