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

[Cagliostro]

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

Was she tall with long brown legs,flippy blonde hair and a tweed mini kilt Sea

I thought tulips should be taken up and over wintered before replanting ?
I think I might try and do some forced bulbs for Christmas.
I do like some narcissi and always have at least one Amaryllis .

Just done a run to my storage before dark. All my yarn is home, plus all the bike helmets and a lot of other stuff.

I had forgotten about the humongous 8 man tent in there. And the fish tank. Bugger. I really need a bigger space to load up into. Three of our bikes (kids moda road bikes) to go, and a lot of other bits.

I have got a wooden (girly) balance bike, a fabulous Ghost 12" wheel girls bike, and a boys 14" diamondback, which I would be happy to pass along the bus to any regulars on here... I've tried to sell them before. And don't any of you buy kids helmets. I have a lot of Met and Lazer ones!

Tea was fish fingers, scampi, chips and peas c/o the freezer. I count that as a bad tea (as in lazy), but we all seemed hungry enough to eat it.

I would love an instant pot, but couldn't justify the cost atm. I do have a slow cooker, but only use it to make veggie soup or pulled pork for dp, so maybe an instant pot would just sit there too.

Spends today
Asda £41 for ds school shoes, skirt and underwear for dd.
Logo PE trousers £19.50
Lunch £13
Morrisons £14.35 on more fruit bread and milk

Have impulsively ordered this pressure cooker from Argos as there is a code for 20% off. I may have gone too far ordering a soup maker and a pressure cooker in the same day

I'm not into kitchen gadgets as have no where to store them! I have a slow cooker but never got on with it so might try and sell it at some point. We have a smoothie maker thing and that gets used from time to time.

I've had a headache all afternoon just to add to the list of aches and pains so am in bed early!!

I've cooked pies in my slow cooker. They cook nicely in there.

I'd have a pressure cooker if I lacked time.

Fluffy, how do you make your pies, please?

Girlie I would've thought slow cooker would be great for you & dd, dinner ready when you'd be home in the evenings.

There are loads of gadgets I'd love to have - soupmaker, stand mixer and instant pot, reality is I can manage without them.

I found a very interesting article last night where Ireland are now offering grant on solar panels for energy, the house I viewed has only storage heaters installed, wouldn't this be a way around replacing the heating system? It also has a wood burning stove a la lonely so wouldn't be without heating in event of powercut

Born a couple of workmates have that one and really rate it

Yes in theory mammy but dd doesn't like anything like casserole/stew/bolegnaise and the few times I tried to cook anything in it it didn't turn out that great!

I love my solar panels! They've heated our hot water since June 🌞🌞🌞

Curvy They were shop bought puff pastry pies I used to do. You just put them in and leave it on high for an hour or so.

I'm making my own suet pastry pies tomorrow. That'll be a slow cooker job too.

£4 of beef steak has made enough for 3 pies. I'm kidding myself I will only eat half and save the rest for lunch the next day.

mammy Can you store the energy they make to run the rads? I saw a couple on tv who used batteries to store their solar energy. Loads of people around here have them but dh said no and I cant sneak them on without him noticing.

I think you have hit the nail on the head regarding time Fluffy with the Instapot
I dont really need eggs boiled in 5 minutes instead of 10 minutes or meat in half an hour but if you do work longer hours or have caring comittments I can see it would be useful.
I have a couple of really good slow cooker cookbooks by an american cook.
Im in bed but can look them out if anyone wants her name.
Really turns out lovely food not the slimey mush referred to on every slow cooker thread and she is specific about crock size,temperature and fluid amounts.

Thanks Fluffy, I do buy meat pies for dp sometimes and when I'm batch cooking and using the oven it's good to know that I can use the SC for that.

Dinner was A sort of carbonara pasta bake (pasta bacon onions peas mushrooms in cheese sauce) and jelly. Ds are the same as us. And loved every second

I’ve moved catfaces food downstairs. Not her litter box yet. She’s been coming down and exploring the downstairs now earlier and earlier during the day. I want to get her downstairs all night (as she’s disturbing our sleep - old bed was bugger so there was room for her too, this one not so much!) but baby steps.

Dh has said he’ll sleep in with ds tonight. So we can both get decent sleeps. Catface is here on bed with me stretched out. So much for staying downstairs...!

Nsd tomorrow.

I did spend £56 on asos earlier. A pair of high waisted skinny trousers for work and a couple of pairs of pointed toe flatties. These may go back though.

I would like her name please Quite.

I would too Quite. Underemployed sc here and thoughts turning to autumnal food...

Please! Typing with left thumb while brushing teeth, where are my manners?

Aaargh! We had 3 good nights. Three! They have both been up twice already tonight. DH is still settling ds. It feels like 1 step forwards and 2 steps back.

I am very thirsty. Probably because I let them lull me into a false sense of security and had a 3rd glass of wine thinking they would sleep again.

Sorry I'm just venting. Feel free to ignore!

I love bats Wolf. Haven't seen any in our garden this year. We normally get a few.

I've solar panels for water too here girlie they're great 👍🏼

Fluffy I think so, but not certain, you get an extra grant of €1k if you install battery, also electric Ireland allow you to pay over 3 years interest free too after an initial 20% deposit.

Snuggly I hope dc slept rest of the night.

I went to bed early and have now been awake since 4 will turn off phone in a minute & try get a few more hours.

Hope you managed to get more sleep guys.

I worked like the sc name to as I would like to do more in it. Although I might look into a pressure cooker as we are time poor.

hi guys! calm before the storm here this morning both dc still in bed and im making a cuppa

i would love an instant pot for those evenings we dont get into after 7pm... at the min though we have a slow cooker and do a bit of batch cooking to help. Cant really justify it when we are trying to pay stuff off and save up a bit

Went to an airshow yesterday (free!) thankfully took a picnic as the food stalls were ridiculously priced, all had a good day

theres a circus festival on today so will prob let DH have a day to himself and check it out with the DC later

off for a read through. happy sunday everyone!

Ok thanks curvy and life feel v motivated with this c25k. DD is teething so up every night putting anbesol liquid on her gums which is a god send, although she then always has to have milk to get her back to sleep. Was worried we have regressed with the sleeping as she used to sleep through all night but have to remind myself its just her teething, poor little thing. NSD yesterday and the day before but today we are going out for birthday meal with in laws so unavoidable really.

Hope everyone has a lovely Sunday planned, think it is going to warmish again

I'm tempted by the instapot. Does the 5.5l do enough for a family of big eaters need? If that the one you got?

Morning all.
just I agree completely about the pre teen thing, our two are not grumpy teens, but the adjustment stage beforehand is hard.
fluffy I looked at the instant pot a while back, but decided to sick with my slow cooker for now.
Had the best day out with my dm yesterday, thanks just for the recommendation. We went to the quilt show in Harrogate first which was great, really inspiring. Took lots of pics of amazing quilts & will post a couple of my favourites later. I could've spent a fortune as I saw some beautiful fabrics, but didn't, was very restrained, mainly because I already have loads & need to start doing something with them before I buy more. Then we went to the RHS gardens at Harlow Carr and ate at the Betty's restaurant there. Around £90 in total, but worth every penny.
Start my course tomorrow....yikes! Looking forward to it, but it's going to be tough so I'm trying to plan, plan, plan ahead. Invested in a weekly planner calendar from Boxclever (formerly Organised Mum) and a wall planner.
Ds is 17 today, where did that time go?? He's growing up to be a really lovely young man. He's playing cricket today (what else would he do ). We'll watch the latter stages and then straight back here for curry and cake. He starts college tomorrow so no late night celebrations. He stayed late after the cricket last night. He had obviously had a "couple" of celebratory drinks, but was fine when he got in, just chatty! "No ds, I don't want or need to know every detail of every ball you bowled today )
Dd is going shopping with a friend today & is gloating as she isn't back to school until Wednesday.

Born I think it will suit you really well, you don't like cooking anymore than I do.

Theres facebook groups for slow cooking ideas & loads of old threads on here too.