February faffing, wig mischieving, pancake stuffing, bargain gymnastics and looking forward to Spring Shenanigans ❤️

[DirtyGertiefromno30]

Welcome to our new thread everyone 🤗. All are welcome to our supportive, kind , frugal thread .

This is the new thread as promised. l hope you like the title 🤗 ❤️

Thanks for the new thread! Just marking my place.

Love the name!! Thanks for the new thread!

Def pancake stuffing!! Xx

Thanks @DirtyGertiefromno30 love the title.

life positive it's not cancer, boo for chemo but it will help. Sorry you are going through all this.

@FurForksSake (think it was you) I love our cleaners. If I can't pay them when I'm retired, well I'll make the money somehow! And it does make me sort out the house every two weeks - wash the bedding, hoover the fireplace and other certain jobs. I work in tandem with them.

Having a really long week, it's been past 9 or 10 when I've had a chance to sit down. Tomorrow I finish at 2pm, eyebrow tint booked, then out with friends. First social event of the year other than DS birthday last month.

Spends this week have been really low as it's been a treadmill of work, eat sleep repeat, although today DD asked for some training gear for her hobby and I had noticed they were getting small. So that was £59 Amazon.
Also £7.90 cafe tonight. Didn't finish work in time to have tea at home so got chips and maltesers instead
£14.73 Aldi

Can't fault the chips and Malteasers combo that's my kind of tea @Lockin26 😁.
Have a great time with your friends 😊

Great title. Thanks dirty

Just place marking, thank you for the new thread.

Spending very minimal anyway, we are all full of cold so I’ve cancelled our visitors tonight, we will have frozen pizza with extra veggies tonight instead.

Totally fed up with the weather - when will it stop raining?

Ps - I’ve found my original login!!

Just keeping us on our toes aren’t you need
hope the cold shifts soon x

Not been near the shops for a few days as the weather is so depressing that I can't be bothered to go out - but that's a good thing because I get NSDs but will be forced out at some point as most of Xmas food is gone and we are somewhat lacking in choice of food to eat 'cos there isn't much about. Shouldn't complain because January was really low spend for food.
We have been Postcode Lottery winners twice - so are now proud owners of two travel coffee mugs and £15 each which I've chucked into savings. I have just remembered, I came home from work last night and DH's monitor had gone kaput so I did place an Amazon order for £179 but DH's Xmas vouchers have softened the blow by £40 the rest can come out of savings when the CC shouts for payment. So being trapped indoors is no guarantee that I won't spend money - obviously. 😱

Happy Friday all.
Ooohhhh chips and malteasers. Delicious.

Oh no @needastrongone you have the cold too. :( get better soon. DD and OH have yet to catch it but mum and I are still suffering.

NSD today. Nationwide gave me the £175 bonus so I moved the £1k back into savings. Boss spoke to me at work and gave me my bonus and pay rise information. Any extra money I get will go towards credit card debt at the mo so all gratefully received.

Tonight is homemade pizza, mozzarella and tomato and the return of Gogglebox.
And a slow weekend planned too. A bit of DIY but I have all the stuff I need. And I may use my garden centre vouchers to buy some new plants for my hanging baskets. Hoping two NSDs.

@Rainbow1901This weather is so draining but at least it’s given you some NSDs and January being a low food spend definitely helps offset the empty cupboards now 😊
Shame about the monitor though 😱 however £40 off a good price one is a great result 👏
Happy Friday indeed @Frugal25😊
Ugh, rotten that the cold is still hanging on for you and your Mum . Fingers crossed DD and OH manage to dodge it 🤞
Well done on the NSD and nice win with the £175 bonus 👏 And congratulations on the bonus and pay rise yay! 😁 Pizza sounds perfect, especially with mozzarella and tomato 😍 and Gogglebox is such a treat. A slow weekend with a bit of DIY and garden centre vouchers sounds blissful too🤗.
Aw@needastrongone glad you got your original name back and hope your cold gets better very quickly 🤗💐
So glad you like the title @lifelongfrugaleer ❤️
Bought an Alien gift set for Dd2 for her birthday in August .
Yes l know it's not till August but she asked me for it as it's the lowest price anywhere, £61 delivered.
Otherwise a NSD 🤗

Hello all and thanks for new thread, Gert. I didn’t get the pancakes reference until it dawned on me, aha! Shrove Tuesday. Not really mad on pancakes, be they skinny crepes, bouncy American style or those dense floury Japanese ones. So I generally give them a miss (I prefer cake as a means of using up eggs, fats and sugar, so I might do that instead).

£12 in Sainsbury’s, leaving £52 in the groceries kitty for the next three days. Should be fine. Reset on Tuesday. Bought chicken breasts mostly. DH looking a bit stressed and peaky, needs a period of healthy living to get him back on track. Protein and lots of vegetables a good start, so that’s what we had at lunch. Vietnamese style salad with sirloin steak tonight. DDog in heaven with this regime!

Dad has to go back to the plastics clinic on Monday as his face still a bit manky and not healing. Thankfully, DBrother will be able to be with him and bring him home.

Oh - £19 on tickets for exhibition next week with DMum- a rare meeting which is not organised around health care requirements! With luck, no-one will cry or fall over, and we’ll just feel like normal people, looking at paintings.

Spent £3.30 today in Sainsbury on milk and giant wotsits. Now that I have the Waitrose gift card I don’t seem to be going there.

Thank you for the new thread @DirtyGertiefromno30. Happy frugalling to all.

Sorry you’re under the weather @needastrongoneagain. Hope you’re on the mend soon.

Well done on the bonus and pay rise @Frugal25. And enjoy your slow weekend.

Have a fab time with your mum looking at paintings @BigSkies2022. It’s a fabulous way to pass the time. Are you tempted by The Samurai at the BM? Hope your father is OK.

Had a rather unpleasant message from a friend (hmmmm) yesterday so that kept me awake. Looking forward to the weekend and will be joining frugal with a slow one. Planning on watching the opening ceremony this evening but not sure I’ll manage to stay awake.

How could anyone, let alone a friend be unpleasant to you @RumBananaSundae? You are such a wonderful person and so lovely. Ignore. Delete and talk to us instead. We love you.
Enjoy the slow evening with the giant wotsits. How amazing are they?! Nom. Xxx

Cake is just as good @BigSkies2022and probably even better. That being said, I'll eat your quota of pancakes for you!
Enjoy your steak tonight and sorry to hear about your lovely dad. Glad DB is taking him to share it out xxx

Just checking in.

Giant Wotsits obviously count as essential in my book @RumBananaSundae😋
Sorry to hear about the unpleasant message from your “friend”. That sort of thing really does stick in your head when you’re trying to switch off for the night, bless you 🤗
I agree with @Frugal25 how dare they ! We all love you here, so they can do one 🙄
A lovely , slow, quiet , calm weekend will help reset things for you a bit. Sometimes a bit of telly and an early night is exactly what’s needed.
Hope you enjoy the opening ceremony if you manage to stay awake for it. We have been watching the team ice dancing on IPlayer it is fantastic 😍.
The Samurai exhibition at the British Museum is meant to be fascinating according to the reviews l hope you get to go 😁
Take care of yourself and don’t let that message take up any more headspace than it deserves 💛

£12 in Sainsbury’s is a good result, especially with chicken breasts @BigSkies2022. Vietnamese steak salad tonight sounds lovely, and a healthy reset should do DH good, no surprise DDog is delighted 😁
Sorry your Dad’s face is still manky but good that your DBrother can be with him on Monday and get him home.
The exhibition with DMum sounds really nice , hopefully it's a rare, normal outing with no health dramas and l hope you both have a great time 🤗

It’s dh’s birthday in a few weeks, his mum is very poorly and may not be with us next year. We are yet to hear anything from oncology as she needs another procedure before they’ll even think about all the cancer testing.

Anyway, we are going to host a dinner for 12, just immediate family. We are going to order a really massive Indian takeaway.

Do you think it’s worth me cooking the rice and going to the Asian supermarket to see if they sell poppadoms and chutney in big packs? I always think those bits really push the price up and aren’t much different from cooking it at home. I’ve got an insta pot which I think has a rice setting on it.

I’d cook the rice myself if I had the capacity. Rice can also be done in the oven in a big oven tray if the instathingy is too small.

Work was mad most of the day, I just squeaked in with an end-of-day deadline - mucho stress - and then I went straight out to the theatre. Friend got free tickets to see ‘I’m sorry, Prime Minister’ (new west end play, sequel to Yes, Prime Minister) from someone who couldn’t make it. Cheap seats up in the gods. But when we got there we were offered to upgrade to the best seats in the house - middle of the stalls - for £15 each. Some tickets had apparently been returned by agents as the play hasn’t even had its press night yet so not all tickets were real sales. So we did it and it was great! Funny, small but brilliant cast, and just really good escapism. Total spends £15 plus tube (not sure off peak - maybe £8ish). It gave me a lift, just what I needed.

I’ve come home and DH has emptied the kitchen bin but there is still a terrible smell. I think it may be the cellophane seal from some prawns I had int eh week (I washed the tray out but probably didn’t wash the peel-off film, won’t make that mistake again). It is truly terrible, I am cursing my ‘gift’ of a bloodhound’s nose (tbf, this is often a curse in London).

I had lunch at 2.45pm because of work, then didn’t want dinner at 5 before heading to the theatre, but am now starving. I can’t eat this late though or I get horrible heartburn, so I must go to bed before I chew my own arm off and just hang on till morning.

Ocado delivery - too much to confess 😳. Actually embarrassing.

Oh, a bloke came round to install a water meter today. I am pretty sure this is going to be a disaster.

Had name changed before I read all your comments re the weather😀

the play sounds lovely arm. Well worth the upgrade
i to have a bloodhound nose so feel your pain there

not really a friend there rum. Sorry they were not nice. I would not grace with a reply tbh

i would con the rice and get the sides too

nsd yesterday. Might have a cafe run today with DH

@Rainbow1901 good news on the Postcode Lottery. We got a £5 Morrisons voucher last week but I have had a really decent lunch box and a hairdresser over the last year 😊

@BigSkies2022 good your DB can support your DDad with that and enjoy the exhibition with DM next week. I know what you mean about hoping for a incident free outing!

@needastrongone you found your old user name.

@ArmDimples nice upgrade and escapism in a show sounds perfect!

Lol @Rainraingotospain your username is very apt! I'm hoping we will blink and spring will be here!

Agree @RumBananaSundae ignore and I hope you got more sleep last night, not worth losing sleep for.

Exhausting few days, problems at work then last night out with old work friends, work politics spilled over and spoiled the night with two people who are clearly clashing in my old team. Urgh. But I'm off to the gym for two classes and then some time in the hotel bar reading my book. Saturday morning is protected time!

Yesterday was Lidl £10.31
Meal out £19.65