November 2012 - Roll on summer, we want paddling pools!

[StuntNun]

Previous thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/postnatal_clubs/2060460-November-2012-This-is-the-new-fred-just-like-the-old-fred

He admitted today that he is the problem. I told him he is the solution too Major major major progress.

I am off to bed so goodnight all x

I'm seeing the benefit of older siblings. 6yo dn has entertained r all afternoon while i drank tea

Can I have your shopping list please vq . I mean it. I don't know how you do it. I woop around if I do a £100 shop. That is cheap for me. If we are going to get a holiday next year I need to reign it in somehow.

Morning all.

Pidgj I love it when my DSCs visit. The DC get so much out of it and the dsc have far more patience and energy than I do and really have fun.

Pass that's a really sweet conversation!

Spent the morning cleaning the kitchen and setting up my filofax for June

Morning all.

Where is everyone?

Is another cook up Sunday in the fairy house. Ye olde pot roast brisket with Yorkshire puddings followed by an ice cream cake thing which hopefully will look more impressive than is.

We had a great day yesterday at the NI Country Festival and I am sure stunt will back me up, as it is actually unbelievable, but it was a glorious glorious day yesterday. For me about as hot as I do, it was perfect.

I finished the afternoon off with about 3 hours weeding. I could have stayed out there longer it became addictive. I haven't weeded since the mammoth weeding weekend and it was very much hunt the vegetable in the weed patch. It turned out SIL was doing the same next door. Anyway, the beetroot, carrots and parsnips are now freed from their weeds and I think I will need to get out there every day this week to do the rest.

However, on The plus side. They are growing.

Phew.

wanda supermarket own brands or Aldi are the key. We easily do weekly shops for £50 including nappies, wipes and dog food. Do a meal plan and write a shopping list then only get what's on the list.

Seems that lots of you had sunshine and lovely days yesterday. We spent most of the afternoon gardening. The grass was beginning to get really long with all the rain we've had recently.

I'm wishing the next 7 weeks away until my scan. It feels like forever. Can't wait to tell people but it's too early. Might tell parents in a few weeks. How far along are you now yw?

yw we had Domino's on friday night. Very rare for us to have it. Hope your guts survived.

pr glad it's gone well. Hope you get some much needed rest when they've gone.

looks like lots of lovely days quiche wide. I had a fab day at Twickenham. Unfortunately my friend didn't join me on the soft drinks but she let her hair down and had a great day so a good distraction for her. Although I wasn't drinking I feel equally as bad today. Just completely knackered.

Off to the O2 to see in the night garden live today. Rock n roll. Can't wait to see little E's face. DD1S was a picture when I took her 2 yrs a go.

Yep it was crazy hot here as well yesterday Wanda, even at 9 a.m. We ate our dinner outside on the patio.

I had a lie in this morning DH not so lucky was up at 5 with J, have done an Internet shop and had a fab cooked breakfast so I'm feeling happy. I'm going to take the boys out for a walk this morning then hoping to do one of my new exercise DVDs. I had restarted the Shred again from the beginning but DH bought Ripped in 30 for me and I have a new Kettlebells DVD to try ulp I'm scared this is going to hurt!

How's everyone else doing today? Can we have a check in from everybody please. Don't just read and run!

Wanda, will do. I manage to stick to £50 for food only. Toilet roll, nappies, washing stuff etc is in a separate budget. We have a lovely butcher who does a £10 pack with fancy sausages, pork steaks, good mince, bacon and sandwich steak so that will do a week. It would cost about £15 if bought separately. We shop at Aldi but get our petrol at Tesco so do a little shop there too. We take it in turns to fill our cars up on a Sunday. We buy value brands - the only sliced bread J can eat is Tesco value wholemeal so we all eat that. I cook a batch for J each week - soup, cottage pie, stew etc and put in little tubs in the freezer so he has nourishing meals each day at nursery. We all take a packed lunch or buy from our pocket money. Alcohol and take aways are pocket money purchases. This is the theory anyway. I do this always, then DH spends money on shite. I only buy good ham though.

Meant to say J has a variety of meals to choose from. He does not have the same meal for lunch and dinner each day honest

I have just done brunch. Full English plus stuffed mushrooms and squeezed oranges. Followed by strawberries, melon and cherries.

Guests going to leave in a bit, then we're going to look at the new wine shop in the village. Then off to play on DD1's friend's new trampoline and climbing frame.

We eat a lot of lentils and beans and veg. Not huge amounts of fruit, but we mostly have our 5 a day.

PR sounds lovely

I'm trying to control my toddler, we had appr 10 full meltdowns today. I'm not in good mood either so it's a constant battle.

Interested in budget talk. Until recently I pottered down to our nearby Sainsburys each day and bought a few bits for dinner and other stuff we needed (plus some crap we didn't). We finally clicked that this was why we were going overdrawn and getting charged each month... So have drawn up a 2 week meal plan, started shopping weekly in Aldi with a top up in Sains and it has made such a difference. Our budget is £60/wk to include nappies, cleaning products etc and we are generally well within that now. It feels so much more organised now we just need to sort the cleaning and housework out.

Skipping the wine shop. Knackered.

A few hours peace before excitable toddlers.

We're a £50 a week lot too. We change between Sainsburys and Tesco every so often, as they seem to give us money off vouchers to entice us back aftera few weeks absent - this week we had two 7.50 off vouchers, so our whopping £70 shop came in on budget.

Have finally finished painting Fs homemade wendy house, just need to make some bunting and will be set.

Glad the veg is growing Wanda. We unexpectedly have about 100 tomato plants growing in our front border, the tomato plant from last yr obviously deposited a few seeds

Stunt that sounds lovely, great that dh was able to get up with J and give you a lie in.

PR I swear I am going to kidnap Wanda then invite myself round, can have your breakfast followed by wandas icecream cake. Perhaps YW can gatecrash with some pizza?

We get a weekly meal planner thing emailed to us which means we dont waste food and takes the hassle out of having to think what to have. We do a weekly online shop to cover all the ingredients for meal planner, plus bits I know we need. I do have to pick up odd bits from the shop during the week, mainly things I've forgotten or mostly to cover E. I used to pick up things as and when we've needed them and picked up a couple of days worth of food at a time. Since doing it this way we have saved loads. I know we could save more but at the moment this works for us.

And Wanda,pop over to the credit crunch threads - amazing for inspiration and support.

FFS DH now wants to sell the house and buy a small place outright and live off the land, sell the cars etc. he is such a man of extremes!!!

Come and live in our garage then vq

I do meal plan, but I think I should be more day to day about the mid week meals,might get a bit too excited. When I have finished work, 3 1/2 days to go I might see how much of my shop I can do at Lidl. I know when I use Asda is quite a bit cheaper, I just haven't had the time to actually go to the supermarket lately.

Hopefully once I have our veg up and useable it will help. I think I will be able to start using lettuce this week.

Where do you get your meal planners emailed from eliza that sounds interesting?

Where are the credit crunch threads vq?

Oo I found them. They are called Credit crunch believe it or not!

I have had a nap. :)

I use Lidl in Germany for lots of things but I am snobby- fussy about meat and either get it from the butcher, farm shops (which are cheaper over here, not the poncey scarily expensive things you see in the UK) or a specific supermarket which has has very good quality meat.

Buying the basics at Lidl is a good move though. And their fruit and veg can be really good.

Thanks to you lot and your cooked breakfasts making me I just did one for lunch. Yum.

wanda I think it's called fresh20 or something like that. I have a couple of issues with it though. It's American so some of the foods and measurements need a bit of working out (I'm used to it now) and there is always one veggie which I end up either not doing or adding other stuff to it. But we have mostly be doing it for 6 months now so must be working! if you pm me your email ad I can send you one over. My friend does one more tailored to families (menu4mums I think). I often think that would suit us more but this one has opened us up to a lot of food that we would never have eaten, mostly good.