Frugal Friends Forging Forward Toward February and Further Financial Freedom

[Wolfcub]

New fred

Waiting on landlady's son to come and install my washing machine in place of hers ,we can't get repair guy out due to lockdown. She said she would order a new one but when mines just sitting there I'd prefer to use it. It's 9kg vs 6kg that is there.

Takeaway last night €32.50 for dm and I there's loads leftover.
Bought spice entice meals kit while waiting for Chinese £5 off this weekend. £31.99 incl postage. 16 meals.
I'm banning takeaway until Easter.

Dm left this morning she saved me approx €1k in childcare in January.

Lovely to see new people on the thread.
I've been grocery shopping this morning and it was £130 for the 4 of us & that doesn't include any meat or fish as I am using what's in the freezer. Shopping bill is definitely higher at the moment. I reckon it averages out at probably £160 a week. Dh and both dc at home all the time is a drain on the purse. Then there are takeaway treats......

Had a better week this week at work. Finding the "long covid" planning really interesting given that ds has ME.
Breakthrough with ds this week as he is letting me help him to take all his supplements regularly (finally, [sigh]) and does seem to be coming to terms better with managing the ME while living a 19yo lockdown lifestyle which involves many cans & bottles of lager at the weekend!
£30 spent on topping up the stock of supplements.
Had a £100 surplus at the end of January which has gone straight into savings pot.
Loving the Lucy Locket gym leggings as recommended here, bought them with Christmas money & dd liked them so has bought some too.
I seem to have got into a routine of filling my time with crochet, reading and cooking/baking. It's definitely making me feel calmer and able to support the ups and downs of the rest of the family better. Have done a couple of exercise classes this week too.

camden I think I do maybe 2 loads a day now I’m wfh.

I wash towels on a Monday and bedding on a Thursday (the day the cleaners come).

I’ve done three loads today.

It’s the putting away I fail at.

@peanut well done on the rainbow rice and puddle suit walk, that sounds fab. I did that with my twins. You do well to find the energy pregnant too! Sounds like you provide lovely activities like we do with the children at work.

em I hate the putting away. We average a wash a day - I encourage second wears of everything except underwear. Towels & sheets get every second week wash... I am not going to win any sparkle awards, but I can polish my eco credentials.

Food/ groceries/ wine is working out at £200ish a week here - I could do it cheaper, but it would get samey. Tonight is a Chinese Fakeaway Banquet which is a saving of roughly £100 on our local take away prices. King Prawn Singapore noodles, Salt & Pepper Wings, Crispy Duck, Crispy Schwann Chilli Beef and fried rice.

Sing - hope your DH is okay.

Em- kitchen sounds exciting, well done saving for it all!
Mrs - hope your mum enjoys her birthday Tuesday
Happier - I am going to copy your muffins! We have old bananas, this week the kids and I have chucked them in brownies, chocolate cake and cheese cake mixes to use them up.
LSD - 5.48. I have gone back to cash not card it is working well.
This thread is a great read, makes me calmer. Hope all are having a lovely weekend.

Unescorted- we are like you washing wise, I too encourage more than one wear if clothes are clean, especially in lockdown. I am saving my nice stuff for best now!

Hmm loads of washing a week, 7 just for me and the house (so towels, bedding x 2 beds, cleaning cloths) I think. Ds is harder to quantify as he's got a habit of hiding washing and saves it up until he's got no clothes left

I’m so annoyed. Have got into the habit of using everything up food wise and have a “use up/eat first” box in the fridge.

I’ve made Italian food this evening:

Stuffed bigpasta shells with butternut and spinach and ricotta
Panzanella salad (croutons red onion tomatoes and cucumber)
Garlic bread
Italian wine
Tiramisu

And I went to make the salad with cucumber which was in the aforementioned box but it had gone all squishy.

Washing again least a load a day
Towels once a week x 2 loads. Bedding when u can be arses (monthly ish)

Ah well done DM happier. Enjoy the peace.
Hey Camden nice to see you
£13.5 are there any things you would reduce spec on em. Have to say my granite worktops are 13-14 years old and there is just start of wear where I roll dough. Definitely worth the £££

Hey North. Pleased to hear things are feeling better.

I buy for convenience over time sometimes. I'm so time poor even wfh it's a compromise I can live with

First world question tiguan v kuga?

Tiguan Life. VW build quality much better

Massive shopping fail this week... I rushed around Tesco on Thursday after school pick up. I usually go shopping on a Friday but dh had a presentation to his CEO so I took the children with me to keep them out of the house. I then remembered part way round that I had a meeting starting at 5pm. Threw stuff in, paid and got back just in time.

Realised earlier I hadn't got mince for Monday's cottage pie and I just went to lovingly prepare a beige buffet for the darlings and there's nothing in the freezer apart from a loaf of bread and some ice cubes 🤣🤣. In true frugal style though I've re-heated a bit of old pizza and garlic bread, served with some carrots and voila! Me and dh will still be eating steak later 😆

However. So grateful for disney plus. We’ve gotten into the habit of watching one film every weekend.

Tonight’s is Tarzan. Which I’ve never seen.

I've been trying unsuccessfully to sell some no longer needed horse and dog shampoo. So I've repurposed it. The horse shampoo is in the bathroom for me and the dog shampoo will do instead of washing powder until I get some more. Really trying hard not to waste anything. Hate things going to landfill when they could be uses.

A load a day here too. I also encourage a second wear of everything except underwear and socks but it is difficult with young dcs as at least some of their dinner usually ends up down their front!

Madden I have taught the dcs a simple card game today which kept us all busy for a while.
I also keep an empty ice cream tub into which I snip up any colourful wrapping paper, envelopes, scribbled on paper et so we always have paper handy for collage type things. Today the dts covered an Amazon box in glue and stuck bits of paper to it. Like pre-school decoupage . We normally go out for a walk/scoot/bike ride etc each day but the weather has been so bad today none of us could face it. We did put some songs on and had a bit of a disco though.
Gave up and put Frozen 2 on at 3.45!

I need new leggings/running tights so will check out Lucy locket thanks north

Washing machine installed, wash done.
Now that ds is bed wetting less I think I can probably get away with less washing. 12kg washing done in outdoor machines last Sunday, think I've 4 washes to do this week.

Lucy locker loves leggings are the best.

Agree re lockets. I pretty much live in them during the week now and I am not a leggings person.

Same :o I’ve only tried the actives but I feel so good in them.

em that food sounds absolutely incredible! We had a very stressful emergency visit to in-laws as DFIL had a fall and paramedics came, he had a bad reaction to his covid jab and is quite poorly so we had to do a lot of cleaning, shop and made them dinner and arranged for a carer to come twice a day from now on instead of once. He was very distressed bless him. So we are ordering Chinese when we get in!

Hiya hope you’re all okay. I felt a bit wobbly and anxious yesterday, I’m not sure why but I just felt so unmotivated. I’m feeling slightly better today. We had some sleet earlier, but it didn’t stick, it is freezing though. My mum and nan have come over, we’re watching a film (they’re in my bubble) and we might order a dessert in. Elijah’s in bed, we’ve been out in the snow today and I think the cold made him tired!.

em I’d love a pub lunch, I didn’t go out much when eat out to help out was on but I hope this summer the pubs will be open again, not to drink, just for a meal!.

snuggly I have moments when I forget we can’t do things, it makes me sad when I remember!. The other night I had a dream that I was at soft play with Elijah and when I woke up it really upset me.

sing I miss meeting up with friends too. I hope your DH gets better soon!

I’m glad your dad seems a bit better love

camden I’m considering booking a caravan holiday, maybe haven or something, in the summer.

fear I don’t always have the energy, I must admit that CBeebies is on much more than I’d like. But I find doing a few activities today make things a little easier, especially in lockdown.

NSD

I hope everyone else is okay!

peanut the pub nearest to our house does the most amazing burgers. They do takeaway but it’s not the same. I think it’s the pub smell. This pub has an open fire so smells all Smokey and ashy and pubby.

Dinner was Le yum.

I’m so so trying not to waste anything at present. amber is it mane and tail? I used it on my hair once - the actual horse one did wonders for me.

I have felt very anxious and tearful over the last couple of days too peanut. Also not been able to put my mind to things. Dd2 really not sleeping well so I think I am just exhausted. Feel a bit better for a lazyish day today.

Sorry Camden meant to say hi earlier and posted too soon. Nice to see you!

peanut / Fear Ceebies is awesome. My babies watched loads of it as smalls and both are doing OK. Horrible Histories (possibly CbbC) got them through History GCSEs. If they are taking in information and you are talking it through with then does it matter if it is from a device. tv or a book. People learn differently all the way through life.

gen hope your DFil is OK. xx

snuggly the box of things and stuff is what got DD into art. We still have boxes (many boxes) of things to create with.