two frugal years to freedom: a fritterer's tale

liltdiddylilt

Oh yes. Or my dads. He has set fire to the house several times. Very talented he is.

Plastic swords are useful? Do enlighten me? I am currently thinking of toasted jellybeans but it would have to be a very small sword or a very big jellybean :rotfl:

mum2one

LL - thank you, spoke to a macmillian advisor at the hsopital, they have a drop in area, we've filled in a form to see if we can get a one off grant but she doesn't hold out any hope.

xx

lobbyludd

fingers crossed here too for you M21.

ah - yes, a plastic sword, very useful for warding off plastic vikings (or plastic romans - I'm not clear what side we are on currently, it can get a tad surreal).

went a little off piste wit the meal plan but not excessively so, just last night - forgot to get beef out.

so next week to fill in...

fri me - chicken fried rice
sat lunch - Fishfingers chips and peas for the littlies, soup for me
tea - hm pizza and popcorn [cook
sun brunch: sausage eggs etc from whatever we have in
lunch - sunday roast
eve - light meal???
mon tea - chicken, chips, brocolli (kids) me ?
tue - jacket potatoes
wed - me lemon sole thing?
thur - ??
fri - me (chicken rice dish)

managed to get football boots and trainers for under budget, so only waiting for replacement shirts and name labels to turn up now and theiy are done....

liltdiddylilt

At least you meal-planned. I haven't for 2 weeks! The sword fighting sounds fab!!

Yay for under budget. I read an article about parents spend an average £180-400 on back to school each year. And some £800-900 :eek: - I have started saving for Jellytot and I am picking up pencil cases and crayons and things now when they are on offer :rotfl:

Where did you get name labels from out of interest? And how many do you use a year? I saw some iron in ones, guaranteed for 10 years, with pictures and coloured backgrounds and whatever you wanted written on... £12 for 56. I wondered if it was value. Jelly has to have them for nursery in a couple of weeks...

lobbyludd

how do lilty i've ordered from a place called woven labels - not used before, and just wanted very basic ones - ds leaves clothes - particularly coats and shoes -everywhere and having spent just shy of £200 on uniform for him with some more to get after next payday (first year at big school - shouldn't be this bad again <she whispers hopefully>) I've got to try something. If he loses the blazer I'm going to glue gun the replacement onto him!

they both had more fun ones when they were smaller - stars and butterflies and different colours etc, but I can't for the life of me remember where from!

LL throws open her arms and welcomes the weekend - howdy <waves>

done second grocery shop of the month (£32) which I think leaves £10 for fruit/veg for rest of month (we've plenty frozen so no risk of scurvy) - the freezer is at bursting point with foods though - must eat some and release some room so that I can batch cook etc. will adjust meal plan tomorrow as got heaps of good ys reductions on bakery items (packs of bagels for 12p etc) which I can't freeze a lot of (see above) so tomorrow's breakfast and lunch might well be very bready. pizza for tea may be a baked-good too far.

(was a bit scary tbh the tanoy went to announce the mega reductions just as I was passing the stacked trolley of ys-bakery goods - so I thought I'd take a punt, have you seen how a school of sharks devour a piece of bait on a line? - but in a surprising insight into my own character it turns out i am prepared to sharpen my elbows and wrestle grown women for the sake of a pack of glazed buns (13p ).

who knew? it's just one long journey of discovery this life business

I've already put my rice thing back a few days and had pate on bagels instead today (nom nom) and ds ate half a loaf of bread yesterday so I'm sure he can help out.

if I can move off of my large and well padded posterior I may cut up and salt the tiny green, and larger split orange, tomatoes that have fallen off the plants prematurely ready for chutney making tomorrow.

in annoying news, stupid final loan payment bounced, I can't actually see why, but the account has disappeared from my online banking so I can't manually pay it - will have to ring them tomorrow.
in less annoying news it's friday :D:D

mum2one

hope you dont mind me being cheeky, the last set of name tags we got via Clarks (shoe shop), from memory you paid in store then given a leaflet to fill in and send this away.

I personally dont like the iron on labels as they dont last very well and the ink wears off the labels, where as with sew in ones you cut and recycle. DD starts seconday school and were only on our 2nd set of ordered labels.

When I sew in, I put an additional one in the side seam of tops etc as the traditional place (back of neck) if a jumper grows legs and goes walkies - the traditional label always manages to come loose.... xx

liltdiddylilt

Thank you both for your wonderful advice. LL you have scared me rigid with talk of £200 for school uniform. I live in the region of Grammar Schools and a huge academy, both of which have blazers and branded everythinggggggggg.

I am off to buy some sew in labels with pretty things on, and suck it up and buy a sewing kit for the first time since I was 12. It is a weird and almost serendipitous yet sad thought that the last time I sewed my mum was struggling with breast cancer. Here I am preparing to get my needle out again just as she announces its return. Sorry for the downer there, but I am finding strange occurrences recently and I feel like I am slowly being turned into a child. :rotfl:

Just signed up for Now TV - people on here are a bad influence... :rotfl: free trial? £10 on quidco? I'm there... Thor 2 here I come.

mum2one

LL - the mere thought of an academy would have me running a marathon in the opp direction if I was footing the bill... I thought DDs list was bad enough... this is what had to get for her for secondary school.

Uniform.
black skirt or trs (2 of each) £40
2 x logo sweatshirts (£15 from Mr T compared to £15 each with school supplier)
Polo shirts (£12 for 4 - not school logo they wanted £12 each)

PE Kit
School logo pe shirt £20
black joggers (£10)
fleece (£8)
shorts (£5)
indoor trainers (£30)
football socks (£5)
black socks (£3)
football boots (£15)
gum shield (£5)
sports bottle (£3)

Extras
Waterproof jacket (£15)
wellingtons (£10)
Coat for school (£30)

Bag etc
maths set
colouring pencils
crayons
felt pens
highlighters
pens
pencils
fountain pen
art book
usb stick
pencil cases
new school bag
scientific calculator
=£40=

Thats been raiding £1 shops etc for stationary, Amazon for bags, tesco, Asda etc for uniforms, and sports direct for all pe kit, school coat etc.

Def been an expensive start to secondary school xx

judi24

Just read your diary Lobbyludd - we have so many similarities and your struggles with work, kids, debt and sleep made me giggle - even the reference to the stuff under the stairs is so like me!!! No pay rise for years either - I am guessing you work in NHS! Me too! even our debt is similar - although I have managed to wrack up and extra couple of grand taking my kids on holiday ( couldnt face another summer in the rain in a tent so went to spain for a week - paid for by credit which has led to my current level of stress and annoyance in relation to money) and paying for a graduation this year! I have 4 kids (22,21 12 and 10!) feel your pain with the uniforms - My son started at a grammar school last year and it cost a fortune!!! Not quite so bad this year although the school has very kindly changed the uniform this year!!! We are not 'obliged' to buy the new one - and I haven't as most of the expensive stuff still fits! But I have a horrible feeling he might be the only kid in his class with the old rugby shirt! Hey ho - he will live!


Your grogery costs amaze me!!! I thing spending £300 a month will be a challenge!


Will be subscribing!

lobbyludd

welcome Judi - well done for reading the witterings - yes NHS although on the periphery not hard-core front-line.

groceries - well I'm just an incredibly disloyal customer, I flit between whomever sends me the best discount vouchers I put stuff into mysupermarket, I buy value brands and cheap seasonal things except for a few key specifics.

Until I'm in a better financial position I'm limiting our food choices to what I think of as fairly mundane food - tasty and healthy, with spices and herbs etc but seafood, lamb and beef for example and more interesting veg will be a rare treat and I can make a chicken last a week.

Edited because the above sounded lectury which was not my intention, so to add - the 3 key things that let me get my groceries down to such a level are - a) I am the only adult, ds is starting to eat like an adolescent, but he's not at the hollow legs stage yet, and this is a MASSIVE advantage I have over someone with 5 adults in a house b) I don't include school dinners in this calculation, ds eats a big school dinner, so that will be an extra £60 a month outside of the groceries budget (dd has sandwiches but she's 6 so it can be woven into the groceries budget) and c) I have an enormous store cupboard stocked with expensive items that last (spices etc) from more spendy times and a lot of bought-in-bulk-when-cheap store goods. I've been paring down the groceries spend for years so now have lots of practice at it. good luck Judi - little steps do get you there.

never worry about jumping in M21 - I use the woven ones too, and hide extra labels in and around

I love sewing lilt, although labels is dull. Of course everything will be tripping memories with you at the moment, you are incredibly positive lovely, but you don't have to be here, and never apologise for anything you write about how you feel.

OK waiting for "movie night", which will be dr who on iplayer and hm popcorn.

dd spent her money on dolls today, but has released a bag of stuff to the charity shop in order to get space for them, lazy day tomorrow just cooking and housework but I'm doing no DIY or shopping etc.