Friendly Frugaleers Festive Preparations and Financial Accountability

[Wolfcub]

New Fred

Pleased you had a lovely evening North. You needed that I think!
Just typed out a long post then lost it when I dropped my phone into my breakfast phone and breakfast both ok though!

Ooh Seth lakeman. I saw him years ago down in Cornwall when we were there. He’s very talented. Glad you had a good time north

I’ve woken up all blocked nose and achey. Have told dh I’m staying in bed for a bit then will get up and get on with today on his own.

Lots of acupuncture about on the thread. girlie glad your back is feeling a bit better. A definite thumbs up from me for Pilates. If you can find a physio who is also trained in Pilates & runs classes, that is a good combination.
born make sure you look after yourself, sounds like you have it tough at the moment.
seacow you too, I don't know how you keep going sometimes. Kew sounds lovely, but poor dd.
unescorted these teen years are hard work aren't they? I have 2 mostly lovely dc and am definitely a "let them stand on their own two feet" kind of parent, but they still need support, sometimes more than others!
Re dh's interview, he is waiting to hear from the person he spoke to about the job, but not holding out much hope. Just the fact that he scored well in the application process has really boosted his confidence though & he seems pretty upbeat about it.

Today I have a gym session booked, need to do some shopping, get cracking with making Christmas bunting for dnephew, tidying & cleaning & some online Christmas shopping.
First and frugally I'm going to update our spreadsheets which I think should be okay as we haven't been spending much . I've set our 2020 budget so those spreadsheets are ready to go.
Our biggest money pit at the moment is the garden & driveway which is all being overhauled & costing ££££. It's needed doing since we moved in 15 years ago and is looking brilliant so far. The guy who is doing it is fantastic but hard to pin down to exact costings so I'm keeping fingers crossed. After lots of delays due to dreadful weather, it looks like it'll be done for Christmas.

Neglected the thread lately sorry so hugs to all struggling!

Things are errr challenging here and just to add an enormous spanner in the works, DD1’s just got her start date at school - Monday! So absolutely heaps to sort out over the next few days (hopefully mostly tomorrow because they have dance commitments all weekend)

This is going to be very unfrugal indeed :o

£23 at b&q on three huge blastocyst boxes with lids (stackable) for ds’ toys.

After I got up I took his wooden pirate chest toy box downstairs and emptied it and all the other toys onto the living room floor. Two bags have gone to the charity shop. One in the bin.

All his toys are now nicely sorted. It’s a shame that the boxes aren’t see through (dh wanted to buy the ones made of recycled plastic) but they are doing the job.

£2 at charity shop on a trunki. We were toying with getting one for our Mexico trip so it was needed....it’s up in the loft now.

Dh also bought a magic tree thing for the car. It absolutely stinks. Made me feel really sick on the car ride home.

Blastocysts? Plastic boxes. Ffs autocorrect.

That's a rereally odd autocorrect Em! If ds can't find his toys in the boxes you could put pictures on the boxes like they do at nursery!

Spendy today on a few things we needed although Indid also pay a cheque into the bank that I've been carrying around for ages. Going late night shopping tonight to get more Christmas stuff.

Busy but productive day so far.
£120 on groceries at various places, but £65 of that was at farm shop for meat. I've worked out that it will make a minimum of 17 main meals for the four of us (20 if I have my very frugal head on) so works out at less than £1 a head. They have a loyalty scheme so I got a small gammon joint & a chicken included in that as I was behind with it. 2 more shops £30+ Mon-Thurs & I get £10 discount.
Got dc's passport pics done, so I can crack on with the forms now.

Ds has picked up his "new" car today which is exciting but a bit scary too! He should be ready for his test soon, so he can practice in the meantime. He paid £750 for it from his savings & is doing tax & insurance on direct debits, £50 a month.
Even better news from my perspective is that college have emailed to say that the exam boards have granted him rest breaks and 25% extra time for his A levels. It's a huge relief, he now has a level playing field & so it is up to him to put the work in.
No bunting done yet, but I will crack on with that tonight

That’s fantastic news about the exam board north thank goodness!

Blasphemy* em

^*that is what autocorrected when I tried to write blastocyst 😂😂😂

Great news on the school place but blooming neck that's quick.
Fab about the exam board.
Love a good box sort. It's my annoyance that I have to keep redoing them though.

£30 game, £5 on fruit.

Next step is to take pics of ds with the toys. And tape them to the boxes.

Been to a meeting at nursery about the takeover.

Dh is watching a doc about the making of ghostbusters. Bloodylove ghostbusters.

Born I'm sorry to hear that your mil is still poorly too x
sea, hope dd is ok? When my second child was about 18 months, he did a massive nose dive towards his sister (he was so excited to pick her up from school) but he landed on the raised bit of the floor, he had a busted lip and a black eye! But he was fine the next day, I did get some funny looks though for the next week!
north that is good news about your ds, really glad you and dh had a good night out too!
lap how exciting for your dd!

Spends today
£1.40 sending two cards
£3.80 on lunch
£9 in Iceland, getting some bits for dd2 packed lunch tomorrow plus a few extra bits

Quick sign in, been back to work today and it's been busy trying to catch up!

LSD £3.20 on a card and yellow label bread.

How exciting lap, I bet dd is nervous but hopefully it will be a positive experience for her.

Ouch poor dd sea, my dd has had a few split lips and bumps over the years. When she was little she always seemed to time a major bump to the face to just before her bday!

To my eternal shame I made coleslaw for the first time Ystd omg so easy, delicious and cheap to do!! Can't believe I've never made it before.

Great exam news North!

Just did lots of xmas shopping. Nearly done now.

Wow Lap, school has come round fast! Bit frantic for you but probably helpful that DD doesn’t have too much time to get worried about it. I really hope it works out for her.

I really need to go through the DCs’ toys and thin them out a bit. We are drowning in Stuff again.

DD is fine, thanks for asking! She’s still got a huge thick lip but it does look a lot better today and she now ‘sounds’ normal again. Nursery were a bit on Monday

It’s been a hard week here with DS. He doesn’t cope very well with December - rehearsing for the school play, lots of non-routine stuff At school, general excitement levels being high - so he’s been very wound up after school. Lots and lots of screeching and meltdowns, which is also upsetting DD and is hard on DM on her childcare days. I am very much looking forward to term being over.

Just been to Sainsburys for a click and collect order. Made the mistake of shopping while hungry. Am currently Munching my way through a Soreen. I can stop any time I want... honest.

Great news here. DP got the job and he starts in January. Such a huge relief.

I want a Soreen. Or as we call it here “yomo” no idea why. My mums always called it yomo.

Sounds tough sea. Enjoy the Soren. Hope you have lots of loo roll.

Great news plan.

££££ Christmas shopping. Still not fucking finished as the metro centre is rubbish at times £180 IKEA but will get £15 back as had a list from a friend too.

Christmas tree is up. Yay!!!

I bought two gingerbread man decorations with the kids names on. Or so I thought.

One has ds’ name. The other “pheobe” which while it’s a lovely name, isn’t dd’s 🤦‍♀️

😂😂😂 em that's so funny. I take it you can exchange it?

DOH em.

Em that's hilarious!

Great news Plancina have a lovely weekend celebrating.

Lsd. Bought 2 birthday cards for lovely friends with big birthdays approaching.

Dd has just told me what she wants from Santa only it's different from what she wanted the last time she mentioned it. Santa has been and bought the first thing in the meantime and was very excited about her opening it on Xmas day. Santa is now worried that amazing gift will be disappointing as it isn't an LOL doll She'll forget by then hopefully.

Snuggly I've had the same with ds. He wrote his letter at school last week and asked for things I haven't got him. I'm hoping he will be so happy with what he will have that he won't notice.

Oops em :o

Yay Plancina that’s great!

I never really get why schools get kids to write Santa letters TBH. Other than a literacy exercise of course.

Frantic day getting school/dance exam/competition ready here! I’m way beyond my stress limits and want to hide in a dark room with chocolate.

Ignoring my birthday tomorrow :o spending it getting DS a haircut, going to the next town to get DD’s school skirt and jumper (the school let her have some other items from the second hand stuff though so saved some money there!) and various other errands in town. Managed bra shopping today (she’s a 30C already!) and found shirts that just about fit which will do for now, plus tights which I gambled with size wise as nothing at all in the teen section. But really, she has two weeks of less than 3 hours a day (morning reg plus first two lessons) so we can get by and sort it all properly over Christmas hols.

Tomorrow evening I’ll start reading her set text to her, it’s Curious Incident which I’m really excited about as I read it pre-kids and loved it! Got a cheap copy on eBay as I asked the Senco what they were studying in English, and it arrived today. :o

If I’d noticed three weeks ago I probably could have exchanged. But I’ve thrown away the receipt too.

It’s on the tree. When she’s older and asks why I’ll tell her I was drunk or something when I bought it.

I referred to her as Charlotte the other day. Again nice name. But not hers. She’s florence. Ds is Charlie though so probably easily confused....