The Friendly Frugaleers; joyfully saving through July

[Wolfcub]

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Yikes Wreck that's nervous work. Good luck there.

Wreck can you borrow a little from parents?

Well done on the job to Love DH 👍

Fingers crossed on the chicken pox front em

£2.50 on chocolate for DDs
£2.80on coffee for me.

DH is away for a few days.

Wreck Have you got plain flour? I think you can make scones with it or pancakes?

Our ds had the vaccine Em and it was fine. We had so many diseases when he was small that we decided it was worth the money to dodge that particular bullet. It means that we'll have to have the shingles vaccine early ourselves. Apparently having a child with a chicken pox infection gives adults a sort of singles immunity that is useful in later life and we missed that.

My dc have also had the vaccine, they need to be 1 to have it though I think.

We have some wraps in the freezer so should be ok but dd will be miffed that she can't have peanut butter on toast for breakfast I could borrow but I don't want to really. We will make do.

Evening all, those doughnuts look yummy! Was it a special occasion em?

Work is busy atm with various stuff going on, I'm counting down to my annual leave in August!

Spent £7 on stamps (!) Ludicrously expensive.

£15 cash to give my nephew on his 15th bday!

£1 flapjack as was starving and had had a disappointing ham sandwich!

Hi!! Have been back from Hols for a few days .. this is a quick 'place mark' as I've just found you all again , ill be back in a v short while with a proper post ..

I got chicken pox at 19yo and it was horrifically awful and simultaneously fascinating. My useless parents said the chemist was out of calamine which I find hard to believe looking back. No painkillers, no antihistamines and no calamine. I did have an anaesthetic mouthwash that was a strong emetic if you swallowed a tiny bit. So that was nice.

Still got shallow pox mark scars on my face and stomach 22 years later.

Hopefully he will hold off until you can vaccinate.

girlie not really - I felt I should share my wealth from my sweepstake win. So treated the office to donuts.

Re the chicken pox vaccine. I think I had it when I was pregnant (I definetly had a vaccine when I was pregnant....and it wasn’t flu....). But a lot of people here (including Nursery staff) have told me not to bother as kids can still get it.

I’ve googled symptoms and will keep an eye on him. Nursery now have 2 off with it and 3 suspected cases. So they know what they’re looking for. They’re on “spot watch”.

Frittata for dinner.

Ds has also baked some chicken, made pea humous, and has made salad boxes for lunch tomorrow. I’ve made fruit pots. I was spending loads on fruit pots (£3 a day on a pot of fruit...) we now buy fruit cut it up and pot it ourselves. £15 a week on fruit which lasts the whole week and can do 10 fruit pots for work (one each) plus ds’ breakfast nana and other fruity snacks.

Aaaaahhhh want. Must unsubscribe from feelunique....

That may have been the whooping cough vaccine you had. During pregnancy I had that as well as the flu jab.

Em that was probably whooping cough. No vaccine is 100% effective, chicken pox vaccine is 95% effective and for comparison mmr vaccine is 97% effective against measles and 88% effective against mumps.

Wreckcat is lying on the floor poking his tongue out

So hello, Properly!!

Back from the hols -we got back over weekend but its been a bit of a whirlwind since then..

Greece was fab as usual, but you all had much hotter weather than we did on the first week as we had a few days of massive thunderstorms ..but then it was lovely , and I've got a ( bit) of a tan ( not that much as v pale and burn easily) ..Am pleased to say that i stuck to my low carb eating except of course ! and only put on a couple of pounds , which i have lost again now. I do seem to have picked b up a bit of 'cabin cough' from the journey back though ..

Back to work yesterday , but now I am only working 3 days a week ( and one of those at home) it doesn't seem so bad..

There's been not much frugalling here ,lots of holiday spending of course, and I also got my flexible retirement and so my lump sum £££££ money came in .. but I have been pretty good and its (nearly all) gone straight into savings account . I did have a quite big spluge in the summer sales ( well , ill not be needing work clothes all week now !) and also bought some Jo Malone duty free, but that was it ..

But expenses are probably not going to ease up as much as I like at the mo.. I am still helping DS out although he starts his new p/t job next week (he is still looking for f/t of course). but ill need to still help him with his rent until he does .

Then sadly our cat is ill , and its looking very much like feline diabetes. So far vets visits and buying expensive food to change his diet to lower carbs have been about £300.. with another visit for more tests on Friday ..

So hope everyone is well.. Whats new?(ill look back and see ) Cag have you moved yet ?

No sign of needastrongeone I assume?

Yes! Whooping cough. That was it. I remember now because they told me that I didn’t have to have it but that the previous winter 5 teeny babies had it and were hospitalised. One nearly didn’t come home.... so I decided to have it.

I’m lying on the bed in ds’ room with catface. Ds is exhausted (as was too busy for naps at nursery....he also doesn’t like missing out...) so was grouchy as hell. He had a bath then dh used the hair dryer on his hair. I’ve done it before and he wasn’t bothered but today it super frightened him. So he sobbed and sobbed. Dh feels awful about it. But he couldn’t go to bed with wet hair really. He has a lot of hair (like Mummy...).

Anyway. We’ve cuddled and I’ve put him down now. He’s quiet. But only just. So I’ll have to sneak out in a bit.

We usually just pop him to bed say good night and leave him. After 10 or so minutes he’s done shouting/making noise and drops off so we’re usually fairly lucky.

Tonight however....

I’ve remade the bed in his room just in case I need to come in later.

Nope :( no need spotted for months now!

Glad you’re back, and had a good time!

Moving officially on Saturday! Stressed but getting lots done and it’s all gradually coming together. Lots more to do though.

Welcome back Laska. Sadly no sign of Need. I miss her! Really hope she's OK. Pleased you had a lovely holiday.

Well done to ds on his cooking there em

👋 Laska 👋** good to see you back & now that you mention jo malone I told my friend about the thing where you bought some and got other ones free around November or so do you remember where that was from?

Wreck I'd be more worried about the fuel lights unless cupboards are completely bare? Have ye much driving to do tomorrow? Isn't your dh's boss scatty with wages?

Thanks Fluffy and em
Super sensible Sammy they'll call me -I am nerdily enjoying the fixation on saving at the moment - easy when it's my poor end of the month though.

As a short term aim I really want to get my 2 grand overdraft down to 0 If I'm really good I might be able to do this by Christmas -so I can spend it all all again- well...have the option of a couple of extra hundred there if needed for festive merry things

strikethrough fail

Mammy I think I'll be ok I've got 55 miles left still and Work is 5 miles away. I've been trying to conserve fuel by not having the air con on and keeping the revs down.

Mammy every so often they do a 'grabber game' lucky dip promotion ,.. Its usually highlighted on the Style and Beauty thread, but I think if you sign up for emails , they tell you in advance.. I dont seem to get mail from them though , I expect I opted out of marketing emails ( usually do)..
You usually have to spend about £40 per transaction though. I have enough now to last me for while , but it can be good for christmas presents ..

Last time they sent me the wrong thing and when I emailed them they corrected it , but let me keep the wrong one!.. seems like it happened to a few people on MN also , so they must have lost money on the promotion if it was like that all over..

DS new job is with Liz Earle!.. They get a goody box of various products given them every week ! (Yay!..they say on their website that their employees never run out of cleanse and polish..) I should be ok then !..

That's perfect wreck wouldn't want a stranded frugaleer!

Laska I'll tell her that she had 5/6 perfumes on display at her house.

Evening all. A nsd for me today, but lots of posting to do tomorrow. The girls new matresses came, tiny box for a 9" thick matress. We opened one, dd3 will sleep well tonight I hope. I am now filling a dunelm basket with pillows and fitted sheets. I won't buy them, just getting a ballpark figure needed. All pillows here are pathetically old and thin.

A good day at work. I have nearly been there a month! Wow.

love I am so pleased for you and your dh, what a positive change. Are you still debating a 3rd dc??

laska you're back! Yay. I got full time work while you were away, it's ace.

If they have chicken pox in the nursery em, ds will already have been exposed to it. If he does go on to get it I hope it's super mild. Dd1 had two tiny spots and was a bit poorly for a couple of days, she brought it home. She passed it along and the other girls got it much worse.