Friendship and Falling Leaves, Frugal Autumn Continued

[Wolfcub]

New fred

PS am I the only person that spends ages flicking from page to page to find the * to bold peoples names? 🤣

Feeling exhausted today. And very emotional. So must be due on. Woooooo

Not just you @Bornlazy i spend ages going back and forth trying to remember who said what!

@Bornlazy - I need to give my head a wobble, take no notice of my defeatist talk! I find my revs get a bit low towards the end of the month, when the money is running out faster than the days.

I'm on my phone and a lost cause, as moving back loses my post... And my bold doesn't work at times.

£5.63 coop
£13.49 Fatface cord skirt. Rest was vouchers. Third time I've used them, hope this one fits!

I have to post from memory and my memory is shocking

decaf ❤️

Also catching. Decaff - childcare costs are a scandal. We have to do something about bigger subsidies, collectively, through tax. The ability to participate in the workforce and all the great things that flow from that cannot be an individual responsibility alone. Sorry, no practical advice, I just feel you and all those in that situation. I mean, we all expect children to be expensive and change our lives, but there should be more help.

Lovely bright morning here. Getting colder overnight and in the evenings! Still no heating on, but we retreat upstairs to watch telly at the moment, as it's warmer. I'm watching Bad Sisters on Apple TV at the moment.

Big bills that I have been braced for are starting to come through, although I did have a small frugal win, a reward for my patience in sitting on a customer phone line for ages - reduction from £32 to £9.

Busy week with loads of admin, homework, prep for going down to DParents and helping them move. Have to get to Aldi at some point. Did a quick Sainsbury's run for coffee and hummus yesterday, and discovered the joy of the green microwaveable veg pot - kate, peas, broccoli, asparagus, with mint butter. Mmm. Decorating will have to take a backseat until after I get back.

Home today. Called into the office sick.

fun y tummy but not sure if it’s the bug the kids had or pms related. But either way. Not working.

I've not been keeping up and just read 4 pages of posting so I'm not going to be bolding peoples names! Sorry to hear of those struggling and lovely to read of some peoples frugal wins.

Spends over the weekend were fairly tame, my dc were with me for the whole weekend and we had a lovely time.

Friday resisted takeaway and made a hello fresh recipe for 2 stretch to 4 by adding garlic bread from freezer and extra pasta.

Sat we ate in new pancake place €21.90, it was nice but wouldn't set the world on fire either, met cousins and their one year old, the highchair wasn't clean not envy went to homesavers and spent €68 but this included €39 on a 2 tier side table which dd12 assembled. Got the car washed €7
Sun went to local pumpkin farm, I'd paid for this about six weeks ago, it was a lovely couple of hours that we all enjoyed and the rain stayed away. home then to a roast dinner, I'd put a turkey breast joint in slow cooker that morning le yum then we went to see a parade and fireworks followed by dessert in a cafe €21.50
Mon we spent at home until the afternoon when we went to visit friends, came home and put on the fire, they went trick or treating while I waited in the car, and then home to enjoy the fire. Spends €8 in lidl on their wonderful seeded cob plus some mini cupcakes to take to my friends house and pepparami for ds's lunch as he won't eat the aldi brand
Tues Aldi €38.67, Swimming €15, Sweets €4.15
I'm conscious that I'm not taking any time off with dc over halloween break so want to make it enjoyable without spending massively either. Childcare will be approx €240 for the few days.

£6.50 lunch and parking as unexpected in the office all day

I was very lucky when my ds were young as my dm watched them to let me work. Childcare is just so expensive. Lots of the people I work with try to work opposite shifts from their partners to eliminate this cost.

Nsd today for me, first in a long time. I have plenty of days I don't go to the shops but at this time of year the online lure is strong. The Christmas bargain threads probably cost me as much as they save me.

The weather here is terrible. Lots of flooding. Think I'll need to leave early for work tomorrow as some of the roads might be closed.

Childcare costs are unacceptable now when I think of what we paid (DC are 11 and 16 now) it's just not fair. We also had grandparents up until 2017 when they all got too old or ill, I appreciated that at the time.

£5 for a collection at work
£20.40 Amazon for 5 photo frames, prints from on holiday for our picture wall.

Got to head out and get fuel soon but that's accounted for.

The decorators have been in today. And have put up my wallpaper. I bloody love it.

@ememem84 😍😍😍😍that wallpaper!
Serious envy here!

Coolio Em 😎

Ive been up to my eyes in visitors.... Its been good fun ...Will catch up.and report tomorrow...but did get £50 premium bonds win today ( and promptly spent it , and more on Christmas presents 🤦‍♀️. Hey ho )

Ooh @ememem84 that is gorgeous!

£35 M&S on 2 new bras as I noticed the one I was wearing today had a snapped underwire.

£51 on onlycurls for some hair clips, mousse and a new diffuser head.

We probably won't have any more kids mainly because of the childcare costs! And was the main reason we didn't have a smaller age gap between them too. Having both of them in nursery 3 days a week costs us around £1k a month. It's basically my entire wage bill, and a lot more than our mortgage payments will be. There is nobody around us who can or will help us on a regular basis. My DM used to have DD one day a week when I worked 4 days a week in my old job and she was planning to have both bairns that day a week. However then got diagnosed with cancer when I was heavily pregnant with DS and so cannot.

Spends today, LSD, just £2 bus fare to work and £2 bus fare home. Got soaked walking to bus stop and waiting for the bus which was grim.

Love the wallpaper Em!

DH did a food shop yesterday. No idea how much as I just wasn’t feeling up to asking. Probably around £80.

wfh today. Tummy still feels a bit wobbly. I’m leaning towards it being a pms thing.

That’s amazing wall paper

i pretty much worked for free with young kids and no help her either, but was worth it for me

Had some bad news - DH had ECG and chest X-ray as he’s had heart palpitations and a persistent cough since mild bout of covid in July, the X-ray showed a shadow on one of his lungs so he has to go for a CT on the 2 week pathway and also the ECG was abnormal so he needs to see a cardiologist for an echo heart exam. I didn’t sleep at all last night for worrying, feel like such a zombie now. We’re barely 4 weeks since I got the all clear for throat cancer so it all feels a bit much tbh.

Gosh, Gen, I am sorry to hear your worrying news. Look, maybe it will all be fine, and in a bit, 2022 will just be that crappy year when you had health scares, and it all went off OK. Fingers crossed.

Em, that wallpaper is wiiiiiilllllddd! are those lemurs??? Henceforth, you shall be known as King Julian! (after the party-loving chief of the lemurs in Madagascar, voiced by Sasha Baron Cohen).

ANd on childcare, can anyone tell me how the '30 hours free childcare a week' actually works? It sounds good, but appears not to be applied to anyone who actually uses childcare.

Gen sorry to hear that. Hopefully it'll be a covid anomaly rather than anything sinister. You must be worried sick though x

Yesterdays nsd didn't happen as I bought some Christmas presents from Elizabeth Arden to get the 25% cash back. Today I have already spent £50 on fuel to get to work. Maybe tomorrow will be a nsd.

Love the wallpaper em