Had a Spendy Summer? Join the Friendly Frugaleers as we Segue Smoothly into a Sensible September

[LivingInLaputa]

All welcome. Couldn’t see another thread!

camden oh I’m sorry about your nan

life I think new look is fairly colour fast. I had maternity jeans from there which I wore all the time. Didn’t fade as far as I could tell.

At dentist now. Such a mission to get here this morning.

Told dh we were leaving at 8. Because traffic. Dd woke up at 630 for a feed. Dh made bottle and I took her. Asked him to shower so he could then take Dd while I got ready (ds not awake yet). Dh has to drink his coffee

So I fed Dd then Ds woke up then we had to get everyone ready and all use the bathroom pretty much at the same time. All bundled into the car and ds dropped at nursery.

The reason for this madness is that dh booked an acupuncture appointment at 930. So also needed to be out.

But I’m here. This is potentially my last Invisalign appointment. Eeeeek! I am so so pleased with the progress of my teeth. They’re so straight!!!! The occasional pain and uncomfortableness and extortionate cost we’re absoluteky worth it.

I also transferred £2500 from my Hsbc savings (at 0.1%) to my Lloyd’s account (at 1.10%). Kept £2000 in Hsbc as it’s an instant access one and the Lloyds is (but I’ll get the max interest if I make zero withdrawals).

All packed and ready to leave for our tipi trip. Need to put air in tyres before I go as the machine was broken yesterday and draw some cash out.

After two beautiful days it's raining here! We've been swimming and to the arcades 💰 💰 this morning, now back indoors cooking pizza for lunch.

Yesterday was a really nice day, in the afternoon the girls spent ages at a little private beach that's a few minutes walk from where we are staying and only has access from this site, once the tide came in and we had to leave they showered and we went to the local marina, did some crabbing and got some amazing ice cream to bring home, we then all played card games, dd1 is almost 14 and doesn't usually join in or take part, but she's been like a different person she's really enjoying herself and she's even getting on with dd2 (11) this is very unusual!!

Dh wants to go out this afternoon but we don't want to spend too much or go shopping etc so unsure what will happen, having fish & chips for dinner though!

How's everyone feeling about going back to school? This summers feels like it's gone by very quickly - dh took dd2 to get a school blazer back in April and it was ordered but not delivered until last week, he's collected it and it's age 9-10 which is about 3 sizes smaller than she needs, so we now need to find a time to take it back and hope they've got a bigger size in stock, the shop only opens between 1-3pm so it's a bit of a pain!

Can anyone join in?

Yes of course mog welcome! :)

Have a great time wolf

Hello to all

Got our first Approved Foods order today. Not bad. DH had tried a gluten free “mystery box” type thing which definitely wasn’t worth it (lots of random obscure stuff rather than the pasta and crackers etc I imagined - and one thing is not actually GF so we need to email about that) but the other stuff was cool. Will definitely use now and then.

DH got his latest pay and it’s stopped now, he got the grand sum of £36. So it’s now time for ESA I suppose. He’s going to go to the job centre shortly. Obviously inevitable but the timing sucks. Getting really overwhelmed with everything that needs sorting, it’s like an admin version of Buckaroo 🙈

em, glad you got to the dentist on time.
Wolf have a great trip.
Camden, the holiday has gone quick but I can't wait for the routine to be back again.
That is rubbish about the blazer though! And it sounds like you are all having a great holiday.
mog, welcome and to all new posters too.
Laputa I've heard of approved foods, but have never ordered anything because I thought you had to put in a large order, is this what you did?
Good luck to your dh with the jobcentre, hopefully things will be sorted quickly for you

We are done! Done with the Invisalign. Dentist was super pleased with the progress. He’s ordered my retainers for the rest of my life and has ordered the whitening treatment. Yay!!!!

Fucking hell happier. That's a turn up. Hope the offer come in on the house. Fingers crossed.

Thanks em. My DD11 3/4 didn't approve it

Happy trip away wolf.
Welcome mog.

Make a list lap and cross some stuff off that you have done just to see you have achieved more than you think. Good luck to DH.

Yeah straight teeth em.

£166 on shoes X2 and trainers X2 DD is now in adult shoes
£55 Primark, £33 lunch plus £3 tip. Not worth it.
£15 skatepark, £5 DD pocket money, £10 DS as he has earned extra. £i forget but not much in Aldi

I keep meaning to try approved food and muscle food but not get to it. Will add it to my list.

Can’t believe you’re done with it already em that’s amazing! Seems like no time at all ago you were signing up for it.

Yes you have to make up a certain weight or something for approved foods I think? TBH it’s a bit like amazon and Poundland, there are some things in there that aren’t a bargain at all really, but I’d say it’s worth a look. I’m not sure when we would do it again as the bulk of the spend this time was the gluten free box (not worth it for us) and some hotel chocolat stuff DH treated me to 🙈❤️ but it’s one of those things that’s always changing so worth keeping an eye on.

DH has an appt for next Wed to apply for it all properly at the job centre. Fucking ESA. Was a nightmare last time.

I know lap I’m so so pleased with it. I’ll post a pic of the before and after aligners later.

Life admin is a nightmare isn’t it?! I do admin all day at work and am super organised but when it comes to home stuff....nope.

What I’ve started doing is trying to do one thing a day. I’ve also grabbed all the paperwork in one place. That was this mornings job. Get all paperwork in one place.

Tomorrow I’m going to sort it. Junk, info, to do.

Then I’m going to put the to do in order of urgency. And then just do one thing.

Sorry to hear about your Nan Camden

laputa

Hope you have a good holiday wolf and curvy had a good time

Hope you stashed the cash away quickly happier

Yay for the end of the teeth stuff em

Hope everyone else is ok too

Back to work has been a struggle. Last night my head was buzzing so couldn’t sleep. I’m already back on the constantly recruiting. I think we could be looking to recruiting 4 or 5 posts by the end of next week. Last school year it never stopped!

Trying to be frugal but eBay is my downfall at the moment. £22.

Tomorrow will be haircuts for the DC, and I really need to name all the school uniform.

Me too em. Super organised at work with paperwork, at home nope.

I have neither the time i do if I get off my phone or the inclination to live admin so it's a stress

Took two of the dc out today. £67! We’ve not done much in the holidays so I guess it’s not too awful.

Thanks for the welcome
Have just resigned from my job so need to cut back majorly. Need another but need to get my head straight first this job has made me quite ill. So last pay day will be the 10th September. (Although they are making noises about me working past that ).
Dh works full time so we are covered bill wise but it will be tight till I get something.
So any tips greatly received

I need to get comfy in this thread again! It has dawned on me how we are wasting loads of money on lunches and stuff from poor planning and now DD is 15 months and generally in bed by around 7.30/8 on a night we don't have any excuse! Need to sort this asap and account for my terrible spends. So today:

£4.60 on coffee and pastry in local cafe Not doing that again anytime soon I swear
£2.30 bus to work
£611 September nursery fees - for context this is around 2/3 of my monthly take-home pay! We only really survive because of our benefits and DH's little grant.

Hope everyone is well?

Hey meadow, lovely to see you!

Frugal win yesterday. I paid a deposit to nursery when DD2 started there. Once our final bill is settled, they owe me £21

mog meal planning is a favourite here.

My tip is, if you happen to buy new clothes but three weeks later they still have their tags on unused, return them for a refund as you don’t really need it . And keep your receipts.

Evening all,

feeling a bit stressed here as I seem to have a long to do list and no time to do any of it! I've got a good friend coming on Friday with her two young children, am really looking forward to seeing her but it's going to be full on! Two young kids, one stroppy teen and a crazy puppy in one tiny two bed 🤪

I have unapologetically bribed dd to behave when they're down 😶 I know she will struggle with the chaos but I'm going to need her to keep it together!!

Spent £97 in Aldi tonight 😮 this is a personal record!! It's the first shop in nearly 3 weeks and will last two weeks plus I bought extra for the wend and brexit!! So quite cheap really 😉

Lovely to see you meadow and welcome mog my tip is avoid shops, sounds obvious but just going into town less saves me a fortune!! Also go through your direct debits with a fine tooth comb and get rid of anything you don't need and check you're on the best deal for everything else!

Oh girlie I am exactly the same, so much to do but zero time to do and by the weekend I'm too exhausted to do much!

I'm
Already feeling 😬 about going back to work next week, I have dd1 birthday on Monday and dd2 starts senior school on Tuesday, looking at my emails today I know there's going to tons of crap to sort out!

Payday on Friday, I can't wait to put everything in its correct place and then work with what's left, I filled out a financial planner so I'm working with that in order to save as much as possible, we still have no roof on the house and not a peep from thieving builder. So first thing we need to do is get the house ready for the roof, which is carpentry, bricks and then the roof felted, batons and tiled this will cost thousands, but is essential before the winter. Makes me feel sick thinking about it.

Welcome mog, sometimes health and happiness is worth more than a job that's getting you down. Get yourself better and in the right frame of mind. You may be amazed at how much you can save your family week to week by being around more. I agree with girlie about not going in to shops. Today I automatically thought I needed bread, milk and spread but actually, we can have crusts for morning toast rather than our usual porridge, with peanut butter so no need for spread and I've made pasta salad for tomorrow's picnic rather than sandwiches = NSD today (I will definitely need milk tomorrow - can cope for one morning without tea but that's my limit!)

NSD.
Hi meadow 👋
mog, if you can do your weekly shop online, that way you won't be tempted by other things. Also if you need to pop to the local shop just take the cash you need.

Hi Meadow! Wow, 15m already...

Em finishing with the braces must feel amazing! That’s gone so quickly!

Lap do you think DH is well enough to work at all at the mo, if he finds the right thing? Hope you get the ESA sorted out.

Work, blah. I forgot to take my house keys, with my locker key on, so had to buy tea today as no mug - doh! Restricted myself to two cups, £3.20 at work canteen. Also £97 for new laptop battery as mine went from not-too-bad to completely dead literally overnight and I depend on it for work. Wasn’t expecting that cost though. And now I’m going to have to be brave and actually install it - I’ve never even dared to take the back off a laptop, wibble!

Morning!!!!

Dd has decided 430 is wake up time. To be fair I last fed her at 1030. So around 5 hours straight sleep. Does this count as sleeping through?!?!

Just moved some more money across to my higher interest savings ac.

When it’s proper daytime I need to dig out my pay details from work and then do a mat leave house budget and amend my standing orders to our joint ac. Need to go in ottoman under bed for this and need laptop.

Also need to count up change in my jar and pay that in. And make appointments to open accounts for ds and Dd with Lloyd’s. And Dd with Hsbc (online access with this one Lloyd’s not so much!)