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

[needastrongoneagain]

New thread.

All welcome.

I tried. The issue I have though is she’s usually do a medicine for sweets. This one you can’t eat straight after. So not entirely helpful. She’s got a special after medicine fruit shoot though. Seems to work for now.

4 times a day for 10 days….

Eeekkk for the strep ememem84 glad the dugs are doing the business.

Timetoswitch hope you’re doing as well as you can be.

Spent a bit today. Just under £10 on groceries I don’t need and £8.50 on luggage tags and some sun block.

I’m all packed and ready to go. Not using my new bag as it’s far too big and I was tripping over it once it was packed (though I might change my mind before tomorrow). My first solo holiday. Think the nervousness is overriding the everything else.

Evening.

Hope everyone is okay. It's been a busy week here, so checking in finally.

@RumBananaSundae . How did it go this week? I hope as well as you could have hoped and you looked after yourself as best you can. Enjoy the holiday.

Hope FIL continues to improve @lifelongfrugaleer, hear you on hospital parking and laundry.

Hope the arrangements are going are well as they can be in the circumstances @Timetoswitch . Hope you enjoyed the Mr Whippy!

Most standard spends this week have been well within budget so that's good. Food a touch over but has been under for the last two.

I had a great session with the NHS psychologist that cleared a lot up in my head and made me see things in a different way about putting myself at the bottom of the pile in terms of obligations and my own mental health. I'm a pleaser, this is hard.

We bought DH's electric wheelchair which was £££ but the PIP back payment will cover thankfully.

Meal plan

Chicken korma and aubergine curry as family over tomorrow
Cheese and tomato pasta bake.
Red pepper stew
Spinach and chickpea curry.
Lamb tagine
Aloo gobi

That’s not at all helpful, fingers crossed the fruit shoot keeps working

So far so good. One day down.

food shop today. Plus swimming for the kids. They’re fine in themselves so am sending them.

picked our home grown potatoes yesterday.

Meant to add this to last post.

we ended up with 6kg of new potatoes. Yum

Did they confirm it was strep throat with a swab Em?

I was going to say it's been a non spend weekend but that's not true as I spent £150 on train tickets to London for dd and I and also £30 on dds train pass. I used savings for all that though so the normal account hasn't been touched.

I'm thinking I should maybe get a credit card for some spends rather than dipping in and out of savings 🤔 I've always avoided them as don't want debt but in theory I could just use it for spends I know savings could cover if I'm really stretched.

If you can pay it off in full girlie do it. Maybe look at something that also gives rewards?

@Timetoswitch I hope the arrangements continue to be uneventful.

@ememem84 you have my sympathy on the dosing. For DD it was a 2 parent job. Wishing both of them a speedy recovery

There are never TGTG bags around here. The supermarkets still use the old fashioned yellow stickers.

We had our first BBQ of the year yesterday.... It was very nom but fast because it looked warmer than the mountain breeze felt.

Yep. Strep confirmed by Swab. Sigh. He’s in school today. As is absolutely fine in himself (I hate that phrase) but he is.

had to fess up and tell school though that I disregarded their policy.

dd home today. She’s absolutely exhausted. And had a funny tummy when she woke up. I think it’s possible a reaction to the meds. But who knows. Keeping her off though as a precaution.

NSD today.

Yesterday £25 at the local shop. Had family for dinner and needed some wine and some of their home made samosas, plus milk and bread.

Unexpected energy bill refund from British Gas today, we must have used them in the past and never received a return of monies. It's ages since we did!! I'm £312 richer.

Boom 💥

Excellent need

Ooooh an unexpected refund is always great need

Plans are coming along ok. One thing I’ve learnt though, is look after your important documents eg birth certificate, your Will, put it somewhere sensible and tell the people where it is! No idea where these are, and neither does Dmum. I suspect I will need to get copies.

My day got worse. Anxiety wise.

dd stayed home with DH. Dparents usually pick her up from school along with ds on a Monday.
so they called DH and offered to have her so he could get on with work. lovely.

u til she threw up in ddads car.

after that she napped for 3.5 hours.

dm also got a nap in bevause she sat with her.

changed meds so hopefully these do the trick. But she’s home again today because of the sick.

im wfh today. With a 3 year old around. Wish me luck.

That’s a nice little chunk of money you weren’t expecting @needastrongoneagain !

@ememem84 poor dd, hope the change in meds helps her feel better. And you manage to wfh ok today. CBeebies might help save the day.

£51 on a Beauty Pie order. Just enough to get free delivery, which wasn’t intentional. I’m buying less from there these days, have gone back to Aldi for day and night creams. I only use it now for things I really love such as their body crème, face mask, eye gel, etc.

£84 on a Next order for ds2. He was really needing summer clothes. But this won’t need to be paid till next month, or possibly July depending on the cutoff date.

Lots of extra shifts at work again this week. But I’m not complaining, just thinking of payday next week, it’s been a long month!

CBeebies or Disney plus @CurlsandCurves shes still asleep. Which usually would be unheard of. But because of her mega nap yesterday afternoon at dparents she didn’t go to sleep here until around 9. So I’m letting her sleep to catch up. Ordinarily I’d be trying to wake up and get to school. But not today.

ds is awake and he’s having breakfast and iPad time.

I spent half hour awake by myself reading a book. It’s one I bought hadn’t read then lent it to dm. Marketed as an “eerie puzzle box of a book” dm said it was “more about lesbians than anything else” 😂

am a chapter in. No lesbians yet. 😂

This is it for reference.

@CurlsandCurves DD and I are on a 'only buy essentials' re toiletries and cosmetics this year. We've so many random items half used, gifted, discarded etc, they are perfectly fine, just not our ideal 🙃

DH's PIP backdated payment has gone into the account today. It nearly covers the cost of the electric wheelchair, so I feel that's a massive expense covered.

Hoping for a NSD, although we are low on fruit!

@Timetoswitch 100% re documents. My Dsil is finding this re DMIL.

That's great need one less worry

€200 balance on dds extractions
€1.50 parking
€38.41 Dunnes stores

Dd realised she can't buy from Dunnes children's clothes section anymore, she tried on lovely shorty denim dungarees but unfortunately her butt wouldn't fit in it

I took time unpaid to take her & have paid for every cent of her dental treatment, her father had the audacity to tell me to drop her to his house afterwards 13 miles from my work, my blood pressure went through the roof and I told him I've to go to work she'll be at home when you finish work

me too @needastrongoneagain i'm also on a cosmetics buying ban. only if i run out of something can i buy more. i have way too much stuff. i dont think i've bought any shower gel/soap/shampoo/body cream etc for so so long. at least a year.

i food shopped o Sunday am planning another one on tuesday of next week. we have sufficient so will be fine until then i think.

i'm wfh today - dd has gone with my parents for a bit. thank the lord that they're here and willing to help.

i have just booked a lunch with a client at NOPI one of Ottolenghi's restaurants in London in june. i am excited about this. it looks delish. spendy but i'll whack it on my credit card and expense it back. (build up the points...) two days in the city flights hotel two lunches some coffee meetings and an evening out with clients. should be able to build up a nice points balance on my card. :)

Need that is good news about the PIP covering the chair cost.

My mum and mil have both shown me their boxes of docs. I must have a trust worthy can't be arsed to snoop face. I just need to stay away from buses.

I went on an essential make up only stint about 20 years ago when I was too skint to buy any more. When they ran out I just stopped using them. It must have saved a fortune over the years.

Today is a nsd... Although I am going to bagsy the remaining milk for tomorrow's coffee.

Evening everyone 😊
Just lost a huge message 😱
I hate it when that happens 😭
Anyway hope everyone is ok 😊
Spends today Tesco £42
Aldi £38
George £18 for DH shirts
Credit card bill £441 of which £315 was the house and car insurance 😊
Waves to all 👋

Great news re the chair @needastrongoneagain

@ememem84 your job sounds so glam!

Even more hours for me this next week at least as someone’s been signed off work. I’m knackered! DH thinks it’s funny I’m moaning but his job means he’s not around to pick up any slack, which is why I’m lucky enough to be part time in the first place. And at least I genuinely enjoy what I do, it’s never a chore to go to work. It’s just fitting everything else in. Think of the money, Curls, think of the money.

Ddad also had a book where he wrote his funeral wishes, but we cannot find it. However, Dmum said she wanted to pick what she wanted anyway, so at least not finding it has saved an argument!

the itinery is:

5am wake up. Airport for 6. Flight at 7. Train at 8. Into first meeting at 9. Next meeting 1030. Next meeting 1130 followed by lunch. Then meeting at 3. Then at 4. Then at 5. Dinner at 730. Some sort of evening somewhere. Hotel. Bed. Up for first meeting for 930. Meeting at 1030. Lunch at 12. Meeting at 2. Train at 3. Check in for 4. Flight at 6 (although it’s BA so it won’t take off until 8 because always delayed). Home for around 930.

also have to try and fit in a swing by the Lego store or the Disney store for the kids.

in the middle of all the meetings I might have time to catch up on work stuff. But maybe not. Sigh.