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Frugaleers dripping their way through a wet January...

999 replies

SneakyGremlins · 13/01/2019 12:26

Hang on, that makes us sound like alcoholics Blush

OP posts:
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19
Unescorted · 25/01/2019 08:06

Morning - I am having a lie in at the hotel. Normally I would be at my desk by now.

Moi glad it arrived ok. I think I did 8 eggs & used a cake tin band to get it to rise evenly (I just made one out of tin foil & wet kitchen paper).

em glad the second scan went well - he was getting his manspreading practice in early then? Grin Ds did the same. He was inordinately proud of his hairy ball sack even before he had seen the light of day.

wolf hope the session went ok yesterday.

Meadow yay on the interviews.

We have French doors onto the back garden from out OP diner / living room...we put heavy curtains up in the winter.

Happierwithouthim · 25/01/2019 08:49

Forgot I went to Lidl and spent €8.03 yesterday also, usually my grocery spends are by card but I couldn't find mine yesterday!

2 cans of monster ultra, 10pk of flavoured coffees, jasmine green tea, 2 pks of cajun chicken for dd's lunches and a jar of seafood sauce. Random bits Grin

ememem84 · 25/01/2019 08:56

unescorted yep. That’s what he was doing!! Crazy little exhibitionist. He’s still extraordinarily proud of his bits.

£3.50 coffee and a croissant. Came prepared today and have a fruit pot from home and a load of snacks. Will buy a Sammie at lunchtime though.

Also have resorted to maternity jeans. I ordered a pair on asos a week or so ago. My other ones are just a wee bit too snug. I’d forgotten the comfort of maternity pants. 😂😂

MissingMo · 25/01/2019 09:44

Morning all.
Training yesterday so £11ish, the cost of train to the venue but I should get it back. Went to Co op for a rosé and picked up reduced crisps too. Chicken and thyme flavour. NSD today planned. Nothing taken out the freezer though so tuna pasta for dinner.
I have a rare day off tomorrow so will think about what to do with it now.

MeadowHay · 25/01/2019 10:01

Em I did have a few mat bits that were so comfy I was sad to put them away! Especially my lush overbump skinny jeans from H&M. I wore them for about the first 8 weeks PP too Blush until I bought myself some bigger, loose jeans as I didn't fit into my old ones yet. But now I don't fit into those ones, because I lost even more weight and am now lighter than pre-pregnancy, so even my old jeans are a little loose on me Confused. I need to buy a belt to wear with the too-big ones as I really like them but they just fall down all the time so I can't wear them. Where can I buy a belt that will fit me when I'm quite thin atm?

DD woke up at 12.15am last night screaming hysterically for ages Confused we gave her some Nurofen and that seemed to help as then I managed to get her back off to sleep holding her and rocking her on the rocking chair. It was really bad timing as we'd not long gone to bed so in the end we ended up being up til about 1am. But thankfully she slept til 8! And we had already agreed it was my turn for a lay-in so I only got up about 9ish.

Hey, with weaning, how do you know much to give them? We do a mixture of baby-led self-feeding, and spoon-feeding. When we're doing baby-led she doesn't really eat anything quantity-wise, but I'm not worried about that. But I was worrying about over-feeding with the spoon-feeding as I didn't want her to drop milk yet cos I know it's their main source of nutrition. However the last week or so she has been mostly downing her 9oz bottles in one go so I'm worried she might be hungry and need the solids upping a bit, but I never know how much to give her?! I asked the HV about this when we first started weaning and she just sorta shrugged and didn't give me any guidance on it Confused.

Should be NSD for me again today. DH is off and the plan is for him to take DD to baby French in a bit so I can get a shower and do some interview prep. And if she is amenable I will take her to baby group in the afternoon so he can have some peace to revise for his exams. But I have a bus pass so my travel is free, and the baby group is free too, DH just needs to pay for French which I think is £3 or something.

WreckTangled · 25/01/2019 10:06

Meadow primark for belts. About £3 and go down to XS.

Wolfcub · 25/01/2019 10:56

2.50 exchanging theatre tickets

Having a sit down and a cuppa before cleaning round two as I’ve got the shakes. Bathroom clean, whole house dusted. Washing on, dishwasher done, bit of ironing, hamster cleaned, living room vacuumed and kitchen floor mopped. I need to vac the stairs which I find difficult and then vac upstairs as well. Washing needs hanging up and I’ve a couple of kitchen surfaces left to wipe. After that I am done-diddly-done.

Meadow I’m not sure I just used to feed ds until he started refusing it and if he looked hungry later he had a rice cake or something similar. Basically I just winged it!

WreckTangled · 25/01/2019 10:59

I'm still waiting for the heating survey guy. 9-12 is the time slot. If he's not here by 12 I'm going out. Absolutely HATE waiting in for people Angry

ChristmasSeacow · 25/01/2019 13:21

Baby French! I’d no idea there was such a thing! Re. Weaning Meadow, tbh, if what you’re offering her is savoury food I’d just keep feeding till she stops /you run out. If she starts hurtling up the weight cdntile charts you might need to rethink... but like Wreck, I let them guide me and didn't really think about amount, just tried to steer away from too much sweet stuff to start with.

Wolf your house always sounds so clean!

Been dramatic here - DM was looking after the kids yesterday but she asked me to come home early as she felt crap. She looked white as a sheet and said she felt fluey and nauseous. She’s not been sick but went straight to bed at 5pm and hasn’t got up since - in fact I don’t think she can get out of bed. I’m quite worried about her.

So she’s still here thankfully (would normally have gone home yesterday but that was out of the question), I should be working but I’m not because DD, who should have been at nursery today, threw up spectacularly overnight. It’s been a mission to wash her hair and clean up all before the school run... phew!

It’s our close friend’s wedding tomorrow and DM defo can’t look after the kids. Nor can Usual Aunty, who is v sick with a chest infection. Thank goodness other sister has come to the rescue! Am still a bit worried about leaving Mum actually, we’ll see how that goes.

Ooh, and DD’s now awake, back later!

SneakyGremlins · 25/01/2019 13:35

Would it be worth checking with 111? Sounds serious Sad

OP posts:
ememem84 · 25/01/2019 13:41

meadow with portions for solids I just used to see what ds would eat. He used to put his hands across his mouth if he didn’t want any more.

£10 amazon on a foot muff for pram at dparents. Ds threw a blanket off the pier today....ffs. So that’s gone. Dm wraps him up tight in it but he’s a wiggly.

Wolfcub · 25/01/2019 13:49

£26 new alarm battery on top of the £95 service fee. Ffs 95 is budgeted for but not the extra

I am trying out the Fudget budget app after seeing it on one of TIP’s debt threads. It’s free so I will give it a whirl and if I don’t like it I will chuck it. No harm no foul.

Sea sorry to hear your mum is so poorly. There is a really nasty cold bug doing the rounds at the moment but phone the gp if you are worried at all.

ChristmasSeacow · 25/01/2019 14:38

She’s been pretty much asleep the entire time but I’ve been popping in every few hours to check on her and take her tea. I didn’t like the look of her his morning at all but she is drinking (reluctantly but she knows she needs to), if she wasn’t I’d be properly worried. I think she’ll be okay, but I imagine this might take a while to get over.

I’ve only had 3 hours sleep myself - I didn’t hear DD throw up in the night so knew nothing of that till the morning, but DS woke up in the night because he couldn’t find one of the BOOKS he takes to bed (ffs!) and when we did locate it it needed sellotaping up. Cue much shouty teary stuff about sellotape until DH found some 🙄. I am feeling very sleepy right now.

SnugglySnerd · 25/01/2019 15:50

Oops sorry Em totally missed the bit about your second scan. Clearly that is a lot more interesting than curtains!!

Sea I hope they are both better soon.

NSD although I think dh is bringing home a Friday treat.

lifelongfrugaleer · 25/01/2019 17:17

Ah sea that's a worry. At least you can keep an eye on her.
Burger about the unbudgeted spend wolf. Bloody cars.

Re weaning, mine turned away from the spoon and clamped lips shut.

Nsd today. Posted my parcel back to sea salt.

WreckTangled · 25/01/2019 17:31

£55 Aldi
£16 Sainsbury's including two birthday cards. Bloody rip off. Must get more organised.

Meal plan:

Pizza
Lentil dahl
Chicken goujons
Burritos
Sausages
Spatchcock chicken with either rice or couscous
Left over chicken with something

WreckTangled · 25/01/2019 17:32

Sea hope your mum feels better now. Has she had a flu vaccination?

My dc are being vile at the moment and I win first prize for being a shit screeching parent

ememem84 · 25/01/2019 17:33

sea I hope Dm is ok xx

meadow I missed the bit about baby French! Amazing!!! Ds’ nursery this year is starting bilingual school for then pre school kids. Should be well established when ds gets to that point.

Waiting for dh at present so we can get ds from dparents. Ate so much today. Colleagues birthday. So she brought treats. Two cakes and a ton Of savoury snacks. Sausage rolls scotch eggs cocktail sausages crisps.... so yum.

Moanranger · 25/01/2019 17:46

It has been ages since I checked in. Have been using a Barclaycard for all my monthly expenses which I pay off, but the rewards were risible. Only Cineworld vouchers worth getting, so basically around £140 value of rewards in a year. I now have a cashback Amex ( thanks to Mn advice) which should get me about £270 per annum cashback. Much better deal.
I am “eating the cupboard” as long as I can. Bread is now rising in the kitchen and I have cooked loads of black beans in the Pressureking. Homemade soup in fridge. Been an expensive month: had to have a septic tank pumped, some light blew which needed replacing, so cue electrician ££ and also need a plumber ££. But frugaleering means I can cope.

Girliefriendlikesflowers · 25/01/2019 18:02

Forgive me frugaleers for I have sinned 😶 £20 on a Dominoes, it was ridiculously good! Got a large pizza, wedges, doughballs and a chocolate pizza for that so a bargain really 😉 anyway I blame fluffys absence on my slipping off the rails 😆

Have eaten so much I can't move.

Thank you north i think being a lone parent has its difficulties but in some ways is simpler as well (no ex or partner to worry about, I make all the decisions etc) the hardest thing is having no back up. I worry that if anything happened to me we would lose this house. I also miss having someone to chat to about some of the more mundane day to day things or small issues regarding dd. It's not always the big problems you want support with sometimes i just want someone who is interested in the boring stuff as well iyswim.

Girliefriendlikesflowers · 25/01/2019 18:07

sea has your mum got a temp? I would be tempted to get a dr to have a look at her tbh, good that she's with you and you're keeping a close eye.

wreck it must be nearly 🍷o clock?

WreckTangled · 25/01/2019 18:09

No 🍷 in the house and dh is going out again but he did say he would put ds to bed before he goes... ill watch some Netflix and get an early night I suppose

Wolfcub · 25/01/2019 18:15

Wreck you should be here I have gin and a foul ds we could have divided, conquered and ginned

WreckTangled · 25/01/2019 18:24

Grin my dc would have been angels if we'd been at someone else's house!

Wolfcub · 25/01/2019 18:31

That sounds spectacularly familiar Wreck

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