Missy’s Surviving the storm so we can dance in the rain.

ladyholly

I an not beingg funny but why did you have to refund someone who moved away. Thety booked and moving is really not an excuse. The world is full of people who have to return to former places of residence to fulfill an existing appointment. Have you thought of looking at yours t &cs of booking. You seem to be losing a lot of work at short notice.

WinterWarrior

Cats are expensive and I agree I do spend a lot on mine. They are fussy devils, but I love them. They didn’t choose to live with me so I want to make their little lives as happy as possible. I tried to find the cheapest prices for the things they love, but trying to downgrade the food is wasting money as they hate it and are miserable. I realise we are in a very good position that this is possible.

I think banana bread, home made flapjacks, etc. do work out cheaper and you have the added bonus of much less additives. If it’s oven use, then there are things you can make on the hob or microwave eg crispy buns, and I saw a really interesting recipe on the good food website for banana bread and butter pudding that was cooked in the microwave. I’ve not tried it, but it looked interesting. 

@ladyholly has a good point about your t&c’s. Is it possible to add to the small print that refunds only happen when you are at fault, not the client? Or even just 50% back for cancellations? 

missymoo81

You are both right. For future new clients I will update terms and conditions. 

Having an emotional day already, Roos teacher spoke to me and said the boy said he was joking from yesterday. Not sure about that. But hey ho. Have spoken to my sister for the first time in months and we both thought the other wasn’t talking to the other 🤦🏻‍♀️. So stupid.

Am waiting for my first zoom session to start. It’s at 0930. 

Head is full of stuff today, need to empty it. Thanks for reading x

RelievedSheff

Make sure the teachers don't fob off the bullying. 

Elisheba

missymoo81 said:

Hey @RelievedSheff we have two bengals, they eat tinned meat cat food 3 x a day. The big cat is 7kg. So they eat A LOT. We tried giving them biscuits but small cat just vomits all the time and big cat can’t chew them as he’s had to have half of his teeth out. 3 tins last them both 2 days. 

£20 a month is not bad at all.  I'm about the same with my 2, maybe more like £18 but my cats are small ones, and £6 a month on cat litter which they insist upon even though they can go outside! I wish the little monkeys would eat biscuits for more than a meal without getting fed up of them! Would be so much cheaper!

Elisheba

RelievedSheff said:

WinterWarrior said:

I have a big dog and 4 large cats…it’s roughly £200 a month for them 😖 Cats have a mix of sachets, biscuits and their body weight in treats. I shop around, sometimes am*zn is cheapest, sometimes zoopl*s.

Ouch!

That's more than some families spend a month on food 😲

I'm one that definitely spends more on my animals than I do on myself, especially once you factor in insurance and things like that!  Its not that I go without or anything, its just they seem to cost more than me to keep!!!!

missymoo81

hmmm I’m reading through the frugal 2022 thread and people are talking about growing their own. I’ve tried in the past when I had a bigger garden but. With buying compost and pots and seeds I never seemed to make the money back as things would never grow that well, and the things I buy are the cheapest anyway…. So not sure if I could grow enough to make it worthwhile, we go through maybe 700g potatoes a week, a bag of spinach and maybe punnet of tomatoes. Amongst other things but these are more the things u could grow I think. We have a tiny garden so would need to be in troughs and could only maybe have 4-6…… we would have to buy compost as don’t have any. And I couldn’t spend a lot of time on it either.

That are your thoughts? 

Cheery_Daff

I tracked everything I spent on the garden one year at our old house, and everything I saved in terms of food bought, and it was more expensive to grow. BUT some of those things were stuff I wouldn't need to buy again (pots etc), and I was comparing prices to what I would have bought (usually the cheapest supermarket version) rather than what I got (organic, home grown etc, which if I'd bought that would have cost more).

I'd say once you get into the swing of it, you can save - often because you'll do your shopping for tea from the garden, so won't be in the shop as often! But that depends on you actually eating what you'll grow, and the children eating it too.

There's a bit of a learning curve and it can be time consuming. I love pottering in the garden, and it can be done relatively cheaply if you get books about it from the library, get pots etc from freegle, make your own compost, do seed swaps etc but all those things take time.

In reality, it's great as part of a whole lifestyle, but not great as a quick way to save money I don't think. If you're already talking about being too busy, running round after the kids, it'll mainly be you doing the gardening (so adding another thing to your list), everyone else will hate the mud and won't ever do it, then it'll just turn into another chore to be resentful about.

Might be nice to share an allotment, or join a community garden, or yes, grow a few tomatoes and nice herbs on the windowsill. But I wouldn't plan on using it to shave a significant portion off your food budget - far more can be saved by cutting out takeaway drinks, buying lunch at work etc.

Just my opinion- but a fairly considered one after many years of attempting to grow stuff with plenty of space and no kids and still not making much of a dent in the food budget 😂

Other people will have fared better of course - but they'll be spending a fair bit of time...

missymoo81

Wow thank you so much for your lovely reply @Cheery_Daff ! I really Appreciate your thoughts, I don’t think I’d be able to dedicate enough time to it 😢.

Bluegreen143

I would say that if you eat a lot of salad, growing lettuce would save you money and not be too time consuming (and it’s soooooo nice when freshly picked), and growing herbs is very worthwhile too. Soft fruit is more of an investment upfront but very little management required. But in your shoes, being so busy and mainly thinking of saving money, I’d only attempt lettuce/spinach in pots and nothing else.

Also agree with @Cheery_Daff there are other things which save way more! Growing your own is good if you enjoy it and you get better quality stuff, but it’s not a huge money saver IMO.