Frugaleers dripping their way through a wet January...

[SneakyGremlins]

Hang on, that makes us sound like alcoholics

Morning. I'm leaning on the heater, in a big jumper drinking coffee.

Will be a lsd. Need to pay for hospital parking.

Ooo bread making. I love breadmaking.

Friends did barge and cycle in Holland Unescorted. Each day they cycled and their barge was driven to meet them so they could then poorer in it a bit and sleep for the night

Wreck snap - except it is tea.

I just thought ... a residential language course. Because I will be on my own I think I will be happier with a something to do aim. I am not very good in my own company.

Link to 'our' weight loss/exercise thread for Ggreengrass and anyone else who fancies it

Brrr it's freezing here and my heating let me down again yesterday, thought I'd fixed the problem Sun eve and again had trouble yesterday, and I attempted to fix again, I'm going to call to the shop about it this afternoon when dd has a class nearby just for some advice/arrange a call out, owner lives in our village so should get seen before weekend.

Au pair had fire on yesterday evening though and a quick top up this morning meant she and dc will be warm getting ready today.

I got my car insurance renewal yesterday and rang to take H off it which reduced it by €3 and then added dm which reduced it by €40 and then told them about quote I got from another insurance company which was €425 and got it down to €452, I'd prefer to stay with Aviva anyhow as I've had the same policy for a number of years now. It now includes a legal helpline too which will come in handy while I'm sorting out separation too.

I kept my Christmas bonus of €500 to pay for this so now I've got some spare money for me

Barge and cycle holiday sounds good wolf I hate cycling but for those that like it, it sounds lovely. I think I fancy a walking holiday, might do a weekend one when things settle down.

My holiday is for one parent families and once people have deposits paid, she'll send out a group email so we can converse and get to know each other a bit before hand if we want to and arrange travel together if we wish too. This sounds good to me. Would be nice to know if there'll be children same age as dc there.

Happier That's really nice about the holiday, sounds lovely. Wolf Residential language thing sounds cool too, I'd love to do something like that again, did one for 3 weeks once that uni paid for in the summer holidays of my 1st year at uni, we stayed in halls of residence while the students were away. It was fun and I learnt a lot and did lots of fund touristy things.

I might look into a residential language course.... I want to do French, but I find it hard to remember if I don't use it.

Unescorted I did mine with uni in Montpellier, but I can't remember the name of the language school, there are a few there I think, but it was really good. And Montpellier is just a really lovely city, the weather's amazing in the summer and there is lots of stuff to do. I took DH there for a weekend in the summer when we were on my year abroad (we lived in Lyon then) and he loved it too. Lyon is also a great place, we loved living there.

Gah I have obviously trodden in some spilled oil (sun soaked tomato pot must have leaked) and haven’t noticed so have trailed it all through the house
The freezer has leaked again

Will need to spend £3 later for ds’s activity

I'm enjoying the chat about summer holidays; I need to start thinking about ours too; but not until I price around and switch my utilities provider, that is first on the To Do list, keeping my frugal priorities in order!

Yesterday's spend was £8 on seamstress for alterations on my new jumpsuit.
Spends so far today:
£2 drink

Nsd. Hospital parking machine wasn't working. Took ds' plimsolls back as they were too small and didn't have the size up so £3.50 refunded.

tayto just got email from cpcc about How to be good with Money programme on RTE, forgot all about it last week, will watch first episode on player tonight I think and work on from there then. Did you watch it?

I have a £20 off ocado voucher (give me £20 too plus £10 to a food bank) if anyone hasn’t used ocado before and wants to give it a try

Is there a minimum spend? I've never used it!

Sneaky minimim spends are usually £40. It looks like the £20 voucher is off the second order so you have to shop twice to get the benefit iyswim

£264 on dh's credit card (so doesn't count right?!) on flights home from Spain for our summer holiday. Pil's owe us £88 of that. So that's a week in Spain in August for six people in a private villa with pool for £1600 including flights. Our share is about £1000 which I think is really good. PIL's are going to pay for a hire car too. We have £350 left to pay on the villa but the council tax free months will cover that.

I hope it's not that Girlie although it wouldn't surprise me. I'm always saying that lifting the dts in and out of the car will give me a hernia!
Nsd. Nearly the weekend. Might open wine a day early. It's been that sort of day!

Life’s hows the kitchen looking?
Snuggly I know what you mean. I’m glad it’s my Friday today, I’m about four hours down this week but I have over 44 in hand so I just can’t be bothered doing any more.

Wreck that sounds like great value

Drew £20 out at the post office. £6 of That will pay for ds’s Thursday activity this week and next and will put a bit of cash in my totally empty wallet. Ds will also need £2 of that for camp this weekend too

Thanks for the tips. I will do a google and see what I can find. I have French friends who are teachers and live in France, but I would come back with a potty mouth and inappropriate slang. Although I would be a dab hand at ordering wine and cake.

I have had a treacle day today...ended up getting new tyres for the car as a legitimate thing to do during work. I slipped on black ice this morning so didn't want to risk going to sites and ending up in a ditch. Good news is they cost nowt, but I picked up DD at the same time and we went for tea & cake while we waited. £7. We also bought pizza for tea...£13(may include wine) and I bought dh & ds sausage sandwiches for their travels this morning. I gave ds £10 and did not see the change.

The day has dragged.

Evening. Busy couple of days here.

That's our sort of holiday seacow, even now that the DC are adults. Sounds perfect, especially for your DS and DM. How's your DM doing? ❤️

Spends over two days.
£60 for a years anytime delivery pass for Sainsbury's. Saves money long term me not going in and I don't have much time for shopping anyway.
£60 delivery, including work milk so £50.
£15 Aldi
£12 Marks and Spencer, mainly vegan stuff and reduced veg for a stir fry tomorrow to replace a take out.
£6 card factory, stocking up for a few months.
£50 Matalan on 4 thick fluffy jumpers for myself and DD, for lounging about the house, hopefully should keep the heating on a lower setting. We both hate being cold.

Home made instant pot veggie broth for tea for the last two nights, with lentils to bulk it out.

Stocked up now really.

Not a frugal post.

Ds’s next round of camhs appointments have come through. Every week for three months. Absolutely brilliant on the one hand but on the other I’m wondering how I keep the wheels on the bus with yet another commitment to try and fit in we were just trying to encourage him to drop something to make space

Brrr, just lit the fire!
£4 body care
£8.80 prescription
Absolutely knackered

Doesn't have to be a frugal post all the time wolf. How would he react to very subtly planting the seed about dropping something?

snuggly I've opened the red, I will make up for it Saturday night as I've a race Sunday but needed a wine tonight. Usually can make it to Friday without 😁

£6.90 on lunch! £2.50 on pop. 1.60 X 2 for cuppa tea. FFS. Will claim some back
No other spend

Oo tricky wolf.
Doesn't have to be frugaleer, no.

Love the kitchen floor.