Frugal the flip to make the festivities fun

[lifelongfrugaleer]

Wasn’t going to be flip but decided to be polite
46 days or so

don’t panic frugaleers

Evening everyone
Spent 26 in Morrisons this morning, nothing else though l have behaved re the not buying for Christmas in the sales , it's difficult though lol
Well done Blue
Gen your food sounds yummy l know where does the time go
Curls well done ! You earned that Stollen !
Happy birthday to your Ddad bless him
Skies l am so pleased for you that your Dm is on the mend
Happier Am thinking of making my own wreaths next Christmas for the graves, Mum had to pay £110 for 11 wreaths and they really weren't that nice hope your bestie is better soon
Well done on the CC
Em fabulous pictures, what a wonderful time you are having
Tayto Good luck to your DD re her interview & well done on restraining yourself over the bookcase
Diversion you seem to have everything well organised great job!
Kessie takeaway for us tonight £25 cod and chips but no leftovers for us lol
Half bless you hope you are better soon
That is a bugger re the conservatory grrrr!
Need l am doing that more and more refusing to pay the damn price for things that are ridiculously charged. l even bought an order from Wilkos because it had free postage & the cleaning stuff was much cheaper there .
Life l am feeling your pain re the rubbish at spending
Wolf hope your Ddog is better
Unescorted did you photograph your Dd art installation , if so would you share a pic with us, hope you don't mind, only l know how talented she is and l am sure it's beautiful
Have just put my electric and gas readings in for the last month , l am £300 in credit but l can see that being eaten up instantly . Just looked now charges were £338 for last month tbh l am relieved it is only that much phew!

@Happierwithouthim get up and go vibes coming your way!!!

Hardly big spends life except school account and that's essential!

@TheNewlmprovedMrsMadEvans that's a lot to pay for less that great wreaths. You are so good at reviewing and responding to us all bless you.

@lifelongfrugaleer not a disaster spending wise, most school related.

@Gensola aubergine parmigiana is one of my absolute favourite dishes!

@Happierwithouthim doing fab re the cc debt. I'd keep a bit in savings just in case there an emergency and cash is needed quickly. Any advice on MSE, that's usually pretty good for stuff like this.

@CurlsandCurves fab cleaning and sorting there!

@Taytocrisps boo re sensible spends but err, sensible at least!

Better news re your mum at least @BigSkies2022

Hello @Diversion

Rather you than me re wild swimming @marthasmum

Lovely idea re the comics @CurlsandCurves

NSD here 🤣🤣

I asked DH to sort out someone to come and clean out the conservatory guttering and patch it up so it’s not letting in water (I usually do all of this stuff but I am absolutely beyond busy right now ). After I had a sleepless night over it he was quite good and got straight on it today but…. He’s signed a contract with the first guy he phoned to come back tomorrow to do the work and it’s costing £700! For sealing the gutter of a really small conservatory that’s already mouldy and beyond redemption. I just wanted to keep water out of the electrics for the next couple of months until we tear it down. To be honest, I went nuts when he told me. That includes replacing some guttering along the back wall of the dining room which, while it needs fixing, is all being ripped out and replaced in a few months’ time anyway when the extension is done and is not actually causing any damage right now. I am just so upset. He said it’s already all signed and when they come back tomorrow it’ll be too late to do anything about it - they took some guttering away to buy some new stuff of the right size. Argh!

I spent 3 days of my AL flat out cleaning and tidying the house just before Christmas - we don’t have a cleaner, partly to save money for this project - and no one else ever cleans but me. There was so much to do, pulling out furniture, cleaning skirting, cleaning windows, getting rid of bathroom limescale etc. I spent several weekends last spring painting our sitting room (on my own) to save paying £1500+ for someone else to do it (London rates). I honestly don’t know why I bother. AIBU to be really pissed off?

We are sitting in silence right now.

I’m just venting, don’t mind me.

Aw thank you Need that is so lovely of you to say that 🤗

Half l am so sorry you are feeling so annoyed it's so frustrating when you are trying your best to save money and working flat out only for your efforts to be eaten up by a silly mistake like your Dh made.
The damage is done just take this on the chin and move on sweetheart 💐

No YANBU half if its coming down anyway you just needed a patch up job for a few months. I'd be annoyed too. It does sound like he's tried to help but gone about it the wrong way!

Thanks ladies - I am calming down.

You are right Mrs, it’s done now. I think a lot of my frustration comes down to his absolute lack of bloody common sense, which is why I end up doing so much. He also comes from a much more comfortable background than me and he’s never had to worry about money, whereas I’ve had to work really hard to get to a better standard of living and more financial security than I had growing up, and I have to keep on top of a really high pressure job to sustain it (he doesn’t), so we do have a fundamentally different relationship with money.

Holiday home no3. Really nice one. Light modern airy and best of all no stairs! The dc have taken to stomping. So at least they can just do this on one level. 😂

I’ve done something a bit sneaky. I’m home alone and have left mil and DH go to the shop. Dhs credit card isn’t working so mil will have to use hers. She hasn’t put her hand in her pocket once since we’ve been here so I’ve sort of forced the issue

I’m on the couch. Eating maple bacon crisps and drinking raspberry Pepsi. win.

I probably spent £15 on kindle books last night. One of which I was half way through reading in paperback - but it’s taken me months to get that far. Mostly due to the print size (super teeny) and me needing to wear my glasses and never being bothered to get them out.

so I bought it on kindle and have whizzed through a bit more. Because I have the print size bigger! Only just realised I can do this.

the paperback I’ve left at old bnb - just added it to the bookshelf. It was a take a book leave a book type thing. So I left.

yanbu half. It probably just needed a fuck ton of silicone to seal it for now

sounds great em, love your crafty skills there getting mil to lash some cash

i will never get to do such amazing updates like that with everyone mentioned

got a new cook book from the library yesterday

half I would be raging!! It’s learned helplessness, assuming he isn’t this useless at work?!

life what cookbook did you go for?

I slept through my alarm so missed my morning spin class, god knows how we are going to get up for work on Monday 😳

DH has some more heart tests today and I have a hair appt which I’m looking forward to, will have to exercise later somehow.

The one pot pan planets one, I would have just bought it in the past but now check the library first

Life I'd the thread open on two pages to do my post yesterday! My brain just won't retain detail otherwise!

Half I would be fuming, it's like he said I'll just mess up this time and she won't ask me again or else he just isn't a practical person and thought it'll be done quickly I'll just pay for it. My last boyfriend was like that, spent money so foolishly, but we didn't have shared finances or household so it didn't impact me other than being frustrated at the waste of money.

I printed out my ynab categories and spends per month for last year yesterday. I'll go through this with a fine tooth comb at home some evening and work out what should go in my sinking funds for the year ahead each pay day. The cc was used far too much last year but I needed to be gentle with myself financially while I was grieving but I'm determined that I won't have lifestyle debt this year, if I need to borrow for my trip to Canada I will but it'll be planned debt. I can save €400 by going two days earlier but dd will miss last three days of school and she's in sixth class so I'm not sure what to do about that. Bf is coming with us
Today I just allocated my pay according to figures I know off the top of my head & put a bit towards sinking funds I need to start also. I paid another €100 against cc and will call my bank later on to find out about 0% transfer, can't do transfer application on the app.

Specsavers contacted me and told me to bring in my unused boxes of lenses for credit against my subscription too, I didn't mention it previously but there's an issue with my left eye and I'm seeing an eye surgeon at end of Feb and my contact lenses are useless to me currently. I've paused my subscription for the next 6 months so that's a saving of €234, but obviously eye surgeon will cost money, must check my health insurance regarding this.

Trip to Canada Happier? I missed that, sounds exciting! is that this summer?

The company we are using to tender our building work says the tender is going out in the next fortnight, with a view to starting work in March or April 😮. I didn’t think that was feasible - going ahead is all still subject to a quote coming back affordable (🤞🏻but not a given, with inflation) but I am actually starting to think it will happen after all! Ideally we need to find somewhere else to live - it will be very expensive round here but I honestly don’t think the DC will be able to live in a building site, they are both autistic and very sensitive to noise - they freak out if I even vacuum or use a blender 😬. It will also shave weeks off the overall build if we get out of the way so if there’s any way to do it I think we’ll have to dig deep.

We need to pack up several rooms, put stuff into storage, find somewhere else to live, choose all the kitchen and bathroom fixtures… I shall have to get cracking, seriously! All this while looking for a special secondary school placement for DS - pass the gin…

Yes I had hoped to go in 2018 but I decided to end my marriage instead so it's taken until now to get around to it, added incentive my niece will be 9 months at that stage so will be lovely to get to see her again.

How long will ye need alternative accommodation for half?

Wow, half, you have a lot on. In the circs, I think you have no option but to leave a fair share of the decisions and practical implementation to DH and if he cocks up, well, that's how he develops a more robust streak of common sense. My DH once handed over £600 to a shonky plumber to fix our blocked lav, - plumber tinkered for a bit, then left the house leaving the lav exactly as blocked as at the outset.

I wouldn’t miss the last days in primary school happier, they are special days imo, even for €400 and you know how tight I am

Life you're frugal not tight and I think you're right, as it is she'll miss the last 3 hours!

Aw half I feel you and would feel the same. Tbf my DP is very practical and the DIY is one thing I do leave to him. But all the responsibility, and particularly the financial/ earning responsibility sits firmly with me so I know what you mean
about working hard while they faff around. My DP has just turned 60 and is eligible to draw down some very small pensions he has scattered around from previous jobs. This will enable him to leave the PT shop job he’s had for the last few months, which he really hates. My god I’ve never seen the man move so fast to sort out something financial (normally all gets left to me) - his pension will be here jn days 😂
em sounds good, I approve your crafty move
happiee sounds very organised with the YNAb pots, something I need to be better at
gen hope DPs tests are ok
mrs I agree, you are great at giving us all a boost!

I had to teach online today to accommodate the train strike. It went well actually but I was surprised at how much resistance I felt to doing it - unwelcome memories of lockdown.

£10.71 in Aldi today, just a few bits, including loo roll. Have been looking back through my cooking/shopping notebook - will be useful to compare expenditure/prices over the last couple of years.

Ate the last of the nice Christmas pears yesterday, and it occurred to me that tinned fruit in juice might be a good and inexpensive way of getting high-quality fruit in winter. Nice and easy puddings with a dollop of cream. But then went to Aldi today and completely forgot to pick up any.

Mushroom stroganoff tonight - my current go-to quick non-meat meal. DS doesn't like mushrooms but is out watching the footy so tells me he will sort his own dinner out. The joys of adult DC!

Dmum has decided she has cancer and is giving my father a hard time from her hospital bed on the phone. "Well, if I do have cancer, I will face up to it, unlike you, who just buries your head in the sand." Had I been there, I would have pointed out that Ddad actually has been living with 2 kinds of cancer for a number of years now, and had a rare malignant tumour removed from his eye 15 years ago. But wastes no time on being vicious towards those who love him. Or on self-pity, or regrets. I am very angry with her, but have to keep it to myself.

Oh dear big- that sounds hard. Obviously I don’t know the back story to your parents, but my DM and DDad’s relationship has deteriorated under the burdens of dementia and caring responsibilities. They snipe at each other all the time and it’s not great to be around is it 🤗

That does sound tough big,

Thank you, martha and life! I suppose when I have been married over 60 years, I can begin to understand the mystery of long marriage. I am lucky to be able to vent to my brother, who is better able not to rise to my mother. I focus on doing practical things, so tomorrow I will take my dad's laundry over, do his ironing, clean, show him how to make a sausage dish he likes. And then pick my mum up when discharged and bring her home to him. While I"m around, she'll behave herself a bit better.