Friendship and Falling Leaves, Frugal Autumn Continued

[Wolfcub]

New fred

Oh no gen, such a worry

Gen l am so so sorry to hear this. l so hope like Born says it'll be a Covid anomaly rather than anything else . I am keeping everything crossed for you and am going to say a little prayer l hope you don't mind sweetheart , am here if you need to talk bless you sweetie you must both be so fearful

gen sounds really worrying, everything crossed 🤞 for you.

em love the wallpaper. Hope your tummy trouble is short lived.

DH might have picked up a speeding fine yesterday 🤦‍♀️ Missed the speed sign on the motorway while colleague was talking about the meeting they’d had.

Yesterday was fecking expensive, had to pay DD1’s rent after Uni have severely messed up. She was given dud info about assignments, submitted what she was told to work on, they said she hadn’t done the work and have listed her as external😡 Now she can’t get any answers, even her personal tutor can’t get a response to her queries. And she can’t afford the rent without the mantainance loan and now she has to pay council tax. 🤯

So, £1,300 yesterday. Depending how things work out we might have pay off the rest of the rent for her.

gen. I have found in the last 6 months, and it goes against who I am, is that you can't change whatever the outcome is, but to live in the moment only. Sometimes for me, in dark days, that's the next 5 minutes. And to breathe. And try to do what is right for you only. Xx

Glad you had fun laska

Low spends today. And a day off as we've done a lot of joint physio at the hospital with DH so we can help him when he gets home. It's allowed me to catch up. Paneer curry in slow cooker, DD sorting rice and I'm reading my recipe books with the dog laid on me.

DS is off work this week and I've really enjoyed his company.

Gen. ❤️

£55 in Aldi yesterday, but some of that was on Christmas prep - pigs in blankets, mince pies, cashews, lebkuchen. Have also spent the odd amount in Sainsbury's (£21 and £7) on bits I can't get in Aldi/convenience. Cooking this week has been of the chicken stew/garlic mushrooms on toast/tomato sauce with tagliatelle variety, so pretty frugal. Will use the oven today to roast a cauliflower, a load of tomatoes, some plums, and anything else I can think of to chuck in there - might make some scones and flapjacks, as I have these ingredients in the house. £62 on Ddog's food order. Have to buy bread and dishwasher tabs (Aldi ones a false economy here alas, have to upgrade), and get to the butcher at some point.

Still managing to keep the heating off, but it's getting more tempting to cave. Layers, movement, retreating to the upstairs den rather than the downstairs sitting room. The subsidy is applied to our E.On account on the 1st of the month, then I send in readings, then our DD kicks in. If I've got this right, we should be about £130 in credit tomorrow, but we will rip through that pretty fast, I reckon.

Booked holiday accommodation in France for next September and October! I obtained a 0% credit card for this purpose for the sect 75 protection and have my repayment/build holiday fund plan in place. Am doing this with DH, so feeling happier that we are now doing more to 'pull together' on financial matters rather than paddling our own boats.

Hugs @Gensola at this worrying time.

Not much to report here, DH and I have both been on leave this week so work on the house continues. He’s been putting in 12-14 hour days to get things done bless him. Hoping to get it all finished in the next few weeks so it can get back out on the rental market.

Gen sorry to hear that's more worrying news for you.

Bigskies thats some effort with the heating. I am allowing two x 1 hour boost per day as have DC in the house and we are up north. I was in the office yesterday, came home and it was 15° 🥶 possibly a bit warmer upstairs. We are also using a log burner and blankets. I am hoping the prices will stabilise soon.

LSW planned although we have got dental work / car work to pay for in next week 😬

Hope everything is ok @Gensola

We have no heating in the lounge as it's broken. Uurgh. Our house is already riddled with damp but this morning I came down and the lounge windows were running with water it's literally pooling on the windowsills. Will put the dehumidifier on this evening when lounge not in use as you need to keep the door shut etc.

Off to a city farm today. Taking a picnic and meeting a friend. I'm sure I'll get a coffee aswell and biscuits etc for DC but still a lovely cheap but fun day. And it's sunny yay!

Treating ourselves to a m and s pizza meal deal for dinner we barely shop at m and s anymore so it's a real treat when we do! £12 meal deal does all of us with additional chips out the freezer so I think that's a good price.

LSD, £20-ish on Christmas present for DD2 and £11 advent calendar. Should be all for today.

kessie - London here, and it's been super-mild. Not sure I could manage it otherwise. The bathroom radiators are linked to the hot water tank, so come on when the water heats up, and generate a bit of extra warmth upstairs. DH is in the office most days, has a hot shower and doesn't mind about heat in the mornings, I'm away from Sunday to Thursday night, so that will eke out a few more days.

After that, I'm planning to spend most mornings in the library, and afternoons dog-walking/doing chores/errands/helping DParents settle in to their new place. So...in theory, we should be able to get away with just running the boiler for heat in the evenings. At least until DS gets home for Christmas.

I think I overestimated the childcare costs by a day so €180 rather than €240, however ds won't stay with dgm for Sun night too so I'll be paying €30 for him on Mon also, but I normally pay €12.50 on a school morning anyway so it's not too bad. I'm divorced and live away from my own family so any childcare needs to be paid for, exh does take them in afternoons because he works nights so it could be worse.

em wallpaper is fabulous, I love it. I'd tummy bug in Sept for about two weeks, and its only this week my digestive system is back on track, six weeks later. The tiredness was incredible too.

gen that's a big worry again, but worrying is only borrowing trouble from your future, until you know there's a problem there's not a lot you can do. need gives good advice there.

In May I bought runners for all of us from Littlewoods now Very, and I can only see the light with paying it off now, I hadn't used my account for years. This is it now! I did use a discount code and buy now pay later so interest free but still a nuisance.

Yesterday €6.20 on lunch from deli, €71 on diesel and then dm treated us to dinner at handover of dc.

Today's spends €5.20 on 12 eggs, I made scones for work using Mary Berry recipe le yum

Another £8 on present for DH, and £4 in cheap shop on freezer bags and toothbrushes.

Yes. Lemurs!!! It is wild. But I love it!!!!

the colours are popping.

I think my tum troubles are period related. I had similar two months ago. And a month before that. In the ru. Up to period.

Few spends today
£2.60 breakfast, £27 shorts for ds both unplanned
£60 skatepark but regular one, off to Aldi in a bit

Em also a fan of your Lemur wallpaper here
Life Aldi are so much cheaper imho , my local one has closed for alterations and l am really missing it .
Happier your scones sound delicious
Kessie we are using little electric heaters in between an hour of gas CH in the morning and an hour at night like you do. It costs us about £3.75 an hour to run ours
The electric heaters cost 10 p an hour , we have four of them . They take the chill off and we are surprised how warm it is in the room when we come in .
BigSkies That is a great plan to offset the cost of heating. l have even thought about getting solar panels to help because it is so expensive l know there is an initial lay out but they will pay for themselves in a couple of years tehy way things are going
Decaffe that M & S pizza deal is brilliant , for 12 quid the pizzas are huge and absolutely chock a block with toppings , enjoy!
Have you tried the damp traps , we use about three on each windowsill at a time, also we use our Karcher window cleaner to get rid of the condensation on the windows, it is brilliant , l would buy one straight away if it died a death
www.savers.co.uk/Household/Household-Essentials/Dehumidifiers/151-Interior-Dehumidifier-3-Pack/p/773254
Adora l am sorry re your Dd's uni that is shocking treatment !
Needs you are so right , l feel sometimes like just getting through the next 5 mins is doable , get through that then the feeling subsides usually
Spends today , 11 Tesco they have their finest all butter mince pies on offer for half price 1.25 using your clubcard and l have just tried one and can report they are delicious
12 in my local discount bargain place

I’m in the north and put the heating on for 30 minutes the last 2 nights to take the edge off
£67 Aldi but some Christmas bits and not everything I need as not meal planned yet

I’m the Midlands here and I’ve had the heating on for a couple of hours the last 3 nights. The boys haven’t seemed too bothered but DH and I have been working in a cold empty house and I don’t know about him but I’ve been coming home absolutely cold to the bone. Long hot bath and heating has been needed.

£3.75 for an hours heating mrs ?! I just can’t look at ours now 🙈

We’ve had the heating on for 45 mins in the morning as it was finally cold enough to kick in. It hasn’t come on this evening but my poor feet are cold.

Spends this week:
£65 dentist
£9 home bargains
£19 tkmaxx
£39 Sainsburys

I’ve also had the tumble dryer on to finish off drying clothes, as they just weren’t dry and felt cold 😬

Time it all depends on your tariff and the kw of your boiler , size of house , number of rads so don't panic .

We are just south of midlands and I have heating on an hour a day to keep the house from getting damp. DCat is in heaven lying next to the radiators!
DH CT scan was done within 24 hours of his referral and results came back yesterday all clear. So it’s just the echo exam next week now. The letter from the hospital says they’re looking for aortic stenosis. I feel so relieved the shadows weren’t sinister that it’s much easier not to worry now even though we have more tests to come.
em I love that wallpaper - I want to paper my downstairs loo in really vibrant jungle paper and paint all the woodwork teal and then have copper hardware and lights. It’s on the list for when I have money again 🤣

I'm am so happy for you Both Gen ❤️💐🤗
Let's hope the echo shows nothing wrong too ❤️

I must apologize for telling you all that my boiler costs 3.75 an hour . I have worked it out properly this morning and it's actually 2.80 an hour although l haven't added in the vat so it's 2.94 per hour . So it's not as bad as l feared and l can have it on a bit longer thank God. Still not turned it on yet but it will need to go on soon.
Another thing is , it's so difficult to work out how much the electric and gas usage costs .
I wish there was an easier way to find out the costs .
Have a lovely day everyone 🤗

That’s a good step Gen