Austere April continues with the Friendly Frugaleers! Join us as we discuss our direct debits, prattle about penny pinching and possibly babble about Brexit...

[Cagliostro]

All welcome!

curvy I am guessing it is an exit stage left. Can I give you a virtual hand hold?

Cag I’m planning to put mine straight outside. I have no space for potting on - tiny house tiny garden. I figure at that price even if half died I’d still be significantly ahead on the cost of buying grown on ones from the nursery

I hope your work has gone ok this evening Sea - 135 applications is tough especially for one evening!! Not exactly the same here but I can empathise with your lack of childcare, FIL won't do it on his own and MIL whilst willing isn't in good enough health. They also find having both DC at the same time too much (understandable, twin toddlers are hard work whatever age you are, and they are both around 70!). I'd love to go back to work, really miss adult company and using my brain, but we just have no childcare or back up plan and can't afford nursery fees. Hopefully once they're at school I can look for something that I can do from home.

Cag and Unescorted I also use toilet rolls and egg boxes for starting off seedlings, and the DC are currently growing sunflowers in Peppa Pig yogurt pots

curvy good to see you're still around the thread. There's support here when you need it.
Wow, so much gardening talk. I'm not sure I'm going to do much this year as we are having the garden landscaped. It's a mess at the moment and too much of a facing for us to do ourselves. I usually do some veggies in the raised beds but I may be using those to keep some plants while I try to get rid of coltsfoot from the flower bed.
Sea hope you got your sift done. That's a lot of applications. I hope you find a way to keep working

Yesterday was full on, but good. I had work, dentist & then cinema. Dentist is private so always ££ but dd and I didn't need any extra work doing so that was good. Saw Fishermans Friends which was good fun (& lots of lovely shots of the Cornish coast & the Tamar bridges for dh!). £17 for both of us, including ice creams.
I'm off work today which will mostly be spent sorting & organising & then some Easter baking with dd I think.

DH’s cash covered dinner last night! Was yummy & finished with coconut ice cream - my favourite.

Hoping for a NSD today as I’m at work & I’m bringing in lunch (I’ve been poorly recently & still not great at standing for long periods so DH now brings my lunch bits to me while I prepare/make/sort whilst sitting at the kitchen units. Much easier than standing & running too & from the fridge!).

for your poor mum sea my parents have always been super active but they are slowing down now, my mum especially. It’s horrible to see.

Haha em great rule. I think we are due around the same time too - I’m 2nd September. We are currently trying to potty train DS1 - how old is your DS??

Thanks Thatsnotmybaby!

I’m not much of a gardener... we re-did the whole garden last year - AstroTurf & Japanese inspired evergreens & trees in beds down the two lengths of the garden. It’s very pretty but I have no idea how to look after the plants - DH is useless too. DM is going to show him how to weed I think 🤔 so we can get the garden ready for DS1’s birthday party in June

happy ds is 18 months - i had wanted a bigger age gap between kids, and if I'm honest wasn't even sure i wanted a second. but apparently my body had other ideas (i was on the pill...)

i'm due 29 July - so about a month in it. i think there was a month or so in it between me and cag last time.

just got back to the house. did the nursery and dh drop off, popped into see dm for a coffee, have stopped at waitrose on the way back and picked up easter eggs x 6, fabric softener, rice crispies and mini eggs and frozen fish (smoked haddock, pollock and prawns) £62....!!! ffs. i was going to go to iceland, but then thought that waitrose would have naicer easter eggys

ds and i are going to make crispy cakes tomorrow. will be messy but will keep him entertained.

just called plumbers, as the shower once again has no pressure to it. which is weird because it did on tuesday when the guy was here, and when i tested it about an hour or so after he'd gpne. they're really good and have said that they'll try and get someone up to me today. I'm home now until about 445 when i have to do nursery pick up, then go to parents for dinner. dh has an accupuncture appointment at 630 so we'll pick him up after it. it makes no sense for me to come home, as the appointment is really close to dparents.

have thrown laundry outside on the line, let cat face outside - she's currently investigating the strawberries. i've put my orchids outside too.

have radio 4 on for background noise and am going to crack on with my assignment. if i can get another 1000/1500 words done today i'll be happy.

I'm wondering about astro turf for our grass. But I worry about the environment impact.
Back at the space centre today. £9 planetarium show, £3 parking, £1.50 tea this far

I have successfully fixed my wing mirror, a bit tricky but worth it to save £100. I am woman hear me raaaaaaaah

Fabulous Wolfie.

Cag, not sure of geography but if you are interested

awesome work wolfie girl power

Very skint but it’s amazing how much you can cut down. We have a lot of debt which we are desperate to get rid of. This month we decided that things were going down to the bone so:

Cancel Netflix: £9.99
Cancel Spotify: £14.99
Kids no pocket money: £60
Us reduced spends: £60
Barclaycard have reduced interest: £40
2 other debts from DH previous marriage have agreed to accept £1 each: Saving £78
Audible: £7.99
Free car tax as I am on PIP (didn’t realise before) £16.66
Child trust fund: £70

We are trying to pay off the debts in a year and believe it or not by doing this every month it’s around 1/5 of the debt! So chuffed (although miffed about all the debt) 😥

Ohh that looks awesome life too far for us at the mo though :( DH did take the Caglets there when we were up that way.

Spent looooads today as I wandered into town for a bit on my own. Got a few books plus got my gym stuff sorted - a bag on sale in Sports and Soccer, and microfibre towels for swimming and gym plus a waterproof swim bag. Also ordered new trainers in Schuh YAY! I HATE shoe shopping so I’m pleased that’s done (my current pair totally collapsed at the back ages ago)

Spends today:
£4 lunch (I really need to get organised with lunches after my week off, I have really slipped recently)
£66 supermarket delivery (big spends on groceries this week but I hadn't done a big shop for a couple of weeks before that.)

I say make the most of being able to stop at your parents in the evening like that @em, I did it lots with one child but I find it more trouble than its worth these days with two tinies, mealtimes are just easier more manageable at home for now.

good going hotchocolate

em just another couple of paragraphs and you will be done.

lonely if you are about - the pot luck beans went in..... I will let you know what type the are. I have planted my first row of beans in Suffragette colours. I am not sure my neighbours will get the reference.

Speaking of absent gardeners sneaky how are yours doing.

Thank you all so much for the support, it means so much
Yes I've now told P that it is over.

Just letting the DCs talk about it all, as and when. P is still in a bit of shock, but is being ok, so far.

Took the kids and my nephew and my friend and her DCs to do an Easter egg trail around a local green space, it was really good as they had lots of arts and crafts and sports activities.

Last few days have been NSDs, but will need milk today.

Will post again soon.
Thank you all again x

Ah I though you might be too far south cag but wasn't sure.
One day at a time curvy.
£44 fuel to get home, £30 Tesco on tea and fruit, £9 NT cafe

Oh wow a nice small age gap em. I also wasn’t sure about another (had bad PND) but a chemical pregnancy messed up my cycles & ended up with this happy accident!

I have no idea about the environmental impact lifelongfrugaleer but I do love our new grass. Dries super quickly, is lovely & soft & looks good all year round. Such a lovely green!

Looking like a NSD for me today. Also work had some fruit left over from the bits they buy in from staff so I’ve taken a punnet of yummy plums home with me for free - result!

That's brilliant budgeting hotchocolate. In case you haven't tried it already, have a look at grants-search.turn2us.org.uk/, as you might be eligible for a grant (especially if you receive PIP). I had Spotify Premium included with my phone contract but now that's ending I've cancelled it too, will just use the free version.

Wishing you all the best for the next stage of your life Curvy I hope you and the DC enjoy Easter as much as possible.

So you will soon be joining the 'two under two' club em?! I don't think there's ever an 'easy' age gap though, although a friend has recently had a baby 19 years after the first one!

For everyone that bought the cheapo bedding plants, there's now an offer on strawberry plants. I'd definitely have got this too if it had been on at the time but don't think I can justify another £5 delivery charge:

www.thompson-morgan.com/p/strawberry-summer-breeze-rose/ka9921TM

Ruby One of my 'mum friends' (use the term friend very loosely, I mean she's lovely but we're not close iyswim), her son is 3ish, and her two older children are 21 and 19. I don't actually think it's that uncommon to have massive age gaps like that, DH's cousins who are siblings are aged 3 and 21 as well.

I am still here and alive. DD is generally happier and easier to deal with, however she is still frequently waking in the night screaming hysterically and taking 2 hours to calm down back to sleep. She did it Monday and we resorted to ibuprofen, then Tuesday she slept all night no bother, then she did it last night but she drank a whole premade bottle when offered so that was mostly hunger as she hardly ate any dinner or drank hardly any milk before bed. We still have no clue what is wrong with her because what works one night doesn't work the next, some nights she is hungry and drinks a bottle, other nights she will drink 1oz and then scream and push the bottle away. Some nights she has done a poo and we put it down to that, other nights she hasn't, we have no idea what's going on, she has always been like this on and off but the night-time screaming sessions and the bottles in the night are getting more and more frequent the older she gets, bizarrely, which is really upsetting for us as we are going backwards in that regard.

Spends today - £1.50 on apples on my lunch break to keep at work, been having one each day with my lunch now. £2.30ish on coffee at Costa on my lunch break that was naughty but having a very stressful week with DH and DD so felt like I deserved it! Oh and £2.30 bus to work this morning. I have a disabled person's bus pass but I can only use it after 9.30am and obviously I have to get the bus much earlier than that to go to work so I have to pay for my bus fare to work each morning, but can come home for free with my pass.

Ruby I got some strawberry (Honeoye) plants from Homebase - £3 for 3. They also had Cambridge and the large tasteless ones they sell in punnets. Saves on the postage.

Morisons have cheap starter vege plants - I may have bought some leeks for £2. Which given that I am the only one who eats them makes it a bargain - because when I buy a pack of 3 I only ever eat one.

Meadow why the bizarre rule about using the bus pass after 9:30?

It’s like that here with bus passes meadow any “special issue” ones - for disabilities or the oap ones can’t be used at peak times. So not between 730 and 930 or between 330 and 630.

Yes a small age gap. It’s going to be exciting/interesting/exhausting/lovely.

We put ds to bed last night at 8. He slept until 730. (Not a stealth boast...he’s been waking during the night for the last few weeks and I don’t like it!!!) we’ve had breakfast in the garden. Not intended but dh threw the Patio doors open and ds took his plate of hot cross buns out and sat on the patio. So we had a breakfast picnic.

It’s meant to hit 22 degrees here this weekend. Yippeeee

So despite there being a picnic packed and only needing to be out of the house a couple of hours to have a nice walk and picnic (something he wanted to do yesterday) ds refused to leave the house. I left him at home with half the picnic and am sat in a lay-by sobbing my heart out. I’ve already given up two days of my time off with him so he could spend it with mil, he’s spending tomorrow with h and Sunday we have to go to my parents. I am the only person he doesn’t want to spend any time with. He’d rather watch tv

Oh Wolf, you are not his least favourite person, you’re his safest person. You bear the brunt of all his hurt and confusion and you are doing such a good job. Have a good cry and then try and enjoy some of your day.

Back later

Big hug for you wolf. Sea is right you are his safe person but that means he acts out on you. Have a cry, have a cuppa and go back. Will be respond to you taking about how upset you are?

Yes, what sea said, it utterly sucks that you get the worst of it though and it doesn’t really make it easier at all I know 😰

Yup the bus pass rule is fucking stupid and really quite insulting. It varies by area - in my county I can use my disabled pass at any time of day. The neighbouring county has just changed it so that people can only use them after peak time and there’s been a backlash. As obviously people with disabilities never need to get to work or college or anything, right?

Meadow I’ve got a box the right size at last and will book a delivery thing soon promise 😳 got waylaid yet again with going away 😳

Just realised on Sunday we will have lived here 9 months! 😱 Only a few random boxes to unpack, and a largely unpainted garden fence... 😳😳😳 we’ve decided to tackle the latter over the weekend (we don’t particularly mark Easter other than a very nerdy egg hunt, some clues will be in Japanese this year...)

I’m going to aqua fit again in an hour :o