Decedantly damcing towards December - frugaleering Christmas ahoy!

[ememem84]

New thread

Thank you Em

Thanks em I need distraction.... I leave to do my very first stand up gig. In an hour. I am bricking it.

Unescorted you are going to be amazing. Good luck.

thank you - am actually here at the start of this one. Hope you had a good time girlie?

NSD - Mainly as at work and it is now too dark and cold to do anything. heating on and in PJs

I am having a glass of wine.... I feel a bit pathetic. DS did a talk last night in front of 140 people who don't speak English as a first language. He did his introduction in French. He is 13.

Thank you em.

On the train back to London.
Spent a ton of money in Edinburgh, but was worth it

Hi!

Omg good luck unescorted! You are so brave! I would never be able to do that!

Today was spendy. Went to our local supermarket and bought some stuff, mainly things for DD, bunch of clothes for her in the sale, and some nappies, stuff like that. Then I bought her a bunch more stuff from Mothercare online in their sale too. Babies are expensive but I'm willing to bet nowhere near as older children . But this is the most clothes I've bought her atm tbh because she has gotten so many gifts and hand-me-downs from DH's cousin, and from lovely Seacow. Although in each size up the amount of clothes dwindles because the proportion of gifts decreases .

Just waiting for our Ocado shopping to arrive atm...feeling anxious about answering the door to a stranger, blergh. DH and DD are at DParents, I will pop back over once shopping has arrived, we are going to have dinner there. DD has a cold, we are on day 4 of it but yday and today she has been particularly unwell, poor little love .

Em Are you a qualified solicitor btw or a different legal professional? I have taken stock of my career options and hoping to train to be a solicitor. I will be applying for vacation schemes and training contracts in Dec when DH has some time off uni to look after DD so I can concentrate on the apps D:

Thanks em.

Good luck unescorted, smash it..!

Glad you had a super time curvy.

Hope the party went well girlie.

NSD, but out until very late last night in the big smoke, and ran 14 miles this morning so I’m grumpy and tired!

Good luck unescorted

Thanks Em.

Thanks peeps.

Squeee unescorted you'll be brilliant! Just have fun. Wish I lived nearer x

Thanks em for the thread.

So, not moved far off my bed since noon, might have snoozed through half of the grand prix. I have filled my amazon basket with a "sweeping up" of all the left over bits. I will mull it over and check out in the week.

The dpd guy (who I trapped in my work corridor last week with an overloaded broken trolley) delivered the 96 pouches of cat fud. See now my cat will turn his nose up at it - he usually loves the stuff. And it takes £8 off my weekly shopping bill for the next 4 weeks.

Nsd, two little etsy orders in, two small ebay sales, about £35 all in.

Evening!

Good luck unescorted

Thanks Jam, I'm going to see if my mum will have the younger two so I can go on my own in the Feb half term to spend some real quality time with dd1.

Hello 👋
Just popping my head round the door thanks to a gentle poke from the lovely seacow 💐😘

I’m ok, just having trouble adjusting to medication both physically and mentally (but would like to reassure I am not in the horrific place that I was in when I saw the GP two weeks ago) and have somewhat retreated into hermit life for a bit.

This has now been compounded by three puking children starting with the baby on Friday

How the fuck is it one month till Christmas.

Thanks em

Frugal win. Had some unused kallax accessories in my not so asked IKEA they would offset them off today's purchases even though I don't have the receipt. They did. So that and my £5 of voucher = £31 in IKEA. Then £2.25 hot dog and pop.
£63 perfume shop but will get £43 back off DM,£10 superdrug, £27 build a Bear but got £20 back off dd. ££10 back from D's for singing he got last weekend. £10 burger king lunch, £11 primark 2x Christmas presents, £21 Starbucks on dh present.

Phew almost there shopping wise. Need to get a supermarket slot

Hi cag lovely to see you, glad the meds are working, but sorry all the DCs are ill x

Thanks for new thread @ememem84.

Spends today:
£12 coffees and cakes including two babycinos, I was going to buy DS a hot chocolate but went for the healthier option and he was perfectly happy with that as it had chocolate flakes and a few mini marshmallows on top.

Oh cag poor you and the caglets. I hope you all feel better soon. It’s nice to “see” you though xxx

meadow I’ve found that ds’ clthes Have maybe become less expensive now he’s 1. As the sizing is different. So the stuff I’ve got him now should last 6 months not 3. Should being the operative word.

To answer your question yes I’m qualified. I I did my degree then worked in a local firm as a paralegal while I did my lpc part time. Then started my advocacy exams. And qualified. It all got too much though. I was in banking and funds law and it was demanding. I was paid well but my god they wanted the sweat blood and tears. I approached local firms and was taken on by mine. Am now non practicing but have done some co-Sec exams and am going to start my STEP qualification (society of trust estate practitioners for those who are interested) in January. I now do the admin side and no overtime. And am much happier.

Just had a bit of a 😱 moment. Ds was having a lovely bath. Splashing and splashing and washing himself (and my face with his bum cloth.....) then he stood up, slapped the cloth on the water, slipped and hit the side of his eye on the bath.

It looked awful. He was crying and bleeding etc. But now he’s out of the bath and calmed down and dry. It looks as though he’s grazed the skin on the outside of his eye. Not his actual eye. Phew. Looks worse than it actually is. He’s going to have a cracker of a black eye though. Poor baby.

Am now in the bath myself. (New water - ds always pees in his bath). Face mask on. Epsom salts in as well as bubbles and lavender oil.

This is the bruise from yesterday evening.

Thanks for the thread em and poor DS

Glad to 'see' you cag

£42 in Sainsbury's. Mainly clothes for the DDs and Christmas bits

Good luck for the comedy gig!

Has girlie still not emerged from her birthday celebrations?

Good luck unescorted

Hey cag, glad you popped by.

Nope, Girlie is still MIA. Hopefully being looked after by her friends and DD

Glad to hear things are a little better Cag, though a vomiting bug x 3 sounds awful! We’re here whenever you feel up to it, you’ve been missed.

Good luck with the gig Unescorted, you’ll smash it!

Hello Meadow, glad you could pop in. I don’t think you’ll need to buy much in 12-18m, I have a huge box I’m adding to as dd outgrows stuff and it’s coming your way in the new year! Summer and autumn stuff, I’m embarrassed at how much we have . We had more stuff than normal I overbought because of our big trip in the summer

We chose our Christmas tree - slightly rushed because DD kept running off - and I got some pansies for the dead hanging basket out front too. It was fun... hope the tree is actually alright though and not massively wonky... we were very distracted!

I made a roast chicken dinner tonight and it was a surprise hit! DS normally only eats pizza or tomato pasta so, while we all sat down together, I was expecting to have to make him something else but I thought I’d try... and he ate loads of roast potatoes, some carrot and a teeny bit of chicken. Doesn’t sound much and it’s not exactly a balanced diet but... amazing for him! Dd completely stuffed herself with chicken and kept asking for more. Maybe we’ll manage to eat the same meal together on Christmas day? Eek.

I also tried making a self-saucing chocolate pudding (was a last minute thought to make a pudding and I didn’t have much in). Just store cupboard stuff with ice cream. But it was pretty good and everyone tucked in. And pretty frugal to make too.

Watching the Strictly results show now so I haven’t refreshed the thread in the last hour in case of spoilers!

Yay new thread
Girlie hope you had a fab party