A new royal start

themadvix

Crikey Jess, take it easy! That doesn’t sound good at all. You need to worry about resting and getting to the doctor asap - not what needs baking! I hope you get seen early tomorrow and they get you what you need. If you’re that ill, they need to take action otherwise you’ll end up having a transfusion. Please take care! X

Jessy103

Agree with Vix, take it easy Jess and remember you need to look after yourself too! xxx

Mrs_Money_Penny

Hope you can get through to the doctors tomorrow. Wishing you a very speedy recovery x

themadvix

Just checking in - hope you’re ok? X

QueenJess

Well I was underwhelmed by the doctors as they said they "didn't have time to read my notes", then as I started to explain went back to the "computer said no" standard answer of it cannot be perimenopause because of my age despite my explanations of every single person in my family experiencing it "early".  I started listing about 10 people as I'm not sure they believed me   Apparently my blood pressure was high (probably because I was stressed out about it all), but they said blood was fine bar the iron issue which I have tablets for.  On the plus side I refused to leave without a fix for the blood loss and am temporarily on the pill which should either control it or get rid of it.  I'm considering going private to be honest as the fix offered to me a while ago will be "at least a month".  Cannot get any information on whether that is about a month, 6 months, a year...

I still think the main issue is blood loss and low iron until I build that back up, so am resting for half of each day until I feel better.  I still feel exhausted even when I've had a full night of sleep, so trying to be careful, although it's very boring.  In theory I should feel a bit better every day, but we shall see..

Money seems to be disappearing this month.  The bill for the heating fix we had done in March finally arrived (I know!... we were chasing them for it) and was a bit higher than we thought due to VAT and they are back this month to do usual maintenance.  DS's birthday is looming, so I will have to buy some bits for his party, DH's birthday is next week (I am taking him for a meal), then it's my mum's birthday the week after that.  I also have my car going in to check a couple of issues in just over a week, TV licence is coming out, we paid for DS's after school club he got into and so it goes on.... Definitely nothing too frivolous, but why does it all happen in Jan?!  On the plus side, DH's parents are going halves with us on DS's new to him bike for his birthday, so that's a bit of money back into the account.  I also made £5 selling some books.

So far for Jan I've spent £120 on food, but I am planning to use my voucher on Monday (spend £150 for £15 off) as it's a good deal.  I will be stocking up the cupboards with stuff I would usually buy.  I then have another one for the week after I will use for some stocking up and also DS's party food.  Hopefully I will have a very frugal grocery bill in Feb after all this stocking up and I do plan to run down the chest freezer so I can defrost it properly by around Easter time.  We do still have lots of things in the cupboards, so I am hopeful I can get the grocery bill under control.  Thursday I made a cheese and onion pie as I had lots of both (accidentally bought a block of cheese when I still had 2 in the fridge!), which was very frugal.  Only my second ever time making pastry and it actually worked great.  Even better was that DS loved it (and had leftovers for lunch the next day) and DH the meat eater loved it too and had seconds!

Today's dinner will be hm fish and chips (kids have normal potatoes, but I always make the sweet potatoes for me as I love them - DH has both!), followed by apple and blackberry crumble and custard (just need to make the latter later today!).  Tomorrow we are breaking up the long cold month by having a roast at a nearby pub for lunch (we will have dessert at home).  It'll be so much food that I know I won't want dinner, although everyone else will probably still eat.  DH is going to make a huge pasta so we can have the leftovers for Monday's dinner.  The eating out/leisure pot is looking very healthy at the moment, but I'm trying to save as much as I can into it as I know we spend a lot more in the summer out of there and of course I'm sure I'll spend more out of term time.

A bit of frugalling Thurs/Fri.. found 6p on the floor (it all helps right?!), walked kids to nursery/school and back (although we always do this anyway), I also walked to the nearest (terrible) supermarket to pick up cheap glue sticks and paper as the kids had run out, made £10 on Prolific, started to make xmas cards with scraps of unusable wrapping paper leftover from xmas presents, free card blanks picked up on Buy Nothing and empty cereal boxes.  When I made the cheese and onion pie, it had beaten egg in it.  As you never quite get it all out of the bowl, it meant I had enough left to egg wash the top of the pie without partly using another egg.  Not glamorous, but I was pleased as we do get through a lot of eggs.  I've also sadly cut down some of the things I used to buy from Riverford (like butter) as it used to be the same price as the sm, but now it's more expensive so I've switched to the sm.  I've also had to switch a couple of things back to the sm from the zero waste shop as it was too expensive there (although at least the packaging is cardboard/paper in the sm, so not too bad).  I've been trying to compare prices as I've needed things.

Right, better get on as I have to take DS to his gymnastics session in a minute.  No other plans for the day, so should be able to relax with the kids

QueenJess

The day seems to have slipped away already and I need to pick up DS soon.  Hoping to then have a bit of time to make some more cards from the scrap box and even manage to get to gym later.  Did an enormous food shop.  Every 11th purchase in the zero waste shop you get 5% off, so I thought I may as well do a massive stock up.  Hoping I won't need to even go in next week or possibly even the week after as I spent £40.  Then I spent enough in the sm to use my voucher, although I did actually find it slightly tricky without buying much meat.  After deductions it came to £136.  Hoping I'll just need a few bits next week like milk, cheese etc as I have a serious amount of food in the house right now.

Not much else going on an Prolific seems very quiet today, so nothing coming back into the bank account right now.  Lunch today was poached eggs with kale, mushrooms, garlic, sesame seeds and hm toast.  Dinner for me will be leftover pizza from last week as I need something small/light before gym and it needs using up.  DH is making a delayed pesto pasta for him and the kids as we had to cancel our roast dinner at the pub yesterday as DD was sick Sat night.  Seemed to be a one off, although I stayed up most of the night until I was satisfied she was ok and also caught up on most of the washing given she was ill everywhere.  I was trying to spread out the washing more to maximise loads and hopefully cut washing, but then DD created a load and it was a nightmare, so I've dispensed with that.  At least the washing machine was very efficient and fast being used in the small hours of the morning..  I'm still catching up with folding it all and putting it all away!  Back to the baking tomorrow as bread needs to be made, biscuits are about to run out, currant buns are low (might make welsh cakes next), dessert is about to run out and I still have no idea what we are eating for dinner tomorrow.

themadvix

Jess, you still sound like you're doing too much running around if you're struggling with energy/iron levels. Do you need biscuits, buns, *and* made dessert? 

Where exactly would you fit work in, btw?!

I'm glad DD seems to be OK now.

QueenJess

themadvix said:

Jess, you still sound like you're doing too much running around if you're struggling with energy/iron levels. Do you need biscuits, buns, *and* made dessert? 

Where exactly would you fit work in, btw?!

I'm glad DD seems to be OK now.

I'm not doing everything at once.  I've looked at what we have left and decided to make Welsh cakes and a leek and potato soup for lunch (with lots of leftovers of course).  I have bits and pieces in the freezers (plus yogurt and ice cream) that we can use for desserts until Friday when I will make a cake for DH's birthday.

I would love not to work, but sadly our expenses are higher than DH's income and in any case I need to add more into my pension.  So, started a bit of a job hunt last night and will do some more later.

themadvix

Glad to hear you’re not doing it all at once. Take care.

QueenJess

Had a bit of a crazy week in all.  Decided to start looking for a job Weds and contacted two people.  Roll on to Friday and I had already gone through a whole set of interviews and been offered a job and I have an interview for another job on Monday.  It's nuts!  Will have to make a decision on those next week as contractual positions are always immediate start jobs.

It was DH's birthday yesterday and we went out for lunch.  I ate so much that it was my only meal that day!  It was a new place that was recommended to us and the food was so good.  I also made DH a chocolate sandwich cake with chocolate buttercream that DS and DD are gorging as if there is no tomorrow.  I don't think it will last long!

Had a brief discussion about money last night with DH as I reminded him the overpayment year for the mortgage is up 31 Jan so if he wanted to put any money in, he may as well do it before then (not that we will get anywhere near the max anyway).  He wanted to keep hold of his money since my job stuff remains unknown and really is a bit of a gamble that I've taken to go self employed.  It's fair enough and I reminded him of what happens with my money (i.e. my back up plans if I cannot find work) and he realised quite how little money I spend on myself.  Anyway, the only reason I mention it is because we are going to an event tomorrow for DH's birthday and he insisted he take a pack lunch because we weren't sure if the cafe sold sufficient food and "it'll save us at least £30 anyway, so it's worth it".  I practically fell over with shock as he's usually very relaxed about spending bits and pieces here and there and always says it isn't worth it to scrimp and save. Maybe my frugal ways are rubbing off on him

Anyway, better get myself to bed now as it's an early start tomorrow and then when we are back and the kids are in bed I should prep for my interview Monday morning as well as write the food shopping list for after the interview.  I am planning on a cheap food shopping week this week after my stock up last week and then next week I will do another stock up with my last voucher to combine it with DS's party food.