Festive frugaleers saving through to the new year!

[SnugglySnerd]

New thread! Tried to post on the old one and it was full. Newcomers welcome!

Evening all, busy day here with work and then I had to pick dd up early from a choir rehearsal as she had terrible earache 😣 this kid has had one thing after another. She needed paracetamol and ibuprofen before calming down, she then said 'the pain has gone mum but my ears got a heartbeat' bless her.

Am praying it's okay tomos as I've got work and she has school and a big carol concert.

I'm tucked up in bed with dd asleep next to me and girlcat purring away on top of me!!

em hope dh's work works out!

cag agree with others that you are definitely sounding more like yourself. Those 'that's not my' books were in aldi this week....

laska the thought of losing my mum at any age just terrifies me, it's a huge thing to happen.

Feeling red hot and have just staggered gone downstairs for a drink and I'm rather light headed.

@Sneaky take care of yourself

Was so busy today. Glad to finish an hour early! Brought some work home, but only to save time tomorrow. Plus it worked out as a normal hours wage.

Went to asda and tescos with dd2. Another £100 spent (about £25 on pressies for her pals), and £10 on a macdonalds for our tea. £6 posting things.

Wierd odd thing happened. I bought ice lollies. Ds lives on lollies. Vimto ones. Dp brought it to me and said, try this. It was red not purple, and tasted bloody awful. Like the soureset sour thing ever. Clearly something has gone wrong in the mixing/flavouring dept. My mouth dried out like biting into a cider apple. So now I'm feeling very poorly! Which is silly as ds and dp are fine, I am just having an anxious panic. What if they are poisoned? What if, what if...I know it's silly.

Anyway. I have decided that if I still feel this anxious in January about silly things, I shall go and talk to the doctor. It's ramping up as I prep for going away (30 miles away, for 2 whole days ) thank goodness we're not going to Spain for a fortnight!

Lonely sorry to hear you're feeling like that x

Ah Lonely sorry you feel like that. Is there anything that might help reduce the anxiety about the cp trip?

You've all been chatty tonight!

Don't worry Laska we've all missed you, we're happy you are back and talk about it as much as you want or need to. It's a big event in your life and a very emotional one.

I've had a rough day today. I'm too agitated to sleep but actually have had enough and can't be bothered to write about it. I'm just going to fume to myself and hope I go to sleep eventually!

Laska it’s good to have you back, and feel free to ramble here. Losing a parent is really hard. I lost my dad in May and I probably have a little cry every few days still. And probably will for a long time. I think I spent through my grief a bit (on the kids mainly) and ate awfully badly, so I’m trying to get both of those things back on track now. I think feeling more in control of my life is helping with the grief, in some way.

Cag I’ll be really interested to hear what your experience of the Ed Psych input is. DS has an assessment as part of his EHCP assessment but he was barely 4... as far as I can tell he probably won’t have any further input from one unless something nuclear happens ie we take legal action against the LA. Even though he will be changing so much over these early years. It’s madness. I will be pushing hard for it in a couple of years, wed go private if we needed to but they don’t always accept private reports in the EHCP review process so it might not get us anywhere. I suppose you want the input for your own home ed?

Girlie hope DD is okay, she’s been through the wards but lately.

Sneaky I thought we’d never hear from you again once you’d unwrapped that Switch thingy

Oven is fixed, thank goodness! So Christmas is back on! I’ve had a late night tonight writing Christmas cards. Frugally using the massive assortment of accumulated leftover ones from Previous years. Written about 45 and bought none this year. First class stamps though... ouch!

Need to sleep, will catch up on Brexit news tomorrow. Cheery stuff, no doubt

You ok now sneaky?
LOL seacow not sure you’ll hear from me as much once we unwrap the PS4 :o I may need to give myself a screen time limit like the Caglets have! I got the Spyro and Crash Bandicoot games that are like the ones DH and I used to play pre-Caglets, I am ludicrously excited

Lonely my lovely if your GP surgery is anything like mine in terms of waiting time would you consider maybe booking an appt now for after Christmas? You can always cancel if you feel better (you may well do once the holiday is done, build up to big things like this can be awful) but you really don’t want to be suddenly finding yourself more panicky and being told there are no appointments for weeks. Am always at the end of a PM also if you want to chat.

Thanks cag I think being a small (think a spar and 3 isle co-op) village helps here. Our surgery is great, you can always get a same day. I think I have always had anxiety, I just recognise it now. I get very physical symptoms though, as well as panicky thoughts. It might be time. One of our gp's is a mh specialist, dp sees him when he needs to, so shall ask for him.

Am up to turn buns into reindeers. I just needed to sleep last night, so bailed out of doing it.

Not enabling cag but lego dimensions is pretty ace. You build lego, and it goes through the 'portal' into the game. Our ps4 is coming up to a year old, and we barely watch the telly now, prime and netflix through it, and you tube, it is very easy to use. Dp downloaded classic sonic, it brings back a lot of memories, especially when he stops and taps his foot at you!

Today is my last day at work at least!

Lonely I'm three feet further down the chute from you and have the NHS councillor appointment for anxiety in January. I was fretting about it until I phoned up to confirm and the person said the councillor was a man and now I am quite looking forward to it. Honestly what am I like?

Good luck. I would also like to get back to travelling.

Seacow (hurrah for fixed oven!) do you think you will take legal action at some point? I know it’s been awful trying to get DS the help he needs :( it’s just ridiculous the battles that are needed. My friend is trying to get one of her pupils some help, but she can’t spend the money on it without the EHCP, but she can’t get the ECHP started because they can’t prove they’ve spent up to the threshold on support. 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ I have never seen her so stressed.

Yes, it’s partly to inform our home ed better, but perhaps mainly for DD’s confidence. I always knew she was struggling in some areas, the school always insisted she was fine but her work showed otherwise. A common problem among quiet girls it seems, she would just sit there quietly feeling stupid and that feeling is a massive issue for her still. Also, she still wonders about maybe trying secondary at some point, and although you’re quite right that private assessments aren’t always considered in any legally binding sense, I would like some kind of report to at least show them first that says what her issues are. Her ASD diagnosis has helped so much in understanding her anxieties etc.

And then, DS. Sigh. He is getting to be harder and harder work as he gets older. My plan for him is to attempt to get a referral for occupational therapy, and see if they can identify any issues and maybe refer on. Again the paediatrician said there are clearly other issues with him, but different to DD and an ed psych wouldn’t be the right direction for him. There is an excellent private OT service and maybe in future that will be necessary too, looking at over a grand there for assessment plus treatment sessions.

I am very excited, frugal win as my friend is lending us a vivarium because we are getting our first pet after Christmas. We always said we would get one once we moved, as no space in the old house. Then DSD said she would like to pay for it as our Christmas present. Crested gecko! They are very easy to care for, my friend (vet nurse with many reptiles) is something of an expert.

Morning all. Happy frugal Thursday.

Cag a vreated gecko sounds interesting, I have bought ds crash bandicoot for his Xbox for Christmas
Today will mostly be spent cleaning and ironing. I do live and exciting life

I always find packing for CP stressful lonely and that's with it not being the first holiday for a while or trying to keep it a surprise And I always need a day off to pack too.

Pay day tomorrow

Big Tesco shop later, including presents hopefully for CM. DD1 also wants to give her teacher a present so must get a little something.

I also need to clean the lounge carpet, mop some floors and wrap DPs presents. Exciting day ahead

Cag I can identify very strongly with what you say about your dd's experience of "quietly feeling stupid".

Partly I just never seemed to know what was going on, but partly there was something quite badly wrong with my eyes that wasn't detected until I was 28.

I think It's worth getting looking very carefully for all kinds of developmental issues, up to and including vision development problems as they are so hard to spot. You need a really good optician for that. Although the convergence tests are mandatory legally, no one actually does them.

I was always good in exams btw, but it wasn't until I got to the national exam years in secondary that that showed and I got straight As. Up until then I was just considered nice-but-dim. I think it's well worth giving your dd the best opportunities that she can get.

These people are the official body for opticians who do the really good eye tests. www.covd.org/

They also work with dyslexia, dyspraxia, autism and a whole raft of other developmental issues. They would find you at least three good people in london if you asked. The lady who fixed me was fantastic and her colleagues might give you other good contacts.

If I'm honest, I sometimes prefer a lady gp. But I will see whom ever I think may help me best, I do not give a stuff about what they have in their trews.

Here, some of them are mice, as I ran out of antlers...not my finest or neatest work, but the y6's will not care!

Pic fail.

Ah mumsnet is being a bugger this morning.

They are really cute Lonely

That's lovely lonely.

I like women too, but in RL they often seem to find me irritating, whereas men don't, so I always end up with the men. Which is fine.

They are fab lonely. I'm also on the end of a pm if you want x

This seems to be the beginning of the hard Brexit documentation:

www.gov.uk/government/collections/how-to-prepare-if-the-uk-leaves-the-eu-with-no-deal

What joy.

They look fab lonely. Hope you get a GP appt.
Christmas glad your oven is sorted. I'm about to write cards so I can get them posted today.

Lonely they looks great.