Frugal Friends, planning, saving and considerate spending through July and August

[Wolfcubisthefemalenominal]

New Fred frugal friends

Welcome Townie!

I know what you mean about peogrammes dating, Em. Could Johnathan Creek be any more 90s?! It was good though.

Annoyingly all the dcs are still asleep and I am wide awake. They never sleep in this long!

Welcome Townie

Had a chat with the boss yesterday. My tca is safe at least until Halloween by the looks of it, events then will dictate whether it continues or not, so phew for now. I reckon that should just about give me enough to pay for 50% of a solicitor for a straightforward consent order if I do the pre work myself - i.e getting all the forms filled in and an outline settlement agreed with h. The rest will have to come from savings.

On the early train, knackered as the police helicopter was doing circuits over town last night. Super noisy.

Out with friends tonight in London for drinks and dinner so likely to be a little spendy there. Will try and keep a rein on it

Have a good day frugaleers

I am working from home today - we still have road closures and no trains. Rain woke me up last night - hopefully it was just a small shower because going anywhere in the car takes forever.

I am planning on having a spendy day - I am buying the fabric for this summer's quilt. I make them when the boys are away so I can use the living room floor to lay it out.

Is it just me or are the food prices going up - I seem to struggle to get a shop in for £50, where as before it was about £35. Yesterday £49 for just me and dd. Nothing fancy & I detoured around the aisle of doom.

Snuggly enjoy the quiet. It is my favourite time of day.

Wolf are the forms straight forward? Good news that you have job reprieve until October... if you fancy a career change we are recruiting
North not sure if it posted last night - but thinking of your DS. It is worrying with eye problems, just because they tend to be quite rare there is not a lot of information to be reassured by.

Unescorted I'm really struggling with food again too it's definitely gone up. Not sure what else I can do tbh

Morning all. Dd was up at 1130, 330 and 530. Dh took the 530 shift and I’ve just woken up again. He’s off to work today. Ds to nursery so it’ll just be the girls at home. A friend is popping over at some point today and the midwife is also coming.

Ds not awake yet. Should really get him up for nursery in a bit.

Jobs for today.

Laundry - at least one load
Meal plan
Shopping list
Netflix
Maybe try and read some book

Food is hugely expensive. Even in Aldi I don't get much change out of £60. That's before Sainsbury's. I admit my planning could be better though

Hi all!

I wanted to join in, I am reading your posts for past year now. You all seem such a nice bunch of people and I realised I started to treat this thread as a happy place on the net. I wondered if I could post from time to time too. I need a safe place to write what is on my mind as I am stuck with baby nr 2 at home and it drives me nuts.

He is nearly 4 months old, but last month seemed to last 2 years. I also have a daughter which is 3 years old, two cats and a husband. I feel I need a little bit distraction from amazon, as I seem to try to buy my way out of maternity and my wallet is not very amused about it. Also a place to moan about various people from my family :>.

Can I join?

Hey everyone!

I've printed out a 91 page financial planner this morning, it was a free download from the internet, I could only print in b&w so I'm going to try and jazz it up a bit at home.

Today I've spent £1 on a binder to put the planner in from the pound shop and £3.92 in Lidl on spinach, baby leaf salad, tomato purée, a net of easy peelers a pack of blue cloths and two of the bakery cookies for dh and ds. So total spend under a fiver, I'm
Happy with that! I also picked up some ethique shampoo bars that I ordered before I started trying to cut back, they smell amazing but certainly not frugal.

I'm unfortunate enough to work in a really expensive part of London so I have to take a walk into the less affluent area to get the bargains. It def saved some money thought as the nearest shop to buy groceries is Waitrose or m&s and WH Smith or paperchase for stationary.

I'm very envious of everyone holidaying in the Med right now, London is hot but dull.

Lasagne for dinner tonight, what's everyone else's plans? I could do with some inspiration

@ememem84 you had your girl already! Congratulations!!!! My DS got better with wind after 3 months have passed, my DD was a nightmare, until 6 months, but she slept whole night from 3 months time and just farted away any excess gas. DS (4 months) still not sleeping through the night, I lost hope

@CamdenTownie My husband is cooking today so I have no clue what is he planning, but I did this yesterday and it was amazing! www.itv.com/feelgood/save-money-feelgood/save-money-good-diet-top-10-favourite-family-dishes-number-4-special-fried-rice

I used white rice as I have no brown at home and skipped chillies, as DD was supposed to eat it too (supposed to key word), but it came out pretty good.

@prismWitch - looks great, I've got chicken fried rice on the menu for tomorrow, I worked out that I can feed three adults on one chicken breast with that

I'm trying to make sure we don't have the same thing two days on the trot, so today is mince and pasta, tomorrow is chicken and rice and Thursday will be a keema pie, which is minced beef and new potatoes. Friday homemade pizza and Saturday jacket potatoes, the hardest part is finding meals that everyone will eat! Only three of us at home this week which helps with meal planning and expenses!

@prismWitch hi!!! Welcome. This thread is a super friendly bit of t’internet.

Yes Dd arrived! 8 days old today. Midwife has been and Dd has almost reached her birth weight again. Yay!!

So we have a puppy in the house! Poor thing looks a bit overwhelmed at the moment so he is chilling out in his crate.

He is very cute!!

“He is very cute” well that’s the understatement of the century! 😂

Quickly waves to prism before being distracted by the cutest puppy!

How adorable - don't worry Em your kids are the cutest on the internet, but they don't have real puppy dog eyes. .

Prism - I feel your pain about supposed to eat. Even when I ask my lovely ones what they want to eat it gets stirred around the plate. I have started to just do what I want - if they want they can eat it or make themselves a sandwich.

life that is such a cute puppy.

Today is a NSD - finally. Dodgy reservoirs have their uses.

unescorted I love batiks & I did see a stall at a show a while back, a company that just stock batiks. I've got their details at home which isn't a lot of use I know! No fabric seems cheap any more. The idea of the sari backing sounds fab.

I am just going to have to bite the bullet and order the fabric aren't I. Maybe today won't be a NSD after all. But I will have a beautiful quilt for the longer colder nights.

The saris are usually 6 yrds and cost as little as £25 for a plain silk one. The embellished ones cost considerably more!

@northender and @Unescorted I love batiks, I grew up in a very multicultural area (see username 😊) and I remember making them at a summer holiday club, using wax.

www.hannahsroom.co.uk/ this is it I'm pretty certain

ohhhhhh! they are lovely.

I have been looking at these ones
African kola batik

Hey and welcome new people. V friendly here and safe to moan.
Soooooo cute

Taking long way home due to traffic. M6 to tebay and across. Lots of £££ spent today. Loved Chester zoo

Those fabrics are lovely too. It's the colours that draw me in. I need major self control in fabric shops or at shows! My quilt is now finished. I'll take a picture when I'm home & post it here.
Welcome new frugal friends, it's really friendly here & lots of support for saving money, making money go further, making better financial decisions, whatever you need.
Girlie puppy is v cute. Glad you had a good holiday, did you get to the Lost Gardens? Haven't been for years but loved it when I did go.
Life Chester Zoo is great, but Crocky Trails nearby is fantastic fun and unlike any place I've ever come across. Probably nearly 10 years on & the DC still remember it!
Em sounds like you're doing great 1 week in.
We've moved to the coast from the mountains today. Off to Bilbao to pick up D's tomorrow & then a week at the beach to follow. We've done a lot in 3 days & not spent too much, but ready to relax a bit more now.

@CamdenTownie - glad I could help. It came out really good! Hope you will like it.

@Girliefriendlikescake - cutness overload

Hi!

Girlie A pup! Lovely thing!

Unescorted I definitely think food shopping is more expensive now. I feel like there's far less offers on, and we used to swap what we bought depending on offers, so now it's always more expensive.

Em Congratulations!! I have been AWOL for so long I missed your lovely baby annoucement. A little girl! 8 days old! You are doing fab with two of them and having a to-do list that includes laundry when your newborn is 8 days old! I am lucky if I get laundry done with just DD at home lol. At 8 days old I could barely move!

Welcome prism I wouldn't worry about your DC not sleeping through, 4 months is tiny, most babies that age don't sleep through the night uninterrupted. I know that doesn't make the lack of sleep any easier but at least be assured that it is normal and their sleep will improve eventually as they get older.

I got a small promotion at work today. Most my level colleagues got it as well and I've worked there longer than any of them so not really an achievement as such. Don't know what the pay rise will be but it will be small and doubt it will actually benefit us as I guess my TCs will just down in proportion. BUT still good news.

£2.20 parking whilst working at the shop
£7 presents for DD's best friend.

I've only got 25 miles left in my car. I hate filling up locally as it's so expensive but don't really have a choice (£1.38 😡😡). Will do that tomorrow. Dd is going to a friends so just ds and me. We're ridiculously poor right now DD's piano lessons are causing me issues but her piano teacher goes back to uni in September so it's not forever. Although I feel we need to carry on because she's so good. Argh.