Mouche’s adventures with her first mortgage (while coping with her first baby)

Thank you for the offer tootoo, that’s very kind of you. Are you sure you wouldn’t rather sell them on ebay? I’ve just won an auction for four books but if LO enjoys them and wants more, I’ll be in touch!

Pearla, yes, OnePoll is nearly there and it’s all thanks to you really. I’ve been making much more with your technique! Absurdly, I’m probably happier about the OnePoll earnings than the compensation payout!

Another week begins hey-ho. It was a nice weekend though spendy as usual. Almost £60 on groceries! Some of which were not essential but OH insisted. I thought I’d try a different technique with him and suggested we move some things from our overflowing kitchen freezer to the half empty one in the garage. As he did this, he started muttering and eventually said – ‘I don’t think we need to buy too much next weekend – we’ve got more than I realised in here.’ Result!

Lovely Saturday morning with a trip to the playground, followed by feeding the ducks and lunch at McDonalds. Also picked up some Aveeno cream at Boots as I’ve heard good things about it and wanted to try it out for LO. Was pleased to find it is on offer at the moment as would have bought it even if it wasn’t. It’s lovely stuff! Finished off with a visit to Pets at Home to see the fish. I hope some of the crowd there were genuine customers as there seemed to be a lot of people like us with toddlers wanting to see Nemo! Frugal day out and a lovely one.

Sunday was football as usual for LO and then OH wanted to go and buy car seat covers as LO + muddy puddles = black seat back! A few years ago we bought a satnav at Halfords when our old one died. Then I sent the old one off for refurbishing and it came back working fine. So we returned the new one resulting in a refund of about £200 on a Halfords gift card. We never buy stuff there so we have been keeping the card active by buying small bits. The seat covers were therefore effectively free and the card is now almost empty.

Also won a an ebay auction for some books for LO – so another £8 there. Unfortunately our sofas didn’t sell. How do I get rid of them for free?!!!

Chores also went well – finished the ironing, sorted the wardrobes (yes, really!) and found loads of clothes that had ‘disappeared’! Including a whole bag of socks – which are usually a scarce commodity in our house. Maybe because we put them all in a bag and then ‘buried’ it!

Plan for this week:
1. Keep on top of ironing, filing post & tidying downstairs
2. Finish tidying guest bedroom
3. Tidy office
4. List sofas on ebay again + netmums, gumtree and freegle
5. List one item on ebay

Thank you tootoo … I will be in touch if he enjoys the ones I’ve just bought. Last night we tried the Mr. Men books that he enjoyed when he was little – perhaps he enjoyed them a bit too much yesterday. When it was lights-out time, he had a HUGE tantrum, screamed ‘Mummy lights, mummy lights, no sleepy, wanna play’ for about half an hour. Nothing would calm him down (except I presume switching the lights on and letting him play which I wouldn’t do) so I left him to it. I’m sure the neighbours thought I’d locked him in with the lights off (I was there the whole time, touching him so he knew I was there). Eventually he agreed to go to sleep but only in my bed so we compromised on that. Can you tell he will be 2 this week?

£5 on taxi last night and £3.50 on rolls and sandwich today. I did bring in some soup but was starving and knew it wouldn’t be enough to last me all day. I rarely buy food nowadays so I guess it’s ok as a one off.

Have advertised my sofa on freecycle so fingers crossed someone wants it and can collect it. Edit: Someone is coming to get it tomorrow!

The tantrum last night stressed me out so watched Sherlock instead of doing chores! So sad that the series is over – it was fabulous.

Plan for tonight is quick and limited shop for LOs birthday picnic. Then hopefully get some laundry/ ironing done.

Onepoll up to £35.80.

It’s tomorrow tootoo! How old are your two and are they excited? Mine doesn’t really understand but we’re excited. Planning a day out in London for him so fingers crossed the weather isn’t too bad.

OH had to work late unexpectedly last night so another £5 on taxi and no trip to the shops. Hope he can make it on time today as the people are coming to collect the sofa and they are likely to need a hand. He’ll have to go on his own to the supermarket as well to get the bits for the birthday picnic.

OnePoll is up to £36.95!!

Also, I sold a DVD box set on Amazon. I listed it months ago and had forgotten about it – should clear about £9 from that so a nice dent in my £50 challenge for the month.

I’m proud of myself for attacking the chores last night as was on my own with LO and therefore quite tired by the time he finally fell asleep. Did another load of laundry and a batch of ironing. Today’s target is:
1. File post, do laundry, tidy downstairs
2. Tidy guest bedroom

Now I need to focus on not popping to the overpriced coffee shop downstairs to buy a sandwich. I’ve eaten my soup and am still hungry…

Nothing MSE to report today – even OnePoll is being obstinate – am 35p away from payout and there are no surveys today. They’re doing it on purpose!

Actually, there is something to report – I spent £5.20 on a second lunch after I’d eaten my frugal soup. I was just so hungry! Need to do better.

Last night was slightly horrific with several tantrums from LO one of which ended with him being sick all over our bed. Sigh. And then he woke up at 3.30 and spent the rest of the night in our bed. I sleep badly at the best of times – a toddler muttering ‘Mummy out’ and ‘MY pillow’ in his sleep did not help my cause. Yawn.

I did do all the ironing though and there was a LOT of it. So pat on the back me. I HATE ironing. The day I pay off the mortgage, I will pay someone to do it for me (so only another 20 years to go then)!