The Friendly Frugaleers - Furtively planning Christmas, as August arrives

[StoogingOn]

Welcome one and all!

laksa no we didn’t offer in the end. We costed it out with doing an extension and asbestos works and reckoned it’s cost an additional £100k as a minimum. So can see why the existing family are moving.

mammy we take in turns in the family to help both of them. My greatgrandmother is 99 old but is quite independent still. But we don't have grocery delivery here so we take her shopping each week, every 6th week is our turn so not that bad.

Oh my Scandi that's wonderful to have a greatgrandmother when you are an adult.

Found a new scooter for dd1, unfortunately it cost 50£ hoping to sell the other one to recoup a bit of the price....

Yeah i know sunny ... my great grandfather lived till dd2 was 4 months so made it to meet and gret her which meant a lot to both him and us. He passed away 1 week after her baptism but think he was very happy to have been part of it. He became 101 still miss him every day...

That's really lovely Scandi.

I've just been sitting here thinking of my own grandmother after reading your post. She died when I was 8 but she's still a huge influence on my life. I'm really excited that my own parents have moved to live near to us very recently as it means that my ds will have a chance to know them.

My head is a little bit minced up. I've just spent 2 hours updating the tax credits online (this involved a lengthy id retrieval) as the phone line hung up on me, twice. Then I checked, and rechecked that a dmp is for me. It is the only option, as no bank is going to lend me money to consolidate. Because of the debt I have. That I want to consolidate. I kind of see their point. There is nothing to stop me wracking back up debt again.

Except I've changed. And work full time now. But I will pay back every sodding penny. I will.

Nsd. So that's something. Got a courtesy car too, hoping my own car will be back this week. I guess they can just add it to the tab.

I know the feeling sunny my parents live close by too and have such a close bond with the girls. It such a nice feeling. Dh and I are on very low contact with his parents so means even more that the girls have a close bond with my side.

Can any of you ladies recommend wish or alliexpress? Thinking if they might be an option for Christmas advent shopping

Never tried wish. Ali express has been mostly ok. Look for the best reviews and people's RL photos.

That's tough lonely now your are earning too. Will the DMP freeze the interest so your debt will never rise? Can they take your house? It's not great that it will wreck your credit rating but can you do it any other way?
Have you done a pro and con list?

Does anyone know how to kill budlia roots? Felt really bad for the butterflies today but needs must I'm afraid

I know the Christmas thread uses aliexpress a lot but I don't have kids so I haven't used it personally. It's used every year though so it must be reliable.

Lonely as long as the house isn't at risk surely a dmp is the way? could you double check with another agency like Christians against poverty? it's the only one I can think of off the top of my head.

Aliexpress is fine for stocking fillers/advent bits

My great grandmother lived to 100. She died a few years ago but got to meet dd and ds so at the time we had five generations in the family. I'm lucky that all of my grandparents are alive too.

Life I love my buddleias but if it’s one with a thick stem then paint it with stump killer :( I massacred an established rhododendron and hydrangea when we moved in because they were the wrong plants/wrong place. Both bastards to remove

Wow wreck that’s amazing you still have all your grandparents. I have one. So ds is lucky he had one great grandparent.

I’ve listed 6 things on eBay. And have sorted through Ds old clothes. Have two bags for the charity shop and have condensed the others to two boxes. I’m not sure whether to keep them or not. I kept my favourite things out of everything (and the sentimental things - first outfits, things mil gave him...his christening shirt etc). I may sell the rest of the stuff at some point but can’t do it now.

We have a box of nex sizes up too. For about the next 3 years

The bags will go to the charity shop tomorrow. Tick.

Spoke to dparents this evening. We’re moving our clothes on Sunday. Aside from enough for Monday Tuesday Wednesday. Will sleep there from Next Wednesday. I’ll take next Thursday off work so I can clean. And dh will take Friday to help the removals.

Prawn fried rice for dinner which used up half a bag of prawns, leftover cold rice, frozen peas, onion and ginger.

Other things to go to my parents include my orchids, catface and her things, toiletries, riding gear, our tv, useful documents and one coat each. And all of ds’ stuff. Our biggest towels, beach towels and our bedding. And pillows. The majority we’ll move on Sunday.

Once we’ve been there a couple of weeks I’m going to let catface out into their garden. It’s going to be difficult not to really. Dparents like to keep the doors open in the summer so can’t expect them to not. She’ll have to have a collar. Must get her one. She’ll look so lovely.

Read ds “Mog the forgetful cat” before bedtime tonight. Catface was sitting on the floor in the room with us. He kept closing the book and looking at her. Took me a while to click that Mog and catface are both tabbies. So maybe Ds thinks the book is about her....

He may be just wondering whether Mog and catface are both cats at this age. My ds says for a long time he thought that cats were female dogs.

3 weeks if you can manage it Em. 4 weeks is best though, you'll be in bits if she gets lost.

I had to keep the Bengal in for 4 weeks when we moved here.

The local shelter advice here fluffy is 8 weeks....

Vet said 2-3 weeks. She may not even want to go out doubtful vets advice was to open the door one day and go out myself right before dinner time (we don’t leave food out for her all day so this will pay off - she knows to come to us at certain times for food). Go out, call her and see if she comes out. If she does give her a treat. Then see what she does. Sit on the doorway and call her and give her a treat. Then put her food by the door on the inside. Apparently associating indoors with food is a good idea!!

List of things to go to the dump:

Kitchen bin
Bathroom bins x 2
Toilet brushes (once final clean has been done)
Toaster - it’s on its last legs.
Will take all bar toilet brushes on Sunday. We can survive without.

Gosh, I just discovered that it's possible to resize the box that we write our messages in, by dragging the bottom right corner. It feels pretty weird to learn a new thing about this box after 4 years of typing in it.

I've sprayed the open cuts with bleach and poured boiling water over the roots. Both meant to kill it. The base must be 4-6 inches thick.

Will go to Wickes at the weekend and get stump killer

Can we sunny. That must be new???

oh yes! Thats exciting Sunny* ( sorry nerd here )

em I think a lot depends on the cat, we moved in summer and I lasted all of 3 days before letting the cats out 😮 I couldn't cope with all the window and doors being shut. They were totally fine and didn't leave the garden for a few weeks.

Otoh we looked after my brothers cat a few years back, kept him in for two weeks and then on the 2nd time he went out he ran off. He was found after a couple of weeks and my brother took him back, my brother had moved house and the cat kept going back to the old house time and time again. Eventually the neighbours of the old house adopted him!!!

All my grandparents have died now 😢 I was very close to my maternal grandma and think about her all the time 💖

I have a budjela out the front that grew a bit out of control, I cut it back and felt very guilty watching the bees trying to find it the next day 😶 I'm going to try and pull it out at the end of the summer as it's too big for the space!!

This thread does move quickly!

I was lucky enough to have two grandparents into adulthood, my parents were very young when they had me so grandparents were fairly young too. My nana (who I was very close to & had been in good health and very active until a few months before) sadly passed away when little monkey was 3 months old at the age of 77, but I’m so glad she got to meet him as she just doted on him the times they met. Her husband, my Papa is still here he seemed very lost after given they had been married 55 years, but he’s doing very well now 2 years on.

DH has a day off tomorrow which I hadn’t realised (he took it off for an event which is no longer happening) so we are going on a wee day trip to the Kelpies at Falkirk tomorrow. Should be very frugal as I intend to take a packed lunch.

Today little monkey and I used the junk I’ve been keeping (cardboard boxes, toilet roll inners etc) with some of his art supplies to make a huge cardboard monster - so much fun!

em mine absolutely loves the Mog books though our cat is ginger so not the same as Mog.

Budlias are buggers to get rid of life good news is there will be lots of babies, they seed everywhere. Move them to the far boundary!

Dmp wise, yes, only option really. House will not be at risk. If I start to not meet min payments on cc's (I still pay way over on each, it's just so much interest being charged) then the consequences are much more dire. Have done full budgets with 2 debt help people (both free gov approved charities), results the same. The carrot (or light) is they can usually agree an interest and fee freeze. So just the debt to pay back.

Once my nationwide account is up and running i'm going to go for it. I will be paying about the same, but thats ok, as I've managed this long, and all the money will go to the actual debt.

I could just do the standing order trick, but will literally be paying the money back forever. And I want to be free of it. If I have to live with a shite credit record afterwards, so be it.

Two years ago I very firmly had my head in the sand, and spent upwards of a grand in the supermarkets each month. Thankyou thankyou frugaleers