Lockdown (almost) over and frugalling continues!

[ememem84]

New thread. All welcome

Ps yes, @SnugglySnerd he was on furlough and then recently made redundant after the latest government announcements, I’m sure we are by no means the only ones sadly.

You are right - as the furlough is tapered off it is going to be hard for a lot of people. It is also going to exacerbate the gap between people who can work from home and those in manual jobs. It saves my employer and me money having us at our kitchen tables and we have demonstrated that we don't need an office. But if you are working in a factory where you have to be a meter away either your employer is going to have to rent more space or make some of you redundant.

@Wolfcub

I made my ex get a storage unit - I wanted to move on. Anything he couldn't take and I didn't want I have got rid of.

I second unescorted about keeping the joy! Otherwise it gets superbly tedious and feels very depriving.

I have a ton of cook books and they were rarely used. Now we use them. My faves are jamie Oliver’s 5 ingredients, ministry of food, save with Jamie. And ching-he huang (so) Chinese food made easy.

Learning to be more creative has helped massively.

When I made the decision to pay off debt (around £15k student debt and credit card debt) so I could properly save it was tough. I threw everything I had at my debt. But still had enjoyment.

In other news - refund on the holiday!!! BA refused to pay out because we cancelled not them. So I went through amex. Amex have refunded the whole amount as they can see that there was no way that we’d be able to leave the island (our airport was closed until 2 days after our flight was due to go, gatwick was closed and Mexico not letting people in....). Hoorah!!!

Hi all thanks em for the new fred and welcome darling.

Wolf I think I'd tell ex that he needs to organise a storage unit as well and if he doesn't you'll be disposing of his stuff. It's not fair you're still having to sort out his crap.

Ystd we went into town, took some clothes back to primark so £36 back in. We got a subway for lunch £10, spent £16 in Wilkos on bits and pieces and £24 in new look on clothes for dd although £10 of that is going back. Finding the lack of changing rooms really annoying!

Dd has lost a bit of weight and her periods seem to have stopped, not sure how concerned I should be about that? She's been trying to eat 'healthily' but is definitely limiting food imo. Also is exercising every day as she wants to get a six pack apparently 😕

Teens are so tricky, if I mention any concerns to her she gets very defensive and shuts the conversation down. Anyone with any advice/experience?

I'm assignment writing today, aiming to write 1000 words 😐

Girlie I would be worried by periods stopping

No experience but I'd be talking to the gp myself for some advice I think

Yes I’d be worried by that if she’s focusing so much on her body :( restricting eating is really common in autistic teens especially girls and I guess with the pandemic and everything changing it’s even more likely that she would want to control something because everything else is so unpredictable 💐

Is it possible to talk to the GP about her without her knowledge the first time? (I assume it is but I was shocked recently on a local group that one surgery has started handing over full responsibility including for prescriptions etc at age 11?!)

I’d be a bit worried about that too Girlie. I really think kids + food is a very hard thing to balance, especially for girls. So many tricky influences and it’s round the clock now with social media. Do you know whether her friends are also Possibly restricting food?

Welcome Darling. That sounds tough. I am a terrible frugaleer so don’t have much to add except to agree that meal planning really helps me! We still spend loads on food (at least £150 per week) but I think I could only reduce it if DH became more flexible and less fussy. He doesn’t like meat-free meals, or many leftover-type meals, and there’s quite a long list of things he doesn’t eat - on the plus side, if it includes meat and not one of the specific disliked ingredients he will pretty much eat anything. Kids are also very fussy so I’m cooking a lot of separate meals - also not very cost-effective .

I’ve been soooo hot for the last few day, it’s a huge relief to have a cooler day. The underground was grim yesterday - hot + airless+ face mask. DD was also knackered after nursery and had a huge tantrum triggered by the straw not being attached to her smoothie carton as she likes to pull it off herself 🙄). She was hysterical for about an hour and that meant DS screamed continuously for an hour too (even though we separated them). I was drained and fell asleep on the sofa by 10pm!

Our Emma Bridgewater mugs arrived yesterday though - DH is really chuffed with the new bird ones and I’m having a huuuuge fresh mint tea in my new cocoa (ie much bigger) mug. I bought it especially for this as I’m drinking a lot of mint tea and it is ACE (and was on sale). Small things are making me happy!

Still sticking to the diet so that’s also making me happy. I must be spending less on food for me as I am literally eating a lot less, but I can’t tell yet as we’ve had to spend for family lunches the last two weeks too. Fancy prawns and that. So we’ll see.

I’m off to the garden centre in a mo to get some bedding plants to replace the plug plants the squirrels ate. No idea what to expect re. Queues etc. PILs are coming for lunch tomorrow in the garden so I want it to look nice!

It's been a spendy week.

£40 gutters cleaning

Went to make bread which we need because I forgot to check out my ocAdo order. Scales broken. New scales ordered £20

£5 screen protector for camera display screen

Have sat and redone budget and upped food budget given how much prices have gone up

Still paying for. Holiday club that I don't even know is happening yet. So frustrating as I can't plan anything

£15 yesterday for gardener

Girlie I would also be be concerned about periods stopping.

Groceries €93 including 6 weeks dog food and toilet paper happy with that
€34 wetsuit swim shorts wellies ds yes that combo
€300 12 weeks symprove and revive active using discount codes full price €480, €25 weekly expensive but I've quite a lot of stress at the moment house purchase, au pair leaving, busy time at work so I'm making the investment

Life no can't do school run, will see childminder vs breakfast club. There's funding for breakfast club but means getting them up and dressing them & driving 14 miles before work every morning

App really slow or my phone so didn't do full update

Girlie I would be worried too, especially if her periods have stopped combined with "healthy" eating and exercise regime. I know a couple of people with anorexia that started with being healthier. I think the clean eating websites promote disordered eating habits alongside an aspirational lifestyle which makes it very attractive. I would speak to your GP and also look at the eating disorder charities websites. NHS should have something too - even if it is to rule it out.

Random question - do any of you work for an organisation that has a menopause policy? I am looking for examples and they are thin on the ground. google only brings up NHS Wales, ACAS, Unison, ASLEF and a couple of others that are all based on the same set of words. If you do could you PM me - I am helping write ours and I would like us to look more widely at how the standard format has been adapted for specific industries.

So I suggested ex had ds tonight as he's been hard hard work this week and I've had almost no sleep. He's apparently rather have him next week when he isn't being hard work

Ex is a twat wolf

Girlie no direct experience but a friend's daughter was doing similar. A friendly female Dr some to her as she had experience of Dr eating disorders. Didn't fully resolve it but took away the extreme and made it healthier.
I echo the others re periods

£74 Sainsbury's £18 Aldi, £10 takeout later, £20 nutrition group with gym. £209 back from sea salt as whole order went back.
£25 stables. £40 milk bill, £25 sports bra.
My Pandora order was cancelled due to stock outs do still have a £50 to spend there and £60 at next too.

Girlie being out of her usual routine may have prompted this extreme exercise etc and some kind words and normal routine will hopefully have her on the right track in no time

I've done the maths it'll be breakfast club four mornings per week afterschools once a week, bus to school, me planning my holidays more rigidly, camps and a little help from dm and a strict bedtime routine for us.

Thanks all, I'll try and speak to her gp next week and email her camhs link (she's under camhs as part of the ASD diagnosis pathway) we had another row about it this morning as she wouldn't drink some milk and admitted she was restricting food/drink ☹️

Feeling stressed about it now.

She's just taken the dog out for a walk to give us both some space.

Softly softly I think is best approach girlie would she use the nut milks which are very low cal?
You're worried and stressed about it but she just looks at it as you're cross with her

Oh girlie that's massively stressful for you

Shopping is done. £90 in Aldi, the trolley was up and over full. £50 in morrisons, but lots of that was cat/dog food. £10 on chicken food and an ivy plant.

This is very, very good for me of late. £32 of it was for my parents, they've been splitting their list between me and my sister (I get the difficult stuff apparently).

Question: how do you get the paragraph breaks on the app? It posts as a long stream whichissuperlongandhardtoread!

I'd be worried too Girlie, I hope the gp can offer some advice.

Good news on the holiday refund Em. We have a bucket and spade holiday booked in August (booked before xmas) and although I'll be pleased to have a change of scene and get the dcs to the beach if it was cancelled we could use both the time off work and the money to do a kit of the jobs that need doing in the house so it wouldn't be the worst thing.

That's so rubbish about the redundancy Darling. You are getting lots of good advice already. A little tip I picked up from this thread is that each time you log into internet banking transfer everything to the right if the decimal point in your current account into your savings account. I think of it as a virtual penny jar but it quickly adds up if you do it a few times a week. Also, I admit I'm really bad at doing this, but you can build up a nice little amount using cashback sites for things you do need to buy. For cleaning cheaply you can fill up an empty cleaning spray (wash it out first) with a big squirt of washing up liquid and water. Use it as a general household spray. Washing up liquid removes grease so it will clean most things e.g. dirty ring round a bath tub, grease on hob or kitchen tiles etc. I have even had success using it to spot clean suncream stains on clothes this week!

Been continuing our big clear out today. Big kitchen cupboard now done and properly organised so we can find things and dh was dispatched to the charity shop with 4 big bags of stuff we cleared out last weekend. Aiming to get house on market next spring which is going to be stressful anyway with 3 small dcs and al their paraphernalia but I feel like lockdown has given us the chance to get started with a clear out, few repairs etc.

Payday so feeling flush at the moment.
I have £900 and £280 in envelopes on the mantelpiece waiting to pay the painter when he comes back to check hes happy with the job now its dry...and to hopefully go over a weird patch I want improving that looks perfect in the sun but a bit shadowy in lower light.

Then we can get the scaffolders to come and remove that and pay them the other envelope.

£15 on food in iceland today.
Dd owes me £30 for treats she picked up when we went shopping the other day just I may let her off as she's just spent the same on afternoon tea for the three of us.

And I've got to factor in a trip to the local shopping centre soon to return 4 pairs of joggers so they ow me £27 back there...which dd2 will prob spend if she comes with me.

I’m on the organising mission too snuggly

Have done the airing cupboard today. So nice!!! Have ordered some baskets from amazon for my handbags and socks and bras.

I need new bras. But nowhere here is doing fittings and I need a fitting.