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

[Cagliostro]

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

I missed the beginning of swfl. “Be more Kanye?!” Wtf?! Haha. Prize knobber. Absolutely.

And yes. They did just look ordinary cheap

Was it Dolly Parton who said “it take a lot of money to look this cheap”

His poor wife. Not seen it but that black hair is very, very hard to pull off. Many try though.

Unescorted I'm surprised to you don't already, your usually on it.

They worked a 100 hours a week each and spent 45K a year on stuff.
Identical stuff stupid hats
No savings at all

Ooh, must watch swfl today. And I still need to catch up on bake off.

I was a loser in the lottery of life yesterday. Look at this sourdough bread - the massive air hole was almost the whole length of the loaf. My poor toast

Just been a bit naughty and bought an outfit and jumper for dd from Joules, 35% off. Bloody Christmas bargain thread. I also spent £45 on amazon for bits for DS’s imminent birthday. No real idea what to get him, he can’t really say. When I asked him if he wanted any train toys or space toys he said ‘number toys!’ most emphatically . He already has several number-related toys so I have no idea what to do about that!

Anyway, I’m out tonight with friends so even more spends. Hopefully not too bad though.

Oh Jam, ds seemed fine last night but was then very upset after he’d gone to bed and there were a lot of tears. He’s basically okay but just processing things, I think. Thanks for asking.

You are all tempting me with your instant pot and soup maker talks. My sisters swear by their soup maker. They agree it does nothing special but somehow it just makes it that little bit easier /faster so they make much more soup. I am sorely tempted....

Morning all, that's a shame re the bread seacow it looks like a lovely loaf otherwise!

I can't get into swfl it just seems so obvious!

Dd had an okay first day back to school Ystd, year 8!! Seems happy enough with her timetable etc. There's a new rule that mobiles are not allowed at all, so if a teacher sees one it gets confiscated even at break. I can understand why but I think dd felt reassured that she could text/ring me at lunchtime if she needed to.

Plan today is to make a few phone calls and poss try and get an appointment for a massage, my mums offered to pay for one and it might help if guess. Pain wise I'm no better 😓 it's so wearing, I think I've forgotten what it feels like to be pain free!!

We're back to school here now. I'm properly tired and going to put my feet up so as to be braced for the coming excitements.

Ah girlie, that's exactly the stage I got to, I actually accepted the fact I'd never be pain free. It's incredibly tiring, I fully get that. A massage is a good idea. I found my muscles even all around the area became tense and tight and that made things even worse. It will give short term relief if nothing else.

Long term, and I do mean long term, I've found strengthening all the musculature in the area (my case lower back) was the best possible medicine. You can't do this now I fully get. But if the muscles are doing their job and taking the load, they help take the strain from the joint.

Whoa, I am seriously behind on the thread. Will catch up later.

Seacow number toys - would he like some cuisenare rods, numicon or a base ten set perhaps?

(Why did “number toys” autocorrect to “Humber Roy’s”?!?)

Ooh thanks so much for the ideas Cag! I think he’d love Numicon or cuisinare (I’ve just looked them up) for the tactile shapes /colours but im not sure he’ll be receptive to me trying to teach him anything structured with them. It’s a bit like Lego - he likes the shapes but just wants to spread them out and gets annoyed if I put the bits together, they have to be apart! That said, I do suspect that if I got numicon, say, and played him YouTube lessons on it he’d pay attention to them! He’s really intuitive with numbers (eg pattern spotting, counting in multiples from a young age) but struggles with even simple maths because he doesn’t really understand what we are trying to get him to do. It’s the communication problem, not the maths, I believe!

So I might give it a try, thanks very much. I’ll have to learn how to use/teach with them myself!

Christmas might he like foam numbers to stick on the bathroom tiles when he is in the bath?

He has some Take and he does indeed love them

That's good then.

Does he like toys that can be sorted by types? I used to love sorting my farm animals into categories. I can't really think of any other number toys, oddly. You'd think there'd be zillions.

Ah that’s great seacow also one good thing about numicon especially is that they will pick up a lot just from playing with it, so no worries about trying to teach him too soon. My two would still build cities with it given the chance! You can also do things like stamping (if paint doesn’t bother him) or pushing it into play dough. Even things like trying to cover the base board will encourage thinking about what numbers are needed.

I actually never thought of looking them up on YouTube so thank you for that!

The others walked to trampolining in 27 minutes. DD had the important job of timing it on her phone. We even had time to fit in some grammar work before they left (and that’s despite being rather disorganised this morning). That’s very different to having to leave at 8.40 for a 10am lesson isn’t it? What’s more, DH can bring them home again, rather than me having to meet them in town so he can get to work, because we are nearer his work too, he will have almost an hour at home before he has to leave.

Also in work news, it really does look as though he may be moving stores. Trying not to get too excited. It’s basically the same distance walking, but there are direct buses if needed, as opposed to two. It is bigger so cannot open late in Sundays. Not sure exactly what the move would mean for his shift pattern but hopefully at least a couple of mornings instead of the late shifts that are making us all miserable. It’ll change things for home ed and we will have to figure out how to fit my tutoring work and sports club into it all. But overall it could make a huge huge difference.

Cag that would be great if he didn't have to do so many late shifts. For me the time between about 6 o'clock and bedtime was always the most fraught and when I most needed a hand.

Mid morning check in. I have to buy lunch today. Sigh.

Took ds to Nursery and was told by the manager that three of the staff are off with a tummy bug. So if any more call in sick they will be off on ratios so may have to send kids home. Sigh. Every time my phone rings now I’m twitching. #curseyouanxiety

Dparents are back today. Yay.

I’m going to boots at lunchtime. We need some more baby bath bubbles. I may get some matey. Loved that when I was a kid. Buying with points though.

Totally agree Just and Nice guidelines agree with you as well
Adequate pain relief to get you out of the pain spasm more pain cycle ... with a plan for rehabilitation/surgery (hopefully not) and physio to strengthen muscles and core.
Yep no quick fix .
SWFL is really obvious but I guess they need the more extreme spenders or it would be rather dull plus we can be and smug.

MN really needs a smuggers emoji

Cag I’m defo going for the numicon. I’ve watched a few intro videos and I’m sold. You are a genius . Do they use it in schools routinely these days too? There’s quite a few kits online, some with pegs, some with more numicon shapes - what do you advise is a good size set to start with?

Nanny accepted the post, starting in November. Hurrah for not rejecting my children or me . So I’ll have to get serious about job hunting soon. And losing weight, otherwise I’ll have to buy all new work clothes and I really don’t want to do that! I’d love to try C25k but I’m afraid of making my awful plantar fasciitis worse .

Just made a chicken curry for tomorrow as the chicken needs to be cooked today. It’s on the bone though so will improve overnight and I will enjoy not having to cook tomorrow!

I really need to start giving dd more soups etc for lunch as we are in a complete cheese-or-houmous rut. I am talking myself into a soup maker here... it’s space constraints that hold me back from buying random kitchen equipment so I have to be really sure.

And I agree Born - I hate doing bedtime on my own. It seems to take forever even though ours are pretty good about routine.

Aw yay seacow :o I swear I don’t work for them 😂 I think the pegs are worth getting as it increases the range of things you can do. For example if you put 3 pegs in a 4-piece, you have three quarters.

It was volunteering in the infant school that introduced me to numicon, I used to use it with small groups. My best friend is a reception teacher and she really rates it too. I got some kind of starter pack for DD when she was about your DS’ age (I think it was called the numicon at home kit or something) and later got an extra set of pieces. I use it with older pupils too, you can demonstrate stuff like column addition with carrying the one (which is of course actually a ten and you literally carry it over, this really helps cement the idea far more than just writing it)

But like I said I don’t work for them 😂

Apparently you can get crochet patterns for the pieces too. So that might be a fun project, in case you needed an excuse for more yarn 😈😜

And yes evenings are definitely hard here. Between the stimming and anxiety and of course the baby and the endless repetitions of dinner and clean up and ugh. I don’t know maybe if he changes shifts I’ll end up feeling like that about mornings! But at least bedtimes will be easier, at the moment I barely get the chance to read to them together let alone individually (it was different when baby would feed and sleep but she is never bloody still now, even when feeding she is climbing on me and screeching randomly. So the idea of having nice evenings where we can give the older two more attention, and also where DH can do more of the club runs, is immensely appealing.

I think evenings are harder than mornings Cag, plus everyone is tired, which doesn’t help.

Well, nanny has just pulled out due to ‘change of circumstances’. I feel a bit annoyed - I sensed she was hesitating but wish she’d just cut to the chase earlier! Back to square one. I feel as though my children have been ‘rejected’ but I just need to get over it. Hmm. It isn’t going to be easy to find a solution.

Oh bless you seacow she just wasn't the right person for you or your children and the fact that she said o.kay and then promptly changed her mind shows that!! The right person will come along.

Thanks for all the advice, I know there are no quick fixes its just frustrating when you want to be doing stuff and getting back to normal! That said the pain actually hasn't been too bad today (probably as I've done hardly anything!) I had a long bath which was nice and otherwise just rested and pottered a bit. Jam and Seacow can you remember which painkillers worked for you in the end?

I have caught up on a few things as well, rang the work physio people and they will contact me on Monday, I left a message at a place for a massage and hoping they will ring back and i have chased the pet insurance claim I put in for boycat back in June. Apparently they were waiting for more info from the vets and the vets are saying they never heard anything from them hopefully it will be sorted now. Not confident I will get any money back but at least I've tried!

seacow, better she changes her mind now though

I've just wasted 30 minutes of my day watching hair tutorials on you tube 😂 And still have no idea how to do my hair like a grown up

Anyone here do nice things with shoulder length hair?

I'd like to know that too love. Dh informs me that the way to think of it is to sweep it up at the back and let people enjoy the curve on the back of my neck.

It appears the key is hair products take and different brushes. I like having nice fresh unsticky hair

Someone like em will probably be able to suggest something!