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

Oh and £20 on a replacement suitcase (there is 20% off on the ebay app using APP20).

Nellie - nothing but empathy. Even with insurance, it's rare that I don't need to spend £1000 a year on dentistry (all essential, none of it's aesthetic, sadly).

lifelongfrugaleer - as you and Chile say, it's rarely worth the risk of changing trades.

DH's 7% account paid out finally so we've shifted that into savings. Mine will mature in June. So, having depleted our account into ISAs, we'll be able to restore about £7.5K of it which will help to bring down our mortgage payment again.

I rarely spend money. It's maintaining that habit, resisting temptation, but also looking for enjoyable opportunities that don't turn this into a joyless endurance trial rather than a life that has its compensations and bright moments.

That said, it looks like we need to buy a fan to help us all use the Peloton as the weather gets warmer. We're all "glowing and flowing" as it is (as one of the instructors phrases it) and it's only April. The house is a solar oven during late Spring and Summer and if we aren't going to be heavily restricted as to when we can use it, we need the fan. There's a special offer on the one that we want so we'll probably place the order tomorrow. I must admit that when I was costing up the Peloton earlier this year, I hadn't considered extras like this. We're still just about breaking even relative to the cost of DH's membership, and it gives me access (unlike previously) but it does mean that I have to be cautious about trying classes that might involve buying more equipment (e.g., yoga blocks and straps; DH wants some dumbbells, I quite fancy a T Row platform).

Nellie, wow, that is a whopper of a bill. So sorry. I have a feeling I need a root canal this year and I'm not looking forward to it - financially or otherwise.

After the Easter trip, I haven't spent too much. Coffee for £3.30 on Friday since I hadn't had a decent coffee in ages, then spent nothing on Saturday.
Sunday I met a friend for quick coffee and pastry which was lovely - £7.10. We also took dc for a little local funfair to celebrate the last day of Easter holidays. I got a baguette from the bakery (£2.50) and we made tuna sandwiches. The wristband for dc, entrance fees and few extra tokens came up to £19.99. We were also a little crafty- I didn't want to pay £4 for an ice cream at the fair so we walked to a nearby McDonalds and got McFlurries for all for £4.70. DC rummaged around a local charity shop and found 2 new books at £1 each (I rarely say no to books). DH also got a book, but that's from his personal budget. Not too bad fa day out and we all had fun

Expecting a nsd today.

Bathroom fitters are here! Old stuff being ripped out as we speak. Lots of money on the project (reckon it will be around £13k all in) but necessary, and saved for. Savings also being spent on garden furniture (Fermob, have lusted over it for 15 years, finally taken the plunge), and dermatology treatment (NHS won't provide, as it's considered cosmetic, and I want my itchy, scaly, warty patches gone - I sound the catch, don't I?)

Blustery downpours interspersed with windy sunshine here. I need this migraine to clear, and then I can get out and do a bit of food shopping - feel the need for a week of lean protein and leafy veg. Made a delicious mango and lime dressing yesterday which is calling for salad dishes.

Dropped DS off at Battersea Power Station tube on Saturday - he's on his way back north via GF's house in north London - and then went with DH and Ddog to Battersea Park. Lovely outing. It's so international, that park, you really feel London as a global city when there. Had a mooch around the shopping/hospitality/riverside park redevelopment of the old power station as well, and loved that too. Must have been the sunshine scattering a good mood over everything.

Other finances: have submitted tax return. Tasks for this week:
set up new payment plan for tax bill
open Vanguard S&S ISA and set up monthly DD
Adjust Wealthify S&S ISA DD

£160 left in guilt-free spending pot for the month after topping up hair and skin care supplies. Want to use £64 on a haircut, so pondering whether to spend the remainder on a pair of Adidas Sambas. My current trainers are squashing my unfortunate second toes (longer than my first - a family heirloom which poor DS has also inherited). I don't need trainers for running, but I do want to be able to walk a lot in them.

Hello! Dropped off again. Been busy as the bee.

DH is away now for the week. Hoorah so am solo parenting. Fun. Kiddos back to school tomorrow thank goodness.

dm fed us all tonight. She’s had the kids today so I can work. Legend. Come home. Done bins. Made lunch (me) made snack boxes for school
tomorrow (kids on hot lunch hoorah). Thrown washing in
machine and set timer. Emptied and restocked dishwasher. Halfarsed and put some laundry away. Hung some new pictures (important)

I tend to wait u fil DH goes away to hang pictures. Then see how long he takes to notice them. 🤣

@ememem84 I put a little ceramic plate up in lockdown in 2020 and DH has still not noticed

@2024Hackathon & @Nellieinthebarn sympathies re the dentist

@2024Hackathon sounds like you've made a good start to the new tax year. I hope the conversations become easier

@Pigtailsandall what a lovely Easter 🐣 mcflurries are yummiest anyway!

@BigSkies2022 it's amazing how much that area has changed. I'm hoping at some point they'll open the sky pool up to the paying public.

I never seem to quite manage a NSD

Spends
£30 house stuff and storage. We seem to have lost our picnic set. Wondering if dd2 helpfully put it in the bin at some point or has hidden it in the garden.
(Feeling like a good clear out is due. Hate hate hate 'looking for' items.)

It was indeed bliss Chile. Made even better with a box of cherry biscuits. Thank you for mentioning suitcases. You've reminded me I need luggage for the summer. Might try TK Maxx. I never seem to manage a no spend day either.

How are the bathrooms coming along Big? Did you go up in the glass lift at Battersea?

The last of my spending in France was about 55€ including the mugs I liked. I'm not sure how much I spent while I was away. I've come back with cash and I only used my card twice for a total of around 65€. I definitely spent less than I had planned for so that's good. Will roll it over for the summer.

Today so far I have spent £1 on some hand soap, £5.99 on posting a package and paid £95 off on the credit card. I will go out later so might spend a bit more as I would like to get a birthday card for my friend (though it needs to arrive in Europe by Friday and I have no stamps) and something to drink in one of my new mugs.

Taking work easy today. Hoping no one wants me to make decisions as its turned into an anything goes day. Think Paris was a good thing so am riding that wave for now. Dinner is out the freezer so good to go there too.

@Chile1978 - I am not sure if I had paid £1.2m for a 60m apartment in Embassy Gardens, plus the mahoosive service charges, I would want to be moving my sun-lounger over to make room for day-visiting plebs like me in my Cos sliders and H&M sunnies! I do know of someone who has got a flat there though - it's a distant friend of a distant friend situation, so sadly, won't be translating into an invite to swim any day soon.

Welcome back Rum very glad you had a good time. Our Loire trip is end of June. Have been looking up wine tours on Viatours, but finding one that accepts non-service dogs is tricky. The bathroom (singular, thankfully) is on day 2, so still very much at the drilling, dust-generating, floorboard-removal stage.

€50.43 in dunnes
€13 bark n bubbles washing ddog
€3.50 ds pocket money spends

Hahahahaha!!!

yeaterday was a bit soendy. £170 M&S on bras and some silver trainers. And £80
next. Some stuff for me and new swimmers for the kids.

all the bras are going back because in the new day I don’t like them. The swimmers are going back too because the kids are ungrateful shits. They have played me up big time today. So no new shit for them.

osteo Yesterday £81. But claimed it back on my insurance.

today the dc had swimming after school. Ds refused to get in the pool because he didn’t have his goggles. They had spares for lessons. He could have borrowed dds. But no. He refused. So I took him home. His lesson was after dds. He then got ahitty with me for not letting him swim. Called me an idiot.

thank god DH is back soon.

Em your post could be about my ds as he'd do exactly the same thing. He's currently getting lessons with the school and not impressed because he just wants to swim not do structured lessons, whereas I want to find out from instructor if he's a capable swimmer or not! He has never participated in proper lessons, note that I say participated, not that he hasn't been booked in and attended lessons. He can make his way up and down the pool though.

@Happierwithouthim this morning was eventful too. dh is now back from his work trip. and got up with the kiddos at 6am to do breakfast and general horsing abut. he was booked onto a pilates class at 8 am and then heading int o the office from there leaving me to do the school run (find no worries aout this).

dd had other ideas. the minute dh left she started screaming about how she just wanted daddy. i ignore it, went to have a shower. she tried to break the door down (bear in mind she's 4). then refused to get dressed. i ended up dressing her at 830 and marching her to school. she refused to put shoes and socks on and kicked me in the face once. so she went barefoot (shoes and socks in her book bag). deposited her to school still kicking and screaming.

who was it that said the first 18 years are the worst??

took the bras and swim stuff back yesterday. then spent £168 on my hair. refresh of highlights, pink/purple toner over the top, blow dry (no cut as went three weeks ago for a pre sisters wedding cut). so i now have lovely ashy pink hair which will fade out beautifully. I typically get my hair done once or twice a year. my sis balked at the cost of the appointment but i pointed out that she goes every 8 weeks because she has superb short hair, and pays around £50 a time. so we're actually spending roughly the same.

wfh home today and i'm so cold! i'm sat at my desk, with a hot water bottle, and a blanket and have the heater on next to me. HWB is also helping the awful period cramps i'm getting this time (sucks! this never usually happens - but i am of the age when things start to change....apparently!) sad face....

also dh still hasn't noticed the new pictures on the wall.

I've had a fairly low-spend week, but I did get DH some socks at £12.99 and DC some black shorts for school (anticipating warmer weather...), 2 pairs, £7.98. I also got myself a pair of shorts, £9.99 which is terrible because although I have been on the lookout for shorts, I got them MAINLY so I'd get free delivery. Guess I can return them if they are terrible. Shorts are so hit and miss.

We've revamped DC room a little. I'd ordered a new bed and wardrobe back in Feb and they were finally delivered. We decided to do a little reading nook, and DC chose a fleece throw and a beanbag for the nook - those came to £36. The room was a bit babyish so happy to have a little update. I'd also like to get a new lamp and a few pictures for the walls.

I bought DC some sandals on Vinted but used my vinted balance, so that's neutral. Can you tell I'm looking forward to summer??

Other than that, my personal spending has been really low! I went to a gig this week but I'd paid for the tickets ages ago, so the only expense was £7 for a glass of wine, plus tube fares which were off-set by having to go to the office anyway. Lunch was £5 and otherwise have been to my local coffee shop twice to work in, so that's 2x£3.30. Not outstanding, not terrible. We are just slightly over our food budget this month (our month runs from our paydays, which is the 25th for both of us) so eating from the cupboards until next week with just a few topups of fruit and milk needed.

This weekend we've got a family birthday party so I do need a present for that.

Em it's entirely possible dh wouldn't spot if you painted the walls either, men are wired differently!

Oh wow your dd is high spirited, wonder where she got that from I've threatened to take ds naked to childminders when he's refused to get dressed, thankfully that phase is nearly over, he's 11 in Nov. So much for terrible twos and threes, they just have phases, the number of years is irrelevant

Dd is 14 tomorrow, yesterday I text her to put on a chicken, gave her clear instructions, she rings me, where's the chicken? apparently it look like garlic bread in the wrapper because there was parsley sprinkled on it Ds is a lot more capable but I wouldn't ask him to do tasks involving oven or lighting gas hob. She's definitely been spoilt by us having had a au pair and cleaner in the past.

Pigtails me too, excited about summer and even if summer doesn't come I've 4 nights in New York to look forward to, when using YNAB today I noticed I've over €100 in my clothing category so I'm starting to browse for light comfortable clothing for my time over there

€25 in a local shop/butchers yesterday on mainly meat
Today need to pay childminder, ds had a half day with her on Wed & was there after school today and yesterday approx €50 must find out how many hours he was there on Wed.

Must pick up some fizzy drinks for dd and her friends on sleepover tonight on the way home.

Doing a whiparound at work for a colleague whose husband has terminal cancer and amazed with the generosity of people.

Nothing exciting to report.

A bit of spending since Wednesday. £20 donation to a friend who is doing the marathon and £69 booking a podiatrist appointment for the end of June. Thursday and today have been no spend days.

Might look around town tomorrow. It was nice having clothes that fit so I might see what I can find in preparation for summer. Think I might have found new luggage. Not sure if I actually like it or if I’m relieved that I’ve found something that is soft. Couldn’t find anything with wheels so not looking forward to carrying it. Might look a little more as I’m also unsure about the size.

At the office twice this week. Have about £10 left on my travelcard. Not sure how I’ve managed to spend so much.

€65 to childminder
€26.55 on goodies for girls & small topup shop

Got a quote to add DD to my car insurance (I used an insurance broker). The cheapest quote is quite expensive. I told DD she'll have to mow the lawn all summer to make up for it . Anyway, we're good to go, once I pick up some L plates. I told her I'll bring her out on Sunday morning, but I'll bring her to an industrial estate, so she can practice stopping and starting and turning left and right and moving up the gears etc. A bit nerve wracking entrusting my car to her tender mercies and I don't want to take her out on the open road until I know what she's capable of.

I also phoned the alarm company about sending out an engineer to check the panels. I think one of the panels is faulty. They've to ring me back.

Work is very busy and there may be some overtime coming up.

Right, going to grab something to eat and I'll be back for a catch up.

Spent another fortune on food. No idea what we are eating. dc decided to help.

happy birthday happier dd

Tayto wow best of luck to you & dd with the driving practice.

Dd had friends over for a sleepover. I made bolognese on thurs eve so only had to reheat & cook linguine & garlic bread, while this was happening I cleared my countertops and my two drawers with lunchboxes & containers in them and scrubbed my sink.

They'd a lovely time and we had chocolate covered oreo balls instead of cake. Seriously rich, one is more than enough. 20 cost me €25.

Did a shop in local shop for jellies/minerals plus milk/eggs €26.55

This morning I went to tip with rubbish €10.50 and then to tesco for fairy liquid, sensodyne, bread & a banana €8.28. I'm currently at work but should be done by 11.

I think when I go home, I'll pull out the lawnmower and plant some seeds also, I bought the planter about 3 weeks ago, filled it with compost during the week so will get that done today. Floor of dogs house needs reinforcing too, so will get that done also.

There's a wash out and a wash on. I'm so much more productive when I'm working!

Em - years 14 to 18 have their own special qualities as well, although being kicked in the face would be unlikely. My SIL has been supervising GCSE revision for the last several weeks, and has fled home for a spa weekend

Getting to independent adulthood takes a long old time these days. Mine is 22, nearly 23, at university, works part-time and has done since 15, but I can't see him living truly independently for some years yet. A good friend of mine, a decade or so older, still has two of her adult children at home with her, even though they're working and earning steadily. Which means that she is a housekeeper to them because if, as people are always helpfully advising her, she left them to do their own shopping, cooking and washing, 'The house would turn into a student HMO, with smelly clothes everywhere, and the kitchen full of ready meal boxes and takeaway.' She wants things done her way, so she does them.

Here the bathroom is progressing well. Day 6 and all the tiling is done, looks epic, the lav is installed and the guys are going to leave everything ready for the decorators who come on Monday. Which means a big part of the crap will be gone and I can have a good clean through, while accepting that the decorators will generate more dust next week. But by this time next week I should have a new bathroom and a clean(er) house.

DH and I repointed the top patio this morning, had a bit of garden tidy up, took Ddog for a good run, went to the butcher (£29, should feed the 2 of us, plus Ddog, for 6 meals). I'm now on the sofa with Ddog and laptop, and waiting for the guys to finish so I can do a workout.

Had a busy morning. I was at the hairdresser for 9.30. Then I did a few errands locally (dropped off bottles at the bottle bank and dropped off books at the charity shop). Then I drove to the big town and stopped off at Halfords (for L plates), Woodies (for a toilet seat), Eason's (for cards), the butcher and finally Tesco.

I still have to drop off money for the grass cutting to my neighbour.

It's absolutely gorgeous out and feels like summer is finally here. There were a lot of people buying plants in Woodies and the butcher said he sold loads of burgers this morning. I'm contemplating a Magnum.

Still need to clean the kitchen. And hang up my washing. I got some beef stroganoff for dinner. Should be easy to cook and I just need to do a bit of rice with it.

DD is at her Dad's house but is due home at some stage today. She may or may not have the boyfriend with her.

Hope tomorrow goes well with your daughter Tayto. It’s surprisingly chilly here. I’ve had to take out a winter jacket.

Good news on the bathroom Big.

Spendy day today. Bought a new suitcase. I had forgotten it would need to fit walking poles. Ended up buying something bigger with wheels. It’s beautiful. Hoping it’s not too beautiful to use. Also bought a few groceries. The freezer eating has fallen by the wayside. Will try to stick to it as much as I can.

Spent this morning weighing things that I need to pack for the summer and trying to draft a list of things I still need to get.

Hope lesson 1 goes well tayto. We have this to come in the autumn
‘twas indeed lovely. I did some gardening. I think I can save a planter and just paint it. Will be a sod too empty but should be fine. Will bring the fence down that the neighbours keep putting off. Will force their hands on it though.

you can admire the suit case every time you wheel it about though.

mine often went to school nursery half dressed. Think the staff must get used to it em

sorry will do better at catching others news

walking gardening and farm today plus lots of washing out