The Friendly Frugaleers: Saving and chatting as the heatwave rolls on.

[BestFootForwardAndThenSome]

Now that I've put that in the title, we will almost certainly get snow. LOL!

Welcome to nearly-August.

Can anyone think of some frugal things to put in a little care package for someone starting chemo? I don't have much to spare but want something really thoughtful

seacow yaaasss peanut butter Oreos in dairy milk.

Mmm.

cag oh the ritz cracker dairy milk. Mmm. I’ve firguven you for not liking the peanut butter. Mmm.

Had a glass of wine and a salmon galette with dfriend. Walked home. As couldn’t be arsed waiting for a taxi. Nice walk home in the evening sun.

Wreck. I’d put lip balm stick in (just be careful on ingredients). Peppermint tea and some sort of very soft cloth to hold/use for washing/wiping skin

oh new thread, ( and I havent caught up withvthe old one ,

£180bat vets .today , dpuss at had to stay in vet hospital all day to test his blood sugar curve after his first shot of insulin and I had to learn how to inject him have done it for real now with insulin..quite scary .. .. .
I'm just catching up with stuff in house as he has been in for 24hrs ( and hes very much an outdoor cat ) . but I have now just let him out . I do hope he will come back in good time in the morning for his jab. !

I really do want a though..and I may just after all.. its been quite a day.

Dcat pooed in box twice ..one on way to vet and once back .. this evening I had to give him a bath !! ( never tried that before.) It wasnt too bad as he is very good natured , but he now hates me even more than he did when i took him to vet and stuck needles in him .. ..

Oooh wreck I’ve done this: lip balm, aveeno moisturiser (skin gets terribly dry apparently) sour sweets (to help with sickness) salt and vinegar crisps (ditto) maybe a voucher for amazon for kindle books or iTunes or something to pass the time.

And gloves. Or fingerless mittens. My friend said her hands went ridiculously cold.

But other than that meals for the freezer. And milk thistle tablets are good.

£10.50 in body shop. I saw they had a buy one get one half price on things. I bought some soaps and some coconut oil hair shine stuff.

£65 on two 3 in 1 trespass jackets for dc for school/winter
£65 in H&M on clothes for dc for dn's upcoming christening & an extra skirt & tshirt for dd, just sandals to buy for her now
£7 on taxi, H hates going for a wander/walk and we did today & he was getting increasingly irritable so I just got a taxi to kfc for us all but he exploded. (My only personal spend)
Breakfast @ Frankie & Bennys £24.50, waiter forgot to order dds so didn't charge for it
Cinema £35 all inclusive family ticket
Dinner @ KFC £20

wreck I’ve been through a family member going through chemo and I’d definitely say their fave supermarket voucher should feature. Their tastebuds went crazy, at one point it was all about tomato soup (Heinz only), then it was macaroni cheese, then it was roast chicken skin. Not the chicken, just the skin. Fun times!

Currently in the middle of DS1 birthday sleepover. They’re a lovely bunch of lads, no bother at all. Have fed them pizza, they’ve been to the shop for sweets and now they are cracking up watching Ali G and The Inbetweeners.

Thanks for the new thread, Sunny. Sorry you're still not feeling great though.
Spends. Yesterday was an NSD and today was £2.34 in Asda.

Really cross with my DS and have scoffed lots of chocolate. All I asked him to do was come downstairs which resulted in him punching and kicking his bedroom door and walls in a temper. Oh and slamming his headboard off the wall about 10 times. Sometimes I don't know if he's a toddler or a teenager. I'm fuming with him, actually. It's horrible having to deal with these situations with no support.

Fluffy I too was brought up with the eat it or go hungry attitude. If my kids don’t eat what I’ve cooked they can have cereal or toast but I don’t make them anything else.... my mother on the other hand fusses about waiting on them hand and foot, making them another meal. She also has a cat that is fussy that gets gourmet tins and cooked chicken

Both my DS are driving me crazy at the moment, they have that typical teenager attitude and the older one (15) often looks at me as if I’m an idiot. I shouldn’t rise to the bait but often do...menopausal women and stroppy teams are a recipe for disaster 😂

Teens - stupid autocorrect

Blimey Creme, what’s going on with him in the background? Must be something...

Right.

Em I’ve got to get me some of that pb Oreo chocolate. I won’t rest till I do!

Wreck where’s the turmeric?!! I also use shed loads of paprika.

Wolf I love Yorkshire. I’d live here if I could. We’re stopping off to see friends in Huddersfield (and we hoped to see others in York but have managed to come by while they’re abroad, doh). Weather was perfect today, about 22C and not sweaty or humid 👍🏻. Hotter tomorrow though (everywhere)

Cag I have dimmers and LED bulbs (you need special ones, as fluffy says; the switches are easy to fit) but tbh I really loathe the light from dimmed overhead lights. It’s just.... dim. Hard to see anything and somehow makes the room look dull and flat and lifeless. I vastly prefer a low light from a lamp or even a teeny nightlight. I never use the dimmers that we inherited with the house and go batshit if DH puts them on low

I had a short-lived but miserable streaming cold on Friday and it’s left me with a cough now. My pelvic floor is definitely not up to the strain... 😬

Also, Aldi deodorant bloody stings for ages and ages. Don’t think I’ll do that again. Their fake whole nut stuff is pretty good though

Morning. Awful sleep last night. Ds slept fine. But I didn’t.

Exciting day today. Work until 945 (pointless even going in but hey ho) then to airport. Then hop on plane and spend the afternoon in the French alps talking French wealth taxes over le lunch. And back home for dinner.

I’m rodiculously excited as I go to airport and instead of checking in like a regular person i get to go through the door for the private jet people. My client has a jet and we’re taking that. Eeeek. Up until yesterday I wasn’t sure if I was going or not. But there’s a spare seat. So off we go. Yay!

Mountains here I come.

Em that sounds awesome. Have fun.

Sorry you are having a hard time with DS crème. Did he do his GCSEs this year?

I've brought my children up totally different to how I was. They are so indulged by comparison but my early life was hard, ours not as bad.

Been going through holiday clothes. Tbh just about there. Got to swap some t-shirts in primark as they are too fitted and show too many lumpy bits off.

Will take DC to the library for some summer reading.

Morrison's coming tonight. First attempt as had a voucher. Cross they are charging me for carriers and I can't see how to say no to them. £47

Wreck that's so thoughtful. What about a couple of magazines to read in the hospital. Or even a book.

em !! That is so exciting. Have a fantastic day working hard of course

I'm in the budget stage of the credit helping people. It is my only realiatic way out. I will pay every penny of my debt off myself (nothing gets cancelled out or anything), but I think it gets frozen, so no more interests or charges. I'm loking at 5 years instead of forever. And no more credit.

Anyhoo, we spend under their minimum guidelines for a family of 5 (let alone 6) for groceries etc, she seemed stunned that we can eat at all on so little (ballpark 110 a week). We added in a bit of ease there for some treats!

Have good holidays everyone. I'm working every day as still on my trial, so dp is putting in a huge shift. Tbh my dc are older and pretty good really. My dd1 who's 15 has a few ropey days of pmt a month, but she is a joy. Birth to 3 was harrowing though! I have a feeling dd2 will be a monster when she hits puberty though...

My aldi favourites are the seeded oatcakes, special k cereal, german salami and huge quantities of chocolate chips for baking! I do a full shop there, but go specifially for my cereal and oatcakes! Only ever use dove or nivea deodorant, but I'm odd with smells post dc.

Sea I do have turmeric and paprika (normal and smoked) but didn't want to overload cag 🤣

Thanks everyone have written down all of your ideas and will put something together

Well done for getting that debt plan sorted out lonely. That's great to get it all nailed down and ready for sorting out.

I'm holding the fort at home today and ds will be playing a lot of computer games.

I don't know what we're doing today. It's meant to be 32 degrees. Can't really go out much until the sun cream I ordered yesterday arrived, it's the fourth bottle I've had to get this year and at £18 a pop it's costing me loads!

Thanks for the spice ideas. I forgot I have cinnamon (because... French toast :o) and possibly an unopened turmeric because I wanted to start making Dahl again. In fact I used to have most of those spices but gave up as what's the point when the Caglets won't eat anything interesting but oh well. I'm planning to cook to please myself more.

If I want something with paprika I tend to add chorizo :o we get through a lot of that.

I would like to grow some herbs too, would they work in a hanging basket or window box do you think? Or actually we do have a decent windowsill by the kitchen sink which gets a lot of sun.

I'm well used to dimmer switches as they were in my childhood home and my mum has them in her flat too, so they are comforting for me rather than annoying :o

Dahl is my all time favourite frugal recipe.

We love chorizo too, it's to easy to use as it has so much flavour you don't need to add much else

life you keep the bags and give them back when you get another shop delivered, they give you back 5p a bag.

creme have been there with dd having a meltdown, dealing with everything on your own is so hard 🍷

laska I gave boycat insulin twice a day, it is a pain I won't lie! Have you got a blood sugar checker kit? Annoyingly I gave boycats back to the vets otherwise you could have had it. It's worth having as a few times boycat had a hypo (sugars went too low) I had to spoon jam or honey into him!!!

em so glamorous! !

Last day of my annual leave this week, back to work tomos 😢 mind you only working for a week and then two weeks off!!

Dd is still snoozing.

Autoglass have text to say they're coming between 12-2 so that's good, can then take my car back to the garage and get my mot certificate! !

Interesting re the different attitudes to fussiness, my mum tried the 'eat it or don't eat' take but I just wouldn't eat. Would have starved rather than eat something I didn't like, putting me under pressure to eat as given me lifelong issues with food and even now if I feel under any pressure around food i can't eat it!! This means eating at friends houses, nice restaurants etc can be really difficult.

I've tried to be more relaxed with dd, I don't pander but wouldn't make her eat anything if she didn't want to. She is much less fussy than I was anyway.

Food should be fun, not the daily stress it was for me growing up.

My step dad used to hold my nose and force feed me