Friendly Frugaleers Furtively Ferreting Away to Find Fabulous Savings

[Wolfcub]

New fred

lonely that will be a massive savings, no sky here only normal telly! I pay £21 broadband a month with ee for phone and Internet. BT are so expensive.

I'm meant to be getting organised for interview next Monday.....

Aaaaand my PIP money has arrived. Although I'm calmer than yesterday and realise that actually the money is going nowhere near as far as I first imagined :'D but still, it's majorly helping. So far I have:

• Paid off my overdraft.
• Paid off DH's overdraft, and put some extra in his account for him to use. He doesn't get another instalment of his travel bursary until just before Easter, I think.
• Paid our water bill which is for the period from when we moved in over the summer until end of March, I think.

Feel giddy just being able to do those things!!

We had a grim-ish night with DD too. It started off ok, she was in bed by 7.50pm which is the earliest in weeks. We went to bed around 11pm and she woke around 12.15am screaming hysterically. We couldn't get her back to bed til 2am, after she had some Nurofen and 5oz of milk. She hasn't had milk in the night since she was 12 weeks old but we did used to dream-feed her around 10pm until she was about 6 months. But then she slept from 2 until DH's alarm went off at 7, with no crying wake-ups for dummy replacement. So I'm wondering whether we would do better to reintroduce a dream-feed...but then it could just be she slept better cos of Nurofen, if she struggles with pain from teething or wind or something . So confused. Waiting for DH to make her a GP appt anyway as she's due to go back and get a paed referral.

Yay Meadow, great news!
Re dd, do you think she could be constipated? I only ask because my youngest was and some of the things you have said match some of what we went through, feel free to ignore me though, you know your dd best x

Nsd planned for today. Although I am twitching over a pair of trousers in next. Canary yellow. Want.

Boss brought me a marshmallow topped hot chocolate this morning. Yay!

Dh been an arse this morning. Ds woke up at 530. Dh went and got him. Then ds cried through breakfast. Dh shouted at me for being lazy (at 6am for contemplative a shower and a hair wash instead of helping him with ds) so I sat downstairs with ds and gave him his breakfast. Then took him to get dressed. Took him in the bathroom with me while I showered. And generally kept him out of dhs way.

By the time I was ready Dh still hadn’t showered. He could have done this while I was dressing ds.

At the time we were ready to leave Dh decided he needed to pack his gym bag and find his mobile which he’d left somewhere. Ds fell over somehow (all ready to go with coat and shoes on) and bumped his arm on the open stair gate. Dh shouted at me to get out the way because he needed his phone while I was helping ds get up.

Haven’t spoken to him other than to ask him what’s more important to him. Ds hurting himself. Or his phone. Ds and I got in the car and drove to nursery and work. No idea how dh got in. Bus I suppose. Or stayed home because his precious phone was missing. Twat.

Curvy She does struggle to do poos sometimes, yes. She has them pretty regularly and they're not hard or anything, but she really struggles to pass them, and she struggles to pass wind as well. We've been giving her regular Infacol since she was about 6 weeks old and it definitely makes some difference as we always notice if we've missed a few doses or if we've ran out and she's missed some, but she still does struggle even with that. She hasn't done a poo since yesterday morning and that was only a small one and her stomach is huge right now and she keeps passing wind too so I do think atm one of the reasons she's being so difficult yesterday and again so far today is constipation. When she was on the ranitidine it had the happy side-effect of helping her poo! But can't justify keeping her on it just for that lol. I don't think GP would want her on lactulose or anything though because she's not constipated in the medical sense I guess, as it's not hard or anything and she never goes more than 2 days really without passing a bowel movement, she just seems to really struggle to pass them. What foods are good for helping bowel movements along? I know prunes are, I sometimes giver the Ella prune pouches when she's struggling but don't think I have any in atm, the local Superdrug are always sold out of the prune ones .

Oh em hugs x
Meadow, my dd was a poo withholder, and it really got worse after we started weaning, luckily for me the GP I saw used to be a paed, gave lots of advice, we had to avoid too much wheat, what helped dd the most was apple juice, 20/80 with water, orange juice made her worse.
She had lots of fruit purees, which wasn't the best, but l was prepared to help her anyway I could, because she was in so much pain.
The paed said that she probably remembered the pain, so each time she had a bowel movement, she refused to poo. Broke my heart.
Anyway we tried diet first and even though this did help a bit, her belly was still very hard, so the GP prescribed lactulose (dd was about 9 months) and that got things moving a bit, but then it kind of stopped working, so we then went on to movicol, (dd was 14 months) This worked really well, she was on that till just before her 3rd birthday and potty trained not long after.
Dd2 is 8 now and we still have to make sure she eats enough veg to keep things moving!
Yes prunes are really good, figs are too!
Hope you get the appt soon x

Pears meadow I hear pears are good.

Dh got in touch. Did I want to meet for lunch? Nope. I’m busy. Did I remember to take the effing bloody huge parcel to the post office? Nope. Not my parcel. Not my refund (it’s my birthday present which didn’t work so Dh told amazon to send a new one which they did but he won’t get refunded until he returns the old one). Why can’t I help him? Because on this instance I don’t want to. Not my circus. Not my monkey.

Sounds like DH was out of order this morning @em, especially with everything you have going on at the moment. I hope he is forthcoming with a serious apology before the end of the day. And I hope you aren't feeling too bad .
Thanks for new thread @wolfcub.

Hi all, meadow that's fab, the money not the being up all night.
Goodish news dd1 who was diagnosed with a heart murmur in Nov went for health works interview today outcome is she's able to continue her uni course heart murmur not heard by today's Dr. Stillneeds cardio appointment, but relieved. Went through paper work for pip appeal with dh, it made us both super sad and cross. But have rung CICmeadow suggested, so help is hopefully at hand. But spent the night worrying about it thanks for email unescorted will read this eve
Hope everyone's poorly children are improving. Lack of sleep is torture.
em have you resisted the yellow trousers??? I kind of think you might need them after your morning!
Primary homework is a nightmare especially the ones that are meant to look like fun. I'd stick with lots of stories and board games and talking to your kids! It defeats the point if the parents have to do it.

Goodness em he's being a nob. Is his mum on at him again? (Not that that excuses it).

Yep. Resisted yellow trousers. For now. Didn’t even go and look at them. 😇

Nope. No idea what’s going on with him. Definetly not mil. I’ve put feet down and have actually invited her for the end of August. She said August is her quiet time and dc2 is due end of July. So I figured end of August is a good time to invite her. Dh was in agreement. We’re going to have a party or something mid/end of September for the new baby and if she comes end of August she can stay for a month. So we’re arranging this for her. No doubt she’ll arrive August 1. And leave end of August. Whatever.

It’s probably work with dh to be fair. Not an excuse. And I’ve told him I won’t put up with work nonsense. He knows this.

Sounds like a grim start to the day em I find it astonishing that an adult ever thinks it's acceptable to shout at another adult, so unnecessary.

meadow great news on the money, my dd struggled with pooing as well, movicol also worked wonders. Fruit wise grapes and apples were the most effective.

seacow coins arrived today, thank you so much 😘 they're fabulous, am getting excited to see dds reaction when she gets them.

Have got a fair amount of work done this morning, know what I'm going to talk about just need to put it together a bit more. Having a break now and going to pop to aldi as fridge is empty.

I would just like to point out that I haven’t bought anything for myself (anything unnecessary) since I found out about dc2. So maybe my emotional spending habit is over....

Want a laugh?

Just recieved a letter from a rival co re a transfer of a client to us. Their transfer out fees are £250k. Almost fell off my chair. We don’t have to pay it. The client might. But we have to negotiate this.

I've just ordered myself the Michelle Obama book as my Christmas voucher gift/finished my assignment reward. Based on frugaleer recommendations

Great news on the money saved/returned lonely and others with money saving news

Need to do some work on my next assignment tonight before class tomorrow. But if that gets done then I'll have my new book to read tomorrow

Totally agree that maths apps are not that great for discouraging tablet usage. Also got copied into an email about checking that children aren't cheating as there were some unexpected results from an app

£44 ASDA shop arriving between 3-5PM tomorrow

May have roped in bestie to help put it all away when it arrives

OMG em, do you think the client will pay it?

I spent £84 in aldi 😮 combination of not having been shopping for two weeks, stocking up for Brexit and buying extra for dds b day wend.

Have had a day of friends popping in which is lovely but means I'm a bit behind with the interview work.

Thanks for the new thread.
love you won't regret getting the Michelle O book.
em hope things are better tonight
Great news on the incoming money lonely and meadow
Mad busy couple of days here, but minimal spending as a result.

Oh and I PASSED!!!!!!! So happy & relieved. It'll be a while before I get to actually prescribe, but it's exciting! Off out to a folk gig with dh now (budgeted for!)

I fell off the thread again and there was so many posts I couldn't catch up but am back!

I'm doing well with not buying clothes/unnecessary purchases only one dress in the £1 charity shop for my self last month!

Today's spends £4.95 on a new slimming world book to motivate me to cook more it's the all in one pot one. And £32 in Tesco including an outfit for dd1 (she's going to a gymnastics party and wanted a crop top thing like her friends so got a 3 piece set for £6), a reduced sheet for £2.75 and a reduced incredibles toy for dd2s birthday.

I went through my present cupboard at the weekend and took 4 things to work as I'm sure 7 year olds won't want Mickey mouse clubhouse puzzles or a play dough set!! And have a list of what's in there, so the 4 parties we have are covered plus loads still in there! And I have quite a few bits for dd2 birthday ready.

When my dd struggled with constipation I used to give her orange juice, figs (sometimes in the form of fig roll biscuits). Lots of drink is key as that will encourage them to go as it won't hurt so much as its softer. Plus I used to lay her on her back and bring thighs up to tummy doing circular and riding bike motions. I learnt it at baby massage classes I did with dd1.

Wooooo @Northender well done

Nocuts welcome back

Meadow and Sneaky congrats on the positive financials

Em sorry dh is being a twat again.

north congratulations!

girlie good luck for Monday! You will ace it.
North - well done. Not that we ever had any doubt of course.
Sneaky, Lonely and Meadow good news on the extra funds.
em even my jaw hit the desk £250k for terminating a private service contract early???!!!!! OOOOO!

I have had such a busy day.... I just want to tuck up and go to bed.

Yay north 😍

Hey nocuts 😘

Sorry DH is being a dweeb em

Where is jam?

Re maths apps, we have screen time completely separate from those, so it doesn’t eat into their free time. That said the learning side is done during the school day anyway so is more “work” instead of “homework” I guess. I’m not entirely convinced many online maths programmes are all that great really (the way you can cover a subject really quickly and pass the test and then move on quickly without truly mastering it), maths should be hands on, and hand written when possible and I have a bit of a beef with their sole use in the home ed community

Speaking of which, I am planning a small business venture. Eeeek. Involves some financial outlay though 🤔 so just keeping notes on my ideas while my health isn’t great

That's great north well done! One of the practice nurses I know became a partner in the surgery soon after

Congrats north!

Gave DD apple and pear purée for dinner. Not ideal as she eats too much fruit purée as it is as she mostly turns her nose up at savoury ones. She did actually pass two bowel movements today after I last posted but both with a lot of effort and they were both extra horrid. So hopefully the apple and pear will help her.

Paid the rent today as well, forgot to say before. I don't think I actually paid any last month we pay to DF though and we have 'borrowed' so much money from him over the last year or so that it massively outstrips the rent we now pay which is pretty embarrassing but hopefully over the next year or so it will even out at least.

We are meant to be going away for the weekend and staying with friends to meet their 3 month old baby, but DD has now woke up multiple times a night for the last 5 or 6 nights screaming loads in the night...I'm not sure it's fair to go and disturb them when they're already getting up multiple times a night to feed baby, well the mum is anyway as she's EBF. What shall I do? I was going to get DH to call 'dad friend' lol and speak to him and see what they think as we won't be offended if they'd rather not . It's probably too late to book alternative accomodation too.

Have been to no play groups/baby groups all week so far as DD has been totally unamenable. This afternoon I got the bus to one whilst she was asleep and she woke up about 2 mins after I got on the bus which meant her nap was only 10 minutes, and she had been awake for over 3 hours. I ended up having to get off the bus and do the 40 minute walk home so that she would have a 30 minute nap, obviously she woke up as soon as I got home again. I wish I was braver and just took her in and seen how it went but she's awful when she's overtired and it's so stressful and embarrassing to constantly have the baby who is whinging/crying/screaming at every group I go to .