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!

Thrown a load of stuff to the tip. Fine through my filling cabinet and sorted out papers. Have a small pile to shed but really need to throw out old documents.
How long do you reckon I need to keep stuff? Is it still 6 years?

Back from christening with a tray of food which is brilliant. Dh is away for the night staying in a hotel with his female best friend. I didn't care until I saw a photo on fb of them eating lunch in a greek restaurant. I want to go to a Greek restaurant! Meh.

The dc are demanding that they sleep in my bed tonight, I wouldn't mind except I always end up with ds practically lying on my face and he's not very small anymore.

I thought it was 3 years.
Just cooking dinner with all veg out of the freezer. Crumble in the oven. Smells delish!

Life I am the worst person in the world to ask for advice on that. I only threw out my payslips from when I was 14 about three years ago and I am very nearly on the bench with the big fat zero on the end

Stuck there's just me and teenage dd and we spend £160 a month on food but that's for 3 meals a day. I could do cheaper but would require me being much more organised and doing a lot more batch cooking/cooking from scratch. Do you ever go yellow sticker hunting? Now I know when the co-op reduce their stuff am planning on doing a yellow sticker shop every week!!

Nice to see you snuggly 😊
*
Wreck* take it you're not the jealous type?! I'd never cope with a partner doing that!

Wolf your ds still sounds really angry, is the counselling helping at all?

Dds back from her grandads, she had a lovely time and is now playing with the little boy next door who adores her!

Spent £1.40 on lunch today but that's it.

Damn I started a post earlier and lost it. Have since had a hot bath as my legs were killing, not so much from the gym but the walk home uphill after :o

Wreck I’m afraid I know bugger all about keyboards these days, other than a belief that Yamaha are probably still a safe bet brand to go for if they are anything like they were when I was younger. If it has weighted keys then that is a definite plus as it responds more like a piano. I couldn’t tell you if that’s a decent price or anything though sorry :(

Re recorder, the main thing is that you don’t blow into it, you breathe into it, less squeaky :o and also making sure your fingers completely cover the holes so no air can escape :o

Thanks cag I'll tell her that about the recorder!

Girlie not really. They've known each their whole lives and, should anything happen, then she's welcome to him

Wreck 😂** love that attitude!! I think that sounds quite expensive for a second hand keyboard but I am basing that on the fact that aldi had keyboards for £15 before Christmas 🤣🤣 agree that music lessons are too expensive. Dd only learns clarinet because her grandfather pays for lessons.

Wardrobe guy is here. I’m taking the day off to be with ds. Fil said he could have him for an hour today which should give me time to go to work and do my “little job” 🤨🙄

Ddad is coming to pick us up in a bit as dh has the car. Dm can’t see out of one eye as it’s swollen shut.

The wardrobe is in a million pieces. Have promised the guy we’ll be out of his way in a bit. Ds is super interested in what’s going on and keeps wanting to go upstairs.

Should be nsd. It’s not great weather but we should be able to get out today. Park maybe for a swing.

Yesterday ds let go of the swing and threw his hands in the air while he was swinging. Boy loves a swing!

Once we get to DMs I have to log in to work and get some emails cleared. Ds should nap (no chance of that here...) so I can work. And also check I paid an invoice for drainchecks we had done before we moved in here. I’m sure I did. But found the invoice the other day and I hadn’t marked it “paid”

Em I think if someone said my little job to me, anything other than ironically, I would have to kick them. We are sat waiting at the orthodontist, I am using my lunch break time so I don’t have to take a day off.

wolf fil is lucky that he only said it to dh and not to me. Little job my arse. Im a crucial cog in the wheel of the business.

At dparents now. DMs eye looks awful. But better than yesterday. Poor thing. Although she has managed to whip up a batch of her special brownies (not special brownies just deliciously moorish squidgy ones) so she can’t be that bad!! Haha.

Ddad wants to take ds to the zoo this afternoon. I’m down with that. They can get me in on their membership and ds is free. So yay.

As it’s a holiday not a work from home day I’m fine to do this.

Going to get Euros out for my holiday today. (Advise required on that)

Help! how much would you take out for 5 days in an all inclusive - no day trips planned just a lazy beach holiday with friends!?? Also wheres the best exchange rate ?

got 2 weeks until the holiday, so i'm trying to empty the cupboards of food and resist food shopping for as long as possible. (milk obvs not included) Any advise on that too will be amazing.

Not heard from dh. Assume he's alive.

Today should be a nsd.

Enjoy the zoo em.

Apologises if you've already said em but your mum has seen a dr for her eye? Swollen shut sounds pretty bad bless her.

I'm just back from a friends, we had brunch which was nice, I took part baked rolls and bacon, she supplied bagels and eggs - yum!

Does anyone know rough costs of adding another adult onto car insurance for a week? Realised there will only be one car between us when we're in Devon next week.

Picked up a few bits in the co op £7 my brother and his gf are staying tonight which will be lovely and I needed a few extra bits for dinner.

DD still poorly so another quiet day at home for us.
Just me for dinner this evening; I'm going to use up leftovers.

Girlie it can be as little as £10. I’ve had to add my dad a few times

girlie yes. She went to out of hours yesterday. Antibiotics some sort of cream.

Been to the zoo with ddad and ds. Ds was amazed at the “dinosaurs” (iguanas - massive Huge iguanas) and the orangutans.

Spends £5.65 in the zoo cafe on a pot of tea and a Diet Coke. 😱 I was so gobsmacked I paid it. Ffs ems.

I think I would have killed him if he said that to me Em!
My day was a bit rubbish. Had a bad night last night and my period started so the combination has made me very irritable. 4 more days of term left thank goodness.

DC are in bed, DP is asleep on the sofa. All tired out from our first day away with all the fresh air and swimming

NSD as we brought our food for tonight with us

Gammon egg and chips for dinner. Mmmm.

Dh got home at 630. By this point I was almost asleep on the couch. Ds has absolutely exhausted me today. We’ve had so so much fun though.

Wardrobe guy has almost finished. I think it’s just the doors to go on now. It looks amazing. Dh is super pleased.

Ds loves new wardrobe. Mostly because he can get in it...🙄

One load of laundry in and done. Cba to sort it out. Will leave that until tomorrow/the weekend.

I have next week off so am planning on blitzing some chores then as well as organising my new wardrobe wahoo.

Thanks for the new thread cag.
Had a fab time in Switzerland & managed to stay reasonably frugal (mainly thanks to a street food festival and a fully catered party with a free bar!). So glad I went, back to reality now.
Spent £25 on grocery top up today & £4 on drinks at a cafe after I'd been to the park for a lovely walk in the sun with dd. Borrowed a super duper carpet cleaner from a friend & have transformed our bedroom & living room carpets, all for the cost of a bottle of the cleaning liquid.
Back to work tomorrow.

Wooohoooo at free bar :o glad you had fun :)

It’s been a stressful day here with the washing machine throwing a major (literal) wobbly, DH has hopefully fixed it enough to get us by a little longer. He’s made a gazillion phone calls, we have updated the diary with the many many upcoming things, we’ve almost figured out travel and accommodation plans for when we go to the assessment in Somerset in August.

On a more exciting and unfrugal note I have finally ordered a new bra to try. Yay!

Have you got a Ramsdens nearby. Their exchange rate trends to be the best. Maybe 50e a day max? Don't know. I do £100 a day but we usually are HB.

Sounds like a lovely day em. Pleased you are happy with wardrobes.
Did you do the bra intervention cag. It was spot on for me. hope it fits.

Ooo free bar.

I was charged 12 for a day for a hire car from the garage.

Nsd yesterday. Same planned today.

Re exchange rates. Have you got a revolut card? They tend to give the best rates.

Martin Lewis money saving expert raves about these. Prepaid card best rate and not limited to any one currency. I believe you can top it up with “home” currency and then use it anywhere. Might be worth looking into depending on when your trip is.

Back to work for me today.

Yep we have a we swap card. It's a MasterCard and you load it up with gbp and can exchange it to any currency. It's good because you can just change it back if there's any left over. It's also good if you're going to more than one country.

Will be a nsd today. Going to make chocolate popcorn and rice crispy bar things. It's meant to rain all day anyway.