August Always Adds Pocket Pressure, Frugal Friends Thrive Thriftily

[Wolfcub]

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Morning all.

We went to a friends for a dinner with the kids last night. It was lovely. Friend is Mexican so she made us Mexican food. So so good! No booze as 4 kids under 4 to watch!

Home for 830. Kids managed to just stay awake in the car. As soon as we put them to bed they crashed out. Yippee!!

Message from dsis this morning - she was caught speeding. 28 in a 20. That’s going to be expensive for her. She’s annoyed because allegedly she was half a cars length from a 30. So feels they could have been more lenient. She think because her bf was in the car drunkety drunk drunk they won’t be. But it’ll be a fine of around £250 for her.

Ouch that is quite a fine.

Ooof that's a hefty fine.

Enjoy your peace unescorted.

That's shit from ofqual. Have they said why?

Adora I agree with what the others have said.

£102 yumi last night, ££ Wallis. Most willi go back but dresses for wedding

£59 next with a voucher, top to go back £20
£55 Pandora with a voucher
£9 odd primark only 70p cash
£5 poncey coffee for dh
£1.50 ice cream van,
£5 coop milk and fruit. Not used to buying milk but canceled this week due to holidays
Think that's it. It's enough

Oh Adora it's so hard, I hope your dd2 gets sorted.
Ds' firm choice are going to review his application with the mitigation form that college have supplied. Not holding out much hope although the course is still showing on clearing so they have places, but they don't like D grades. He is gutted as his D in maths was the college grade so he can't appeal although he feels it is very unfair & should've been C. So, he is holding his insurance place and doing well trying to see the positives in it. My heart breaks for him, as I just feel he deserves a break.

Enjoy the coffee in bed Unescorted, I'm having my last tea in bed before work restarts tomorrow (heavy sigh)

Ofqual have what?!?!!! What a monumental fuck up. So sorry for all the young people going through this shit especially those in our Frugal crew. Fingers crossed North and Adora for ds and dd

£13.50 yesterday on a chillys bottle for ds's birthday box using the John Lewis £10 off code from the Christmas thread.

Treated myself to a very nice takeaway from the posh Indian as I couldn't have dinner with ds. As I'd worked hard all day and had nothing but a bag of crisps and a rice crispy square I was starving and ate the lot. Yum.

Planning a lazy day today. Board games and tv and a bit of cleaning I think as theres mess everywhere - you are right Girlie it affects the whole rest of the house

We are on the waiting list for a rescue dog, can't remember if I mentioned this or not but I'm having a phase of "fuck it" I'm doing what I want and I've wanted a dog for 20+ years!

Fabric sample for my sofa beds came so I can choose carpet, it's lovely. Very pleased a really dark green "velvet". I'm thinking pale grey or mouse carpet but really need to go to the carpet place. Plus it's two rooms and two staircases that need doing so £££

Discovered ice cream van charged me twice on Friday - have pinged them a refund request

UK Speeding fine is £120 I think (having paid it a few times) £250 is steep. I'm not a serial speeder or bad driver btw, the first time we were rushing ds to hospital on the advice of 111 and there was a speed camera outside a&e and he'd just gone unconscious so I might have put my foot down. The other 2 I can't excuse, lapses in concentration

Ofqual are not coming out of this well. Normally I am supportive of CS peers, but this is beyond a joke. They need to grow a spine and start doing some serious mitigation work.

Wolf I go at warp speed pootle. I have only had one speeding ticket which was my fault entirely -35 in a 30 zone. Weirdly whenever we set off on family trips to get places I always arrive first - even when I leave last. One time it took my parents 2 hours longer than me on the same route to London. We left at the same time & I stopped to get fuel.

I went on a blissfully quiet run. Although it wasn't raining Kinder was holding onto his hat and looking ominous so I guess that put the walkers off.

I got done for speeding about a year ago, I was doing 34 in a 30 area. It cost about £90 and I avoided points by going on the naughty drivers course. It did actually make me think and I really try to stick to speed limits now, it helps that my car is tiny and has the engine capacity of a lawnmower 🤣

Dd is going off with my mum today to Wales until Wednesday, I need to help her pack so should get out of bed 😬

We don’t get points on licences here. But our max speed limit is 40mph.

Dsis said that the “hobby bobbies” ie honorary police were proper jobsworths.

Dh is grinding blocks in the garden. The dc and I are at dparents having coffee and biscuits.

Dd is trying to escape and is chasing ds round the table.

Thanks for your kind words everyone. I had a great sleep last night - I only woke around eight this morning. I was very tired yesterday and that made the situation with my friend seem a whole lot worse. Anyway, onwards and upwards.......

We went for a birthday meal last night for a family member celebrating a big birthday. I assumed it would be just family but they'd invited about 10 friends also. We had a private room but social distancing just wasn't possible. The party guests were circulating around the tables and chatting. I was a bit uneasy about it all and even more so when I discovered that there were 200 cases of Covid-19 in Ireland yesterday. During the lockdown we were down to less than 10 cases per day. Cases seem to be shooting up again and the schools haven't even gone back yet.

DCat1 slipped out yesterday evening as we were leaving the house. When we got back from the meal, we discovered he'd been in a fight and had two round cuts (fang marks?) on one ear. I'll keep an eye on them and if there's any sign of infection, I'll ring the vet.

I'm relishing the prospect of a quiet day today. I'm going to do some laundry and a small bit of housework but take it easy otherwise. I need to recharge my batteries.

I forgot to post my spends.

Yesterday

€1 air for my tyres
€25.68 calendar and stickers
€12.29 top up shop
€7.75 ice creams at beach
€8.10 drinks during meal (the meal was paid for)
€54.82 Total spends

The calendar and stickers are for DD's benefit. I just use an Excel spreadsheet for recording social events, hair appointments, vet visits etc. DD's been complaining that she can't keep track of what's happening and when and can't access my spreadsheet. So I'll stick the calendar up on the notice board. I had a calendar years ago with stickers and she had fun putting in birthday stickers and Hallowe'en stickers and Christmas stickers etc. So she asked me to order some stickers also. For all that she's 15, she's still a kid in some ways. There are probably apps you can use for this and then I could share my calendar with her? Anyway, it's an 18 month calendar so it will keep us going through 2020 and 2021.

I must phone Easons (bookshop) re: DD's school books. I left in a book list with them last week. There's a book rental scheme in the school so most of the books are included in that but there's the odd few that aren't. I got a text on Friday to say that the books were ready. i called in on my way home from work on Friday evening and they couldn't find them.

Tayto I think everyone loves stickers no matter what age.

Bed changed. Downstairs dusted, swept and vacuumed. Feel slightly less slatternly now. Daren't really look upstairs as there's just dust sheets and ladders and stuff everywhere gah

I've just noticed ds has an inset day in October so I've booked a holiday cottage for a long weekend, discount code used but I have booked one big enough that I can add dparents and ddog to if needed as they might also need a break by then so slightly more expensive than it could have been for two of us.

Morning everyone.

I've had a couple of spendy days as dh is painting the kitchen ceiling and we decided to buy nice storage boxes to sit on top of the cabinets to hide all the crap that usually sits up there. Also bought a big box to store some of my stash of tins and dried goods in. Total spends for that £150 but got a new duvet cover in with that too.

I went out for the first time yesterday with friends for drinks and dinner - £50. It was lovely to catch up and I had a great time but the no music rule definitely detracts from the atmosphere. Do you all have music in your pubs?

Wolf hopefully a dog will get your ds off his xbox. My ds both really want a dog but I've got 3 cats so I'm resisting for the moment.

em that does seem harsh.

Mrs I would love to be able to retire at around that age. Although you work hard with your dm so that's like having a job anyway.

The exam's this year have been a total disaster. I'm not sure how they could have managed it better but it seems so unfair that children are being marked down for no apparent reason.

Tayto how horrible of your "friend" sounds like you're better off without her.

Sea hope they are wrong about the weather. They usually are. We were forecast for heavy rain with thunder and lightning last week and got none of it so you never know.

Sea the forecast for Gower is only really accurate within 24 hrs. I'm not promising no rain though - it's a big part of our weather in both winter and summer. Hope you're managing to enjoy the current break in the clouds

Looks like we were in Sainsburys about the same time yesterday

How funny about Sainsburys Granny. I was there for ages as I couldn’t find things, it’s a big store!

We’re alright with a bit of rain - we holidayed in N Wales last year, and Scotland (including Orkney) the year before. I think 50% rain is par for the course in the Uk, though it’s a bit unlucky to get a week of rain so hopefully that won’t come to pass! Today has been better than forecast though, and we’d prebooked Caerphilly castle so that wirked out well as the rain held off for us all
Day. Just got back and it was great - lovely castle and grounds, with picnic tables inside so we picnicked in splendour. It’s also right next to the town so we managed to pop into Clark’s and get both kids’ feet measured. DS’s hadn’t changed, but DD had gone up a whole shoe size. £36 for a pair of school shoes for her (her first!) and we’ll need casual shoes too but they didn’t have anything in her size in stock (that she would wear 🙄). As her current shoes are a whole size too small, which was even worse than I suspected, I’ve just ordered some high-tops from Next to be delivered tomorrow, £21. I don’t think she’ll be in sandals all week and her shoes really are too small to leave it! I’ll get some proper Clark’s casual shoes too but as they might take too long to get to us on hols I’ll order them when I get home.

Other spends: £8 in Costa killing time till Clark’s could fit us in. And £4.10 on a magazine for DD for being good in the shoe shop - a very rare treat! Unfortunately I told her she could choose any magazine before I saw the selection... and then she chose this one. I’m just waiting for her to realise what to do with it 😫

@Unescorted

Adora it keeps getting worse. Ofqual have suspended the appeals process overnight. It is being "reviewed in due course". It is shambolic and utterly unfair. In years to come I hope employers recognise the class of 2020 and disregard their grades / which uni they went to ... they had "reformed" SATS in year 6, "reformed" GCSEs and now this cluster fuck. They have shown remarkable resilience all the way through.

I am having a lovely quiet morning - normally DD would want me to drive her over to the Boyf in the next town, but dh has lost his car keys and borrowed my car to go to a friends birthday (camping over) with DS. I am not a fan of said friend (she is so self obsessed and dull..) So I waved them off cheerfully thankful that no one questioned why I could not be arsed. All of which means that I am tucked up in bed drinking coffee - contemplating going out for a run when I finish my coffee. It has just stopped raining so will be lovely and quiet for a couple of hours as the visitors faff with rucksack straps and re calibrate their day.

I agree. I also hope that the students affected remember this shambles when they vote.

Just got weighed for first time in ages. I have gained half a stone. Is the frugaleer weight loss thread still going and can I join in with it please?

Snuggly the weightloss thread is here Frugaleers talk food/fitness & weight loss - 2020 part 3 http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/weightlosss_chat/3946098-Frugaleers-talk-food-fitness-weight-loss-2020-part-3

Yes it’s still going snuggly :)

Just can’t believe what’s going on with the grades. Even with all the panic when schools first closed I really didn’t think it would be this awful. 😰

Tayto so sorry about this frenemy! 💐

I’ve been a bit spendy lately. Just trying to gradually sort some stuff out like little storage solutions etc but it’s all adding up

Born They couldn't apply the algorithm to small cohorts so they gave all of those students their CAG grades. They then applied the algorithm to the large cohort but reduced the grades so that over all the results were in line with previous years, having given a large proportion to the small cohort group. That has had the result of the number of A& A grades awarded to independent schools went up by 4.7% where as in 6th form colleges 0.3%. The other awful thing is that if your school had had 1 student in the prior 3 years recording a U grade then 1 person in this current cohort got a U. However this did not apply to grades going the other way. So despite my DD being the top student in fine art in her year group and the school having at lest 1 A for the last 3 years and her CAG being an A she was down graded to an A. This is in a subject that at the point of lock down all students had handed in 85% of their assessed work. Hers was graded as A even if she got 0 in the remaining practical exam she had enough marks in the bank to get an A*.

£10 -ish on coffees, £20 -ish in supermarket.
DH bought pub lunch.

DD seems intent on sitting the exams in October.

I'm sorry for everyone going through the A-level nightmare.

No spend day for me though I was super close to spending £6.95 for the book A Pale View of Hills my sister wanted to read. I decided to check if it was added to the online library and it was! Apart from school text books which I need- I haven't bought a reading book since 2017.

I use:

www.archive.org

Despite being an american Iibrary service I had no problems signing up.

Hopefully I will get a £100 payment on friday so my total saving amount will creep up to £275/700.

That’s really frustrating about the house madden!

I’m sorry about your friend tayto that’s really unreasonable of her.

Have what you want wolf!

mrs we use ALDI it’s just much cheaper for us with so many kids and animals.

I’m sorry your DD’s having such an issue with her grades adora! It’s rubbish isn’t it, hopefully she gets the ones she deserves when she appeals.

I’ve had a few busy days. Saw some family yesterday which was so lovely. Today has just been getting the house back together, I feel like I’ve let it go the last couple of days but back in track now. DH took the boys out for a few hours to the park so I could have some child free time. I spent it asleep, I do wish I’d done something more productive with it but I sat on the sofa ready to watch a film and just nodded off!

Adora I have everything crossed for her. North likewise your DS has had such a difficult time of it all.

Orange I use Manchester library even though I don't live in GM. You can sign up on line and it give access to their e catalogue, Audible, publisher reader thing and loads of other free resources. I