Nearly November; Friendly Frugaleers Navigating (K)nitting, Nattering and Nuturing our Pennies

[WereWolfcub]

New thread. Happy end of October/Early November frugaleering. All welcome we are a friendly bunch

How is she today seacow?

Feeling like garbage today, gum still swollen (I read on another thread though that you should use ibuprofen consistently for this sort of thing, rather than just waiting until pain gets bad, so regular dosage is the order of the day) and Cagletini has been driving me batshit the last few nights, rooting like a newborn constantly since the small hours 😖 I don’t get it. She’s fine in the day so I don’t think she’s unwell.

The dreaded Thursday, hopefully the last one as they said he could avoid Thursday evenings after this, but they still haven’t done the rota even for the week starting on Sunday. They are supposed to be done 3 weeks in advance. They never are, even Christmas. 🙄

Sorry you're having a tough time Cag. That constant rooting in the night is really hard. Are you using mouthwash as well to stave off infection in the tooth place? Ds had corsodyl after he had a tooth out and it seemed to help.

I'm having an epic tidy this morning to make a new space for the whiteboard, and also space on the floor so I can reach that wall. Why did houses not have cupboards in the 1920s?

Hope dd is over the worst of it sea and you had a settled night.

Lonely wow! What a feeling to be counting down to the end of your mortgage. We still have 24 years left despite already paying for 11 years as a 35 year term was the only way we could buy at the time and due to near continuous childcare costs for the past 7 years we haven't been able to overpay. Childcare costs will drop by £500pm in 2020 and another £400pm in 2021. I'd like to hope we can pay off the mortgage by 2031 by redirecting some of this.

Cag you sound really organised to me!! I need to build our batch cooking back up for the new term but also want to save some space in our tiny freezer for Christmas batch cooking. Last year I wrote down 'good things to remember' and one of the things was to have meals prepped and ready in the freezer so when we're between visits we can just whip out something easy. Actually need to order some foil trays as I want to get some lasagnes prepped.

Today I need to fill up with diesel.

Sea I hope she’s feeling better this morning. I would go to the gp I think, for reassurance if nothing else. You will not get your strategy nailed if you are worrying.

Need to order some double up vouchers today I think
Ds has two activities this aft and evening so i am looking forward to some peace. It has been a hard week and frankly I think I’d feel more rested at work! A few hours of cleaning and bad tv will do me good. We’re going to have a nice day out tomorrow if it kills me

Hope she is feeling better this morning Seacow

Do you co-sleep Cag? I know with dd everyone slept better once dd was in her own bed in her own room, I think I disturbed her and she then disturbed me.

I've woken up with a headache, annoying. The plan for today is to go to a local discount village type place and look for a party dress and shoes, will also be looking for clothes for dd as she has nothing for winter and a few Christmas bits...

I've well and truly popped November's cork! £42 on Amazon - two types of foil trays for batch cooking, glow sticks and sparklers for bonfire/advent activities

Hope your little DD is okay seacow.

I'm sorry you've had a tough week wolf, I can get your comment about work. Add a glass of something to the cleaning and trashy TV.

Oh mammy, your poor dog. lonely has it spot on. Mine are 6 and 5, I'm already dreading it..

Being busy, organised and getting stuff done. For me, it's lists. I've got a weekly list of things I want to do, and this always includes working round training, which is at least 6 days a week, so that's factored in first.

Weekly list is then broken into what I want to achieve in that day and I always make this realistic, so as not to be overwhelmed. So today is strip beds, tip, gut spare room, mop downstairs floor, do a PT session, run, couple of calls, clean out chickens and make a curry for tea. Plus some washing and general keep on top of kitchen.

I've a couple of folk asking me for training advice, so I'll answer them when they message.

So, yeah I'm busy, and therefore not on Mumsnet as much as quiet times, but that's not always a bad thing, it's procrastination often. It would be just as effective logging in a couple of times a day.

I try to only do top up shops when I'm passing coming home from work, even if I don't need the stuff until later in the week, saves time. And I'll train very early in the morning or late at night if needed to get it done.

Spends are all accounted for today so no physical cash will be spent.

I've got to pay £12 tomorrow pants tickets. As soon as I've got bank details, I'll just do it. Job done. I guess the Nike advert works for me, Just Do It . But this applies to me alone, everyone is different.

£4.77 overdrawn as sky have taken £30 not £25

Bollocks. Can you see why they’ve taken more?.

No idea I have until 2:30 to sort it at the bank so after my shower going to get onto sky and ask wtf

Can you just dump sky? We live quite happily with just iplayer.

Sky is my internet! No TV or anything, just the internet which I sort of need..

Oh, yes, I see how you could need that. It's like running water these days.

I can’t imagine getting that much stuff done in a day 😳

It’s really good hearing how everyone organises things. I would definitely definitely not call myself organised. I guess it’s good that we fit in so much. But I drop the ball a hell of a lot and feel constantly on edge. I feel like we are getting there slowly though, I really can’t describe how much moving here has helped with that.

Baby is in our room yes girlie I kind of want to give DD1 a little longer with her own room 😞😖 before these last few days she went 10 hours straight, it’s the unpredictability of it I’m struggling with I think. Also in terms of being organised I am properly shit at getting her down at a decent time, so my first aim is to work on that, lots of discussion with DH about evening routine/lists for all of us. TBH we spent so many years with our evenings being entirely dictated by DD1’s anxiety/meltdowns that we are still getting used to the fact she actually sleeps now 😳 (entirely thanks to her melatonin supplement, many autistic kids are wonky in that department so once she was diagnosed they let her try it) and we’ve not done well at the whole bedtime thing. So, set morning and evening routines and hoping this helps with the baby too. This again is all tied in with the meal planning though as easier cooking means earlier dinner, quicker clean up and easier to fit in baby’s bath and all that stuff, and also making sure she’s getting enough food as well as milk. It just takes so much thinking, I wish it all came naturally to me but it just doesn’t. 😳

It’s an interesting point about baby being disturbed by us though (another reason I’m worried about swapping rooms just yet is that it’ll really stress DD if she’s woken up a lot by baby). But I was wondering about maybe letting DD sleep in our bed for a few nights to test that theory without the faff of moving a load of furniture and boxes (remaining unpacked stuff is in the baby’s end of DD’s room and I think the cotbed needs dismantling if it’s too wide for the doorways). And we sleep in her room/on sofa and obviously go get baby if she does wake up. But it would be interesting to see if being in with DD, a much quieter sleeper, would result in more sleep for baby too... and thus me!

I’m waffling now as I am kind of in shock. Dad called (he doesn’t do that often). Asked if I was sitting down. 🤔 Said the following: “I was watching some TV thing the other day when they said the average cost of raising a child in terms of damage to property, repairs etc caused by the child is £3.5k. And I realised you never cost us a penny Cag [he’s probably right, I was a very quiet passive kid]. So that’s what I’m giving you for your birthday/Christmas present, a cheque for £3.5k.”

😱😱😱 I may have got a bit tearful. That’s a lot 😱😱😱

Wow Cag, that's absolutely fantastic and fully deserved. Think how much stress that reduces my lovely. Can I just beg you to spend just a tiny bit on yourself? Even a smidge?

Ps - that's why I said we are individual, my dc are adults, I don't HE, I don't have any health issues (luckily), and because I'm a bit of a neat freak, gutting a room ain't that difficult (my issue!). My fundamental belief is you are awesome getting done what you do, and you don't give yourself enough credit for that. 

Worth a call to Sky? I need to look at our package actually, it's now out of its tie in period.

Awww Cag that's so heartfelt!

Here we have this month's bills, last month's and the month before. Wtf?

I'm going to pay it this month because I need it but I'll ring them later and unleash hell (politely)

Aw thanks so much jam 💐 I can’t actually comprehend what we will do with it but plan to sit down and properly plan it. Looks like the decorator may be a possibility. But yes will make sure to treat myself also 😘 not sure what though, DH asked me what I wanted for my birthday the other day and I had no idea! Really spend all my time thinking of what we need for baby and home ed ATM.

Dad did also mention holidays - basically they bought into one of those club things, not a timeshare exactly as it’s a points system you can use all over Europe rather than being “an apartment” type thing. Anyway they still haven’t managed to sell it 😕 but we could actually afford flights now to use some of their points. Hoping Malta as it is super easy to get around without a car apparently. And interesting historically, good weather etc.

Sneaky that's shit! I hope you get things sorted today. Will you be charged for going into your overdraft?

Cag that's fantastic news. Think I will run this idea past my dm and df although dm has provided free childcare for 15 years so that might cancel it out

Jam you do so much, it makes me want to do more so that's a good thing

Thanks sneaky sorry that was quite shit of me posting the above right now when you are struggling 😞 I hope things work out soon, I have been there and it royally sucks 💐

I won't be charged for going overdrawn if I pay money in by 2:30 to cover it.

There is however supposed to be a control on my account to stop this happening...

Cag don't bloody apologize I'm so happy for you! You deserve it - and I agree, you must treat yourself to something nice.

cag wow that is a wonderful, generous gift. Yy to a holiday 🌴 I think trying the baby in a room without dd1 in would be worth a try for a few nights.

I've only ever heard bad things about Sky, I'm with EE now and pay £21 a month just for phone and Internet, I think they pay any leaving contract fees as well....

That's brilliant Cag and well deserved.

I'm fretting now as my clarinet teacher can't come the exam so I have to find someone who will play the accompaniment for me. It's just after school when all piano teachers are teaching. I'm going to have train ds fast...

Sneaky I had this and my bank said they let people go overdrawn to save the embarrassment of having a card or DD declined. I told them to remove that from my account and not allow any payment I didn’t have funds for.

If sky don’t have a good resolution email the ceo. Your more likely to get what you want. I would email the bank ceo anyway, your more likely to get compo from a bank than sky.

Cag That’s lovely of them.

Ah thanks all :)

Autumn isn’t there normally one at the exam centre anyway and you just pay them? I only ever did one clarinet exam so not sure (obviously don’t need an accompanist in a piano exam :o) but surely they can’t expect everyone to be able to find someone?

Love Corsodyl here BTW but when I asked the dentist said salt rinse will be sufficient. It’s great stuff though, I haven’t had my usual 4x a year tonsillitis AT ALL since I started using it a few years ago.