The Friendly Frugaleers - Furtively planning Christmas, as August arrives

[StoogingOn]

Welcome one and all!

You can use calamine on nappy rash too, the phenol in it has anaesthetic qualities & it usually has a bit of zinc in there too for healing.

lonely just a quick delurk to say dmps can work. It did for us £37k in 6 years. Just make sure you pay your mortgage and council tax. It was hard but it is done.

Back after tomorrow..my head is a bit wayward. It is eye clinic part deaux tomorrow. I can't bring myself to look too closely to see if it has grown. I am an ostrich.

Just a quick post without name checking sorry as without wifi I am ploughing through my data allowance and next month's

Today was spectacularly unfrugal as I took the Caglets into town to look for more house and baby things that were needed. It was very odd actually really thinking about what I wanted rather than just buying the first and/or cheapest of everything, I was really thinking about each item and put back loads that wasn't just right. I may be becoming too fussy!

£172

This included:
💸Lots of bigger size clothes in sale for Cagletini and some shorts for the current size
💸A few toys for Cagletini - finally chose a naice wooden puzzle and shape sorter - and her first bath toys
💸Lunch (Caglets requested burger king)
💸Dinner stuff snacks and drinks in sainsburys
💸A DVD series in Cex
💸Carpet spray as the vanish stuff we have seems to be more of a maintenance thing rather than stain removal
💸A top for DD1 (still has to wait for the main clothes shopping... Why do they insist on growing?!)
💸Epsom salts for the bath because PAIN (although may be DH who uses most of them as I am enjoying finally having a working shower!)
💸A couple of toiletries on clearance
💸A birthday present for DS (he knows what it is, hugged it all evening before I put it away. Lovely guy in the entertainer honored the price which was wrongly left on the shelf, saved a third)
💸Picnic tumblers I'll use as pen pots if they aren't too tall
💸Small mixing bowls
💸Sugar cannister
💸Water carafe thingy, glass with a cork lid
💸Bottle brush that sticks to the sink (easier for me when dizzy as only need one hand)
💸Set of 8 glasses as we only had two random ones at home... always feel a bit silly serving cold drinks in mugs

Fuuuuuck

Actually quite a successful trip though really. All stuff I was specifically looking for. Apart from jelly beans. Ahem.

em could your DS’s nappy rash be nappy thrush? My son had that and needed prescribed anti fungal cream to treat it. Might be worth a chat with your GP if it doesn’t go away on its own.

We can’t afford holidays right now. I did take little monkey to Berlin with my sister when he was just about 2 as her boyfriend couldn’t make the holiday & she offered to pay to change the flights & let me share her hotel room for free. It was lovely though city breaks with toddlers are not relaxing at all! Beach holiday for sure if we can ever afford to go away again 😂

Lovely house Scandi

Back from the theatre. Caroline Quentin was amazing! Will catch up tomorrow

Cag that’s quite a haul you’ve got. It’s lovely to hear you so excited about buying things for your new home. The Caglets must be on cloud nine.

I caught up now.

Em poor ds

Scandi nice house

Cag that's loads for the money though.

Our grass is still quite green and we don't water it. We have clay soil though.

I'm fairly well travelled and was brought up going on long haul holidays. Dh says I was spoilt. The dc have been to New Zealand, Greece and Spain and we're going to lapland in November. We don't own our house though and even if we had saved all the money from those holidays still wouldn't be able to afford a mortgage. So we go on holiday instead.

Late sign in, have finally caught up with Poldark on iplayer (emotional rollercoaster that was!!)

The play date went well I think, dd seemed quite drained by the time she went home so am really glad it wasn't a sleepover in the end. Am hoping dd isn't coming down with something as she was complaining of an itchy throat and was weirdly keen on going to bed

Some shopping haul cag ... Impressive

girlie if you like Poldark, have you watched Outlander??? Bat-shit but compulsive viewing.

I travelled pretty much everwhere while working. Not touristy places, but I've seen a lot of airports and oil terminals! Feet on dry land now, my dc's don't even have passports and mine is long expired.

Popped to Sainsburys as we were out of milk (bought 10 pints on saturday) £12 ish.

Em yesterday I got rid of 6 pairs of shoes that don't fit dd.
Today nothing achieved so far, went for a walk with my friend instead.

Italianwiking that was her, Laska

Will post yesterday's spends so when dc are in bed

Normally get SuperValu delivery but yesterday myself & dd went to Aldi & SuperValu & stayed on budget quite impressed with us because it's easy to take stuff out online but not so much while in trolley. I did keep a rough tally in my head in SuperValu.

Aliexpress good if buying clothes go much bigger size

Mog is loved in this house too

There's a tax allowance thing for coeliacs here too

Life hope todays been a better day for you

Quite I'm really keen on the idea of a monthly shop & hope when I'm living separately from H to put this into place

Cereal is bought probably every 3 months here, with the exception of weetabix, all bran & porridge which are the mainstays. Dc have cookie crisps, known as dog biscuits chez mammy one day at weekend & pancakes the other & au pair has cornflakes on occasion. I've eggs & porridge and H eats toast/sandwiches/sausages

Wreck
I was shoutymum last night & took their new colours and hid them mum & put them to bed with no story mum too, they were bold though & I forgot to leave out their colours today & so they had 24 hours without them and they were much better behaved this evening

Mmm em sounds delicious I take it your appetite is back
Hope ds had a good night

I'm up to date, left receipts down stairs last night so I'll post spend later, might be this evening work is busy. Booked a day off for end of August & sept yesterday

It's my 43rd birthday today.

Also meant to be cooler, thank goodness.

Happy Birthday Sunny 🎂🎁 Good Luck at the Drs too hope you get some answers. What time is your appointment?

Thanks Born It's at 10am. I just have to get myself together to get there.

I tried to be clever last night and drink two mugs of water, and then felt like garbage all night, so at least I have something concrete to say when I get there. Honestly, what the heck, and so on.

But mainly, it is my birthday. Woohoo!

Happy birthday Sunny!

Cag I was looking at Epsom salts the other day. Are they good? I have a lot of aches and pains at the moment although I'm not sure when I'd have time to soak in the bath!

Scandi our grass looks like that too except for the but around the paddling pool which keeps getting splashed so is a bit greener. On the plus side we haven't had to get the lawnmower out in weeks!

5.25 this morning. Bit better. I'll take it after all the 4.45 starts!

Snuggly I always figured that 4.30am was still night, but 4.45am was basically morning. (On the grounds that it was basically a quarter to five.) How's that for clutching at straws? LOL!

Happy birthday sunny. Hope you get some answers.
Nice house Scandi.

Going to the great North expo today. Train £15, will have to buy lunch so another £30, £22 build a Bear as there are some accessories we want.
I got an award at work £50 next vouchers. Not usually a shop I use but it's one of the not closing ones so played safe.

Fab haul there cag.

cag nice haul!!

mammy guess so....we’ll im feeling a bit more excited by food anyway!!! Yay! Food!

laksa we are so spoiled here for lovely places to eat....

blue if it doesn’t clear by Friday I’ll definetly take him to see the gp. May make him an appointment for Saturday morning just in case. I can always cancel it. It is red. And feels a bit sandpapery. If that makes sense. The last time he had it it was blistery and not everywhere. So actually looked worse.

fluffy I’ll get some calamine in thanks for the tip.

cag I’ve used Epsom salts before. Theyre meant to have nice detoxing properties too. For muscle aches I also have badedas bath stuff. Smells quite strong but I love it.

mammy packed away Empty Kilmer jars last night and filled a carrier bag with shredding which I’ll take to work for the secure bin. I took photos of all the important letters and have emailed them to myself. Then deleted.

I know what you mean Sunny. I work on the theory that if the time starts with 5 it's just about acceptable to get up. If it starts with 6 that's better. Anything starting with 4 is just brutal! I'd be a terrible shift worker.

Been up since 6 baking. Time trial tonight. Still got a tray of brownies with a wobble in the middle in the oven. Perfect for pudding, but would ooze if cut into neat 2" squares. So must overbake! Flapjack and big batch of choc chip cookies done.

Got £12 extra work done last night, while watching The Greatest Showman (again current tally 4). Gosh those songs are catchy. Always loved Hugh Jackman though.

It's going to be a very long day. Won't see my dc until about 10pm tonight

I've decided that before I take out this dmp thing, I'm going to try my bank. I figure I'll lose nothing by asking them. If I take in a clear budget, all my cc statements (so I can prove that I am not spending on them) and my house deeds I may just be able to talk myself round "the computer says no". They can see from my 10yr bank statements that I never miss a cc payment. I have 10k credit with them anyway, so maybe it's not like lending me so much, as they already shout me 10.5k (using 8 of it on cc just now) iyswim. Will be a grown up an phone for an appt at lunchtime.🐸

Happy Birthday sunny I'm getting a bit cross on your behalf. Sorry to be blunt, but if you cannot even drink water, things are very bleak. Start from there. Something needs to be done. Big girl pants on and get referred very quickly or you'll be in hospital on a drip. Sorry to be mean on your birthday, but it sounds to me like you're rollercoasting into disaster. The gp needs to step up and sort this. . You need calories and nutrition, think of the damage to your teeth and bones which is being done while you cannot eat at all.

Lonely Thanks, yes you're right. I'm not great at being pushy, and I'm squeamish about talking about symptoms which makes it all very difficult, but I'll do my best.

Actually, I'll just print that paragraph and take it with me to show the GP. Maybe that will help. Thanks

If you see my chickening out from leaving the house in about an hour and a half, please just kick me out of the door.

Lonely could i please buy some decent bike locks off you. Going to get a new bike at the weekend, not expensive but will still need locks.
Giving mine back to the charity I bought it from do they can fix it and resell it

No worries life I'll have a rootle around. Need to dig one out for wrecks ds too.

Happy birthday sunny and good luck!

Fab decluttering guys I need to continue really. Getting more kallax tomorrow so will be able to continue unpacking. My friend is also bringing a clothing rail for us. And she's asked if we need anything from ikea, like marketplace stuff...

Epsom salts are decent, they are recommended for the pain I have and I don't know if it's placebo or not TBH but nothing to lose really! I haven't tried the bath yet. It's longer than our old one according to DH.

Really need to get stair gates. The one SIL lent us is too narrow to fit securely as these doors are wider! We are having to be careful about shutting the door fully as she's speeding over there if she spies the tiniest gap!

Thanks it did seem to be a pretty good haul once I wrote it down! Lots of things were £3-4 like the tunic dresses (DD1 wore these constantly as a toddler) the glasses set and various kitchen things in tk maxx.

This is part of the reason I kept some savings (that's not meant to sound smug, I didn't even save myself really it was some of the money my dad gave me from an inheritance, rather than me putting away some myself - I'd love to do that once things have settled) - I knew that we'd have lots to get. It would have seemed like less expense if we'd bought more things while at the old house but it felt a bit pointless.

I don't have a valid passport either lonely and as I can't drive have no license, which was a problem as the bank won't let me cancel my bank account or change my name (we double barreled) even though they let DH a few years ago. Very frustrating time in the bank yesterday. Looks like I will need to do deed poll. Not sure if I can without aforementioned ID though. FML. I really need to sort myself out!

Deedpoll's easy Cag. You just download the form online and get it signed by two witnesses.

www.gov.uk/government/collections/deed-poll-forms