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.

Survived another Halloween, dd got out her old dressing up outfit and realised it didn't really fit so had to cobble together a costume. Went for a psycho school girl look complete with (fake) blood soaked shirt and pig tails! She looked good for a last min costume I think.

She went trick and treating with a friend and seemed to have fun, our estate goes mad at Halloween and loads of houses get really kitted out! I must have answered the door 50 times to trick and treaters and went through two big tubs of sweets.

I also ate crap and watched Stranger Things again 🤣

Dd has gone to bed with belly ache most likely sweet induced.

The dog has been really tired today and slept lots bless him, easy to forget he's still just a baby really.

Tayto I know exactly how you feel.

Nsd.

Spa was lovely. Had a swim in the pool (salt water pool) sauna steam and a chill out. Hot stone massage (dsis initially said back massage but she’s been sneaky and booked me a full body one). Then lunch in the hotel bar. Lovely. And she paid for everything.

We also got through two bottles of wine and the barman gave us tequila shots for free. At 4pm. I don’t even like tequila.

I’ve moved some money around this evening to make my savings up to a nice chunky round number.

🐇🐇🐇

Sounds divine Em. I love tequila although it's guaranteed to make me squiffy

Ocado order put in last night for today £85. Thinking we will either go out to lunch today or order takeaway later as it's the last day of half term. Ds is seeing h tomorrow and we will have sporting commitments and the mad rush to get ready for school and an overnight with work on Sunday.

Have made my regular overpayment to my other credit card this morning.

It was lovely wolf and much needed. The spa/relaxation that is. Tequila not so much.

Home day today. Laundry to do. Tidying to do. Cleaning bathroom. And if I can, sort a mountain of paperwork. Gym later.

Dh made a laughable comment this morning. He has no clothes. This is because instead of washing drying and putting them away like I was doing he asked I just leave his in a basket in the garage and he’d do it. He hasn’t done it. And cba to look for clothes. I directed him to the garage.

Sorry been missing awhile.

DD2 has been unwell all week. Fortunately for looking after her it is half term. Managed our couple of days away but she spent a lot of time asleep in the pushchair. Persuaded DP that she wasn’t looking much better so a GP visit was needed today. GP thinks either bladder infection (still from a couple of weeks ago) or possible scarlet fever. Other children from her year have had it recently. Need to call out of hours if she doesn’t improve by Sunday.

So DP went out to get her medicine. Got it, but now my car won’t start so he’s had to call the RAC... so still no medicine.

We realised yesterday that DP never registered the ownership of his car a year ago. MOT and road tax expired yesterday. Can’t tax it without MOT, car can’t be done until Wednesday.

I could actually cry! But I have resisted giving DP a piece of my mind for not sending off for his car ownership. Idiot.

Not too spendy this week as have mostly been at home. We might have to hire a car to replace DP’s until after the MOT and if mine is more than the battery. Plus taxis to and from garage on Wednesday due to childcare timings. Urrrrrgh.

Just spent 2.5 hours with a benefits advisor! We are now universal credit claimants. Yaaaaay. Sort of Frugaleer related I suppose. I’m knackered!

I can’t believe it’s November already. Honestly just want this year to be over.

5, yes 5! Hours of cleaning ds's room and we are not finished yet although we have both given up. Not the day out we planned but once started we couldn't stop. I have two full wheelie bins and we have also had a trip to the charity shop. At ds's request we have given up on lunch out and are having a take away tea instead as he wants some xbox time. My back hurts soooo much

H decided to tell me that a) he isn't being prosecuted, caution only and b) that the nice policeman will help him get more access to ds . Livid probably doesn't cover how I feel right now. I have put my foot down and said no overnights until suitable accommodation is found

wolf

Surely b) is somewhat unrealistic! The police don’t do that.

My car has been towed to the garage. Starter motor. Hopefully fixed on Monday.

DP has hired a car for us for the week, pick up tomorrow. We’ll use the one with no MOT etc only if DD2 suddenly gets more poorly in the meantime

Didn't see the with drawn post but the police alone cannot influence b. Wolf has never said the circumstances which irespect. The only way is if there is still multi agency involvement, all parties agree and it's in the best interests of the family.
A caution is still an admission of guilt and we don't know how that came to be the resolution.

Big hugs wolf.

I respect not irespect

Good for you for putting your foot down.

Bad luck on the car.

Lsd today. Friday breakfast.

A caution after all this time? Fuck. Sorry wolf and yeah I don’t see how the police have influence directly on contact

It's raining cats and dogs today. The Hallowe'en skeleton I'd laid out in the garden was soaked and muddy so I had to rinse off all the bones and dry them.They're all laid out in a pile on the dining table - looks like a macabre feast. I forgot to take in my owl last night so his feathers are all wet and he looks a bit sorry for himself. Hopefully he dries out ok.

I did some baking with DD this afternoon. We made flapjacks from the Mary Berry book. Really simple - just four ingredients. And kind of healthy 'cos they're made from porridge oats ignores sugar and butter and golden syrup and cooking chocolate. They tasted fab.

I made chicken curry yesterday so I'm having leftovers for dinner this evening. I think I'll have to look out for a new saucepan because it stuck to the bottom of the pot a bit. I'd love to invest in Le Creuset but it's €390 - €450 for a set of 3 saucepans . Maybe if I just bought one big one (in the January sales) for things like stews, casseroles, curries etc.? The smaller saucepans aren't used for such heavy duty stuff.

DD is with Ex this weekend so I'm visiting my Dad tomorrow and staying until Sunday evening.

em your spa day sounds lovely. Can't believe the laundry wars have started up again!

Love annoying that you have to pay for car hire when it could easily have been avoided. Fingers crossed the garage bill for your own car isn't too high.

Thanks for all the support guys, I know I can always count on you all and even my best friend doesn't know about the blood and guts of all this so this feels like the only place I can vent. Hopefully all this crap will be done soon and I can stop grumping about it. I am fuming today but will calm down

Tayto look at Sainsbury's cheapo le cruset it came out well in the shop well for less tests I seem to remember. Love flapjack, in fact I might make some tomorrow as I have condensed milk in the cupboard

Chinese ordered for tea, ds's choice. His room looks so much better and while there is still lore to do it is one less annoying chore bugging me every time I go in there. I have

Love sorry about the car. I would be biteing my tongue about the car registration whilst quietly smouldering in a corner

Tayto forgot to say can your gently hairdryer the owl?

Wolf someone else mentioned the Sainsburys cheap version of Le Creuset saucepans on the 'Things I have learnt since becoming rich' thread but unfortunately, we don't have Sainsburys here. I left the owl in the utility room to dry off. It's a plastic base with feathers stuck on, so it's just the feathers that are wet.

Wolf I agree with Life. Police can’t just wave a magic wand re contact. As for prosecution, we don’t know the details, fair enough, but I’m guessing that Whatever happened, and how you feel about it, that whole process would have been hard on DS. Silver linings, whatever other feelings you have. I expect it’s all very complicated .

Tayto I can’t believe how much chocolate you gave out. Was that 49 bags of the snack sized chocolate? . We got through about 20 bags and I thought that was a lot! I have le creuset, btw, and I think the casserole saucepans are fab. I use my medium one almost every day and have had it for 25 years. god I’m old . I don’t think the actual saucepans with one handle are great though because they are honestly too heavy to lift easily with one hand. I use normal good quality saucepans instead, and then the casserole for lots of stuff including hob to oven.

Nightmare Love. Hope DD perks up soon.

Lap I hope you end up better off after all that! I’ve heard bad things about the timelines involved in moving into UC - I gather it can cause additional hardship if delayed. Did your advisor have any advice Or reassurance about that? you don’t have to say, of course.

Extra day in the office today a due to unavoidable
Meetings (I normally wfh as it’s a short day due to school run at either end, and inefficient to commute). Office was lovely and quiet though! I have a lot of work to do this weekend unfortunately - maybe 6-7hours. Not sure when I’ll do it. We’re out on Sunday night at fireworks so can’t be leaving it till the last minute. Maybe tomorrow night. Fun fun fun.

Spends this month have been horrendous. I’ve got to pay the credit card off and basically I’ve spent my entire earnings this month. I knew it was expensive due to Peppa Pig mini break and DSises birthdays but even so, I need to be strict next month to save a bit extra to make up for it. This must not continue! I think I need to stop the extra clothes spends for DC and myself and also the small spends like coffees, lunch etc. Since work has got extra stressful I’ve relapsed . Also not good for th diet. I’m going to try and do a more comprehensive Ocado shop tonight to stop so much topping up. Meal planning lunches as well as dinners.

Wow that must be so hard not to be able to tell your best friend everything either :(

I got a bit freaked out as I saw on threads I’m on a suggestion to hairdry an owl with no context 🙈

No idea if better off tbh sea but it is what it is. Yes the issue is that it pays in arrears so people are often screwed for the first month. However due to the council screwing up big time (a few wrong data entries and we were suddenly ineligible so they stopped HB for 2 months) we were screwed already, but my parents thankfully helped us out. So now that’s sorted and they don’t want paying back ❤️ we will be fine. Also DH should be getting his final pay of holiday/notice period etc. So the wait for UC shouldn’t be an issue at all really

Seacow I made up 50 treat bags - each bag contained a funsize bar/box of smarties, a lollipop and a small bag of Haribo jellies. I bought the funsize bags in Lidl - they were 3 for €5. Hallowe'en is massive in Ireland and every kid goes trick or treating. I'm always amused at the angst on MN over whether it's appropriate to bring your DC trick or treating or whether it amounts to begging . We live on the edge of town so we get vanloads lots of kids ferried in from nearby rural areas. Even though DD is too old to go trick or treating now, I'm still happy to answer the door to other kids and give them a treat. I still remember the excitement of dressing up and going trick or treating when I was a kid although we didn't get sweets back then . We just got handfuls of monkey nuts and maybe a few grapes or a small apple. And we didn't say, "Trick or Treat". We used to say, "Help the Hallowe'en party". At some point the expression 'Trick or Treat' took over.

The Mary berry flapjack is my go to. It's lush and freezes well. Overcooked slightly makes good cycling snacks.

£65 Aldi, £25 Iceland

Yesterday sounds lovely em
Love the thoughts of your dh having no clothes because they've not been washed. However it would be just as easy to do everyone's laundry together wouldn't it?

Love grrr about the cars, hope dd2 recovers quickly

Laputa glad ye got everything sorted out

Wolf without going into any details, is there a reason that h can't spend more time to ds, is ds at risk? Only thinking it'd give you a break if he did.

Tayto I've le creuset style casserole pot from range Tesco (bernes I thunk is brand name)did a few years ago I love it, there's le creuset in Kildare village maybe you might avail of a sale there. I dream that dc will come home from college dying to know what wonderful food I've cooked in it, but reality is, they'll probably come home to an empty house & wait for me to come back from work
The ones that appear in Aldi from time to time seem sturdy too.

Sea good luck with getting that work done