Friendly Frugaleers Ambling into Autumn, watching our wallets and the weather!

[Cagliostro]

Hello! All welcome as we continue trying to use our money wisely!

For. Fucks. Sake.

Went out with my big car filled for the tip. Tip done ✔
Went to storage unit. Filled the car ✔
En route home. Clunk. Car stops. ❌
Called dp. Called garage.
Did 2 trips home in my teeny tiny c1 to decant some stuff from the car.
Dp is waiting with it for the recovery truck. But has a grim face and is muttering about the timing belt or gear box. Automatic gear box. Basically the car is fucked.

You couldn't make it up!!

Now I have to stash 1/3 of my storage unit, currently in the living room.

Lonely that’s a shame about your car. Hope it’s fixable. My car is old and will need replaced soon but I hate car shopping and I’m not paying anything for it so I’m hanging onto it for now.

Fluffy have ordered a soup maker, It should arrive on Wednesday.

Oh No! That is not good news.

I heard on the radio yesterday that people are buying old broken vans, storing all their stuff in them and parking them on any free residential parking that they can find and that it's really annoying residents. Maybe you could get your car towed to the garden and use it as a storage unit?

wolf feel better

fluffy 😂

lonely oh jeeeez poor car! And poor living room. Love the wood burner though!!!

wolf I went riding. I told dh to go to work this afternoon. He’s watching football and f1 qualifying at present. So he’ll probably go in tomorrow.

Rode a different pony today. Jumped her too which I’ve never done before. I’ve jumped. But never her. Yay.

Dh and ds came with me and watched. Ds loves the ponies. He loves laughing at them.

Home now - ds fell asleep in the car but woke up as soon as I carried him into the house. He’s had lunch and is pretending to nap. He’ll go off soon.

This afternoon’s jobs are:

Laundry on. Put clean laundry away. Chill.

Oh no lonely that's not great. Hope you get it sorted.
Sounds like you have had a good morning em they always wake when you take them out of the car seat. Sometimes at night if DD is overtired DP takes her for a drive and then we have to ninja move her out of the car seat, she always wakes and looks confused but most times then goes back to sleep.
Just had a go at the first run of couch to 5k it wasn't too bad despite being horribly unfit
Born wow a soup maker that sounds really useful, I think I am going to have a go at making soup in the slow cooker overnight to put in thermos for work in the morning

Em glad you got to go riding
lonely I love your fire place, sorry about the car though
Bought myself a bottle of naiice gin, not entirely frugal but the bottle I have is nearly done and it’s a type I very much like and it was £5 cheaper than I’ve seen it anywhere else. Bought a few bits for a picnic type tea too before the Ocado shop arrives
Had breakfast out - naiice £6.70 but it was yum and I don’t need lunch. Ds had lunch at volunteering.
Picked a big bag of blackberries whilst out walking and have given them to dm.
Bought eggs from local farmer whose chickens df is looking after (here I’ve just got this from under a hot chicken would you like six sort of thing) 1.75

Hi all and welcome newbies 😊

We've been in town all morning doing the annual school shoe buying stress with dd. Eventually found some that she sort of liked so we went with them quickly, they cost a fortune £50!

Also got trainers for pe £23 and a new pencil case £8.

Think she is done.

Sorry to hear ds is being a pain wolf is he the same age as my dd, 12? I'm sure hormones are kicking in big time now, dd is up and down like a yoyo and last week kept bursting into tears for no reason! !

Ah rubbish lonely, just as you were paying your bill down.

2 tip loads, 3 bags to charity, 3 bags into the loft, recycling out, house cleaned so feel much better and in control.

Hi Java.

Delphi, I recently completed C25K and it was ok, but then over did it and had to rest for a bit because of shin splints, but I've started to jog again, admittedly slowly, I'm enjoying it and didn't want to undo all the good work. Good luck with it!

Wolf hope you feel better soon.

Lonely hope you get it sorted soon.

Oh great curvy , i'm just so terrible at running and then i had a lightbulb moment this is the obvious way to get better. How good/ bad were you when you started? Are you starting it again or just going on runs generally?

Born Ooh lovely. It will save you so much too. Soup is so cheap to make.

Lonely How fucked? expensive part needed fucked or scrap value only fucked?. At least you go the unit done?.

Steak pie filling in the slow cooker. No room in the freezer for pies so I will fill bags and freeze it that way.

NSD.

Two clothes in the charity shop bag. Another item listed on eBay.

Ds has finally gone down for a nap....

He’s been having issues with toof no 8. I can see it finally. Hooray. 8 teefs!!!!

Email from nursery. Our August payment is short £28. Ffs. I forgot they’d put their prices up. Have paid and have amended the standing order. Sigh.

Girlie yeas he’s 12 in a few weeks, we definitely have raging hormones.

I am having a bit of crochet time while he Lego’s. We are in the same room but it’s quiet. You might call it detente

£175 Ikea
£20 sports direct on pe trainers for ds
£14.99 Argos on boxes that'll fit a kallax
£45 fat face
£6 Starbucks
£10 matalan
£5 parking
£14 lunch
£30 fuel

spendy!

jam forgot to say but in your raised bed I would plant a load of spring flowering bulbs now for some lovely spring colour. The only other winter flowering plants I can think of are the Christmas rose (not sure of its actual name!) Camellia (?sp) and winter pansies.

wolf I showed dd the Harry Enfield sketch of when Kevin turns 13 the other day! Now when she starts being stroppy I call her Kevin 😂

jam thought of another one cyclamen (sp?!) are winter flowering and very pretty.

Lonely that's awful about the car you just couldn't make it up could you!

Em did ye go view some open viewings?

Bornlazy your username is apt today so.

I finally got rid of the bag for charity bin that's been in my boot for weeks
I've decided to declutter my high heels in Sept, lots of stuff going to be done this month. I'm moving a roll of bin bags to my room and I'm going to do 30 mins every night before bed. There will also be a bag for charity & one for charity bin. I'll photograph stuff for sale too.
Yesterday I sold ds hatley jacket to a friend, we didn't discuss price. I didn't pay massive money anyhow so I'm happy with €10, he got 2 years out of it.

Today I had 2 slow cookers on the go. Spicy Sausage & Bean Stew using can of chilli beans, pk low fat garlic & herb sausages and a red pepper. One portion for lunch, two for lunches during the week.
1kg of mince made into bolognese, going to divide it into lasagne, taco mince and bolognese. Used jar of dolmio and 2 tins of tomatoes.
Ds made queen cakes using 4 eggs and the weighing method. It made 17, because they ate the mixture off the spoons which would've made the 18th one.
He also sorted clothes into lights & darks for washing & I've hung out 3 washes to dry today.
Dd went to a party & ds & I went for a walk & to shop for newspaper - sold out and sweets - couldn't find any he wanted so €2.60 saved
We're going to ice buns now before they all disappear life I put them into mfp and decided they weren't worth it!

Another NSD

Productive mammy well done you.
Some things are not worth the calories.

I've just done a meal plan based on cupboard and freezer.

mammy dh went to see somewhere. Just for comparison.

The two he looked at were slightly bigger bedrooms. But smaller living area. Smaller garden.

Questions to ask the agent on Monday when we look again. Do they have a king size bed? If they do we’re ok.

Ooh wreck what did you get at Ikea? And what are the Argos boxes that fit a Kallax?

Sorry about the car Lonely, so gutting when you were just catching up with what you owe the garage

Welcome new people! If you’ve been lurking I expect you know us all already

I’ve spent the day sorting through the DCs’ toys in the sitting room and organising them properly in the storage we bought a couple of months ago. DH had just chucked everything in willy nilly and then we went away but it is much much better now. I can find things and there’s much less stuff sitting round the edge of the room in boxes. I’ve also sold the jumperoo for £10 and the perfect prep machine for £15 this week (priced to sell) so I have made some space. The sitting room looks huge without the Jumperoo! In the sorting out I’ve weeded out a lot of baby toys and stuff which I need to get rid of. My neighbourhood is having a jumble trail in 2 weeks, where you can sell stuff outside your house and it’s advertised /coordinated with others. I have sooo much stuff I think it might be worth a try. I could go through books (although I did those recently), DVDs and kitchen stuff too.

Ooh Cag the Ikea tunnel is really good. Much more robust than the other one I had. DS has been playing it it all afternoon, dd is still a bit scared of it.

That sounds totally worth a go sea.

Those with older than 11 children what yours do you still have. My DC are hoarder children but don't play toys.
The idea of getting rid fills them with horror. Any ideas?

fluffy it depends what it is thats bust, and what else it broke. The timing belt will be about a grand, as it's a pig of a job. But it might have ripped out other systems as it went apparently. Gear box=scrap. It might be something else of course. Trouble is we love love love the car.

We will make an informed decision once we know what is wrong. Did I mention that they brought a courtesy car on the recovery truck for us? They are a fab garage.

Only 1/3 done fluff I'll make another trip tonight in my wee car, and see whats left tomorrow. Not sure the big bike storage box will go in at all.

Spent £11 in the spar, sweets and lottery tickets.

life we are hoarders here, all 6 of us. I do a halfway house with toys. Carefully binbagged boxed and into the loft, "just for now". I have only ever been asked for one thing back. This is for all the random stuff. As and when, it will be disposed of. But out of their rooms "just for now".

Em if you’re used to a king sized bed it is actually a bit annoying sleeping in a double. I’m not tall but I don’t like being too close to DH when I’m sleeping (I don’t like being breathed on ). We had a double for most of our holiday and I was glad to get back to my big bed afterwards! So I totally get what your DH is saying.

Ooh I meant to say: I need to vent. DS has got an infuriating habit of whining - I think it is actually a kind of stimming for him to use annoying voices (like a robotic voice) but the whine is the worst. For the last 3 days he’s been whining and randomly screeching and sobbing ALL THE TIME. He is doing my head in. Seriously. I don’t think anything is wrong exactly, possibly just that he knows school is starting soon. He loved school last year but seems very upset by the prospect of a change of teacher