Managing Money Mindfully in March with the Friendly Frugaleers

[Happierwithouthim]

Last Thread

All welcome on this thread, we're a friendly bunch who like to get bang for our buck, and manage our money as well as we can.

Pet pics very welcome too

Did Joe when I was feeling ok.

-not in the rude way that sounds--

Would bake bread if I could get some bastard flour. Need to try sour dough. Was going for the lazy no knead version

Ah yes no knead bread is great but the kneading, proving, knocking back, shaping and proving again takes up more time and keeps the kids busy for longer!

I don’t think I’m good enough at baking to be a proper lockdown dick :(

Yes I must do that em I need to reduce a payment too (both Caglets were doing a club, DD1 stopped but I’m still paying the two person fee! 🤦‍♀️). I’ve not been very productive lately but that is one thing I can do!

Getting slightly concerned Cagletini is going to outgrow her wellies. Which is going to make exercise tricky. Not bothered about regular shoes, but she’s fast becoming a creature of habit and she wouldn’t run around the garden barefoot etc.

She does have slightly bigger wellies at nursery as we bought them to last. They’re still open - she was eligible to go still (realised why - DH’s work is classed as charity, but he WFH anyway).

Wondering if asking to collect said wellies at the door (then leaving them in quarantine for a few days) is ridiculous and creating extra work?! I’ve just read a shopping-for-essentials bunfight (sorry, I mean thread) and lots of people were saying the clothing sections of supermarkets were still open, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here - DH said the clothing bit was cordoned off in Asda, which is the only one we can easily access under current rules. Maybe that was just staffing related. My friend shops in the massive Tesco but the clothes section is a whole other floor so I’m guessing that’s more likely to be shut.

Obviously I could order online and at some point Cagletini will need bigger clothes (the one time I’ve not managed to build up a stock in advance 🤦‍♀️) in order to make it worthwhile - but isn’t that more risky for more people given the picking, packing and delivery 🧐 bloody hell so much overthinking. I’ve no idea what is best. WWYD?

I was thinking that lane Dd is going to need clothes soon and ds shorts for the summer. I haven’t bought anything yet as I didn’t need to. But soon.

Next have stopped online orders. M&S here have closed their clothing departments. Boots orders are limited and I don’t know about jojo.

H&M don’t deliver here and no one on fb locally isn’t selling stuff.

Ffs.

Bread making. Tick
Banana bread. Tick
No running as knees buggered but squat challenge so Tick
Box sets. Tick
More weekly walks. Tick

Also a dick

Drank too much on top of bad headache. Lousy nights sleep and sore head. I have no sympathy for myself.

Insurance payout came. Straight in the isa. I will need to spend it to replace stuff and hire a builder for a small work after this is over but for now it can sit in the isa.
Holiday refund is on the credit card. Working with bank to have that moved to current account

Need to get sewing machine out and home a) I have thread b) I can remember how to use it. I promised my friend I'd make her some bags so she could take her uniform off outside and throw the bags in the wash

No work today unless I get called in. Ds has a lot of school work to catch up on as he's been a total tit this week. I'm not going to make him it's up to him but his dad has told him they are doing school work tomorrow if he doesn't apply himself

Yes all our Fb groups have stopped posts, definitely a good thing overall but kids clothes... argh! Been wondering about offering the stuff I’d put aside (got a huge amount of hand me downs for age 2-3 from a friend with two boys and two girls) - could just put in a bag on the doorstep but is that encouraging non essential travel

Lane noo not true. No one said the baking needs to be edible. anyway you Excell at other stuff we don't. I suck at home ed whereas you clearly don't.
I will trade you cake for tutoring.

Clothing is essential imo. Especially grown out of stuff.
I see nothing wrong with asking nursery for them back.

I've planted garlic that was sprouting. Let's see what happens. Frugal Queen in France followers tell me this will work

M&S have free delivery over £50 and Asda George have free delivery over £30 if that helps anyone.

Wolf if you can find the time to make the bags that’s lovely but until then I saw a tip about taking a pillow case into work and putting your uniform in it then it can go straight into the washing machine.

I’ve never made bread before it seems like a lot of work. I’m keeping my flour and yeast (bought for Brexit in a moment of madness) until I absolutely need to make it and am keeping my fingers crossed that’s never 😜

Baking gets you extra Dick points Lane but is not essential. Taking exercise you don’t normally do, any new hobby, online socialising, extra gardening, especially growing food if you don’t normally... all good ways to rack up points 😉.

What size wellies are you after? We’ve just moved up a size but not sure posting wellies is that practical... You could ask on Facebook or similar locally? I would. People here are being a bit vigilante about unnecessary trips (board games, household bits) and I agree with that but kids shoes are essentials! And if you can walk past someone’s house and pick them up then fine. Probably best to quarantine them on the porch for a few days if you can’t wash inside and out but then why not? My backup plan for kids outgrowing stuff was going to be Next online so I was a bit sorry when I saw they’d stopped for now. I do stockpile clothes a bit (I buy in the previous year’s summer sales) so we are probably fine for clothes but I don’t buy shoes ahead as I can’t Kids’ guess sizes by season. Fingers crossed my two will last in their shoes.

DD is spending hours playing with a tray of kinetic sand and some dinosaurs. Highly recommend it!

Argh... I sent PILs a big Ocado shop to save them a trip to the supermarket (they are old). All fine, but then they went to queue in a branch of Barclays to transfer me the money. Argh!

I'm also going to need new clothes for dd. Dts will be ok as they have loads of hand downs stashed in the loft but dd1 has grown and has no summer clothes whatsoever. If the weather warms up she's going to roast. I had planned to order some stuff from Next online but looks like that's out now.
I normally get her bundles off Ebay but I'm a bit weary about it incase of infection. I suppose I could stick it in the garage for a few days then put it all on a hot wash?? Would somebody be making an unnecessary trip to the post office to send it though?? When did it get so complicated??

Cannot win sometimes sea.

£4.50 hard ware shop.
£18 Grumm shampoo bars.

I am a dick too.

Bread, garden, extra exercise, cake making, more TV box sets.... yep to all.

Ofqual have issued exam grading guidance that looks as if DD will get into Oxford. She is v. pleased. But still doing the extra work...just in case.

Hi all, just going to catch up from here.

I was really poorly, body aching all over, high temp and coughing, which is still happening! Also had confusion and felt very light headed.
A bit better today, first day since Monday that I haven't had a temp.

Haven't spend any money about from Ocado yesterday, which was £60.67.

Sea are ocado allowing you to sent shopping to different addresses? I thought they stopped doing that for the time being?
Might see if I can order one for my dd, who is high risk due to her asthma.

Hope everyone is ok, it is all very stressful.

Great news on Oxford. ..

Sounds bad curvy. Pleased you are feeling better.

Sea forgot to say size up with ASICS

€7 postage & stamps
€10.70 plain flour wholemeal flour and 24 eggs, wish dc would stop using them for experiments, ds also used last of my orange essence yesterday too

I'm feeding my starter every night Christmas
*
Unescorted* fantastic news for your dd

Unescorted great news on Oxford.

Thanks Life.

Thanks for the good vibes. For once being a girly swot pays off. Beer may be being consumed. By her not me …. I am working. in a relaxed manner.

happier is it bubbling yet?

No unescorted it's not, I didn't have stove on one night would that matter

Curvy I don’t know, their address was already on my account, I haven’t tried to add an address recently. I also booked this delivery about 3 weeks ago. Ocado are now only allowing one delivery every 7 days so I’d have to choose whether to deliver to them or us I’ll play that by ear. I think PILs actually prefer doing their own shopping anyway!

Ahh thanks Sea, yes I felt very lucky to get a slot, even more so because I can't leave the house. Will see how it plays out.

Happier leave it uncovered in a dusty place ( sounds grim, but works). If you have a clean house it may take longer. The yeast from the air cultivates it. If you have no luck I will work out a way to send part of mine so you can seed yours. It is from a San Francisco culture which is really vigorous. Despite neglecting it on a regular basis it keeps bouncing back. It has a really good flavour too.

Seacow the quiz was one put together by my brother and sil. They did 5 rounds of 10 questions and covered subjects like general knowledge, sport, film and entertainment etc. We're going to take turns in hosting the quiz.

Ive has a shit day at work, am not enjoying being back with the DNs and honestly felt like jacking it in today which is not like me. Feels like we're being sent into fairly high risk areas with crap PPE, no job is worth risking your life for 😕

Anyway home now and an evening of eating rubbish and watching Netflix beckons 😊

Those of you needing kids clothes can you buy the basics from supermarkets? Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury's all do nice kids clothes.

I'm doing fairly well on the lockdown dick score, have made banana bread, gone on longer than usual walks, read more.... might make bread this weekend!!