Frugal Friends Fearlessly Facing February.

[needastrongoneagain]

Thought I'd start the new thread. Been ages since I started a thread!

Well, I will shop around again for Ddog, but he's so resistant to being combed that I'm stuck with outsourcing his grooming unfortunately. This latest groomer is £22 more than the previous one, but he is handed back to me in a reasonable time frame.

Very unusually for us, we went to a party last night, and stayed for nearly 4 hours! Sober as judges as well so this morning was good. Pilates at home, walk with dog, home to potter about, make scones, and wait for the finale of Happy Valley!

£6 yesterday in tesco express (I blame husband 😂)

I discovered yesterday that we didn't unpack some shopping and it was for few days in the boot of the car. I couldn't find any toilet rim blocks that I bought and then husband found one bag where in fact they were, along with spreadable cheese and two frozen pizzas. So we had pizza for tea last night 😂Good thing it's cold, so we could just eat this stuff.

Also! Have a nice week everyone 😊

£50 Matalan. New bedding. Didn’t need it as such. But….

DH has meal planned everything for the week. Yay.

last nights dinner was a roast chicken (yum) with a whole head of cauliflower seasoned with ras al hanout(which I always thinks sounds like a marvel/dc comic villain) garlic broccoli kale and green beans. And cous cous.

im enjoying the leftovers for lunch. Yum.

Did a shift in the shop this morning, and compared notes on dog grooming. My co-worker has the same breed dog, and pays £55 (or at least, that's what she paid before Christmas) for a cut. I suspect the interest is largely because of VAT.

Regular check up with vet this morning, who tells us that Ddog has to lose at least a kilo, if not two!! Oh, dear, the guilt. She advised us just to cut right down on treats and dental sticks as a first step and see how we get on with that. So I'm going to cut his treats up into homeopathic doses, and see how we get on. So I shall be saving some dog-money on that front at any rate.

The dog looking at you like he's being starved though 😬😂

Bah £120 at skate park, £60 in budget rest not as ds has a fall and needed new Helmet and pads, owner knocked a tenner off though as we are regular people

gossip I have been known to do that. As you say this time of year you can get away with it.

It is just me and boy child at home this week which means I can get away with Vege meals / recycling leftovers . Gen I am going to scroll back and steal your meal plan for some.

I have been reading the can't afford to live thread ... And thanking my little stars we have this corner of the tinternet. It must be so hard to be suddenly hit with higher bills than wage months without support or practice at reducing costs.

I availed of my breakdown assistance this evening because I've a soft tyre & hadn't the right socket to change it. No obvious sign of puncture & I only got it a few weeks ago so I'll bring it back to my tyre guy tomo evening.

NSD here, Sicilian sausage ragu for dinner, and we have ice-cream for pudding! the scones from yesterday have vanished, think Ddog is not the only one who needs to cut down a bit on treats.

Evening

@xogossipgirlxo - spent ages looking for a cucumber once, I swore blind I'd bought one at Lidl, ended up thinking I hadn't, found it in one of my wellington boots in the car a few days later - use have dropped out of the shopping back.

Never thought about dog size @BigSkies2022!!

Hope DS okay @lifelongfrugaleer

£15 on a recipe book I didn't need, but I spend so little at present - small pleasures.

Gnocchi with pesto and roast veg, simple but tasty. Made everything but the mash for veggie shepherds pie tomorrow and veg stock from a load of old veg scrapings too .

Dd made doughnuts and they were a success, I'm always nervous of yeast. She isn't!

NSD today & yesterday, we had ice creams after beach walk yesterday but bf paid.

Nsd, worked two hours over which I'll claim as overtime.

ds is fine, it was last Monday he fell, he was shaken and bumped at the time, thankfully his helmet took the brunt but when he was back tonight I replaced the helmet just in case. No cracks but better be safe as it’s a risk sport

@lifelongfrugaleer one of mine has had an accident too this weekend. Went on a track day with his motocross. And came off, falling on his wrist. Wrist and forearm swollen and painful to move. Bruising is just starting to come through. I’m taking him to get checked out tomorrow morning. It’s hopefully not broken as he can move everything, but just want to be sure. Bad timing as he has written and practical exams at college this week. Hopefully a couple more days to recover and he’ll be fine for it.

House insurance: £20 off the renewal quote by shopping around.

Not a nsd just booked bowling for dd and her friends for Saturday £25.

My brother broke his wrist coming off his bike, he didn't think he had either....

Oh no Curls hope he is ok.

Need we had gnocchi today too, hadn't had it for ages actually not sure why. DD declared it as 'her favourite' but then proceeded to still not finish her small portion grrr. Her eating is awful.

January and December pay and expenses from job 1 approved today so will get those later this month. There is a new system to claim pay and was struggling to get to grips with it.

Contacted conveyancing solicitors today too for an update on the land registry title update, they said they submitted it ages ago but no response and that there's huge delays at the LR but they are going to chase it and update us. It feels so odd that we own a house and have nothing really to prove that we own it yet!

Spends today just a work expense of £28ish, should have this reimbursed next month.

Hope the wrist is ok curls

yeah on finally getting expenses.

Taking library books back today nsd planned

Apologies re typos in my previous post, you hopefully got the gist.

@WeightoftheWorld we love gnocchi but hadn't tried it at all until about a year ago can you believe?! Taking the bit that's left with some salad for lunch today.

Hopefully a NSD but will need to order some oat milk soon. Amazon is unfortunately easily the cheapest place to get it.

The wrist is not broken, phew! We got seen very quickly first thing this morning, such a relief. Thanks for all the good wishes.

Excellent news curls

My tyre guy was on the premises at work today so got him to look at my tyre, the alloy is cracked on the inside from potholes, so this explained why I couldn't see the issue, it's being welded by a work colleague.

@WeightoftheWorld the LR delays are sooooo long. If it turns out that you don't own it then you can claim on your solicitors indemnity insurance. There are a lot of conveyancing solicitors who are triple checking the reports of good title before issuing them to clients.

@CurlsandCurves glad to hear he is not broken.

Baked gnocchi is the bomb... Even super fussy DH will eat it.

Today will be a NSD hopefully... Freezer fossick, and leftovers to make a cassoulet coupled with sad vegetables for dinner. Other than that, a trip to the gym and put the bins out to round out an action packed day. I am living the dream.

Good news about your DS curls

Just catching up a little. It is nice to have this thread, agree. The whole COL crisis is dreadful.

NSD so far today. LSD yesterday, £6 kindling, £3.99 coop and £1.99 for popcorn. Dsis paid for food after cinema last night, I'd already bought tickets.

Unescorted We love baked gnocci too, that's something else I used to do frequently but we haven't for ages. Basically ever since DS was born in autumn 2021 I feel that we have eaten bit rubbish ever since! Just can't seem to organise ourselves or find the time. Feel we have been a bit better over past few weeks though which tbh is a huge undertaking when DS has been so endlessly poorly. The title document from the seller was not as it was a possessory title but they took out an indemnity policy for us against it and our conveyancing solicitors have applied to the LR to update the title to an absolute title too for peace of mind. I'm sure it will all be fine but feels funny to own a house with no evidence we own it until the deeds are updated.

Life insurance broker appt for me and DH later today.

DS still has diarrhea, I think it's teething related but it is pretty bad so who knows. DH had to take the morning as AL and I finished work 2hrs early and took 2hrs paid dependents leave. No idea what we going to do about tomorrow yet if he doesn't make a miraculous recovery. It's so hard working and juggling sick kids when we usually don't have any family around who can help in these situations.

Spends today £2 bus fare to work (DH picked me up). Need to order a few things from Argos though and I might pop in to Superdrug on my way to collect DD from nursery later too hmm.