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!

Maybe I should use my patheticBrexit stash too. Although it has chocolate in and I definitely don't need that right now

Ah how lovely that you remembered the magnolia tree Girlie! Actually, it is looking an awful lot better than this time last year. It took a while to get going but it is flowering pretty well across the whole tree (last spring it only flowered on one lobe, maybe 20% of the tree and completely localised - only a handful of flowers in total elsewhere). So I think it is a lot happier after the intensive watering and feeding last summer! Here it is today from our bedroom window. We are going to keep it fed and watered through the whole growing season this year too and hope we’ve saved it 🤞🏻

Ohhh that’s beautiful sea

Made it to mum’s. Cagletini enjoying exploring, we haven’t been here for a year as I find the travel so stressful! Spent a bit on food on the way here due to bad planning and then the trams weren’t running. Sigh. Should be ok on the way home on Tuesday though.

Dad is telling me all about his gym routine. He joined slimming world last year and has now reached his target weight after losing about 3.5st. He spends 2 hours at the gym four times a week... he’s 70 this year!

I’ve just woken up. Ds and dh went out at about 2.

I feel like I’ve “neglected” them both a bit today but also I needed the rest.

They’re out at fils at present. Dh sent me a text.

£66 next for 2 bottoms for me and 1 for dh.
I'm gonna need a new wardrobe of clothes.
£30 repayment from scouts for something I bought for them. £3 boots on conditioner
£14 for 3 hours game lounge for DS while dd is at a party the

I think if you manage to sleep like that in the middle of the day, it's a sign that you really needed it @ememem84.
NSD for me, had a quiet day at home playing with DC and catching up on things; went for a run this morning too.

The amazon delivery guy asked to stay for tea because it smelled so good. It really is amazing what I can do with a humble cabbage

You need the rest em. There will be more family time when you are feeling perkier

Dh came home with ds and said I looked wrecked. He was right.

We’ve just had a baked Camembert for dinner. Yum.

thats i definitely needed it.

We’ve made our airport greetings sign. Lots of glitter!!

Ooo yum. Baked Camembert I haven’t had one of those in over a year ex made a great one. Hope you get an early night Em, it sounds like sleep is just what you need.

Baked Camembert . Dh doesn’t eat cheese... Slimming World would also not approve. But.... so good...

Life new clothes - weight loss or another reason?

I’ve spent hours today putting away washing and sorting out everyone’s clothes (a never ending task, but for the last 2 weeks at least, everything has just been dumped on the spare bed so it was an epic pile!). Also sorted out my floordrobe so now I now have a huge pile of mending to do, mostly my own knitwear that has sprung a wee hole here and there. I’m going to do some tonight after we’ve eaten. Tomorrow I’m going to wash all my cashmere stuff and then vacuum pack away for the summer. Fingers crossed the moths stay away. I will also do my job application for the fixed term role I am currently doing on a consultancy basis (they defo want me to do it but I still have to be interviewed etc. And not make a fool of myself.)

Slimming world version of spicy breaded chicken tonight, with sweet potato wedges and salad. 20 mins away still and I’m starving- can’t wait!

If we ever have a meet up there needs to be cheese!

Camembert is also the root of one of my favourite bad jokes:

Q: What's the best cheese to tempt a bear out of the woods?
A: Cam-on-bear (camembert)

Closely followed by

Q: What's the best cheese to hide a horse?
A: Mask-a-pony (mascarpone)

Sea good luck with the job application

Yes weight loss and shaping up.
Yes cheese

I’m in bed again now. Dh is watching the masters.

We bake our Camembert along with onions and garlic (poke holes in cheese and stuff garlic cloves). Oh god it’s so good.

Served with naice ham and French bread. And a naice glass of red for dh. I was tempted by it but feel too sleepy.

Cag gorgeous pic of your ds.
Em sorry you're feeling rough, sounds like you've managed a restful day & another yum to the Camembert!
We've got dh's parents staying for a few days. It's been good so far & not too spendy. I've managed to make meals from things we already had. so no need for takeaways. I'm doing a JO slow roast pork tomorrow & my parents are coming too.
1 week until the cricket season starts....eek!
Thanks to a tip off from a friend, managed to order a football shirt for ds from his favourite German team, for less than half it's normal price (end of season sale). Will put it away for his birthday in September, it's his 18th....double eek!!

Glad the tree survived sea, it looks beautiful! I have a very small magnolia in my garden, I'm guessing in about 50 years it might look like yours 😆

Excellent cheese jokes wolf 🤣** my favourite joke (not cheese related) is - what do you call an aardvark with a gun?? A well 'ard' vark, oh god I always laugh way more than I should at that joke 😂

Sorry you're feeling so rough em hope you feel better tomorrow.

I'm off to bed 😴

My favourite joke is a maths joke:

What is the integral of 1/(cabin) .d(cabin)?

Log cabin

I’ll get my coat...

Girlie :o what do you call a cowardly aardvark?

A vark

Sea love it :o my favourite maths joke is
F(x) walks into a bar and asks for a drink. The barman refuses. “Sorry sir, we don’t cater for functions.”

I have been awake for ages as much as mum’s new sofa bed looks very fancy, comfortable it is not. Going to be a loooong day.

Self care Sunday here.

Fil and gf are coming over in a bit. Hooray. No doubt I’ll get slated (again) for working when I have a child. Gf is also obsessed with comparing my pregnancy to dh’s cousins gf’s pregnancy. So that’ll be fun too.

Ds has just gone down for a nap which is annoying actually as he is a great distraction!!

£6.90 spinning.

Need fuel later £30
Also need cat foot and flowers for mil as we're going there for a roast in a bit. Yum! Plus a free meal

Morning everyone. It's a beautiful day here today. The kind of day that normally makes you want to do lots of laundry and tidying in the garden but I just can't be arsed. Its the last day of our school holidays and I feel strangely deflated. Ds1 hasn't done nearly enough studying and I have been burying my head in the sand about the whole thing

Cag your ds really is a beautiful child and he looks like a fab big brother. I am sorry the CAHMS referral was rejected, it must be tough when you are doing it all yourself with no respite of school. You do a great job.

life I wish my summer clothes were too big instead of too small I really need to get more exercise and stop stuffing my face

wreck the market sucks. All caused by fixable problems related to greed. De regulation of the borrowing markets, commoditisation of mortgages, capital gains tax relief on houses and fiddle at the edge housing policy such as help to Buy just transfer household debt onto corporate bottom lines. I will get off my soap box.

sea your magnolia is beautiful.

My favourite joke is
Q: why are we all so tired in April?
A: Because we have just had a 31 day march.

Popped to the range this morning, spent £16 on hamster bits, compost and a new cover for the green house.

£15 in Sainsbury's on a new swim cossie for dd plus some other bits.

Have been planting on my seedlings and put them out in the greenhouse (not really a greenhouse but a cheap put up job) hoping it's not too soon and they don't all die!

It's freezing here!

It's very cold and windy here, too. But sunny enough to have clothes out on the line.

Spends yesterday:
£27 haircut
£7 cafe
$1800 flights to Canada in June (will be reimbursed by my parents, who have yet to meet their grandson in person so are partly paying for the visit...we have a difficult relationship so I don't feel too guilty taking this 'gift' and anyway it will cost us a lot extra, too)

Meal plan for this week:
Leftover pasta from DH (recipe posted previously!)
Leftover takeaway curry
Nut roast with potatoes and roasted veg
Roasted butternut squash and chickpea mac and 'cheese'
Homemade chilli with rice
Thai massaman curry with rice
Leftovers/bean burgers and chips

Happy Sunday everyone!

Fil and his gf didn’t show up. Dh a bit annoyed. But meh.

Done laundry. Put all clean stuff away. Made a peanut butter and white choc brownie. Chased ds round the garden. We’ve wrapped dsis birthday gifts and written cards. We picked her up from airport with the sign. And are now at dparents. Have had dinner. Chicken casserole in a mustard sauce (cannot stand mustard) veggies and jersey royals. Then birthday cake. Colin the caterpillar. Is it even a birthday if you done get a Colin?!

We think ds has had cake.