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!

Wooo Cag lovely to see you

When we were doing the kitchen up DS & I moved in with my MIL for a bit. The room was so bright in the mornings I had to wear an eye mask. I now can’t break the habit. Perhaps one would help you em?

Sorry I’m with your DH em, I love Florence best too!

Had a really rubbish afternoon at work. Boss wasn’t in & the junior members are really unhappy with how the teams being run so lots of moaning from them but I can’t do anything about it. Just felt so negative & draining. Spent £4 buying treats for the team & £5 on my lunch.

I also wear an eye mask, I have bouts of insomnia and I think it definitely helps reduce those. I also wore ear plugs with a ceramic baffle but I stopped that when h left as I need to hear ds/burglars or, in the case of the other day someone banging on my door at the crack of hell to help a neighbour who’d had an accident

Happy birthday wheelyteen
Hope poorly dc get better quickly mrsg and ruby
Lovely to see you Cag

Super-frugaleering day today. Sorted out 2 three month trials of spotify on different email accounts. £9/month saved for 3 months
Reduced netflix to 2 screens £2/month saved
SIM only deal £9/month from £17 (limited data now but that's fine) £8/month saved. Feel very motivated again now.

I have an eye mask. I was actually wearing it last night but I guess it slipped off. I bought it before I had ds to help me day nap. It’s fab. Moulded so it really keeps the light out.

I do like the name Florence. It’s not that I don’t like it. I just think I wanted something a bit more out there. I loved Winter for ds. But dh vetoed it. There’s also the inevitable shortening to flo. And I hate that. My grandma was “Mary” (real name Florence) and her mother (Florence Maude mary) was “Flossie” that I love. But I know it’s be shortened to flo.

I also really liked Pixie. But again not hugely sensible. maybe I will just go with Beyoncé

I think if you had Flossie as a nickname from the go it would stick. On school forms etc you say 'known as Flossie'. We've got a boy at a school I go to known as chips. It's nothing like his real name but everyone uses it what about Ettie? Love that name.

I know a Florence who goes by the nickname Flora. I also think Florrie has a similar ring to Millie.

Ettie is also fab. It's the diminutive of one of our girls but never quite stuck as we never use it enough - we still use it sporadically and hope she chooses to use it more in the future!

I love Florence and Flora em! And Flossie too, my grandad used to call me that (nothing like my real name!). I like some of your other names too but Florence is so pretty

I had three girls names I loved for when the DTs were born. Had to change plans quickly when we got two boys!

Exciting day! £650 paid into my account from our social security dept. I get a one off lump sum maternity payment (a “baby bonus” if you like). So they’ve approved my mat pay and once I finish work and confirm my end date they’ll pay the weekly amount.

Woop.

Have to buy lunch today. As a) Friday and b) too lazy to make anything.

My new “thing” is to get lunch on a Friday. A naice lunch. The rest of the week it’s a pack up.

£58 Aldi
£18 Sainsbury's (needed shampoo too)
£25 fuel

Meal plan:

Pizza for everyone but me. I'll have sweet potato burger and salad.
Bacon and tomato pasta
(Beetroot) burger salad and couscous
Chickpea, spinach and paneer curry
Sausages and roasted veg
Chicken dippers, waffles and hoops (I’m out so it's just dh and dc)
Veg/halloumi/lamb skewers with flatbreads and humous etc

My lunches are falafel salad
Dd is having ham rolls, couscous, tinned peaches
Dh sausage rolls and a sandwich, crisps and cereal bar (unhealthy builder)

Breakfasts (just the dc)
Cinnamon rolls one day
Brioche
Filled crepes
Corn flakes/rice crispier/porridge. I've said they have to use all these up before I buy anymore.

em I think Maisie would go well with Charlie, thinking of a bohemian style girl! I know a Winter Belle, sister of Willow May!

£38 Sainsbury’s

Willow...?! Now there’s a lovely name.

I also had a great aunt bunny. No ones knows what her real name was. But I think bunny is a step too far.

Dh bought me a hot dog for lunch. This is a pic of his. Yummo.

£9 prescription as I have virtigo apparently. £64 Sainsbury's, £14 Iceland, £73 Vinton cake and bread buns
Later will be £5 hair cut for DS and in giving dd £30 for pizza hut and gamers lounge as endsats thing a mum arranged.

At beauticians now waiting for my appointment. Eyebrow waxing yay. They are getting super out of control having not been tamed for about 5 months....

So this will be £9. I’ve also popped to the coop and grabbed some humous and crispies £5 something.

So ds is having dinner at a new friends, all very ad hoc and didn’t ask me first so now I’m stuck for what to have for dinner myself - also I guess this means I have to return the favour

Em I get my brows done regularly and I can really tell when they need doing, partly because hairy and also partly because very pale when not dyed

Willow is a good name, Em. I also like Ettie although I can't think what it's short for.

Gah ds has messaged to say he’s broken his brace. Reading the nhs website the circs in which he has broken it mean we are likely to be charged to have it fixed

Ah crap wolf. Another unexpected expense

Would ettie be nn for Etta? Willow is a lovely name, Ella is cute as well. I love a name thread 😂

That's annoying wolf re the braces but nice he has a new friend?

Wreck you're very organised with your food, we are so boring breakfast is always the same marmite on toast for me, weetabix and a banana for dd. Lunch is always a sandwich, crisps, fruit, yogurt and a cereal bar and I alternate between about 5 dinners 😶 it's a wonder we don't get scurvy tbh.

Managed a nsd, busy day at work but am enjoying my new role so far....

Ettie could be a diminutive if Henrietta (this is probably not the time to say I know a wonderful dog called Ettie)

It is good he has a new friend Girlie, he is not good with friendships and he has lost some over the last year through lashing out at the wrong targets when stressed or anxious

not at all wolf and you've almost hit the nail on the head! (hugely outing myself here but 🤷‍♀️) our Ettie is a Harriet and weirdly one of the reasons we didn't go for the diminutive Hettie was because we knew someone with a dog called Hettie!

...a budding new friendship for your ds is just great btw and I think seeing that one can move on from difficult times and actions to make new beginnings is the stuff that real resilience is made of.

Waxing was ace. Eyebrows are super ace. And the lady finished her appointment before mine early so was able to do bikini wax too. Hot wax not strip wax. Didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would. Still hurt. But was ok.

Also she’s done an amaze job.

Dm has thrown a bloody spanner in the works. Dh has taken next Friday off work so dparents can travel to the U.K. to see dgrandma. Turns out the only boat they can get is Monday lunchtime. So one of us will have to take an afternoon off. This would be fine if they’d bloody booked it. But they’re dithering. Ffs.

It doesn’t help that flights are ridiculous and dgrandma is in hospital too so I feel bad even being all “Eugh I’ve asked you many times to book things in advance...”

Bad news on the brace, Wolf.
Henrietta and Harriet are both lovely names. I also like Maud and Matilda.

Considering I took my breakfast & lunch into work today, I have spent way too much. £2.50 on a chai latte, £8 on my vitamins & £5 on a Uber to get home (DH was in too much of a rush to get out to pick me up at the station). Feel a bit deflated by how much I’ve spent on what should be a NSD 😡