The Friendly Frugaleers - Furtively planning Christmas, as August arrives

[StoogingOn]

Welcome one and all!

Thanks Unescorted.

I had a brilliant time stripping down my new musical instrument. It's a shiny one and I spent this morning polishing it up with a dremel multi-drill. Tomorrow I'll be boiling up glue. (That sounds dodgy doesn't it?)

Fun fun fun...

My DS has bought himself a saxaphone off eBay that was "broken"... It turned out the previous owner had put it together wrong. I am starting to wish he had bought a broken one. Maybe I should get him a polishing kit. There is only so many times I can listen to Careless Whisper. To be fair he is doing quite well with the help of you tube. How much should I be budgeting for music lessons?

Are you starting to feel a bit better now breathe?

I went for a little run, 2.5km in 16 mins which I didn't think was too bad? I seem to have hit a bit of a wall though in terms of that def feels long enough to run for! !

Unescorted I know just what you mean about the repeated renditions of the same tune. I do that too. :-) LOL! That's brilliant that he got it working. The going rate for music lessons here is £30 an hour I think.

Girlie thanks, yes, much better. I did lots of very slow water drinking and now I'm no longer stuck in bed feeling heavy with sore muscles, but am instead out and about in the house doing things. The cool weather is really helping. Thanks for the listening ear and the encouragement to see the GP. It really helped.

This is a very interesting development I think. ASDA introducing price competition in the free-from ranges. Very good indeed.

www.freefromheaven.com/2018/08/asda-cuts-prices-of-essential-free-from-lines-to-become-the-cheapest-on-the-market/#.W2nb02Qz4fk.facebook

I am a bit behind (on holiday and now DM has joined us I’ve got to stop lurking on my phone and be polite) but wanted to say...

Jam yaaay! You’ve really been missed; once every thread or so someone would mention missing you and we’d all join in morosely . So good to have you back and I am genuinely relieved you are alive and well . I’m still having time off with family but need to find a job and go back to work soon. I’ve had a couple of close family bereavements recently so it’s been a bit rough, the ‘new normal’ is emerging though and we are getting on okay.

Breathe welcome to the 43 bench, I’ll shuffle up for you

LEGOLAND was fun crowded and a long day. But managed to keep spent at 65 £ which included 4 entrenes that have bern changed to season cards.

Thanks Christmas! That's lovely to be in the same place as you.

I'm on the 43 bench too.

Travel to Sheffield today. £5 parking and however much for lunch and drinks. All reclaimable.

What are you doing with all of your free time then jam? Must be weird. How's the business going out has the life event overtaken things.
I didn't say it before but sorry you've been through a shit time.

I'm OK thanks Jam. Muddling through the school hols with the dcs and remembering the days when I'd stay in bed with a book until 9 then watch crap TV in my pj's. Now I'm usually up at 5 pretending to be an Octonaut or something!

Ta breathe I will need to save for those then. He wants to do music at GCSE so we will have to find the funds from somewhere.

Unesorted I think it is much cheaper if you go through the school and you can then also buy instruments without paying VAT if he's at a state school.

That's very nice that you're on the 43 bench too Life. I had no idea.

Day off today. Yippee.

Have a facial booked and a massage. Dh had a voucher. And then we’re packing up ds’ room as dparents will have him today so much easier with him out of the way.

Sounds great em!

I'm working in the shop and have a charity shop knitted jumper on. I love it and have been looking forward to wearing it for ages. It's sunny at the moment but it's meant to be really wet later.

Jam I want dh to wait until his boss finally gives him his £xxxx in overtime he's owed and then hand in his notice. But I know he won't.

Ds has been sleeping in until 8:30 but I need to leave to take them to my step mums at 8:10. He's not going to be happy when I wake him...

Need to pack for ds’s camp this morning. He goes at lunchtime and I’m expecting a refusal as it isn’t scouts and he doesn’t know anyone on camp. Also need to clean the kitchen before my buyer arrives to collect the item they’ve bought - it’s a heap currently.
Nails this morning so that’ll be £28 and then I may fall asleep on the sofa this aft as I’m feeling a bit meh!
Life I’ve just recruited a new staff member in Sheffield so I may be traveling there more often soon. Also one in Manc again Unescorted

Morning all. Glad you’re feeling a bit better breathe also that is interesting re Asda. I do a Tesco shop as I don’t find I can get everything in Asda but they seem to have culled so much of their value range 😡

Caught up with YNAB last night. Discretionary spends as follows for the month (the first figure is the money left in the pot):

Groceries £89.50/£200

Petrol £20/£70 (usually budget £50 but have had to add more as a few longer trips out of the city this month)

SAHM budget £18.90/£50

Personal spends £14.96/£40

Husband has money in his spending pot too & we have money budgeted for our big party next weekend and for flowers DH wants to get from the garden beforehand 🙄

Keep trying to change & simplify our YNAB categories and think I’ve got it to a place that works for us (there are more categories than I’ve shown above of course, these are just the most relevant to track this month).

Have currently got £52.96 aside budgeted as an extra payment to the credit card too (already made a payment this month which more then covered the minimum)

Today I’ll be volunteering in the morning (I’m a breastfeeding peer supporter and it’s at a group I can take DS too) and I’ll get the little monkey to help me make pizza dough after for a frugal Friday fakeaway.

Camping free in a Belgian field, you paint the very picture of luxury Unescorted

girlie try slowing down a tiny bit and adding one more minute, just one to each run. That might help.

Ah christmas, I’m still a lover of both wine and gin! You were on the start of the bereavement journey last I read. Your DF. I’m sorry you’ve had such a tough time, I don’t think that road is ever truly expected and always difficult. Normal always changes. How’s the DC, are you still sleep deprived? You’d just about cracked it, so I hope that’s still the case.

The free time is the weirdest thing life. It’s the part that’s taken the most adjustment. Not so much the mornings, that’s in truth a relief and will be doubly so in winter, but the evenings and weekends, well it’s like a vast space. Luckily DD had exams, then she’s been on her summer school and she’s started running and is really good!! She’s had some tough moments and misses him greatly at times. Time is the best healer though isn’t it?

The business is fine, it would always be fine for a few months, there was lots of projects booked in and a mass of work booked in. Other plans got put on hold, but normality is returning. We’ve a loyal set of guys and they go the extra mile.

That boss doesn’t treat him altogether well at all does he? Doesn’t deserve the loyalty on occasion wrecked.

I’m just about to go through the online shop and cull again.

Don’t know if anyone saw the Lidl old veg box launch. It’s really not as nationwide as they promoted, no store in our whole city is part of the trial.

Oh christmas, the summer school for DD, she considers one of the best experiences of her life. She's going to have a bash at an application, nothing to lose.

Yes Jam, my dF and also my DGM. Both diagnosed the week before Easter, both died the first may bank holiday weekend, on consecutive days. So less than 6 weeks after diagnosis. It was a roller coaster. And really hard for my mum to lose her mother one day, and her husband of 46 years the next day. Last week was my parents’ wedding anniversary and would have been DF’s 70th birthday so that’s been a bit tricky. Mum is on holiday with us now. She’s very reserved so I don’t know how she’s really doing. In spite of the brave face I think she’s a bit lost tbh.

Dd started sleeping through back in May so we are golden now 💪🏻 . Apart from DS’s night wakings 😬

We’ve had some spectacular day trips in recent days, and had stunning views from our various walks (we’re in Orkney) . We’ve spent very little apart from on groceries, which has been ridiculous. The fridge in our holiday place is tiny so I’m shopping most days for milk, fresh food for dinner etc. And we are eating well - we had fresh crab sandwiches yesterday, home made but still not exactly economical! It’s really mounting up, but offset somewhat by not spending on anything else as most sites are free. And we’ve not even really come across tea shops so it’s been picnics all the way! We’ve been lucky with the weather too, it’s not rained too much and we’ve been able to eat out in the fresh air and not stuck in the car

Another long day planned for today but then we’re having a quieter weekend. It’s the Orkney county show, which will be way too much for DS and traffic will probably be bad so we’ll stay close to home and recharge our batteries.

Unescorted great news on the eye appointment

I emailed lidl about that veg box and its not in the east mids either. someone on hotukdeals said it was London only.

Blue I have noticed that too. Wilko are good for household smartprice stuff but its things like tea bags that I used to use. One thing I will say is that for things like meat, fish and cheese it's often cheaper to use the fresh counters rather than use ready packed.

I've got diced lamb shoulder coming later (if it's in stock) and its £13kg. The pre-packed is over £23kg.

Staples like rice (I always use tilda after Breathe found an article saying their rice is higher quality and it's £1 a bag in homebargains) pasta, potatoes all come in huge bag sizes and last for ages.

The feed your family for £20 a week is good on shopping tips, their focus is very much healthy cooking with fresh veg.

En-suite nearly finished, annoyingly it looks much better in the colour dh chose than the one I took back to wilko. I need some soft pink accessory's to finish it.

Morning!

Just catching up from yesterday. Hi jam ! I’m fairly new so we’ve not met, but from the welcome back you received it appears you’ve been missed!

Boring day here, hopefully NSD. Got a trip to the nurse later to see if my bp has dropped enough on my new meds. I’ve been checking it all this week and I think it’s ok. So hopefully I’ll be left alone for a while. I am still getting fit and losing weight ( well, stayed the same for the last 4 weeks, but I am trying!). But it’s not encouraging to be continually told to lose weight when I am already working on it!

Still waiting to hear back from the bank about the remortgage.

Bloody hell, seacow, that’s a massively crap situation. Your poor mother. Poor you. There’s no real words of comfort are there, I guess it’s just getting though the days. We are in Scotland too, lower down. It’s stunning, so quiet. DH and I maintain we shall move here when the DC leave home (if they ever do...). I’m pleased the DC still enjoy this kind of thing.

Hang on, I’ve got a list re Lidl. Someone posted it on FB, I’ll see if I can find it, it’s not extensive coverage by any means anyway.

www.lidl.co.uk/en/Too-Good-To-Waste-15447.htm

You must be so relieved unescorted.