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

[Justanothermile]

New 'fred

How old are your DTs Ruby? The time off for illness (and indeed for school holidays) really adds up, it’s tricky if both parents work.

I woke up really early when dd cried but then stopped. I’m trying to log onto our LA site to order a replacement recycling box as ours is falling apart but it’s not working

It might not be an nsd as I also want to plant some seeds so might order some - you’ve inspired me Girlie!

Wow lonely 😁 thanks!! Yes. Super dooper pleased with the progress of my teeth. Worth every bloody penny spent on them. Am on set 29 of 43 now. So almost there! Wahoooo. And would absolutely recommend Invisalign to anyone.

Back to work today. 😭. But only a 4 day week. Wahoo. And I brought back fudge and clotted cream short breads for the guys in the office. Yay.

Spends over the weekend. £63 primark on tops for me, clothes for ds and a couple of bits for dd. £34 H&M for ds. £56 parking at airport. £13.70 in the farm shop on lamb curry and rice for Saturday dinner, duck eggs for breakfast and bacon. Never eaten a duck egg before. Man theyre delicious. Rich but so so yum.

I think the total travel hire car and accommodation set us back £800. (For a weekend - damm you Flybe!) but worth every penny to make sure ds met his great grandma. 😀 she was thrilled to meet him finally. so I’m at the top of her fave granddaughters list now

Spendy day yesterday away with work and out with colleagues last night. Very Slight hangover this morning.

Placemarking in the hope of catching up. I was seriously sidetracked by the memes thread over the weekend. Going to try and concentrate now!

I've been popping in and out but I've just been reading, not posting. I'll try to catch up later.

I brought DD to Dublin on Sunday for the St. Patrick's Day parade (haven't been in years). We enjoyed it but we got there very early so as to get near to the front of the crowd - then we had to wait about 90 minutes for the parade to reach us. You can book a space on a stand but it's a whopping €65 per person - to park your ass on a bench . I can see why people pay but it's not affordable if you've 3 or 4 kids. Anyway, they had some amazing floats and lots of American marching bands. We went for lunch and then had a wander around the city. There were millions of tourists in Dublin for the weekend and they were all dressed in green and/or wearing those tall green bishops' hats from Carrolls (mammy will know the ones I mean). Some even had their faces painted in green shamrocks. DD and I were very soberly dressed by comparison .

Spends on Sunday

€50.80 for lunch
€10 funfair ride
Approx. €8 for DD's bus ticket
A few € on sweets in one of those 'traditional' sweet shops

Yesterday was a LSD - approx. €2.50 for sausage rolls.

Today I paid for my weekly shop from Tesco - €63.93. I'll supplement that with some meat from the local butcher and also a handful of things from my local shop which are cheaper than Tesco.

Look out for offers on seeds seacow I picked up some Ystd in poundstretchers two packs for £1. Hope your dd is okay bless her.

My dd has had braces fitted today 😬 was a bit shocked as wasn't expecting them to actually do them today but dd was very brave. She has top and bottom ones and is already saying they're making her mouth sore 😕 it's going to be a long 18 months!

Spent £4.50 on these special little brace brushes and £2 on a few snacks in Tescos.

Going to pop to aldi later.

Ah girlie has she got painkillers?

Just had parents evening. Ds is where he should be but needs to work on his handwriting v well behaved. Dd is above average in maths and excellent at English. She's done all the year 5/6 spellings and is onto year 7 (she's year 4). Pretty pleased.

So hungry. Sausages and roasted new potatoes for dinner.

Tayto that sounds like fun, do many people do the extortionate pre booked benches?!

£15 in Sainsbury's as we had brushetta for tea for a change.
£15 on a jacket for the stables for dd from millets.

My new Garmin had arrived so put in some expense claims to balance it.

Oh I love bruschetta. My favourite thing.

Glad you feel better sea, you are like me. Don't stay down for long and see the positive in most circumstances.

Good news on parents evening wrecked.

Think it takes a while for braces to settle I think girlie. Poor Dd.

£4 baking parchment.
£25 on a box of wine (I pay a subscription, had money on account). Although, I've seriously cut back since NY. Probably only having a bottle max a week.

I've had one of those afternoons where I swear people have been trying to do my head in on purpose

NSD. Need to avoid spending money on amazon to use the "offer"

girlie fixed braces? Or retainers? If fixed get some orthodontic wax to pop on the “blocks”

Nsd. Had a seminar at lunchtime and they provided sandwiches.

Gym after work

Caught up on the last few pages.

Wreck sorry to hear your meal out was so disappointing. Excellent feedback re: DC from the school.

Adora your shoulder sounds very painful. Hopefully the physio helps.

Jam DD's dress is fab. What's the occasion? I probably missed an earlier post.

Rose hope DH moves out soon and isn't just stringing you along.

em love the photos from your holiday. I'm sure DS enjoyed the animals. How lovely for your Gran to meet her little DGGS! And did I read (a while back) that you're expecting a girl? Congrats. (we need a stork smilie) - hope the rest of your pregnancy goes well.

HotChocolate nice of your DM to share her win.

Sneaky sounds like you spent a lovely day on Sunday.

Born so very sorry to hear about your Dad. for you.

moi hope you all feel better soon. And Seacow's DD.

Girlie braces seem to involve a certain amount of discomfort. And a lot of cleaning. But should be worth it in the end.

Re: the expensive seats at the parade - I'd imagine they're aimed at wealthy American tourists. I don't know anyone who pays for those seats. In fact, I didn't even know you could book seats until I went onto the website to check the parade time and I came across a link to book a place on a stand. The Dublin parade (actually it's a festival running over several days) is heavily marketed at tourists and a lot of money is invested in it. This makes for an excellent parade but the downside of this is the huge crowds of tourists which make it hard to actually see anything. I wouldn't have brought DD in to see it when she was younger because she would have been fed up with all the waiting around. Also, she'd probably have needed a toilet approx. 5 minutes before it started and then we'd have lost our place. Most towns and villages in Ireland have their own parade which tend to consist of:-

• a few sheep, goats or chickens herded onto a trailer

• some Irish dancers

• kids from the local GAA teams (Gaelic football, hurling, camogie etc.)

-a local band

• the local ICA (Irish Countywomen's Association) group

-lots and lots of tractors

-some man dressed as Mrs. Brown

-a random Spiderman or Anna/Elsa from Frozen to keep the kids happy

Tayto we have similar in the West Country except they call it a carnival. All the local towns round here do one, kids love it and I quite enjoy the excuse to eat chips 😉

Em it's fixed braces, they've given her some wax but Dd was too scared to put any on tonight.

Wreck ive given her painkillers, ibuprofen seemed to work better than paracetamol. Really hope it settles down, with her sensory issues any pain/discomfort is magnified bless her. Well done on parents evening, you must be doing something right 😜

I've had a long evening with dd crying about the braces and refusing to eat anything and two people ringing me (no one ever calls me so very unusual!!) Also finally unblocked the bath plug hole 🤢🤮 so gross, it's a wonder I'm not bald with the amount of hair down there.

Planning a trip up north to see my aunt and uncle in the autumn, they live just outside York, will be lovely to see them and do some sight seeing.

Mmmm bruschetta DH and I used to make that with pine nuts and goats cheese added. Must do that again some time!

I made an epic pasta bake today and a salad. Simple stuff but the more cooking I’m doing the more I’m enjoying it and getting my confidence back :)

Just made the most of an amazon offer, BIGTHANKS gets you £5 off (today only so a bit last minute) but it has to be minimum £25 spend and all “sold and dispatched by amazon” items. Luckily I had several books I needed anyway. All home ed related and a new fiction book for DS, I so rarely buy fiction let alone new unless it’s a birthday/Christmas present, however DS said this evening he doesn’t want normal stories at bedtime anymore 😭 unless it’s science related 🤔 and someone recommended one that looks totally perfect (itch by Simon mayo). Totally outed myself if anyone is on the parenting group I posted that in but hey ho, I am open to FB/MN friends crossover :o

Cagletini had a crazy late nap so I’m not gonna be sleeping much.

Poor DD girlie braces must be hard enough but with having sensory processing issues everything is so amplified :(

Born sorry to hear your news

Seacow I hope you all get a good night sleep and dd feels better in morning.

Hello to everyone I havent met yet.

I ended up spending £10 in tesco (always a bad idea to pop in for two items with the kids in tow because I ended up buying far more than i intended).

Thanks tayto yes baby girl is on the way!

It was so lovely for ds to meet his great grandma. He’s very lucky to have one. I never met mine. She’s 90 now. And is getting a bit confused. But she adored seeing him.

Gym last night. Trainer showed me some stretches to help my bum injury (pulled a muscle in my bum. No idea how...)

Work again today. I should get my £200 deposit back from the farm today. So that’s good and am hoping I hear something about my payrise and maybe a bonus. It’s payday tomorrow and that’s when things would usually get paid. So fingers crossed.

Em we had five generations at one point as my great grandma lived to 100 and therefore got to meet dd. She lived for a couple of years after meeting her but got very confused towards the end and didn't know who any of us were.

So after the dodgy pay debacle in January we now have no HB because they’ve decided our income is too high (LOL) - it’s because on my bank statements there was a gift from dad. I’m annoyed because I’d specifically asked about this on the phone and they’d reassured me they weren’t interested in one off gifts from family etc. However in hindsight I should have added a covering letter or highlighted the payment and explained. I just didn’t think to at the time. I’m sure it’ll be fine in the end just annoying as we are now very short - just in time for our little holiday 🤦‍♀️

Cag that’s really shit. Are you able to get an emergency payment? I don’t really know how it works

No idea really. We aren’t completely fucked or anything, still got a bit of the aforementioned gift from dad in the ISA, I was just hoping not to use it! As that was put aside to buy a wardrobe (we are currently using one of those rails, but it’s broken) and desks for the Caglets. We also have some cash left from my mum recently (was for clothes, I think she was horrified at the state of me :o) and also from selling that dungeons and dragons game last week. So could certainly be worse and hopefully we can avoid DH going into the overdraft.

Does it count as a frugal win if you have to pay the same, but you managed to get the company to spread the payments over a year rather than eight months, so they're affordable?

I’d say so! Nice one sneaks :o

I just realised the other book I was thinking of getting DS for bedtime is less than a third of the price on kindle. It’s not a naice illustrated one or anything, so kindle it is! At some point anyway. He’s very excited about the story I’ve ordered for him already.

I just realised it probably sounded really insensitive me saying we are short when we actually do have money put aside, it wasn’t meant to be that kind of post IYSWIM. More that we had much less than I thought. It’s a massive change in thinking for me. Before if I had some cash it would be spent super fast. The fact that we have had some savings kept aside for a specific purpose is also amazing. To think a couple of years ago I was thinking of my overdraft as actual money, and wouldn’t start panicking until I was nearly at the end of that! I have changed a lot.

We’ve still not really had a discussion about long term plans financially though. I am guessing that we will end up on income support if DH claims carers allowance for me? It’s ironic that I could then earn more than him despite being the person being cared for I now have a good few piano pupils lined up for an April start so that’s really exciting, I just need to figure out lesson times. That will be much easier now that DH is home, so it does make sense that we prioritise this in terms of my hourly rate (which is still quite cheap really).

To think a couple of years ago I was thinking of my overdraft as actual money, and wouldn’t start panicking until I was nearly at the end of that!

no comment

Yeah, got my water from £28 for 8 months to £17 for 12 months which is much more doable.

Had £147 - £30 electric, £67 Asda shop leaves £50 - £30 for sky (although going to negotiate that later) leaves £20 to pay off on one of my many Argos card plans. Someone take this card away from me!

Meeting my new aftercare worker today too. Arghhhhh

Oh cag that’s really rubbish. I hope it all works out for you xx

Today’s spends

£31 clarins perfume gift for dgodmothers birthday tomorrow. Should have bought this in boots really but they didn’t have what I wanted. Collected points in dept store though and now have a full loyalty card so can get 20% off my next beauty purchase. Wahoooo.