Spring shenanigans, frugal mischief, Maypole antics, garden faffing, bargain binges, picnic pandemonium, Spaniel loving and Bank Holiday mayhem 😁

[DirtyGertiefromno30]

Welcome everyone, new and old to our lovely supportive frugal thread .

Morning.

DS is the same @BigSkies2022 (perhaps slowly improving in fairness) and I find there’s little you can do I am afraid that you are not already, otherwise I find they dig their heels in. I also find there is such a reluctance to pick up the phone and call customer service departments. I can only think that this is to do with the changing nature of tech, young folk just don’t speak to people any more in the same way we were/are used to. DD entirely different - back to the old nature versus nurture debate.

Interesting, @drspouse - I’m far worse at spending in the shops than ordering online.

You’ve been busy @Rainbow1901 !

Great news on the school places - I remember that stress, it’s such a relief.

In non frugal news, we are becoming a hedgehog release garden! This is Willow, who will be our first foster-hog! She’s better now after having ringworm and ready for release. I’ll have to buy her house (as she’s used to the one she has been staying in) and some food, about £60 in total but if she finds alternative accommodation then it’s free for further rescue hogs! It seemed a shame that our very nature friendly garden was not being used for good, other than bird feeding (now mealworm only!).

I’ve set up a monthly payment of £20 to the rescue centre as a gesture too.

So that’s my spends today. About £80.

Oh @needastrongone I was looking at doing rescue hedgehogs too. What foster centre did you use? How exciting!!! I absolutely love this.

£7.40 on first class stamps. How much?!?! Other than that a NSD.
We are getting a £5 pizza express delivery tonight. If you order between 3-5pm it's £5!
OH will pay bless him

Sloping in for yet another infrequent post. I do read along daily, but never quite get around to posting.

£15 on a haircut earlier, balance was on a gift card bought on Black Friday
£7 Boots on some vitamins

Trying to get a bit more done today, as slept poorly yesterday and achieved nothing. I have done the ironing. And rung up and cancelled Dmums credit card which wasn’t being used, and was a risk for her handing her details over to scammers.

I also need to call HMRC, but I might leave that to next week as can’t face a long wait on hold 😂

Well done for the mini frugaleers getting their school places. How exciting for them 🥰

That sounds so stressful locked, families can be such a massive cause of stress!

Cute hedgehog

Such a cutie hedgepig @needastrongone.

I don't know if it is a result of people not filling their bird feeders but we have had 2 chaffinches and 2 goldfinches visit the garden this morning. It may also point to a population increase off the back of it being a mast year last year. Either way they are welcome visitors. It is the first time they have turned up in the garden ( that I have noticed)

@BigSkies2022 DD failed to submit her tax return and incurred a £100 fine. I feel your pain. This year as soon as my P60 turns up we are having a tax return party .... I am bribing her with a celebratory glass of bubbles once we have both finished.

We have been making use of the National Trust membership we bought last month. Today was Wentworth Castle gardens... They had billed it as the rhododendron looking spectacular.... All I can say is it is a bit early and they oversold it. Give it a month and then it will look amazing. It isn't that far from us so we can visit easily.

I need to up my pack up lunch and afternoon tea skills for our outings. There is some serious pensioner on a day out one-upmanship going on. Nobody warned me that this was a thing.

@MyAgileHedgehog - what's this about pensioner one-upmanship? I have visions in my head of pensioners sat having their picnics along with very posh flasks but bringing out their china tea cup and saucer to drink from. Or even very posh cup cakes to be eaten with a posh cake fork! 🍰🍴☕

I decided to go to the supermarket in person, spent £32 at Aldi and £31 at Sainsbury's. Not sure it would have been much more if we'd had a delivery, but we have all the meat and fish we could need for a few weeks so it didn't seem worth getting a delivery. If I could just do Aldi I would definitely save but I wanted a few things that only Sainsbury's have, including things to make protein flapjacks to stem my cake habit at work.
Sadly my cake habit on my day off is not at all stemmed - found myself in Starbucks. But I will hide the malt loaf I bought and the flapjacks I'm making (from me as well as the DCs) and take them in on Monday.

Flapjack wouldn’t last the weekend here. £36 in Sainsbury’s, which included 2 x TTD vanilla ice-cream tubs. Weekend !!

£148 on DS’ dental appointment. À filling and a £100 down payment on his night guard.

Exactly..... Posh picnics. If they could fit a string quartet into their car they would

Love the idea of posh picnics, adding that to my retirement plans! I'm only 40 but can't start too soon 😄

£61 at Tesco and I only had one bag. I felt like I was being robbed!

Applied for a Tesco credit card last night and got accepted, 14.9% apr which is pretty good. I intend to use it and pay it in full every month just to build up the points. My friend is going to let me use her blue light card to buy Tesco gift cards with it, 4% free so £96 for £100 gift card. So I'll get double points if my thinking is right.

Evening everyone 😊
Been to McArther Glen shopping outlet today . My Sister visited Mum today , she's been away for a few days and we have been visiting Mum extra time cover her and she visited today , she was fine thankfully 😁.
So off we went 😊
Spends £11 Tesco
£14 Waitrose
£14 Next clearance store for 2 cushions l bought from there . I couldn't leave them there 😁
In Waitrose they had Alpro Almond milk on offer at £1.60 which was excellent.
I can normally pay £1.90 to £2.10 depending on the store l am buying it from . Their essential cauliflowers were £1.35 and l thought that was very good too. Hope everyone is ok must go and read the your messages 🤗.

These were the cushions l bought 😊

Well done @Rainbow1901you have done brilliantly and worked so hard getting everything done ,great stuff on the Vinted sales too 😁👏
Thank you for the new App info @drspouse l will have a look at this 😁
@BigSkies2022 hope you are enjoying your meal tonight it sounds delicious 😋 . Kids hey they will learn in time 😁
Aw @needastrongonethats wonderful you becoming a foster family for hogs , thank you so much for doing that you are a good un, bless you ❤️
Wow a £5 pizza delivery, amazing @Frugal25enjoy it 😋🤗
That's a massive job the ironing @Holidaysandchocolate well done 👍
That's so funny re the pensioner oneupmanship @MyAgileHedgehog 🤣 go get em girl 😁
Good luck with stopping the cake habit @drspouse let know when you have it sussed l need to know urgently 🤣
That's food for thought re the Chaffinchs @MyAgileHedgehog l hope it keeps happening 🤗.
That's so kind of your friend re the blue light card and the Tesco interest is excellent @MuddlingLong👍😊

Bit of a spendy day today - another £50 on a takeaway (we don't really eat out and never go out for drinks, so this is our weekly indulgence) and £18 on books from eBay (5 books so v good value I think!).
I operate on one in one out for books (more or less) - I have 12 waiting to go to World of Books. You only get about 50p per book but it's really easy to do.

Thought I had 5 NSD in a row but now I remembered got a takeaway last night €25.50 & paid for a hoodie for dd in Penneys €9.

Made hellofresh recipe for turkey udon noodle stirfry tonight using hoisin sauce & teriyaki sauce that bf donated from items his houseguests left behind. He’s a decent cook but doesn’t use sauces at all.

I did a decent shop last Sunday and it pays off I’ve not needed anything all week.

dirtygertie I love the cushions. I’m going to sostrene greene tomorrow and may buy cushions. My snug (old kitchen before extension) has couch, coffee table, but tv is still in a box on the floor, I need to get this sorted & in use.

muddling that’s clever I had a Tesco credit card a long time ago and it was great to build up points, I used them to get money off Irish ferries to go to France using the rewards scheme.

Flapjacks can’t be hidden or ignored, only solution is to give them away!!!

Posh pensioner picnics

need super cute hedgepig

big that sounds like something my dc would do. Ds got a customs charge recently in the post & he couldn’t remember what he had bought, I identified it from his revolut again the customs charge was only €1.30, item he bought was a signed cd from a Canadian singer which was free he just paid postage, however customs charge carried a €6.95 admin fee, his attitude is he’s not paying it, let it go back. It makes his free cd cost about €15, but he’s spent €6 already on it.

Great news about schools

I survived the fuel outages here and the price has come down a bit too, I will need diesel tomorrow however.

lockin how long had dd braces for? My dd is getting hers off in 12 days after 5 years, she’s planning all the foods she couldn’t eat while she had them
Such a worry for you with your mum

need a bargain of an afternoon out at the bingo
I’m only back to running with a plan a week and I’m loving the discipline, intervals tonight and I think I might have enjoyed them

Morning.

Love the cushions Dirty, very neutral.

I go and collect the little hog today, so I’ll let you all know how it goes. The local rescue put out a Facebook post on our village group @Frugal25, there seems to be quite a few rescues round here but not so many release gardens.

happier intervals are very enjoyable when you’ve finished them I find 🤣. I’ve benched myself for a few days to settle down a couple of niggles, nothing major if I’m sensible now. I’m just going to do more strength and conditioning stuff.

Spends.
£27 Pets at Home on food and feeding bowls for the hedgehog
£12 local cafe for a cuppa for us both and cake for DH.
£22 Veg box for two weeks
£55 Strava subscription
£14 Amazon.
£33 Sweatshirt (plain navy, smart enough to pop out and about but relaxed enough for the house without having to change).

I have a small shop arriving later but that’ll be it for a few days. I’m still on track for spending this month.

In town for 35 mins this morning
€19.70 Tesco ingredients for Oreo cheesecake for dds 16th birthday there were offers on Philadelphia & Oreo’s
€75 on diesel got it at 199.9 I’ll get 4c off per litre with my fuel card, at its peak last week it was up to 225.9, I had enough to get me through
€5.97 on 3 birthday cards
€4 cookie slice to share, the doughnut shop had no doughnuts too early

will put €20 into birthday card for party ds is going to today

avoided deli counter going to eat cereal when I get home.

saw a beautiful programme during the week where a homeless young man on brink of suicide was befriended by a woman who started a go fund me for him, raised €80k he spent €41k on a derelict cottage kn Sligo got €70k derelict home grant and the programme followed the build. His dream was a house, a job, a wife, live a happy life. As the programme went on you could see him starting to feel like this was possible. Dd & I loved it

That sounds lovely @Happierwithouthim I wonder if we could watch it here.

I don't think I'm going to be spending anything today but DH is paying for DD at cycling club.

I’ll see if I can link it, it’s on Rte player

Oh that programme sounds beautiful @Happierwithouthimi shall try and find.

£8 on teas at national trust. I agree, it's Def one upmanship with the picnics buy I adore NT and everything about it and aged 44 I'm dreaming of retirement and Def planning it all out. Inc posh picnics!!

So glad you got a day to yourself @DirtyGertiefromno30 and adore those cushions. I have the same at home!

Shall look out on Facebook for hedgehog news thank you @needastrongone.

Up date on kittens. Foster mum says we can go and choose which ones in 2 weeks and they will be ready in 7 weeks. We are first in line which is amazing . I was going to surprise my DD with bringing them home but think she would like to choose... Shall have to do lots of groundwork with her first that we are only choosing not bringing them home the same day.
OH says we can book a holiday for end of August so I've already made arrangements for family to stop in on them constantly for a week. Luckily my mum has just bought a house two doors down.... Perfect for childcare and cat care! And DB lives two roads away. So lots of people around to fuss them.

NSDs have gone a bit sideways. But debt repayment and diet are bang on so I'm happy. Pay day is Monday.
Bring. It. On.
3 more payments for car.
8 more payments for credit card.

£11 here because DD and I went litter picking and had to park in Sainsbury's car park.
We bought things we needed and it came to £9.99 so I sent DD back for one more banana and then it was over £10 but THEN I put in my nectar card and it was under £10! So I had to get some shallots I need for a recipe.

Evening everyone 🤗
Mum was fine there again today l am so grateful for this good spell with her .
Dd2 and DH went to the football in Swansea and spent about £25 on petrol and tickets were £45.
Spends were £20 in Asda for juice ,
2 x milk and a RM curry for them both for when they came home , something quick.
I have saved a fortune in not tumble drying 3 loads of washing today .
It's been beautiful weather here and a perfect drying day just fabulous 🤩.
Hope everyone is ok, will catch up on everyone's posts now 😁

Good for you having a takeaway once a week it's a real treat @drspouse🤗
Thank you for the cushion love😁@Happierwithouthim. Hope you had a good shop in Sistrene Greene today and got your cushions 🤗
That programme sounds excellent 👍
Your stir fry sounded delicious too😋
Aw thank you @needastrongone re the cushions 🤗
It's so exciting getting a little Hedgie today aw bless them ❤️
Seems to me we are kindred spirits @Frugal25same cushions 😁
So lovely choosing the kittens aw your DD will get so happy bless her ❤️
You are so fortunate to have family close ,there is nothing better l am so pleased for you sweetheart.

@BigSkies2022 similar here with DS (20). He has an agency contract which he seems happier in than in the two apprenticeships he's had. But he can't won't? find out how many floating days leave he has and we really want a family holiday in October. He's going to miss out at this rate... We went aboard without him in 2024 and he desperately missed us.

@DirtyGertiefromno30 love the cushions. I thought of this thread and your love of bedding this week. I got a Kirsty Allsopp bedding bundle on Vinted (5 x cushions, pillow cases, bedspread) and then matched to a new quilt cover from Dunelm. All looks lovely although we also need a new mattress and pillows really! Pleased your DM was okay.

@Happierwithouthim just 12 months for DD, she had a retainer fitting this week and needs to remember to wear them! Five years is some slog, well done to your DD - she will enjoy that food!

Love the kitten update @Frugal25

Today new garden shed was installed so we filled it up. Still got several tip runs to do and new fence going up next week (blown down in storm ) but we are getting there!

Walked with a friend, DD and her friend today. Spent £26 in a beach cafe bar which was lovely.

Also been a little spendy today.

Went for brunch and coffee with my best friend today £16 for brunch including two drinks and £7 for coffee and cake.

£59 for a Radley handbag but what I do is have a save the change feature on my bank account that allows me to slowly purchase this sort of thing as a treat that basically felt free.

Kittens! Hedgehogs! This is a great thread. photos if you can please.

LSD today- just bread. Lots of work in the garden and need to make a decision on good ground cover options. I’m thinking persicaria- tough, vigorous, tall , weeds can’t compete.

Padella was fun last night, although of course I spent more than my estimate- £138. Friday night out but still home by 10.30 is a great start to the weekend.

thanks for the solidarity on scatty offspring. DS is actually much better sorted regarding money and personal organisation than I was at his age!