The Friendly Frugaleers- Autumn is on its way !

[QuiteCleanBanditlovesdresses]

Hi Frugaleers
Sorry lame thread title

That's good snuggly, it's such a stressful time, especially with all the changes.

Tomatoes are easy. These were from a crop that my Mil grew, but I did them the last 2 years. Feed often, and water evenly (if that makes sense) if you don't want them to split. So no forgetting then giving them three gallons! You need to pinch off the off shoots but YouTube would show you how. They just need a bit more tlc than say courgettes or similar.

I need to master cucumbers, I was successful in my first year and then every time after has been abject failure.

Interestingly, I've tried fennel twice and had great success, smaller bulbs than the supermarket ones but still tasty. And fennel is so expensive that I was pleased it was easy to grow.

for you snuggly, sounds really tough x

My dsis has twin dds, they are 6 now and she said once they got past 2 everything got easier, so hopefully the same will be true for you.

NSD yesterday, but I stayed indoors as had a migraine.
Ocado order coming later, £45 approx.
Taking dd2 to the cinema and then need to pick up new underwear and socks for DCs

Pay day here as well!! I'd forgotten about the bank holiday which means we get paid early!!

It was a nice pay packet so have been good and put £100 straight into savings account and also paid my friend £51 towards a girls wend were going on in Oct for her 40th.

I need to spend approx £150 on school stuff for dd and some new clothes for both of us, am planning on going to a local discount village for that. Luckily most of dds uniform still fits so it's mostly just shoes, trainers and some pe gear. I also need some new bits, my underwear in particular is looking shameful! Plus work shoes and tights.

I also want to get the flooring in the hallway done, might measure up and book that today actually! Am budgeting around £200 although hoping it might be less, will use some savings to cover that.

I'm laughing at all the combat trouser chat, I also liked to think of myself as a skater chick and I had a few skirts so short sitting down was not an option 😏 I've kept a few bits that I can't bring myself to chuck including my 1998 glastonbury t. shirt!!

Pay day here too but I owed lots back to the joint account for shoes and yesterday so not much left. Also child benefit came in early so on initial look it looked better than it actually was. Pfft.

Thanks. In many ways I can see that it is getting easier. I just wish we could get some bloody sleep!

My washing has been blowing in the sun all morning but it's about to chuck it down. Better go and rescue it!

Our holiday is pottering along. We've had a slight frugal fail because we went to waitrose when we arrived and bought lots of nice meat, but it turned out that fridge wasn't working so we had to bin a lot of it this morning. Ratso.

We slept well though, so that was good. It's nice to just mooch around town with the brain in neutral.

I did some inspired cooking with my no ingredients this morning. Scrambled egg and bacon flavoured crisps.

Wow I would complain and get my money back for the food from whoever let the cottage to you

Ooh exciting - thanks girlie just realised I've been paid too! Wreck o was finding my CB was messing me up every month - I'd either have already spent it before it came in or blow it as saw it as bonus money! Now I put it on a separate account as soon as it comes in and then do t put it in my current account until the start of the next month. It took a couple of months to 'save' enough to be able to do this but I find it really helps with budgeting.

Ah Glasto! I have fond memories of 1998 - climbing over the fence being one of them

I don't think the house has ever been lived in by the owners and everything's a little bit wonky. It does look like a nice house but every five minutes I realise that something is not quite right, and I have to come up with some kind of workaround. Strange that.

The Sainsburys 25% off ended Monday.

I've read gardening threads on mse that say grow the expensive items at home. Blueberries, raspberrys, purple sprouting broccoli.

I finally got a lidl veg box. Punnett of grapes, punnet of snack multicoloured tomatoes, organic tomatoes, fancy plums, 3 carrots, bag of Braeburn apples, cherry tomatoes, mini oranges, pack of peppers, 4 flat nectarines. It was on a stand by the till, not in the fruit and veg section.

£2.17 Aldi. 3 washing up liquids, 2 packs of corn on the cob for the freezer.
£2.50 Iceland for two bags of mc cain French fries
£2.10 2kg pasta in sains
£6.92 veg box, onions, huge bag of tomatoes, proper butter, eggs, bag of onions
£4 poundland 2 huge jars of dolmio, atora beef suet (I don't do palm oil suet and I think beef is more filling) and a flan dish. I have a recipe for a pastry that uses oil and you press it in the dish rather than roll it out so I needed a flan dish. It uses oil not butter.

I'm thinking plum tart if they start to go over, I'll freeze most of the tomatoes for using in soups, bean stews.

Poundland has a few more baking items in now the bake off is back. Glass cake stands & cake tin liners.

On our way home. Traffic is terrible though

Take I'd definitely complain, lost shopping and also time traipsing around supermarkets when you should be relaxing.

www.hotukdeals.com/deals/free-250-boots-advantage-points-250-points-when-you-show-a-house-of-fraser-loyalty-card-or-gift-card-boots-instore-3026219 Free £2.50 in boots for house of fraser loyalty card holders.

Dh gets free prescriptions now so I've been refunded £17 on his pre payment certificate.

On our way home. Traffic is terrible though

Ooh weird, I thought that hadn’t posted!

The tomato offer is back Tinky.

Nsd so far. Went into town with dh and ds. Dh changed his birthday things. Ds met some greyhounds. Greyhound rescue lady took a photo of ds with greyhounds. For the rescue Facebook page. They were so friendly. Ds loved them.

He’s “napping” aka standing up in his cot and singing.

Oh yes em I remember "napping" except mine rarely sang, usually just chanted "mummummummmeeee".

Woo hoo for bank holiday weekends! It's the first time I've 'got' it. We shut at 2. Yay, so freebie time at home.

Nsd so far, but will treat us to a Chinese for tea. Looking forward to it already.

Ate a frog and booked the survey valuation thing for next thursday. Luckily I will be at work. Dp can take this one for the team. He saw the gp today. Retesting his dodgy thyroid before putting him back on AD's. His back is really getting him down. I told him to apologise for yelling at me the other night. He did it in the style of a polite child who isn't quite sure what they are saying sorry for.

fluffy have you tried the Aldi french fries? 85p and are so much nicer than mcain ones, especially as we have a fryer. I take it these are for your dh as they are all coated in 'stuff'?

Lonely I will sneak them in to see if he notices. I could always keep the old bags and repackage them. PM'd you.

Nsd today although DH popped into Aldi for some nice treats
Chicken curry for dinner tonight. Might bake some more buns if I can be bothered. Feeing very tired even though I haven’t really done anything. Cleaned out another drawer, just got the cupboard of doom under the stairs to tackle and then I’ll start on upstairs 😩

I'll try some tomatoes next summer then @JAM.

Spends today:
£16 bikini wax
£5 vests for DS; he is so tall, his current ones don't tuck into his trousers so won't be much good when the weather turns chillier. So I went up a size and they will probably be very baggy as he is tall but thin; but hopefully it won't make too much difference in vests.
I also spent £35 on Amazon last night, thanks to the Christmas thread, but I'm very pleased with what I've ordered; hopefully I'll continue to be pleased when they arrive!

I've had a bit of a crap day in the end, attempted a run and within 5 mins had pain across the top of my back which made it impossible to go on as I couldn't breath properly! Hobbled home and have been resting ever since, am meant to be working all wend but am not convinced I'm going to be able to 😦 the pain is still there although slightly better.

I'm so fed up, my body just does not seem very happy atm.

Oh no girlie :(

I’d really like to try growing those hanging basket tomatoes, they are really tiny. Although we bought massive beef tomatoes the other day (normally get salad or cherry) and the smell of it took me instantly back to being a six year old in my late grandparents’ greenhouse ❤️❤️❤️

Random frugal win yesterday, ages ago we helped an elderly lady who had fallen at the shops. DH had a first aid kit (it was after sports club) so he used that while we called ambulance etc. Anyway at his work (had been in the safe for ages so not actually sure when it was delivered) there was a card with a lovely thank you note, and £20 as a treat/to replace first aid supplies! How lovely is that :) also relieved to know she was ok!

So... our extractor fan was only attached to the wall by three very small screws. How do I know this... because it fell down in front of DH. Quite comical if I don’t think how much worse that could’ve been (eg if boiling water on hob, children in kitchen... 😱)

I am not entirely sure how it was supposed to work either. We hadn’t tried it. But it’s evidently not “plumbed in” IYSWIM (compared to old house, where if you had the extractor on you could see the steam extracted going outside through a vent). So not really sure what that was about.

DH also had a look at the aerial situation in the attic and it’s all plugged in to an external aerial... which is INSIDE the attic.

I am very confused :o

girlie you do sound quite run down atm. Take care

I was just out pootling in my veg patch jungle picking beans and carrots for my parents, when a biblical rainstorm started. Took refuge in the greenhouse until dd1 rescued me! She looked very jaunty in her sisters kiddy wellies (she has tiny feet), pj bottoms, watermelon print vest and ds's froggy umbrella! Gotta love her!

Have dispatched dp with a list and my debit card...hopefully he'll pay the garage a bit off the tab, bring me a takeaway and a dd3 and some change.

Yy cag we have a mahoosive aerial inside our attic. Dp got it as our freeview was crap, now it's quite good. It feeds all the upstairs tv's. Apparently they don't have to be on the chimbleys anymore.

Our extractor also goes no-where. It matches the range, but other than that I'm blank! Never use it actually, and it just gathers greasy dust, which is mega annoying as it's cream. At least dp over engineered it's fitting, I can hang my weight off the rail along the front just because I can, it doesn't mean I should