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.

Been away with no internet. Accommodation was already paid for. Spent about £100 on meals and petrol ⛽⛽⛽. Sorry for everyone struggling🌼🌷🌺

Love that top lap.

Spendy day ordering Christmas presents and £40 footy stuff for DS.

The generational shift on MH has been astounding and rightly so, but still so often hard to recognise in ourselves. It's so good to have an outlet here for sharing our thoughts, let's be kind to ourselves and look out for each other .

Lap that top is lovely! Glad you treated yourself x

Some odd bits of shopping today - toothpaste, pull-ups, mayonnaise - but should be a lsd.

I need to chase Nationwide about Thomas Cook refund.

Not insensitive at all em I completely agree. Social media has its down sides for sure but in terms of spreading awareness and feeling less alone it’s amazing. Like memes about particular symptoms or worries that make you go OMG! It’s not just me! ❤️

I’m in groups specifically for women who are autistic/adhd and it’s so useful to be able to talk in there to people who really get it. I’ve also ended up being the “go to” person for autism stuff in the local home ed community and that feels amazing to me, to be able to help people. I didn’t have that when I was diagnosed myself and it’s sort of healing for me as well as giving me more purpose. :)

to everyone here who has suffered with mh problems in the past, is now or might in the future.

Weekend was very spendy on alcohol and hotel, thoroughly enjoyed though. Yesterday I spent €50 on 5 weeks of Pilates, I didn't think it would be for me but it comes highly recommended, I still don't think it's for me but I will definitely attend all 5 sessions.

Decided on ds's birthday party next month - a science party where a woman comes to your house and does interactive experiments with the dc such as explosions/slime/rockets etc it'll be €140 approx and I can do food and get cake so hopefully €200 should cover it. First birthday party at home and probably last event in our house.

I love that top too!

Frugal win for me my sister had some dungarees that didn't fit her so sent them to me. I've been wanting some for ages but couldn't afford it

That top came up on my instagram stories last night from ystyleireland - lap you're a fashionista

Lap Are any of these FB groups? One of the things I have felt really isolated about is the struggles I faced during pregnancy and birth (at some points I couldn't even tell if I was having contractions or not) and continue to do as a parent that are directly linked to my autism, and I don't have anyone to talk to about it. I do have one close friend who is autistic too and her baby is a few months younger than DD but although we are both autistic we are affected in different ways and she doesn't have the issues I have with my motor skills nor the same sensory issues as me which have been some of the biggest struggles I have with DD. Honestly every nappy change for me is a struggle still, I'm not surprised DD writhes about and screams, she can probably pick up on my stress. It would be good to talk to other autistic parents who might understand some of that.

Did some grocery shopping on the way back from dropping DD at nursery, spent about £13. WFH today, yay, no horrific commute, and shouldn't spend anymore. Actually might book DD in to Santa's grotto later so will have to pay for that.

Yes there’s a few out there, I shall pm you some group names later x

And wahey check me out having a vaguely fashionable item of clothing 😱😂 first time for everything eh

Interesting morning. All organised to get dh and ds to work and nursery on the bus. Dd has her bottle. She went back to sleep. They left. Then 10/15 minutes later then came crashing back through the door. Ds crying his eyes out.

He’d fallen over on the way to the bus and had slipped in a massive pile of dog poop. Changed him quickly got Dd ready and threw everyone in the car (as they’d missed the bus by this point) and drove them in.

Came home gave dd another bottle. Showered. Cleaned carpet where ds walked in his shitty shoes. Washed his shitty jeans.

I knew this mornings early calm was too good to be true. 😂

cag I love that top. Next have some nice stuff at the moment.

Have also sort of tidied the freezer and have made a half assed shopping list. Going to take dd for a walk to the coop and pick up some bits. Need to go to the post office too.

lap

Tidied bathroom cabinet. I am on a roll here.

em you definitely are

Hey everyone 👋

Climate control protesters are bringing London's roads to a standstill today, almost everyone has been having difficulties getting into work!

Spent £5 this morning on a salad for lunch, some muesli bars and a dishwasher cleaner from Lidl.

Tuesday is my busy night, so Kids have pizza for dinner and I'll have whatever I can arrange before leaving the house to take dd2 to her dance class.

Dh is working from home today so I'm hoping he will do a little bit of house work as he usually does 😉

Not doing too bad with budgeting, have £180 left in the food budget/account and some money in the current account to pay for DD's etc payday is 25th October so 2.5 weeks.

£44 coop
£2.75 stamps for four letters. Three U.K. and one local.

Paid in £36 to my coop share account. Now have £446 in there. What I did find out is that this particular account is in my name only. Woop.

Walked around the lanes and then to the shop. Hour and half walk. 6km.

wreck they're fab on you, didn't see pic last time I logged in

Random interjection but if anyone has links to vegetarian recipes (or recipes that can easily be made veggie, because it's quite easy to use meat subs in place of meat anyway) that can be made in 30 mins or less with no fancy ingredients then let me know. I am trying to be more organised and get us eating better. Although DD is fully in the throes of fussy toddler eating already which I can't help blaming myself for. I have made us the Quorn 'supergreen' pasta salad thing off their website (although I always end up improvising a bit with stuff as I never have all the right ingredients) but in reality she is just going to eat the Quorn pieces and the pasta and none of the veg as she won't touch any green veg except for cucumber (and pickles - but I guess that is cucumber ).

Thanks happier

Meadow it's so hard. Most kids are fussy no matter what people say (even if it's just a phase). My quick veggies meals:

Pasta pesto with broccoli peas and feta
Frittata/omelette
Wrap with humous, grated cheese and grated carrot
Soup with cheese toasties
Pitta pizzas
Lentil dahl
Cheese quesadilla

That's all I can think of. Most is served with cherry tomatoes and a selection of crudités usually with humous to dip. Even if she doesn't eat it I would just put one piece down for her each day and not have any reaction to her either eating or not eating. Eventually she might surprise you!

We had tofu teriyaki and rice last night.

My go to veggie dishes are:

Veggie spag Bol - slow cooker this one.
Veggie chilli
Thai nassaman curry - add potatoes to this. Mmmm.

Roast potato soup (left over roasties, chopped and fried in butter with onions and garlic and chicken stock (ok so not veggie but use veggie stock)

Jacket potatoes and beans cheese spag hoops

Halloumi

Veg curry’s - I need to get my Indian cook book out again.

Veggie stir fries - buy a bottle of sweet chilli sauce. Chop veggies add noodles and sauce.

For all of us who are or have struggled with MH

Lap that looks so cute! And Wreck I like those dungarees, they look quite fitted which is good.

Loads of Amazon spending yesterday but in my defence, it's mostly for Christmas. But now I need to keep an eye on the credit card balance so I can pay it off without any issues next month.

Meadow We're vegan here and in addition to the great suggestions above, I've been trying to adapt/find some tinned/frozen recipes we can eat in case of no deal and a few of my recent creations include:

Ratatouille lentil pasta (mix one tin of each - I usually use Daucy brand, but whatever you can find) and 250-300g fusilli all in one pot, with 250g passata and tomato paste, plus some water to just cover the pasta, stir quite often while cooking to make sure the pasta cooks evenly)

You can also do a Thai version of above with coconut milk, smoked tofu or mock duck tins (from e.g. Holland and Barrett) or frozen fake chicken pieces and Thai spices/paste instead of the lentils and ratatouille, and you can use spaghetti broken in half rather than fusilli as well, but does depend on how well your dd will tolerate a bit of spice

Chickpea mac and 'cheese' is also a winner in our house, using a similar method. And goulash, another one pot meal!

Rice bean veggie sausage casserole - very flexible, just cook the sausages first in the oven (we usually have Linda McCartney ones) then add any fresh veg, a tin of beans/baked beans, rice (or you could probably use potato roasties, but not add as much water or cook for as long then) and stock cube, some passata if you wish, stir together in the pot that had sausages, again with enough water to cover everything, and bake for 30 ish minutes, covered, until the rice is cooked and most of the water is absorbed - really nice comfort food, ds (2.5 years) loves it best with broccoli

Cauliflower chickpea coconut curry (with Thai or Indian spices/paste) is also yummy and quite fast to put together

If you want more recipes just ask!

I don't fancy walking to work in this sudden downpour and hailstones. I'm not teaching today so I may work from home until it lets up! Hoping for LSD after yesterday's blowout with just a top up of rolls, salad, and soya milk.

£34 boots on three formulas (gov here are scaremongering re nondeal brexit. So I stocked up on formula for Dd) plus Christmas jammies for ds and both dnephews some vests (was more than £34 but the rest was a voucher spend)

£51 on a fitted Tommy Hilfiger shirt. Blue and white stripe.

£28 George pjs and slippers for ds.

£58 refund from amazon as steriliser isn’t working any more. Ffs. Have to return the old one.

And....I successfully blocked dhs new credit card. Ds was playing with it this morning so I took it from him and shoved it in my pocket. When I was in town I remembered it was in pocket and put it in my purse to keep it from getting lost. Took it out to pay for something thinking it was mine. Incorrect pin 3 times before I realised it wasn’t my card. Oops.

Oops.
£9 co-op. Still have to get blueberries and apples.
Cake making today and will be ££ for dinner. Probably pizza hut.
£100 Sainsbury's order in for later tomorrow. Time poor this week.

Ooh yum Life

I fancy a nice coconutty veggie curry now. That’s tomorrow night sorted.

I have suffered from a hangover today and I only have myself to blame. Went out with friends last night, £50 for my share of the bill but it was deeeeeelicious. Turkish food, really good. But today I felt a bit rough - I had a Couple of glasses of red wine last night and that always makes me sleep badly and gives me a hangover. I had a healthy salmon salad for lunch and then, just to make sure the hangover was properly banished, I had a packet of frazzles and a finger of fudge. Did the trick .

It’s been a v busy work day so it’s been a proper struggle. Ug. Also London is crowded and transport is a mess due to demonstrations. And I’m in the office again tomorrow, it’s normally my day off. I need a quiet weekend! Em

£26 Sainsbury’s including pizza and cheesecake for tea because I’m fucking knackered and I couldn’t be arsed cooking