Courgette's 'Frugality gives us options' diary

newgirly

Wow building your own extension is very impressive :T you dont fancy giving me a quote for a kitchen extension do you?

greent

Am always impressed at just what determined MFW-ers turn their hands to!
xx

Courgette

Thanks all!

Did the big weekly shop today - £84.64 plus £2.90 for taxi to carry it home. I know this is no where near impressive compared to the average MFWer but food shopping is a real area of weakness for me. My subconscious believes the sky will cave in if I don't have full to bursting cupboards at all times. My challenge for the week is not to buy anything other than bread before next Sunday. Once I've cracked that I'll start trimming.

Aside from the food, it's been a no spend weekend. Went to a local free event yesterday and today we've been pottering at home. The footings for the kitchen are very nearly deep enough now, I'm really hoping we can get them signed off by building regs and get the concrete poured this week.

We've also inherited an absolutely gorgeous table which will eventually go in our new kitchen. We've spent the afternoon cleaning and polishing it up and it's looking great. It didn't come with chairs unfortunately so I'll need to keep an eye out for some when we've decided what we'd like

That's about it. 2.5 hours online tuition this morning before breakfast (getting up at 6.30 on a Sunday just seems obscene but I have a great feeling of smugness once I've finished)

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

IT is lovely to hear from you and good luck with the extension. Building isn't rocket science, just take it steady, take advice and never do a bodge and you will be fine! And you will save thousands.

earthgirl

Sounds great courgette, your table sounds lovely.

Courgette

Oh dear, I promised myself I was gonna start posting more regularly. Oooops! :rotfl:

We made a massive purchase this week of a bike for DS2 - £330. I've been searching for ages for something similar second hand and they just haven't been coming up and as we don't have a car and are surrounded by hills it's important he has a decent bike. Plus DS3 will also be able to use it .....still a lot of money though

Other than that it's all been pretty spend-free. We've got the keys to a friend's allotment for a few weeks so we're enjoying eating her veggies. We're also cat-sitting for one of my students for 3 weeks while she goes home (this really is above and beyond usual teaching duties!). These three things - the bike, the allotment, the cat will keep the boys interested for a while over the holidays for no more outlay.

I've also had a good sort out of the bookshelves and games so they can easily see what they have which I'm hoping will reduce the temptation to buy new.

Bit of a set-back with the extension unfortunately. We really don't feel confident doing the brickwork especially as this means removing bricks from our existing house to tie the new walls in. I'd assumed (stupidly it seems) that it would be possible to hire in a bricklayer as we needed them, in a similar way to getting in a plumber or plasterer. Turns out this isn't really the case as all brickies seem to be employed by building firms. This means there's gonna be a massive delay in the building. We had someone over last night who comes with a very strong recommendation but he can't start until mid October. Sigh. I've waited 5 years to get going with this kitchen so I guess I can wait a bit longer.

DS2's last day of school today. Because we thought the summer would be all about the kitchen we haven't booked anything. Will have a look and see what I can find to do

Ho hum

Courgette

The kids have all broken up from school now, hooray! so far haven't spent any money but it's only been 2 days!

Tomorrow we're off on a once in a childhood day out to a local expensive tourist attraction. Tickets cost me £36 plus I'll need to spend £5 on the bus to get to the coach. Not entirely sure I'd make the same decision to go there again at that price but the boys are very excited.

I'll make sure it's a NSD unless emergency hot chocolate is required. Have made some ginger biscuits with them this evening which can be their treat in the lunch box then will just take what we have. Have printed out a guide from what I could cobble together off the website too to keep it a bit cheaper

Friend's allotment is doing well - courgettes and mangetout grow very quickly don't they!

Courgette

Well, don't want to be negative so, er, I'll try not to be.

Zoo was a learning experience. I learned that spending a load of money on a single activity is not a good use of resources. The children really do not like feeling like they're being ushered from one 'wow, look at that!' experience to the next. I learned that really the best way to teach them anything is to be hands on and use what they know to link to the bigger picture. For example, observing ants in the garden and discussing how they live and threats to their habitats etc would have been just as beneficial as looking at, say, tigers in a cage. But there we are. Done now.

Unfortunately boys are being really hard work today due to being overtired. I've got a much more gentle week planned for them this week with possibly a bike ride if the weather holds well enough.

Going to go food shopping in a moment. Will aim to keep the spend under £60 and will carefully meal plan first

Courgette

£59.69 spent in Aldi and Asda plus £2.90 on taxi. Not too bad considering recent levels

museumworker

Sounds like a good food spend to me, we have been averaging £100 a week the last couple of years, perhaps more :eek:

Big days out can be tricky, we love a zoo visit but have learnt to do it at kids pace and we might only see a small part of it so try to ignore the cost! We tend to save them for holidays away now, as the one expensive big day out. Will be checking out an all Swedish animal zoo in the next few weeks! But youre right that the educational value is quite low compared to other ways of observing and learning about nature.

Hope you have a nice relaxing week.

MW x