Frugally Forward To Autumn

[Wolfcub]

New fred

I spoke too soon... £13 Morrisons on a fluffy onesie for DS. But will be useful in winter with cutting down on heating use.

Oh and £7 on two tubs of chocolates in Tesco too, that someone posted earlier. Stashed for Christmas. I've already got a pudding and turkey (in the freezer) from last year!

Ok. Spendy afternoon.

£357 gym membership. Paid in full for the year. Works out at £29 a month. Includes all classes three gyms and a pool and steam and sauna whenever I want (within opening hours obvs). Also included a membership for ds until he’s 18. Win!

£143 Waitrose. A lot of that was laundry stuff actually. Stain remover powder, anti bac wash (for sports clothes which get stinky!) wool detergent (winter is coming and it was on a deal) ironing water (I rarely iron. But when I do….)
tonic waters (fevertree yummy ones were on offer). And just a regular shop. I took a list.

£68 petrol 😩

DH has transferred the gym membership money to me. He got a bonus from his work. So that’s nice.

alao £6.99 in toy shop today - bought uno thought dh might like it to help with his numbers.

Ds. Ds might like uno. DH doesn’t need help with numbers. He’s an accountant.

born yep we could easily spend a fortune. Luckily we have memberships to most things. Have membership cards/key rings coming out of my frogging ears I do. But we use thrm

heritage membership £5.99pcm gives us access to about 7/8 sites I think for me and DH. Kids are free until they’re 10. Then are classed as students so I think they pay £1.

zoo £160 a year for family. Worth it when adult entry fee is £19 and a child (age 3+ is £14…..).

adventure park £26 a month. Again adult is about £13. Go once and money is made back. We go about once a week for a couple of hours.

I’d happily never leave the island. DH however is a traveller. So we travel a bit. But I do love seeing the island so vibrant again.

Well TGTG from Company Shop was a bit shit 🙈 Lots of yogurt all needing to be used today. Some snack things that DH actually had to check weren't cat biscuits as they looked very, very similar, some granola that actually expired in April but had had a manufacturer's date expansion until tomorrow ( who knew that was even a thing?) Positive things were a lettuce, 2 avocados, some beef strips and two cream donuts. Don't think I'd rush back. Grabbed a costa bag too which was definitely better and very good value for £3

Wolf I'm sorry you're having such a hard time with ds. That sounds really stressful and removing yourself sounds like the best idea.

em I don't think I'd want to leave the island either if I had all that on my doorstep.

Born can you freeze the yogurt for frozen yog? I have done this for both ds and ddog

I’m really sorry to hear of your diagnosis. If it’s any consolation these giant cysts are usually found in the very early stages as the size of the cysts gives away the fact something is amiss. I haven’t needed any treatment apart from the staging surgery and the removal of my 6kg cyst and everything else but the kitchen sink and in November I go onto yearly check ups for the next 3 years instead of 6 monthly ones I’m now on.

If you should get a diagnosis of Mucinous Ovarian Cancer I’d be happy to share with you everything I know about it as it’s a very rare form of Cancer and information can be hard to come by (especially when you are reeling with shock).

regards.

@ememem84 . I teach accountants.a lot need help with numbers

@Wolfcub good on you for leaving him and doing stuff

@ThisisCollie2022 sorry you are feeling low.think you are in sw. I am from there. It can be weird. Very busy summer but all tourists then dead winter. No tourists and half the locals bugger off.Also geographically v spread out

Petrol ⛽58. I'll use that in about 5 days. Makes me want to cry

Wolf I didn't know you could do that thanks for that. As it happens they've ate most of the yogurts with some of the granola for pudding.

Same here, our island ( no the same one Em is on) is manic atm but will be dead after school holidays and when the yottie sesson ends.. ...
Its still lovely though ...

Not the same one as Em

Back to work boo. Just sat down. LSD as I was WFH.

£4.49 bits to top up. eggs, steak bakes for DS, few ingredients for a Thai noodle thing. Hmm the big shop not entirely covering the week.

Sorry to hear that Wolf. Better to leave him to it.

Must try the TGTG bags. There's a Toby Cavery on the app when I look. Would work for DS and DH (who works shifts so eats at all odd times), maybe to make up sandwiches.

£1.90 booking fee for two tickets to Odeon tomorrow for DD and her friend. Using up a Groupon deal I'd got a while back. Friend's birthday had slid by (the whole family got ill and didn't celebrate) so this is to make up as we hadn't realised. There's a great sweet shop near the cinema for snacks. I will work from the coffee shop in the complex. Costa card at the ready - think I got a free birthday drink! I'll be dining out on this 50th for a while 😊

Back to work properly now, qll team back on the office. Keeps me out of the fridge, as I'm notbworking from home :) took a flask, will take pack up in on the 2 full days I'm there and when I'm there for the pgce course in the evening. Lsd, bread and cheese from lidl. Got everything set up in my money diary and the spending app. I love the weekly food budget account idea, I too will use this. From tomorrow I will be militant about food waste and usage of gas/ electric- also petrol. Organisation is survival from here on in!

So sorry to hear of your diagnosis north thinking of you and sending you hugs

spends today £30 on petrol

Good on you for going out wolf. Save the row for another time

i think all the memberships are worth it with young kids. We did it when ours were little. I want to come to your island but dh doesn’t and there are flights from the airport 3 miles away.

hope all back to work and school this week goes well.

collie ❤️

$59 aldi as need food to feed dd health issue again

Hi all hope you’ve had a good day. i was back at work so managed a NSD myself but DH was off with the kids and took them to a little local zoo/park type thing so he paid for entry, chips at lunchtime (only one portion to share because he also took picnic bits after prompting from me but they’re still £4!) and then eye-watering overpriced ice creams this afternoon. Plus petrol. All in all he probably spent £50 😱 but they’re back to childminders tomorrow and then preschool for eldest next week so spending should calm down. We’ve done a few days out this summer as we didn’t go on an abroad holiday in the end so I haven’t added up all the costs but its less than we would have spent on our initial plan which was a week in Majorca so I’m happy enough.

@ememem84 im sorry but your Uno typo did make me giggle 😂

re: meal planning… my monthly strategy is sort of working but I can’t get DH on board. He is a pathological “nip to the shops” breed. I did my big shop in Aldi on Thursday last week and he has since been to Waitrose, Tesco express and Morrisons. Each time he has been going in search of something specific but only one of those was actually on my list for the week. And then he always picks up extras. He decided we were having fajitas for dinner tonight (having not checked my meal plan on the calendar…) so went in for wraps and also bought a bag of haribo. He is generally awful for spending £1 or £2 here or there… a coffee, a pastry, a newspaper etc. He makes very few big purchases (if any? Struggling to think of any examples) and if he did he would always discuss it with me first so I can’t really complain too much but my god it drives me mad. Interested to hear if anyone has the same experience with their other half!

Wolf well done on going out. Has he calmed down?

Hairband please don’t leave on my account, and especially not on account of reflections on that poster. It caused enough bad feelings at the time. I am not saying the behaviour was acceptable at all, or that it didn’t have the horrible impact on people it was aimed at. I was on the receiving end of a few sharp remarks too. But enough of that now. I hope you stay for the frugal chat.

Sorry that so many of us have anxiety. I really had no idea until very recently how it feels and it’s not nice at all. I woke up with a migraine today and when I tried to get up I felt incredibly nauseous - I think it was a vestibular migraine, never had it before. I had to stay in bed this morning with a bucket by the bed, and then only managed a couple of meetings this arvo. Need to get DS to bed now and then eat and have an early night. In the office tomorrow so need to get up earlier, and also sleep off the lingering migraine.

LSD - bought a colour-by-stickers book for DD (5) for £6 as she has finished the one she got given for her birthday and was really proud of it, but is sad it’s all done. The original one kept her quiet for hours so it’s a gift for me really 😉. DH bought mushrooms.

sorry your Ds is hard work Wolf. Mine is too - he can’t help it but it doesn’t stop it affecting the whole family. I hope you enjoy your week off.

Laska I am so jealous of 3 weeks in Scotland! I just love it up there. I hope the weather is kind. Where are you going, if you can say?

trying a new recipe tonight, Mediterranean orzo chicken thing. It’s in the oven now and I am starving!

Half that sounds horrendous, hope you feel better after a sleep
Life hope dd is ok
Adora yes he's stopped trying to break things by the time I'd had a walk and a quiet sit in the park
Em I think if I had all those wonderful things to do I wouldn't leave either, it's somewhere I'd love to visit

Haven't had a chance to read through but something remarkable just happened...

DH renewed his car insurance and its gone down by £10 per month! It usually goes up despite his no claims. We're absolutely buzzing 😆

Simple things eh?

My last shop came in at £59 so am pretty confident I can keep it around that for the foreseeable. Just did my first draft and it was £64. So only a little editing / swapping needs to be done to get it in budget 🙌

@ememem84 😂😂 love the idea of Uno to help your DH practise his numbers 🤣

£1.75 tesco for Diet Coke and wotsits (since WHEN were wotsits £1 for a small bag wtf) and £5 for emergency san pro.

MIL had a fall and broke her leg in two places - she’s in hospital. We drove 2 hours there but then they found out she had covid so they wouldn’t let us in 🙄 it’s looking really bad for her as she’s very elderly now and lives alone so she will probably have to go into a care home. Poor DH is beside himself.

I think I was told off years ago by a poster with leaves in their name for going on holiday. Not sure if that’s the same person or not!

Meal plan all disrupted by whole day on the road today, need to batch cook tomorrow to stop veg all going off.