Scrimping through the remains of September, Austere Autumn approaching, frugal friendly 'Fred

[Justanothermile]

Thought I'd make a new thread, I'll post on the old one and alert to its presence.

All are welcome, we are friendly folk.

Feeling a bit frustrated with my DM this evening. She'd told me she had been speaking with the probate office about some inheritance money for my dad for a relative who died without a will. Turns out they have signed a contract with an heir hunter firm who will get 15% of any of this money. She only make me aware of it as she was complaining about my cousin who told her it was a scam Not a scam as such, but potentially a costly mistake!

£6 Tesco
£40 Ocado tomorrow

Still mainly lurking here. Too much to do!

I must remember, no good day starts with 'hoping for a NSD' 😬 £50 on dm's birthday gift, £10ish on random shite in the local 'has everything' shop as I needed a bday card but card limit £10. £20 on dinner out.

And I'm ignoring my phone limit and have just watched two episodes of Killing Eve so my other proclamation to have less screen time has also gone to pot.

My good intentions don’t amount to much either! I seem to be spending a lot at the mo, on winter stuff for the kids, work bits for me (Especially footwear), getting a bit ahead with Christmas presents and food. Always food. We do eat a lot of naice fruit but don’t waste food so I can live with that. I am frugalling well for lunches though as I am still making big pots of soup and eating it for a few days, and DD is loving it too. Today I made spicy red lentil and tomato soup and it was fab! And very cheap. Tomorrow I will make Lonely Flapjacks to make my darling DS happy. Oh, and DH too

Dd did pretty well at nursery without me - she didn’t cry when I left although when she did get upset (by having her face wiped) she wanted me and was then even more upset when I wasn’t there. It was a good start though. I took her to the GP afterwards and he confirmed her whole thumb is infected from a couple of the HFM spots so she’s on oral antibiotics now. I am watching it like a hawk to make sure it doesn’t get redder /more swollen or she develops a temperature - it’ll be straight to A&E in that case. Doctor said I have to try and stop her sucking the thumb. I asked him whether the nhs would issue her with one of those lampshade things to put round her head, like they do with dogs? For a minute he thought I was serious... It was the hot guy we saw yesterday, and who I’m also seeing tomorrow for a repeat prescription of the pill. Three days in a row . He’ll be wanting a restraining order soon.

The rest of the day has been incredibly frustrating as I’ve been wresting with Windows 8 on my ‘self-employed’ laptop 😬😬😬. For the last 5 hours I have been trying to get my email to synch and /or upgrade to Windows 10 before I chuck my work laptop off a cliff, whilst actually doing some work for a deadline tomorrow on my ancient Mac. If I can’t get it sorted tomorrow I’ll have to find an IT guru locally, and super-quickly, or buy a new laptop for work... it’ll cost me more in lost work time than the cost of a laptop if I don’t sort it in the next day or so. Grrr to technology. And especially hideous Windows 8.

I need to go to bed but can’t tear myself away from the glacially slow installation. 81% complete, apparently. This might not even work without a product key, though t’interweb assures me it will. I’ll probably not be finding out till tomorrow...

Morning.

£42.50 from my last dr visit has landed in my account. Thanks health insurance. Phew.

Today I’m not planning any spends (but then I wasn’t yesterday either...and look what happened there.)

That’s annoying sea I hope it’s fixed soon.

Dh said he walked past nursery yesterday to pick Ds up and ds was by the open outside door (which has a locked gate/shutter in front of it) and was drawing in the floor (chalk board type floor at nursery). He laughed at dh when he saw him. Then cried when dh left to walk round to the main door to pick him up.

I can hear him singing to himself now. And shaking his jingly bunny.

Off we go. Go Wednesday! Go team!

I am totally not feeling Wednesday!

Work today but also need to go an collect a parcel that was delivered a day earlier than scheduled and therefore I wasn’t in to accept it. Typical!

My fabulous pacing intentions have gone a bit bonkers as ds now needs packed lunches and the housework turns out to take about 2 person's worth of work to do. I'm starting to wonder if I should buy pre-made things for packed lunches like pre-cut vegetables or something, but that would not be very frugal.

At the moment I'm doing cooked breakfasts for two different special diets in the morning and making packed lunch for one special diet at the same time, and it's making me a bit twizzly, even starting at 6am.

Would it be a heinous #FrugalFail to buy pre-cut carrots?

Do what you gotta do Summer. Though I’m not a fan of pre-cut carrots myself because they taste of water... could you do some bits the evening before?

MY COMPUTER UPGRADES WORKED!!!! I have never managed to sort any ‘broken computer-y problem’ for myself before so I am chuffed. And no spends! I have working email on my pc for the first time in 2 years . Now to install the printer and then I am 100% up and running!

On the down side the Kettle has died. So I’ll be buying one of those at the first opportunity!

Have a good day everyone.

That's great about the computer success Christmas.

I could do the work the evening before but I feel as though I am a slave to special diet cooking, and I'm frankly fecked right off with it. It was lovely to have ds having school lunch while I sat around at home gasping for breath and actually having time to feel how knackered I am for once. i'm going to and ask how the new school lunches work and whether he could at least have them two days a week or something.

Can you chop a batch in advance and keep them in the fridge? Don't know what you are doing for pack ups but is there anything you can do in advance ie frozen sandwich

Nsd planned but may do some Christmas shopping while WFH waiting for a parcel

I feel exactly the same about cooking loads of different meals Summer, and I too am fecked off! In my case it’s not because of medical necessity but DS’s very restricted foods (due to his ASD) and the fact that I need the baby NOT to eat only the 2 things he does! It is very time consuming and boring... and I know the feeling of having just dealt with one meal (and the clearing up - different meals = more washing up etc) and then YOU HAVE TO FEED THEM AGAIN!

Just made a cup of tea from a saucepan of water. It just never tastes the same!

Summer I was reading in the Daily Fail (guilty pleasure of mine) about some Sistema fridge storage boxes that everyone’s raving about that keep your food fresh for weeks. Maybe worth investing in some, then you can prep stuff that you need, ready to grab and go?

Just back from the school run and realised DS2 has forgotten his trumpet. Not surprising as he’s been a tired grumpy little sod this morning, his shoes are hard to run in why can’t he have trainers, his water bottle leaks ( it doesn’t), why doesn’t his rucksack have a bottle holder on the outside like the old one ( he chose it!). So back to school in a bit.

Then got to pick up a parcel. And go to Decathlon. DS1 is at scout camp this weekend by a lake doing water based activities. So needs new waterproof trousers and some new walking boots. Hopefully shouldn’t cost much, Decathlon’s quite reasonably priced.

Thanks Christmas I'm glad it's not just me.

I asked at the school and apparently the school lunches have changed and most days for non-wheat people it is just jacket potatoes now, which is going to get a bit tedious 5 days a week. He might be able to have school lunch three days a week though, which would be nice. We might try and do that.

eBay item sold £3.50 plus postage coming to me. Yay.

Sitting in dentist waiting room. Haven’t been in 11 years 😳😳😳 nervous is not an adequate description. At least it’s free (for another month due to maternity card)

Eeeeeek

Agh! Just got half way through reading and catching up then accidentally pressed something and lost my place.

I might go shopping this week. Just trying to decide what I need to buy. I don't get to go shopping very often so I don't want to waste the opportunity!

That sounds pretty exciting snuggly. I hope you enjoy it. Just recently we've got to the point where I can leave ds with dh and go to the shops and it really is a revelation. In case you're wondering, I can't actually remember what used to happen if I left them together, but it just never was a good idea before. Now it is fine. It's really funny now to go and stand in M&S and just breathe slowly for a minute with no pressure. I have no idea what kind of clothes I am meant to buy, and always end up looking at daft things.

Good luck at the dentist Cag.

My computers decided to update itself. SO I’m taking a break for the time it takes. Cup of tea and a mint club biscuit (thanks Dm!)

Am feeling on it like a car bonnet today. Getting shit done is getting done.

Getting up early (or waking up early 545) seems to be helping me. A little bit of quiet time in the mornings.

Tomorrow I’m at a seminar at 745 till 9. Strong women in our islands history. It’s part of the “Her-story” programme that our museum and heritage society are running. I’m a member so got discounted tickets. Myself and a colleague are going. £4 each and breakfast. (I wouldn’t go unless breakfast was involved!! Haha!)

That sounds really cool em I’m really pleased there is so much out there about important women at the moment.

Dentist was fine, he’s actually really kind (and dare I say it seacow he is rather cute like your doctor) unlike the horrible one I saw all those years ago who put me off. Need a few things done but way way less than I was expecting and much of it should be doable before exemption runs out. I do have to see a hygienist but that’s not covered anyway so I’m getting the other stuff done first and then will book in (that’s £44)

Phew. I have done enough adulting for the day. Off to meet DH for brunch :)

Finally checking in. We have had some big spends over past few days but they have been planned.

Main xmas presents for the kids are sorted as we have booked to go to the alton towers xmas sleepover so they only really need stocking fillers.

Today will be expensive as the vet is coming for the horse so the end bill for that is likely to be painful.

The day to day spends have been low, couple of business expenses and went swimming last night which was £3.70. DH is out tonight so will be a bit spendy.

I have also just done a balance transfer on one credit card across to 0% for 15 months

Earlier in the thread I think em was speaking about puddle suits the jojo ones are good value for money and have great resale

Well done cag I hate the dentist so know how you feel.

Not sure of the solutions to lots of cooking/packed lunches seacow and summer, but I'm also feeling your pain about it. Can either DH help more? I tend to do dinner, DP generally does lunches.

1.5 hours until I finish work today. And then half way through the week. Yay!

£11 George on vests for ds.

Re he packed lunches. I’d get dh to help. But then it all depends I suppose on work commitments too. In my case dh works same hours to me.

I’m trying to do as much as I can the night before. We tend to have leftovers or a salad for our lunches (not ideal for kids though).

A friend of mine used to make up ham and cheese sandwiches wrap them and freeze. Then you just grab one from the freezer. But depending on allergies and food issues this may not work either.

Thanks wreck I’m actually feeling quite happy now. I have been a proper grown up.

However I am really scared of the next bit... can anyone tell me what to expect with a root canal? 😖😱 Just wondering what I’m likely to feel like afterwards as I may have to change the plans on Tuesday afternoon (I’m having it at 9ish)

£33 on walking boots and waterproof trousers for DS1. Hope he likes the boots, they’re excellent quality for the price.

There’s a huge Next right next door which could have been dangerous, but the few bits I tried on I liked, but didn’t love, so I didn’t buy anything.

£10 in Poundland on cleaning products and some other bits we needed.

Well done on the dentist cag it’s not nice going free a long time, you never know what they’ll find! Sounds like it all went well tho.

kitkat that’s good re the balance transfer, should save loads of money and 15 months is a really good term.