Frugal Friends Forging Forward Toward February and Further Financial Freedom

[Wolfcub]

New fred

Hey girlie sorry things aren’t good with DD still :( I hope the diagnosis happens officially soon. We are back on the camhs train for both the bigger Caglets (adhd assessments needed) so goodness knows when we will hear about those 🙄

Spendy few days here, spare part for hoover (I’m allowed to call it that as it is one 😂 but the bloody belt thing snapped ffs), a book (reading northern lights to DS and couldn’t resist the illustrated 😳), going to get a medicine ball to mix up my exercise routine a bit, and now our sieve broke and I need some litmus paper for chemistry with ds. Fun times! I finally understand how to balance chemical equations though so yay.

Need to look into getting a computer. DD1 is borrowing one from school, our own laptop died last year. We’ve decided to go for a desktop in our room this time, if anyone can recommend places to look?

Also bit random but does anyone here have a PlayStation Now subscription? I have a question if so 😂

Oh goodness Sing I still have nightmares about balancing chemical equations, they are so hard!! Litmus paper is good fun though. Did you know that you can use red cabbage for litmus tests? Boils a wedge in some water then drain and collect the water (maybe when you get a new sieve). Let it cool and it works! Dcs had great fun making it change colour last lockdown, they thought it was magic! We missed it with lemon juice, washing powder, vinegar, conditioner etc.

Sorry to hear things are so tough Girlie.

That sounds fun snuggly! Might try that at the weekend. And sing I salute you for trying to do this level of learning from home 🏅!

Girlie that's so tough with dd

Dt has been in pull-ups overnight. Not sure of the success yet as I sneak out before they get up on a work day but we weren't woken in the night to change wet sheets so even if she has a wet pull up it's been a success of sorts and I feel so much better for an undisturbed night of sleep. I was very frugal though and walked out of the Tesco express as the only suitable pull-ups were pampers at £9 😳. I went to Aldi on my lunch break instead - £2.89

January:
NSDs: 9/31
Groceries: £250.41/400
Everything else: £164.68/350

Fingers crossed 🤞 for DD’s assessment/diagnosis Girlie

£9 for Pampers, yeesh.

Today I’ll spend a little amount, just a birthday card for DH. If I don’t get it now I’ll forget it 🤦‍♀️

I was so bad at science in school! Despite loving equations in maths (def my best subject) chemical equations were totally beyond me. And yet now I watched a YouTube video using that Molymod stuff (which I bought years ago) and it all made total sense. Really pleased DS (11) gets it too as he’s been interested in chemistry for years so it would have been a shame if it was a stumbling block.

Thank you for mentioning the cabbage - I had a vague idea of some kind of home made indicator but couldn’t remember, I’ll definitely do that too!

DH’s birthday so having a lazy day, will have takeaway later.

Girlie

Sorry to hear dd and as a result you are still struggling girlie hope you're doing ok

My dm is struggling with ds, she committed to moving in with us for January to help with childcare. Seems likely schools won't return next month either. I've spoken to work, ex, childminder and have come up with working three full days and taking holidays for other two for next month. The days I'm working will be split between childminder and ex and will involve dc getting up at 6.45am

Other option was lay me off temporarily and I'd receive pup payment but neither of us want that. Me because of mortgage application, work because I'm good at my job

Is taking him to work another option? What harm could he do?

Definitely not life it wouldn't be accepted, Saturdays are ok but not weekdays

I feel drained from the thinking about how to work it out and will have to deal with dm's tears over it tonight. She was a massive help for the month but I can't expect her to continue. She might help out in summer though to balance childcare bill

€97.89 in Lidl 59.99 on a cordless drill, 2.99 on compost caddy which hangs over cupboard door, 1.99 on pasta salad for tomorrow's lunch & balance on groceries
€53 on 80kg coal and 5 bales briquettes
€14.99 on a screen protector for my phone
€14 on 2 black bags and 2 recycling bags

Doing rubbish this way has cost €18 approx monthly, collection would be €22 but I'd have to walk the bins 1km out the road, and I never make journey especially

Resisted soup maker in Lidl

Ah happier it's tough to balance everything

life sorry to hear that is is still tough for you and DD.

happier the juggling is so hard. Could you do condensed hours so you don't burn through your holiday. We can work all our hours over 4 longer days. We are contracted 35 hrs p week so you can do 4 x 8hr 45min days and have 3 day weekends. Or do 70 hours over 9 days - 7hr 45 (ish) per day. That way if you pay for child care per day you can reduce it by a day a week. As I typed that it reminds me how lucky I am to have a good progressive employer.

wolf I hope you didn't need the boat.

There is nothing worse than having a shitty person at work to make it even less enjoyable than it already is.

I was quite touched today - one of my colleagues was having a really rubbish day so decided that I was the person to talk to to make it seem a less crap day. Not that I fixed anything I just made soothing there there noises.

I was able to sneak into one of DD's artist's talks today.... it was amazing. The work was stunning and she (the artist) was freely talking about her inspiration, creative process and practice.

unescorted because we're in construction/customer service end of it the hours can only be done between 7.30am and 5pm Mon to Fri, my colleague in accounts was able to adapt her hours as her work can be done out of hours.

I've accepted what I've decided for month of Feb and will see about March should they remain to be home from school. I'll use 6 days over next month. I'd one carried forward from last year so leaves me with 18/24 then and they've said if I need a break later in the year and am out of holidays I can take some time unpaid.

Just being a listening ear is enough unescorted

Got my rental insurance renewal. Remember credit union discount with axa, googled and it gives 10% off house insurance and €30 off renewals so going to ring tomorrow to see what that'll give me off. Rental insurance might be different rate but it'll still be a discount.

happier so am I - are your sites not open by 6:30 - 7? I am working in the wrong country. My first calls start coming through as I get off the loo. If it all goes tits up over here let me know which companies / PS agencies are recruiting in RoI.

Speaking of which I need to get the kids passports done.

Hello! Just checking in.

£40 riding (although I only had £35 on me today so will pay the rest on Saturday).

Day off for me today which was much needed. I stayed in bed until 930 (more correctly I got up with dd at 630 then went back to bed once they were dressed and dh took them to nursery) and read my book. Went riding at 11. Home for 1. Dh and I went for lunch (bacon rolls from seaside cafe eaten in the car - non vegan...!)

Then I came home and sat on bed and read book and napped. Cleaner came today too £60.

Superb self care day. Much needed.

Damn, just saw new lockets designs. I don’t need more pairs, but I love this :o

Spendy evening on takeaway, worth it.

Morning everyone ♥️
Mia yesterday , it was my cousin's husband's funeral and I really didn't feel like posting anywhere afterwards, it was so sad, my poor cousin and their daughters were terrible it was heartbreaking. Bless their hearts. I did MumBobs in the morning then got ready and went to the funeral. It was all outside only 30 ppl. We stood outside his house and saw him off first, there were so many ppl there paying heir respects. I went to Marks and bought more meal deals for them because l knew they liked it last time and there is nothing else l can do . It's so hard to find a way to help when in reality there is nothing at all l can do.
l wouldn't wish this abject suffering and misery on my worst enemy.
I'm so sorry to offload on you all. I won't mention it again just letting you know what happened.
Hope everyone is doing well and not feeling the after effects of any flooding. Normal service will be resumed soon l promise ❤️

mrs mention it as often as you need to. My mentor died a few months back and the funeral was so surreal. It hasn't quite sunk in that they are gone. I think it will hit when normal routines are resumed and their loss will be noticed. At the moment it feels as if they are just isolating and taking extra long to reply to emails. Yet for their immediate family the loss is front and centre with little support from friends and wider family. It must be awful.

DD finished a piece of work last night - it is so beautiful and a real privilege to see her draw it. I want it for the gallery, but I think it might be needed elsewhere.

I am so glad it is Friday.

mrs it’s so important you feel you can talk about it - it’s the only way to process it. It will take some time
girlie so sorry to hear about your DD.

Today we are having ham and pineapple pizza thanks to em for reminding me that I can’t live without it and I need shower gel and bread so sending DH in to get that so I don’t buy half the shop while in there.

I finish teaching at 1300 today, so nice (I am FT it’s just a quirk of my timetable) so planning to do a spin class then paint the living room which has been an ongoing project.
We discovered the original Victorian tiles under the nasty 1960s hearth last night and it’s made my week. I’ve found a company that do very similar ones so we can replace the one or two broken ones and it is going to be beautiful!

We need pics gensola love a bit of redecoration or diy!

@Unescorted

happier so am I - are your sites not open by 6:30 - 7? I am working in the wrong country. My first calls start coming through as I get off the loo. If it all goes tits up over here let me know which companies / PS agencies are recruiting in RoI.

Speaking of which I need to get the kids passports done.

Up to a few years ago they were but now it's difficult to get anyone to take stuff before 7.30am.

Discovered Aldi have a savings card, that can be topped up at the till. Going to find out when it comes what increments you can top it up by, I'd love if I could just round it off to whatever my budget is for groceries for the week if I spend less but thinking it'd be a good way of having a free week now and again.

€10
Going to split my budget for Feb to Groceries and Cleaning Products.

Last year my grocery spend was €432 monthly, dropping to €400 when au pair finished up, I know I can bring this down more. It'll be about €400 this month including dm. Aiming for €300 for February and will allow €50 monthly budget for household stuff like washing capsules/toilet paper etc and assess again after that.