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!

cag that sounds fun and nerdy but fun nevertheless. I can’t wait until we can bring my treasure map out for ds to play with

It’s a massive piece of wood, which sits on a tray which dgrandad painted with an island scene. It’s lovely. It opens up and there’s a sand pit underneath, all gridded up. The map is gridded too.

It had paper maps to go with it. Which Dm and dsis have kindly photocopied and laminated.

We used to play treasure hunts when we were little, end up at the “island” then have to dig for the treasure which dgrandad has buried. Usually chocolate coins. Or a bag of sweets.

We put eggs in the garden this morning. Only a few little ones. Ds thought it was funny seeing them there.

I’ve said repeatedly to dh not to let him in the garden until 9. Because neighbours. But they were out at 730. I told ds he needed to be quiet “ssssh” and he scampered round the garden hissing and shouting “bubby (mummy) sssssssss”

Will apologise to neighbours later if I see them.

In frugal news. I haven’t used tumble dryer now for 3 weeks. Heating has been turned off. So only “big” electric things are dishwasher and washing machine and water heater (which is on a timer anyway).

Dishwasher is filled up to its max capacity once a day and run. Washing machine has been working hard. But I’ve been running it on eco setting. And only on 30* where I can.

It makes such a difference drying outside. So lovely.

Dh is downstairs cleaning the kitchen. I started it when I first got up with ds. Threw things in the dishwasher and popped it on. Dh was meant to clean kitchen last night but couldn’t be bothered. So said he’d do it today. I needed space to make tea and toast. Annoyed at him for not doing it and at myself for part doing it. Gr.

Quiet day planned today. Dparents for dinner. Probably go for a walk mid morning. Or just play in the garden.

Wow that’s next level treasure hunting em how cool!!! 😍

It’s amazing cag dgrandad was super crafty and arty and made the whole thing himself. It’s at least 40 years old now as my oldest cousins remember playing with it. They didn’t want it though. So I laid claim to it.

Happy 🐣 Easter lovely frugal folk. Wreck your lunch sounds amazing - lamb is easy to cook, low and slow (see James Martin it Jamie Oliver for temps and times)

Bloody spendy day yesterday, ds was out with h during the day and then I took him for dinner and to the theatre - £58 dinner, £6 parking £35 on birthday present from ds to h. £6 ice cream and £4 water at the theatre. Ouch.

I agree re the realisation about spending. I always get to this point in the month having done really well and then it all goes tits up

Lovely duckling wreck, spring has sprung here, no cows out yet but the horses are at it like rabbits and the tiny garden is full of birds, I must have aphids on my rose arch as the blue tits are mad for it and the black birds are after the ground bees which have infested the lawn. Yesterday mrs blackbird appeared in the garden with a mouth full of leech not envy

Thanks for all the support on Friday, I did read it all and it helped I just didn’t feel up to posting. Less black dog today

Good to hear you are feeling better @Wolfcubisthefemalenominal; I imagine the ups and downs of parenting are especially hard when you are doing it alone.

Spends today:
£18 supermarket on food for impromptu bbq, so much easier than the big roast I was planning, possibly unfrugal but ok once I make an effort to use up the other food I bought in the next week.

Also loving drying clothes outside; nothing beats that lovely smell too.

It's cool wolf. You know we are here.
£12 on drinks at the pub. £9 milk, beer, butter and cookie. Hate shopping on Easter day but needs must add no milk and invited out

Hi all, Happy Easter.
Took DD2 to do an Easter egg hunt yesterday at a local shopping centre, my friend and her DCs came too.
Spends yesterday just under £20, on some lunch for me and dd, a couple of dresses for dd and some ice lollies.
It is a lovely day here, exP has took the DCs to the park, so I'm doing some washing, getting it on the line and sorting out some bits to throw or donate.

I love the smell of line dried washing - if it isn't actually pissing with rain I stick it out all year round. If it is windy enough it dries even when it is just on the verge of drizzling. One of my colleagues is convinced I use some magic only known to me fresh washing conditioner / dryer sheet.

I have put the tomatoes, spuds & red current in and weeded the patio and side bed where the gooseberry, black current and herbs are all slotted in. And dug in 3 more bags of compost to the front garden. Now I can see progress I am getting into this gardening business....helps that it is lovely & warm and my brother gives me his overspill of germinations (72 geraniums, 40 begonias, 6 tomatoes, 12 seed onions and the seed potatoes so far this year)

I am planning a cordon orchard … this is my autumn / winter project. I have enough room for 8 trees - I am thinking cooking apple, eating apple, pear, plum (if I can find a suitable one) and a cherry. That leaves 3 spaces for duplicates... or something else ...all ideas welcome.

Your dinner sounds delicious wreck I wish I could cook. My DH is vegan moimichme and he’s been going on at me to learn some vegan cookery.

I’m really trying to avoid too much maternity clothes this time around em. Most of my tops are baggy anyway so I expect to live in maternity leggings or my usual maxi dresses. It’s so hard watching what I’m spending. I really want some nice pretty trainers...

Went to a local train museum today with DS which had a Thomas exhibition. Was brilliant! Back home now lying on the sofa while DH cleans all the crap rubble the builders left in our garden.

Oh moi, just wanted to say thanks to you and your DH for the recipe, it was really yummy!
Unescorted, the orchard sounds wonderful, hope you manage to pull it off.

I'm very glad you enjoyed it, Curvy - it's certainly a favourite meal in our house! Happy I could send you an easy vegan cookbook if it's helpful?

I second that about the orchard idea, Unescorted - wow, sounds great! I wish I had more of a green thumb. I've planted some wildflowers for the bees, but that's it so far this year.

I tried to get ds to bed early tonight, since he only had a one-hour nap and was very tired but clearly not as tired as me but he is still running round downstairs with DH now. Must try again.

I'm not keeping up very well atm it's been a busy Easter with such amazing weather! Hope you've all had a lovely day.

My leaving do was good, 18 people came which was lovely. I was given some vouchers and a gorgeous silver necklace. Meal cost £16.

Today has been good, dd happy with her eggs and we went to my brothers for a bbq at lunch.

Spent rest of the day in the garden, it looks great but there's lots of bits to do.

Nsd.

Dinner and tea at parents today. £16 Sainsbury’s. Owe df for some shopping and compost.

Nice walk at least halfway back to out house and then back to dparents after lunch the spanner flushed a pheasant (where is Lonely by the way thinking of gun dogs and Quite? And Fluffy we still miss you). Not sure whether dog or pheasant was most surprised

Unescorted I love gooseberries, if you are ever making a goosegog pie/crumble I’m your tester. I would plant two different types of Apple together and leave space between Apple and pear. Dm has Apple and peat together and you get odd taste cross over

I found a top which fits me! And not a maternity one!!! Wahooo.

It’s difficukt because I need smart ish stuff for work. Have a few dresses and tops and a pair of work trousers. But have been mostly wearing jeans.

Been to dparents for dinner. Ds so excited. We played in the garden with the water table they have for him. He loved it. Then a fairly normal but bland dinner for him (plain chicken rice and beans). He shot out some wicked farts which ddad blames on me or my sister and would not believe that such a noise came from his precious grandson. Ds laughed. We have taught him farts are funny (he’s definetly my child...!)

Weve got so much chocolate now. Ds knows what it is. And wanted to eat it all. I let him have two mini eggs. #meanmummy

But will ration out his eggs. Dh thinks we should just let him go for them but changed his mind once I suggested he deal with the aftermath.

Ds in bed now. We got home about half an hour ago. So it’s a late one for him. Fingers crossed he sleeps until 7!! I’ve jinxed it now

wolf this year I think we will have enough to do a crumble /pie or some jelly. You are more than welcome to come over & test. The bees were all over it today so they should be well pollinated.

I won the village name the Easter Rabbit thing …. it is the first thing I have ever won ever. It makes up for forgetting to get chocolate for the grumpy ones and not realising that the supermarkets are not open on Easter Sunday.

The Tesco metro types were open here in the big smoke Unescorted. Heathens down here 😉. Nsd for me though as I didn’t have a flour /milk /carrot crisis for once. Full on roast beef lunch for my family, who came to witness the DC doing the annual Easter egg hunt. The two that dh ‘hid’ in direct sunlight were puddles by the time we got to them 20 mins later 😂

Wreck your lunch sounds lovely. I’m going to do similar in a few weeks when we have some friends rounds. Dh doesn’t like lamb so I’ll gave to make him something else.

Loving the gardening /growing food chat. No food in our garden as all previous attempts just looked awful and yielded very little... potatoes were the worst! I am not a natural gardener

Now, I was planning to make a birthday cake for a friend tomorrow and have a crack at buttercream flowers (tulips, I thought, for spring). But it’s meant to be 24 C here and I think that covering a cake in buttercream is going to result in very sweaty cake and lots of swearing from me. Argh! It’s for a 40th birthday so I can’t really defer. Any ideas? I need Lonely here too!

I am waaaaay behind with everyone's news as the DC have been busy getting grubby outside and covering themselves in chocolate!

Sea buttercream cake sounds very impressive, I have zero skills in that direction? Don't know if you could do something with ready rolled icing instead, that wouldn't melt as easily?

I wore lots of gypsy style tops when pregnant em as they were stretchy round the tum. Maybe some Bardot style ones, there seem to be loads in the shops at the moment? I look rubbish in them though, need sleeves

For anyone who wants some more seeds for their gardens, Wilkos are selling loads half price, online anyway. You have to spend more than £20 for delivery but that includes all their products, I quite often order from them online as our local Wilko is only a small one. I'm hoping to find a special offer soon on something like this: www.rocketgardens.co.uk/product/plants/quick-growing-salad-collection/ as my lettuce seeds are not doing well, despite my best efforts...

It's been a spendy weekend for us as DP likes to go out and about a lot rather than pottering round at home. Belated Easter egg hunt for us tomorrow though and hopefully he'll take the DC to PIL for a while so I can start the post-holiday house clean up! i bought some cheery coloured clothes pegs from B&M and they are fab, that's my bargain for the weekend.

mrsg have you tried Asda for trainers? I've just bought 4 pairs online to see which I like best/ fit me properly and they were all £10 or under. Amazing!

For a successful garden, I have come to the belated conclusion that you need to sort out your soil first. I did soil science for about 30% of my degree so why it has taken so long I have no idea, Our garden is challenging in that respect - builders rubble and clay for the most part. Each year I do another bit of it... dig out most of what is there and back fill with compost and bark chippings to lighten the soil structure. There are parts that will only be what they are due to a rising water table.... I am planning a theme based around things that like wet feet. It does mean I have self watering pumpkins and courgettes.

sea could you keep it in the fridge? brush a flavoured syrup over the cut sponge layers so they don't dry out in the fridge. Take it out about an hour before you need it so it comes back to room temperature.

Welcome newbies

Sorry i’ve been missing for a while. Holiday last week, followed by decorating and what started as a chilled Easter weekend. I have totallly neglected to do any studying as I was enjoying the break and have my two final assignments due at the end of May. Lots of top up shops have not made for a frugal Easter.

But, then my mum text me yesterday to say she’s been in hospital since Thursday with some kind of infection, which until they get rid of she will have to stay there. She’s up and alert though, and getting irritable with my dad . So visiting yesterday and today with my dad. My dad is so deaf I really worry about him being home by himself. When I phoned him yesterday, we had a whole conversation with him thinking I was my mum! Not sure what to do once I go back to work on Tuesday.

How is your mum now seacow?

Oh Love, sorry to hear about your mum and best wishes for a speedy recovery. I often find my parents more of a worry than my children!!

Petrol on the motorway yesterday completely blew our remaining budget - £105 😱. We don't use the car much in the week as I walk and DH cycles to work but we're often visiting family dotted around the country.

Planning a frugal day. I'm out hiking this morning and then we're going to visit an NT with a picnic.

Dinner is another Jack Munro recipe - pea and mint risotto. All ingredients we have in, including some bacon I've just taken out of the freezer.

Have a good day all!

We're spending today at home. Dh is at work. Pil's are coming round this morning I think. Back to work and school tomorrow 😭 today we will just eat leftovers and Easter eggs.

Sea I’d do chocolate ganache and keep it in the fridge

Lovely to see you Love, I hope your mum gets better quickly

Ds is barking like a dog and I’ve woken up full of cold. I suspect we may not venture far today

Back to school tomorrow here too, and work.
Today will be about the house pottering, prepping and a walk to the open day we didn't manage yesterday. £15

I got some lovely trainers from Matalan £14. I will link.

www.matalan.co.uk/womens/footwear/flats/sports-trainers

I got the white laser cut ones about a third of the way down.

Seven. Thirty. but he was crying st midnight ish and 530