August Always Adds Pocket Pressure, Frugal Friends Thrive Thriftily

[Wolfcub]

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Love the cushions Em clever girl 🤗 beautiful views 🤤🤤
Treat yourself when you can Wolf 🤗 hope you enjoyed your Starbucks 🤗
@Unescorted well done love ! Great job!
Born l thought it might be Seas sinuses too, the Ibuprofen would be excellent for reducing the inflammation, was it you who told me to give Dd2 Ibuprofen for her terrible tonsillitis 2 weeks ago if so thank you her tonsils are amazing now they haven't been this small since before last Christmas. 😁
Talking of which, lots of decs out in the shops today , l went to Primark before the funeral,which went off very well, bought Dd2 XL bath sheet towels X3 £5 from £9 , 2 little faux plants 2.50 each and a faux lemon plant for £10. £30 in all😁

Groceries yesterday £84
Uni supplies £26, £10, £11
Coffee and cake £6-ish

I brought DD into town for a few last minute school bits. I picked up a new pencil case for myself because it has owls on it so I can transport pens, highlighters, post-its etc. between work and home.
DD was supposed to meet a friend for lunch but the friend cancelled on her, so we had lunch in Subway instead. It was our last treat of the holidays.

Spends

€17 for stationery in Choices
€10.98 for paint samples and a floor mat in Woodies
€21.65 for school book in Easons
€10.70 in Subway
€11.79 in Tesco
€2.50 in butcher's shop
€2.40 for parking

€77.02 Total spend

DD's school bag is all packed for the morning, complete with face masks (to be worn all day), hand gel, antiseptic wipes etc. The schools have been closed since the 12th March here (they didn't open for keyworkers), so I'm glad they're re-opening Just hope they stay open now. They're only back a few days and three schools have had cases.

And this. Just finished it and wrestled the bastard foam into the cover. Oh the swearing.

tayto I love a pencil case. Dh laughs at me because I have one. But do I lose pens? No. Does he? Yes. Am I smug? Yes.

Catface has used her cat flap on her own today. Three times. She’s a genius!!!! So proud.

£42 b&q - storage box for Covid-19 lockdown winter edition, two shelves for ds’ room and some more spray paint. Plus a plant for our bedroom.

Also £82 waitrose. On said Covid stash things (pasta bread flour rice and things in tins).

Thanks for all the cushion love. I’m super proud of myself. I hadn’t looked at a sewing machine since 2015 when I did a night course in sewing basics. A box cushion cover with an envelope flap was a mission. But. Managed it. Hoorah. Now just have to make another one for the other side of the picnic bench!

Today is the day we all go back to work and school. Bracing myself to get out of bed. My children are not early risers... lovely at weekends but makes school days start off on the wrong foot 😞

Cushions look great.
One back to school here. One off to d grand parents.
Full day of back to back meetings today. And a valuer coming out.

What happened with dt adora did she get a uni place she was happy with in the end. Sorry if you said my short term memory is shocking

I have to be sociable and chipper and engaging at work today. I do not feel sociable or chipper and I have zero desire to engage with anyone. Urgh

Good luck with the return to school Madden, Life and anyone else returning today.

I am also quite partial to a pencil case, especially with moving round different offices during the week - it pays to have an office worth of stuff in the bag

Just posted DS out the door - DH is doing parent with the moistest and got out of bed to be the taxi. We hadn't factored in sandwiches / lunch bits so I had to be slightly creative to avoid the boy starving.

Pencil cases are essential when hot desking - I got a plastic slide box from wilkos - it had a couple of pens and a geometry set in it. All for 75p. It has lasted years and is the right side of adult without having hipster or yuppie styling to create pencil case envy at work.

Wolf you can have some of my chipper and engaging if you want - It is not necessary for the sanding and painting I have planned. I am giving myself until 9 and then making a start. If I can work out how to get pictures onto this laptop I will post a picture when I am done.

Em love the Cactii cushions.

Mmm pencil case

Paid nursery fees for this month £1879. 😱

Also paid cleaners £60.

That’s one big childcare bill em

I’m at home drinking tea by myself . I thought I’d be staying at work until 4pm so booked the childminder accordingly, but my boss said she wouldn’t pay the overtime if I stayed longer than contract hours. So home I happily came! I tried not to skip out the door 😂 especially when someone had a job needing doing as I was about to leave.

A NSD so far. Just returned a parcel to amazon via post office. I ordered a cake knife, but it had mould on it. I guess someone else had used it, not cleaned it and then returned it 🤢

Yep. Hopefully not for much longer. When ds turns 3 it’ll drop a bit.

That’s with a sibling discount too....!!

Short term. It’s only short term. When nursery finishes we’ll have some much spare cash!!!!

Always good to have one moist parent Unescorted.

We’re just coming out of similar costs Em. I looked upon it as capital, not revenue, iyswim. It’s finite, just a cost of getting through a stage. But painful!

@ememem84

And this. Just finished it and wrestled the bastard foam into the cover. Oh the swearing.

It's gorgeous you have great taste as well as sewing skills EM

Tayto 3 local schools have cases already OMG that's very worrying

Sorry been MIA - can you tell term has just started? First few days have gone well and I haven't spent any money all week!

LOVE ! That is minging! urggg!
That is a lot of money Em when the Dc are in school you won't know what to do with the spare money
Wolf it will be ok give it time, when you come home lots of TLC for yourself my dear . I am putting balt salts in my bath every day and l bought myself some Cammomile & Green tea/lemon T bags from Aldi to try to refresh myself and stop drinking as much caffeine , they don't taste very nice but l am going to persevere because they are very refreshing in my mouth not cloying like coffee..
Unescorted great work, you are very motivated
I seem to have found my dieting motivation from somewhere , l think it was the feeeling like a great fat whale that finally did it
I aim to go on the frugal diet thread now l am back to feeling it , l find unless you are ON it mentally then it's almost hopeless , in my case at least
Went to Aldi's to shop for food for SW £44 , l have been watching a lovely vlog from a beautiful young girl from Newport called Chloe , she's just amazing looks like she hasn't got a weight problem but she's lost 4 stone in all ! Will put link on

Off to frugal slimming thread , have a lovely evening everyone

Downloaded the Lidl app for £5 off a £25 spend. Think you get another £10 off if you spend over £200 in September. Easy done for me. Also got an extra £5 by topping up £50 on Amazon using visa. My debit card is visa anyway so it was no extra faff.

Covid case at DS's school. Hope it's just a random one.

Those nursery fees are scarily high and that's not even full time is it?

Holy shit Em those nursery fees are about 80% of my total household outgoings for a month (not including savings or annual expenses).

Snuggly well done not spending

Love enjoy the peace

Unescorted you're going great guns with your decorating

Well done in the dieting motivation Mrs

£17 on bloody food 😡 DDs got up late and didn’t eat before we went out. It won’t be happening again.

Operation crack den phase 1 has completed. I have a lovely white kitchen. It is also clean... including the bits I can't see. Phase 2 will be completed tomorrow - DD got the bum steer because there was more plastering.

Em How effing much. That is an advertisement for contraceptives if I have ever heard one.

Mrs can I borrow you dieting motivation.

Snuggly glad you have a silver lining. All of DS's classmates were in except 1 who is quarantining. He had a lovely time which is fabulous.

born that is a worry. Fingers crossed for no more cases.

Sea the kids are lucky they have one competent parent - I am not convinced I would have got them to voting age.

Oooh thank born for the heads up on the Lidl app. I need to get back to doing a shop in Lidl now I have my day off without children back from next Friday.

I do need to start job hunting again though, my current boss seems to be moving more responsibility to me. So I might as well look for a job with responsibility plus pay for it. Not the best time to job hunt though!

Your nursery fees are more than my monthly salary em

Dd had a lovely day back at school too.

Em we have just started to get funded hours for the dts and we feel like we have won the lottery! We were paying nursery for all 3 dcs once. Hang on in there, it does get better!

Yep. That’s how much nursery fees are. It’s insane. But temporary. As of next sept we might get funded hours for ds. Unless our gov start means testing the free hours then we won’t get them!

We debated a nanny or a childminder but fees are similar (except with nursery we don’t have to supply anything except nappies and wipes) and we get a lot for our money. Long hours (if we need them) no late fees, food all supplied, no additional costs for trips, yoga lessons, and a birthday cake on birthdays.

Anyway.

Picked kids up from nursery and then we went for a walk and got some more blackberries. Kids have just gone to bed. Phew.