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

999 replies

BestFootForwardAndThenSome · 24/07/2018 22:26

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

Welcome to nearly-August.

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Laska5772 · 26/07/2018 22:06

'And also'... I meant em ..re no booze rules

The ruddy cat is in again and wants more food! He is doing my head in.. he cant eat again until 7am..

I forgot to d say ,I was home all day (mainly working) but I couldn't eat either as going near the kitchen was a total cat obstacle course..

He ate at 7 , I finally ate at 8.. . I suppose this cat diabetes will mean I have to follow 12 hour feeding time slots also ..

Laska5772 · 26/07/2018 22:07

fluff that's good ,we did the Meercat movies, but I think they have stopped those now. do you know what restaurants are participating?

BestFootForwardAndThenSome · 26/07/2018 22:16

Em It's lovely to hear you having such a good time. Smile Welcome home!

We had a little bit of thunder and rain today but not for more than 10 minutes and now back to hot and dry. We're forecast thunder and lightning from dawn to dusk tomorrow, which I'm really looking forward to.

I didn't do much today. Just put my feet up.

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lifelongfrugaleer · 26/07/2018 23:08

I don't mind obvious love. Unfortunately all of my friends are teachers.

Girliefriendlikesflowers · 26/07/2018 23:38

laska I never did timed feeding with boycat, that wouldn't have worked with two cats anyway. My girl cat will only eat biscuits so biscuits were always down, he wasn't too bad at self regulating anyway. I gave him soft food in the morning with his insulin and he would usually eat most of it.

I bought the more expensive biscuits I think they're called Perfect Fit.

Had a nice evening, went out for dinner with a friend spent £20 ish but going out is a very rare treat!!

Must sleep work tomos 😰

Cagliostro · 27/07/2018 01:15

Ooh I thought I saw something about paint in the window fluffy thanks, I'll look tomorrow. Scrubbable paint is the holy grail. Won't be able to paint for a couple of months but they could choose colors now.

I am still awake thanks to the baby. Nappy rash cleared up during the evening, but I have canasten on pharmacist advice, haven't opened it yet. However Cagletini woke up screaming, really distressed. Couldn't even get calpol in her as she was so tired. Not sure what's going on there :( she's finally conked out on the bed with me.

Tomorrow (today...) is supposed to be our last day to check everything over at the old house. Might have to send the others without us depending how the night goes.

SnugglySnerd · 27/07/2018 05:11

Morning all! I say morning, it's practically the middle of the night still Sad. Hoping for thunder and lightning today. Have nothing planned for today yet. Maybe park but we seem to be there a lot at the moment.
We've run out of ice cream so a trip to a lovely air conditioned supermarket is needed.

Unescorted · 27/07/2018 06:13

snuggly this is the best part of the day.

ememem84 · 27/07/2018 06:35

Morning.

Had an ok sleep. Ds woke up once at 3. But I struggled to get back to sleep. Dh was super kicky. So I came into ds’ room at about 430 and had a last hour or so in here.

Nsd planned today.

ChristmasSeacow · 27/07/2018 06:40

Morning Snuggly, we were up at 5.30am. Dd is in a cot in our room so she has worked out that she can just shout ‘MummyMummyMummyMummy...’ and I can’t ignore her HmmGrin. She has quite a lot of speech for a 13-m old and is using it liberally Grin.

It doesn’t seem to have rained here overnight. Thunder is forecast for later.

lifelongfrugaleer · 27/07/2018 07:31

Nowt wrong with the park. We are there loads and mine are older.

Rubbish night sleep here, hot even after rain, work stress and childcare stress.

Hair cut this afternoon. £40. Bits from Aldi Morrison's didn't deliver. I didn't get much for my £60 so if anyone wants my other 2 vouchers just shout.

Fluffycloudland77 · 27/07/2018 07:55

I've noticed that with morrisons. You have to be very picky about what you buy because the offers and savers ranges are cheap & you can get sucked into doing a whole shop there.

Going back to spices I buy the big bags in Sainsburys and asda. I cut the tops off and clamp them shut three at a time with plastic clamps.

Dried onion I'm going to have a go with using the halogen oven on low.

mammynowanauntyIRL · 27/07/2018 08:09

One of the things my dc enjoy most is a picnic in the park, it's makes me happy when they enjoy the simpler things in life

WreckTangled · 27/07/2018 08:11

We didn't have any rain and it's still boiling it's going to be much cooler tomorrow but hot again by the end of next week.

I'm working in the shop today should be a nsd.

Laska5772 · 27/07/2018 08:22

Early shift for cats new routine.. girlie the vet seems to think that if we follow (this. no dry food and v. low carb wet food (he is toothless so wet food is what he likes anyway luckily) and timed feeding ) there's a chance we could reverse the diabetes.. So I am willing to give it a go especially as we dont have pet insurance for him !. It must have been so much more difficult with two cats though.

Maybe he might getting it though.. he wasn't battering the door down this morning, in fact i had to go up the garden at 6.30 this morning to find him and call him in. I do hope this approach works .. its going to get expensive otherwise and ill either have to ask the pet sitter to do injections or its cat boarding for when we go away ( and hes going to hate that having never been in kennels in his life).

No rain here but thunder and lightening in the night ..

cag i was just thinking there typing the word garden.. I bet you are so happy to have one now ..I bet your DCs love it!.. if you dont have any shade , then I do recommend getting a gazebo(and get a side curtain) not to expensive in B&Q etc . When my Ds was small in the summer holidays it became almost an extra room and we setit up especially for playing and eating .. ( we even slept out there once! )

Talking of spices above , Ive frugally raided the freezer .. we will be having fish curry this evening ( thanks Rick Stein)

A few years ago i invested in spice jars that fitted in one of my kitchen drawers ( 3in tall jars with flat lids) and now i buymost herbs and spices loose in Easyweigh.. Its so much cheaper ( after the initial lay out for jars) and having them all labelled on the top of lids ( and arranged alphabetically .. Nerdy but saves rummagingGrin) , This means no more swearing into kitchen cupboards and chucking stuff around as i try and find the one I want ..

It is important to keep spices somewhere dark to preserve their flavour.. Spice racks are really not such a good idea because of this , unless you use the contents all the time .

Laska5772 · 27/07/2018 08:33

.. the nerdy spice drawer Grinand jar type (bought from ebay seller) ....
Honestly, the kitchen swearing it has saved over the years!

although I may possibly still be a tad impatient in the kitchen sometimes, its true

The Friendly Frugaleers: Saving and chatting as the heatwave rolls on.
The Friendly Frugaleers: Saving and chatting as the heatwave rolls on.
SnugglySnerd · 27/07/2018 08:44

That spice drawer is amazing Laska!

I mostly get the larger bags from Asda as they are cheaper. Occasionally I go to one of the fantastic Asian supermarkets in Brum and stock up. Much better value there. Things like fresh ginger, garlic,coriander etc are cheaper too so I sometimes get a load in one go, make curry pastes in batches and freeze in ice cube trays.

BestFootForwardAndThenSome · 27/07/2018 08:46

That's fantastic Laska. We have a nice spice drawer too, which my ds uses as his shop. He sells me spices and takes the money with his till. Smile

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Laska5772 · 27/07/2018 08:54

Oh that's so cute sunny , Smile and such a great way to teach healthy and varied food eating , Do you do beans pasta and rice for him in small bags also? and fruit /veg?

Laska5772 · 27/07/2018 08:59

snuggly thats a great Idea also .. I have made spice paste previously and kept it in the fridge with oil, but it need using up in a week or so ive found.. however we do eat a lot of spicy things ( as you can see by the drawer!) so it usually isn't a prob . I always have fresh coriander in freezer.. its fine if you are just using it in curries.. I also slice limes and lemons and freeze those.. (esp with limes which i tend to buy in bags and then used to find dried up a week later !)

BestFootForwardAndThenSome · 27/07/2018 09:01

My spice efforts mostly involve making fantastical combinations with ready brek actually. Our favourite is ready brek + powdered ginger + grated apple, mixed together and cooked in the oven.

I'm not super-great at cooking savoury things with herbs, because my taste buds are hypersensitive, so I can't taste the things that I'm cooking for others. It's a bit tricky that. I use spices when I have a very specific recipe though, as long as I don't need to taste it to get it right.

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Laska5772 · 27/07/2018 09:03

I do miss Asian supermarkets .. Here in IOW we dont really have such tings , although there is a small shop .. when i go back to Brighton or up to Watford to see friends and family , I usually visit one

Laska5772 · 27/07/2018 09:06

I reckon here is the most un-diverse place on the planet, Sad.. ( but its nice living here otherwise)

CurlsandCurves · 27/07/2018 09:07

Morning all,

We had some fantastic thunder going on last night, only stopped about half an hour ago. It’s rained here too which has really freshened everything up. DS2 just commented ‘ooh, I can smell the rain!’

Omg just as I’m typing this, we have glorious sunshine. And hailstones! British weather is just so weird!

Just one spend to do today, DS1’s birthday cake.

BestFootForwardAndThenSome · 27/07/2018 09:14

Laska I live just round the cornet from an Asian supermarket and it has the most amazing things in it. I have no idea what to do with any of them, having grown up entirely with Scottish cooking traditions. It's lovely to walk round and look at all the jars and things though. They have some bottled of drink that look just like frog spawn. I think I live in the most diverse place in the world nearly, so we must live in polar opposite places.

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