Familiar Friends in Frugality(Feb 24>)

[Happierwithouthim]

Frugal Friends Facing Forward with Fortitude http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/costoff_living/4957140-frugal-friends-facing-forward-with-fortitude

New thread

[Chile1978]

Thanks @Happierwithouthim

Placemaking

Lots of spends. Will catch up a bit later

[2024Hackathon]

Sandy - my MIL was fortunate enough to get some bluetooth and very sophisticated hearing aids from the NHS. It seems ludicrous that access to this is such a lottery.

[Gensola]

Thanks @Happierwithouthim 💐

stuffed with pancakes 🥞

have given up alcohol and posh coffee shop coffees for lent, decided to start yesterday as I often get a coffee on way to work. Already saved £6.60 on coffees!

[Happierwithouthim]

I'm lucky I don't like coffee because I could see myself doing that too, the ritual of getting a coffee along the way.

I'd just one pancake, I ate a wrap with chicken & cheese for dinner & just was too full when I made pancakes.

€63.33 on entry to a half marathon now I just need to train for it, couch to 21k anyone

[Chile1978]

@Gensola yes I used to spend a minimum of £12 a day on coffee. It's easy to do. Now I will treat myself to the odd m&s ready made coffee drink or smoothie.

Anyway sergeant spend reporting for duty

£54 different garage for a second opinion. Have quoted the same problem for a bit cheaper but have added a new problem for a lot more 😲. Have decided to go to garage 1 but not fix problem until June to give us a bit of breathing room (will be £800 bill)

£50 food. All went totally off piste as I ended up getting noro late Sunday so oh went for a very hasty dash for easy meals and snacks and lucozade.

£9 work lunch - no excuse just still feeling ropey and got a few snacks for the team as off sick yesterday

£44 oh spending on meal out

[Chile1978]

@ rainbow ouch! Hope you find out what's wrong

@ sandy can you get any funding for them at all? Any hard of hearing or deaf charities?
And another vote for omelette

@ lifelong kenwood are great. Mine would be a not recommend- a thermomix. I have one thinking all the usual cheffy aspirations but to be honest I barely use it. It requires constant updating and having to pay a subscription was just a slap in the face given the cost of the machine in the first place. It also requires fairly fiddly cleaning.

@Happierwithouthim good luck for the spring clean! Nothing better 💪

[Nellieinthebarn]

£73 for the tyre. And had the others checked too, and they said they were fine, so I wasn't ripped off by a garage. Which was nice. Waited in the little waiting room and read my kindle instead of going to Morrison's cafe.

Resisted a burger king, a subway and kentucky fried chicken, I have to pass a little service station with all three to get home. Its called the route of temptation, especially as I have the taste of a toddler and love a mucky take away.

Frugally had a homemade ham and tomato sandwich for lunch. Frozen fish, h/m wedges and peas for dinner, followed by fruit and yogurt.

I've got an eye test booked on Friday, which I get for free. I hope I don't need new glasses, but I think I might do. Has anyone used Glasses Direct or similar? any recommendations?

[lifelongfrugaleer]

Thanks happier for the new Fred

noted re thermo mix. That’s naughty of them I think. I’m going to a big shopping centre tomorrow I shall investigate Lakeland

ooofff big car bill 😭

sounds like a good tyre place.

I’m too tight to buy drinks out exc yesterday with dd as we had to wait between appointments and she needed lunch

[Chile1978]

@lifelongfrugaleer I'd also tried the lakeland knock off of the thermomix but ended up returning it as it leaked - can't remember what it was called but it was around £400ish. I actually waited to buy the thermomix for around 5years I think but it just hasn't lived up to my expectations. Hope you find something. If I was choosing again I think I would go kenwood processor and kitchenaid stand mixer.

@Nellieinthebarn glassesdirect are good. You need your prescription and then enter in your details and away you go. They'll send out 5frames at a time to try for free so you can see what suits.

[BigSkies2022]

Morning all. Like the sound of a spring clean, Happier. I have ample jobs on the list already, and am still waiting for the bathroom fitter to get in touch with an estimate and date to begin work. He promises an email this week.

Took DParents shopping for a riser and recliner chair on Monday with DB. It would make a big difference to my dad's daily comfort, but they are not beautiful items, and I can see my mother hates the idea. But I think she will come round. It means money, and decisions, and changing existing furniture. Next step, visiting with frog tape and tape measure to lay out potential floorplans, and the lap top to show them possible furniture and upholstery options.

I suddenly find I have hospital appointments myself. Rheumatology, opthalmology, this month and next. I need a dermatologist and possibly an audiologist. And a dentist. I am used to taking my parents to their appointments, and I still chase stuff on behalf of DS. Doing it for myself as well is rubbish!

Forgot Shrove Tuesday and Valentine's Day. But we have our trip away to Yorkshire starting Saturday, so that's celebration taken care of, methinks.

Frugal food shopping this week, keeping budget for week away.

[Girliefriendlikespuppies]

Signing in, thanks for the new thread.

Ystd did an Aldi shop £75 which is quite good for me these days! Filled car with fuel £50.

I've got about £50 to last me until the end of the month which isn't great 😕 we've enough food and fuel though so just need to be careful.

[2024Hackathon]

Chile - Mine would be a not recommend- a thermomix. I have one thinking all the usual cheffy aspirations but to be honest I barely use it. It requires constant updating and having to pay a subscription

I wanted a Thermomix for decades. But the last few version have been so complex that they seem to keep going awry and I would resent paying a subscription. I've resigned myself to never owning one unless I happen upon a earlier design, without scales or programming.

Offhand, I can't think if it's the Lakeland dupe I've got or the Aldi one. It's surprisingly decent. Falling to bits (Thermomix stopped them both from keeping the line) but still reasonable and it has specific uses for me.

Had my first couple of classes on the Peloton. I'm enjoying it but worried that I still don't have my shoes. I'm borrowing my DH's which isn't satisfactory.

I need an eye-test and almost definitely a new prescription. So that's a piece of spending that I shouldn't delay.

[ememem84]

Thanks @Happierwithouthim

big spend today. DH bought the new car. So ££££££

my anxiety is through the roof at the moment.

my house is so busy and noisy. The last few days I’ve literally dreaded coming home. Because the kids don’t stop. Ds is in bed now kicking the wall. Dd keeps shouting out silly things. DH is watching tv loudly downstairs and I’m in bed. Trying to chill. But nope.

I think it’s partly hormonal. But man. It’s shit.

anyway. One more day of work then I get a day off with the dc. not sure what we’re going to do yet but will do something.

desperately want to talk to dsis. But she got back from her trip today and she takes valentines very seriously 🤣

[ememem84]

@2024Hackathon Oooh I want a peloton. But not sure if I’d use it.

DH has bought a turbo trainer for his bike. He told me that you can just get peloton subscription and then can use on any static bike. So might look into that.

[2024Hackathon]

@ememem84

@2024Hackathon Oooh I want a peloton. But not sure if I’d use it.

DH has bought a turbo trainer for his bike. He told me that you can just get peloton subscription and then can use on any static bike. So might look into that.

That's true, about the subscription to the app + a non-Peloton bike, a number of people do that.

I wanted to make everything as straightforward as possible which is why it's a Peloton (trial only at present). And, the interest free deal on the bike + the app would still be cheaper than a gym membership for one of us.

[Chile1978]

Just a fly by night check in

Nearly at £40 in my round ups pot - going to use it to help pay acc2

Spends
£4 parking

[Happierwithouthim]

@ememem84 you've got to tell us which car?
Yesterday was a NSD
We had candlelit dinner for Valentines at mine, I lit the candle in jest really. Dinner was a three fish roast from Lidl with broccolli and crinkle cut chips, I lit a fire to relax in front of but ds hogged the sitting room on his ps4 so we just lay on the bed chatting, I was tired, yawning all the time, so I think it might be TOM time.

[Chile1978]

@BigSkies2022 is ds of an age now to start doing it himself? I think he's a young adult? Maybe it's time for him to face the grown up music 🤣!

@Girliefriendlikespuppies fingers crossed you can squeak through. 14 days to go!

@ememem84 new car 🚗 vroom! Sorry your anxiety is high

@2024Hackathon it was really disappointing to be honest. I'd heard so many good things but I think it's utter cheek to charge a subscription. Fine if paying then entitles you to updates -new recipes etc. Anyway maybe I'll put it on the worktop to encourage myself to use it more.

Lovely day off today 😍 going to the theatre to see a show with the girls. Will pack snacks.
Need to rein in food shopping to keep us to budget, and have a think about some free weekend activities.

[BigSkies2022]

I am impressed by the Peloton/racing biker folk here. I used to enjoy (in a masochistic sort of way) spin classes in my gym-going days, and it is the one thing that could tempt me back into a gym, were I ever minded to start paying a sub to exercise again. Yesterday I walked 10k, brisk, with hills, and my hip/sacro-iliac joint and right leg held up - no pain, no limping, no nasty after effects in knee and foot. I am cured! I'm putting it down to 4 years of near-daily ballet barre and PIlates-type floor work having built stability through all the little muscles that protect joints. We'll see how I go in Yorkshire, but I'm hoping to be able to go to the rheumatology appointment in March with a triumphant report of pain-free movement.

The van Tulleken brothers have got another Thorough Investigation series on BBC Sounds - this one on exercise.

I have now lined up a dental appointment, and a GP appointment to check out my derm query. I am feeling quite smug about being on top of my healthcare! As for DS' appointments - well, yes, Chile, at 22 he absolutely is capable of sorting this stuff out. But what 22 year old male with university deadlines, a part-time job, a busy social life, a girlfriend, a career to get off the ground and absorbing hobbies is going to prioritise booking a dental appointment without his mother prodding him to do so during the vacations at home?

Em - hope the day off with children helps anxiety subside. Would a yoga workout on the floor of your bedroom in the evening, and leave them to get on with it help? (loud TV would drive me mad - my first DH had hearing problems, and I got him headphones so he could use the TV at the volume he needed without disturbing me)

[ememem84]

We went for the Kia in the end. DH got £3500 off as a government grant for electric cars. Then £1500 trade in for ours.

tomorrow we are going for a stompy walk in the woods then beach cafe for chips. Then home. Then bowling with dsis in the evening. Pribably
more chips.

[ShortFatShambolicHouseElf]

Well, the bank has charged us interest for the overdraft by them allowing a fraudulent payment to go through. Sometimes I get so sick of admin etc.

[2024Hackathon]

@ShortFatShambolicHouseElf

Well, the bank has charged us interest for the overdraft by them allowing a fraudulent payment to go through. Sometimes I get so sick of admin etc.

😮I hope that they remove that once they acknowledge the root cause of that overdraft was their action.

I recognise the hassle involved in this for you.

[Timetoswitch]

Thank you for the new thread ⭐️

Had a spendy weekend eating out as we were away, then food shop on the return.

Paid for kids club at the cinema tomorrow using Tesco vouchers… expect the DC will then get a McDs out of me.

Wer’re then going to have lunch out on Sunday as we’re dropping the DC off at an activity. We could take a frugal packed lunch, but it will be nice to have a meal out without the DC.

The next few weeks we must not eat out!

That sounds very frustrating with the bank and the overdraft charge. Urgh.

[Happierwithouthim]

Time eating out is about way more than the food, it's the break from prepping cooking cleaning washing up, the joy of choosing from a menu, the experience.

€100 deposit on cat cage.
€5 lunch
€25 eyebrows

I see takeaway in our future
I'd a long nap after work today & I've an hour of zoom at 7pm

[Gensola]

So I got the 🇺🇸 job! 🤩 we are waiting for the full offer to come through but as long as it’s decent I will take it.
DH had our house valued today and we will put it on the market as soon as I’ve signed a contract. Fantasising about writing a resignation letter 😂 but probably won’t write the dramatic ones I have imagined…

@Happierwithouthim that’s a lot for eyebrows, do you get the HD brows?

@ShortFatShambolicHouseElf that would enrage me!! I hope they refund you!