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!

I have the vapours when they had different boys and girls polo shirts at £10 a pop. DS understands the issue and wears his sister's hand me downs....when challenged he either self identifies for the day or explains it is an environmental choice. Now most of the kids with different sex siblings do it. It annoys me when schools do the bespoke uniform thing.

Girlie it must be hard going through that. A hard choice of getting support with a diagnosis or struggling through without. I wish kids / people could just be supported. Why make people fight for it. I would happily pay more tax to see proper educational support for all.

I have bought 2 lots of fabulous fabric … we are near Tiviot Mills so get some really fantastic cotton prints at £5-7 pm. Went to pick up the trimmings at another shop and saw the same for £10pm and 18pm. Tomorrow I start cutting out and stitching.

I have a very strange feeling my my throat. Like a burning. But not really. It’s bizarre. Also feel like I need to burp. Reflux maybe?

Hoping it goes away as not fun. Dh suggested drinking milk. But I don’t do that. So.

Bathed ds earlier. He was super fun. Washed his hair and then blasted him with the hair dryer. Crazy kid loves it.

Sounds like heartburn to me. You should buy some ranitidine in case it hits you bad when all the shops are closed.

Today might be spendy. We're going to butlins for the day, not that my badly behaved dc deserve it but I figured by staying in all day I'm only punishing myself so we're going. Special charity day so £4 entry each.

There are introducing a new uniform this year. No second hand to get. Mil has said she wants to pay for it now. I will get bag and shoes

Are you still quilting unescorted or is this a new project?

Hope they are better behaved today wreck. I agree sometimes house days are worse for cabin fever.

Welcome back curvy. One day at a time my lovely. Pop in and out as you need.

Morning all. Having a cuppa in bed before I get up and face the day. Haven’t quite decided what to do yet, have given ds the job of deciding

Welcome back Curvy, it’s lovely to see you

Em that does sound a bit like heartburn

Wreck enjoy butlins, that’s a great entry price

I'm walking to church so £1 for the collection. . Something national trust today probably

Whatever it was it’s gone now. I have gaviscon so that should help. I bought loads when I was pg with ds as everyone told me to stock up. No heartburn.

We’ve been up since 6.

Dh has already let ds out in the garden. I’m a bit annoyed at this as I did ask him not to let him out until 9 at the weekends. Because of neighbours. I don’t think they’d appreciate ds being noisy outside pre 9am.

Swimming today - already paid for. The. We’re goinf to the boat show for a bit. DMs cooking roast beef later so we’re going for dinner.

So far this morning we’ve FaceTimes dsis, have had breakfast, have cleaned kitchen and put last nights dishes in the dishwasher (dh was meant to do this last night) and have tidied the bathroom.

Thanks all.
life that is a lot for uniform, I feel very lucky that the only logo things I need for ds2 are the blazer and jumper. The PE kit can either be the logo one or just plain but school colours.
Dd2 is just a jumper or cardigan, everything else is from asda.
Nice that your MIL has offered to pay.

I think our local school has a logo jumper. That’s it.

We toyed with private for ds. As the private school dh went to is great. But £4500 a term. The equivalent girls school however...is the type to raise entitled braying girls with attitudes. And just as pricey.

Although we would be paying less if we sent them both to private than we will do for them both for nursery....

Anyhoo. We’ve got all the joy of school uniforms to come.

Ah glad things are moving on Curvy and hope you are feeling good about things going in the right direction. How have the DC taken the developments?

I’m a few days behind but bomb scare? And it didn’t even make the bbc news front page.

Wreck sorry the Dcs are being horrible. Sounds like a fun day though - you are so good at finding great things to do on a budget. It’s a knack I don’t seem to have.

Had a fun day yesterday - I met my mum and sisters in Cambridge for an afternoon tea in a hotel. We were getting together because this is the anniversary weekend of losing granny and dad. It was a lovely afternoon, and we went for a mooch round the shops afterwards. I was very good and only bought some posh chocs for dh (for leaving him with the dc all day) and a book for each child. That, with train fare and tea, was about £75 altogether.

Today I am doing a major clear out of the spare room. We are away next weekend and the weekend after I have a friend staying with us. So it has to stop looking like a jumble sale.

Dd has really discovered the joy of tantrums .

I meant to say: the key success factor in my Actually clearing the spare room are:

1. Letting go of all the baby stufff and not being sentimental, and thus keeping too much
2. Letting go of the idea of selling stuff and just sending to the charity shop instead.

Please talk sense into me. Especially about point 2.

sea has it really been a year? Xx wow.

I’d personally just take the lot to a charity shop. I’m all for selling stuff etc. But. Sometimes just to get things out of the house is better.

I’ve folded all bedding. And put it all into sets and into its pillowcases and back in the airing cupboard. I toyed with ironing it. But cba.

I need to change our bed. But am currently lying on it.

Just popping in as things are hectic here. Will try to read back & catch up tonight. I saw your post about the bomb unescorted. A friend was evacuated from Debenhams when it happened. When she told me about it, she obviously didn't realise it was a genuine scare as opposed to just an abandoned bag.
It's our annual beer festival at the cricket club this weekend so we have all been busy with cricket related activity. Dh & ds went to Devon for the day(!) for the football which didn't end well & their team got relegated. It wasn't too spendy as a friend drove & just took £30 for petrol, the match tickets were already paid for. Today ds is playing, dd is scoring, dh will be pulling pints & I am attempting to play in a softball ladies competition!
Tomorrow is not going to involve any cricket, but there is catching up to do, so I'll be meal planning, shopping & sorting with maybe a bit of quilting too. Our finances looked okay through April until the end where our spending seemed to go a bit haywire. So the plan is to pull things back in May. My meal planning is going to revolve around what is in the freezer, which is a good frugal start.

Wow em it's crazy that nursery fees are so much more expensive than private school.
Wreck that is a great price, enjoy your day and I hope the DCs are behaving themselves now.
Sea, yes I'm feeling ok about things. The DCs have been ok. I think that now he has moved out it will be easier and he isn't to far away and that was important to us all really.
He has took them out for the day. Dd2 would like to see him everyday, but that just won't be possible, she has requested that he comes for dinner a couple of days a week, I'm ok with this.
The DCs just wanted to make sure that they will still see their dad, which of course they will.
Once things have settled a bit more we will look at both our work schedules and go from there, about contact.
Sea, I'm really glad you got to spend time with you mum and sisters xx.

I echo what em said, just take it to the charity shop

Glad things are settling down for you curvy.

seacow I agree with em. If you haven’t had time to sell the stuff before now, it’s unlikely you will find time in the near future. And you need the space now. Charity shop will be helping others too.

goes back to writing my assignment. I wasn’t lurking on mn

Sometimes I put stuff on the buy and sells pages but if they've not sold after a week then I take to a charity shop. If you have nice baby bits could you donate to a woman's refuge or similar sea? I can't believe it's a year either, sending hugs 🤗

I've had a quiet morning, caught up at home with washing and housework, read a gardening magazine and am gearing up to go to aldi.

I usually have one bash at selling then charity, kids ward or refugee, whichever I can get to.
They have done you well for your DC more someone else's turn.

Hey all.

£5 Asda, £6 WHSmith, £45 h&m would have been £50 but joined the loyalty scheme in the change room. £15 m&s on food, £3?50 ice cream, £25 shirt,

so d's chucked a wobbler and disappeared. Fifty five minutes of frantic searching and worrying he'd drowned\been kidnapped. I finally found him just as I was ringing the police. I feel shocking now massive chest pains and real my upset and I had been feeling g so much better I am sure parenting isn't supposed to be like this

Big hugs wolf. That would have been awful xxxx

wolf

Im sure kids shorten your life

Wolf sending hugs xx

Oh that's so tough @Wolfcubisthefemalenominal, I can't offer any advice as I don't know anything about DC that age but sending you .

Oh no wolf so sorry I hope you can take a moment for yourself tonight to try and relax a bit.

We're home. £20 entry (no change given but all for charity so we didn't mind plus dh paid)
£7.40 parking
£42 lunch papa johns buffet yum!
£4.50 doughnuts and a drink.
Spendy but it was nice to have a proper day out, it's been a while

Hi sliding in. Hope u dont mind :)

Wolf what a fright you must have had!! Children should come with a health warning!
Is your ds ok? Must have given him a fright too!

Transfered 15.79 over from topcashback.
Slingshotted 4.19 from main current account to CC1 then a final payment. CC1 is now paid off😁

Just CC2 and bankloan 🙄