The Friendly Frugaleers, halfway through June!

[Cagliostro]

All welcome!

Nsd. Yippee!!

Another busy day. Made much better by ds being so unbelievably excited to see me at nursery pick up time.

Still listening to Eleanor oliphant. Jeeez her mum is horrible. She’d have a thread about her on here that’s for sure!

Busy one tomorrow. Nursery, work, client meeting, seminar, meeting, event at art gallery and drinks evening.

Most couples I know with young DC are exhausted by working and scraping by with most of their money going on rent/mortgage and childcare rather than rich .
I really feel for them as they would rather not work so much but there is not much choice these days.

Wolf Wilkos paint is good, less coverage per sq m but cheap as chips. The bank holidays are usually best for offers. I've noticed wickes have reduced their dulux range and prioritised their own brand which is beyond rubbish.

I know quite I suppose it's all relative to how expensive rent/mortgage/childcare is, it still must be reassuring to have two wages coming in though. I do feel anxious at times being wholly responsible for paying for everything.

Dd was very tired tonight, she was up late last night watching the football. Think she might be getting my cold as well 😦

Private rents are extortionate and usually several months deposit is required .
My colleagues renting and my DC me are paying far more to rent one room than I ever paid in Mortgage .
Its crazy

Forgot to mention how pleased I am with Bulb.
Yes it did sting to pay off the debit balance for switching but whoop whoop my DD have gone down to almost a 3rd of what they were before "Hotwatergate"
Yes its the summer but we have cut down significantly since the Smart meter.
Plus I can change the DD myself or pay a lump sum which I will do when winter arrives.
Plus they gave me £30 credit into my account for switching 😍
£4 on a big tray of cherries bloody hate Tesco but they lured me in.

Poor ds is not very well now. He just had a mild down-the-way bug since Saturday but now it is both ends. I didn't think that was meant to happen. Rotten viruses.

Thinking zen-like thoughts.

So many poorly people! Sending zen and get well soon type vibes.

Yes private rent is horrifically high. We will be saving around £300 in rent a month once we have moved, to a much bigger house in a better location with a garden. It’s crazy. And that’s with us being pretty lucky that our landlords barely increased the rent, according to local rates we should be paying around £200 more than we are for our current house.

Well we have finally put in a massive Ikea order. Not even everything. But trying to make all the decisions at once was making us crazy. So we have done the main bulk of it, it’s mostly just clothes storage that we haven’t finalised yet and little details for storage. Which would make sense to take our time over.

Plan is to get that stuff built and unpack the boxes that are already over there, then we will have more of an idea of what else is needed. For example the girls are having a kallax as a room divider and that should double up as clothes storage too (DD1 prefers folding to hanging so we can figure out what drawers, boxes etc she needs). It may mean us living out of boxes of clothes for a bit depending on when we get the second order in. I wonder when the delivery offer ends (currently only £17.50) but meh. Needs must.

Cag great news on making the order and really good that you will have space to build it before everything else arrives.
Rental is frightening. I consider myself incredibly fortunate that outside of being a student I’ve never had to do it. I have friends who are in the rental trap. They earn enough to be able to afford a mortgage on great houses for them but will never be able to save a deposit up because their rents are such a high proportion of their income so they are stuck.
Sunny hope ds feels better soon

Having a cheeky pancake breakfast with lovely yellow eggs laid on Sunday morning and ds is having strawberries from df’s Garden with his

Thanks wolf. Ds is still asleep but I've made an appointment with our GP. I've never seen a virus get worse like that, and I've had enough of them to know.

Another quiet day in for us I suppose, in which I will try to do things that cost nothing.

Girlie I wouldn't like the pressure of that either.

Kid start John Lewis cash back tracked, £1.30.

I need more salad ffs.

Free veggie stuff on shopmium, Sainsburys only.

Hi everyone,

Can I join? I've been good all year but this month I am definitely looking to spend money - this has just increased tenfold because I have been offered a new job which will increase my income a fair bit. I am already spending in my head and I haven't earned it yet.

Food is my biggest downfall and I need to get back to meal planning. I only have about £200 on the credit card but we are mortgaged up to the eyeballs.

Low spend day on an ice cream at the park this afternoon. Taking DS2 to the outdoor pool. Excited!

Wreck looks like I’ll be making the most of the school nurses working with home ed kids! Paediatrician still sees DD because she’s on melatonin, but she had to discharge DS after diagnosis. But I really need him to see an OT, because his sensory issues are getting worse and worse. So I need to beg for a referral.

Welcome! Do you prefer us to call you Flappy or Jack :o

I know what you mean about spending in your head before even getting the money 😳

I'm on holidays for 2 weeks so I'm currently staying with my Dad for a few days. We're sitting out his back garden atm. We've been having glorious weather for the last fortnight or maybe longer. It's a bit overcast today so the sun's not as intense as it has been lately.

I'm renting a holiday home next week with friends in the west of Ireland. The lovely weather is due to stay around until the middle of next week at least, so we're hoping for some frugal days at the beach and picnics.

Spends today

Back pack in M&S sale €27 (reduced from €49)
Suncream in Boots €9
Jar of instant coffee €6
Chocolate croissants €1.38

I'm meeting my sister after she finishes work so (depending on the weather) we may go to the beach for an hour or two. Or maybe an evening stroll to a lighthouse. Or cinema if it rains. And going for food somewhere.

There's been lots of articles in the newspapers about how retailers are profiting from the good weather - people buying hot weather things like suncream, ice creams, watering cans etc. The farmers aren't doing so well - first the snow and now a drought. I wonder if it will have an impact on food prices?

Sunny glad you got your diagnosis finally. Sounds like your DS has a nasty virus. Hope he feels better soon.

Cag making decisions about furniture is exhausting. And you're afraid of making a mistake and ordering something that won't work out because they're such expensive items. No harm in doing it in stages. I'm sure it will be such a relief when everything's done and you're all unpacked and you can finally just enjoy your new home.

Welcome Flappyjack

Yesterday was meant to be a NSD. However my friend recommended these gorgeous flip flops from Kahuka. £29.99, but with a discount code got 2 pairs for the price of 1. Ordered yesterday and they arrived this morning and omg they are soooo comfy. And for essentially £15 a pair an absolute bargain.

If the ice cream van comes round it’ll be just £3 spend today. If not, NSD!

Cag do you need contact details or do you know them?

Welcome flappy we struggle with food too, it's got so expensive and we've been topping up lots with fruit and salad recently

it's so muggy here. I can't remember the last time we had rain. All the grass is so brown.

I haven’t the faintest idea TBH wreck 😳 we are not going to ask until we’ve moved but if you do have any tips I would be most grateful! 💐

Argh must get moving (badgers/cadets tonight) and of course the baby has fallen asleep on me.

It's baking hot here again today, was glad of a bit of respite from it Ystd! !

sunny poor ds that does sound rotten.

Dd had a hospital appointment this morning, I was really shocked at how much hospital parking has shot up by!! For two hours it's now £4.60 😠 how can they justify that?! I was fuming! !

Spends
£4.60 parking (ffs) the appointment was an hour and so we went 5 mins over.
£5 treat coffee and hot chocolate from Costa post appointment
£3 lunch at tesco - must stop doing this before it becomes a habit!!
£1.50 a small plant.

Work is nearly finished, got pilates tonight.

A lot of the pay and display parking round here is 50p for ten minutes, including outside the dentist's surgery and my old GPs surgery. It really adds up. On the plus side, it really encourages me to cycle or walk.

Ordered paint for click and collect so will get cash back. Struggling to decide on a ceiling light. I’ve lived with one I absolutely loathe for 11 years and now I can’t decide because almost every option is an improvement.

Will be £3 for ds’s activity tonight and I ordered a travel tube of anti chafe stuff from amazon so £6 for that

Cag pm me when you're ready and I'll get you the number.

£11.14 today. I am a massive tennis fan, so I treated myself to a bottle of Pimms(70cl), for £10 in Asda. That's quite a bargain, so if any of you fancy it, Asda's the place to go!

Or the email if you prefer