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!

Ah cag that's shit.

That’s rubbish cag

£8 black dye to dye dhs and DMs black jeans.

Busy day today and I had to sit at colleagues desk. I broke my pc. Oops.

Thanks Sea we actually had bagels with cream cheese the other day and they went down quite well.
Cag I've done a few CAMHS referrals. We tend to do a school one and ask parents to get the gp to do one too. Or at least we used to. It's been a while, I don't know if they still accept two. I just wondered if you have anyone else who could refer apart from gp.
NSD. One more day until we break up. Can't wait!

Beans/cheese on toast usually goes down well here @SnugglySnerd. If I'm feeling energetic I drain off lots of the tomato sauce and replace with a portion of a blitzed veggie tomato sauce from the freezer.

Spends today:
£34 in supermarket; much more than planned but bought nappies on special offer and a couple of other things that aren't always in stock.
£8 on root spray for my hair, I had to cancel my last appointment and can't get another one for another week.

Think I need to start putting away some winter clothes; I might tackle that tomorrow.

That’s really disappointing about CAMHS Cag . Is ds really struggling day to day?

Ocado is coming in at over £120 again this weekend, not including most fruit as I buy that locally. Bloody expensive diet.

Been so productive tonight since 8pm when kids were in bed and am feeling good:

• made dinner
• did beavers forms and related emails for DS
• contacted plumber (hot water tank is overflowing )
• booked haircut for ds
• booked cut and colour for me - first Saturday appointment available was at the end of May
• completed nursery survey (they are trying to win an award and tbf they are great)
• meal planned and did Ocado shop

- did 2 hours of work (hence the late night). But it’s to ensure a patient’s treatment gets approved for next week so had to be done.

Soooo much work is piling up. I need to put a day in over the weekend to catch up a bit but at least I can charge for it.

Right, sleep!

Morning
Ended up with 2 copies of aquaman so will return 1 today +£10
£10 footy camp, £35 pony club.
No food shop as we are away next week.

Wow girlie that's very productive. What does are you doing SW?

Sea that sounds like some well-spent time

Cleaning day today, I have an absolute mountain of ironing to do too

Hospital later for an appt so will have to fork out for parking, must remember to hunt around for some change

Morning all. Yesterday’s lunchbox was £3.50, I don’t have a choic3 other than to buy this week as away, but would probably buy and spend more near the office.

Hotel bill was £65.43 for drinks over 5 days (meals and accommodation in this hotel paid direct by company) but discussion with benefits Ossetia told me to claim for drinks (wasn’t sure on the policy with this new company)

Off back to Sister tonight, but back up here 2 nights n3xt week

Still haven't caught up !

Went out last night locally to see a band with two friends, tickets bought in Feb, we ate at one friends house, I provided chips €3.70, another made vegan burgers and the other made salad from her own garden. I drove so they wouldn't allow me to buy a round. Cost of night €3.70, value of night priceless

1am arrived home, was tired when alarm went at 5.45am this morning, dc getting Easter holidays today

We've had no heating since Monday. I'm freezing! It should be back on today.

It's been quite spendy as it's Easter. Think I've spent £100 but dh gave me that. We've been to chessington and went to the library and Nando's yesterday. Have had to be out the house.

Just browsing the local available housing association houses. We will need somewhere bigger in a couple of years. One of the house was this, affordable rent they say...

Sea if I’m honest I guess it is more that we are struggling rather than him. Being autistic too, he is joyfully oblivious of how his behaviour is inappropriate bless him. But the impulsive behaviour is getting worse and worse, his concentration is non existent and of course this has a huge effect on his home ed work. He’s turning out to be quite smart in some areas - he’s 9 but currently doing some key stage 3 chemistry work and finding it really easy and is itching to get onto atomic structure! :o But that’s partly because we do it in small sessions, while he’s allowed to be zooming about the room or climbing furniture or on the exercise bike (such a good purchase for all of us!). There is no way he could concentrate for a traditional length lesson in school even in his favourite subjects. Which is ironic really because if he was in school then we would as snuggly asked have someone else to do a referral :( but he just wouldn’t cope with the environment.

The doctor asked about medication and I think I would try it if it helped him, and we can’t get that without a diagnosis. Anyway I have posted in a local SN group about the Early Help team for our town and have heard nothing but good reports so that makes me feel a bit more optimistic even if it’s going to take forever.

Swimming today as my friend is going and can give me a lift, yay! I expect the pool will be crowded because holidays but I want to get some lengths in before going to mum’s at the weekend. We are going to London from hers on Monday (I grew up in Bromley) to see a lecture on the periodic table :o just me DS and my dad, the others might go to natural history or something.

Just sent DD and her friend off to town on their own, DH is getting cash out for their lunch (really need to sort out an allowance increase for this sort of thing, any ideas?) but the other mum bought the cinema tickets.

BTW the council seem to have paid the money they cancelled so it looks like they finally got to our case. Phew. First time in nearly 2 years we’ve been in the overdraft though. :(

Have added a pic of my lovely boy as between the referral attempts and DLA etc I feel like all I do at the moment is say negative things about him :( this is an old pic now but it’s him reading his first periodic table book (the one that started the obsession) to Cagletini :o

£1161?! 😱😱😱

Good grief Wreck. That’s a very dodgy idea someone has of affordable

It's ridiculous isn't it?! It's also in a place with zero transport links and just a small village shop/pub/school/drs surgery so no decent amenities.

See over here wreck that would be unbelievably affordable. A colleague has just signed a lease for a 1 bed flat with parking (no outside) for £1600 pcm. Bills not included.

cag beautiful picture. Gorgeous boy - love his hair!!!

£14 art supplies in WHSmith. We’re picking dsis up from airport on Sunday and she said “don’t go doing anything embarrassing...” I hadn’t even thought about it until she mentioned it. Now ds is going to make a sign for her. 😂

Last day of work before time off. I go back on 23 April wahoooooo.

Just finishing things off. Chaser emails sent.handovers prepped. Wooooo

Wreck what is the ‘not affordable’ cost for a 4 bed on the private market, out of interest? I must admit I have no idea what is normal outside of London (which is obviously ridiculous).

Cag I get it! It’s good that DS isn’t unhappy, iyswim, but I totally know what you mean about the impact on the family being something else entirely. Is that actually a CAMHS issue? I didn’t know they would get involved with that. Tbh I could do with some help with DS (for his anxiety and controlling behaviour) but as he is much better at school than home I don’t think we would be taken seriously. And yes, concentration is such a difficult thing for a lot of ASD kids, definitely the case here too, though DS is learning to do that better over time. Little steps. Good luck with your handsome boy.

More importantly though.... THERE IS A LIFT-THE-FLAP PERIODIC TABLE BOOK?!!

I am tired today after my late night /early morning, but really pleased with the work I managed to do last night. I’m home today with DS (bit of cheeky wfh, dd is at nursery, DM still not well enough to come over) and he is being an angel! He just sat at the table doing puzzles and looking at the back of his Mr Men books while I worked this morning. I’m going to stop in an hour or so and take him to the park and for a pizza later.

Friday, yay!

£1500+ so not much of a discount...

Beautiful boy @Cagliostro!

Spends today:
£5 coffee and muffin
£2 pound shop
£2 pins to pin up some curtains I need to have shortened.

£2 hospital parking

Aw thanks I do love my awesome boy. He really is awesome - so kind and snuggly and caring and funny and an amazing brother! This is why I am in two minds about medicating as well as I’ve no idea what effect it’ll have. That kind of medication is easy to try out without long lasting effects though so worth a shot I think.

Yup sea it is genuinely the best book I have ever bought for my kids in terms of the impact it has had. My friend is an Usborne seller and does sales a lot so I got it on a whim for a fiver. It was left on the side for a while and then he picked it up one day and basically didn’t put it down for months :o he used to talk to strangers about it on the bus :o

Ours is a 3 bed admittedly but it’s only £615 or so a month and the location is brilliant in terms of access to shops etc. That’s batshittery. Meanwhile our tiny two bed that we private rented until last year with shit heating and no private garden is going for £1k a month now.

BTW sea the reason he needs to see someone at CAMHS is because ADHD is now their remit. Which is ridiculous. But the hospital paediatrician can’t diagnose or prescribe meds for it anymore. I think it’s silly lumping it in with MH issues.

Glad you’ve had a WFH day ❤️

Wow that's not affordable in my book.
£2.10 on Gregg's. Really hungry today.

Should have added house prices and rents here are insane. When we were away in Devon last month we compared the price we paid for our house to what we could get there. 5 bed. Massive garden. New build. Naice country town.

Don’t get me wrong I love our house but irks me that out money could have gone a hell of a lot further in the U.K.

We’d be paid less though unless we were in London. And then similar prices..:

Evening all late sign in, busy end to a busy week here, was my last day at work which feels very weird. It was a normal busy day but my colleagues did me a nice lunch and bought me some beautiful flowers. My leaving do is next week and there's about 15 people coming!!

Very strange emptying my car and handing back all my equipment, I've been there 12 1/2 years, started when dd was 7 months 😳

Glad to stop work for a bit, need a rest before starting the new job!!

Dd spent the day at the stables and went on a trek, she was buzzing when I picked her up and just kept saying how much she had loved it! Makes all the lessons/money/time etc worth it.

Think I have managed a nsd.

Just checked my account have about £200 to last til payday, should be doable...

Cag I love that pic, gorgeous boy!

Wreck yikes!

No worries, Sea - ds is also obsessed with Peppa Pig so I understand and feel your pain!

We are in the North West and could probably afford to buy here in a year or so if we tried hard enough with saving for a down payment, especially with ds turning 3 in February and the subsidised childcare hours kicking in. However we really want to go back to Scotland (job dependent), ideally to Edinburgh, and house prices are much, much higher there. So we'll see.

Long, exhausting, frustrating day after a very busy week. £2 for coffee at work and £6 for a taxi to childminder's house as i was running late, followed by a 45-minute wait for a bus that then ignored us and sped past, immediately followed by his equally inept friend who also didn't stop the bus! So ds and I then walked home 1.5 miles instead (he did walk some, but also wanted carried, so I'm knackered and going to bed now!).

Hair cut tomorrow (20% off voucher) for the first time since September...? Looking forward to it, possibly going for a rather drastic chop! Good night everyone.