Countdown to a Frugal Christmas, The Friendly Frugaleers still knitting,nattering and money saving!

[QuiteFabULousDahling]

New Fred

£5.30 on veg
£5 on drinks

DH bought gf bread.

£53 Tesco's
£11 Savers
£6 Notebooks for DDs

I am now struggling away with my next assignment for my course. It is really hard and boring so really not going well. I am trying my best not to internet shop whilst procrastinating.

£85 Matalan, £122 tutoring for DC for the rest of the month, collected loads of parcels from the Christmas thread.

Em they are mentioning a Clinique offer in boots

£5 footy, 4 bags to the charity shop.
£10 riding, £5 footy

I have remembered we are supposed to be going to a bonfire party tonight. I really cannot be arsed.

Went into town. It was rammed, and I got a little anxious . Got some bits we needed, spent too much by accident (no prices in Pandora), but happy with pretty presents. Will split over birthday and christmas! Had had enough by Morrisons, spent £87, ok £22 of that was gifts, but grabbed stuff and ran. I'm still feeling tense. Online all the way for me from now on...

So now I need to write a sensible list and go fucking shopping again tomorrow. Gah. And that will be my weekend gone. Have to do it in person as birthday stuff required for is monday.

So far, a no spend day for me cheating really because we bought groceries and lunch out, but DH paid for everything. And we still need toilet roll...

Lonely it's been like that here, really busy. I think everyone has just realised it's nearly Xmas plus the rain meant everyone was in the shops. Traffic was absolutely horrific.

Thanks for the maths sympathy, I am no maths whizz it took me 3 attempts to get a C at gcse 😂 but this was ratios which I do sort of understand. For those of you that are good at maths am I right in thinking ratios and fractions are pretty much the same thing?!

Eventually made up with dd after a lot of sulking!!

Been to town and managed to do everything we needed to so pleased with that.
Spends;
Parking £4.20 I need to investigate some cheaper car parks!!
£8 in m&s, I had £30 credit so got 2 bras and 3 school shirts for that.
£47 on two pairs of ankle boots for the party for dd and I, really pleased with them they look great.
£6.25 The Works on 4 books to be given as gifts.
£3 on 3 cards and some wrapping paper in Card Warehouse.
£2 Greggs on substance 😉

Pretty much ready for the party now just need some sparkly tights.

Those of you with some fashion knowledge is there a look at the moment where you wear chunky socks with ankle boots?! Not for me but dd who won't wear tights....

Just riding today so £25. With a free shower. Got soaked. 🐎

Girlie I think ratios are what folks are talking about here when they talk about recipes for yorkshire pudding or sponge cakes and they say something like:

For every 1 egg,
add 100g flour
and 100g butter

and that would be a ratio of

1 egg : 100g flour : 100g butter.

(I'm no cook so that's probably not at all the right ratio.)

It's the same in gardening when you buy fertiliser and there is an NPK rating on the back which gives the ratio of Nitrogen to Phosphorus to Potassium. For example tomorite is 4-3-8 which is a ratio of:

4 parts Nitrogen
to 3 parts Phosphorus
to 8 parts Potassium.

It's a lot like fractions, except that fractions are what you get when you cut up a cake and keep some parts of the cake. 1/4 means you cut the cake in 4 and eat one bit.

Hope that helps.

Btw, if you have any advice to send my way, my current problem is that my son is afraid to eat because his food is pulling scary faces at him. Fortunately he was willing to eat my potato wedges so he won't starve today.

Autumn that is absolutely the best explanation ratios I have ever seen! Am I right in thinking they can be cancelled down like fractions so 10:100 would be the same as 1:10?

No advice about scary food I'm afraid. We just had a minor teatime tantrum because I wouldn't let ds put me gaming his spag bol!

Gaming = megablocks in. Stupid phone.

My wonderful friend scored us tickets today. For Wembley. In June. I’ll let you guess who I’m going to see.

Ps I’m super excited.

Em do you wanna zig-a-zig-ah?

Just finished watching Strictly. They are all so good! It seems harsh that anyone should go out this week.

wolf spot on. Girl power!!! I am so over the top excited it’s unreal. It’ll cost an absolute fortune. Flights to London hotel gig shopping etc.. but squueeeeeeee!!! “Spice up tour life!!”

autumn that is helpful thank you, am I right in thinking that in the same way you reduce fractions you can reduce ratios so for example 50/100 can get reduced down to 1/2 and with a ratio of 30:40 it gets reduced down to 3:4?

Had a nice evening at a friends house, her 14 year old dd gave me a make over and did a good job! Can't believe how much more clued up teenagers are these days, she knew more about make up than I know now!!

You can reduce ratios just like fractions, you are exactly right Girlie

I was always good at maths but when I got to Oxford I realised there was a whole other world of ‘good at maths’. And I did not inhabit that world 😂😂😂

I have never been especially good stuff maths but I've just been reading the "I'm an actuary" thread and I now wish I was mathematical enough for such an interesting and we'll paid job!

As well as my little Aldi shop yesterday we spent £9 at soft play. It was very busy on a wet Saturday afternoon so they didn’t notice I'd sneaked in snacks for the dcs! It'll be a lot more once the dts turn 2.

No plans for today except catching up with some marking so hopefully another NSD.

Aiming for nsd today.

Ds is up and having breakfast with dh. I’m in bed. Il head down in a bit.

Things to do today. Hoover floors. And bake another flapjack. And get things ready for work tomorrow.

I have to do some change of address stuff today.

Thanks snuggly and Girlie, I'm glad that was useful. Definitely yes ratios can be reduced down, though they can probably also be expressed in the terms that are most useful for the application. So the cooking one might be expressed in grams per egg.

I think ds's brain is looking for patterns in places where it shouldn't so I'm going to get him some very uninteresting looking food and a book in a foreign language to read while he eats, and hope that his brain looks in the book for patterns, instead of in the food.

People are so complicated.

I had the best night's sleep ever though. it was good.

Gah just ruined perfectly good porridge by putting month old cream in it. Month out of date cream tastes like cows smell

Gross wolf

I had pikelets for breakfast. Ds had some too.

Sunday’s are very different now to days of yore. I’m up dressed breakfasted and doing things by 9 now... ds has “helped” me hang the washing outside. He passed me the pegs.

He’s also taken all the clean face wipes from the clean laundry and has rubbed them on his face and the floor.

wolf happens here too, as cream is the only thing I'll use up to the point it is off, regardless of it's date.

em super helpful! Its a good job they are so cute sometimes.

My ds has just woken up. Thats 11 hours sleep, no wee! He's been dry for a few months now, but usually gets up between 4 and 6am to pee. Just rallying my girls to go get the last few birthday bits for my parents.

Toys are on 3 for 2 at argos...I put 9 things on my trolley last night, this morning still pleased with my choices, so will process the order later on. Board games for Center Parcs and most of ds' big boy lego bits. £140, but £48 saved. Worth a look as stock is still really high. I hate choosing stuff on offer nearer to Christmas and it's then out of stock everywhere. From my "christmas budget" pot, which is a very new for me, up until now that has been "credit card"!