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[northender]

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Ds has had a haircut this morning. Here he is with his baguette.

Dh takes him for hair cuts and they always stop for a coffee and a gingerbread man after.

Dh also brought back a baguette for lunch and a pastry for me. Not that I need it as am off for afternoon tea today with Dm and dsis. Woop. My treat.

We slept in until 7 this morning. Was ace!!!

Have done a few jobs while ds and dh were out. Laundry sorted and load in. Bins emptied. Dishwasher on and finished. Emptied.

Cute Em. Ds is also having his haircut this morning but a lumping nearly-teen is not cute

Need to buy bread for party at friends later part birthday (me) part family thing (her) and a card for a vow renewal and father’s day if I can find one I don’t hate

Will be £16 for ds haircut plus same in pub ore party and whatever bread and cards cost

Unescorted he never took it, wonder if he was testing to see my reaction
He has access to joint account so if he wanted to take it I couldn't stop him really. He has only spent from it once since he moved out but he is slack about putting money in

Only getting up now - dc are with h
Going to go for a run & probably declutter too, first breakfast though

Yesterday spends was €25 on 3 months contraceptive pill & €4.50 on car wash(mistakenly bought one you do yourself so extra exercise I guess) used my circle k perks to get 20% off a €9 wash & was charged €4.50 & bought a sandwich in Aldi in the evening as ate dinner at lunch, think it was €3.70 I have receipt for entering into ynab

Em C is so cute

happier 😀😊 I shouldn’t say so but he is isn’t he? 😂

He’s eaten the top of the baguette and is now napping.

We’re watching ewfl on iplayer. Such a lovely family.

Of course you should em be proud you made him

I had brunch at home & cleaned out car & polished it, found foam upholstery cleaner so did stains from dc eating on back seat too.

I'm off to beauticans to sunshower, going to buy newspaper €1.80 & hoover car out €1 & then I'm going to run on the beach 7km.

Home for dinner - got dropchef this week on a deal for half price so will make nice dinner & then after that dc will be home & it'll be make their beds, go to mass & watch a movie together

I need to catch up with EWFL, has anyone since the Micky Flanagan sketch about the show? I can't watch the show without thinking of that now

Had a nice long lie in this morning, dd is at her Grandads this weekend so am just pleasing myself! Had a leisurely shower and spent way too long on fb

Anyway need to go to Aldi in a bit and mow the lawn so back to reality then!!

Aww em he is lovely!

Spends yesterday £10 something on bread, milk, ice lollies and more fruit.
NSD today.
DCs will be going out with their dad tomorrow so I will go and do a proper shop then, should be below £30, as I have meal planned well.
Fingers crossed it all goes to plan and I don't get distracted by the middle aisle in Lidl!

How are you finding the adjustment financially with him gone curvy

Happier, it hasn't been easy, but we are doing ok, hopefully by next month I will have the overdraft under control.
He should be giving me some maintenance money this month too, so that will help as the DCs need new bits.

All bills have always come out of my account, so that hasn't changed, but I've had to do it on my own, and that threw me a bit.
But I applied for universal credit and have had a first payment, but went 5 weeks waiting for that and didn't receive any tax credits either as everything stops while they assess your claim.
I put in a claim for single person council tax and that has been approved, so that will be a bit less to pay each month too.

Em he is a cutie.

Snuggly I don't know how you manage with twins. The logistics must be fantastic. I am sure I would forget one of them somewhere.

Curvy I am always gobsmacked by the attitude of the tax credit people. They know that it is going to go in your favour but still they stop it while they just double check. Bonkers. Hope you get it resolved soon.

Madden cycling is easier than it looks. I did no training beyond the 3 miles to the station and back about 4 days out of every 7. There were times when I had to dig really deep (Tan Hill in that rinse cycle rain on Tuesday....) and some hills I had to walk - but other than that it was doable. I need a comfier saddle for the next trip though.

unescorted well done on C2C, fantastic. Was the other frugal cyclist on it too?
Em he is very cute. Hope you enjoyed your afternoon tea.

We have had a low spend week. I am hell bent on not wasting any food & am doing well so far. We've never been ones for wasting much, but had got a bit slack. Anyway, we have reason to be more frugal & thrifty as ds has a last opportunity to play cricket in Tobago in February & really wants to go (who wouldn't?). Anyway after a lot of discussion, we've decided he can go, but this time, the 2 of us & dd are going too! So now we have to save, save, save to afford it, but it's very exciting. Our last only exotic holiday together (dh & I) was to Trinidad & Tobago when I was pregnant with ds so it will be full circle. I think it's doable financially with a bit of effort, so as I reasoned it, we are unlikely to look back in 10 years and wish we hadn't gone, but we may well have looked back and wished we had. We are only going to pick one game to go to and apart from that dd can lead on what we do, there is rainforest & beaches to explore.

North no - I wish she was, but another Mnetter was. We didn't know until after it was decided we were going... I have been looking at other trips so lonely if you are watching do you fancy France or Italy?

Tobago …. that would be awesome. He must be so excited.

Unescorted when they were both in infant carrier type car seats I used to strap them in the the house then take them out to the car knew at a time. I was paranoid about forgetting one!

I want to make the EWFL savoury pancakes. Think the dcs would like them.

Happy birthday wolf

Happy birthday wolfie

notth the trip sounds fab!! I’d absolutely go too!!

Afternoon tea was lovely. It set me back £110 in total (3x sparkling afternoon tea at £30 a head, extra glass of bubbly for dsis and a bottle of water). Worth every penny. Food was delicious and it was nice to spend time with dsis and Dm without “the boys”

Ham cheese tomato and pickle, eggy and coronation chicken sandwiches, golden sultana scones (served the jersey way with salted butter, clotted cream, jam and black butter - which is delicious), and then three superb cakes - chocolate hazelnut tart, a take on a Victoria sponge (with vanilla mousse, strawberry gel and freeze dried pieces) and the green one is something like pistachio matcha grapefruit and gin. Layers of mousse sponge and some blobs of gin gel on top.

Feeling awful this morning. Full of cold wars are hurting and the old heartburn thing is back. Ffs. So I’m staying in bed for a bit. Dhs orders.

Em that sounds lovely
Unescorted well done on the c2c you are phenomenal - have you looked at Dutch cycle trips where you stay on a barge? Colleagues did this and loved it
North that sounds like an amazing trip of a lifetime for you all definitely worth being frugal for
Curvy I really sympathise and admire you it’s so hard readjusting to the same bills on one income. Even a year on unexpected things throw me a bit ds has three scout trips to pay for in the next two weeks on top of the £450 ish it will cost me to repair the car and while I’ve planned and planned I hadn’t planned for that
Trying to decide between a nsd and a trip to the cinema with ds. This we might do nsd and just vegetate

Happy Birthday Wolf I always have a vege day on my birthday..... rubbish film and plenty of cheese toasties. My idea of heaven.

I weirdly liked the uppy downy bits better than the flatter sections.... my saddle needs attention / changing for one with a larger cut out and wider seat bones, so I preferred the bits where I didn't have to sit in the saddle or I could change my position. Cattle grids grids on up hills were very painful at the end.

Snuggly I left ds in the supermarket trolley when we went for out first shopping outing. I was wondering why everyone was cheering my driving skills. Took a moment to realise they were trying to flag me down.

Happy birthday wolf! Veg day for sure!

I'm in a frugal dilemma...I have a wedding to go to and had an outfit planned but it's all feeling a bit 'meh'. Have a couple of alternatives but have worn these a billion times (including to mutual friend's weddings). I panicked last night and have ordered another dress. It's £50 that I could do without spending but I'm trying to justify it because over the next 12 months I have another two weddings to go to - both unconnected so could get away with the same outfit - haven't even tried the dress on yet so it might be awful and I'm feeling like I should channel my Princess Kate by re-wearing an outfit but also... it's so nice to have something new!!

Fellow frugalers - talk me out of the dress!!

It is very poor form to out shine the bride - so everyone will think you are super polite if you recycle the outfit rather than new.... that is of course if they notice at all because the bride will be so radiant and the guests sozzled. Is that convincing enough?

Unescorted makes a good point. If you don’t really have the money to spend then recycle and old outfit. A wedding is not worth being broke over

Making a white chilli in my instant pot - the time saving is significant but we will have to see whether the taste is as good as stove top cooking

I went to centra shop for milk & flour as dd wants to make cookies, found lots of yellow sticker bargains.

For €16.17 I got 2.75l milk, 2kg plain flour, stork, 18 slices of ham, 2 chicken fillets, 2 salmon fillets & 2 stuffed peppers.

Going to do some meal prep now for week ahead

What's white chilli wolf ? We're also on the fence re vegging or doing something, weathers fab & they're with their dad next weekend so we're going to climb a mountain 🏔 aka walk in hilly woods
Convinced dd by saying we'd buy bedding for her hamster along the way

Madden shop from your wardrobe first if you can

Unescorted well done on that epic cycle I hate cycling

Em your post was so descriptive I felt I was eating it myself, looks yummy

I was invited to a hen party afternoon tea & nibbles if staying the night €150 no dinner in that or €50 afternoon tea only so this is what I'm doing, needs paying by end of the month even though it's not on until October

North that trip sounds fab & agree you won't look back & regret going

Curvy that's ridiculous about tax credits, I was lucky enough here it didn't take much to get me single parents tax credit & it was backdated to when we separated.

Happier white chilli is chicken and white beans, green chillis and spicing finished with a little milk and masa (or in my case polenta) I use the pioneer woman recipe but less pickled chilli and more spices. It’s delicious

Delving into my brexit stash to make chocolate chip cookie from a Lidl pocket mix

thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/simple-hearty-white-chili/

Swimming done. Dsis popped in and she came to swimming too and sat with me while ds and dh has their lesson.

£11 at the bar after on three soft drinks two kitkats and a piece of chocolate cake. Ds has a banana and half my kitkat. We checked out the weekday menus for the place too. Steak chips a salad and a sauce plus a pint/large wine/soft drink for £12.50 on a Thursday. Pretty good value. So we’re going to book up at some point.

Oops Unescorted!
Happy birthday Wolf!