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

[LivingInLaputa]

All welcome. Couldn’t see another thread!

Wreck sorry to hear things are so tough
Camden depending on the company can you cancel the holiday, I had to do this last year and then rebook. I’d paid the full amount and I got everything but £180 back.

It has been a tough week. I am exhausted and in pain. I cried at work yesterday (luckily everyone else had left) because after working non-stop for 14 hours someone was really mean to me and I lost it

I am also grumpy re money but feel bad for moaning because my problem is not a problem in comparison to some of these I am just having a tax annoyance

Am happy with all I bought just to learn to use them!!

Sorry things are still tight with DH boss wreck.
Ah wolf people are twats. No need to be mean.

Oo nice haul happier. Fake blood though. It is for Halloween or are you going Goth?

I spotted the fake blood too!!
We are going to two Halloween parties. One for the kiddies. I’m going as a witch and am going to dress Dd as a cat. And use her car seat as a cauldron.

The other is dead rock/pop stars. So I’m going to be “zombie winehouse”. Skinnies heels tank top biker jacket and loads of fake tattoos. Biiiiiig hair. And zombie face.

Trying to persuade dh to go as Prince.

Gym was ace. So so good to be back.

Sorry to hear some of you are having a really shit week 💐

I've not got very far with thinking what to get dd this year for Christmas. I thought I might get her a nice canvas print of her and the puppy. She'd like a metal detector but I don't even know where to start looking for one of those 😳

Payday tomorrow.

I've got a friends bday spa day next week which will be lovely but I don't know how I'm going to afford it (about £75 plus travel costs 😩)

Ugh would be lovely to just do things and not worry about the cost.

Looked round a secondary school this evening. It’s the only one with space in her year but I really liked it anyway. Not due to academics but due to the SN support which is a much bigger priority. Loads of flexibility with timetables etc.

Also doctor has agreed to give DD blood tests due to her period lasting so long this month. It finally stopped today. 24 fucking days. Ludicrous, poor kid.

I am not being frugal. Like, at all.

Only realised that was in pic after! Definitely for Halloween

Lap that's great about the school, your dd must be exhausted from that mammoth period

Wreck I don't get it the schools not struggling financially

I'll catch up with other posts tomo I'm falling asleep

Love the idea of a zombie popstar party! Dd has a couple to go to. I've been Pinteresting easy face paint ideas.

Payday today. Have already transferred 2/3 of it to nursery. I'm looking forward to when I get to keep my money!

A month long period 😱 your poor dd!! Did the dr seem concerned that it had gone on for so long? When is your dd looking to start school?

I was up early with the puppy so have come back to bed for a bit, seem to have another headache as well 😩

It's also my payday today, have worked out the figures and as always it looks fine on paper!!

Extras this month include spa day £75, three bdays £40 ish on gifts (both brothers and my godmother) plus starting on Christmas gifts.

It ended up being DH who spoke to the doctor (on the phone, I promised DD I wouldn’t drag her in yet as she’s mortified), so not sure how she reacted exactly. She did say we could speak to her at any time about the possibility of hormone treatment but I really don’t want to rush into putting her on the pill. She’s so young. :( I’m really hoping that as the first three were relatively normal (heavy, but normal length and perfectly regular too) that this is just a random blip as her body adjusts.

Re school, DH and I disagree on this, he would rather wait longer and get the EHCP, but I think this is the one school where I’d be happy with her starting soon, and I don’t want to lose the place I know is available. Ideally I’d love for her to start in January and have one last term home ed. But that may be risky. I’m completely snowed under in my head about it TBH. Too much to think about! I haven’t even looked at the EHCP stuff yet as it scares me. But the main thing is they said - without me even considering asking - that as she’s been home ed for a long time they would do a VERY staggered start. Which is ace.

Woke up to find Cagletini lining up stuff (crappy photo as I was looking through the high chair legs!) :o DS also taught her to bow and say “namaste” 🤔

So sweet @LivingInLaputa, I love the look of concentration on her face for her very important task .
NSD so far today but supermarket delivery will be about £75 as it includes some alcohol, and we are going out tonight.

Aw thanks. Yeah I love her focus face! Neither of my other two (both autistic) lined stuff up at this age. She’s in a nappy btw I haven’t posted a naked baby pic 😳 although she is starkers much of the time TBH.

My DS lined things up at this stage Lap, though I don’t think it’s uncommon in NT kids either. With DS the phase never passed though.

For your DD1, a very phased start might be as god as a delay and may also help the EHCP process, if the school is supportive their reports can really help (I found this with DS - private nursery input was non-existent but the school was much more helpful). The EHCP process is a marathon but needs must, so good luck! 💪🏻

I swallowed a frog today and called up about my leaky conservatory. They are coming to look at it next week. I know they will tell me I should have called them sooner, but they will also tell me I should have had the gutters cleaned out and I literally can’t find anyone who is willing to clean conservatory gutters so I haven’t managed to do that first! Anyway, it’s only 4 years old and water is literally pouring in now so they need to sort it out, gutters or not.

I also tried to put the curtain rail back up in DD’s room (pulled down by DS) but couldn’t do it - the plaster is crumbling so it just won’t hold. I’ve called a handyman who is going to have a look, hopefully tomorrow. And the plumber is coming to fix my leaky loo on Monday (waiting for a part). So all will be a bit spendy but unavoidable. Plumber also looked at the leaky shower in the man in bathroom and said it’s the grouting that needs renewing... but the invisible leak has already rotted the floor underneath so we also need a carpenter to pull the bathroom floor up and hopefully fix it without having to pull the whole shower cubicle out (that would basically mean we may as well get a new bathroom). ££££££££. Sigh. Why does everything go wrong at once?

NSD though, if you can believe it. Ocado and hair colouring tomorrow.

I’m about to embark on painting DD’s reclaimed bookcase as soon as the DC are in bed. I’ve lightly sanded it so hoping the furniture paint takes okay. It says no primer required but I’ll be pleasantly surprised if it really works!

Happy Friday!

Payday at last!!! After putting everything into its place I'm left with £468 for food , payday next month is 25th so not a five week month thank goodness.

Today's spends were £3.50 in Waitrose, £6 in new look for some socks, and £8.99 for shampoo in Holland & Barrett for dd.

I planned to go to Pandora as they've got 3for2 on everything until 2 October, but I might just give it a miss, I have got a little money saved for Christmas, but I think I'll wait and see what happens nearer the time.

Hope everyone is looking forward to the weekend, weather is pretty grim here and it's been raining on and off for the last few days.

Pay day on Monday for me. Payslip looks ok for my in year award. And it got taxed so will do a bit of Christmas and DIY from it.

Aldi last night £77 food definitely going up add nothing from the middle aisles.

The school sound great lap. If DD is up for it I say go for it with the staggered start.

Morning all, up with the puppy who is now snoozing by my feet!

Went to a local garden centre Ystd afternoon, spent £7 on drinks and cake and around £15 on a few bits including gifts for upcoming bdays.

Today plan is to catch up at home, the garden needs a tidy up before putting it to bed for the year. I'm also going to do my bit for the local community and plant some daffodils around the estate. I love daffs and there's none round here so will be lovely to see in spring.

Need to pop to Aldi as really low on fresh food.

We had pancakes for dinner last night, they were fun to make and delicious! Not the healthiest dinner but a nice treat 🥞

Nsd yesterday. Swimming. Coffee with work colleagues ds and Dd. Colleague has three grown up boys (youngest is 24) and produced two massive boxes of brio for ds to play with. Brio and a chocolate brownie and ds was happy as!!

Weather wasn’t great for swimming in her pool though. (Her place is gorgeous! Super cosy and homey and enormous!)

Met a friend for a wine after she finished work. Dh picked Ds and Dd up from dparents and stayed for dinner with them. Then picked me up on the way back.

Ds woke up at 130 this morning. Took me ages to settle him again.

We’re sat in jammies now watching cbeebies and eating toast.

Morning all. Spends today will be bread, some nice bits to take to friends as they are feeding us again and some beers at the pub.

Morning! Hair colour today, about £60ish? And Ocado £125 . Never seem to get much below that these days, but then we’re big eaters.

I also need to go to Homebase for another pot of paint for the bookcase as one pot isn’t going to do it, unfortunately. One coat on and it’s looking patchy but it will look great when it’s done. It’s not as smooth as I’d like as its showing the brush lines a bit - the paint is quite thick and I wish now I’d thinned it down a bit but hey ho. I am also trying to decide whether to rake all the grout out in my shower cubicle myself, and re-grout, or pay someone to do it. Never done it but I imagine it’s not too difficult, just tedious. It needs doing pretty soon though. Hmmm.

Ds is going on a school trip on Monday so I get to make him a special packed lunch. I always get a bit excited about that . School has a healthy packed lunch policy but they are a bit more relaxed for trips so I can probably sneak a bit of banana bread in. I’ll make him some cheese and chive scones too. And I’m making my ultimate comfort food chicken and leek pie for dinner tomorrow, yum.

It’s going to be a lovely, relaxed and productive weekend on the home front. I am feeling cheerful.

Hope you all have a good weekend!

Ooh, and I forgot to say, I took the sides off DD’s cot yesterday to turn it into a toddler bed so she slept in a big girl’s bed last night for the first time. She was fine and is very pleased with herself today. My baby is growing up!

£19 top up shop. We had s take away last night. First one in ages. They were very slow delivering and I called them to chase it up so they gave us a discount and threw in a free starter we hadn't ordered. Result!

I’ve worked out that I have about £100 a week for food, fuel and everything else to stop me going in my overdraft this month. Argh!
Last month was expensive so really need to get back on track as this months pay is last one from old job. New job is going well but the pay will be worse. I’m dreading it.

That's tricky little. We struggle to keep to £160 a week for food and fuel. We use a lot of fuel though and try to eat less

Warning light has come back on in the car so I need to book it in for a set of glow-plugs before the weather gets too cold. I get my performance bonus on Monday too Life but have had the absolute life taxed out of it - money will go on car repair and will save whatever is left for solicitor costs when we get to that point. Really need a new autumn rain coat as I boiled in my winter one so will keep my eye out for a bargain

@Littlechocola your budget is similar to mine this month, I had £468 to last until next payday (25th Oct) I worked out a meal plan last night and wrote a shopping list but still went over by £20.

Had a leg wax this morning which was £25, a big expense when your on a tight budget but worth it I think, spent £16 at the market and then £65 in Asda, a few things I didn't plan on buying, and a few I had to change as they weren't available, plus £3.50 in savers, so say £85 in total which leaves £15 for the rest of the week. I won't be buying any lunches this week just some fruit.

A but annoyed as something I picked up that was supposed to be £1.75 each or 2 for £2.50 wasn't reduced on the bill, I think I might take my receipt in on Tuesday and see if I can get a refund, it's so bad when they do that, I wouldn't have picked up two for full price.

The sun is out here so DH is also out trying to sort the garden - it's a complete dump but he's trying his hardest to make it look a little better.

Hope everyone is enjoying their Saturday!