Frugaleers chatting and saving in the April sunshine.

[SunnyLikeThursday]

Welcome to the new thread. This is a support thread for chatting and discussion of family budgeting.

Sunny why not? No point keeping them in the wardrobe

sunny you made those?!?? I am in awe of people who can do that.

I realised a while ago that it was silly of me to save things (clothes toiletries etc) for best. Just bloody wear it. (Exceptions being the couple of ball gowns/cocktail dresses I have).

At present I’m in My gym gear. Dm called. I’m to drop SS up to her and go to the gym. She doesn’t want to see me fback for at least hour and half. Dh must have planned this. I’m grateful as I’m getting off my arse and doing something but wish it’d been my choice iyswim #neverhappy

SS? I know who you're talking about but what is it short for?

That’s amazing Sunny. The neckline of the top is so neat, that’s really difficult to do. And for all your talk about being flat-chested you’ve got a decent pair there, very in proportion

You’ll need a cardi though.

Morning all - on annual leave this week (woo) although it's dangerous because if I get bored, I nip out to the shops. I'm a compulsive spender - I have always got to be buying "stuff"

Nocuts - I’m having chilli for tea tonight – it’s one of my faves -I’m very disorganised when it comes to diets and meal plans but I currently WFH every day now which is helping as if I have ‘nothing in’ I can nip to the supermarket and get someone (although that occasionally leads to the overspending….). I always have some home made soup in the fridge though for the speed side of things.
Sea - I sent an e-mail to the CEO of EDF following Fluffy telling me to do so, and I got some compensation from them, so it’s worth doing.
Sunny now I am working from home, I live in jeans and tops – I used to dream of dressing like this every day when I worked but now I’ve been doing it for 6 months the novelty has worn off and I miss being able to smarten up and thinking of an outfit to put together (although in reality I just used to throw on whatever didn’t need ironing LOL).

I miss dressing for work too Scarlet. As for saving things for best, I’ve got the tiara I wore to my wedding. I get it out every anniversary and wear it while I’m bathing the children. DH does this —>

Thanks for the kind comments on my outfit. I really appreciate it. I realised I'm still dressing to please a bf baby, when ds weaned four years ago. Thought it would be nice to try proper clothes again.

Christmas I laughed so much at your comment. Thanks you for that too. :-)

Em I like your idea of not leaving the good clothes in the wardrobe. I might try that.

THat was a rubbish start to your day wolf and frustrating about the cc interest too. Is the cc card a small enough amount that you could make a big push to try and clear it?

I miss dressing up for work too and got sad the other day when I saw something in the shops I liked I could’ve worn to my old job. Nowadays it is skinny jeans and warm jumpers at work. I only wear blue denim at home though so I feel I am dressing up a bit for work though

Yesterday’s spends
£9.50 M&S
£30 ebay on a second hand Ted Baker dress
£18 Toys r us

It was really sad going to our local toys r us yesterday. I remember going there as a child to look at toys. Now it is getting all emptied out. Although some of the stuff they were selling off would still be cheaper on amazon.

Taking both DDs to have their haircut later.

I love the vision of seacow bathing the children in her tiara 👸

Sea the tiara really cheered me up. Travel woes continue as some poor person has been hit by a train so my out of London trains are all cancelled. Working on plan b.

Love the card is way too big to clear. Moving it to that card at 0% has helped us knock a chunk off but not enough for us to overpay and frankly there’s no spare money to overpay with. Will look to shift it to 0% again in a couple of months

mammy for some reason my phone auto corrects ds to SS.... doh.

GYM time. Curretly cross Trainering and internetting while listening to our wedding playlist. We asked people to suggest songs popped them on an iPod and had a dance off. It was amazing. Currently “breathe” by Sean-a-Paul and blue Cantrell. Song of my yooooooooof! Ha!

Morning. On holiday here. DD has to go to a revision day at school...not that she is behind but her lovely English teacher has put on a holiday session for the students that are hovering between grades. DS is out with his friends in the next village so it is so peaceful. I feel nice walk with Christ over the hills.

Sea I love your humour ...I think you get it from your dad.
Wolf I hate it when the trains are skewed. With my eye I am driving less and need to rely on public transport more and more.
Em your mil is a smile and wave situation isn't she. Practice the half embarassed shrug for when the kids repeat in public.

NSD yesterday.

We're off to Galway today. Trying to ignore the fact that it's misty out and raining. We're only going for two days but we're packing extra clothes in anticipation of getting wet. And packing plastic bags so we can take the wet clothes home again without getting everything else wet. We're starting to look at indoor options like the cinema and swimming pool. Which would be fine except we could just stay home and do those things. And I can't go swimming anyway because it's the wrong time of the month. But I guess DH and DD could swim and I could sit in the cafe beside the swimming pool. One of my friends might be in Galway this week and if so, we could meet her for lunch.

Sunny I'm very impressed with your ability to make clothes. I've always been rubbish at knitting and sewing.

mammy I think SS is a typo and should be DS

Seacow the image of you bathing the DC in your wedding tiara made me laugh. Good luck with your application for Carers Allowance. We're here anytime you want to chat about your Dad. It's a very tough time for you and we're all here to do some handholding.

Welcome happytobe

Wolf sorry to hear about the credit card and flat tyre

Now I'm laughing at Unescorted going for a walk with Christ over the hills . Now that he's risen from the dead and all that.

sea I still have my weddingg garter. I wear it when washing up on our anniversary...I get a similar look from dh....

Haha!

Morning all. Had a watershed moment last night...dd1 went to an organised pub quiz. In town. To a pub! She is 15, was with 4 other 15 year olds (and 2 sets of the parents were there too!) I was so proud of her, she totally didn't dress up (jeans, trainers, polo shirt) and put no make up on. She had a coke!

So, like a saddo pfb mum, I stayed close by in the car but had to go for a wee in maccy d's as every where was closed (bank holiday in a small town), so got a latte. She had a good time.

I also ordered the yarn to finish the crochet blankets for dd2 and 3. Turns out the blanket would be big enough for a double bed (did I ever mention that I over order yarn?), so have split it to do one for each girl. Same but different. Will need bigger borders to make them fit the beds, but will look lovely as counterpane type things (is that the right word?). So, paypal, £43.

em your bloody mil! She is an idiot. The tension prior to visits is palpable.

sunny very impressed! I used to make a lot of clothes, so know how hard sleeves and zips and necklines are.

The snow is melting now, so wet and smushy outside. The dogs went out for a wee and are covered in mud. Sigh. And my very fat spaniel needs a shave. It is a thankless task.

I am in the same boat with 0% cards. Coming to the end of the offers, and cannot tart them, or pay them off fully. I'm going to move the max I can to a long term low % offer, it's the best I can do right now.

sunny your outfit is lovely I dream of making clothes I have lots of ideas but never put into practise... as dh reminds me each time he sees the unused sewing machine I pestered him to buy Me!!

I'm loving the tiara wearing for bathing the children! I had sparkly converse for my wedding shoes which I wear when I go out and the girls like wearing my flower clips I had in my hair :)

scarlet I love chilli I'm just about to make bubble and squeak for brunch and might do chilli for girls tonight...

wolf what a crappy morning I hope it gets better for you 😁

cag I love the library I don't visit much anymore though as me and dd1 both have kindles. Might pop in there today as it's near the shops.

Today I'm heading to post office, charity shop and Lidl. I'm literally handing over the charity stuff no looking so I don't get tempted to buy things!!! I've written my list for lidl but will have both girls with me so sticking to it might be difficult 😂

Ha! Grumpy DH is amazing..😉

sunny I just think if you have lovely things use them/wear them etc. Ima. Recent convert to this though. I think I just hit the point where I have too much “stuff” and realised there was little point saving things “for best”

To caveat - I have 3 ball gowns - a long black floor length, a navy floor length and a forest green dress (which if I’m honest makes me look a bit like Jessica rabbit...) and 3 cocktail dresses (black, navy, red). I rarely do a posh smart “do” so these are really for best.

But I use my mulberry bags every day (why not?! Otherwise they’d just sit in their dust bags and not be loved) I wear my “fancy” jewellery (either my grandmas pearls (earrings and a necklace) or the diamond set my parents gave me for my 30th) every day.

I am still in awe that you made that outfit. I wouldn’t know where to start. Or have the patience.

I took a sewing course a couple of years ago and made this. It’s a toaster cover (handy). I gave it to Dm for Christmas. We also made aprons, bags etc. But this bloody chicken. Man it took all of my patience. Literally blood sweat and tears went into this.

So far nsd. Ds is being a nap refuser today. He was too excited with Dm. Haha!

£6.79 top up shop in aldi. It should last all week.
£6 on 4 led bulbs in poundworld.
£4 Morrisons, soya milk and squash.
£1.26 Lidl pitta bread
£7 two brass lock nuts for the leaking sinks
£6 drill bits for fitting the wall lights.

This is why I hate diy, one job begets another job.

Sunny That top looks lovely on you and is very neat work

And £3 colour catchers and own brand cordysyl in home bargains.

fluffy Have u had those bulbs from poundworld before and are they ok? We had some from the poundshop and they literally exploded from the sockets in 2 rooms and shattered everywhere. I'm nervous about buying cheap ones again in case it happens again but we need a few.

em I also have no best clothing but then I mostly live in character t-shirts and skinny jeans 😂 my dds don't either dd2 will often wear a party dress we have been given to the park! She has several monsoon ones I daren't think how much they were new 😂

Swimming became cheaper €12, my swimsuit is in swim bag in back of au pairs car!

€148.20 grocery shopping, attached are the upgrades worth about €5 extra I also had code for €15 off €155 spent so total shopping value €167+ and em finally got cinnamon & raisin bagels dc raided the babybel lights so much for them being for me

There's a house for sale behind swimming pool part of a holiday home estate 3bed semi €75k, I've always lived in the country and would like to continue doing so, this would be a kind of compromise though. There are annual management fees and some house are occupied all year round. 5 mins to work, 20 mins to dc school.

Lonely well done on last night, [proud emoticon]

No cuts i also have an unused sewing machine but I paid for it myself. I don't dream of making stuff just being able to do simple repairs

Lovely sewing Sunny
My plan is to take over one of the DC rooms as a sewing room when they go back to uni hopefully soon
Then I can leave it out and pop up there and do a bit here and there.
Ive got several dress patterns to try out and lots of fabric.

Love all this ‘getting our best out’. You are all right though, I shouldn’t just keep my tiara for anniversaries. I’d wear it now but I haven’t washed my hair and it deserves a clean head. Maybe tomorrow.

I have a lot of black tie stuff (several ball gowns /cocktail dresses) and also weddingy outfits as I used to go to lots of that sort of event. It doesn’t really feature now though so I should cull it all. I’ll get round to it when DS notices I am using all his wardrobe space . My wedding dress is stuffed under my bed in a Bag for Life. I had every intention of treating it with respect but one of our guests chucked s full glass of port down the skirt of my raw silk dress. I doubt that’s coming out so I’ve no idea what to do with it!