August Always Adds Pocket Pressure, Frugal Friends Thrive Thriftily

[Wolfcub]

New feed

Spendy day here

£62 on 2 pairs of jeans as all others have worn out. That’s kind of balanced with 1 pair going back. I’ve gained weight during lockdown.
Another £60 on reduced bras for me
£48 on leggings for DD1
£16 on socks for DD2
£14 in farm shop
£15 on de-worming tablets for dogs
That sea swim sounds lovely em hope DD starts settling better soon. And that the therapies work for your muscle tension.

Well done madden

Had a lovely day out, walking around hyde park and then the history museum. We actually got to see more as there wasn't loads of people.
Spends
Travel will be about £7
Coffee, drinks and treats £12 roughly.

Must resist the urge to buy all the things - Cagletini suddenly declared she likes baths today after well over a year of screaming blue murder every time we tried. Bath toys are tempting!

And the lovely chocolate I added to my amazon order arrived melted and bendy 🙄 it is now in the fridge. Oops 😂

Sing my DD was also a bath refuser for about 18 months... we have a photo of her sitting in a paddling pool inside an empty washing up bowl as she was so anti-water; until one day rather than scream and thrash and try to get out she just plonked herself down and started playing happily. Kids 🙄!

Took the bbq to the beach this evening and dhs paddleboard. So lovely. Had burgers and ribs (ribs pre cooked in instant pot) a paddle with ds sat on the front (we both fell in...Oopsy but water was only waist deep for me and he had his life jacket on so he bobbed about a bit). Water lovely and cool.

Played in the sand. Sandcastles and stayed to watch the sun go down. So so lovely. Home by 9 ish. Dc should have been in bed but as Dd is refusing bedtime now we’re making the most of it....

She’s in bed now as is ds. He went straight to sleep. She’s grissling a bit. Hoping for an easy night though.

Welcome orange we're a friendly bunch here.
Welcome back Madden. Nice to see you back too Adora
Girlie glad you had a good time & that dd has an appointment
Unescorted I was wondering when your menfolk were due back. Did they enjoy it?
Seacow I hope you can relax and enjoy the break now
Still no definite job news then lonely. Just keep going.
Mummy well done on getting help, that can be the hardest part.

Had a good journey back from Devon yesterday & a lovely time with friends in Somerset en route. Our town has unfortunately now been hit by new restrictions from midnight last night so everyone is feeling quite down. Just as things were starting to feel more normal.
Did grocery shopping this morning £145.
Dh's new job is going ahead. There was a chance he would have to take a pay cut, but he hasn't so that's great news.

North I hear you on the new restrictions. We went back into lockdown last week on the first day of my leave. It feels like such a waste of time off really

Oh bugger. Have woken up with a stinker of a sore throat. I guess dds snotty nose was a cold and not just teething.

I’m now debating cancelling all of my appointments (accupuncture and osteo) just in case. I’m wfh this week anyway and can do my therapy via FaceTime. But I need the accupuncture appointment. Bloody covid.

Welcome back Madden!

I just woke up from an awful dream where it was Christmas Eve and I suddenly realised I hadn't sent any cards or bought a gift for my mum!
I really want to get on with xmas shopping, partly because it spreads the cost but also because if we both got covid before xmas I want to be prepared so the dcs still have stockings etc. Last year there was a really bad norovirus going round our area with some schools having to close. I was so keen not to get it over xmas I remember being really militant about everyone washing their hands and trying to keep a distance from a colleague whose son had it. Turns out that was good practice for 2020!

I need to think about Christmas too. Not sure I’m going to start shopping yet but need to at least have an idea of things. As snuggly says im of the mindset that We need to be organised just in case.

North that's funny you were in Devon the same time as me and that you popped into Somerset (my county!) I could have passed you in the street and we'd never know 😁

Ystd we walked to a local garden centre, I bought some plants (4 for £12) to go in the end of the garden. I know it's late on in the year for planting but I'm hoping they've got enough growing time to survive winter. Spent £16 in total as picked up some seeds and a coffee as well.

Today we've got to take the ddog to the vet as he has a gammy eye, I'm assuming conjunctivitis but apparently the vet has to see him and can't prescribe/buy drops just on my diagnosis!

It's very hot, so won't be doing much else until the evening when it stars to cool off slightly.

Had a long day in the heat yesterday. Went to shop but the pharmacy had messed up dp's pain meds prescription twice so had to wait around rather than get the shopping done. (tame word for how I was feeling). Took dd's 1&3 for a walk in the shady woods while waiting. Rollerbladed with the girls and dd3's new lockdown buddy, then she went to her house. We shopped and flopped at my parents until it was time to pick dd3 up. Was out way too long!!

Lots on shopping. Food. So much food needed.

snuggly I have that dream too! No presents on Christmas morning, empty stockings as I clean forgot them etc. This year I've explained to the dc that it might be a very skinny year. None of them mind, they're good kids.

Paddle boarding with ds sounds heavenly em

Have lovely Sunday's everyone 💖

It was lovely lonely ds had such a fun time. It’s times like that that I realise how lucky we are to have all of this on our doorstep.

Just had lovely baked pastries for breakfast. My voice is almost gone 😕 I’ve told dh im staying home today and no visitors at all (Fil was meant to be coming round but as fils brother is supposedly shielding and they see him every day it doesn’t make sense to pass on germs...)

Going to make some cakes with ds I think. Use up the left over frosting from dds birthday.

Morning lovelies.

North they had a lovely time. I am jealous of their freedom - I wish I was brave enough to just get on my bike and stay out overnight in a ditch. I don't know what holds me back....

Sea I hope you have had a good rest and can enjoy the rest of your holiday.

Madden lovely to see you

Orange welcome to the thread.

Lonely how does a pharmacist mess up the order twice. You get better service in McDonalds.

DD is not in my good books - she woke me up at just past 6 thinking that it was nearly 8 (this is the girl who is going to uni...….). It was only when I asked her why she was going to see her boyf so early that she realised. I have put the extra time to good use and have gone for a run.... the first for months.

unescorted for me it’s be the sleeping in a ditch....

Took ds to boots. We walked there and back. We needed bubble bath. We came back with one of every kids bubble bath. 😂 plus tissues and paracetamol and ibruprofen.

I’m feeling rotten. No temp but feel hot. And it’s not the heat hot iykwim. Quiet day here today. I’m trying to persuade ds to watch tv. And not run about.

em hope you feel better soon - although don't tell the fil

Frugal fail. I put 6 bottles of wine in a Tesco order to save the slot, added the rest of the shopping and forgot to take them out. We now have 6 bottles of wine which isn't the end of the world but it's £48 I didn't need to spend!

nsd for me- just a walk to the park with my younger sister.

Snuggly- maybe it would be possible to return them back to the store. How many people will be you be buying for this christmas- I always think you can never start too early. It;s always been my favourite time of the year.

em- that's a lovely beach photo.

Feel better soon Em

I am getting irritated with "friends" who are blatantly breaking lockdown rules and boasting about it. Twats

Ordered some bits for ds from Vans thanks to xmas thread. They will either be for birthday or for Xmas

Loaf of bread in bread maker, I refused to buy and bread this week because I have flour!

Banana and Nutella muffins in the oven to use four sad bananas

Load of washing in the machine and nearly ready to hang out as this will be the last dry day for a week

Watched one of Frugal Queen in France's videos.

A bit like Unescorted's annual food audit I use time off for a frugal mental reset which generally includes a bit of decluttering and batch cooking. There's no more room in the freezer for batch cooking though so really need to eat some stuff

Ooh can I have the banana and Nutella recipe.

In lonely part of the world glamping tonight but further south. Ullswater area

It's very windy with us life hope it's not too noisy tonight down the M6!

Three loads of laundry done, two on the line. Half shaved the spaniel, will finish him off soon. Put box of old crockery on top of the fridge, and full box of flour/oats/caster sugar on top of the freezer. And I'm trying to finish my lockdown sweater, it's top down, I've done the cap sleeves (not enough yarn for long) so just a bottom rib to go and done! Then it's a ufo I gave up on.

unescorted the phone service has a 200 message backlog apparently, so he phoned to chase them (9 days later) and 2 more days later the script is on a doctors desk over the weekend. It was a fuss to get the clearly busy duty doctor to sign it. But tramadol isn't one you can 'just miss' for days on end. What a polava.

Right, the washer is peeping...

thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/banana-and-nutella-muffins

I've tried two different recipes. This is the one I used today and I think it's better than the other. I doubled it to make 12 muffins as I had five manky bananas (used four)

Hope you feel better soon Em.

Yes I'm going to save most of the wine for xmas I think. We don't drink much wine but we might manage bottle or two! Dh makes a delicious mulled wine plum crumble so that would use some of it up!

Hope you feel better soon em
Welcome back madden and welcome orange
My fridge freezer needs to be replaced, its insured so no payment required.
But I'm wondering if it would just be better to have a tall fridge, I already have a small chest freezer in the cupboard.
Do any of you have just a fridge and does it work, or is having two freezers always best?
NSD today.

curvy I have a v.tall zanussi fridge, no ice box, just 6' of fridge. Cannot fault it! I also have the matching freezer (bought to match about 2 years later), and a half size chest freezer.

Spent about £4 as needed soy sauce. We're having chicken satay and tiger beer for tea (ala Clarke Key Singapore circa 1999). Who knew my soy sauce was out of date March 2018! Shows how much I use it! I figure it doesn't really go off, but it was like treacle. Um no.