The Friendly Frugaleers, halfway through June!

[Cagliostro]

All welcome!

I’m in bed. I struggled to eat because my throat is sore 😭 I’ve sent dh out for paracetamol. As all we have is ibruprofen. And I can’t take that with the meds I’m on. Sigh.

Quite Break the tabs while they’re in the wrapper. If you keep an eye out on hotukdeals some of the online pharmacies do 6 months antihistamines for a few quid. No idea what to do with your Dh and his shower issues though. Is his work shower a bit grim?.

Am I the only one using laundry gloop?.

Oh brilliant idea Fluffy
I tried to cut one and it shot across the kitchen

No his work showers are brand new with free shampoo/shower gel .
The issue is that he would need to leave a few minutes earlier.I leave an hour earlier than I need to so I can go to the gym so
Am tempted to just turn the hot water off

£180 going rate for cleaner 😱 that is for the whole house, and includes the oven but not carpet cleaning. I really hope they are as good as the recommendations say they are. It’s not like the house is really awful (definitely “ick” enough to want it cleaned mind you, and there is no way I can physically manage to do it myself) and I’m just a bit worried we will come back in after and be wondering if it’s actually any different. As it’s all the detailed stuff. But hopefully as there isn’t a lot of general mess etc there will be more time to do the detailed stuff (it’s all things like dirty radiators, windowsills etc)

Carpet cleaning quote is £90 which I feel is pretty good!

So much money to spend before we even buy furniture! Or arrange vans etc. Bloody hell.

You could always do them a list. Other people’s dirt is always grim.

Yeah. I don’t intend on having a cleaner long term at all but I think it’s mostly a psychological thing, I need a blank canvas/fresh start. Especially with the carpets.

Oh well the cleaners are more than I expected but the carpet cleaner is less so maybe it balances out 🤔

Cag I’d make sure the carpet cleaners come after the cleaners. I’d also give them a list of the things that are important to you as Fluffy mentioned so for me that’d be kitchen, bathroom, top of kitchen cabinets, all skirtings, any architrave, any built in cupboards, window frames and sills inside, doors and door frames

Cag might be worth asking what their estimated time will be on the property. Or at least clarifying that you expect radiators, skirting, tops of door frames etc to be thoroughly cleaned. They might not answer the question about amount of time but they shouldn’t be charging much more than £15 ph max (going rate for an individual in SE is £10-14 but if they are a proper company they will be paying NI etc). So I reckon you can very reasonably expect 12 hrs + of cleaning. On an empty 3-bed property that should be gleaming. If it isn’t I think you’d have every right to complain. Will you or DH be there at the end of the clean to have a good look and point out any issues there and then?

I’d get the Cleaners in before the carpet cleaning too.

Get well soon Em.

Hope you manage okay Snuggly. Meal plans sound good.

Glad work was good Lonely. You’ll be great with ordering etc. You’ve done VAT returns, that befuddles lots of people!

Big day here. Annual review for DS’s support plan at school - the meeting went well, we just have to wait to hear from the LA, within the next 4 weeks, to confirm they will maintain funding. Fingers crossed. It’s also my gorgeous little DD’s first birthday. We’ve not done much yet - the small family party is on Sunday. We’ll definitely be out in the garden famous last words . I bought a £2 cake from Tesco for today just so we had something to stick a candle in for DS but I baked the proper cake (for Sunday) tonight. Cake decorating and food prep tomorrow. I need to get naice barbecue meat from the butcher tomorrow.

Dd has actually been pretty grumpy today as she has another snotty cold that she has apparently spawned spontaneously. I am beginning to suspect she is Patient Zero.

Happy birthday baby Sea

And happy birthday Love - I didn’t realise you shared a birthday with DD!

Can not believe your dd is 1 sea !! I can remember you telling us you were pregnant, happy birthday to her 😙 🎁🎂

Happy birthday to love as well.

Hope meadow is getting on okay.

Hope you feel better soon em

I would think any more left on the prepayment meter is yours now cag moving house always costs more than you think. Def worth it to have the place cleaned properly though.

Done a few more jobs outside, there is always just one more thing to do in the garden which I like, it's never quite finished 😊 hung my new £1 hanging basket up. Will wait till payday before getting any plants for it though 😉

Happy birthday for yesterday seaDD . I can't believe she is one already! 🎉

We are going to spend 3.5 hours travelling in the car today to go to a family meet up. The DC are going to get very bored, possibly both in the car and at the family meet up. I am trying not to moan too much myself, as I really don't want to go We're staying overnight so I am looking forward to our all you can eat breakfast tomorrow though, before 3.5 hours travel back. I am quite looking forward to the weekend being over already!

Cancelled my riding lesson 😭🐎 that’s how rubbish I feel. But on the plus side, it’s saving me £27.

Dh went and bought soluble paracetamol last night. He’s a legend.

It’s dm’s birthday today. Her present arrived yesterday hooray! As did the travel scratch map of the world I bought for my friends dd and my boss (wouldn’t usually buy him gifts for no reason but we were talking about how many countries he’d been to and I was buying one for friends dd and was offered an additional one as an add on for £8).

love not ideal on your birthday weekend we call this "doing our duty" (coined by my dad for extended caring visits to his mil).

sea !! How can dd by 1 already? Hope you have an ace party, and the snot dampens only where she wipes it, not her mood. Cake pic pleeese when done!

Day 2 was great. Did some observing in the office (I have another week before I mess up her immaculate books), then just asked for something to do. So I spent a cool 2 hours using the laser guided guillotine. Yes, I got paid £15 for cutting paper! After lunch I was screen printing, I'm going to really like doing that.

I came home feeling really good, like I'd just done something decent with my time. It's all I've been wanting for years. I'm making a list of all the outstanding bills I have here and there, these are being sorted first, things like music tuition, and the garage we still have a tab with. Then I'm picking a credit card and shoving extra at it (while still keeping up with the others, obvs). All my home work will be set against my Lloyds cc, it's the easiest to pay as it's linked to my current account (and has the largest balance as I transfer to it).

I'm on a 3 month trial, so even if they don't keep me on after that (I hope to work there for years) I should have myself reasonably sorted out by then.

Nsd yesterday too. So not even am I actually earning money, I can't get to the shops to spend what I do have. Win win.

Lonely that’s really positive and the debt reduction plan sounds really good
Em rest up today, hope you feel better tomorrow
Ordered some things in the joules and John Lewis sales yesterday for holidays. Will be about 85 if it all fits
40 haircut this morning and then gin event this afternoon. Likely to be a little bit spendy with some gincidents and will need a bus home. Will probably then resort to takeaway for me and ds. It feels very bad to have a plan to blow some money essentially but hopefully it will be a good day.

Cag if you are on board game geek on Facebook there is a fellow who’s just turned his very narrow storage cupboard into the most amazing storage space. Have a look if you can it’s Fantastic

Ooh I will thanks! I didn’t consider a BGG Facebook group (I have used the website sometimes)

Happy birthday for yesterday to love and miniseacow 🍭🎂🌟

I did say to the cleaners that the house really isn’t that bad to start with, I dunno maybe if they see it they’ll quote less but £180 is the end of tenancy clean which this sort of is. It’s two people cleaning it and round here the oven clean would cost maybe £40 alone for that size. Carpet cleaner coming on Thursday.

Speaking of the oven though, the seals aren’t great - anyone know how I could get new ones?! I don’t know anything about this sort of thing. That’s assuming the amazing oven does actually work 🙄

Still waiting for the HA to phone back and collect the washing machine, they were supposed to take it (we have our own) but they didn’t. It would cost us to get rid of it ourselves.

Sea. I hope your dd enjoyed her birthday.

Lonely Brilliant debt reduction plan & yy to working stopping you spending. I think trials are there incase you interview well but can’t actually do the job.

Hoping for a NSD.

Cag EBay for seals, or the brand website will have details. You could email them the model.

Thanks fluffy is that sort of thing easy to fit ourselves? Obviously need to wait until the gas is back on to check it works before making the effort.

Yes they pop off and on easily. We take ours off to clean, and the backplate too.

£68 Sainsbury's. I will do Aldi and Iceland Tomorrow.
Lunch or with dance lot so £40 ish, awards this afternoon £15 ish.

Oh in that case maybe they aren’t broken at all then. I assumed as they were hanging off it meant they were no good but it might just be that they aren’t put back on properly

Spending is totally out of control at the moment. I’ve just got so many birthdays and things to buy for our holiday, and I had to pay our caravan insurance that I’d forgotten about 😩

Need to get everything organised this weekend as we go on Thursday morning and I’m working Monday and Tuesday (12 hour shifts). Can’t leave it all till Wednesday or I’ll have a melt down. Need to get off MN and stop procrastinating...

Cag is it possible to check the oven definitely works before they clean it?

So. I’m out of bed and have had a shower. Ive has a look at my throat and cans see a nice big white spot. Great. So I’m off to the pharmacy in a bit for some throat spray. And then probably to the dr (again) on Monday if no better. Ffs.

I’ve also had another sleep. Ds napped and dh watched rugby so there wasn’t much else to do!

Am busying myself now (or will be once dressed) with laundry and emptying various bins.