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[northender]

Lots of support and advice here for frugaleers old and new.

Can I join please? Having a bit of accountability will hopefully curtail my spree of spending. I just keep getting poorer and fatter and am determined to turn it around starting from tomorrow.

Stripping welcome!

Can i join too please? Have a frugal fiancée but I'm the opposite. Try to get treats for everyone all the time and end up spending all of the daily budgets!
Went to the cinema today with 3 kids. Tickets were £38 originally but saved £8 using tastecard. DF got cigarettes in the shop and a bottle of coke, otherwise a fairly cheap weekend.

Hi, sorry to pop in just when I'm after some help, has anyone had a baby that has been a fussy eater or slow with weaning? DD is 11 months and it's my biggest stresser now, I thought we would be much further on by this point and it's quite clear that she is far behind most of her peers. I'm worried we are setting her up for a lifetime of bad eating habits but really not sure what to do to fix it or whether I should just be continuing as we are and she'll improve or what...if anyone has been in a similar situation could you please PM me ? Hope everyone is well and I will try to check in more regularly soon!

I’ve never eaten paneer. What’s it like? Would I like it?

£12 in M&S on fruit.

Picked up boots order.

Took ds swimming. Did some laundry had a bit of a tidy.

We’ve been to dparents for dinner. A zero alcohol San Miguel for me to accompany DMs lasagne with salad and garlic bread. Eaten too much garlic bread so will have crazy garlic dreams to night and a garlic sleep! Waaaaaa

Tomorrow should be a nsd. Am taking a sandwich to work.

My savings account paid into my normal account. Half of it has gone to my Lloyd’s account. The other half had remained in my hsbc account.

The Lloyd’s account money will be used to pay Into my pension later in the year.

Meadow nice to see you. What is she eating now and what are the challenges? I’m sure someone here can help

Em do you like halloumi? Similar squeaky texture, maybe a little bit softer. Very mild taste. Can withstand fairly heavy frying and lots of spicing. You can buy it in blocks or make it yourself (baby Muslins useful for this), homemade tastes nicer but supermarket much easier

Welcome newcomers!
Nice to see you Meadow. I can't believe your dd is nearly one! I was quite relaxed about weaning. Just gave them food and they could eat it or not but make sure you keep offering lots of variety. I found that so long as there is something familiar on the plate they will also try new stuff. Debt show that you are stressed if she doesn't eat it and don't praise/make a fuss when she does. I do tell mine I'm pleased that they've tried it and it doesn't matter if they don't like it now, maybe next time they will. Do you eat with her? I think it helps if they see you eating the same things. Talk about anything except the food at mealtimes. She's probably a but small but my lot like to help themselves too.

Em paneer in curry is one of the most delicious things ever. Saag paneer is my go-to take away order. It's easy to make your own with yoghurt or the ready made stuff if good too. It makes good tikka if you marinate it then grill it.

Sounds like paneer is something we frugaleers will be trying out 😁

I adore halloumi. Might add paneer to the list. We tried tofu last week. Was not undelicious.

Nice to see you meadow sorry to hear you're struggling a bit, I agree with snuggly that it helps if you can eat with them and try and enjoy food. Have you got a supportive hv you could chat to?

Dd made a lentil Dahl tonight and because she made it she ate loads of it! Am pleased as it's healthy and a really cheap meal 😁

Basically as a general rule she only eats tiny quantities of savoury food but if I offer dessert of some sort she will generally eat a fair amount of it. Well, still only a small amount, but I mean, she had space for it, iyswim. I wasn't bothered for ages but I know they say they should be on 3 meals a day by 1 and she hardly eats anything, it definitely can't be considered a meal. And worried about her huge sugar intake. I always eat with her, I don't think she's ever eaten a meal alone. The Health Visitor and my friend told me that I'm shoring up a terrible fussy eater child who will only ever eat sweet things and that I need to withdraw all sweet food and eventually when she's hungry enough she will eat the savoury food properly but that just doesn't sit right with me. Also she hasn't figured out how to physically chew and swallow a lot of the solids that she shows interest in as well (e.g. peas, chickpeas, pears, rice, bell pepper etc) which I wasn't too concerned about until I posted in a local BLW group and everyone was suggesting things to eat that she can't master yet so it seems she's quite far behind with that as well. I don't think I mentioned that to the Health Visitor though so maybe I should call her again this week and talk about that aspect of it again?

The big thing (I think) meadow is that she’s eating.

Maybe try reducing the amount of sweet things (what sort of sweet things is she having?)

Ds is a rogue for fruit. An absolute rogue. He would just demolish it. We try not to let him have too much though. But easier said than done sometimes. He also loves my mums snack cupboard. Where she keeps lovely biscuits....

Iirc you’re a veggie. So while it could be a texture thing with meat this probably isn’t an issue.

Does dd eat things like bread cheese etc? Dm gave ds a wrap a while ago with cream cheese and grated carrot. Sounded awful but was actually quite tasty. We’ve done the same sort of thing for him with mashed sweet potato.

Are you back at work now? Is dd at nursery/childcare? What does she eat there?

Em I think you'd like it. You're not the fussy sort. I don't think it has much flavour but it's good to add texture to a veg curry.

Meadow I would go back to basics and cut out all the sweet stuff. Offer three meals a day and don't stress about how much she eats. Easier said than done I know!

It's fine meadow, sorry you are struggling.
If I recall correctly babies have a naturally sweet palette.
What does a typical day look like?
It's a long time since I weaned though.

I think I agree with em. Less pudding and more sweet veg, cheese and bread. She will probably not eat at all if you go cold turkey on all sweet stuff.
Defo speak to your HV if you get on well with her.
Go back to basics and offer a range of food again.
How much milk is she having?

And YY to no stress. She will pick up on it

I also can’t believe dd is almost one meadow where has that time gone?!

Just waved ds off with dparents. He’s always so happy to go with them.

Have made lunch so have put £5 into savings (sandwich with cheese humous and cucumber, pot of grapes and a satsuma).

And am wearing a non maternity too. Woooo. It just skims over bump. The beauty of this is that I have two tops like this in different colours. So more options!

Dh has set the slow cooker going for dinner - some sort of chilli I think. Smells ace.

Should be nsd today.

Glad I found you all! Thanks for the new thread North.

Lovely relaxing day at home on Saturday- NSD

Yesterday I had breakfast at my parents & we went shopping. I spent £10 on some M&S flip flops (should have been £15) & my dad kindly bought me a summer bag I had my eye on. Spent another £9.50 on fruit & salads from M&S so quite a spendy day. Hoping today won’t be too bad.

Off to work today (I hate working Mondays). DS picked out my clothes this morning & I’m not entirely convinced everything ‘goes’ 🙈

Is your top part of the clothes DH said you could buy em? It was really depressing yesterday walking around the shops & seeing all the lovely clothes I couldn’t have.

Love your gardening haul wolf. I’m not green-fingered at all but love a pretty garden. I’ve got some giant weeds I really need to tackle before DS’ birthday party next month. They are monsters.

Thanks for having me guys.

@MeadowHay my youngest was 11 months when I started weaning. It sounds like your little one is doing fine to me, remember the saying "food before 1 is just for fun" - it's a bit twee but it totally works. Providing little one is getting enough milk then there's no problem there. She'll learn in her own time.
Are you BLW? I found sticks the easiest thing in the world when my littlest guy was weaning. Cucumber sticks, melon sticks, crisp sticks... anything and everything that could be in stick form. Avocado, soft veggies, breads, anything that goes soft when mouthed. Pre loaded spoons are always good too. If she's more into sweet things you could try carrot and swede mash, mixed vegetable mashes etc? They could help.
But mostly I always thought the beauty of BLW was that little one got a bit of whatever we had. So whatever you're having. If she messes with it, let her, it's an exploration thing at this age.

We've a relatively low spend day today. Got bread at the shop. Tea will be spaghetti rings on toast/beans on toast and stir fry out of the freezer. Lunch is salad we made last week.
Pennies have transferred into my savings account.

We're going to try and eat out of the freezer this week. Anyone have any ideas on mostly veggie meals? We've a freezer full of bits and pieces, bags of veg and fruit!

Soup, curry, chilli, veggie bolognese, Moroccan type thing with couscous

Meadow My ds was a bit slow to eat solids at first (he gagged on baby porridge! So we waited a week and tried again). What worked for us was similar to the advice from Fat - food in stick form, so he could hold onto it and manoeuvre to his mouth himself, and lots of variety without worrying about how much he ate (vs. what ended up on the floor!). And tiny spoonfuls of what we were eating (usually a lot of flavour, but very soft veg and beans or tofu, like a stew, curry, humous dip for toast sticks, veg, etc.). Baked beans were always popular too, I think because they are a bit sweet (mash them up at first if you think she needs it). He wasn't eating 'meals' until around your dd's age but now (27 months) eats loads some days, and relatively little others. Try to go with the flow and not make a fuss...i know it's hard sometimes though.

Spent loads on travel yesterday (nearly £300) necessary for my upcoming work trip. Now I need to clean the kitchen since I just dropped a mug on the floor. At least I can work from home today and not buy food at work! Fingers crossed it'll be a NSD.

mrsg no! It’s a top I had before. Woop. I haven’t even started looking for “after” clothes yet. Except for some smart trousers for work from M&S which I bought using my Christmas voucher from work.

I will absolutely take him up on the offer to buy new stuff though. I’m after some naice T-shirt’s to wear with shorts in the summer.

30 weeks today. Am counting down now. 8 weeks (ish) to go at work. I am ready for baby to arrive now. So fed up of feeling fat lumpy and massive. Although I know I’m not. Have just felt it. I’ve been very lucky again this time. Despite feeling 100% worse during this one than I did with ds (colds coughs aching exhausted etc) I’ve had no major complications and am hoping this will continue. I’ve only put on weight “out front” so boobs and belly. And hopefully this should just go after. I’m hoping that it’ll turn into a six pack straight away. It didn’t with ds. But I’ve been super good this year so far!!! 😂😂😂😉😉

I’ve also started worrying about my weight after DS is born em. I’m 25w today & still all bump. DS1 was 5lb 5oz when he was born so I lost it all pretty much straight away then put loads on during PND comfort eating I’m a bit bigger this fine but hoping that’s more to do with muscle memory than fat. Time will tell! When are you going on maternity leave? I’m leaving end of July

12 July is my last working day. Then two weeks annual leave. Mat leave officially kicks in on the due date 29th July. I’ve done it this way as they’ll pay me for the annual leave whether I take it or not. And didn’t want to “waste” mat leave.

I am paid full pay from work for 6 weeks. Then 90% pay for the next 10 weeks. Then nothing for 10 weeks.

My mat pay from the govt lasts for 18 weeks. £280 a week I think...so I think I worked out that December and January will be completely unpaid for me.

I go back to work 27 jan. So will have to wait until 21 Feb for my pay!!! That’s going to be a looooooong time. And in that time it’s christmas and pay deposit for Mexico....

Dh is always late home from work when I'm going out he's been getting home just after five yet he's still not back and I've got a forty minute drive to pick my friend up for dinner. So annoying!

NSD. Hooray!

30 weeks, Em - where did that go??