Aspiring to Affording April Amusements

[mammymammyIRL]

Any other suggestions?

Yesterday we went to a nearby park dds have been pestering about... unfortunately the pool bit was being treated so not open. Spent £4.90 on bus fare, £2.90 on tea and £1 on a box of ice creams in Tesco, gave the extra 2 to a grandad and grandson at the park. I refuse to pay £2.20+ on an ice cream each from the park.

Today £37 in Lidl included sun cream.

We had a storm yesterday too was very soothing going to sleep to. I live about 10 mins walk from the local quiet beach or half hour on bus to the hell that is Brighton beach on a hot weekend day 😂

Ah, I love Monty! 😻 I like Gardener's World too, even though I don't like gardening! It's just like watching a fantasy movie for me!

I need to join this thread and am marking my place to start reading tomorrow. Have been an awful spender lately and can not afford it

Sigh. I’ve just had to take ds down to out of hours (against dh’s advice/opinion) I called them for advice as ds seemed to be struggling. Dh refuses point blank to come with me because there’s nothing wrong with ds and he didn’t want to waste their time. Turns out ear infection. Both ears. Antibiotics. But only if he gets worse and ibruprofen and calpol in the meantime. Dh says I was over reacting even calling them. I don’t feel I was. And am glad I did. Poor babyboooo

And we’ve also just had an argument which resulted in him telling me I don’t respect him or trust him. Had to point out that he isn’t a doctor and has the medical knowledge of a toothbrush. So no. I don’t trust that ds is “fine” when he’s clearly not. *disclaimer dh studied sports science and physiology at uni so is more qualified in body related things than a toothbrush. But he is not a medic.

creme me too. I have no garden. I dream of a garden.

Em, I think you did the right thing. I hope both you and DS are asleep now, after your dash. Take care.

Em sometimes mothers just know
However I went to work happily one day thinking ds wasn't too bad, H thought differently and took him to gp in early afternoon and ds ended up in hospital for 4 nights and on oxygen and drip for first one so I think if someone's worried just take to gp

Hello mish. What are you spending on?.

Em you did the right thing. Instinct is important

Gotta trust your instincts. I did once ,(well many times) but once particularly and argued back with the doctors. Dd ended up on an antibiotic drip in hospital with a good outcome.

First day, thanks for all the well wishes

Hi Mish, welcome.

Have you checked you are getting the best deal on your utilities?

Em of course you did the right thing! Doctors would always rather see a well baby 100 tines than miss a poorly one once. Plus poor ds must be in agony, he's too young to tell you and you can't see in his ear which is why you needed a professional to check.

Good luck life!

Hello mish

Good luck Life.

Just to chip in at an entirely different angle on the MD and AT discussion - I used to freelance in garden writing and I got out of it because the personality scrutiny is just crushing. I don't know how they cope with it. I went back to technical writing where it's all about the plants.

Have you seen the Beechgrove Garden? It's really all about the plants, and it's a real breath of fresh air compared to GW, which is all personality.

Welcome mish

Good luck life

Well you made the right call em . I love your description of ‘more qualified in bodily related things than a toothbrush’

I am apprehensive about going to work today due to a disagreement amongst colleagues. The atmosphere will be awful all day again

Yesterday I found two forgotten £5s in my change bag. Finally binned the change bag too- it was the Boots freebie bag and lasted two DC so almost 7 years.

£3.09 in Tesco yesterday

em another echo that you absolutely did the right thing. You have been worried ds wasn't quite right for days. I bet every hcp you saw said you weren't in fact bothering them unnecessarily. My dd2 has scars on her ear drum from repeated infections. Hers never presented as classic sore ears, and she was so placid, her pain was hard to judge. I never risk anything more than 3 or 4 days now, even though they are big.

I love Beechgrove Garden sunny they are a great lot, and cover a lot of food growing, which is what I'm into really. Except sweet peas. I love them.

Dp isn't sleeping. I mean at night. He's asleep just now, has been since about 5am, but this isn't a good pattern. Been like this since he came off his ad's, so back to the gp he goes as he's doing my box in

Turns out it wasn't a nsd yesterday, as I ordered all the frozen snake food. £74 but this will last 5 snakes 12 weeks. Dp usually buys this, but needs must. So I'll keep pondering my blueberry order for a few days. It seems decedent to order plants now. I can get £1.99 ones from Home Bargains, but they take about 4 years to fruit. The ones I want to buy are large, ready to fruit bushes.

Thanks y’all for your reassurance. Ds has been dosed up on ibruprofen and paracetamol. He slept fairly well. Woke up at 5. Then I managed to get him back to sleep until 7.

Dh is still being a bit of an arse. But am trying not to let it get to me. I am tired and my ears are sore. 😭😪😢😥 but must soldier on.

I’m hoping I don’t have to antibiotic ds up. Nursery won’t take him for 2 full days while the antib’s are kicking in which is annoying. So let’s hope I don’t have to.

He’s eating and drinking and pooping (just had a poosplosion whilst at dm’s which resulted in an emergency bath!) and peeing. And he’s happy in himself.

Dm came round this morning. And sat with ds while I had a shower. We then went into town.

Spendy morning -

£240 Mothercare on a car seat for their car. This one goes from birth to 12. So we can use it once ds outgrows ours.

£82 warehouse on a dress and a skirt - gift voucher purchase - for wedding/christening/work

£12. Boots on calpol ibruprofen emergency baby jar food and baby shampoo

£19 M&S fruit.

Dh spoke to mil yesterday so I suspect that has something to do with his assyness.

Eventful day. Been to dr and now need an ecg, just precautionary but my bp is (not surprisingly) very high.
Opened new bank account but can’t takr advantage of the switching service as there are a few direct debits I want to leave in the old account as true shared responsibility expenses until any split is finalised so will have to do the hard work myself.

Sorted out contact with sw
Received confusing letter from dh, made me feel sorry for him when I don’t want to feel sorry for him it’s safer to be angry
Beef casserole in the slow cooker for tea.

Ds’ new ball pit is ready at grandmas! He’s been asleep upstairs since 2. wake up baby Mummy wants to play!

Dm made us both lunch. I had a cheese toastie and some salad and ds had sweet potato and beans smushed. Then the emergency bath happened. Thenwe both has a nap. I snuck away and into my old bedroom and napped for almost an hour. Yippee.

cookingonabootstrap.com/2018/02/12/vegan-crumpets-6p-vg-v-df/ Home made crumpets. You can make them like drop pancakes though. I reckon it’s cheaper using aldi flour etc, more like 4p each. You can use cows milk if your not vegan obvs. Home mades more filling.

Aldi are reportedly doing 4kg of potatoes for £1 so will visit tm. Those Homebargains ones I bought were sprouting when I opened them. I’ll still eat them though. Prob make potato soup of some sort.

£10 petrol.
£12 top up shop. Dh still low carbing. He didn’t know what a carb was when I met him. I’ve created a monster.

Frugal things;
Bought frozen chicken livers to make pate for cheap but nutritious breakfasts.
Found out Tesco unsweetened soya milk doesn’t contain maltodextrin anymore so I don’t have to buy the organic stuff. 41p per pack saving.
Think that’s it...it’s only Monday though.

What things do people recommend from Aldi? I was thinking of going tomorrow for the first time in about 15 years and that was to buy their version of Archers schnapps.

NSD

Your mil does seem to cause issues, even from being half way round the world em

wolf

I think everything’s safe now love, it’s always best to start with the alcohol aisle though. Just don’t tell your dp if he’s brand loyal because they swear blind they can tell the difference. It’s like a really shit episode of “eat well for less” played out in your own kitchen.

Hope you're ok wolf

Nsd

Dinner is meatballs with pasta, courgetti for me.

Some man in a van just got out and walked up to me in my car and said 'you'll have to reverse because your car is smaller than my van'. I said, well the passing bay is closer to you so you'll have to reverse. He did, badly. Hate it when people won't reverse, I drive that road at least twice a day and do more than my fair share of reversing especially when stupid lorries come down there!

em of course you did the right thing, dd suffered terribly with ear infections and went on to develop glue ear. Tbh I would give the antibiotics, the gp told me that generally antibiotics shorten an ear infection by 2 days which is quite a lot when they are suffering plus you want to avoid the ear drum bursting if possible.

Your dh has been a bit unsupportive generally recently?

I think I'm just jealous of MD 😉 will look up the other programme though. It also annoyed me that the new build garden they are going to focus on had a budget of £2000!! My new build garden has been done on a lot less than that.

Not posted for a few days as things have been really busy. I’ve been reading as I go but apologies that I can’t remember much of what I read before today!

Lonely I’d buy the mature bushes. You are feeding a hungry family. No point innot getting a useful crop until half of your kids have left home! Am impressed by your fruit cage building.

Wolf I don’t know what to say. It must be so exhausting having your emotions flipping all over the place. Whatever he’s done he presumably had some moments where he had a choice to make, and he made some bad ones. Got to accept the consequences. You are doing great getting yourself sorted out

Ocado came Friday night, £79. That included quite a lot of nappies and formula. I have quite a bit of meat in the freezer and bought a magic chicken so no other meat needed, just some fruit and veg top ups in the week. I did the first of those today, £8. You’d all have been proud of me, the self service till didn’t automatically apply the twofer offer on my satsumas and charged £1.89 each instead of £2.50 total. So I queued up and got the difference back. Partly the principle and also I wanted them to take the sign down if the offer wasn’t valid!

Been spending a bit on clothes online for myself and dd, and shorts for DS. Still expect to only keep about half of the stuff for me so we’ll see what it adds up to.

Went up to see dad on Saturday. I didn’t need petrol as I filled up last week but weekly visits are going to add up. We don’t normally spend much on petrol but I reckon it’ll be close to £80 per month extra. Anyway. Worth it. He was moved to his nursing home on Friday so I sussed it out on Saturday. I was quite impressed (I have worked in acute hospitals for many years so have a good idea what I am looking for). Dad himself wasn’t feeling great but was hugely relieved to have his care sorted out and to no longer be worrying about mum.

Saturday night was a late one cleaning the house for a visit from the in-laws on Sunday. It was fairly grotty but is now lovely and shiny - I wish it was always like this! After the long drive I was really knackered bit needs must, and DH helped a bit.... yesterday we went out in the morning Uk our local bluebell woods to enjoy the spectacle and take pics of the kids (but NOT straying off the path onto the bluebells, unlike many of the others there ). Then back for lunch out with the in laws but they paid so it was an NSD.

Am quite tired today! And now it is feeding time at the zoo. My favourite part of the day. Not.