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 .

Bit of spending since Friday. Met up with a friend for an exhibition and stopped for tea and a scone. Bought a bottle of wine for a gift. Saturday and today has been grocery spends on gift cards. I really should be more accountable with then. Have meal planned for this week so am hoping my hand stays in my pocket.

Shame about the CD player @Frugal25. Good work on the credit card. Hope the butterfly is making you smile.

Enjoy the Canaries @chimichangaz.

Wowzers at your TGTGs @DirtyGertiefromno30. That’s quite a catch. I’ve yet to see the hot bags here. Have to say every time I see a custard tart in the supermarket I think of you. Hope your mum is doing ok today.

Well done with the dishwasher @BigSkies2022 and glad you had a good night out.

Hope you’re doing as well as you can @NursieBernard.

Fingers crossed oncology comes through for you soon @lifelongfrugaleer.

Quiet weekend. I don’t know how they go so quickly. Got some life admin done but have a legal letter and a few other bits to go. Checked the weather for the week and can’t believe it’s forecast to be 19 on Wednesday.

Fingers crossed for an appointment very soon @lifelongfrugaleer. Are people looking after you? Sending hugs xx
Ooohhh you always do so well on your tgtg bags @DirtyGertiefromno30 and I'm sorry your mum was tearful but I bet after some time with you she was right as rain. You do well to go so often. No feeling guilty about not being there so often or too much. You are doing amazing xx
Oh I quite like the sound of that @needastrongone although I'm not very fit, the thought of someone who is fitter than me having an amazing holiday like that and it also having a longer effect on you after you come home with all the talks and information is so much nicer than coming home burnt and hungover.
Well done on meal planning @RumBananaSundae. Anything yummy I can steal for mine?!
Love a tea and scone. Delicious 😋
I didn't know it was going to be so nice Wednesday. Poop to being in the office for it. May have to take a long walk at lunchtime.

Thanks for your birthday wishes re DM. She's still living at home, absolutely doggedly determined to stay there! She has two care calls a day and lots of health needs including myeloma but seems happy enough. My DB also lives there but that causes more problems than solutions. We had a lovely time celebrating her birthday Dsis and I went half on a pizza / pasta delivery so that was £42.

Also £25 for car valet this morning - went for a walk while it was being done, weather nice and I was admiring the views after months in the grey clouds!

@NursieBernard hope you get a little down time this week and I'm sure your DPs will really appreciate your help. Must be so tough.

@needastrongoneagain that sounds like a great trip for a sporty runner!

@lifelongfrugaleer good to get out for a walk and hope the seizures can be resolved soon.

We have lots of sports on the TV here @DirtyGertiefromno30 I like doing sports but not watching, DH the opposite! He's at work tonight so I have the nice room with the log burner to myself! I fell asleep for an hour when we got in.

That does sound a productive day @Frugal25 I got a Ninja outdoor oven before Christmas - I might have a look to see if I can make bread in that.

Also sounds a productive day @BigSkies2022 and you are winning with the food and menu plan!

@RumBananaSundae sorry missed your last post but yes the weekends go too fast. I need to get the laptop out after my nap and get ready for the week ahead.

14° here Wednesday - 19° is surreal.

Need, that holiday does sound quite niche 😂. I last broke into a run for a nearly missed flight in 1999, but I’m sure you’ll have an amazing time!

94 is an amazing age to still be living independently Lockin.

I feel a bit better that a couple of you are spending £200 pw on food. That’s about my average, with the exception of large entertaining or mass bake sale cooking. I am trying not to waste food but am not otherwise being particularly frugal - we hardly ever go out so it’s our biggest indulgence. I sometimes spend a little more but there’s 4 of us, plus DM at least 2 days pw, and I have to cook a few different things for fussy asd kids and a fussy DH. This week’s shop was only £150 though as we are eating out of the freezer a bit - I sometimes batch cook so expenditure can be a bit lumpy week-to-week.

Well, I have survived half term. I hate Feb half term as it’s difficult to entertain my asd DS, who doesn’t like crowds, museums etc and is a lot happier roaming around a garden, castle ruin, having a picnic… you get the idea. I also can’t really take my two dc out without another adult and mostly haven’t had that opportunity so it’s been a loooong week.

Half term spends: bit of tube travel and also the cable car over the Thames - one of the weatherproof things DS likes. I had also booked tickets for the postal museum today, which has a small underground train ride and is supposed to be fun, but they emailed last night to say the train ride is broken and so we can move our tickets. Hopefully we’ll go in the Easter holidays (I have realised this half term is only 5 weeks long!). Instead I stayed home and did lots of filing, lol. Overall half term hasn’t cost much but it has been a bit underwhelming.

other spends: £7 on Amazon for some bits for a WBD costume, and a big spend of £172 for two tickets to see War Horse (I saw it in 2007 at the National and it was amazing, so now I am taking DD). Also £10 to take DD to a cafe for a fancy milkshake and coffee for me, a promise I had made weeks ago when I wouldn’t let her have one AND SHE NEVER FORGETS A PROMISE!

I have committed to YNAB once my trial runs out at the end of this month. I love it and it is really helping me to focus on organising my income more and on saving. Once I get it all straight and have ‘caught up’ on the annual budgets I have set for things like home insurance I will be able to see what I can save regularly. I need to build up some easy-access savings but might also see whether it is worth putting some into a private pension (I have a public sector one and it is pretty good, but won’t pay till I am 67 or even 68 if they raise the age). I might not be able to wait that long to retire so want to see whether I can make it work to retire a few years earlier.

I am not excited about going back to work tomorrow, I have a lot of crunchy deadlines and difficult office politics waiting for me. Sigh.

I keep trying to avoid sports gear made in china, but it's very difficult. I think that the stuff that I've bought from Matalan is made elsewhere. Also, my SweatyBetty (sale only) leggings.

I'm not athletic - just going to the gym and trying to stay mobile in my old age.

ETA Bit of a non sequitur - I obviously missed a page.

Just paid £200+ for each child's childcare. Youngest monthly and eldest termly

I think that trip sounds fab need. Ages ago I’ve done fitness weekends but they are too far away for logistics now

there has been a resurgence for CDs & cubits amongst teens. Good luck finding a player

we spends £150 to £200 a week in food. 4 adults

i ordered some bits for the garden inc an obesisk for my honeysuckle £25

Yes family and friends are looking after me. I’m fed up though.
the average waiting 3 weeks. Mine went in on 28jan. I get I’m low priority for oncology but they did say I’d be seen by end of Feb. That leaves tomorrow &wed for clinic dates

Life, I am sorry to hear about your wait for treatment for what plainly isn’t resolved. And I am once again bewildered by priorities- I will be sitting in on my dad’s follow up consultation tomorrow, 4 weeks after his surgery. I bet he will be offered more treatment and fast if the histology suggests his lesion is melanoma. He’s 94. I don’t know how much more quality life years they believe he has in him, but surely there should be some better triaging of resources towards younger people? Is that just ageism on my part? I know that we shouldn’t think of health care as a zero-sum competition for resources, but in a limited system, it can’t help but be so. My parents have been beating off healthcare professionals with a stick the last few years,
whereas my niece has been waiting for over a year for a consultation on possible scoliosis and my SIL pays for gynae scans as the NHS won’t provide them despite her medical history.

I hope you get your follow up soon.

Thanks big. I think it’s because it’s benign I’m a lower priority but yes I worked love a peek at the Decision making framework.

It all seems so confused by itself, the health care system. It makes bizarre choices by some algorithm that doesn't make sense at all. So sorry life, I'm glad your family are looking after to you but I get it's frustrating. I hope they call you with a last minute appointment....

£29 in superdrug on body lotion, scrub, make up remover and face oil. I've run out of all and it was half price on the second product so got £5 off.
I've been looking forward to buying these products, I buy their own brand vitamins e. I love using them and buying them feels like a treat.

Had a difficult meeting at work before lunch so it was my treat to myself that it's over. Just the rest of the day to get through now.

Should have any more spends today.

Well that's a great big no thank you from me 😆 the bed at 10pm I would happily do!
My chest infection is a lot better than it was. The noises I am making at the moment confirms my husband must really love me to not run a mile 😆.

After my recent experience with my DF, in particular the partial hip replacement he had just a few weeks before he died, when he was immobile, doubly incontinent, deaf and virtually blind - then I very much and wholeheartedly agree with you @BigSkies2022, and have made it unequivocally clear to my own family what I consider quality of life to be, should that decision arise. Not that I have any answers to that specific situation or the system in general but no party of any colour has the balls or finances to grapple such systemic and difficult issues in any event and so it will limp on.

You’ve all made me smile with your bewildered reactions to my enthusiasm for a week of running A Very Lot!

Hope the meeting was okay @Frugal25

@ArmDimples and everyone that chatted about food budgets - another one with a monthly high outlay on food. 4 adults, all meals eaten at home and like many on here - very few meals out. The lack of social eating and how much I value quality food, and the lucky fact that we can afford such luxury makes me at ease with that decision. I’m very much admire some of you guys that cook so well with a lower budget.

@WearyAuldWumman I am generally the type that will slop about in very casual clothes or post dog walking attire, but spend insane amounts of money on running kit and shoes. I look Smokin’ when I’m trotting around the mean streets of Yorkshire 🤣

NSD.

Made a lovely carrot, ginger, garlic, butter bean and coconut soup for lunch as a friend was visiting, from the Deliciously Ella app. Tomato pasta for tea.

Just back from dropping DDog off at the farm boarding kennels. Oh dear. There was a lot of howling. I might be going back a day early. But it’s either this or accept we will never have a dog -free break away again, and I am not willing to accept that!

Afternoon everyone 😊
Aw thank you@Frugal25 Mum was fine there today thankfully.
I agree with everything everyone is saying about elderly people being treated aggressively for their cancers and other illness . My own Mum is now off all aggressive treatment for her breast cancer because the drugs were giving her dreadful pain in her joints. It's all about Quality of life not quantity as far as we are concerned. The breast cancer consultant told us that Mum would die with breast cancer not because of it .
NSD for me today 😊

@needastrongone 💐❤️
@BigSkies2022 hope your DDog settles bless ❤️

Glad to hear your fam and friends are caring for you 💐
NHS needs to shift themselves

@ArmDimples honestly if l fed my lot more beige food it would be half what l spend now but they eat a lot of fruit and veg and it's just so expensive. Especially if you buy the nicer fruit and not the wonky ones from Aldi . Dont get me wrong there is nothing wrong with buying that is that's all you can afford and l applaud anyone for doing that for her family ti be able to eat fruit but my lot are blinking spoilt 😂

We like watching all Sports here too @Lockin26😊
I get fed up when that is all we blinking watch though but it's my fault they are so mad on Sport .l used to take 2 weeks a/l to be able to watch Wimbledon for the whole fortnight 🤣

Sounds like very well balanced spending to me @RumBananaSundae😊
Exhibition and tea is lovely and sunny good for you to get out and about , the wine was lovely for a pressie too. Meal planning is the real win l think well done you👏
Weekends fly by before we know it but you got some life admin done and that's good enough 😊.
I know theTGTH Greggs hot bags are amazing!
Very beige food though 🤭
But ok now and then 😊
Aw thank you re my Mum she was better today bless her heart ❤️.

£1.75 in Budgens on spicy hula hoops. I didn’t manage to pull off the no snacking today.

Nothing exciting @Frugal25. Shakshuka, beans and boiled eggs. Hope your meeting was ok.

Another agreer here @BigSkies2022 and @needastrongone. When father was Parkinsons’d, incontinent, bedridden, unable to eat/drink, speak, move etc they couldn’t give him enough hospital hours. It was utterly ridiculous.

Greggs had hot TGTG today @DirtyGertiefromno30 but I caught it with six minutes to go so maybe I’ll catch one next time. Glad your mum was better today.

Had an email from the theatre today and Ivanov has been rescheduled to 2027. Chris Pine has a scheduling issue. Day off tomorrow. I’m considering a road (well train really) trip but will probably vegetate on the sofa.

I still haven't seen these spicy hula hoops @RumBananaSundae 😋🤣.
Oh that's a shame Greggs but next time 😋🤗
Thank you re my Mum just got to go with the flow.
Oh bless you re your Dad . That's awful to witness your loved ones going through so much. l am so sorry 🤗.
Shame about Chris Pine but at least it's still on .
Enjoy your DO tomorrow whatever you decide to do 🤗

I work in a hospital and left for a few years, worked in research. One of the reasons was seeing so many people who couldn't get the help they needed on the NHS was depressing. I left in 2021, came back in 24. When I was working elsewhere I had my 2nd child and got stressed as one of the bad maternity reports came out. I had signed myself up to postnatal classes and it seemed I was the only one without a traumatic birth due to the hospital being overstretched (not the local one I work at, that doesn't have maternity anymore), my 'proper' hospitals are 40 minutes plus away. Even I had to wait for an oncall midwife to come in, but it was a quick uncomplicated birth and she was lovely. Someone on my group had gallstones in pregnancy, she said were more painful than labour, but NHS wait was over a year so she had them out privately after having her baby.

Our trust is not investing and hasn't my whole career. Not properly. I don't know the solution to national healthcare, but we have an ageing population. I have always thought it's wrong fertility treatments are on the NHS, but I guess if we look at the full picture and long term we need young people to support the health of the aging. On an individual level, it just seems like a want not a need.

I got a tgtg bag from a highly rated local cafe. 2 croissants and a artisan type sandwich, sourdough bread sun-dried tomatoes etc, but if had lunch as last time it was all Cakes. So most of the sandwich is in the fridge.... might finish it now.