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

[Justanothermile]

New 'fred

Hi all from Bristol! We're chilling at a cafe for a bit as we've done the science place and it's too early to go to zazas. Science place (we are the curious) was good, we especially liked the planetarium which was amazing, thought of you cag as reckon you and the caglets would love it!

Spent nearly £50 already though 😲🙄 so think my £80 budget is going to be way off. Also put £25 in the car petrol.

Quite proud of myself for getting here, I find motorway driving makes me very anxious but I wasn't too bad today.

Hey eleven.

I saw we the curious as I was at the travel lodge just along with work. I wanted to go but it was shut.

Ooh thanks girlie does sound like our kinda place! Actually a friend is hoping to go back to Bristol at some point (has a DS obsessed with Brunel) so will let her know too!

Didn’t swim today after all as the pool was shut, but friends sorted their memberships so four of us signed up now. Also popped to Asda for a few more essentials for baby - vests etc

Welcome elven

Sounds like you made a good decision to stay home north. It's important to take time when you need it

Hope you are having a great time girlie

Ocado gave me a £20 voucher for my delivery that never showed up. It pays to complain!

£82 Tesco

Spendy spendy here...£210 massive (2 monthly dry goods and brexit stash) Asda shop coming tomorrow, then went and spent £48 in Tescos tonight. Will hit Lidl tomorrow for fresh stuff, probably £40.

Am so tired after a busy week at work. Need to book a few days off in April just to have a break!

All fine here

Sorry you are under so much pressure North. Recruitment in the nhs can be a nightmare. (I’m about to put 4 x band 8 posts out to advert, I think we’ll recruit to 2 of them if we’re lucky . In the meantime I am a team of one, it sucks a bit!). Sounds like you’ve had a bit of time to yourself today, hope you feel a bit better for it.

Wolf vent here as much as you want /are able. Sorry you are having a hard time too

I’ve never had a Nando’s either Sneaky!

My sister babysat last night (we won the PTA quiz again 💪🏻) so she was here this morning. Other sister drove down to pick her up so on the spur of the moment we all (with DH and DCs) went to a lovely local Belgian cafe /patisserie for brunch. I paid, about £60 but a lovely occasion so well worth it. Diet is in tatters at the moment though 🙄.

I have been trying to log into my business bank account to pay myself and I can’t remember the password OR the magic word to reset it. I had to choose both under pressure when I opened the account and in front of the bank chap (who was telling me I couldn’t write them down ) so I need to call them and reset everything, probably involving them posting stuff out. Am nearly totally out of cash in my personal account and expecting a hefty credit card bill this month so need to sort it tomorrow.

I am also incredibly fed up with technology at the moment. I’ve spent several hours over the last 3 days trying to migrate my photo archive to the software on my new computer (it’s almost 1.5TB of pictures ) and I’m having technical issues that I really can’t seem to resolve. It’s driving me absolutely potty! I’ve had very little sleep again too thanks to DD - she seems to be waking up with bad dreams and taking along time to settle, and then I can’t get back to sleep. I’ve had c 4 hours sleep for the last 3 nights so I’m knackered now! And not in the mood for this computer shit...

Well done on your quiz win seacow! Your DD sounds the same as my DS1 at the moment, keeps waking up sobbing; he settles when we're with him but will wake up again any time he's left alone (no idea how he knows this!). Soooo tiring

I have a friend who works at a local NHS hospital and they are permanently understaffed too. There are supposed to be 4 people to run the clinics in her department but mostly they only have 2, and some days it's just her! And of course they never reduce the clinics or make any allowances. She tells people to write to the Chief Executive when they complain and explains that nothing will change otherwise.

We've been to We The Curious too! It was about this time last year when we had all the snow and it was freezing in Bristol. Very very icy! But had a great time there before wrapping up and heading over to Pizza Express

Another example of the up front payments cag - I want to get an NHS prepayment certificate as I get a prescription every month and an extra two this month as well, so I'd save money in the long run. But it's over £100 so would take a big chunk of this month's budget, whereas £9 or so a month is far more realistic. I'm going to bite the bullet and do it but will have to rein in the spending to make up for it.

Spendy day here too and very moany DP - complained that DS2 and I spent £20 at the fruit & veg stall - then went off and bought a rubbishy plastic toy for him for £30!!! Went way over the planned budget in Hobbycraft too. No doubt this will be my fault again at some point

Oh and DP may have to shell out for a new Kindle for me too after he put a water bottle into my bag earlier but forgot to close the top it's currently in a bag of rice whilst I wait to find out if it'll ever turn on again.....

Ooh yes we were discussing prepayment certificates too. DH just spent £25 on his meds. I am pretty sure we will need to go on income support soon (DH is on sick pay and still employed technically but that won’t last much longer I think) in which case we would get an exemption luckily.

Spent an hour and a half doing DLA and I am in a horrible mood now.

And that really sucks about the toy, £30? Why would he do that?! Hope your kindle is fixable.

Been there Cag, it’s shit

And (since I know you’re not a drinker)

Ah cag.

How come NHS recruitment is so difficult? Not enough staff in the actal system to fill the posts?

Taking some stuff back to Sainsbury's today. May go to Matalan.

We're understaffed too but apparently they don't have the funds to recruit (even though they'd be replacing people who left. Go figure).

Due to unemployment being so low, it is difficult to find people to fill jobs especially if it is skilled or they are located elsewhere in the country. It may mean getting people to move jobs to fill vacancies, but if they are not looking to move then you are going to struggle (and allegedly most people are satisfied in their jobs according to surveys). I may have learnt this a couple of weeks ago That's the simplified version.

Here In My industry it’s an employees market currently. People are moving around and are able to dictate their terms (pretty much)

I was speaking to a recruiter the other day re the impact of brexit on the offshore finance industry and she said that even if it went tits up for us we’d still be in jobs for at least 10 years (some of these structures are complex and would take ages to unwind...)

Morning :)

Welcome Eleven - yes to freezing ham but in amounts that you will use quickly.

Sea we need to re do ours as well, but it is not going to happen.

Lonely can you shout at me to do something in my garden please. The sun is shining and all. I need to weed and top dress but have absolutely zero motivation. I bought the tom plugs from Aldi on Friday and the Gardeners Delight have already curled up in unhappiness.

Cag from what I have heard the DLA forms / hoops seem designed to suck the will and self esteem out of applicants. I hope you can get it finished without too much mental energy being left on the keyboard. xxx

Sneaky I have never been to a Nando's either. In my head it is overpriced KFC with a bit of hot sauce. I may have misjudged. The other place I can't do is Subway - I find the smell so unappealing I hold my breath like a tantrum-ing toddler as I walk by. Not a good look at my age but needs must.

I was at the People's Vote March in London yesterday - I took my parents, which was testing. But overall it was a lovely day, although long and not very frugal. My parent's insisted on paying for most things, but have both lost the ability to count money. Fortunately I had plenty of cash on me to make up shortfalls. We only got as far as St James in the 5 hours we were there - there were soooooooo many people. All really good natured even towards the Brexiteer who wanted to pick a fight. He gave up in the end as people argued back in a non confrontational way.

Interesting about recruitment as I've always worked where there are multiple applications per job.
Pleased the march was good natured.
Taking £30 worth of stuff back to Sainsbury this morning after the gym.

Morning all.
So sorry to hear some of you are having a hard time for you all.

It has been a busy week with work and we have been short staffed, so I have just been so tired.
Saw DD1 yesterday.
I had to go to London, to the passport office and DD1 met me and DD2 and we had a nice time. DD1 had breakfast and we had coffee in a cafe called The English Rose, it was really lovely.
Whilst I was in the passport office they went to the Saatchi gallery and I met them there after.
Then on to Brixton market and went to Ms Cupcake, really good vegan cakes!
We then had to say goodbye to DD1 as she had to get her train back to Edinburgh.

Thanks everyone for the welcome, and for the ham advice 🙂. DH and DS only use it as a pizza topping I think, so we'll try freezing half next time.

I recently changed my council tax payments to being over 12 months instead of over 10 - I'm not sure if this might help anyone.

Welcome Elven

More laundry is done. And hanging outside. I love being able to do this #simplethings

Ds is napping - dh took him to see fil and they’ve just got back. I’ve sorted his next lot of clothes. We had so so much already....! So will do a switcharoo at some point this week.

We’re off for Sunday lunch at 130 with dparents dsis and dgodmother. Should be nice. Sun is out!!!

I spent £100 this morning on more maternity clothes. Jeans from topshop (they are my faves for jeans...) a white shirt a check shirt and a dress. It’s mostly bottoms I need. Tops are ok for the moment.

I’m planning on reselling it all once I’m done anyway. No more kids after this one. Absolutely no way.

Have switched ds into “big boy” jammies too now instead of babygrows. Kept his latest ones for babygirl. And will keep a lot of his Current clothes for her too. Seems to be no point chucking things like coloured jeans away. Or basic T-shirt’s.

em Our washing is out...… I threw myself out of bed to get it on the line. It is clouding over - so it may only get partially dry but it saves a bit.

We kept loads of things - even the "girlie" things. Now they share the unisex things - outdoor jackets, sports wear, hoodies, jeans, jumpers, T shirts et al.

€10 taking part in a local charity fun run in aid of local family resource centre

Delighted with myself shaved 9/10 mins off my last time, will see when official time is in

Going for shower now & will catch up with you guys then

£6.90 spinning.

Have made chocolate and mini egg cornflake cakes with ds and am just waiting for some ham and cheese egg muffins to cook. Hoping the dc like them and will eat them for breakfast. Then going to put a gammon in the oven for dinner tonight. We've got washing coming out of our ears. Must fold and put away as soon as it's dry.

Gym was good! Scary but positive. Pretty sure the instructor was about 12. But maybe that’s just a sign I’m getting old. Anyway got a rough idea of a very gentle programme.

Aww em R is on her last babygrows too 😭 she also has some proper jammies and my mum and I have already got lots of proper ones in the next size up, when she will be permanently in them. Bit sad! But the jammies (mostly from Boots, I am a big fan of their kids sleepwear as both Caglets had them and they lasted years, washed perfectly etc) are ridiculously cute, so I’ll survive :o

Just had a charity shop win, I bought a couple of wooden puzzles and some board books for even less than the labelled price, and got an entry in their raffle thingy.