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.

I made meatballs in it recently and I just found the sauce was tasteless and the meatballs were like rocks. Need to try the sauce out in oven/on hob to see if that was the issue as I've used those meatballs before.

I'm in a quandary regarding Christmas too, H basically didn't contribute last year. I thought house would be sold and we'd be sorted with regard to his contribution to things by now. It looks unlikely sale will complete before year end now. I've got money in my Christmas club at work & could use this but there's a house come up for rent that would suit us and would need deposit paid this week, this would be more than I have in my Christmas club but would guarantee the house for us.

H is hit and miss/up and down/unpredictable at the moment.

I don't want to do anything to jeopardise the sale of our house, and he holds the cards with this. He did text over a week ago saying he had their Santa letters, and I replied with and what do you think and got no response at all.

Born that’s a very helpful comment about the instapot. I think you’ve nailed why it’s not for me, i would love the speed but not at the expense of the tweaking. I shall not give it any further thought!
And Really sorry about your MIL too, that’s so hard. How is your DH/P taking it?

I am so far removed from popular culture Lap, I had no idea 😂. I think I can live without it. Until my DC drag me kicking and screaming into the new millennium, music-wise.

Wreck you need a lucky break. Seems unfair that you and your DH can work so hard and still have things so tight. I bet you will give your kids a lovely Christmas though, whatever the budget.

Feeling a bit depressed today. I’m tired after just 3 hours sleep, and still drowning in work. Mum has said she has a stomach bug and can’t look after DD this week so DH and I are having to take a day off each. AL we haven’t really got to spare and more work stress but can’t be helped. DM is trying to move house and her solicitor is being useless, stress really does make her susceptible to everything and she doesn’t bounce back so quickly so hope that’s all resolved soon as I worry about her. She’s desperate to move, she needs a fresh start after losing dad .

Also my leaky mouldy conservatory... guy came to fix it on Thursday. After much muttering and ‘fixing’ of the box guttering he said he’d be ‘amazed’ if it leaks now. Saturday morning - huge new puddles on the ruined wooden floor. I got a roofer in today and he said it is definitely not the adjacent roof, it’s the conservatory roof and guttering. Have called them to get someone out and the office lady was as charming as ever . Will call me back tomorrow, apparently. So another day stuck at home to look forward to, with the doors open and worrying about DD breathing in mould spores. I could cry in fact I did a bit . If they don’t fix it soon I’m going to take legal advice.

Oh well, bonus is I have another day with lovely DD tomorrow. Problem is I’ll have I work in the evenings again to try to catch up. Ug. Am eating ALL the crap atm. I made a spiced pumpkin and choc chip cake yesterday and it is quite moreish. If this carries on I’m going to need to buy new bras as I currently have 4 boobs. And I’ll need new jeans for my muffin top. That’s not frugal.

Has everyone got the too good to go app? Especially if you live in a city. It's basically an app where food places sell their stock that can't be sold the next day a v reduced prices. You can buy through the app via PayPal but you can only collect during certain hours. Even places like the co op have bags of veg etc and lots of bakeries on there too

Acupuncture £58. Have full receipt from clinic so I can try and claim it back from my insurance.

Had parents ‘evening’ for DS. He’s doing really well considering his challenges but it makes me realise how different a path he is on to his peers . I always find it a bit tough, tbh.

I also had to tell him that granny isn’t coming tonight as normal and he is absolutely devastated. He loves her more than anything in the whole world. It would be sweet if it wasn’t so noisy and dramatic 😬.

Unfrugally I just accepted the quote for the bathroom refurb - whole en suite replacement and retile and just shower and floor repairs in the main bathroom. £7500 plus the cost of the tiles, ouch. Still, as we have two leaking showers it has to be done. It would be even less frugal to leave it till the ceilings fall down. Taking a chunk out of my kitchen budget though.

Leaks are the theme of my life at the moment - The conservatory, 2xshowers, downstairs loo (recently fixed, waiting for the bill), DS’s overflowing tear ducts... and don’t ask what happens when I sneeze

Gym session was tough. TOUGH. Only did core work on a mat. But man.

£10: to come from my ac in the next week or so. £39.50 per month plus admin fee of £30. This month is prorated.

Made tumeric broccoli cauliflower soup today.

Freezer something for dinner.

Sorry to hear about your MIL born

Sorry everything is leaking sea. You really have a lot on your plate and I couldn’t even try to function on the amount of sleep you get sometimes

Our car sagas continues 🙄
My car is going to be £600 to fix and won’t be done until end of the week. No courtesy card available either. So due to logistics on Wednesday we had to pay another £105 to get me on the hire car for the full week. So between my car repairs, hire car cost and DPs Mot we’ll be spending over £1000 on cars this week. Ouch! And to add insult to injury, i’m still going to have to get the bus twice tomorrow too and have a hefty walk home too as DP needs the hire car to collect the DC first world problem here I know

So sorry to hear about your MIL born .

Sea, that sounds so stressful, I'm also in awe with the little sleep you have and I'm an insomniac!

Wreck, I know of the app, but I thought it was only restaurants, good to know!

NSD three days in a row!

Sorry to hear about the mil born.

LSD today

Low spend day -less than £2 on a drink and a bar of galaxy.

Dd2 was off sick today? She was texting me through the day to give updates it's the first time she's been home alone.

Leftovers for lunch tomorrow, trying hard not to spend any money.

My step mum messaged me earlier and I'm so happy that she's going to be visiting London in December with her grandson, I haven't seen her for 3 years as they live overseas. So some good news today!

Hope everyone has had a frugal Start to the week!

Thank you everyone x Dh is coping, but finding it hard. I am too to be honest. As the nurse of the family I’m left to sort things which I don’t mind but it’s quite a big responsibility. I have had to fight hard to get her the care she deserves/needs and I’m sure the staff must want to hide when they see me coming. It definitely makes me want to be a better nurse as seeing it from the other side gives you a completely different perspective.

Sea your dd sounds adorable and I love hearing how close you are. She sounds like quite the chatterbox. You must appreciate it all the more as things weren’t so straightforward with ds. Fab news that he is doing well at school but I can imagine it must be tough for you ❤️

...speaking of leaks...I think we need to clean our gutters. Ds’ bedroom smells damp. We’re end of the row and his room has two outside walls so is colder than other rooms. I’ve put the heater on and am opening the window to ventilate the room during the day and have a dehumidifier deely in there. Like a moisture catcher thing.

Fingers crossed this works. I probably also need to get behind his wardrobe and spray the wall with mould spray or something. Sigh.

Oh and yesterday part of the felt on our shed roof blew off.

Tomorrow’s jobs:

• nail appointment
• respond to about a million emails
• Christmas shopping
• boots order
• food shop

Born I know what you mean, being on the "other" side really makes you think.
wreck I'm willing a little Christmas windfall your way. If there's any way we might be able to help, with ideas, hand me downs, just shout.
seacow I have so much admiration for you & can sense your house stress at the moment. Could not function with those late nights you do.
Em core work with PT is a good place to start I would think!
Better news on the refund front today. Opodo have now said that they will not refund us so I have given Nationwide the go ahead to try for a charge back. If not then it goes to insurance & as far as I can tell, we will be covered. I feel so relieved, even if it takes a long time, I am much more optimistic now.
I think I'm heading the same way as seacow with the instant pot to be honest. I love preparing and cooking our food. We already have a slow cooker which is great so I will probably give it a miss.

Thanks north. We have enough money for all our bills so I'm grateful for that. Dh's overtime and me working in the toy shop is what pays for any extras like our trip to London in half term but suddenly the school need money, children need uniform and there's birthdays etc then before you know it there's nothing left. We just never get in the position when we're ahead of ourselves. We're going away at Christmas and I wish we weren't. When my friends started taking about it it was going to be about £200 but it came in at over £500 and it was too late for me to say no. Now I've had to spend on the credit card over the summer for food shopping etc and it's all going wrong again. Hopefully next year we might be able to sort ourselves out a bit but with no chance of earning more I'm not sure how.

Sea sorry to hear about the leaks that sounds to be a nightmare
Born so sorry to hear about mil's diagnosis
Em it sounds like you have a very productive day planned

It's going to be a long day here, the hotel is lovely but for some reason I'm not sleeping that well 🙁 so have been awake since 5.20. The conference starts at 8.30, goes through till 5 and then we've got a posh dinner tonight 💤

Was a good day Ystd though, one of the speakers really blew my mind with some new research, I've had to completely rethink something I thought I already knew a lot about!!

The hotel is really nice and the breakfast buffet is amazing! All food has so far been included so not had to spend anything Ystd.

Born I know what you mean about being the nurse in the family, exactly the same here whenever someone is poorly or needs an advocate. Am sorry to hear about your mil.

Sea just to echo everyone else, I would be delirious on 3 hours kip. I got around 7 hours last night and will struggle on that!!

Wreck I'm the same this year, there's just nothing spare.

Girlie a breakfast buffet is the best!

Love a breakfast buffet!!!

I am sore today from the gym!!!

Not such a productive day now. Cancelled lunch with colleague as Dd is superbly snotty. Colleagues dads just been diagnosed with the cancers and she’s trying to avoid germs. So we’ve rescheduled.

Just spent £51 on photobox on calendars with pics of the kiddos for family. Code FLASH50 for 50% off orders if anyone’s interested. Lasts until Thursday.

£1.30 coffee - soy decaf flat white. Nail apt at 10. Dropped dh and ds in. Had time to kill. Hence the calendar spend.

Using this time to multi task. Deleting emails drinking coffee life admin and feeding snotzilla (Dd).

Aw, thanks for the sympathy! The work stress and late nights is just how it goes, but I must admit my house falling apart on top of that is a bit much. This weekend I’m going bathroom fitting and tile shopping.... work starts this month so I’m going to have to get decisive!

Off work today but trying to still get a few things sorted. Went out with DD this morning to meet some friends for a coffee - the cafe has a play area and kiddy books so she loves it there. I was glad to talk to adults... well worth £5! I’m now trying to lunch her and get her to nap so I can do more work. Will have to work this evening too.

I often sleep badly in hotels Girlie, usually because they are warmer than my house!

We have the same issue with cold and a bit of condensation in DD’s room Em, as it has 2 outside walls. It defo helps to leave a bit of space behind the furniture for air circulation. I do worry about the fact that DD can’t keep Her duvet on at night though - no way could I sleep in that cold without one, and I’ve got fat too!

Where are you off to for Christmas Wreck - are you away on the day itself?

And ooh yes, love a breakfast buffet! DH always just has cereal and toast, madness!

We're going to Worcester mon-fri. Hoping we won't have to put in as much money for food and drink as I'll bring most of my own food and will be the only one not drinking.

Currently enjoying my first bus trip of the day to college stupid broken down car
£2.70 bus fare

Looking forward to seeing lots of my old college mates from last year. Think i’m mainly going for the social side 😂

Snuggled on the couch with dd. She is super snotty poor baby. I’m feeling a bit snuffly myself. Hopefully it’s just psychosomatic.

Frugal win. Emptied fridge of veggies and have made a leftover wangy veggie soup. Also made a nasal goreng for dinner. Used up the eggs, leftover rice and frozen veggies and prawns.

Dh is doing a food shop in a bit. Vegan week begins tomorrow.