FRUGAL LIVING CHALLENGE 2010, part 2, April - June.

Fishcake_Random

Hello all,
A beautifull day here on the south coast, tempted to hit the beach but I think fishfingers a tad small still for that excitement lol. Shes cuddled up on daddy's lap in a blankie as I type.
Yesterday was a NSD, went to my mums and had lots of family and friends over to see our new arrival and we were spoilt rotten with gifts. Lots of nappys and toiletries which is lovely as I have far to many pink outfits.
Today OH's uncle took us all out for a meal for Easter and have a few baby cuddles so that was lovely, much nicer than some silly choc eggs anyway. I've sorted out my veggies I have 2 runner bean plants, 4 tomatoe plants (very tiny but fingers crossed they make it), and I have sown some freebie carrot seeds hopefully I can get them growing sucessfully. All my baskets I did earlier in the year are now a riot of flowers and color, so lovely to see out the window.
I'm in the process of sorting through the piles of baby stuff people have given me, anything brand new I don't need for bump is being put away for next baby, anything extra is being bagged for charity or freegle and anything not good enough for either is being used for crafty exploits.
All in all I'm feeling pretty organised and frugal!

Have a gorgous day everyone

Fishcake
x x x x

grandma247

Sf have a lovely time.
Chinatea you could download an old radio play from here.
or an audio book from
here.
I hope everyone else is having a good holiday. Our day out on Saturday turned into a bit of a disaster but will write about that later.

cw18

Not a lot to report from here.....

Have done a 9 hour shift at work today (after deducting my 1 hour lunch break from the 7am-5pm hours), and I'm shattered. But I was actually very unfrugal and used the car to get there and back (twice, as always come home for lunch - and with DS being away I had to come back to let the dog out anyway). It was throwing it down this morning, and I just couldn't face getting wet, though I did plan to walk back after lunch. But we were that busy this morning I decided I didn't have the energy (and couldn't face the walk home at end of day if it stayed as busy - which it did) so drove back for the afternoon part of my shift too

Normal shifts tomorrow (7am-4pm) and Wednesday (1pm-5pm.... I'm soooo looking forward to this lovely short shift ), then two more shifts like today for Thurs & Fri. All I can say is 'roll on 5pm Friday' so I can collapse for the weekend

Friday is going to be weird though, as my bakery manager handed in his notice a few weeks ago (taking early retirement) and Friday will be his last day Don't know for sure who's replacing him yet, but the whisper was it could be a chap who came in and helped out for a day a few weeks back - and he passed through just before I left tonight with a comment about it hopefully not being long until he joins us, so definitely looking a strong possible. He seems a nice enough chap, so can't forsee any major problems if it is him

top_drawer_2

hello everyone,

Well I was very good today and didnt visit Mr M today as has become my habit too ;( and so in total I have still only spent 13.07 on food shopping. I am aiming for around £15 a week at the most, I havent managed to grasp stockpiling or buying for later just yet ....

I did stockpile guinea food from PAH 2 for 3 at the moment, it was chaos in the shop, full of children!

I am resisting buying protein powder as it seems very expensive at Mr M and I cant think of anywhere else I could buy it from............. I do want to do the health bars tho as they would be very useful for keeping in my bag at work.

I also tried out olive oil as a body moisturiser and I can highly recommend it! Its as good as the Hemp one from the B0dy shop.

Hoping to do some veg planting tommorrow........

Speak soon,

Jen

grandma247

top_drawer wrote: »

I am resisting buying protein powder as it seems very expensive at Mr M and I cant think of anywhere else I could buy it from............. I do want to do the health bars tho as they would be very useful for keeping in my bag at work.

Wheatgerm has a very good amount of protein in it and you could add a bit of powdered milk I buy the none instant kind from an asian supermarket to use in baking.

cha97michelle

Hi.

Just thought i would pop in and say i am still trying to take part. Our spends are not recorded on the spreadsheet yet for March, but we are doing ok as i managed to top DS2s child trust fund up for the year to the full amount.

I know my biggest spend is the food i am buying, and not helping my weight either. I am eating far too much rubbish and my skin and body are yelling at me to stop.

We've had a very cheap weekend here. My sister stopped over on Saturday night as my DH was working away, so i had to feed her and her kids for 3 meals. Then today DH was back, and we went out for a walk and some geocaching in the peaks. We managed to find a car parking space we didn't need to pay for, and also took some drinks and snacks with us. We took some stale bread to feed the ducks too. My DS's had a great day walking around finding every muddy puddle and walking through mud that let you sink up to your ankles.

There is a lot of washing to do tomorrow at any rate, and i sold one item on ebay again this week so i also need to post that. I plan to not spend anything else till later in the week. A friend asked if i wanted to take the kids to soft play with her two. I was going to say no at first, but my MIL sent £20 for the kids Easter treat and i would rather take them there than get them yet more chocolate. Technically it will not be from my budget, and i know the kids will really enjoy it. I need to say yes to more things like that, especially as we haven't seen these friends for 4 months.

lynzpower

Hey michelle

I notice you are also a geocaher I try but I only have the app on the iphone and it just doesnt get reception in the peaks

I was considering spalshing out on a gps, but didnt want to overspend- do you have one? Can you recommend it?

NualaBuala

Hi frunchkins :wave:

Well the weekend has just flown by hasn't it? It sounds like lots of you have had a nice Easter break.

enjoyfinancialchallenges wrote: »

Hi Everyone I hope your Easter holiday is going well and there are no new frugellers during this time, unless its what you want of course. If my memory serves me right I think NualaBuala will be next.

:rotfl:lol, it's not me! I'm probably the least likely candidate - have never been broody and no plans to change that (esp since I'm planning to stay single!). However I do have a theory that this is the most fertile on MSE! :rotfl:I think Rozeepozee is next, she is due very soon anyway - fingers crossed for you Rozee!

SF - hope you enjoy Kuwait - how exciting!

ChinaTea - you poor thing, hope you feel better soon.


Managed to get the grass cut today but it was difficult. I have a push mower I got from Freecycle but it doesn't seem to like the non-grass bits of my lawn. Lawn is stretching it a bit since there is more moss and dandelions than grass in it! But I like it that way, just seems to cause probs for this mower though. My neighbour used to do it with his petrol mower but I always felt I should pay him and can't afford it any more.

I'm considering getting rid of my TV. I have a nice one that I think I could sell for a few hundred euro and it would mean I don't have to pay the licence fee anymore. I do enjoy watching certain programmes but am trying to restrict my viewing as it makes me a bit lazy I think and stops me doing other things. My license is valid till August so I'll probably keep it till then. The money could go towards paying off my loans.

I've cooked up a batch of chickpeas to make hummus tomorrow. I found it freezes really well so this will keep me going for lunches for a while. Might try to make my own flatbreads to go with it.

Hope you're all ok - hugs all round to anyone who'd like one. Night night folks!

minjara

Ahh well a bit of a woohoo. Lost 3lb this week so I am very happy at that as trying to lose a bit before my hols. I'm now 18st 5lb so very happy with that, still dreading the walk of death though, ie the walk in and out the swimming pool in the cosy. Greenpeace will be getting called out and people running away screaming :eek::rotfl: Absolutely dreading it!!!

Thanks Lynzpower and Erme. OH is still very sore with his UC at the mo so been very introverted at the mo. I just leave him to it as I know me asking "are you ok" every 20 mins will just get on his goat and I don't want that to happen. Think his mood has slightly lifted today as we had a bit of a giggle, but my latest challenge is trying to get us back up in the bed. Lol, I know that sounds rude but just filling you in. Since he went into hospital with a pilonidal cyst Jan last year hes pretty much slept constantly on the sofa downstairs. He did come back up for a bit, but when I started working early again he slept downstairs again so I didn't disturb him. But I missed being near him so then I moved downstairs onto cushions that were from the old sofa, and we've both now been sleeping down here since October :mad::eek:
So I'm slowly dropping hints to move back to the comfier bed. TBH we both didn't mind sleeping down here over the very cold winter as we only have storage heaters and the bedrooms don't have any. It was warmer in the living room and meant that we were saving a lot of heat just having the living room and halls storage heaters on.:A
Checked my pots earlier and one of my many herbs for my kitchen garden are starting to sprout, not quite sure what it is but think it might be rocket of some sort. I'll know more once it grows more. The christmas cactus' buds are getting nice n big and the wandering jew has more buds on it. A green touch without even knowing it.
I've had 3 NSDs as not been out the house due to IBS being an absolute pain and not been able to find the trigger this time. But on the good side it means I'm not spending. The next spend day is on the 8th which is £30 towards my debts company. Eating wise money wise today hasn't been too bad, but due to the bacon sarnie it went to £2.10 for me today for my food gobbling!

Erme, yeah he knows that the voices are not there and his psychiatrist acknowledges that, but its the fact that all the voices in his head are being pessimistic and its them that are getting on top of him. That coupled with the noise on the bus or busy area, the psychiatrist says his brain is just trying to process too much of the info and not filter anything out.

Minjara

[Deleted User]

NualaBuala Thanks for the warm welcome ,an ex-site chap called Nellie gave me my avatar several years ago as I am an old dear who writes short stories in her spare time for her family and grandchildren, and I'm always haring about with a pencil in my hand
minjara Enjoy your break you sound like you can do with it.Don't even think about what you look like when you go in the pool just relax and make the most of it.
I love swimming. yet didn't learn until I was almost 60, 8 years ago and I was no lightweight even then, but had to take a year and a bit out two years ago when I had a ,mastectomy.I did worry for about 5 seconds when I first went back in the pool whilst on holiday with my grandchildren as at the time I was a bit lop-sided IYKWIM.But I thought well I can't change what's happened and I'm still me,even though my right arm will never have the power that it once had so sometimes I tend to swim in a bit of a circle.I had a go and bearing in mind I used to do 20 legths in 20 minutes it took me around 5 minutes to manage a width.I had four liitle boys on the other side of the pool yelling out 'Come on Granny, you can do it ' Bless them I did, and felt like I had swum the channel. I am nowhere like a skinny lass that I was 50 years ago but even minus my boob and carrying more weight than is probably good for me I love to swim as I also have osteo-arthritis and I can swim a damn sight better than I can walk with my clapped out joints.
So just put a picture in your head of yourself gliding through the water and having a wonderful time .No one cares what you look like in your cossy, only you.If you want to lose some weight swimming is excellant excercise, but its not that important .Swimming is so relaxing and it helps your troubles float away for a little while.Have a great holiday.
By the way I went walking with my Dd and family yesterday when we took her dogs out and managed almost two miles ,feel a bit worn out today but it was well worth it.NSD no 6 coming up today foodwise with luck, we are going to the science museum in London with the boys and I only have to make the coffee flask as my DD is sorting all the rest of the picnic stuff out herself.