£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

My washing up bowl is still not here. I know you're all on the edge of your seats about that so I thought I'd best keep you updated.

Dining room rearranging went well, the room feels about twice the size. Although was immediately halved by me filling it with airers as apparently it's going to rain tomorrow and i have a laundry mountain to defeat.

Nothing much to report in the way of MSE news... some new essential oils arrived today that I ordered last week, so I'll be making new scented candles at some point this week, probably on the weekend when DH takes the DCs camping.

to do today
1. Feed sourdough. Already done!
2. batch cook soup. Done. Have at least two full meals in the freezer at the minute as well as various frozen veg and stuff - aiming for a teeny weeny top up shop for the last week of the month.
3. meet DS2's new teacher after school. Done, she seems lovely.
4. sew DS1's new badge to his cub uniform. Whoops, not done. Must get it done before his meeting tomorrow.
5. get ahead with regular work to free up time for fast turnaround stuff later this week. Not done amazingly, but a bit of progress.
6. move dining room around. Done, very pleasing.
7. Tidy my bedroom. Half done.

to do this week
1. Order camping gear needed. Done - limited it to new self inflating mat for DH and I and a sleeping bag for DC3 (who never had one while in a cot, but will now she is out on a big bed). That's enough to see us through for now, but will need a single bed for DC3 at some stage (she can share the double bed with DH for the camping trip next weekend as I'm not going). Going to see if I can get through without buying any more equipment this summer, but who knows what will break on the first outing of the year.
2. Continue with cleaning the house thoroughly one room at a time.
3. Make strawberry jam with the big batch of strawberries in the freezer.
4. Order walking boots for me, preferably on sale or with some cashback to take the sting out of it.

Aims for July:
1. Pay some extra off the MBNA card - I'd like this card gone asap.
2. Pay for camping holiday commitments out of self employed income rather than adding to debt.
3. Stick to the budget even more closely than in June!

Week 22: Day 3

11th of the month and I still haven't had to tap any of the savings pots - the savings account still has the £270 in it that it should have. I am smashing my previous records! Maybe soon we'll actually start accumulating savings in practice rather than just in theory. :T

Enjoyed my yoga practice in my new dining room space - one of the reasons for moving things around was to give me an un-carpeted space to practice in. It's been on the things I've been hankering for around the whole extension process, and I suddenly realised I could actually make it happen now, so I'm pleased it's working out.

Tuesdays are always busy round here - I need to make dinner in the morning for this evening (pasties or similar picnic dinner) as we are dashing from club to club after school, and before I can do that I need to nip to the shop for pastry to make the pasties.

to do today
1. bake sourdough.
2. bake flapjacks for school snacks.
3. make pasties
4. finish tidying my bedroom.
5. return a coat I ordered in the sale on a whim (from my actual clothes money pot!) - it's very nice, but not right. Quite a short returns period so need to sort it.
6. Make a small overpayment on the MBNA card - I'd budgeted £50 and the minimum payment is only £39, so I need to pay the extra £11 manually.
7. sew DS1's new badge to his cub uniform.
8. Pack orders for smaller business.
9. Continue rearranging all the stuff I've moved out of the dining room and making space for it - nothing like moving things around to make you realise what's useful and what is just clutter.

to do this week
1. Order camping gear needed. Done - limited it to new self inflating mat for DH and I and a sleeping bag for DC3 (who never had one while in a cot, but will now she is out on a big bed). That's enough to see us through for now, but will need a single bed for DC3 at some stage (she can share the double bed with DH for the camping trip next weekend as I'm not going). Going to see if I can get through without buying any more equipment this summer, but who knows what will break on the first outing of the year.
2. Continue with cleaning the house thoroughly one room at a time.
3. Make strawberry jam with the big batch of strawberries in the freezer.
4. Order walking boots for me, preferably on sale or with some cashback to take the sting out of it.

Aims for July:
1. Pay some extra off the MBNA card - I'd like this card gone asap.
2. Pay for camping holiday commitments out of self employed income rather than adding to debt.
3. Stick to the budget even more closely than in June!

warby68 wrote: »

Tesco have inflatable single beds for £5 ( I know because I just bought one lessthan 12h ago to replace a perished one)

Hiddenidenity wrote: »

^^ Was just coming to post that. Mr T had quite a lot half price yesterday instore x

I have given up on airbeds after destroying one too many. I don't know what we do to them (we are careful!), but cheap or expensive they never seem to last more than one season of camping trips. We are giving self inflating mats a try and hopefully they'll last a little longer.

Kantankrus_Mare wrote: »

Well done on your bargain purchase of washing up bowl! :beer:

Even better news is the fact you have not dibbed into any of your pots!! I am convinced that this is one of the best ways to budget and I use it myself as far as possible (until OH gets involved) :cool:

Loving the fact you have made space for your yoga as well. I started yoga a couple of months ago and am absolutely loving it! Im a member of a gym and do one or two classes a week but would love to do something at home to make it a more regular thing. Do you use online yoga classes? Youtube? Would be interested to hear which you are using as there are soooooooo many on there.....its baffling.
Will have to buy myself a yoga mat though which Ive been thinking about anyway as the thought of how many people use the mats at the gym is a bit gross. :eek:

I do ashtanga yoga, so a little different from many other forms (more dynamic and a strict routine), but because it requires absolutely no though process, no clever props or the ability to attend a regular class, it works well for me. I do a few Mysore sessions (self practice, but the teacher is there to support you) with my teacher every few months but other than that I practice at home six days a week. I like not having to think about what routine to do or to be able to avoid poses I don't like, as it's the same routine every day. I have a Manduka mat which is amazing quality and very robust, but this basic mat is a really good starter one if you don't want to spend loads on the Manduka yet.

whinge of the day
I am having a being-poor-grump today. I really want to buy a load of clear stacking tupperware type boxes for the DCs lego after seeing how well a friend's set worked, but a good sized set (I reckon we need about 15) of half decent clip lid boxes will cost a minimum of £25. Which is a really small sum of money, but in order to find it I'll have to leave another pot short, and I don't have any pots that can go any shorter than they currently are. It's such a first world problem, but I find myself inordinately frustrated that I can't buy a fairly simple storage solution on a whim - instead I have to save up for a measly £25. It is irritating me disproportionately!