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

Can you make soup Jam And freeze that?

sneaky is it the "and talk" bit of the bill? Only our bt package (internet and phone) jumped up to £70 which bounced back from dp's empty account. So I have taken control of it (by paying it!). Turns out now he's home during the day he was using the house phone! Not cheap and adding about 20 quid to the bill. He now uses the unlimited free minutes on his mobile, and the broadband is just the broadband (still pricey, but unlimited super fast. After 9 years of 0.5mb speed, it is worth it!).

But yes, sky creep the bills every year, but only by a few quid.

Nsd real money, but spent £5 in amazon as dd broke her retainer box, just 4 days after getting it. I got 2. Topped up £40 and they gave me £45 credit. Thankyou for free money amazon.

cag what a lovely gift. Yy to Malta biased I was born there but I'm guessing you are in the same position as us, getting a full set of passports will cost almost as much as a holiday. But you can't have one without the other.

seacow it's not your week. Take care of you xxx

Yes jam it will end up smush anyway. I roast it, blitz it and freeze it in ice cube trays*, and pop a few blocks into any stew. Just treat it like butternut, you can buy that frozen.

*appreciate this is a pointless idea with a huge pumpkin. I just usually have a bit left over after putting blobs of puree under sunday meat. We loves pumpkins, but my garden rejects growing them. I try every year.

Balls Lonely you’ve just reminded me I forgot butternut in my shopping

So I risked ordering some takinis for dd2 from amazon. They were about £15 each. I'm actually really impressed with them. Have taken out the booby shaped foam bits (what are they even meant to do!), as she's still flat chested. I went for tankinis as although she is an adult size width wise, she isn't length ways, so they can just overlap more. Was prepared to return them, but I think they will do just fine. Phew. She's so hard to buy for, as she's an odd shape just now.

It's never going down lonely. Tonight we are having pumpkin and sweet potato dhal. I've made soup. Doing tagine tomorrow. Will make chutney, and puree some for pie. And still have loads. My friend at works FIL gave her five, she's given one to me but lord knows what she do with the rest, all from the allotment

Thanks, I'll freeze. It's certainly a frugal week for shopping at least....

But send some over to wolf too, to replace the squash...

Cheers born, don't do more though, I'm knackered tonight

I actually miss DS tonight, it's been a month now since I've seen him. I'm totally not a maudlin soul, I don't overthink and I generally just get on with it, but I do miss the annoying little sod tonight. That's allowed isn't it?

He went out doing student Halloween last night but his outfit from amazon didn't arrive in time so he's going to complain!

Jam I freeze most veg, even salad tomatoes for when I do sauces. It cooks quicker too.

Do you blanch fluffy?

No. I don’t even bag the tomatoes. They roll around like snooker balls.

Ooo I didn’t know that lonely how cool. It’s not somewhere that was on my radar until a couple of years ago but now I really want to go. And yup no passports.

About the padded bits in teeny clothes, I was really shocked when I first saw them in preteen bras etc but someone on MN mentioned how they can be really helpful not from a “making me look bigger” POV but actually helping prevent any embarrassment when it’s cold IYSWIM

Cag I agree about that. I won’t buy a bra that doesn’t have at least a thick inner. I don’t want padding but i also don’t need to be nippletastic mid meeting either

Yes and at the start of puberty the buds can be a bit more errr pointy and painful so I think it’s a good thing really. Need to measure DD1 actually as she is finding that, she’s been in crop tops a while but although I am expecting AA cup I think she needs something a bit more substantial especially as we approach winter

Definitely allowed jam will you see him before Christmas?

We're back home, just watched a film, just remembered another spend £23 on the only fools and horses boxset for dd for Christmas via eBay, she has been watching clips on YouTube and wetting herself laughing! !

Hope you're all okay seacow you really have had the week from hell 🌹

Hello again.

Stayed at conference until 445. Then nipped off to pick up ds. Plan was we’d do a quick baby soft play before dh finished work. Ds has other ideas and was fast asleep by the time I reached Nursery (they have a soft play/jungle gym thing so I figured we’d have a play on that). He also hadn’t had his dinner.

I had to wake him up (nursery staff aren’t allowed to) and we got him ready and popped him in the car. They gave me a nursery takeaway for him. Red Thai chicken veg curry and rice. He got a bit stroppy while we were waiting for dh so we had a car picnic.

Home and we had a superbly fun play - living room looked like a bomb site until I packed everything up! We also played a game with his big squishy ball. I threw it up the stairs and bounced it back. Hilarious apparently.

Had a bath - most of the water ended up on the floor. Haha.

Then some books and milk and bed. Then I made dinner. (Stir fried peanut chilli pork and egg fried rice)

I’ve also managed to do 2 loads of washing, am running the dishwasher for the second time this evening (it’s a bit temperamental and doesn’t seem to be releasing the tablet) and am now sitting In my most fave chair - brown scuffed to shit leather wingback armchair- catching up and drinking some leftover bubbly which is a bit flat.

Dh hates “my” chair. He hates it because it looked scruffy. He also hates it so much he found the perfect place for it in our apartment (by the front door in our massive hallway - admittedly it looked awesome there) but now, it’s next to the fireplace. He also hates it because I bought it without him £40 in charity shop 7 years ago. Bargain. It’s been restored a bit so it’s not ripped anymore. But the leathers battered and shiny.

I’m currently washing dh’s minging slippers. He has athletes foot. Ew. He thinks it’s from said slippers. I’ve put them in the machine on 90. To kill all germs. They’ll probably fall apart. But I know Dm will buy us new slippers for Christmas. So he may have to have cold feet for a bit.

cag so nice of your dad. Well deserved I think! you could always come here - no passports, nice weather loads of history - 2 castles, wwIi tunnels and bunkers, etc

sea feel better soon xxxx

Ah, you’re all so nice 😘

Well. Mum took DD to the doctor (I didn’t feel safe leaving the house just yet) and they were gone aaaages. The doctor was quite concerned about the state of dd and so what should have been a 10 min appointment took half an hour as he examined her from head to toe . She has tonsillitis, which in itself is quite concerning as it doesn’t usually occur in babies so young. And her pulse was 180bpm, temp 40.2 . And she was dehydrated. Doctor said she was right on the criteria for admitting to hospital and he would fast-track us, but then (because she was on the cusp and I probably couldn’t go with her, with a vomiting bug, and she desperately wants me), he said we could try keeping her home. But any negative change at all and she has to go to A&E.

So we have antibiotics and are stepping up the fluids. Not easy as she’s been refusing them but we’ve got a bit more into her and I think her temperature is going the right way. She was talking a bit before bed after I’m going to wake her in the night for a dose of neurofen, to try and stay on top of the fever. My poor little girl, no wonder she’s lost her smile . I’m glad she was looking a bit better before bed time, I’ll watch her but don’t feel as anxious about her as last night. I do feel guilty for not getting her seen earlier though

Anyway, because I’m totally wiped out and dd needs me I told them I wasn’t going to be able to meet tomorrow’s deadline - I don’t think I could have finished it even if I’d not slept at all. Feel a bit rubbish about that. They were okay about it though not thrilled. So I’m going to watch telly, maybe have a piece of toast and go to bed! A full night’s sleep, yay!

We’re going ahead with DS’s meeting tomorrow but if I’m still rough DH will go without me. I’m concerned if we try to rearrange it’ll be weeks away and we need to lean on them a bit. Also got to take dd back to the Gp tomorrow for a review.

Born in Malta eh Lonely? So exotic!

Jam it must be so weird missing them. Is he enjoying uni?

Leftover bubbly? What’s that?

Sea fingers crossed she turns the corner tonight and that you get some rest

Em eeew at the slippers. I think your chair sounds ace

I have wine. I need wine. Also I’d like a full night’s sleep so here’s hoping all the lovely frugaleers and Little frugalistas get a good nights sleep

sea there are so many sick bugs going round. If is was a report I was waiting for I would have a couple of days built into the timeline so a day late would be fine. More important is that you and DD are ok. I hope she is cooling down. Poor mite.

Cag that is awesome. Malta is lovely and really easy to get around.

Sneaky have a hug. I can't imagine what it is like having to deal with dwp regulations and sanctions. It makes my piss boil when people fall for the divide and conquer rhetoric of this administration. Then the fall out is stress and harm for the people who are in the least resilient situation. I will now step off my soap box.

Wolf tidying my DS's room could result in life changing injuries. It isn't something I am risking anytime soon.

Em sounds like an awesome playdate you two had.

I need to stop over using awesome.

Wolf I am on wine too.

sea I didn’t know it existed either. But it didn’t get finished on Sunday as I had a headache.

Cag that's great news

No wine here! Massive stress as dd2's little laptop isn't really up to the job, and only dp can seem to work the blasted thing. So she was crying, dp was being, um, unhelpful, and I was just getting a bit shouty and sweary But I built their table (fits nicely), and stuck some wall stickers on dd3's bit of wall. I think her homework is sorted anyway now.

Your poor baby seacow recommend ice lollies. Works on sore tonsils and temperatures. You cannot beat a mini milk. Hope she rallies quickly.

Oh bless her seacow it's so hard to know with kids when to take them to the Dr's, I know I've got it wrong a fair few times before. I hope she picks up tonight.

That sounds nice em I think when you're a working mum you definitely try and make the most of the bits of the day you have with them. I can remember appreciating that evening time a lot more on work days than on the stay at home days when I couldn't wait for bedtime!!

I've got work tomos so off for an early night I think 😴

Well I got the baby in bed earlier tonight so wish me luck 🙄

Oh poor baby seacow 😭