Spending sparingly in early Spring - frugal friendly folk gather round.

[Justanothermile]

New 'fred

Bloody love a roast chicken sarnie. Wholemeal seeded bread. Sometimes with avocado.

Hopefully his manager will find out more info. And at some point a nearer one may come up that he could apply for with any feedback in mind. A nearer area would of course be better anyway.

No clue what to do in the meantime. He could now claim carers allowance though, since I get PIP, and before he worked too many hours.

I have a couple of ideas for home ed related things that could make a bit of cash but it’s pin money really and a lot of effort to get off the ground, and some outlay too.

Oh god. Hot roast chicken sandwiches. With mayonnaise. Right up there with fish finger sammies.

Ds is funny about sandwiches. He’ll eat bread. And filling. But not a sandwich.

Spends £2.50 on a can of sparkling lemon water (!) and some popcorn. And £25 in next on 0-3m baby girl leggings and T-shirt’s. Leopard print. Start her young...!

Also, read an interesting article in the STEP newsletter today. Apparently no one in the U.K. has a legal duty to disclose heir residence to their local council for council tax paying purposes. Hertsmere councik tried to prosecute someone for not paying as hadn’t disclosed address but failed as no legal duty to do so.

Not saying don’t disclose your addresses. But....

I was overjoyed to discover that Sainsbury's at Manchester Piccadilly sells hot food.

When I went there I may have bought three SFC butties.

D&D box set gone. Now have £270 plus a new board game.

(wolf - it’s Azul, but I thought it was the original and it’s actually the new stained glass one!)

Cag sorry about the interview for dh that’s really rubbish. Claiming careers allowance sounds like a good plan

I quite fancy Azul but we didn’t buy it because we have Sagrada so h thought they were similar. I’d be interested in hearing your review.

So tired today and sore, still 4 hours until I get home but I just want to put my jammies on.

Sea I hope dd is picking up a bit. Her speech sounds amazing.

Sagrada is another on my list! What is it like?

The other main one I am really yearning for ATM is potion explosion, I love the app, and I’m pretty sure it’s one DD would play willingly, she is not such a keen gamer.

You have to get potion explosion. Ds and I love it. And the app version.

Sagrada is good. It’s a very simple mechanic really. It’s real pulling power is that it’s pretty. We enjoyed playing with three. We haven’t tried it yet with two though I am keen to do so

She is thanks Wolf. No more throwing up (so far!), and playing /chatting a bit, though she seems tired and hasn’t her usual appetite. Hopefully she’ll be okay with mum tomorrow so I can go to work. I’m paid by the day and am only part time anyway so my income takes a big hit if I can’t work.

Cag I’m sorry about the job. Carers’ Allowance is defo a good idea for now, I guess you can see what comes up that fits. It sounds very tough - would you be much worse off on benefits if it came to it?

Life I actually bought all the ingredients for that fudge traybake with a view to making it for work, then thought that if DD has a vomiting bug I should probably not cook for people

It was pouring on the school run. This was the moment I realised DD’s wellies are too small... she now has very very wet shoes.

Not really sure tbh. I guess other things would change like tax credits and my friend reckons we would get income support 😕 which then leads to a lot of other things like free prescriptions and stuff I think? Arguably we shouldn’t be much worse off really, DH’s job was pretty much minimum wage and he wasn’t even full time, but the shock when the pay dropped to sick pay sooner than expected was massive.

It’s not really what we want though, neither of us working at all (well he does have his charity job but that’s like 4h a week. I will have the piano stuff too hopefully). The thought of being basically entirely dependent on benefits is terrifying. Particularly because at any renewal I could have my PIP taken away if I’m not so lucky with the decision maker. We only really manage because of that as it is.

I think I’m going to have to bite the bullet and set up the other group which might make a bit of money. It will require a lot more strictness than sports club did though because although we had equipment to buy there was no venue cost. And this needs more planning too. Definite gap in the market but aaaaaargh scary.

I feel a bit rabbit in headlights TBH. Brain fog has been at an all time high the last few months as it is, I’m not entirely sure how to actually move forward

It is a big change Cag, mentally at least. At least you now have secure housing, that must be a big relief.

As for brain fog, i don’t think anyone would be right on it with a plan in the circumstances. I guess the first thing to do is work out what benefits you are entitled to. Can you get advice from somewhere to make that easier? It seems quite complicated but there are people who know the system... then anything else you can do, when you’re ready, is a bonus. Do you get DLA for the dc? (You don’t have to answer that!)

Apart from the money side, how has dh taken the interview news, and possibility of not working in the short term? Is he okay?

Mentally he’s suffering tbh. The not running thing was bad enough, as is being in constant pain needless to say. He hated his job and he loves being able to spend more time with us but the worry is certainly piling up now.

DLA, I have the form for DS sitting on the piano taunting me! I should have done it when they were first diagnosed TBH but DS’ needs are getting worse and I’ve finally accepted I need to just do it. I could then claim carers for him. Not sure if I’ll apply for DD, as she’s done the opposite and “grown out of” a lot of her issues IYSWIM. But once I’ve got the result back for DS I will consider it as it’s up to them whether the info means she is eligible.

I also had to make a phone appt with the GP who is trying to get him referred to CAMHS for ADHD assessment. Unsurprisingly they rejected him first off but the GP could totally see it and is thank goodness willing to put the time in.

Aw Cag, I bet it is a bit rough for him. Good job he’s got you lot i.e. a happy home life. for your DH. I get DLA for DS. I could have claimed Carer’s before I was working but, knowing I was going back to work, it seemed too complicated to start and then stop again so I never did. dS’s DLA is due for re-evaluation in 2021 so who knows?

5.85 at Slimming World buying cereal bar things. I bought a sleeping bag for DD from Amazon today but I bought the wrong size by accident so it’s going back 🙄

Evening all, busy day here as I met a friend for coffee which turned into a shopping trip and then another coffee 😁

Spends
£5 brunch
£15 Morrisons veggie stuff and Easter eggs.
£36 petrol
£50 dun elm got a new kettle, blanket and few other bits for that.
£12 home sense

Bit spendy but all budgeted for.

Dd had a riding lesson tonight, her riding school is closing and she is booked in for some extra lessons to fit in her block booking. She had her first fall, came off the saddle and in slow motion landed on the floor 😮 she wasn't hurt (other than bruising) but it frightened her. Was very proud as she recovered quickly and got straight back on!!

Spent the evening looking at alternate riding schools...

Morning all. Very blustery night here, not looking forward to the drive to work. Spends on food and parking yesterday but most is reclaimable

Dh just gave me £15 for the DC's school bits then going cross with me when I said thanks but that's no good because I have to buy them online 🙄 so I need the money in my account.

Morning. Windy here too.
Well done on getting back on girlie dd. Do you have another riding school lined up?

Cag. Make no decisions today. Can you go to cab to get benefits advice. Totally get why you wouldn't want to claim but sometimes you need to. Could dh claim so your pip is not reviewed? Does that happen?
Get the forms done for ds.
I would be reluctant yet to pay out money for a he group unless you can get the money back in your fees.
There is always piano.

Write it all down. Get it from your head into paper to be able to work it out.

Need some gym kit so will get that today or start looking. Also apples and cheese

Just catching up with all. I will post my sourdough recipe soon, but work is getting hectic, which is good as I will have extra income. We also will have more money come April as a tax credits overpayment is finally done so hope to make headway on debts etc. We are also considering ditching Sky for Freesat. Has anybody got Freesat?

Other than that yesterday was NSD and Monday was low, today won't be NSD because I need to replace DS' crocs and we need milk. On the plus, we still have half a large pan of chickpea soup plus bread to go with it and also enough variety of stuff for afters, probably tuna omelette.

Will also spend a half hour saving recipes from Pingo Doce website to take us into summer and check stock in the cupboards ahead of shopping. Starting some more wellness coaching with trainer in my business group which we did a swop for - I do her leaflet and she does my coaching it's a good win/win outcome.

Do you have mobile banking Wreck? Or something like Paypal as that would work so you can send money to each other? The other way I do it is if DH gives me cash for something I use that for a household expense and whatever I need to buy online is paid from money that would have been used for that expense so it all balances.

I will try and check in more but now have to rescue the cat for her breakfast!

Thanks life 💐
My PIP isn’t up for review until 2021 thankfully. So that plus my bus pass (absolute godsend!) is safe for two more years, plus carers if DH gets that. TBH we get a lot in the way of benefits anyway, housing etc, it’s more the idea of that being ‘it’ - no (well, very little and in most cases not guaranteed) outside earned income.

I won’t be rushing into the HE group don’t worry. :o Also it would be a case of not booking the session until I had enough people to cover the fee. The place is sitting empty so not like I have to snap it up IYSWIM? We were actually approached because they need more hirers. It’s £15 an hour, I’m thinking we would just have two hours for a 1hr meet up at first, as much easier to cover the costs that way. I’d originally thought we might do a learning co-op group, which is like a utopia in home ed world, where all the parents contribute equally according to their skills and interests and nobody pays anything (other than sharing the building hire cost). However much as everyone said they’d love that, not one person actually had any such contribution and some specifically said they wouldn’t know what to do. So that’s clearly not gonna happen, and I don’t think it’s fair to have to cost shared equally when one person is doing all the work. But people are willing to pay to have something organised, so if it’s going to end up like that, it may as well be me right?

I do sporting and dh does but he doesn't have the app so has to get the laptop out blah blah blah. I hate cash and never use it. Also hate cheques. Our nearest bank is 20 miles away 🤣

We use the apps and I love being able to freely transfer between me and DH. Can go either way depending where in the month we are :o he’s feeling a bit lost without the app while he has no phone. He’s hoping to buy one tomorrow, now we have the cash from the game sale.

Really pleased as DD has decided to learn French! She really needed a subject just for herself as her confidence is quite low ATM, and seeing DS (2 years younger) do really well with his chemistry isn’t exactly helping. I loved french and always quietly hoped we would do that in our home ed at some point. Am frugally resisting temptation to buy all the books, I’m being selective!

I’ve left the house for the first time in days. I keep staying in and time passes really quickly. But I set the Caglets some more work (maths and RE) and fucked off to the local. Just for some peace.

Sounds like you are having a stressful time @cag; do take plenty of time to process it all without putting pressure on yourself to have a plan or take immediate action.

Updated spends from yesterday:
£9 charity shop on a jigsaw puzzle and a bundle of books that DS will love; I might keep some for his birthday.
£11 supermarket on some food for work and vests for DS.

Today's spends:
£4 local shop
£50 Amazon on a book I've been wanting to read for ages and some things for DH that he will reimburse me for.

Thank you thats 💐 trying to throw my energy (mental at least) into home ed for now, as that is going really well (considering we took quite a long break over winter and I was worried we would struggle to get back into it). And the advantage of that of course is that while DH is around full time, he can be much more involved and it’s easier to cater for the Caglets’ education with two of us especially with the baby around too! So that is a major positive. :)

I think so life none as cheap as the one she currently goes to though, the one I like the look of is £22 for a group lesson and that's with nhs discount. I think she'll just do alternate weeks.

Got my council tax bill 😵😓 it's gone up by nearly £10 a month. I don't understand the council banding system, I'm band B does that sound right for a new build 2 bed?

Not a bad work day, nsd.