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 .

Wear that new jacket and have a whale if a time @RumBananaSundae 😁👏.
Thank you yes my Mum was ok today ,thank God another good day 🙏

Pleased that work was okay @lifelongfrugaleer

Pleased your DM was okay @DirtyGertiefromno30

Hope ddog is okay @BigSkies2022

Wednesday jaunt out with a friend and new jacket sounds lovely @RumBananaSundae

Enjoy the hanging baskets and hopefully nice weather tomorrow @Frugal25

Had a one hour meeting at work that took 2.5 hours at the end of the day. NSD but came home grumpy and hungry and still hungry after a dinner of leftovers. I think I may crack and get something nice for supper from the coop. We live two mins walk from a local coop - it's too handy sometimes.

Booked a handyman for the end of March so I currently have a basket full on the IKEA app - shelving and storage boxes.

Thank you @Lockin26 🤗.
I am not a bit surprised you are grumpy , a surprise 2 and a half hour meeting at the end of the day is enough to send anyone to the Co-Op for food 🤗.
Hope DDog has stopped being sick @BigSkies2022 poor thing . New Antler luggage sounds gorgeous 👏❤️.
Hope that work is done very soon @Frugal25 l hate having ppl in doing stuff to the house .
Fingers crossed for the weather tomorrow so you can enjoy your gardening and do your hanging baskets 🤗

@FurForksSake hope you are ok sweetheart not heard from you 🤗. Did you see the pottery thrown down. The garden water features were amazing. l couldn't be able decided who was the winner and who should go . Can't believe it's the final next week ☺️

Hello! I’m checking in but not really catching up. I got diagnosed with fibromyalgia last week and hyper mobile spectrum disorder and returned to work (though I’m on leave this week). So life has been a bit of a challenge!

i loved the water features, it was a great challenge and they all did so well xxx

Actually I can declare a rare NSD. The snack run to the coop was prevented by malt loaf I found in the cupboard. Two slices with nice butter and a cup of tea and I'm good.

Lovely catch up reading everyone's news and goings on.

I've continued to spend a lot of my time walking, at least the weathers been a little kinder. Whilst I live within walking distance of the moors, I am also very lucky to live a short drive from the coast. This photo is from my walk at the weekend.

I have saved some sweet potatoes and celery by prepping and then freezing them today as I didn't get to use them as planned.

Payday was Friday and I managed to save some extra into my holidays pot, so that's building up now.

I am going back to work tomorrow on phased return so only going in for 5 hrs, we'll see how it goes.

I hope everyone has a good week

@FurForksSake l am so sorry my Mum and several friends have Fibro and it's so painful and exhausting sweetheart 💐
Aw bless you 🤗.
So glad you are ok despite all the diagnoses. Must have been a shock for you lovely.
Yes they were fantastic this week l loved every one of their makes , l just don't want it to end though 😭

Hope it goes smoothly for you tomorrow @NursieBernard.
Just go with the flow and try to get through it , we are all here for you .
Beautiful place ❤️

Yay you did great resisting the junk @Lockin26 👏👏👏🤗

Hello everyone, managed to keep February grocery spend under £500. Aiming for an even better spend in March as I’ve defrosted the freezer and hoping to do a bit of batch cooking, and switch to Lidl from Morrisons for the month to see if that helps.

treated myself to a trip to see a free film festival cinema screening this morning and took my own coffee, so my personal spend was just the train ticket. Did spend £25 of joint money on some new bowls after one of our nicer ones was broken in dishwasher yesterday.

Still on with the de-cluttering - but with a bonus today! I found an envelope with £50 in old paper notes in it!! So will pay that into the bank. There are upsides to the never-ending sifting and sorting through of all the stuff we have managed to accumulate. 😁I do not need undies or jumpers and cardis - I have found loads which were tucked away and never saw daylight - I'm kind of embarrassed at how much we actually have. I've already done one trip to the charity shop and have more to go today when I collect GS from school.
NSD so far today but that's because I'm staying indoors. Yesterday we paid out for paint and filler at B&Q for the bedroom yesterday and went back to the furniture store to order bedside cabinets to match the new furniture - way more than I wanted to spend but it's done now. 😮The new bed will be delivered in a couple of weeks so once the plasterer has done his bit, we will need to crack on with decorating and order a new carpet to be fitted as soon as we are done and we can move back in.
The house is wreck at the moment - with furniture awaiting collection and charity bags to go. All our clothes are in neat piles but with a cat around they won't stay that way. 😼We found several of her hidey holes which are all beautifully lined with her fur!! which all needs washing now. She was able to open the old wardrobe doors and sneak in -so she's not happy with us 😾

Oh we adore malt loaf with butter in this house. We always have some tucked away in the snack drawer @Lockin26. Hope you enjoyed!
@Rainbow1901 your decluttering is amazing. The money and the knickers. Well done you. Love finding fur baby hidey holes. Far too cute.
@NursieBernardthinking of you today sweetie. Lots of breaks. Be kind to yourself xx
@FurForksSakeim so sorry about your diagnosis. My friend has fibro and it looks so painful. Sending love my darling x

A beautiful day here today and I'm extremely happy. My heart is smiling. I've redone my hanging baskets with little daffodils. The gorgeous plants that were in there I got for £2 out of the bargain bin at a garden centre and they are gorgeous now they are being looked after so they have gone into two pots to cheer up the patio. Patio swept. Done a bit of weeding. Done my meal plan and shopping list for the week. Builders have been and gone for the day so I did my cleaning. Stripped beds and it's all on the line blowing about.
I got DD slide and tent out of the shed and whilst she played I sorted out the shed which was chocker and full of stuff. Two bin bags for the bin men and two bags for charity. I may get some back out to put in vinted tomorrow though as some is brand new. Wiped down shed as it was disgusting and now sat with a hot chocolate and chilling which is Def deserved.
NSD so far but will pay £10 for yoga later but that's already in a separate pot out of wages already.

Well done on the decluttering and the cash find rainbow

Hope you are doing ok today life after returning to work.

I’ve done a bit of decluttering under DDs bed today, mainly so I could move some bedding there and empty some other drawers.

Sold £10 of very used uniform for an activity the DDs used to attend (I did list it as well used and priced it as such). Have got another item to wash and then list too.

Also selling some wedding dresses that were festering in there too- £30. During Covid, I’d bought dresses cheaply off eBay… and the ones I didn’t wear have been sat there ever since. I’ll just be glad to get the space back and someone take them! I may have tried them on again 👰 I just needed to borrow the wedding tiara (I think it was armdimples) to look the full part!

I love a bit of malt loaf too 😋

Hope your return to work went well today too nursie

Very much enjoying the posts about decluttering and spring jobs. Not nearly so energetic here, alas, but will pick up my pace over the coming weeks! I do need a bit of a seasonal reboot.

Book group today was fun, and dog’s visit to vet went fine. £19 in the butcher on 1.6 kilos of chicken breasts, so I reckon we’ll have chicken milanese tonight. Just back from taking DDog to the park. Was hoping we’d have a good run around but he mostly wanted to eat grass. So I aborted a very dull walk.

Home now and I really want tea and toast before I tackle dinner and the ironing basket.

Well done on the declutter finds Rainbow
sorry to hear about the fibro.

I’m ok. Today has been better. But gosh I’m tired
hope your return went well nursie
yes the bathing the baby in the tiara. I remember that 😆 hilarious

the weather was lovely here too. Did a tiny bit of gardening today but if I overdo it seems to trigger a seizure. Baby steps

Bought two books today ~€40. They are the same I ordered three weeks ago that haven’t been dispatched yet. I have emailed to cancel my original order. I bought some milk too in Sainsbury’s on a gift card.

Glad work was fine @lifelongfrugaleer. Hope you’re feeling OK today.

You’ve been busy @Frugal25. Glad your hanging baskets are done. I do like a hanging basket with flowers.

Crikey on the meeting @Lockin26. I hate it when that happens. I bet it was a waste of time too.

Oh no @FurForksSake. I’m sorry to hear that. I hope you’re OK.

That’s a beautiful photograph @NursieBernard. Hope today went OK and do be good to yourself.

Spent most of today doing a job application. The closing date is tomorrow but I’ve not decided if I’ll send it or not as it’s quite a pay cut. The weather was nice here so took the scenic route to Sainsbury’s. Didn’t get the legal bits done. Got my council tax bill. It was less than I was anticipating so that’s good.

Holidays it was (is) me with the wedding tiara, wearing it to bath the kids every anniversary. Fancy you remembering that! It did also get an outing for the platinum jubilee street party - I encouraged my NDN to wear hers too and we sparkled about with my then 4-yr old in her Frozen tiara 😆

I bet you are feeling super tired Life and Nursie. Hope it gets easier soon.

yesterday I was in the office but took my lunch, so NSD apart from tube fare. Same again tomorrow, though i may end up with a cafe spend as I am meeting someone halfway between work venues for a catch up (still work, but I wouldn’t reclaim a coffee!). I must say the diet and fianncial organisation since Christmas is really paying off… though the weight is very slow to come off 😭 I am chipping away and the financial savings of planning lunches and not buying coffees and snacks all the time is huge. I wish I’d done this 10 years ago!

I made jerk prawns with coconut rice and an avocado and mango salsa tonight and it was LUSH. I felt like I was on holiday. A Sainsbury's recipe, if anyone is interested. I really do rate their magazine, it’s the best of the supermarket ones by far and I make a lot of their recipes (I get it via the Readly App, which is really good value for money if you have other magazine readers in your family)

Spent £26 on tap shoes on Sunday for DD but they are too small so will go back. Also spent £170 on tickets just now to the ballet at Christmas for me and DD, we are going to have a girls’ day out in town when school breaks up. Not frugal at all but as ticket sales have only recently opened there was a good pick of seats. I was sorely tempted by the very middle front row of the circle, so fancy!, but I had a word with myself, lol. Even mid-range tickets are so expensive in London.

Quick one from me as I have a bit of golden time this week to catch up with work.

Had a low spend week so far.

Posted to say that Lidl have cut the price of branded Easter Eggs - I picked up 7 x medium sized for £2.29 each yesterday. Put them in the attic and currently trying not to think of them 😂

That is super organised re. Christmas (???!!!!) ballet tickets. I suppose if I want to escape at Christmas with DH and DDog somewhere, I should be looking now. God.

Currently reading Nora Ephron’s Heartburn - library copy, natch- and it is so brilliant and funny that I bought a copy for a friend this morning while out with dog. £10. Then £4 to post a different gift to another friend. £7 in Superdrug on déodorant, lip balm, mouthwash. £1.80 Sainsbury’s on rice for pilau tonight. Planning to garden in the promised sunshine this afternoon and spend no more today.

Hello - I have just found this thread

I need to be more frugal, (hence shiny new username <twirls>), as have had some unexpectedly large bills come in and have depleted my savings bu a fair chunk.

Before they came in I managed to get some theatre tickets but had to book 18 months in advance to get them at a reasonable price for all of us. So I can well imagine the ballet at Christmas is another thing worth booking far in advance

Happy hump day all and so sunny too!! ❤️
Welcome @FrugalFlorence :) always deflating when you see hard earned savings depleted.

big one from me today. £205 on my window being fixed. But I had put it away in a pot ready as I knew the price up front. But urgh.

An update on the porridge.
I haven't eaten any of it 😆

Sorry l have been MIA.
Mum not been well the past 2 days and l have stayed with her all day yesterday and today .
Mum wasn't at all well there again today , refusing to eat or drink for me, in a lot of pain and hitting the staff and shouting when they had to see to her so they called the Drs who has upped her Oramorph and her Morphine patch . I was expecting her to really go downhill when she had the extra Morphine and Oramorph but au contraire she's rallied big time , drank over a litre of fluids for me and ate a whole yogurt ,a big banana and 3 milk tray chocs . I have been there over 7 hrs with her but she told us to go and when she tells us that it's time to go because she's tired 🤗.
Honestly l have been through the mire the past 2 days with her. I know she's not got a lot longer .l do realise that but as long as she is out of pain and kept comfy that's all l want ❤️
NSD today and yesterday but we are going to have a takeaway tonight . That's about £30 . Hope everyone is ok l am so sorry l haven't replied to anyone but the internet hasn't been working for me up the home so l couldn't post or read.
I am fine now honestly what a rollercoaster these parents have us on ❤️