Would I July to you August Frugaleers

[Unescorted]

Follow on from the last one

Em I've had tenosynovitis, expect to wear that brace for a while and to have reoccurrences which it does well to get on top of the second symptoms start

Fab news @MeadowHay ❤️ Well done for speaking to them about it!

Aldi £5.60 bought some bargainous Chicken fillets with Katsu sauce x 5 for 75% off Dd2 loves them so great buy

Well done Em gotta be done , hope your 'texters thumb repetitive strain injury mummy’s wrist etc etc.' is much improved very soon

Hi everyone,

had a busy week last week. I had a friend to stay for a few days. Enjoying the peace and quiet now and glad to have my house back to myself again - well, me and DD obviously .

It's been raining on and off all day. I put my compost bin out a few minutes ago and there's an autumnal feel in the air. 13 degrees tonight as opposed to late 20s last week.

I've been having problems with my house alarm so I had to ring the alarm company. It's a monitored alarm. Unfortunately, the account is in Ex's name so I had to get him to send an e-mail informing the company that he's moved out. They're going to close off the account and then I can set up a new account. It's really frustrating that I'm still having to consult him about things like this. The sooner I get his name off everything and my name on everything, the better. Ladies (I think we're all ladies here) if you don't have your name on every bill/account, I suggest you get your name added to them all. If anything happened to your OHs, it could make life very difficult for you.

I've a session with my counsellor tomorrow. I'll have to pay her for two sessions because I forgot to take out money last time around . Since Covid, I've hardly used cash at all.

We've a Bank Holiday weekend coming up. I'm meeting an old school friend in Dublin on Saturday. On Sunday I'm meeting another friend for lunch. And on Monday I'm visiting my sister's house. Good to be getting out a bit and meeting up with people. But not so good for my finances.

DD is heading into her last year at school in September. Hard to believe. It seems like only yesterday she was starting secondary school. I paid the book rental fee earlier in the week and I ordered her a new school bag. I'm hoping she doesn't need anything new in terms of her uniform - seems pointless buying anything when she'll only be wearing it for nine months or so. And on that subject, I'll have to set up a college fees fund. College fees are free in Ireland - in theory. In practice, we have to pay something called registration fees which amount to €3,000 a year. That's €1,500 each when you split the cost between me and Ex.

em well done on picking the kitchen worktops and counters. And making the bunny birthday cake. Your mum's pirate cake sounds amazing. Your nan's cake too Gen.

Sing good luck with the applications. Yes, big purchases stress me out. Also, I get bewildered by all the choice - where do you start? Once I've made my decision, I'm fine.

Mrs good bargain hunting in Aldi

Meadow great news re: scan

Right, I'm off to watch 'The Golden Girls' and maybe an episode of 'Shitsel'

Cake. Is. Done.

And I must say I’m feeling a bit smug with myself.

Three layered sponge. Jam and butter cream inside. Hand crafted ears (the fourth set - I fucking hate fondant! So fiddly!) nose feet and a giant marshmallow for a tail.

@ememem84 wow!! You have totally outdone yourself, it looks bliddy amazing 😊 you must be so proud. Now I really want cake!

@Taytocrisps good advice there! & hope your counselling session goes well tomorrow ❤️

em that cake is amazing! She will remember it forever, like me and my fairytale cottage cake!

tayto this is such good advice - I found this to my cost when I divorced. Also now FIL has died, we are having a total nightmare transferring things to MIL, if he’d just added her to the accounts it would be so easy.

That cake is fabulous. Happy birthday dd
Sage advice tayto
£63 Sainsbury’s and didn’t need much. Need to meal plan
Still don’t know if we are moving or not, defo not the 6th

Hey everyone!

I've popped on and off of these threads for years, mostly because I'm quite unorganised 😬and if somethings not a set in stone routine it doesn't really happen.

I've been trying so hard since January to really cut back on spending and save more, mostly just to stop wasting money and filling the house with stuff we don't need, well that and also to stop over buying food that eventually goes in the bin, it's been quite successful so far but now the long school holidays are here it's probably going to go the other way.

I've tried to stick to quite a strict budget in order to keep myself accountable for my spending. And I also write everything I spend down in a note book, it's definitely helped me keep track of where the money goes.

I was lucky enough to only need to buy a new blazer, shoes and PE bottoms for dd2, and underwear and tights for both dd's so school uniform is sorted without spending too much, we also had the 31 July deadline for orders here.

I hope everyone has a little bit of sunshine today, the weather is looking good here this morning after yesterday's rain of biblical proportions.

Ive managed to book a couple of days off each week so I can spend some time with dd's whilst they are home, I'm always up way before them to walk the dog early, so I quite enjoy making them breakfast ( I can't do this when I'm at work )and we've been watching a lot of the Olympics together.

Fingers crossed i managed to keep up with the thread this time and don't drop off it

Payday tomorrow YAY!!!

Love the cake em, well done. Happy Birthday to your dd 🎉

Life the potential house move must be so, so stressful for you. I really hope that this time it goes ahead 🤞

Sing don't forget to check for cashback when you buy your sofa. I got £250 back with mine. And yes I get the anxiety about big spends. Once I've got the new item I always think why didn't I do this ages ago and kind of stare at it almost in awe. Having nice things in your house can really improve moral in my experience.

Camden welcome back sounds like you're still frugaleering better than me so well done!

Cake is awesome em , happy birthday to your dd
Hi Camden good to hear from you

Spends yesterday €54.50 at amusements, granny gave €10 towards it
€20 McDonald's
€4.80 chocolate for dc
€11.20 top up shop
€60 approx on diesel, first time using 24 hour pump with my fuel card, nice not to have to queue and socialise

Had second vaccine 💉

Caught up with lots of friends, made chocolate brownies & lime loaf(I'd no lemons) this meant I didn't buy anything for either the visitors coming to me or me visiting friends

Life hope work/house stress settles down soon

Will I go do returns while dds at camp or will I bother, ds still asleep beside me so thinking I won't bother.

Promised them treats from beach cafe this morning too, haircuts tomo

My counsellor cancelled the appointment today because her child is sick. I'm a working parent so I can sympathize - I understand how difficult it can be juggling work and parenting. It's just frustrating because I stayed up late last night writing down a load of things I wanted to talk about (I wasn't sure I'd get through it all in one session) and now I'll have to put them on hold until she can fit me in.

I went through DD's booklist with her. Turns out we need to buy some extra history books because they're not covered by the book rental scheme. Seems a bit pointless having a book rental scheme if you still have to go out and pay for books! She also needs some folders, so we might head to to town later and pick up the books/folders. Seems very early to be buying back to school stuff but she's back on the 30th August and we're away the last week in August so that leaves me three weeks to sort it all. Might as well do it now rather than leaving it until the last minute when I'm packing for my holiday and dropping the cats off to the cattery.

life you must be so stressed not knowing when moving day is.

Camden welcome back. Sounds like you've been making a real effort to curb your spending. I'm also guilty of wasting money and filling the house with things we don't need. I need to remember that the next time I come across the perfect gadget or item that will my make my life complete . Enjoy the time off with your DDs.

em just echoing everyone's comments about the cake - it's fab!

Sorry about your appointment Tayto. I know it can be hard when you've built yourself up in prep to talk about difficult things and then the conversation ends up not happening. Hope you can have your session soon

I had a call from the talking therapies service and am booked in for telephone assesment next Wed morning. Have also texted my midwife to ask for a physio referral because my PGP has been it's worst yet since yesterday evening, my left hip is so painful that I am struggling with walking, dressing and going upstairs. Which is problematic because I have sole care of DD all day tomorrow . Not sure how I will manage if it stays the same tomorrow.

Today might be an NSD but on the other hand I do still need to buy a load of stuff for the baby, so might do some online shopping later.

Em that cake amazing!!

I'm another one who majorly stresses about large purchases I think it's common as DH is the same.

Thanks guys for the welcome! I think I've become a bit of a 'money saving bore' not that I've ever actually been that frugal.

Sing - just wanted to add, you are not alone with the stress of making large purchases, I'm exactly the same, plus I worry about all sorts, dimension's, colours if I'll regret it once it's here.

At the moment I'm mulling over this arm chair, I know I love it but I'm overthinking the colours - I love a light colour but don't want the dog to destroy it with muddy footprints, also I'm reluctant to choose a 'fashionable' colour/fabric. Gah

Tayto - I picked up all dd1's GCSE revision text books second hand on eBay, some even had notes in the front - bonus lol. Some of them are so expensive and she needed about 12 I think.

Happier - life loaf and chocolate brownies sound amazing 🤌🏻

Meadow - how far along are you? Sounds very painful right now, I hope things improve

Did you get the building work finished Camden? Welcome back btw

@lifelongfrugaleer

Did you get the building work finished Camden? Welcome back btw

Hi life - we did eventually, loads of problems and we ended up massively out of pocket, but I've really tried to move on and just accept that it happened and we got through it all. We literally just had it signed off a few weeks ago.

As crazy as it sounds, the house is great now, loads of room for everyone, everything we could need, but it's really hard to be happy here because of everything that happened. But after all the aggravation of living through it for 18 months, I can't face moving. Plus we have FIL with us which is a bit of a spanner in the works.

Thanks for asking

Tayto that's a pity about your appointment. Dm says that about their bills in case daddy would go first, but nothing about if it was the other way around.
I've none of the back to school stuff done yet.
Meant to order uniforms when M&S had 20% off but didn't. Might try get to Aldi sun for their event but I've friends for drinks sat night so I don't know how successful that will be!

€16.50 on 2 kids hot chocolates & 2 brownies, 1 blondie. I promised them we'd get these once while on holidays.

Em fantastic cake well done lovely!
Tayto great heads up. l hear you re the name change l had a hell of a job when my DF died, changing things to just Mums name .
Just come home from Mumbobs. We have worked like dogs there no one does anything for them , we do everything and shit is our thanks.
Camden that's shit for you lovely l am sorry , try to move on and enjoy what you have achieved, do you know l am sure we have all been stung while buying/selling houses l know we were, love that chair too
Happier plenty of time for the school stuff don't worry lovely

Thanks for the cake love. It was awesome delish. Le yum even.

Fun day. Spent the afternoon in a&e with dd who had shoved two peas up her nose. Fml.

The dr was good. But couldn’t retrieve them. Dd threw a tantrum. The dr doesn’t get paid enough to deal with that. He said as her breathing was fine and as peas are organic material they’ll work their way out.

em fab cake, that’s amazing!
meadow great news about the scan
mrs you are a shining star with your mum and your DH sounds lovely too
tayto that sounds stressful, I hope you can get to the counsellor soon
camden good for you with keeping tabs on the spending
I’m doing the opposite today, I’m currently late night shopping with all three DC and so far we have trainers for one, school shoes for two and various clothes. We don’t come to these but I it of town places often so I tend to just get it all when we do but ends up very spendy!

Good to see you again Camden. Glad the work is done and the house is looking good but sorry it's tainted by what went on.
Great cake Em Will be interested to hear any pea progress!!
Have had a weird week. A job was advertised (new role in my exisitng team) on Monday, closing date noon today, interviews tomorrow. I had no idea about it ahead of time. It's a 2-3 year training post at the same grade I am now, but guaranteed promotion when MSc completed. I have to be full time over 5 days for the training period (I do 4 days now). Wasn't sure whether to apply but decided to give it a shot & now will be quite disappointed if I don't get it. Got up at crack of dawn to write supporting info, then logged in at work to find it hadn't saved. Tried to stay calm and cobbled something together! Interview tomorrow morning.
Would be good financially obv as full time hours but promotion at end of it would give me much better salary for final salary pension purposes so makes sense.
Bit the bullet and signed up for a 12 week NHS digital weight management programme last week. It's good so far. app based, but I haven't been assigned to my dietitian coach yet. I have 6 stone to lose, but 2 stone is my first target. Have meal planned to within an inch of my life this week and worked hard at the gym so will be interested in my weigh in tomorrow morning. Not particularly frugal as berries are good and plentiful at the moment, but not cheap.

But north can’t you just forage for berries? (Echoing other crazy saving money threads I’ve read…!)

Still no peas. I did use the snot sucker thing and got a load out of dds nose. No peas though.

Good luck with the interview North. I've got my fingers crossed for you