Friendly frugaleers as the leaves fall our bank balances will rise, hopefully!

[lifelongfrugaleer]

Couldn't see one so took the liberty of starting a new thread.

Irresponsible dog owner...

Last night was fun.

Dparents came to babysit the kiddos and ddad dropped us into town.

Dh took me to a naice cocktail bar first then we went to the restaurant. Had two passion fruit basil gin based cocktails. Yum.

Got to restaurant 5 mins before our table time. Table not quite ready so had a drink at the bar (ordered a bottle of alpataco Malbec if anyone’s interested. It was delish!). 20 mins later table still not ready so I asked how much longer we’d be waiting. The manager said we could have the table right in front of the bar/waiting/holding area. Not a nice table. I said no. But then said we’d have it if we didn’t have to pay for dinner (which we’d already ordered). Funnily enough 10 minutes later a table was made available. Dh told them it was a belated birthday meal for me. They’d moved another group of people to accommodate us.

Steak was yum. Wine yum. They brought us two glasses of champagne as an apology for the wait and took the wine off the bill. Dh paid £66 for chateaubriand chippies squeaky buttery garlicky French beans chilli baked broccoli pepper sauce.

Pays to be politely disappointed and assertive.

Home by 11. Bed.

Dd is super snuffly. Poor baby. I’m tempted to use snufflebabe rub on her. It says from 3 months. She’s 11 weeks tomorrow. That’s ok right?

girlie ds still at 18 is very wary of dogs & it stems I think from an incident when he was little. Some owners are so irresponsible, well done to your dd. The Ilfracombe break sounds lovely.
happier great news on the house, fingers crossed it works out for you.

I too have heaps of washing to do. It will all get spun & tumble dried as, guess what, it's raining again here!
Had a lovely evening with dd, we made a tapas style tea and watched Dirty Dancing. She is clearly the perfect age for it as she loved it, but now possibly has completely unrealistic expectations of romance!!

Hey everyone 👋

Have been doing quite well, spent £61 in Asda, £18 at the market and £7 in Poundland. Also spent £18 in Home Bargains mostly on toilet roll, cleaning stuff and Skinny Whip bars.

Two weeks until payday for us, £76 left in the food account, that's for next Saturday's food shop only, will be tight but I'll make a list and stick to it, we have a good store cupboard and lots in the freezer so I'm hoping we can manage. I buy bananas when I get to work but that's only 30p here and there.

The reason things are tight this month is mostly because I've been trying to get some Christmas presents in early to alleviate the cost/stress nearer the time and I'm doing quite well, so pleased about that, earlier in the year dh went to boots and picked up a fair amount of stuff when they had 70% off of the Christmas stock, so I'll be using that up rather than buying stuff.

How's everyone else doing budget wise? It's such a struggle, especially when your out with the kids etc. But I'm slowly getting to grips with thinking before buying!

Easily done in Primark thats it’s a dangerous place! Mind you I can also pop into Asda for milk and spend £20 in the blink of an eye

Jeez girlie such a horrible experience :( That’s a great bargain on a night away, the cost of a meal out and you get a mini break, awesome!

Well done camden I’m not doing very well with budgeting at the moment. Trying to be much more sensible generally though.

This happens to me in primark when we go. We don’t have one here so I stock up on basics.

Half term break sounds lovely Girlie. I also hate irresponsible dog owners, DS is petrified of dogs after being jumped at when small by BIL’s dog

Quiet weekend here, thank goodness - I’m so tired after the last few weeks! I started decluttering the study yesterday in an attempted to reach my sewing machine, which was buried there. I got it out but had to find the manual to remember how to wind a bobbin - my teenage self would be horrified! Anyway, I started an advent calendar for DS years ago and it needs to be finished THIS YEAR! It’s going to be hard as it’s very fiddly and I’ve never actually machine quilted. But here goes. I want to make one for DD too, but that definitely overambitious - they might need to share this year.

Anyway, had a lovely brunch out with DD after her ballet yesterday (‘mummy, I’d like a pain au chocolate pleeeaaaase’ ). About £12. We met up with a friend and her DD and had a nice chat. Then the tidying/crafting all afternoon. Strictly and home made curry last night with some knitting - was bliss! Today is more tidying /laundry /crafting and a roast chicken dinner with apple and blackberry crumble for pud. DH is excited .

I’m not as prepared for Brexit as I was last time so I can feel a big shop coming on. I have a voucher for some money off Sainsbury’s so might go there next week and stock up a bit. Space is the issue as my kitchen is tiny. I’m also wary of mice if I start hiding food in other places!

You’ve all been very chatty this morning, I need to read back. We are currently frugally eating Fridays leftover pizza for lunch and I have some Morrison’s “fresh” bake yourself cookies in the oven.

Need to order a new phone case and screensaver. Thinking of having the battery replaced as I’m not upgrading and the battery is knackered. Apple seen to have dropped the charges for battery replacement by about 50%

Tbf I leave all my washing for a weekend and I have stripped the beds which is 2-3 loads. Had to do sofa cover as dog vommed on it.
Contemplating a heated airier. Or I could just wash each day so it dries.
Done a mass clean to in the upstairs so looking good but too much clutter and rooms need rearranged and decorating. Odd DIY jobs too.
Raining here.
Facebook sales some bits rest will go to charity if no sale.
Age 8-9 boys shorts and t-shirts if anyone interested

Raining here too so that puts pay to my laundry outside plan.

I’ve sorted the hamper though and have a load on now, then four baskets ready to be washed. They won’t all be done today but I’ll get them done by Wednesday. Just taking a break from sorting the dry clothes.

Dh and ds have gone to fils. I’ve tidied ds’ room so it’s ready for him to maybe have a nap when he gets back.

Dd is sleeping. She is so so snuffly and snotty. I’ve raised one end of her basket up as high as I can and it seems to be helping her. Just going to let her sleep today I think. And feed her whenever she wants it. As far as I can tell no temperature so that’s good.

I can sense a bit of a hangover coming. Ffs.

Life ds is currently 7-8 so might be 8-9 by next summer so would be interested

@WreckTangled

Happy to package them up for you

Thanks so much life they look great. I can PayPal postage for you

Just caught up - I'm loving the general autumnal feeling on the thread 🍂🍂🍂!

So much snuggling, roasting, knitting and strictly! As much as I'm getting fed up with the constant rain, I can totally get on board with the coziness! I'm tucked up on the sofa with all 3 dds, on our second film of the day and have shared a bowl of popcorn and a bowl of chocolate raisins 😋! They're all bathed and in pjs as went out for a very wet puddle walk before lunch.

I wish we had a roast to look forward to but following 3-4 weeks of whiny Sunday lunches (dd3 is fussy and loud about it!) we've decided to go for a different approach and are having sweet and sour chicken and noodles instead 😂.

My budget is going ok. There have been lots of small, unbudgeted spends that have all added up but I've kept food budget quite low and have had a couple of low-cost weekends. However, low cost means close to home and we're all itching for a change of scene - we have a few days away in Dorset at half term and really need it.

Posting quickly - no time to read. Just cleaned out the porch which was rapidly turning into something from a horror movie a spider colony. Although a friend did suggest leaving all the cobwebs intact for Halloween! Going to jump in the shower in a minute and give my hair a good scrub.

Also managed to find DD's credit union book. Her school tour is coming up soon and she was panicking because she couldn't find it and wanted to take out some spending money.

So a productive and LSD so far. Heading into Lidl in a bit to get some groceries. This evening I'm watching 'Twilight' with DD and then we'll whizz through pre-recorded Strictly to find out who's going out. I love the Saturday night show but don't have the patience for an hour of padding on Sunday night as well. Anyone else watching 'The Americas' with Simon Reeve? Really enjoyed the first episode last week.

Living the high life basically - wrestling spiders and planning my TV viewing .

We're on budget. Same as always nothing spare but can pay the bills.

Been to town, spends;

Superdrug £19 toiletries, did buy some cg friendly hair stuff for me which was £8 😳 am still on a mission for nice hair!!

Wilkos £16 light bulbs (they were on 3 for 2) and some Halloween bits

Topshop £12 on some leggings for dd, she rarely asks for anything clothes wise and liked these ones.

£10 Poundland sanpro, cleaning bits and chocolate! I must be due on 🤣

£22 TK max on two t shirts for my brothers bday gift.

We got a Greggs for lunch £3.50 ish and then had a cup of tea and a hot choc in coffee 1 £5. I asked for a cookie which came out broken so they gave it to me for 50p - small frugal win 😁

We took the dog with us and he was perfectly behaved 😇 and is now knackered so win win 😉 Was asked in Wilkos if he is an assistance dog and dd said yes 😶 tbf he does help dd to stay calm in busy areas like town where she normally struggles! I did also tell dd to go outside with him! Lots of shops don't mind dogs now it seems and some actively welcomed him!

Sun has finally come out so going to do a bit of tidying in the garden and poss some baking as well.

It’s been non-stop rain here for what feels like weeks now. Ds is now of an age where rain does not stop play in his sport so it means we’ve been wet a lot. Also struggling to keep on top of the washing as no tumble drier. My heated airer is worth it’s weight in gold but it does restrict me to one big load a day
Things are very tight on the budget front this month, not quite sure why but think I will need to take money from savings for ds’s birthday tea and for half term (assuming I can have any time off)

Dm has found my old duplo house for ds to play with. 30 plus year old duplo. Ds is fascinated with it.

Thanks Girlie, glad pup and your dd are ok, what is it with irresponsible dog owners?
Glad you had a nice time em.
Happier, thank you, my lovely.

Yesterday was an expensive day
£18.95 hair cut.
£42.30 in boots, on new cleansing stuff, foundation and lipsticks, but will get £9 back from a colleague, as she asked me to get her one.
£15.32 in b and m on some new stationery for dd2 for christmas and some bits for the children at work.
£14 in tiger, again for bits for work, I'm working on building up little bags/boxes of the children's interests and surprise bags/boxes for story time.
£46.30 in primark, on some cami's for me, a new water bottle, that was reduced to 3 quid! Skirt, jumper and a black demin dress with pockets for me. And a snood each for me and dd2.
£83 in Apricot for me, but that was for 5 dresses, all in the sale, would have been just shy of £150 if full price.
£3.33 in entertainer on a figit cube for dd2, I'm hoping it will help with her anxiety.
£53.67 Ocado.

Today was a NSD though

@WreckTangled I will work it out and message you. Might be later in the week as I'm in Sheffield tomorrow and DH is away all week.

Thanks. No rush

€12.50 McDonald's for dc
€4.70 on quarter pounder at local chip shop
€4.25 centra strawberries for lunches & drinks for myself & ds
€42.50 on pjs & slippers for dc & a thermal vest for me @ Penneys/Primark

£6 good housekeeping Christmas food

Ooh Life, I’m .

Wfh today. Should be nsd. I need to tidy up some of my tidying today - anyone know that phenomenon where tidying and sorting seems to make things so much worse for a while?!