Frugaleers dripping their way through a wet January...

[SneakyGremlins]

Hang on, that makes us sound like alcoholics

wolf how does he feel about the appointments themselves. It is an easier sell if he thinks they are a good thing. If they are seen as a chore or necessity then you may have to find another, less time consuming, sweetener to couple them to so the dropping of an other activity is balanced. Does that make sense?

Jam I am no the red wine too. For absolutely no reason I am having a shocking day.

Great news wolf, maybe the appointment times will decide what has to give, if that makes any sense. Is he happy to go to the appointments or is it a battle? Take care of yourself
cag are you OK?
Can't really think about holidays until spoken to bigger kids about their plans, quite fancy Scotland. (Actually really really fancy a tropical paradise but tooooo much money + wouldn't get ds on plane, he hates holidays and spends whole time asking when we're going home! )

Good news regarding the appointments @wolf, hope you manage to squeeze it in without too much hassle.

Spendy day, booked a holiday to Amsterdam with my best friend. Am using my savings though as opportunity rarely arises. DP has also booked his boys holiday but his is significantly cheaper as he is staying with a friend. Funny how everyone seems to be getting their holidays booked.

Meat delivery came and was quite good value, should last us a good while with batch cooking and careful planning. Now I know what's come I can sort out the meal plans properly.

I am going to whisper this - I get bored on holiday unless there is a purpose for it. I always want to get home because there is so many things I could be doing. I understand how your DS feels ggreen

I could murder a red wine.

Good day today. Got all work finished and am now off until Tuesday.

Scan on Monday. Eeep.

Me to unescorted.
No holiday here as saving up. Camping mostly this year. Though have booked HP world for July so will have a few days in London, which is just as expensive

Are you going to find out the sex em or are you leaving it a surprise?

life I thought there was a theme park dedicated to brown sauce. I would have been impressed!

All this talk of holidays prompted me to chat to dh about what we should do this summer. After dd getting upset about not going on a plane we were looking into maybe Edinburgh. Edinburgh zoo is on my places I want to visit, neither of us have ever been to Scotland so would be a new experience for us all! Priced up a travel lodge, flights, zoo entry and taxi to airport at around £570 end of July. (We live on the south coast so it's quite a long way away!!)

life very jealous I would love to go to HP world but need to wait for dd to watch them all, she's only seen as far as the goblet of fire.

In other news our neighbour has stolen our shiny new recycling bin and left their old dirty one for us... dh is threatening to go out at midnight to switch them back 😂

Spends £42 in Lidl and £21.15 on school dinners for dd1 :)

Nocuts dh should def do that cheeky buggers. I want to go to Edinburgh one day.

No cuts our neighbour did that to us. And stuck big numbers on "theirs". It gives me great pleasure that it is a poorly made one. Our old filthy has withstood being hit by cars. Theirs didn't stand up to being bumped down the steps. I put the wheel that fell off in our recycling bin for them.

Ooo nocuts naughty neighbours!

I'm now thinking about the summer hols as well 😃 I'm not sure if I mentioned but I've booked 4 nights in Cornwall in July. A friends renting out their apartment and I'm going with friends so will work out a bargain at £160!

I quite fancy a folk festival to channel my inner hippy 😌

Spent £4.10 today, very unfrugally I made a lunch and then left it home 😬 so had to buy one.

Nocuts take it back that’s very cheeky

Wine has been opened. It’s somewhat paintstripperish

Ds is ok about the sessions it’s whether he cooperates with them when he’s there. Unfortunately they are on the night on activity 1 which we were trying to get him to drop in favour of activity 2 (potential future career stuff and if not a lifetime love and hobby) so that we free up Saturday for contact

unescorted I think so yes. If we can. With ds it was so bloody obvious. He was all legs akimbo and the willy was there front and centre. Haha. Such an exhibitionist that kid.

I’m wondering how early you can tell? I mean if I’m over 12 weeks but not 20 but somewhere in the middle will they be able to tell on Monday. This is my first scan so no idea how far along. The only thing I do know is that I have to drink practically my body weight in water at least an hour before and not pee until after. Sigh.

Have you thought about the isle of Wight for a hol nocuts or is it too similar to where you live? We used to live there and often go back for camping holidays. Lots for kids to do. I still love it. Can use tesco vouchers to get ferry tickets. However it doesn't mean you get a plane. My kids (apart from ds) were like yours about us never going on a plane.

Mine are old enough for me to remember the exploding bladder scan. Always a bloke complaining about the wait too, having taken the only seat.

That's karma unescorted they shouldn't have stolen your bin!!! Dh is planning his stealth bin swap I've gone to bed and left him to it 😂

That's a bargain girlie I've never been to Cornwall either!

We went to the isle of Wight last year greengrass the girls really enjoyed it we are thinking of going again for a night or 2 as the Travelodge was v cheap. But I would go with my mum as dh is scared of boats and refuses to get on a ferry!! Wouldn't even get on the boat tour at Portsmouth dockyard I had to leave him at the shore and take the girls myself 😂

Edinburgh is amazing , bring them to dynamic earth if you go, I'm actually going to go back with mine in next couple of years so that we can do everything dynamic earth has to offer. I adore Edinburgh though.

Girlie have you seen Tom Kerridge is holding a food/music festival in bath? It's all weekend but you can just get day tickets too.

Em it's usually 16 weeks

We like the Isle of Wight but the ferry is always as much as the accommodations. I think it's the most expensive bit of water to cross.

My plans have been thwarted by dd being unwell. Obviously it's horrible for her but I had a really nice day planned! Was meant to be meeting my friend for lunch

Wreck I hope dd soon feels better and you can salvage some of your day

Cleaning the house and packing for ds for me today which will no doubt include skewering my feet on numerous bits of Lego. How can something so square be so pointy and sharp

Won’t be a no spend day I will be having a takeaway when ds is packed off to camp

You deserve it wolf! Lego is the worst. annoyingly dh has only been doing half days this week as they're between jobs but typically today there's stuff to be done.

Day off for me.

Waiting for the wardrobe to be delivered. Dh hopped in the car with ds and dparents. Suggested I have a nice relaxing cup of tea but I’d also need to move the car so wardrobe can get in garage oh and could I also do xyz today. Ffs.

I’ve moved car. I will not be doing xyz today.

Dr apt at 10. Meeting dhfor lunch at 1230 (half price burgers? Yes please!) wardrobe guy coming at 430. Charity shop drop off at some point in between.

5.99 expensive German hamster food. I don’t think the hamster is long for this world so I shall indulge his fussiness

Switched gas and electric to bulb. Thanks North for the code. Annoyingly my end of contract letter from EDF didn’t say I could have switched fee free from November which means I missed out on the £100 offer. Money saving experts cheap energy club were the ones to let me know I could leave fee free. The problem with doing all your bills etc on the phone is that it’s quite hard to see small print #gimmer

Morning all,
Doctors appointment at 10.30, then it's a walk down the high street and lunch with a friend. The downstairs hall and bedroom light have gone so need to replace them today. Annoyingly we had a spare in the random stuff drawer but it doesn't fit either .
Will make chilli for dinner tonight bulked out with beans and lentils. That should make a couple for the freezer too.
Rough night with DD, I think she's trying to cut 2 back teeth. Hopefully she will be better tonight as I have work tomorrow.

Shame about the switch over @wolf, hope the cleaning and tidying goes well.