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

[Wolfcubisthefemalenominal]

New Fred frugal friends

Aww bless him em

Adora (I’ve namechanged) good luck with your new job today!

Yesterday was NSD. Will need diesel today and I'm having a repairman come to look at my oven so that could get spendy.
I'm only semi regular on these threads but i don't think @WreckTangled has posted recently, hope everything is ok with her.

Dropped ds off at dparents so I can come home and start sorting stuff out. Today’s goal is to make sure everything is in the right room.

So far have put laundry outside to dry. And have brought a few things upstairs with me. Am now contemplating changing bedding. But first a sit down and more water.

Ds seems fine. Albeit very cuddly. Dm has calpol at her place and gave him some just before I left. In her mind it can’t hurt him and as he can’t tell us if anywhere like his throat hurts etc it’s fine. I’m going with it.

Just spoke to dh too. He’s worried it’s chickenpox. I wish he hadn’t said that tbh as now I’m worried it might be. Although rationally the only spot he has is a mosquito bite. So am more than likely panicking for nothing.

He hasn’t eaten much for breakfast. He has a few bits of croissant, and some pieces of pineapple. Ddad is worried he’s not eating but I’m not. Because he is eating just not as much as he would usually. He’s on the water though. I told him he has to drink water all day. And he now sees his cup and says “watalllllldaaaay” (water all day).

So far nsd. No spends planned.

I don't think they normally get a temp with CP em It's more likely to be a virus bless him. Hope he has a better night tonight.

That's a big drop in money wolf, what will you be left with after direct debits/savings go out? (Obviously don't say if you don't want to!) I've never had any money off dds useless father but I do get a small amount of tax credits which help. Normally after all the direct debits and savings have gone out I'm left with around £500 for the month. That has to cover food, petrol, clothes, days out etc so doesn't go far really.

Yes where is wreck?!

I'm working from home this morning, my dads dog was a PITA last night so I've bought a stairgate to keep him downstairs in future. My plan was to get one anyway for when the puppy comes as in theory the dog won't be allowed upstairs...

Have also bought a hosepipe, it suddenly occurred to me I could get one to attach to the inside tap! Will make watering so much easier although will be careful as we're on a water meter!!

Spent £54.

Me too girlie DMs just sent me a video. They’re at the park. He’s having a swing and loving life right now. 😍

So far on my “to do” list I’ve:

Hung laundry outside
Hoovered our bedroom floor
Washed filter for hoover
Put my laundry away and have put Dhs and ds’ in baskets to be put away.
Popped some stuff under the bed - stuff from my desk at work which I’ll sort through at a later date.
Watched three episodes of “yummy mummies” on Netflix
Put another load of laundry on
Emptied bedroom bin and filled it again (will empty again on way out)
Fixed the blinds in our room (cord hadn’t sort of come apart which meant I couldn’t pull them up).
Charged my kindle - haven’t used it for a long time so hoping it still works otherwise I might need a new one

Now lying on bed. Catface has come in from outside and has snuggled up. She was hiding in the garden before. Can you spot her?

Would help if I posted this too

So, about to start a period of lower disposable income and need some help, so hope you guys don't mind if I join in?

Have completely scared myself by working out how much we've spent the last few months on food, take aways and eating out. Have budgeted £600 a month going forward for 3 people (2 adults and DD 12 who is taller than me and eats adult potions), inc packed lunches, toiletries and cat food for 5. That's definitely doable, isn't it?

Welcome trinity!

Therapy done. It was good and I was able to be candidly honest which is really quite refreshing.

Spends £4ish in Wilko on painkillers and toiletries
£12 in Ryman’s on a folder for my therapy handouts plus half price Triplus pens, my fave type
£26 lunch
£4ish train fare (I should consider getting a disabled railcard really, for the times I’m travelling alone as I only have F&F)

Life keep challenging it’s all good food for thought

Ds experimenting with vegetarianism, we have just had a discussion around it being helpful money wise if we had more veggie meals and I think we’ve agreed to do that.

Girlie I’m lucky that I will have more than that after bills etc I think. Minimum diesel spend is £100 per month and I budget £100 extra comes out of the food or fun budget. I set aside some for the expenses that I incur for work because I don’t get everything back so £50 for that. £150 for Pilates, days out/ general fun money for the month and small house stuff, clothes or garden stuff that we might need and £400 for food, toiletries, school/scout trips/bus fare etc so I can cut that down if I get my act together.

Em love the cat face picture

£2.45 on a coffee. I’m frazzled. Sooo much info. Need vino.

Ok. So. Productive day. And nsd.

Woop.

I do need to get another kindle as mine won’t even switch on despite 4 hours of charging but amazon prime day today and tomorrow so I can get one for £40 ish. And I get paid on Friday.

Not sure if I mentioned Dhs driving licence expires on Friday. It’s a ridiculously simple process to renew online. Take a selfie. Fill in form. Pay £50. Send old licence to parish hall (we live a 15 minutes waddle from ours so I was going to take it tomorrow for him).

He can’t do it something to do with the system not working etc. I haven’t really been listening. He also “doesn’t have time” to get to the parish hall to do it there this week but has had the reminder now for three fucking months and had all of last week off

He says not a problem. Because I have a valid licence. Which is true. But. If his licence expires and isn’t in the process of being renewed I can’t drive the car either. Because it will invalidate his insurance and I’m only a named driver. Fabulous. I checked this point today by calling our insurers.

I can’t get insurance in my own name on the car unless dh cancels his policy. Which he won’t do because he’s “going to sort it” no idea how seeing as he has zero time to do anything this week and the parish hall is only open 10-4 mon-fri.

Just spent £29.60 on Modibodi as they had a special offer on. Trying two pairs of period pants for DD. The sizing confused the fuck out of me, I went with age 12-14 on the youth range as that matches what she takes in leggings etc.

I really want to try some myself too, but will wait until I have more money, and I’m managing with my Organicup. I even went swimming while using it last week! It was a lighter day, but still, it’s a total game changer (I am so evangelical about it now. It’s awesome.)

Ooh I also just realised that my most recent period was the first one ever where I’ve managed using only reusable products. No disposables/tampons. YAY!

Yeah that's great lap.
Welcome trinity.
Sounds like a lovely day em
Ok wolf. Will do.

£16 skate park today and that's it. For DS lesson.

Just caught up with thread. Love the sound of a day book unescorted :) I am really considering a daily journal now, as I’m finding the therapy write ups really helpful (I’d still keep that separate). Possibly to get all my thoughts out at bedtime because I struggle to sleep and feel like my head is full. In it I’ll make sure to put in each day one thing I’m grateful for and one thing I’m proud of myself for.

Put the smokey chairs in the sunshine earlier and forgot to bring most of them in. They’ll get darked on!!!

DH got vinegar spray today which we will try, and he’s getting bicarb tomorrow too.

DSD officially moving in tomorrow evening after work! 😍

Just heading to bed - crazy work deadlines again . Not a frugal weekend - our train to the wedding town was cancelled yesterday so we had to hit-foot it to a different London station and get a train via Birmingham. Extra £110 for the two of us as original tickets weren’t valid and we arrived an hour late. Also bought M&S picnic for the train, though no need for food on the way back as I was at least 30% cheese at that point .

Work today, I usually wfh on Mondays but had to go in. So more £££, especially as no time to make lunch - got home from wedding at 00.30am yesterday. Am so knackered!

Will read back properly tomorrow, or possibly Thursday after deadline. Am typing this while brushing teeth, night night!

😱 sea! Crazy work deadlines and crazy hours! Hope you had some good sleep and feel refreshed today.

Em we trialled a night of dh sleeping in the spare room as he hasn't been sleeping well. Spare room is quieter, darker and cooler (our room is loft room) - I'm not sure how he slept yet as haven't seen him but I had such vivid dreams and tossed and turned. I have a feeling this happens a lot - no wonder he's not sleeping with me crashing around next to him 😂

I felt so blue yesterday - not sure why... I think a weekend of boozy bbqs didn't help my general mental health. I'm also on my knees counting down the days until the holidays (but also aware it's no proper 'holiday' as I have to keep three young children occupied for the duration!)

Bloody hell, our unlucky expensive year continues (car, tumble dryer, tent - all given up the ghost this year) as our tv broke. We've had to clear out our emergency fund to pay for a replacement. I had about 10 minutes of imagining a life tv free but then I remembered the upcoming holidays and I really can't imagine 6 long weeks without the obligatory movie-afternoon 😬!

Yeah, TV in the holidays is even more of an essential than in term time for sure! What rotten luck :( I’m sorry you feel blue.

End of term burnout is very much a Thing - even for me, and my kids don’t go to school?! But all their clubs have stuff on, trying to finish up schemes of work etc, I’ve planned like crazy but have been too exhausted to manage much of it so I’m now battling those feelings of failure however the summer holidays is now looking very different as DD is keen to catch up more and thus not take a complete break as originally demanded :o so I’m partly pleased to avoid the “summer slide” and partly thinking “oh crap no break for me then” - I’d wanted to spend more time planning and creating resources for next term .

Argh waffling again. See this is why I need to write a journal instead!

Blimey seacow that is one late night! Very dedicated my therapist emailed me at gone midnight. She is a working mum too. The important question though... what kind of cheese were you after the wedding? :o

Possibly NSD for me if I stay home, think we need a few bits from Asda as we forgot to order a shop but DH can do that. Trying to read my way through my Kindle library and spend less time faffing online (she says having just spent ages writing this).

If anyone is thinking of moving to bulb I’ve got a £75 each account credit code if you would like one. I suspect North will have one to share too.

Ds and dh deposited at nursery/work.

Popped into dparents for a coffee. As was up early.

Dm wanted to go to my fave wine shop (torture) to buy something lovely for dd for his 70th on Saturday. And she then offered to come and blitz our house. She’s a legend.

She spent £79 on a bottle of wine and a bottle of white port.

I spent £29 on a white wine (bogle - an American Chardonnay which the boss has been going on about for ages) and a small bottle of single malt for ddad from ds.

Cleaned the upstairs of the house.

Stopped in coop on way back to dparents (as I had to drop Dm back) and spent £11 on snacks. Sensations crisps Diet Coke soreeeeeeen malt loafs and some scones.

Dm made sandwiches. Cold home made beef burgers (left over from their dinner last night) with tomato relish in Portuguese rolls. Mmmmmm.

£5 Sainsbury's.
Just cancelled my prime membership as we've only had it a month and it's now £20 off. Got DH to sign up instead.

Scrub that changed from monthly to annual. So kept mine, £20 to me.
Could you do that wolf?

Mines on annual will check if I can get a saving

Grocery delivery, roughly £95, I think.