Advancing into April - Frugal Friends still being, er, Frugal.

[needastrongoneagain]

New thread.

All welcome.

I’m sharing two pictures of catface. My lovely catface

I would love a kitten face. But DH not keen. I also don’t think catface would approve. She’s the boss around here.

I've just got a smart meter, it's only for electric as he couldn't fit it for the gas for some reason. So far I'm quite liking it, it's definitely made me realise what racks up the electric and what doesn't. Basically anything that heats up costs money, lightbulbs, chargers etc not so much. The electric blanket is the most economical way to warm up, i think it works out cheaper than boiling the kettle to fill a hot water bottle.

Lsd here £6 on milk and bread.

Great haul @DHsPoorBack! Bet you're over the moon with all that!

Thank you

DH didn't walk through the door until 8pm, poor bugger had been on a train for hours, all he wanted was a wee, but couldn't get past me shoving champagne glasses in his face... "Look! £7!!"

I love this thread, I've found my people.

That’s amazing DH bet you’re well chuffed! The charity shops round me have ideas about their station and are expensive. I love going to the ones a bit further afield though eg Ilkley- well posh stuff for quite bargain prices. The one DD works in is quite cut price. We had to do a mercy dash there in sun eve after her shift as she accidentally locked herslef in (long story). DP and I were like ‘ooh this is nice can we have a nosy’ and she was really embarrassed trying to hustle us out 😂

Lovely cat face em, mine is also a tabby.
half we have smart meters. I hadn’t heard anything about them being unreliable. However only one of ours actually works which is annoying. It’s something about not having the equipment to pick up signals with in our area.

You certainly have! We are a very friendly bunch, promise. And of course those glasses trumped toilet needs, no question 😂

rumbanana that sounds super stressful, I’m really sorry 💐

Sorry rum I missed that. That sounds very upsetting. I guess it will delay the funeral?

That’s very stressful rum, hopefully the coroner process won’t need long and they will release quickly for the funeral. And you make up with your siblings

that’s an epic charity shop haul and well done on the sales too. We have lots of chazzas but I never get a good mooch.

£44 primark summer clothes that fit, £30 superdrug

dogs here, Labrador nuff said about eating
cats at the stables who really do eat anything

Apologies too @RumBananaSundae, we are going through similar in law in fighting and it's wearing and draining and adds to an already tough situation. ❤️

£35 on a biweekly veg box delivery with some cheese that DH likes too. Should be it for today.

I assumed wrongly that one of the little kittens was a goner, even yesterday evening it was ice cold and the mother was rejecting it, but this morning I have 6 cats I can count halfwoman I just wasn't counting the almost dead one.

I got syringes from my neighbour and syringe fed the kitty, locked it into cat carrier with the mother and other kitten, put a hot water bottle under the carrier where the weak one was and low and behold they're both feeding. Brought cat carrier indoors because it gets cold overnight.

I made marry me chicken last night, I wouldn't marry anyone that made it for me, it was only alright

€4.90 on creme fraiche/sundried tomatoes/one other item I can't recall
€9.62 on elastoplast plasters, cotton buds, milk ds has a injury where the skin is gone just where his foot goes into his runners so it was essential, I won't be buying brand name plasters again in the near future

Rum and need sorry that you both have extra stress at an already stressful time. There's definitely something about death that brings out the worst in some people. I hope yours situations improve soon ❤️

Gen take it easy until you are 100% if you can

Thank you for the worming advice. Do you have to get the spot on treatment from the vets? em catface is a beauty a real mummy's girl.

Happier I'm not sure where to start with that information it's so exciting. I would be beside myself with every emotion known to man in your situation. Well done on saving kitten 2 and I hope that the mother gets better at caring for them. Will you keep them?

DHsPoorBack that's great stamina visiting all those charity shops. Well done on all your bargains.

Half I can't get a smart meter without moving our boiler as there's no room but I have started submitting monthly meter readings. I know where most of our gas goes and it's on hideously long showers several times a day with both ds 😤

I too have a Lidl £5 off a £30 voucher that expires today so I will head out later to spend that.

Day off today, work hinted that they are going to start cutting back on overtime soon, my service is completely over budget 😕 that will be a problem for me. Really I need full time hours (currently contracted for 30 hours) so not sure what I'll do.

Dug out my 15 year life insurance policy, the 15 years is up next year which means I should get £2700 back! Have started mentally spending it already 😂

Bornlazy
When dcat had her kittens last April, she had 4, so the deal was we'd keep 2 and give away 2, but then when one died dc persuaded me to keep the 3 and I did BUT my original plan was for 1 cat, then it was adjusted to 3 which became 4, this would be 6 plus a dog plus 2 children plus a fulltime job so I'm not keeping them
dd is hoping her father will take one as they had to put their cat(who he got in the separation) to sleep last year, so I'd be thinking sure the two should go together

girlie is your schedule regular? Could you take on agency shifts? I think you're a district nurse

Dm kindly gave me €1k towards dd's dental work, it was really welcome as I was starting to feeling the pressure, can see my current account dwindling and have my holidays in 9 weeks

£55 at dr this morning. Sinusitis. So antibiotics and a nasal spray for me.

£7 lunch. The biggest chicken curry and cheese toasted wrap ever crispies and a coffee. Because I’m poorly.

Happier I am a wound care specialist nurse now, still in community though. I could do agency shifts but I think I'd be working at a band lower than I currently am which grates a bit... umm you do know kitten pics are mandatory right? 😉

My friends cat just had 3 kittens, they are all tabbies and I was seriously tempted but I honestly can't afford another pet plus I'm not convinced our dog wouldn't eat a kitten 😬

Girlie is there much turnover in your team? If hours /posts become available when someone leaves would you be able to permanently increase your hours? That flexibility is very readily available where I am because turnover is high, though admittedly less so in specialist teams.

Sorry to hear about your in-law grief too Need, that’s the last thing you need right now.

wfh today, not spent anything yet but still haven’t got round to ordering new ‘drawers’ for my wardrobe ikea Kallax, plus those hanging shelf things to replace the mouldy ones. Must do that later so I can actually put the wardrobe contents away again! Very annoying that my nearest ikea has closed, it’s probably easiest to pay for delivery now.

Half you just reminded me they're building an IKEA in Cork which is much closer to me than Dublin

Girlie I remember that now from when I had a big burn a few years ago. I can imagine that would grate a bit alright but I guess if you were struggling it would be an option, or maybe if you picked some up now and again and counted that as holiday money or working for your sinking funds or something like that it might sting less.

I did a full week last week & my wages were up by €130 which is lovely but it cost me in childcare & quality of life too, it's grand to cover holidays here but I don't want to go back to it right now.

I have pics but they're day or two day old kittens so are rather rat like at the moment I'll wait until they're a bit more photogenic

Catface is beautiful, and I am looking forward to photos of the kittens. Ddog is a possessive great melt, so I don't think we can have any other animals.

DS back. Knackered from completing one deadline, and now addressing another. I am providing food and keeping out of the way, because I can't bear these traumatising deadline-induced work binges. (Reminds me of my own painful patterns.) He'll be around for about a week, and his departure will coincide with the arrival of his next maintenance loan. Hoping to lure him on some kind of outing with the promise of lunch/dinner before he goes.

Spends so far this week: £29 in Sainsbury's, £28 in Aldi, £27 in Superdrug - have decided to go back to my £10 (used to be £7!) hair dye in light of my disappointing and expensive recent salon experience. Haven't used it in about 4 years, so better remember to do a skin patch test first.

Managed to get a GP appointment on Monday to get some 'changes' in my breasts checked out, like the internet tells me to do. Turns out I have eczema! How to feel an idiot.

Dinner tonight: vaguely south-east asian pork meatballs with avocado and wasabi cream, with rice and greens, stuffed into pittas. DS likely to be on a long night, so the cupboards contain bagels, peanut butter, and Indomie noodle packs.

In other news, tomorrow I'll be the mother of a teenager

Went to Lidl and spent £121 after the £5 voucher was off 😱 £10 of that was on plants and compost but still ... everything is so expensive. I misread the label on the whiskas cat biscuits and didn't realise they were £5.79! A year ago they were £3.99. This prompted me to look at receipts, on the app, from a year ago and the coleslaw I buy that used to be 79p is now £1.29. I'm lucky that for now I can afford these hikes but how do people who were already on the breadline cope? It's really scary.

Happier I think that sounds like the perfect plan for the kittens. Hope you get a nice teen and not a stroppy one 😉

BigSkies better to get it checked out and feel like an idiot than the alternative.

The prices are crazy, €70 I spent in Lidl on Sun morn, it fitted in one bag plus a couple of items in my hand, this would have got me a full trolley a couple of years ago.

She can be both Born a lot of "you always take his side" about her brother these days

NSD today and hopefully again tomorrow.

I have been trying to move an old work pension over to my new Nest one. But because it’s worth over a certain amount, the old pension providers are saying I’ve got to prove I’ve taken professional advice about moving it. It’s really not much, I only worked there for about 6 years but it’s a hoop I’ve got to jump through. Luckily DH has a friend who is an IFA so hopefully he’ll be able to take a quick look at it.