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

[needastrongoneagain]

New thread.

All welcome.

happier oooh pineapple. Might buy some breezers on my way home today!

Oooh I used to love a Bacardi breezer and Smirnoff ice. Had to stop drinking Smirnoff ice though as it gives me a terrible headache the next day (after only drinking one 🤣)

Spendy morning:
Dress in new look £28
couple of dresses in Next £44
£16 ish in sainsburys on dinner for the next couple of days

hope everyone has a lovely weekend 😎

em can you still buy them? They're not available for general sale in Ireland anymore and Lidl stopped doing their version too, everyone's into claw and gin mixes now, except me

happier I don’t actually know!!!! I’m going to try and find out though

Hope everyone's good today. My week back at work wasn't as traumatic as I feared.

Hoping to book flights soon for my nephew's wedding next year, so I'm aiming for a very low spend month. That said, I have two goals this month which will cost money i.e. (1) take out AA membership and (2) get a will drawn up. I've just joined the AA and I've put a reminder in my calendar to phone a solicitor re will. The sudden death of my cousin gave me a bit of a wake up call. Obviously I hope to live a very long and healthy life but if something did happen unexpectedly, I want to ensure that all is in order and DD will inherit everything.

Looks like my mortgage is going up again soon with another rise in interest rates .

Afternoon!

Another one that's just done wills and POA, just waiting for the draft documents to be returned to us. It's a relief to have started the process.

Having a chill weekend here, although we had friends round for a curry last night, which was lovely.

Spends
£100 shopping, but that was a lot of stuff for last night and the fridge is full (doesn't take long to empty mind with 4 adults and all meals being made from home!).
£25 cash into bank for baby nieces birthday, requested by parents as she has all the clothes and toys etc they want her to have.

Meal plan
Prawn and broccoli curry.
Nduja, spinach and mascarpone rigatoni.
Kimchi fried rice and egg.
Kimchi stew with pork belly.
Spiced butter bean curry.
Ras el Hanout rainbow roast

Knacker as on the scout fair tea tent today. Cost me about £6 on top of my cake donations

Boo to the long day and extra spends @lifelongfrugaleer

£19 drinks at the cricket club. 2 wines, 2 pints of Neck Oil, a G&T and a lemonade though - cricket club prices!

Ah it's all for the good of the group so I don't mind

Spends yesterday
€1 parking
75c Capri sun
€70 cut & colour
€18.05 meat & pack of cadburys buttons

Spends this morning before getting out of bed €55.75 on a county half zip top for dd she chose my home county, ds got a jersey on Thurs & he chose the county we live in. Got 15% discount on dd's

Amazing how we can spend money without getting out of bed!

Hoping for a NSD today.

I've managed a low spend week, had to get a prescription and some dog food which together came to £30ish.

Need to get some food bits today as my dads coming for lunch, hopefully no more than £15ish .

My mum bought me a few plants Ystd so I had a nice afternoon putting them in the garden 🪴

I sold a dress so £30 up for that.

Hi everyone! Still not much time to post, it’s been a very pressured few weeks with the renovation work. So much to choose, and order (including the kitchen - a big responsibility!) and work is busy and I’m short staffed… so lots of late nights. And soooo much spending. It’s fairly scary seeing our savings ebb away. We’re going to have to spend much more of them than we planned due to building costs rocketing, and the inevitable extra steel/concrete and my love of a million sockets etc. I’m used to having enough in savings that if I had to stop work for a couple of years to support the DC (which I’ve had to do before - one has significant SEN) then I could. But now I couldn’t. Once all this is over we’ll have to stay get frugal so we can build up our savings again as a matter of priority.

Loft is almost done - roof finished, partitions in, first fix done and plaster board will be finished tomorrow. All en suite fittings bought except the towel rail, which I am dithering over (other fittings are brushed brass - but would a whole towel rail be too much bling?!). Extension foundations are done. Blockwork starts tomorrow. Kitchen ordered (gulp!) and now I am moving on to appliances and flooring. The guys are really motoring and we will be back in by the beginning of September with only the kitchen to finish off at that point - hurrah! We’re missing home and it will be a huge relief not to pay through the nose for a very small airbnb flat 😳

Even better, in a week or two I might have done enough to get some of my evenings and weekends back! I definitely think I’m near the turning point on this ridiculously stressful year, anyway. Can’t come soon enough, I seriously can’t keep up this level of stress and busyness!

Dd’s birthday next week so I’m gearing up to make The Cake. In a tiny tiny space. With a really rubbish oven with one shelf. Fingers firmly crossed!

Off to wander round Tower Bridge for a bit today - hoping to go inside if there isn’t a big queue.

I need to spend A LOT less on food. Seriously. I need to focus on that when things calm down in a few weeks. I’ll be back properly then!

Hello 👋 I can't even find my last post on here. But I need to be here!

tayto I'm feeling the same with interest rates.

half the huge renovation sounds fantastic but I can imagine the amount of mental load it's taking! I have a mutual love of lots of sockets, we had a rewire four years ago and went mad with them! Why not.

Yay for the dress sale girlie

Love the menu plan need and we are Scouts members life try to help where I can as its thankless at times for the leaders.

£599 on food since 24th May, still got 5 days left until the credit card bill runs. It was DDs birthday in May and we had several parties that week. Plus a hot tub rental over the Bank Holiday weekend in lieu of a few nights away (£140). That's also put the energy bill by £50 and overall costs up this month.

On a plus I have been selling and buying from Vinted, I made a lovely Sweet Potato Red Thai curry and the sweet potato was only 84p.

I'm pressing post before I get distracted by something else and will try to keep up!

Sounds very stressful half, but good news that it is moving along though. I always forget until the day arrives that your DD and I are birthday twins.

I really must get on and sort some life insurance in the next few days as I understand it will get more expensive once my birthday passes 😁

Afternoon.

Wow @HalfWomanHalfChocolate, that sounds stressful re the renovations. But positive! I know exactly what you mean re the dwindling savings, having only just finished our extension a year ago. The cost of steel etc is astronomical. It will be worth it, promise!

Spends today were unexpected in that I ended up going to the local town to bank some company cheques, £27 at the butchers. I get a bit daunted in butchers as we don't eat lots of meat and I don't know the terms for the cuts of meat of how much to order!! Any suggestions welcome. I got pork tenderloin, chops and chicken thighs. I'm fancying pork belly too at some stage.

Yesterday was a NSD.

Ours are pretty good If I say I want to make x recipe to feed y adults at suggesting cuts and types. They also usually give different cost options.
Worth a go?

Half I have been chasing the sodding roofer for weeks just to get a PRICE for the job, never mind getting it done. So your progress is amazing. Have you got the whole process planned out all the way through?

Endless family admin and ferrying to appointments here: Ddad had a GP appointment last week and we now are waiting for A) referral to a falls clinic b) radiography referral and I have to c) make an appointment for a blood test for him and d) make an eye appointment for him. Dmum is going to hospital on Friday for gynae appointment and haematology update (the latter is now weekly). At some point they will both need podiatrist appointments and dental appointments, and Dmum is going to be going for a cataract removal. I have to get to the radiography department at some point myself for an x-ray on my dodgy hip.

Spendy week coming up - DS's new rental contract begins on Friday and I will be footing the rent and utilities. Around £550 pcm together. He is keeping body and soul together with his Deliveroo earnings while he waits to be rostered on his bar job and, he hopes, earn steadily.

Amidst this I thought 'sod it', and I have booked a course of adult beginners ballet classes, starting this week. £54 for six classes, not bad at all, I thought, and I even bought a nice new vest top (£29, Sweaty Betty) to wear in the class for an extra boost! I need to leave the house a couple of times a week and concentrate on something that has nothing to do with my family!

need - pork belly is a great buy at the butcher, you can get as big or small a piece as you like, bones in, bones out, whatever. Ask them to spatchcock a chicken, they love that!

My new personal diary (To Do list) and work notebook arrived today. I've updated my diary for the next few days. I seem to have a permanent list in my head of life admin. and chores. I'm hoping by writing them down, I'll take the pressure off my poor brain.

Half nice to hear from you and I'm really impressed you found five or ten minutes to give us an update. Fingers crossed the rest of the renovation goes to plan. How is DS coping with all the changes i.e temporary house move and changes to his own home?

Skies that's a lot of medical appointments between your Mum, Dad and your own appointment. Are you working on top of that? Sorry, you've probably said already but I don't remember. Also, you're very good to support your DS. Well done for setting aside some time for yourself in the midst of it all.

Lists and diaries are great, Tayto - I live by mine, and am trying to get DS into the habit. Yes, there are a lot of medical appointments, and I can't see that changing. At my parents' very advanced ages, it's about managing what used to be referred to in the NHS when I worked there in the nineties as 'crumble'. My DSIL is a star, and we divvy up a lot between us but her children are younger, and I'm an empty nester, so it's fair that I'm more on hand.

Just paid off a small debt - £289. Had to dig into savings to do so, but will now divert the monthly payments for the debt into the savings, so will make it back up soon. I'm thinking of it as an impulse buy! Down to 2 outstanding debts now, both credit cards at 0%, ending in February and April 24.

Evening everyone 😊
Been busy with visiting Mum , ferrying DH to the Drs and Opticians and sorting out the kitchen cupboards at Mums house & getting her shopping & sorting her wardrobe at the home.
DH had to go to the Opticians as an emergency last Weds , he could see odd blobs in his eye .
Took him to the Opticians and they did their tests and put the drops in the eye and they scanned him they could only see a huge floater though . Gave him his new glasses prescription and we came from there . His Mum had Macular degeneration and he is really worried he is going to get this . Anyway he kept on about his eye being abnormal so l took him back to the Opticians on Sat and they said it was all ok just a floater . They rang us then at 6pm on Saturday Eve telling us he had a leaky blood vessel in his eye which they noticed on the new scan . Told us to go to the GP it could be he had Diabetes or high BP & needed tests. He Googled and thought he had a detached retina 🙄.
All Sat night he couldn't sleep had me up half 5 Sun morning frightened to death. He went Googling again didn't he , thought he had eye cancer nothing l could say to him would reassure him . Had me up Monday morning at 5am . Rang the Drs got him booked in, rang the Opticians and asked what was wrong , they repeated it was a leaky eye vessel and floater not eye cancer 🙄.
Anyway Dr told him he was fine he'd had bloods done the month before for his annual asthma check and l had monitored his B/P for that check . Which was fine . Anyway that reassured him for Monday , gets to today and here he is fretting again . So l said l'm not having this again from you & rang the Opticians again , fair dos to them they rang back and told him he's had a small bleed and he's got a huge floater and l think it's got through to him now but he's had me so l don't know what day of the week it is 🙄
Spends today Aldi £50
Morrisons £18
Been watching the cricket it's been thrilling 😁
Hope everyone is ok 😊

Oh dear mrs that sounds very stressful, I’m glad he could be persuaded it wasn’t too serious.
that’s a lot of parenting appointments big - also stressful.
Sounds like you are doing a great job haf, I’m sure it will be worth it but must be exhausting.
Gotta love some new stationery tayto!
life insurance is a pain time. We sorted ours years ago, I once tried to look at a cheaper deal and there basically wasn’t one - but I bet you are younger than me (I’m 50, DP is 60).
welcome back kessie sounds like an expensive but fun time.

I’ve just spend £156 on cabin bags for us all for the holiday, and a travel adapter. Also some sandals from Clark’s outlet, £25. I was going to return them as my friend also bought me a pair from a charity shop which are similar for £3. However they’re wedges and I love them - remind me of some I had in my 20s which I wore to death. I saw another pair I liked at m &s (orange!) which are £59 so I’ve been quite frugal really. I’ve painted my toenails to celebrate - I literally haven’t done that for years so not done the greatest job but nice to have a bit of colour! I’m not usually very groomed 😂
DD has last two exams tomorrow and Thurs. was looking at accommodation for her at the weekend and gulping at the sums. I think we may end up going for a whiz round to see what they’re like from the outside - she liked the ones in the centre of Manchester but from my memory that part is a bit grim.

Marthasmum I bought cabin luggage on our second last trip away & they still give me joy, bought a big case for this trip which probably won't get as much use.

Mrsmadevans bloody Dr Google, hopefully he'll calm down after all the reassurances.

€53 in Aldi on very little 4 x bags cat nuts, 14 tins of sardines, sweets for school tours, 1 pack of ready to wok noodles, 1 micro rice, a yogurt, tube of effervescent vitamins & portion of chips for work to celebrate our new addition to canteen an airfryer