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 cute. Whatever gave you the idea he had cake?

£52 Tesco, jeans and a coat for DS. Annoyingly they left the tag on the coat. Thankfully house of Fraser staff took it off save me a 30 minute journey back to the shop.
Lots of stuff to try on in store but didn't have time today. Need an outfit for dd communion.

There does seem to be a slight trace of cake, yes :o love his haircut! 😍😍😍

And aww thanks born 😳❤️ Think we are in that annoying middle ground where there just isn’t the help really. But worth a shot. :)

Really nervous about London tomorrow! DH is in charge of the baby though. But ugh crowded. Argh

What are you doing in London cag? (Sorry if I missed it)

Taking my boy to this :o

www.rigb.org/whats-on/events-2019/april/family-braving-the-elements-3

My dad is coming too. DH and the girls will go and see the dinosaurs at NHM. Dad wants to take us to Foyles too, don’t tell my bank card will you 😳😂

It’s daft. I used to love London, was up there all the time and happily went with the Caglets, but having an extra child has just tipped me over into “oh crap I can’t do this” 😳 the anxiety is soooo much better on a day to day level but things like this set it off. And I left my propranolol at home. 🤦‍♀️

That looks amazing! Yes it'll be quite busy but you can take a break whenever you want there's always places to sit and watch the world go by! You'll have a great time and think of all the nice food if your dc like ice cream and you are nearby/have time then the milk train is a must.

Have had a productive afternoon, cleaned the bathroom and properly cleaned the floor - am pretty disgusted by how many shades cleaner it looks now 😵🤭 am trying to catch up on housework before going away.

Hope you enjoy London cag i always like going to London but am normally relieved to leave as well! Am going to Chelsea flower show in may and that will be the first time I've travelled to London on my own.

Cute pic em, good boy enjoying his cake!

First cricket match (only a friendly) went well.
Meal for pil & my parents went really well.
Hoping pil might take us out for tea tomorrow night before they travel home on Tuesday.

In the big smoke for a couple of days for work. Lovely and sunny here, blooming early start though, may need a little napette on my desk later. Difficult meeting this aft though.

£14 yesterday on fish and chips as a treat for ds following a good sporting performance

NSD again for me yesterday as DD is still poorly so we couldn't go anywhere; I'm starting to feel slightly cabin feverish now though.
Dying to watch Game of Thrones too but I'll wait till this evening and watch it in peace.

Cag I'm feeling a bit like that with the 3 of them for the holidays which is crazy because dd1 is no bother at all, she's usually quite helpful in fact. I think I'm just finding it harder to find activities that suit them all. Plus I'm still in the mindset that it's my school holidays and I should be having a rest!

Cute picture Em.

Nsd. Yesterday wasn't but Friday and Saturday were.

PRoductive day.

Dropped dh at work. Went to dparents and had breakfast with them. Was expecting toast and tea. Maybe a croissant at a push. Dm did bacon and poached eggs on toast. 😀

Ds stayed with them I picked dsis up and she helped me declutter wardrobe and bedroom. Two big bags of clothes have been cleared. One for charity shop/eBay one for bin.

She also tidied ds’ room and sorted out the spare room....

Dparents dropped ds back about hour and half ago. I’ve made meatballs while they were here. And have made sauce now to cook them IN when dh comes Home.

Busy day here as well, helped my friend dig in a flower bed in her garden. It took a bit of work lifting turf and digging it over but looked great by the time we'd finished.

Aching a bit now mind 😬

Spent the afternoon packing for our holiday, we go tomorrow and it's so tricky this time of year as need summer and winter clothes!! Looking forward to it though 😊

Going to go the co op later and am hoping to get some yellow sticker bargains.

Driven for 3 hours today. Stopped at nostel and did the Easter egg national trust thing £4.
£8 motor way services as dd not a good traveller and shut her finger in the car door as soon as we arrived in nostel.
£25 dinner at the youth hostel which is great. Yha national forest. So far, excellent.

Place marking. Expecting DS2 in September, I’m a contractor but I don’t know if I’ll be wanted back after Mat leave. DH is working hard at getting his own business up & running so future earnings is a bit up in the air. Fortunately we are mortgage free but I still worry. I know I need to make more sensible choices. I recently got a Monzo card & the app is brilliant- it’s really highlighted to me how much I spend on crap daily. I’m planning on making use of the “pots” & saving for emergencies so our small savings remain untouched.

Hoooome! DS really loved the lecture, lots of demos fizzes and bangs and some really useful info, I learned a lot myself :o definitely going onto protons electrons etc after Easter. We went to foyles after and my dad got some science books for us ❤️ and a little cuddly Mog for the baby, as she is obsessed with cats at the moment and communicates mainly in mews.

£31 swimming lessons

Have also organised a night away with a friend in a few weeks. Haven't paid yet but will be £75 for night in hotel, two course dinner, breakfast and a spa treatment (hot stone massage for me). Think that's a bargain.

DH suggested a takeaway tonight but since he has only just done the weekly shop I told him to shop the cupboards instead! He only eats pasta out anyway so it wasn’t too much hardship for him to make it for himself! That’s money saved. I’ve also made lunch & snacks for work tomorrow which save me £10 (since I only work 2-3 days a week I tend to buy lunch which I realise is costing me a small fortune). Today was a NSD - hoping tomorrow will be too!

I could easily spend £5-8 a day on lunch if I bought it out. Bad for the bank balance and waist line. I always try to get really nice things for my packed lunch, even if it's a bit more expensive it's much more appealing than a cheese sandwich and stops me being tempted to pop to M&S.

Evening - today has been v. spendy All the DDs went out, dd & I went to town and may have had luncheon, bought clothes and seeds. We managed to avoid the Art shop and parking was free. Then hospital parking - teeth. The tooth fairy is feeling v. broke. I think every orthodontic consultant of Manky Chester was in the room. 6 in total.... we have 3 years of tooth fettling to look forward to.

North glad cricket is going well. You must be so proud.

Wreck I know what you mean about appealing pack ups. I need to get better at it. Although in the summer it is easier b/c I can pick the garden.

Wreck thank God there isn’t a M&S near my office!

Picked up a Moses basket £30 from Facebook.

Watched game of thrones. OMG.

cag ds loves catface. He likes to meow at her. Sadly he also likes to wake up at stupid o clock and say “meee-oooow” loudly and repeatedly. The first time he did it, it took me a while to work out whether it was him or catface. But it’s far far too over pronounced for catface. He also purrs. I guess he’s been spending too much time with her.

Assignment tomorrow. Must start throwing my thoughts down in some sort of logical format.

Ahem. £4.85 lunch at work today.

But I did bring coffee to work and walked home from childminder's again, rather than risk the bus. I suspect this will work for as long as it's not raining cats and dogs...

Poor ds was knackered playing football all afternoon and has been asleep since about 6.45! Sadly we'll need to wake him to change his nappy again before he goes to bed properly.

In our house, ds is desperate to play with (and pick up) the cat, but she is still wary. If he chucks a toy down near her, she will sometimes chase after it. It's very cute that he is now more willing to share his toys with her and sometimes plonks his favourite ones in front of her face.