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 a pair of trainers missing in action. Nothing fabulous about them - muddy and stinky, coming apart at a seam, but they can be repaired and they are £100 to replace.

Wow unescorted that's amazing, you must be so proud!

I remember the leaky boobs, mine took ages to dry out after I stopped bfing 😒

Nsd.

unescorted wow. That’s amazing re Oxford. Fingers crossed.

Bedtime now. Am in the spare room again. Seemingly I sleep better alone at present. I miss not being in our room but for a few nights good sleep it’s worth it.

Hi, do you mind if I hop on?. I’m trying to save a bit of money as just found out we are expecting DC2, and we need to save for that!

unescorted that's fab news. Is this your arty dd?
Another frugal fail here. I seem to have come back from the cricket on Saturday without my sunglasses & they haven't turned up there so it looks like I'm going to have to buy a new pair. I don't seem to have a very good record with sunnies.

Welcome dragon. Lots of support & encouragement here & we're a friendly bunch.

Thank you northender

Hi dragon welcome

We are friendly here. There used to be more of us but some regulars have gone awol.

Congrats re dc2. How far along are you? I’m 29 +3 now with dc2 (dd) so not long for me. mrsg is also “with child” so this makes 3 preggos.

I’m trying to save for mat leave too. I’m allowed 26 weeks off. 12 of which are fully paid by work. 18 weeks are paid by our governments benefit system (I’m Channel Islands so it works slightly differently here) then 8 weeks unpaid.

For me annoyingly the unpaid bit will be December/January. But am saving saving saving.

I just checked bank account. And realised that my regular saver will mature in a few days so £3000 plus around £300 interest will be popped into my “normal” savings account. Yippee!!!

Will probably use this to pay into my pension as I haven’t done a payment this year.

Unescorted that’s fantastic what a wonderful thing. Fingers crossed for her.

Em that’s some cracking interest.

Welcome Dragon

Lousy nights sleep here I can’t decide if it was my hand keeping me awake or the gin, possibly both. I have back to back meetings with no breaks today for 7.5 hours urgh!

That is so wonderful unescorted! You must be bursting with pride! Good luck to her - what's the application process like?

Hello dragon! Such lovely baby news! If it's relevant, we found saving for future childcare from the time we found out we were expecting again has been a real life saver (especially as dc2 turned out to be dc2&3 😁!) - at the time it was childcare vouchers which my employer still had to pay on top of my mat pay which helped massively (ie when receiving £500 SMP my employer still had to pay an additional £243 in childcare vouchers) but I'm not sure how this works now with tax free childcare? Anyways, when I returned to work we had a good buffer of 4 months' childcare saved which has dwindled a bit when we need to divert money to Christmas or car repairs etc but I love the feeling of never having to scrape this month's childcare together (at £1200pm this could easily have broken us in lean months)

Em I love a cheeky sleep in the spare room! Righto, must get up now...

Fantastic unescorted. Got look.
Ah the glamour em.

£8 yesterday on fruit but dd scoffed D's share while he was at footy £5 so will need to get more today. Forgot how expensive soft fruity session is

Wow unescorted that's amazing!

Welcome dragon!

I have to take dd to an urgent physio appt today. I don't mind but could do without using the fuel as it's a 30 mile round trip and I've done so many miles since coming back after half term! Obviously her health is more important

If you get sleep em, stay in the spare room.
Urg sounds like a hideous day. Good call on unescorted re eap. Worth an ask.

Welcome dragon and congrats.

Might be worth a pm to jam. Didn't get dd apply/ get Oxford?

One of the awol regulars just popping in to say hello! Sorry I've been MIA. Just busy with kids, work, home improvements and life in general. I've been meaning to sit down and catch up with you all but I've just been too tired. I want to get back on board though as the last couple if months have been decidedly non-frugal!

Welcome dragon 👋🏻 Yep that makes 3 of us now! As I’m a contractor I only receive Maternity Allowance but it’s similar to statutory maternity pay. That’ll cover my half of the bills (fortunately our mortgage is paid) & a bit extra for me each month. I’m currently trying to save up a bit extra to “top up” my monthly money as well as chuck as much in savings as possible (my new found trainer addiction is not helping). I keep a running total & I'm about £100 off where I want to be damn those trainers I’ll be taking a year off then hoping my current client will take me back a couple of day a week. We’ll see.

A big sigh of relief here - back in December we bought an investment property for our DC & yesterday we finally got tenants signed up! Practically giving it away in rent but at least we are no longer paying the mortgage on it. It’s a gorgeous 2 bed duplex & I have wishful dreams of my two boys moving in there together one day 😊

I’m so sorry unescorted I rudely missed your post about your DD! You must be so, so proud!!

Not going to be a NSD today but shouldn’t be too spendy either. Forgot to buy the salad for my lunch yesterday (me &DS ate it all at the weekend) so I need to buy lunch. I’ve made breakfast though. Didn’t have time to get my chai latte yesterday so will treat myself this morning.

Perhaps your sunglasses have run off with my brogues northender?!

Fruit is SO expensive lifelongfrugaleer. Work already have the basics covered (satsumas, bananas, apples etc) but I take in my own berries each day. I think it was em who suggested I get frozen berries? I’ll have to look into that

Yes it was me!!! I frugally bought some in Waitrose. 3 weeks ago. But have since bought two lots of fresh ones and haven’t eaten any porridge. Must work on that. Because of the lack of porridge I’ve also been buying second breakfast when I get to work...bad.

However. Today I made a sandwich. Cheese cucumber and mayo. Boring. But free. And have transferred £5 to my savings.

The interest in my regular saver is 5%. It was guaranteed as long as I paid in the same amount each month for a year and made no withdrawals. I paid in £250 a month. This one was with Hsbc.

Have set up a SO to continue to transfer the £250 a month to my Lloyd’s savings account.

I finally followed my own advice (which we give to clients) and made sure not all my eggs were in the one basket so to speak. I’ve got cash available in two separate banks in case one of them goes tits up. It’s unlikely they’ll both go at the same time.

Also Lloyd’s do better mortgage rates. So when ours comes for renewal we’ll be able to access Lloyd’s mortgages if these are better.

Payday on Tuesday. Between now and then I have to pay for:

• waxing on Friday (eyebrows) and Saturday (bikini)
• boots order for nappies
• and that’s it.

Dh has given me his Amex and has said if I want to buy some post pregnancy clothes to use it. So I might take him up on that offer.

em you should definitely take him up on his offer! I’m relying on 1x leggings, 2x jeans & some baggy tops from last time. Would love to get a few summer bits 😎 but I resent spending money on things which will have only a few wears (not planning a DC3!)

Just at my lunch in a little park in the gorgeous sunshine. Spent a total of £7 on chai latte & my lunch. Hoping that’s it.

Still three hours of meetings to go, I have lost the will to live

£1.68 on a McFlurry for dd and me. She now has even more stretches she has to do twice a day as she's got an issue with her hip flexor.

Nice to see you snuggly.

I'm missing cag and seacow i might send them a pm.

Have had a nice day off, met up with some friends for coffee this morning, they treated me which was lovely. I spent £30 at the garden centre, £20 of that was on a gift for my dads bday next week. The rest was on summer plants for pots.

I had a massage this afternoon £20, was really nice and relaxing 😌

£5 on three plant pots at the reuse shop.

I might mrsg I’m after naice things for post baby.

I pm’d cag yesterday.

Fish and chippies for tea. Yum. Have folded one load of laundry. Hung up another for drying and put another in the machine.

Must empty dishwasher and refil.

Also want to do a home pedicure. Need to start sorting my hoofs out!!

Life summer fruit season is lovely but a nightmare moneywise as you say, I feel your pain.
Mrsg haha maybe all these lost things are together somewhere, laughing at us?
Crap day at work today but dh persuaded me to go to a HIIT/circut class with him & I'm glad I did. Not feeling at my best at the moment. I'm pretty sure I'm perimenopausal & so am seeing the GP tomorrow, just for a general check as I've been having palpitations which I think are hormone related. It sucks being a woman sometimes.
No spending today (gym classes are on subscription)
Nothing going on tonight so a lazy evening & then day off tomorrow.

Evening everyone

Wheelyteens birthday today so a pricey day. Its been great. He's 17!!!

Aiming for a NSD tomorrow. Have a budget but thinking it may not be realistic lol

NSD on Monday and Tuesday (5/10 towards my goal this month!). But £5 ish at work for lunch and £60 for dcat, who is responding well to the medicine, which is great news!

Girlie I'm jealous of your massage - sounds amazing!

north I hope you're feeling okay tonight and that the GP takes you seriously tomorrow.