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

Ahem. Me again. What I meant to say was re the exercise, I had been thinking of building a walk into our morning routine. Up showered dressed, regular home ed stuff (there are certain things they have to do daily like Japanese) and then a walk round the lake. We are so lucky having this park on our doorstep, it would be great to utilise it. And some days we don’t have home ed clubs till the evening so even though we have friends visit, we aren’t outside much. Fresh air and a fast walk might be a good addition to our day.

Cag you can buy holztiger on yes Bebe & use Christmas club code to get discount not enabling -- think they do subscription too--

Hi ilovetocook
Autumn holiday home sounds fab
Lonely glad new dishwasher is the business

Interesting talk about pnd I didn't bond with dd until she was 6 months plus, possibly pnd who knows. Was ok after ds.
I was teary earlier this evening though, dc were meant to be eating dinner with me this evening & I rushed home from work prepped chicken for curry & chipped potatoes for homemade chips & when dc arrived home daddy'd given them pizza, I'm just fed up of eating alone most nights & the evenings they're here for dinner are busy with activities so it's only a rushed job before bed :( shed a tear but it went under DC's radar luckily.
So I just shoved whole lot into freezer for thurs eve because I didn't fancy the cooking just for me

Lonely angel is fabulous

AHEM mammy it is your fault I want the holztiger in the first place as you suggested that FB group 😂 how do I get a discount code?

And hugs by the way. This is a huge huge adjustment for you and it’s ok, healthy in fact, to be upset about all this.

Sounds glib but can you turn the eating alone nights into a positive? Have something the kids wouldn’t like, make it a treat? Xx

Only thing I can think of right now that I like & they don't is soup or goats cheese

Watched The Greatest Showman, first time - wow

Greatest show man is fab. It's ok to be upset, it's a nice thing eating together. ((Hugs)) so it's eating alone too on mumsnet

Hope the week off is doing you good em.

Looks good lonely. Not sure about the pink dots. I had to look twice to make sure it wasn't rude. As you said prototype. You creative devil you.

Hash I think a walk in the park is a great idea especially at the moment. Lifts the spirits.

I had pnd after D's. Still on anti anxiety and he is 9 now. Tis what it is for me. Self care helps massively and in trying to prioritise food and fitness for me.

Hope people got sleep last night and are feeling better today

em agreed re: post-birth PTSD. I think that naming what we go through as 'post-natal depression' actually pathologises what is a perfectly normal reaction to an enormous life change in which we first suffer birth trauma and maternal depletion (apparently it takes the body ten years to return to normal after a birth re: iron levels etc? so i'm still waiting!) and a shift in our identity in which we disappear and are only 'mother'. And then of course all this is invisiblised because it's happening to women so who cares, really?

Anyway. Not quite a NSD yesterday because i spent £1.59 on binbags for the decluttering process. But still. I also detangled an enormous box of wires, controllers, chargers, broken lights etc which XH had been cultivating in the corner of the front room, so that was incredibly satisfying. Things i mended in the process:

• made the tv run off the ariel
• rebooted daughter's tablet, which had stopped working
• took the gtech air ram hoover apart, cleaned brushes and oiled moving parts

Yesterday was a good day. Today will be spendy as kids in play club (£30) and self at work, but have made packed lunch so that's a win.

Good luck with your Frugal Wednesdays!

Question: if frugalleering can one still justify an Ocado membership and regular deliveries? Or should I switch to Asda or something? Or ditch home delivery altogether in favour of a regular trudge round Lidl and getting the bus home laden down with shopping?

LonelyOversharer did you win the lottery?

QuiteFabULousDahling I need to get another slow cooker. I had one and loved it but it died.
I’ve always wondered what a soup maker actually is?

Hoping not to spend today but my homemade soup stash is depleted, though I have a tin at work I can have.

Morning everyone and welcome to the new posters.

Woke up this morning at 0500 and couldn’t get back to sleep 😫 I am totally done in after my four shifts. Definitely having a lazy day today, the housework can wait until tomorrow.

Hoping for a lsd just need birthday cards for dh as it’s his birthday today. Payday tomorrow 🎉🎉

Tarriance a soupmaker is a fabulous invention ( looks a bit like a kettle) that makes smooth soup in 21 mins and chunky in 28. You just chuck everything in and leave it to it. I love mine ❤️. I don’t know about Ocado as we don’t have that where I live. I love Lidl but couldn’t do my entire shop there.

warm yes in theory you could keep occado.
Here is my thought process (having never shopped with occado)

Using all of the offers how much will your shopping be there? Can't you have favourite items? Can you get everything you need and stick to a list.

Same questions for Lidl.

Bus fare v delivery charge per shop.

How time poor are you? Not having time to go somewhere can lead to more expendive choices ie corner shop this negating any savings

Being frugal is not just about not spending money. It's about making the best value choices

Thanks Cag and Em yes I agree that a lot must have it. I always wonder in particular, how many women are given drugs and how many get actual help from friends and family with the baby.

Our holiday has become a bit surreal. We're the first to live in this outhouse, and the systems have not been tested yet. This morning as I started my epic cooking shenanigans, the water from the sink leaked into the cupboard below and blew the electrics.

We were plunged into complete darkness as 6am, just as I put a steak in the frying pan and ds tipped a pint of water all over the floor. Total chaos.

We have electricity again now, but I'm having to empty the washing up basin into the bathroom basin now so as to prevent further leaks. But the cooking is done. Phew!

warm I think online grocery shopping can work if you shop the offers and especially if you meal plan just don't let it do an automated shop for you. If you are time poor then it works well.

DD2 slept through last night for the first time in about a week 🤗 We really needed an uninterrupted sleep. She also didn't get up until 7am.

We're off to look at cars today. Don't think we'll buy one as we don't know what car we want. Just bigger than a Focus, but not too big. With central locking that actually works when it gets a bit cold.

lonely can you link or pm me the link to your Etsy shop please.

Hope the resting really helps and lets you recooperate em

mammy. Does your DH not do any of the taking to activities too?

Sorry about bad typing, phone playing up

Cmax is good love. I have the 5 seat and it's ample.

YY lonely. Etsy shop please

curvy that’s so good. Ds’ nursery do this too. It’s so so nice. In his cubby hole for his bag etc they have a cheat sheet stuck down which lists our names etc (and any nicknames we have for ds and our pets names etc...and grandparents “grandparent” names) so they can relate to ds better and also get to know us.

mammy cag oh those toys are cute! Expensive. But cute!!! Ds was awake at 1am. And I had a catch up and looked at the toys online. So so lovely!

warm 10 years?! Crikey.

Re the Ocado delivery - if it works for you and buys you time I’d say money well spent. I’m a huge fan of online supermarket shopping. We can’t get it here (Channel Islands) none of our supermarkets do it. Some do home delivery but you’ve still got to do the trolley trudge. So no point in my view. Click and collect I’d be all over.

Wednesday. Day three of sick leave. And day one of planned day off for me (booked originally as a holiday). Dh has organised removals today from storage to new house. So. He’s meeting them at 9. I’m heading up there once the storage locker is empty. To unpack.

Things I must buy today:

Huge bin bags
Oven pride
Washing up liquid

We have cleaning sprays etc so will use them up before I buy a new set.

Also must get a mop and a broom for our wooden floors. But maybe not today.

Thanks life. Think we will pop along to a Ford dealer today to have a good look at the options.

Morning. Have skim read but too much to reply to!

Slept for ten hours and feeling refreshed. Pay day today 50% of my wages are what I've actually got after tax, tax back pay and car. Ffs.

Anyway working in the shop today.

I’d like the link too lonely please :)

I think online delivery is worth it, we don’t have a car so it saves untold time. There’s definitely things we could do to make it work even harder for us, like having a regular list that you can just click to recur (but read through and delete anything you don’t need), I need to go through and cultivate the favourites list really but by the time I go on there it’s normlaly late evening and I’m too tired. Again this is one of the many things we need to improve at.

Speaking of which, last night I edited the shopping to add aaaaall the batch cooking ingredients, other stuff for birthday party tea, and packed lunch for the Caglets for today. And I didn’t check out on time so lost all of it. Honestly could have cried/thrown something (this is the kind of thing that on a good day would just be annoying, but on a bad day like yesterday honestly felt like the end of the world for a while and I was extremely annoyed with myself). But quickly jotted down what I could remember of the added stuff and we will have to get another shop for tomorrow. Fucksake. I will be nipping to Asda shortly to get the packed lunch stuff needed for today and also possibly some of the batch cooking stuff as I really wanted to start this afternoon. And hey at least that means I get an extra walk in so that’s a positive.

Oh and the baby fell out of bed this morning. While we were sleeping. She had slept till 5 in her bed then was in feeding and I woke up just as she was slipping off, luckily feet first but I wasn’t quick enough to then stop her tipping back and bumping her head on the radiator 😖 poor baby. She is ok though. Bedshared with all 3 babies and that’s never happened!

hahah cag i had a recurring order set up which has led me to having a cupboard full of dried chick peas and millions of brabantia binbags. while they'll both get used eventually it's definitely wise to consider what you actually get through in a week!

em i couldn't live without online shopping so i feel your pain!

lifelongfrugaleer super time poor - solo mum, two kids, four days a week work in an office and one day a week from home on freelance stuff. i enjoy a good mooch round waitrose buying ridiculous things but not a trudge round lidl on a budget followed by two buses home, ugh!

bornlazy i'm so tempted by a soup-maker, are they really as good as everyone says?

next mish is menu planning. does anyone use an app or is it really as simple as going through recipe books and choosing what you fancy?

warm if you like soup they are amazing. They are not terribly big though so wouldn’t do if you had a big family. Mine makes about 4 bowls. You can make smoothies in them too.

warm luckily dh enjoys the food shop. He used it as his chill time. He’s also great at meal planning and keeping the cost down.

Dh has gone to open up storage locker.

I’m meeting him at our new place once storage is empty.