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!

Girlie I get bored easily! Dd will eat the same thing for weeks on end for lunch then suddenly declare that she doesn't like it

I bought some of the vegan sausage rolls in Aldi yesterday. Not vegan or veggie but I'm really not a fan of meat and probably only eat it a couple of times a week, if that.

We lost dd for a sleepover last night but gained ds' friend in the prices. Ds is still asleep but his friend is downstairs watching tv.

Have a lovely day today Life

Ds has a super busy day so I will be playing taxi all day

I'm having a productive day so far. Have dropped ds' friend home, collected dd, cleaned and hoovered the kitchen, put some washing on, emptied the ds, 30 minute HIIT video and am now going to have a much needed shower.

Not so productive here today. Ds and I got up at 630. Dh slept until 8. We’ve had breakfast and are just getting ready to go out.

Dh is faffing. Ds and I are ready. We are meeting someone at 10. It’s a 20 minute drive. Dh needs to stop for petrol. Its dhs friend otherwise I’d be panicking. But whatever. It’s only dhs friend who has a flight home at 12 so needs to be at airport at 1130 ish. Only dhs friend who he hasn’t seen for the better part of a year.

Em is dh’s friend accustomed to his disorganisation?

Has anyone laid a patio on their own? Girlie, Unescorted, Jam? I’m thinking of paving the back corner of my garden, I can get slabs for free but would need to do the work myself probably including cutting slabs to fit

Dh laid ours. Obvs. You need to leave a decent gap between the slabs, he had spacers. My dad did his own and did them too close together so now he can't repoint them.

Thanks Wreck.

A week on and 80% of my bargain plug plants are still alive and 75% look like they are growing and thriving. Some have fallen victim to rampant snail activity and others just look like they’ve dried out despite the rain this week and me watering them once in the week. The snails that escaped the slug bait have been hurled into the field

£39 on a top-up shop. Eek! Damn all the lovely summer fruits, asparagus etc that I can't resist! Just had asparagus and blue cheese on toast for lunch. Delish!

£80 garden centre £4 home bargains for compost

DH has just brought DS into town for a haircut and DD is napping so I'm having a quick sit down before cracking on with housework and cooking. We might meet up with them in town in a little while too, will see how long DD sleeps.
Have done a big return to Next so that refund should be hitting my credit card soon.

Lovely meal plan @WreckTangled, I'm going to try the lamb on skewers with flatbreads and hummus.

Tbh I bought the lamb kebabs ready made I'm not big on meat so will just have veg ones.

I just had a nap in bed and it was amazing. The dc stayed downstairs watching tv or something 🤷🏽‍♀️

£3 church collection. No other spends.
Thanks. Wolf. He looked great and was very proud, as were we.

wolf yeah...it’s crazy all of his mates are seemingly fine with not being on time. Not specifically dh. All of them. Drives me crackers.

Anyway. £17.50 cafe on three coffees, a piece of Victoria sponge, a tea cake and two croque monsieurs.

Ds demolished his tea cake.

I’ve just got home. Been to the stables to meet my riding friend. Then went for coffee and a wander round the massive charity shop. I picked up some clothes for baby dd. A denim shirt (Zara), couple of pairs of jeans (next) a joules pink fur gilet, and a baby quicksilver hoody. £2.50. Wooop. Bargain.

Ds has slept for 3 hours. Which is mental. But as he was home with dh it meant dh managed to get a nice chill time and he watched a whole movie.

Ah that would, and does, drive me potty em. But oh no it's everyone else who faffs about on this house. Not dh

Knackered after gardening and having to carry two 40l bags of compost round home bargains and stand in the worlds longest queue with then because I didn’t have a pond for a trolley. I’m in my pjs now with a cider

Dinner plans have changed again as ds has made bread so soup and chilli rolls for tea

Life glad you all had a fab day. FHC was just letting out when I picked ds up from his baking this lunchtime and everyone looked lovely.

Spendy garden centre trip but I’m happy I’ve planted lots of highly scented bee loving plants round the back door in containers. I can’t work at the kitchen table for the next five weeks whilst my splint is on as it digs in so I’ve been working on the sofa with the door open. Lots of lovely smells will definitely improve my working environment I already love watching the birds but the hyacinths which we’re providing lots of scent are over. Biggest expense was on pots o think £25 in total but should have been £32. I also got a wild marjoram and a wild lady’s bedstraw which were super cheap but will see how they do. Ds helped me with the gardening a bit

Well done on the return That’snot

Wreck i love a veggie kebab especially red onions slightly charred and I could murder some houmous right now. I haven’t actually eaten anything today except a tiny bit of an amazing Italian lemon pasty in the deli at the garden centre - sales trick totally worked as I came home with pistachio cannoli

Yep we were late because “we” (ds and I) weren’t ready. Despite us sitting with coats on and bags packed and ready to go. 🙄

Dh is now “sorting his clothes” this is code for trying to get a sneaky nap in.

Ds is chasing his football round the garden. I’m sat on the doorstep watching him.

I haven’t napped today. I wanna nap.

But I’m working on the basis that if I can go to bed at a reasonable time and actually be tired I’ll sleep. I’ve already told dh that I’m not getting out of bed until at least 8 tomorrow. He did this today. So tomorrow is my turn.

£17 take out

DH was working today (extra shift) so a quiet day here.

£5.60 cafe with ds
£65 groceries for the week (including lots of fresh fruit and 2 big boy pants for ds)

Happy Saturday all!

Wolf any plants in pots need watering loads, every day in the summer. Watering becomes one of my daily rituals. My pots are looking okay but lots of seedlings got munched by grubs 😡 so annoying. Can't believe you carried those bags of compost, you must be 💪 i normally get a bloke who works there to help me lift them into the car!!

We've had a quiet day at home, went to aldi and spent £53, this should last until we go on holiday in half term.

I did some baking and managed to scorch one of the kitchen work tops 😰 so cross with myself. Other than new work tops am guessing there's not much I can do about it?

Also managed to completely embarrass myself with one of my neighbours who I invited in to have a look at my garden (we were stood outside chatting and she wanted to have a look) later once she had gone I realised my washed reusable san pro was airing on the side right where she was stood. She couldn't have not seen it, mortified 😶 wondered why she didn't say much about my garden 😱 poor girl probably didn't know where to look 🤣

Oops! Girlie! Annoying about the work too though.
After my spendy morning we spent the afternoon in the garden. I had planned to do actual gardening but ended up sitting on a chair watching the dcs tipping water everywhere. Nice to have a rest.

Oh no girlie. I'm pleased our workshops are heat resistant because I would have done that by now otherwise. I don't think it's fixable unfortunately.

Nsd here.

Em that would drive me mad too. Dh is a faffer but because I hate being late so much I'm always ready early and he is therefore usually ready on time.

Someone has a bonfire and it's stinking out our house

Girlie that’s a bugger about the worktop. If it’s not granite or something smooth and shiny barkeepers friend may take the colour of the scorch down a little

Definitely not strong, very far from it these days but I am phenomenally stubborn

Wreck that does my head in, the first dry day this week and I had washing out and my neighbour burned things in his garden all sodding day

Morning😴

Working today then a bit of food shopping.

Hope everyones doing okay!
Will catch up with the thread.