Friendship and Falling Leaves, Frugal Autumn Continued

[Wolfcub]

New fred

Collie it sounds like you are getting lots of interviews that's great!

decaff thank you :) the next interview is the job I really really want. It was advertised as part time but they haven't said how part time. She said we can discuss hours in the interview. Thankfully I'd be happy with anything from 8 - 28 hours a week so hopefully we can work something out (if I get it!)

It's for a very small business. And with my disability, the fewer hours the better but I'm such a people person - I just love working.

I got some pyjamas out of storage yesterday and they had pockets. I did a Napoleon Dynamite style "yessssss" 🤣

Sorry if I've missed anything upthread - my Mumsnet pages aren't loading very well! Lots of blank white gaps.

Free nation trust days out on the website
fratures / escape into autumn

Sorry I haven't been keeping up with the thread. Did have a few spends at the start of the week when DH got paid, seem to have settled now. Tight food budget again! NSD yesterday, NSD so far today although I may head to Lidl later. £30 to take me to the £150 free cleaning product on the new Lidl coupon plus. I am hoping this may include washing powder as I've run out. In Frugal news, I am using up a bag of soap nuts with tea tree oil which does make the kitchen smell lovely, until I find out if washing powder is on the Lidl £150 coupon.

Good luck in the interview collie!

Will try to keep up! 😊

Thanks life.

£30 Lidl, exactly what I needed to get my 10% off and did involve dishwasher tablets, washing tablets, toilet roll, veggie mince for the freezer and a decent bottle of wine for the weekend (not going out). We've tons in now, so that's the extent of my weekly shop.

Oh and a planned £60 for the boys at the groomers. Ddog1 'sings' to them while he's there i.e howls! He's a home loving lad!

New Ugg leather boots, they were £13. I've a black pair and brown pair now, will last the next two years at least. Bought from Vinted

They're so nice need

I filled in the energy use calculator on Moneysavingexpert and it predicts for us....

Well I got offered the role that was advertised incorrectly and I'm confused 😆 I'm hanging on until tomorrows!

But at least I'm employable! Yay!!

Congratulations collie 🎉

Home from first day back at work and totally wrecked 🙈 left batch cooked turkey ragu to defrost for dinner, having it with roasted spaghetti squash cooked with garlic, parsley and parmesan.

Definitely don’t rush into accepting collie

well done Gen on being back at work and prepping a meal

nice boots

going to Aldi tonight for the stuff I know is cheaper and better than Sainsbury’s

Congratulations collie, and also Gen.

I tried inputting my annual gas and electricity usage into the Money Saving Expert calculator and it bears no relation to what we currently spend, so I have no confidence in what it predicts for us. Which is less than we're paying now. Just going to keep on putting on the layers and getting into the sunshine outside, where it is warmer than inside the house already! E.ON expect to increase our direct debit by £100 (I think that is net of the subsidy) and I will send in my readings each month to get an up to date statement so we don't fall into arrears.

£38 in Aldi. Substituted rapeseed oil for my usual olive; mousetrap cheddar (£3.99) but succumbed to the gruyere (which has gone up by about 40p since I last bought it); butter still £1.99. Cheapest mince was the combined pork and mince at £4.19 a kilo, making a batch of chilli now, some for the freezer. Went for chicken wings (£1.85) and I'll do those with baked potatoes.

Thanks everyone! I'm not making any decisions until all my interviews are done eeek

We also went back to Aldi tonight and bought everything on my weekly list that isn't fresh or has a short date.

I made a list before I went in and wrote Sainsburys prices down, so I could see the saving as we went around the store 😆

I don't know if I'm imagining it or not but food prices this week are insane compared to recent weeks! I noticed that something I buy every week has gone up 40p.

And a few other things have increased by 20p each.

I don't deviate too much week to week - I'm quite boring really but I'd say our weekly shop like for like is £11 higher than recently :/ despite doing half in Aldi!

Couple of nsd coming up over weekend. Work is very stressful, people are find life hard all around me at rhe minute. I should probably be stressed but I'm just keeping my head down and getting things done. In work, the pgce and at home.

Mousetrap cheddar tastes of sod all. It's quite an achievement. And there's so much of it! Oh well.

Great new gen congratulations collie

You are not wrong collie food is soaring

cheese scones big?

Morning.

Well done collie, good luck for the interview today!

Couple of NSD's for me too coming up fear, there's so much anxiety around at the minute isn't there?

Agree re prices - butter was £1.99 yesterday in Lidl, it was £1.72 a few weeks ago. Crazy.

£75 meal last night but on expenses, I've about £100 to claim back today.

Hoping for a cheap and quiet weekend.

Payday!! 😊

I feel like I can breathe again. Crikey what a month that was.

Our saving goal this month is £150. We have lots of birthdays and celebrations between now and Christmas (hence why we had to save so much in September!)

We have a frost! And the heating is on a little bit. Gulp.

I had the same thought life about how to use up the taste-free cheddar. With scones I can try and boost the flavour with mustard/cayenne pepper. Total waste of calories!

We're at the theatre tonight - Ibsen, at The Bridge. DH booked several months ago, his treat, no idea of ticket prices.

Stasis on parents' house move - outstanding queries from their solicitor not progressed since mid-August. Land Registry and LA want rockets under them! How is it that other jurisdictions manage to buy and sell property more quickly? Is England really uniquely slow, and if so, why?

Ugh. Will tidy front garden and start book scanning and declutter this weekend. I have two apps, We Buy Books and Music Magpie, so hope to clear some. Anything else will have to go into recycling - charity bookshops have reached peak book and can't cope with more donations of hardback fiction older than 2 years, or chunky reference books (people go online). Please don't offload your old travel guides, dictionaries, biographies of 90's politicians, cookery and gardening books with unfashionable photography, paperbacks with creased spines and yellowed pages onto the charity sector, good people ...we really can't sell them and they go straight into the recycling.

I'm freaking out. We have a prepayment meter with Scottish Power and we top up via the app.

However for the first time in 2 years the app has gone down! I have no way of topping up our meter and we only have £5 on it! 😭 I can't do it in the shop because the app won't give me the digital barcode and obviously keys no longer exist.

Well done collie! Pay day here too!

Love the boots need.

Same here fear, work v stressful. Dealing with really complex situations and getting v little support from senior management. They say 'well done' 'fabulous' and move onto their next meeting where they get nothing moved on and I'm working 10 hour days. I'm leaving at noon today! Too much frugalling to do!

Agree re prices. Headed to Lidl / The Range / Asda this afternoon - scary!

This weekend we are making a second living area in the dining area of the kitchen (as we hardly use the table) which will be heated by a log burner. Means we can turn off the downstairs radiator.

I'll avoid the mousetrap cheddar big. Can say the same for the copy of Cathedral City at Home Bargains, it was the worst!

Ah collie hope that's back up soon!

Hello again, we are back from our Scottish road trip and today ( as the weather doesn't look good, I shall be concentrating on updating the finance spreadsheet sheet and looking at the enormous pile of washing which if I did wouldn't dry..
I will put some in the conservatory though..
Also ill be sadly putting away my summer clothes and getting out the winter ones... Luckily I have jumpers enough for several winters, but I must step away from all clothing websites...
Which is difficult as I love clothes buying..

It feels chilly this morning but I really do not want to put hearing on..

We had a fabulous time away, batteries recharged and we're really lucky with the weather ...it was actually hot in Edinburgh the other day!

But god what the fk is going on? We are fortunate in that we have paid off the mortgage now, but I am worried about the kids and dgcs and yes the price of everything has just soared..

We are on a fixed income but not yet old enough for pension , but I am seriously worried about what they actually think they are doing , especially the hints of benefit changes ..

I need to read back as I have had a bit of a MN holiday!