Friendship and Falling Leaves, Frugal Autumn Continued

[Wolfcub]

New fred

So sorry to read this. I hope you get some certainty soon 💐

Hope you're recovering slowly Gen?

Sorry to hear your health news decaf. Hope you have your op soon. Do you have a Macmillan nurse you could talk to? My DM had one in the early stages of her cancer diagnosis and she found them really helpful to talk to, to get her head around it all. Not sure if I've spoken about my DM on this thread or not since returning but she has stage 3 melanoma and she's been in treatment for a little over a year now, she was diagnosed with cancer when I was heavily pregnant with DS. Sending you all the love.

Today will probably have to pop to shop and/or pharmacy at some point to get a few groceries - just fresh stuff really - and formula and baby wipes as running low on both. Me and DH already getting in the right mindset with our weekends now thinking of free/low-cost activities to do with the kids rather than more extragavant things. They don't care ultimately anyway as long as they get out! As we need to cut down our leisure spends. So today we are planning to go to a local library. Nice free trip there as we walk too. DD hasn't been for ages so she will enjoy picking out new books. She's 4 now and I think she might be ready for simple chapter books to read before bed (as in, us reading them to her) rather than just picture books, does anyone have any recommendations?

Decaf ❤️

Sending you big hugs and warmest wishes decaff!💚

decaff- that sounds extremely stressful. I hope the cathedral brings some peace. Lots of health stress for people on the thread recently.
been to football, doing a mini food shop while waiting for my Tesco Clubcard 10% off to renew. Just glad not to be working after a really busy week.

Big hugs to you decaff

I hope the results arrive soon gen and your tongue improves really soon.

I still feel a bit off today, so taking it easy. DH has started moving stuff around though, so currently can’t see me bed.

We’ve getting a few £100s refund from our energy supplier as we are in credit. Although it was nice to have this credit on the account (we’re currently only using half our direct debit amount), our bank account could really do with the cash.

£45 riding. Pony did a bit of a spook on me in the sand school. The field across the road has cows. Super cute cows. And a water trailer for them. She spotted the trailer and went all funny. Like “wtf is that?!?!” And refused to go to that side of the arena. silly billy.

ds has just bounced off the couch. I have zero sympathy. He’s been jumping on the couch for ages and I keep saying he’ll hurt himself. Funnily enough….

three loads of laundry washed and outside on the line. 20 degrees here today. Nice breeze.

So I broke my tooth when eating cold / frozen chocolate (it was rock hard) and the dental cost was £75.

I complained to the supermarket and just said "please be careful when storing chocolate because it broke my tooth & cost me £75 to fix"

The complaints form requested my address as standard and I've just randomly received a cheque from them to say sorry. I'm gobsmacked and wasn't expecting it!

To be fair it was so painful, and ruined my holiday. It was agony and took weeks to stop hurting (my whole jaw was bruised!)

So flippin happy. What a lovely gesture!

(A cheque for the full £75)

What a win collie

Dmum is doing my nut in, I suspect she is partly the reason I feel unwell 🙁I’ve now been summoned to help her, originally with the instruction of “after visiting Ddad, you can come then.” When I’ve pushed back and said I’d try to do x or y time, I then got more conditions. Urgh. I really struggle with her lack of appreciation of my time/life!

Sorry about the tooth collie but win on the refund

Cow friend from earlier.

£3 park on ice cream for
me and dd.

Collie, what a turn up re. your tooth and supermarket refund! I am a chocolate sucker/dissolver rather than biter, so hopefully will avoid any such mishaps myself.

£8 on bread, mostly for the freezer. £4.50 on FT. Indulgent buy: £25 on hair serum, but it will last me a year, and helps stretch out interval between haircuts.

Enjoying quiet house after DS and DH departed for Leeds with a full car. Ddog was distraught to see them go, and stared down the road in disbelief at the retreating car. Then turned to look in the other direction, seeking their return. Had to carry him inside in the end. Daft beggar.

Morning went like this: walk to pick up bread. Back to make breakfast for the three of us. Make packed lunch for the road trip. Fish out shopping bags for their supermarket trip once they get there, so they don't have to buy more plastic. Empty dishwasher and clean kitchen. Go to cellar to retrieve washing from tumbledrier and find shit-smeared trainers left there by DS last night after unpleasant incident coming home. DS now showering and packing, so decide to clean trainers myself. Become obsessed with getting trainers clean and removing every atom of poo. DS massively grateful. I tell him to consider it a farewell gift and he can thank me by reading and taking on board the blog on personal finance and budgeting I have sent him...

Sorry to hear about your stressful wait, decaff. Hope it turns out well for you.

Thanks for all the lovely well wishes 💕

I'm trying to keep things as normal as possible and not dwell on it too much, don't want to give it more headspace than I need to. I can feel the mass, the surgeon felt it. I want it out of me. It's about the size of a grapefruit but not as spherical.

Had a good day out but cried again when I got home. I just want to know when the op is then I can get organised. Lots to sort with the DC aswell (they know a very edited version!)

In other news, is anyone else feeling it's bloody freezing!! Trying to have no heating until November (we normally try to hold off until October) but I'm cold! Had a hot shower and have got thick joggers on, vest, long sleeve top, hoody and slipper socks. I'm still cold.

decaff. It's not the same, and I will never say to you 'I understand', because I don't, fully, but my own family has been on an uncertain journey since May, when DH had such a huge stroke. He's still in hospital, and the lack of certainty or time frame or level of recovery is very hard. But this is happening to you, not me, and cry as much as you need.

And yes, I've got two spaniels keeping me warm tonight.

Big, I'm glad my day was as exciting as yours! Do love your posts. They amuse me!

Cold pizza from last night for tea. First night alone since May 13th, DS at his mates, DD at her boyfriends. It's quite nice, actually, but I miss DH.

Hi Decaf, so sorry to hear your news. I’m glad you had a good day out- I agree it’s freezing today!

Some frugal wins this week, our water bill direct debit is going down from £49 to £34 a month! We’ve been working on reducing our water usage and I’m glad it paid off. Annoyingly, we will only have one month on the new bill before we move.
DH’s random collection of stuff seems to be doing well on eBay. Bids end on Monday night and it looks like we’ll make around £30 to add to the moving fund.
switched my sim only contract to Voxi, saving £15 a month and getting more data for the price.

very low spend week this week, DD has hand, foot and mouth and I suspect DH has it too…

Speaking of Voxi, I have a referral code where we both get a £10 Amazon gift card for signing up, join.voxi.co.uk/J2LnXO
my DM joined using the code and we are going to put our vouchers towards Christmas spends!
I hope this kind of post is allowed (if not apologies, I can delete it if need be)

Apparently Disney plus is only 1.99 for a month starting before 19sept, we’ve just watched Thor love and thunder which was entertaining rubbish

Thanks life we just sorted Disney+ after I read your comment.

I'm finding September such a draaaaaaaaag. It's because money is SO tight but DH just checked the bank balance and we're doing OK. Completely on track. We could do with saving fuel and so we've discovered (rather sheepishly) a whole area near home that we've never explored.

So many new woodland walks. I downloaded the OS map and was gobsmacked by all the footpaths. Duhhh.

Next month will be more slack as we will have less outgoings due to things being paid off. I can't wait. But then we have to save for Christmas and a special birthday. I'll be upping the weekly grocery budget to £70 from £59 as I've really missed a few things.

Whatcha gonna binge watch in your month collie?
the new Pinocchio is out too.
all the marvel and star wars and mandalorian here.

remember to cancel
before it goes to £7.99

New Fred already 😳

It’s been a Spendy week. Went to London on Wednesday, to pay respects, paid £98 for train fare 🤦‍♀️ Took a sandwich and water but spent about £10 on coffees and another sandwich for the train home.

£75-ish in grocery delivery.

Thanks for the new Fred Wolf

did you Q adora? Westminster palace is such a new building and the window in that hall is stunning

£11 takeout yesterday as cba to cook, saved £34 on heritage museum entry but £15 on tea and cake

nsd planned as going to
cook Sunday roast and muck out at stables

Morning.

Just about to take the dogs out.

One Christmas present bought last night, exciting stuff, a water dental flosser for DD, on offer at £26. Picked that up from the MN email last week and meant to order all week. She's obsessed with her teeth. That and a refurbished mobile phone, couple of very cheap stocking fillers and she's sorted.

Family over later. It's the only time I buy meat. Meat is so expensive!

Have a great day all.

Our oven is broken 😭 looking at at least £400 to replace it, as we will need to pay for installation and disposal on top. So annoyed. The only upside is that it’s an old oven so at least a new one will be more energy efficient. Lots of ovens seem to have wait times on them too, stock is very low.
I slept through for the first time last night but missed my dose of pain meds in the night and can hardly swallow or talk this morning as a result.
I found a really nice looking recipe for a lentil minestrone soup that I’m going to batch cook tomorrow if I’m feeling up to it and freeze.
collie we love walking, it’s our main hobby.
sounds like a nice Sunday life
need my DH is used to eating meat and fish a lot as his ex was a high earner and he used to be senior leadership in a school so also earned very well, he’s a classroom teacher now after divorce and moving away from where we used to live and I am a lecturer so we just can’t afford it and it’s taking some getting used to for him. I’ll make a butternut squash risotto and he will say oh this is absolutely delicious, could we add some chicken! 😂