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 .

Hope lunch was amazing @lifelongfrugaleer

LSD today. £2 on parking for a walk in the country. Spent an hour splashing in puddles. DD was covered from head to toe! Had to pour water out of her boots by the end.
Money spent on flowers and compost but that came off a gift card.
Money spent in Waitrose on yogurts and soreen bars for DD lunches but again, a gift card. Oh and grabbed some double chocolate hot cross buns from the bargain bin and put in the freezer for Easter.
Was debating about doing the garden bits and bobs but the weather has just turned so maybe not. Glad we got out and about before it rained.
OH has been working since 2am poor thing. Must go and make him a cuppa.
Hole everyone is ok today.

What a lovely day out @Frugal25. Those boots must’ve been soaked 😊. £2 parking for a country walk is a bargain, and gift cards covering the lunches and garden bits is amazing. Hot cross buns in the freezer great frugal planning 👏
Good call on leaving the garden for now. Bless OH with 2am start, a cuppa is well deserved. Our weather has been lovely today 11c and sunny such a lovely change 🤗.
Hope you had a lovely lunch out with your friend @lifelongfrugaleer 😁
Been to see Mum who was ok, took my cousin to see her , who my Mum absolutely adores and the feeling is mutual 🤗..
Bought another tgtg bag from Greggs £2.99. 4 lots of tomato soup , 3 wedges and 3 BBQ chicken bites . I bagged the soup Dd1 Bagged the rest 🤣, all in the fridge for tonight's tea and tomorrow lunch probably.
Hope everyone is ok and having a lovely weekend 🤗

Bought some new running shoes today. In my head I needed them in reality I probably didn’t. I’m hoping they provide some encouragement for the rehab. Some groceries too maybe about £14. Most on a Marks and Spencer gift card.

I’m a tad envious of your Gregg’s hot TGTGs @DirtyGertiefromno30. I’ve only seen them once here and there are two Greggs. I’d like to try their Mac and cheese.

I would have felt cheated too with your TGTG experience @Johaanah.

My motivation for Ivanov is Chis Pine and not Chekhov @Frugal25. When it comes to theatre want something nice to look at. Good call on the hot cross buns.

Hope you had a grand lunch with your friend @lifelongfrugaleer.

Did cross a few things off my to do list today. Meal planning hasn’t happened so I’ll see what tomorrow brings. This weekend has gone far too quickly. Hope people are having a good one.

Ooh new running shoes, always nice even if not really needed @RumBananaSundae🤗. Hope they give you a bit of encouragement with your rehab sweetheart 🤗. £14 on groceries isn’t at all bad, especially using a gift card .
That Gregg’s mac and cheese is amazing l think it's the nicest one l have tasted tbh 😋! Totally get Ivanov , nothing to do with Checkov for me either, it just so nice to see Chris Pine in the flesh so to speak 🤣.
Well done on ticking things off your list too 😊. Meal planning can wait till tomorrow, the weekend’s gone by far too quickly 😊

£62 for lunch and worth every penny for the. Company. Was ok but not stunning food wise. Half that was me paying for friend for her birthday

well If the new runners get you doing rehab and feeling more comfortable then they are worth it

Afternoon.

@pistachiosanscream I’m so sorry to hear about your sister. My brother has just finished chemo and radiotherapy for bladder cancer - he’s in that awful waiting stage to find out the results of his latest scan to see how effective it’s been. It’s made us smile that we are all known in our family for having incredibly thick, curly hair, so his has only thinned a little during chemo, and looks the same as everyone else's now 😊. He coped amazingly well, with tiredness being his main issue. Love to you all.

@RumBananaSundae running shoes are always necessary. Every single one of my 726 pairs are essential… have no fear ever about buying running shoes.

I’ve lost track of most other posts apart from @Frugal25 and her Extraordinarily Productive Day!

I so don’t miss the ponies @lifelongfrugaleer but very glad you had a lovely morning yesterday and a nice lunch today.

We’ve had a quiet weekend so I’ve spend very little.
£20 Boots on some conditioner and cold tablets/lemsips
£4 local shops.

Got a huge chicken broth on the go for supper. Hopefully enough for tomorrow too, it’s my dad’s funeral and we might want something later in the day after we’ve arrived home. I’ve already made sure DH is sorted in terms of clothes, wheelchair in car, shave, rested etc so it should be a straightforward day. It’ll be a small affair anyway given his age and he wasn’t great at keeping friendships going, and he left my mum 30 years ago and a lot of folk cut ties then.

What a lovely treat for your friend and you @lifelongfrugaleer! Sometimes it’s really more about the company than the food, and it sounds like it was worth it. Happy birthday to your friend too! 🎉😊
Bless you for sharing all of that @needastrongone ❤️.
It’s so lovely to hear your brother has coped so well bless him and you all .
What a terrible time for you as a family 💐. I’m thinking of you all especially with your Dad’s funeral tomorrow 😞. Sounds like you’ve got everything organised as best as possible though , and having the chicken broth ready will be such a comfort later. Wishing you all strength and calm tomorrow, l hope it goes as well as can be expected 🤗

I was widowed 5 yrs ago and - once I started eating again - got into bad habits: take-aways and eating out.

The past week, I've been eating a variety of mince dishes made from reduced mince from the local co-op and whatever I have in my pantry. Much cheaper.

Usual price of mince is a fiver for a pack. The reduced one was half price.

Will be thinking of you tomorrow @needastrongone. I hope the day goes well.

Sorry to hear about your sister @pistachiosanscream

Ive not had the best few days spending wise. I’ve bought a few more bits do the holiday (mainly for dd who is taller and more grown up the last time we went somewhere hot) which I’m not sure if I’ll return or not, but I think because I’ve been telling myself I’m not keeping everything I’ve potentially ended up buying more than I need. We definitely do have everything we need now though and I will have a pile of things to sort and send back - it just might not be as big a pile as I was hoping!

today I bought myself a new kitchen bin as the current one is broken and no longer fit for purpose. We have a very small kitchen and a slightly annoying gap where the bins need to be. There aren’t a lot of suitable options and I pretty much had the choice of replacing with the exact same model which fits but is very ugly (designed to be attached to the inside of a cupboard) for £120 or a much more stylish one for £220. I went for the more expensive one in the end just because I’ve been looking at an ugly bin for the last 10 years and I’m fed up with it! hopefully it will last for many years though and the spend will fade into insignificance over time.

Other than the bin spend I’ve spent £25 for dd to attend a sports event and £9 on some fruit and veg for dinners.

So not the best start to the month, or to the shiny new thread! I am going to do my very best to have NSDs now until Friday. I think it should be possible…

shnout- I take the view that spending a bit more on things that you are going to use daily for a long time is worth it. Our vendors left beautiful curtains, but hung on crappy plastic runners/rails. So I replaced them with custom made steel ones and enjoy swishy curtain heaven twice daily. £1000 - seemed spenny at the time but rapidly forgotten.

£48 in Sainsbury’s; £11 in bakery (loaves in freezer). Food budget will be reset on Tuesday.

£21 on deposit for dog kennel booking - going to do 3 nights this month to get him (and us!) familiarised in preparation for future trips.

@needastrongone hope tomorrow goes as well as funerals can 🩷

Quick one as it's late. Thanks for your well wishes for my DM. She is almost 94 and was constipated. She does get a lot of pain due to chemo side effects and stoma bag complications so was asking for morphine - hence calling the ambulance. When they arrived she was tucked up in bed saying she was fine now as the carer had helped her. Then she and DD demolished a box of Ferrero Rocher yesterday 🤭

Today has been productive (although not on the @Frugal25 scale!). Walk with friend along the sea front and a hot chocolate so one offset the other. Have a meeting with an IFA tomorrow so tonight I've made a table for him with all our pensions (most of which are v small) and got the paperwork ready to take in. My Dsis uses him and she retired really early (doesn't have dependents though - I might have to hold on a bit longer). I've also taken Friday off as a financial planning day.

Lidl £30.29
Morrisons £6

Friend bought the hot chocolates.

Hello.. I wonder if you’d accept a newbie! I’d love to join if you’ll have me - after a difficult time with a horrible divorce it took me a while to get my finances under control again. I’m so in the habit of it now I do low spend as much as I can as a matter of course but sometimes it’s a bit lonely as people don’t seem to relate!

Yesterday was new gym kit. Needed I suspect about as much as the running shoes and petrol today should be nothing

Hope the funeral goes okay today Need

Newbies are always welcome sweet

thinking of you today need

Thinking of you @needastrongone

I hope today goes well need , and everyone feels better at the end of it.

hello sweetpotatoes and welcome! Money dilemmas and trade-offs can be difficult and private but this thread is supportive and fun.

Sending love to you today @needastrongoneI hope today goes as well as it can do and I have fingers crossed for your lovely brother too.
Love the hair comment. I wish I had beautiful thick hair. Love that he now has "normal hair" lol.

Welcome @yoursweetpotatoesarebland everyone is always welcome. We can always relate here!

Running shoes and gym gear are always needed. As are expensive bins. Def worth it. I still remember going on a rather expensive holiday and the place had second to none appliances including a ridiculously expensive bin in the kitchen that I swore I would get when I could afford. Haven't forgotten it. It was a blinking bin!!!!

Should be a NSD to make up for yesterdays spend of £2 on parking. (That was meant to be a NSD)
Weekend went far too fast. OH worked in the end from 2am tim 10pm last night bless him. Not good.

Good morning everyone 😊.
@needastrongone thinking about you and yours today sweetheart especially your DBrother bless him . Hope everything goes as well as can be expected, hugs galore ❤️
@yoursweetpotatoesarebland
You are very welcome to join us all, the more the merrier 🤗
Your poor DH @Frugal25 that's awful having to work until then , bless him and you l hope it doesn't happen very often sweetheart 🤗.
So glad your Mum is ok @Lockin26 bless her heart . Constipation is so painful it's agony for them 💐
Well done on all your prep for the IFA, you are being so sensible planning for your future 👏👏👏😊.
Great idea getting DDog acclimatised to the Dog kennels it will pay off in the long run 👏😊. It's peace of mind for you all to know they are settled in there well.
@Shnout just enjoy your purchases and don't overthink it , if you are happy with them and can afford them , then that is all that matters sweetheart 🤗
Well done @WearyAuldWumman l hope you find you aren't feeling so weary now you are here 😊
NSD for me hopefully.
Only A donation to the Cats Protection League of £20 for a funeral donation in lieu of flowers . I will be attending the funeral later this afternoon but it's not someone close it's to represent my Mum.
Hope everyone has a good day take care 🤗

Thank you @DirtyGertiefromno30 :)

£20 something in the farm shop this morning. I don't go often after I noticed they were selling the same local honey in the library a pound cheeper. But they do very nice scotch eggs. Also got a honeydew melon, rye bread flour, cream and hagel daz ice-cream. I felt like I needed that after my 7 year olds DD attitude this morning.

Childcare bills are up... I've realised nursery has undercharged us last term when they gave a new bill with the breakdown of costs now he's increased a day.

A band 7 post I've been waiting for has come at at my NHS hospital....I don't think I'm ready/want the extra stress...but I would like the money and I did a course specifically in this area it's very specific and internal applications only which means there's only 2 other potential candidates....but I hate interviews.

Can you get some interview coaching @Alwaysploddingon? DH spent too long not getting jobs he was well qualified for because of crap interview techniques. Got some coaching, got the promotion, gave him more opportunities and no, he still doesn’t love interviews or pitching for business but he has some tools to enable him to do these things.

@Alwaysploddingon I know those job feelings! You might as well throw your hat in and it shows the desire to progress. I’m not sure I ever want to be b7, but if the opportunity arose I’d probably have a crack.

I'll look into interview coaching thanks. I think our wellbeing team might do something like that at work.

Afternoon.

Thanks everyone. All done and dusted. A good send off with a choir for good measure. DB (my other one) did a lovely eulogy, over 20 minutes without notes - remarkable really. Tea and sandwiches afterwards and now home. I’m a bit tired but it all went as well as it could have done really.

Thanks also re DB, he’s very much a low key person, and absolutely hasn’t wanted any fuss over the last few months.

@Alwaysploddingon - I think you should at least have a crack at the band 7, if it’s one you’re specifically trained for. You’d only regret not doing so, and at least you’d gain experience at interviewing. Good luck!

Welcome @yoursweetpotatoesarebland

Spends
£20 donation at the funeral.
£120 ish Ocado.