Frugaleers dripping their way through a wet January...

[SneakyGremlins]

Hang on, that makes us sound like alcoholics

jam is your woman for recipe book recommendations

@WreckTangled boil pasta, drain, add veg/sauce/pasta to wok and leave for 10 mins!

@coconuts we didn't go abroad my whole childhood and my fondest memories are a trip to the lake district with family and my parents friends. I do remember school trips being quite fun but they seemed a lot more reasonably priced. They did a school skiing trip whilst I was in year 10 and that was £2000 with 6 weeks to pay. I didn't go to that one for obvious reasons.

No spends today except £1 for church collection but found 50p on the floor. Chilled day at home whilst DP went to the gym. Freezer food for dinner me thinks. Must remember to defrost something for dinner tomorrow.

HFW's Veg Everyday use one of my favourite recipes books ever. His other veggie one is called Even More Veg and is still good but I prefer the first one. I use it a lot. I used it today in fact to make his magic bread/pizza dough.

I've just realised I'm making his garlicky greens whilst typing this too but I've made it so many times I don't need the book!

I’ve had a very lazy day just pottering with a bit of housework. Although I’m feeling a bit more human on a lower dose I think. Tomorrow is my last day on 20 then I drop to 10.

I’ve also spent an enjoyable time on the yesbebe site making a wish list. £££££££ lots of duplicates/different sizes etc though, so I can gradually decide. The stuff on there is amazing (grapat and grimms are my favourites)

Lots of phone calls to make tomorrow. Trying to not fail at life admin!

Nocuts when I was a kid we had a day trip to France and when I was 10 we had out first holiday abroad. I think my mother spent pretty much the entire two weeks abroad in bed with stress. All our other holidays were camping in the UK which I remember more fondly - less stress=no missing mother. I did do the school pgl trips but always missed all the skiing trips because they were stupid money. I’ve found paying for ds’s school trips really hard at 260 a time. His high school apparently don’t do them at all because parents can’t afford them, I think it’s a great approach

£2 parking
£11.50 afternoon tea. Discount card saves us £5 for the table
£6 McDonald’s because my parents forgot they were supposed to be giving ds lunch so we had to have an emergency dash to McDonald’s and then back to theirs

Thanks for the new Fred sneaky

nocuts don't feel guilty, school trips are outrageously expensive and dd has only been abroad thanks to the generosity of family. Her favourite holiday was camping in Devon 😐 mean girls will always find something to be mean about unfortunately.

I wonder if we should all say one frugal thing we've done today (or yesterday) to entice fluffy back 😆

Mine would be remembering to take a pack lunch to work and a bottle of water! Saved me at least £3.

Mine was getting dh to pay for everything

Haha Wreck so did I today! But NSD all the same, for me!

And I solemnly swear to be frugal and bring coffee and lunch to work tomorrow.

I thought frugal thoughts while spending money.
I did look for cashback but it's isn't on any where

Reporting for Fred duty sah!
Thanks for the new one sneaky . Can you all make sure I don't ever start a new thread....ever, ever.

We had a family nsd. Dh is in better humour. I tricked him by making it sound as if I cared. Which I do really, but I find the withdrawn silence really wearing. I have not cooked. Today is a good day.

I need fluffy to find me a good electric and gas deal.
I need Lonely to recommend me some stylish cycling tops (I need the pockets so I can get my bike through the barriers at the station without emptying my bag to find the pass). I can't afford anymore Rapha...😥

We didn't fly anywhere until DS was 11. I still find it uncomfortable and prefer to go by ferry because of the carbon footprint. Mean kids will be mean ..... They will find something to other people with.

My frugal thing was meal planning for the week based on what we already had in and so only spending about a tenner on the shopping.

We made a start on sorting out the garden today. It was lovely being out in the sunshine pulling up armfuls of weeds and cutting off dead stuff. The dcs amused themselves with bubbles which were brilliant in the wind then they helped carry all the garden waste to the green garden bin. We have a lot of compost now from last year so we'll be able to use that to grow some veg and herbs in the spring.

Absolutely exhausted. Need to force myself to do some work for school.

snuggly can I book your kids for next weekend? I need to get the garden deweeded and mulched.

I bought DD some joggers. I bought a gift voucher through my money saving thing, and saved 60p. I then went through TopCashback and got a whole 10p. I hope @fluffy is proud of me

I also saved 13p on the reduced bagels I bought

I sent dh to the shop meaning today was a nsd after all. Tonight I’m going to write a list of what I need to accompany the stuff I have in the freezer. Will be aiming to spend less than £50.

I also need to cut back on our fuel bills as they are outrageous!! We have the heating on a lot 😣

Girlie did you find out is this a six week month for you right enough?

Evening.

Thank you lovely sneaky for starting the thread.

I absolutely love both HFW books, both about veg. They are my go to books but I use Pinterest a lot too now, and the BBC Good Food website never fails.

nocuts. I was that child. We only went to Scotland and never abroad. I envied my friends. You know what? I wish I'd seen how fabulous those holidays were. Outside, exploring, being active, loving all the healthy stuff like scrambling and rock pooling and discovering. It's now even what we do the most of with our DC, we take them abroad but they prefer Scotland. I honestly don't think you should feel bad at what you are not providing, rather be proud of what you do. X

NSD, 10 mile hilly off road race and a gym work out. Roast dinner (vegan). Jim Jams on already, Call the Midwife on the TV!

I want them back too unescorted and quite too - to talk about chickens.

I am so glad I get paid mid month...six week months are hell on a stick. Especially when accompanied by the spend fest that is Christmas and New Year.

Can anyone explain why my predictive text changes a perfectly good, correctly spelt word for gobbledygook? Mid month was my uncouth and spend fest was changed to send text. Weird!

And who is going to lead us astray with knitting patterns for camels? I also need autumn to laugh at my crap jokes.....

Thanks for the thread Sneaky

I second the HFW first veg book. It’s brill.

Notth great that your DS is doing so much better, and that he’s had cricket to see him through the hard times.

NSD here but I’ve just tripped up in the spare room of doom and landed on the clothes airer. Which did not come out if the altercarion well. So I’ll have to get a new one tomorrow. Also hurt my knee a bit 😬

I’ve spent much of the day cooking a big roast with lots of sides to tempt the kids. Didn’t really have that effect but hey ho. DH is a bit useless and sorry for himself after the stag do yesterday. He did take the kids to the park for a bit but managed to let dd fall on the roundabout. Much blood and a huge thick lip now . She can hardly talk, it’s so swollen. I am feeling a bit cross with him as I feel I’ve hardly stopped all weekend (except after 8.30 last night - my only relaxation time) and I also have several hours of work to do tonight as no other child-free chance. But instead of clearing up after dinner for me so I could go ither thinfs he went to ‘supervise’ the kids watching telly. Grrr. It’s going to be a late one with work but at least we’ve already eaten. I feel there is some clearing of the air to be done but I don’t have time for it tonight.

My frugal thing was cooking the Happy Pears spanish lentil stew. I had all the ingredients in already so didn't cost anything extra.
It was lovely and I have 5 more portions, so will take it to work 2 or 3 times this week.

I made stuffing to go with my roast dinner from breadcrumbs from freezer previously made from ends of loaves think that should be enough to entice @fluffy back

Plus have six potato scoop lumps of stuffing ready for freezing for another roast dinner

Cooked a par baked sourdough baguette today, filled it & cut in half for tomorrow's lunch

sea that sucks. It is like the regress to pre children when they go out on a big night out.

I do have visions of you giving the airer a stern talking to 😀
Hope DD's lip comes down soon.