Friendship and Falling Leaves, Frugal Autumn Continued

[Wolfcub]

New fred

Morning,

Off work this week so I’m pottering around the house cleaning lots of things. Plan to do a big wardrobe clear out today.

Our rental property had the house cleared yesterday and now a cleaning company needs to go in. However the garden has been left untouched. He was a gardener by profession so has loads of pots everywhere plus a water butt and it’s massively overgrown. So I’m going to ask the solicitor for a garden clearance out of the estate. Need to nip round there and make a list of what needs to be done to support my case.

DS2 has grown over the summer, so last night I ordered a couple of pairs of joggers and a hoodie in the Nike sale. His school is non uniform so he needs a fair bit. Plus he found a good winter coat for £40 in sports direct. That’ll do for this month, at least now it’s bought I know how much I’ve got left till next payday.

@Decafflatteplease i love the mummy blogs on YouTube.

Ooo who do you watch em. i mainly watch the witt family.

I’ve been a busy bee today!

Deep cleaned the living room. Cleared out the shoe cupboard and cloakroom. Hoovered swept mopped downstairs floors. Then headed upstairs to declutter wardrobe, I’ve thrown out 2 bin bags of clothes. Ordered some vacuum storage bags to get summer stuff out of the way and some new trouser hangers. Both of these will help me organise my wardrobe much more effectively. Have put the bedroom fans in bin bags ready to go up into the loft. Feeling very accomplished.

Next I’ve got a lovely new Home Planner calendar to fill out and replace the existing one.

I watch Jordan page and also the Dougherty dozen.

something about people with ginormous families….

I love a planner calendar. We have no space to put one though. And DH never tells me anything. This week is an excellent example of that.

Sorry, the past 10 days have passed me by on here. Hope everyone is OK, I resolve to keep up again from now!
The summary of the last week is
Lunch with best friend, I paid
Lovely walk and lunch with aunty, she paid
Lunch with friend, she paid
Walk with friend (no Lunch involved!)
Second post op pilates session (£25)
Ninja multicooker arrived, woohoo!
First Post op gym session, very gentle, was great to be back
Had a great week of economical, frugal cooking, dd is seeing it as a challenge to waste as little food as possible, being creative with what's in the fridge
Problems with my parents, needing my support.
Uni visit to Newcastle with dd. Went well but dd full of cold
Positive covid test for me as feeling lousy (Sunday)

Feel a bit better now but the sore throat I've had is really horrible. So from a busy sociable week, I'm having a quiet isolated week. Ds is coming back for the weekend on Thursday, it'll be good to see him. Feeling very frustrated as I was doing so well with my rehab, but will catch up again.
Have big decisions to make about what to do with my job when I go back. I'm not sure I can manage full time & study with mum & dad needing more support, but would be tighter financially with potentially both dc at uni academic year 23/24. Food for thought, but still have time to ponder

curls I feel tired just reading what you've done, planner calendars are great
Happy birthday Em

Happy birthday em
spends today £25 petrol £32 Morrisons on bits including a yellow sticker chicken for tonight’s tea but dh who is on training made something else for tea as he’s in work earlier which surprised me as I didn’t expect him to get up - he works permanent nights so will use it to make sandwiches for my lunch tomorrow
£6100 to pay the bathroom off did it on buy now pay later even though we had the money saved up love the bathroom but gutted I had to transfer the money out the savings out and actually pay for it Lol

No time to catch up yet apologies for being rude, such an intense week. Started job no.3, settling DS back at nursery after nearly 3 weeks without it due to illness, heart sinking bad news re: DM's cancer, constant emails and an ever expanding to-do list in job no.2...i need a holiday and we only had one less than a month ago ha.

Spends today:
£2 bus home from work.
£7.80ish Tesco on groceries. Tbh considering how expensive our local Tesco is (little one) I feel I got a fair amount for that for once.

Todays frugal win was my poor DF kindly driving me to work because my bus was sooo late that I othereise was set to be late on my very first day. So I was on time and saved the £2 bus fare! Also job no.3 means access to free tea, coffee and milk whilst there at work which is also a frugal win. My last workplace scrapped all that years ago so I will enjoy it again now!

Frugal win, without being too outing, DHs workplace is giving staff over £200 worth of food over the winter.

Yesterday £6 Claires Accessories (birthday present)
Today NSD. Not intended just had a really bad day so didn't get a great deal done at all.

Sorry to hear about your DM weight
I'd be like that Alfie good way to pay though!
Sorry to hear about the Covid. North. Hope you continue to improve.
I so need a house planner curls!

1.80 milk yesterday

sorry people are having bad days and bad parents news
gws poorly people

That’s amazing of your dhs work. Mine are covering transport costs up to £1000 for 6m (to get us all into the office and therefore saving money on heating at home!) so that’s our parking space paid for.

currently sat downstairs with a cuppa. Have folded laundry and am about to embark on lunchboxes. Bad night with dd last night. Up 3 times.
I have three meetings this morning where im meant to be on the ball. So thanks dd.

Anyway. the attached pic is my view currently. I know that logically the 4 bright spots are the microwave and oven clocks reflecting on the back door. But my brain is telling me it’s a monster. With glowing eyes. Too many horror films watched maybe?!

I’m in the dark as I’m waiting for the natural light. Sometimes I do this and it feels nice and calming.

anyway. Back to today. have to be a bit more smart today because if said meetings. I have a new found love of the wide legged trousers in M&S. very flattering. Bought a pair a while back on a whim as needed better fitting trousers for work. Wasn’t sure about them but Hugh waisted comfy. Bought a second pair on Monday in navy. £39.50 but used a gift card.

had a letter from school yesterday too. I put in the request for leave in January (18 days in total). 9 have been authorised. Which I’m surprised at actually. But grateful. This means we won’t get a visit from our education dept. Phew. All ds’ teachers have said that they totally understand the reasoning for the trip it’s timing and the length of time. And have encouraged it. Because covid and family etc. even the head. But she has to do what she has to do. The official letter was very official. But she’s also written a note to say have a wonderful time.

Morning.

So terribly sorry to hear your news weight, you must be feeling dreadful. Take care.

Boo re covid north, love the sound of your busy social week though.

Love a busy day like that curls, it feels like you've really accomplished something doesn't it?!

We've a planner, it's got all our shifts, working days, appointments, university lectures etc, who is covering the dog walks, what's on the weekly meal plan etc. it's a godsend as we are sometimes ships that pass in the night between us.

Work today. DS is off, which makes things easier. I'm running tonight but made roast butternut squash dhal for tea last night, which samosas bought from the local shop. They were my only spends yesterday, £3 for 4 huge ones, which will do tonight too. Didn't fancy rice again.

Will call in at Lidl today and have taken life and collies tip and also ordered some stuff from Ocado for tomorrow, whatever I get cheaper at Lidl I'll take off the delivery. I do need a few spices etc that have run right down. Not essential but we cook pretty much all our food at home so I don't mind if they make things tastier.

Have a great day all.

Morning everyone.

I was up early to drop DD to her college bus. It's a dark, rainy morning. I'm working from home today - glad I don't have to venture very far. I was half-way to the bus stop when I noticed that DD had no coat or raincoat with her. I was too tired to challenge her or argue with her about it.

We had a nice day yesterday. We went into the big town and did everything we needed to do (orthodontist appointment, bank stuff and a big shop). It took us until lunchtime. When we got home, we made a nice lunch and watched some episodes of Friends. Then we cooked dinner together and I got ready for my book club meeting.

Onto your news.

Adora sorry to hear about your little doggie.

Welcome Rattle

Weight glad your DS is feeling better.

Alfie sorry to hear about your door and window issues.

Collie sorry for your loss and also sorry to hear about your diagnosis.

martha sounds like you've been very industrious and thrifty - cooking up a storm.

Belated Happy Birthday em. Annoying about your DH's trip to Luxembourg but hopefully he'll bring you back a nice present to make up for the inconvenience. Great that work are helping out with transport costs. Also good news about the school authorising some of the leave in January. Are you off to NZ?

Laska I'm impressed with your sea swimming. I'm a wuss where cold water is concerned.

Mrs glad to hear your Mum is on the mend.

Socathe so glad the time you spent calculating the tax expenses paid off. I'm sure a lot of people miss out on expenses because they don't know they can claim or they're too busy to sit down and work it all out.

Curls that was a productive afternoon.

north nice for you to catch up with people but not so nice to hear of problems with your parents

Weight are you really working three jobs! Eek! I hope they're all part-time. Sorry to hear you've had bad news re: your mum's cancer.

kessie that's great news about your DH's workplace helping out with food costs. So nice to see that some workplaces (yours and em's) are recognising the challenges facing their workers and lending a helping hand.

Right, I'll stick on the kettle for a cuppa before I log into work. Have a good day everyone.

NSD I hope , although I do have to book a couple of campsites as we are planning on a mini trip to the caravan and motorhome show in Birmingham in a couple of weeks do will make a weekend of it to Warwick or Stratford way . I made a nice frugal pot of 'minestrone' yesterday, which will be dinner for tonight .

Yesterday we had a Chinese takeaway... its a very rare treat around here but we'd promised ourselves one this month . Le yum !

Its looking a bit stormy out so probably no swimming her today, I think .. I do want to keep it up though , so if it clears up later I may go and have a tentative look .

Meal plan for the rest of the week:
Minestrone and bread
Rukimini Iyer's Masala Omelette ( I bought the book having seen it whilst we were away, it looks good)

Fishfinger and Bacon wraps with h,/m coleslaw and salad
Chicken, sausages , bread salads etc ( we have DS and DGS over on Saturday.. so a selection of help-yourself things everyone will eat ) .
Sunday . will see what left overs we have (or maybe Ottolenhgi Turkey and courgette meatballs)

Morning,

Plans for today are bedroom and bathroom cleans. Didn’t get round to filling in my calendar, instead I spent my time ringing round companies trying to get driving lessons for DS1. Might as well have been banging my head against a brick wall. The search continues.

DS1 is off today but DH has pimped him out to help fill a friends skip later on. When I drop him off I need to do a top up shop and Sainsburys is closest. It’s only cheap stuff I need like bread and milk. Will have a mooch round the clothing and homeware, no plans to buy anything it’s just to pass the time.

Right, enough stalling, bathrooms won’t clean themselves. Unfortunately.

Who was saying about the m and s coconut perfume please? Have you got a pic or a link so I know what I'm looking for? The only one I can see online is £10 but going to store tomorrow

Feeling a bit better again today thank goodness.
Having another lazy day which is good from a spending point of view
Trying to put money in the savings pot this month
Mum is needing support so dd is going to test & will go if she's negative.

Went back to the gym this morning. DH paid for coffee afterwards, £5.40
Then £18 in Sainsbury’s, went in for fruit juice and bread 🤦‍♀️

Dentist tomorrow, hoping it won’t be expensive as it’s re-cementing a thing <technical term> that fell out from a molar after 10 years- ish.

Unexpected NSD for me because I managed to blag lifts both to and from work from DH so saved my bus fares.

Adora Good luck at the dentist tomorrow. I'm going for a check-up in a few weeks. My mat exemption has just expired which is annoying, if I'd managed to get my appointment sorted sooner I could have had it for free, grrrrr. Just finding it so hard to be organised atm juggling 3 jobs, 2 kids, money, life admin, poorly DM...I guess this is what being a grown up is really all about though?!

Tayto Yes, I am working 3 jobs, but yes all part-time. I work 2 days a week in one job, and then 1 other day a week I work roughly 3 or 4 days a month in another job and roughly 1 day a month in another job. Complicated but seems to be a good fit around the kids, and the lesser hour jobs pay pretty well and are passion projects of mine. I just can't get enough hours in those so I have to do a low paid job 2 days a week too.

Need What planner do you have, it sounds great?

Morning.

Your life sounds utterly manic weight, you sound like you do so much better than you give yourself credit for with how much you have on. My planner is a wipe clean weekly one, just from Amazon I think, but it allows all of us to have a column, and we split our various daily chores, put on our shifts etc. At the end there's space for a list of general jobs and one for recipes. We do it weekly, then rewrite it on Sundays.

That recipe sounds fab laska, as does the book. My Christmas list is basically recipe books!!

I'm off work for two days, which is great. But lots to do.

Spends this week have been pretty minimal, just shopping

Ocado £85 (we've family over Sunday so two bottles of wine and some beer, extra vegetables etc)
Lidl £25 (basically stuff cheap here and needed to use my 10% off voucher).

That's us stocked up and includes dinner for 8 Sunday so not too bad.

So far, so good this month but it's early days!

Coffee was necessary this morning £3. Soendy but delicious.

also I’ve just realised my trainers have split on the sole. Ffs. I’m wearing them so may need to replace. Dickhead shoes.

taking the dc to toy shop after work. Dangerous. But we need to buy a present for ds’ friends party on Saturday and ds has a voucher to spend from his birthday. So will let him choose something

I think I might be the same need with recipe books for Christmas. Once I'm back in circulation I'm going to get back to the library round the corner & try out some new ones. Hope you enjoy your days off & manage to get some down time.
Weight you do sound under pressure, take care.
Sounds like coffee was needed Em. You might need something stronger after the toy shop!
No spends today. Ds is driving back after work, it'll be lovely to see him. Tested again this morning. Still very positive & still feeling like crappie.
Situation with parents is getting worse but I can't go & see them until covid has passed.
Still no heating on here & washing out on the line at the moment