1 mortgage, 2 babies, 3 years to be MF, 4 goodness sake!- weezl's diary

weezl74

gallygirl wrote: »

Nice choice of name - where did you get it from, I've only came across it once before? Also, what will you do if he doesn't look like a Kester when he's born (I didn't tell anyone my names as I was afraid they wouldn't 'fit' the baby )

Kester is an old english version of Christopher. Thanks for liking it I think if he looks very different we will be happy to name him differently! I think I'm just such a futures thinking person that I need to refer to the fetus as someone. I find myself saying to DH 'we need to put Fergie's 3-6 month clothes away ready for Kester' and things like that. And it seems a bit weird to call him 'the baby' because medically he's not one, and 'the fetus' sounds really strange and alien.

Bet you wish you hadn't asked now!

Thanks to LP and KH and Bob for reassuring stories of babies turning, and to Ceridwen and ISOM for some interesting herbal tactics for helping! Thanks too, for all the thoughts about mums and other people's judgements of our money choices.

What an interesting debate!

Sian I like what you said about still being alive not having life on hold whilst waiting for a debt/mortgage free life. Thanks for that.

I also wonder if there are ways I keep my life on hold even when not thinking about money. Do you know that way where people say, 'when I'm not single I'll...' 'when I've lost a stone I'll...' 'when I get a new job I'll...' I think I'm guilty of all that!

My thinking on it money-wise is that there's probably a perfect middle ground where there's an appropriate and right amount of 'delay of gratification' balanced with 'living life to the full in the here and now'. Too much delay of gratification = financial meanness and not really living.

Too much 'live for today and live it fully' might lead to overspending resources we don't have.

I wonder philosophically how we each learn to stay in that happy middle place?

ooooh that was deep!

As you were

shaz_mum_of__2

weezl74 wrote: »

:rotfl::rotfl: that's so funny! I think people often give what they like rather than what the receiver likes.... but that takes the biscuit!

Will you lie there with a mudwrap on thinking of all the sausages you could've made?! xxx

My MIL gave us money for xmas .......i used mine to buy the sausage stuffer and a dehydrator..............................and tickets to cirque du soleil in June for us both



Approved foods have lots of fancy teas at the moment

weezl74

shaz_mum_of__2 wrote: »

Approved foods have lots of fancy teas at the moment

D'oh, I just did my order and missed that! Have you seen the 10% discount if you become a member of their facebook group shaz? xxx

Glad you got the sausage stuffer anyway! And enjoy the cirque-wow!

weezl74

Geeky maths about approved foods

ok so I know it's all the rage amongst a lot of the frugalistas on MSE and Nykmedia and all the crew on the inspiring frugal living challenge swear by it, but I've been holding back a bit on ordering from approved foods.

My concerns/downsides:

• I couldn't work out how much of a mark up the £5.85 uk mainland postage charge was on each item, since it is charged on weight of item. I'm still pondering on an easy formula for taking that into consideration!
• Would we manage to use it before the date if it was very close to the date and if we didn't would it really matter? Not to us, but being a bit protective about Kester and Fergus.
• As the choices are a bit limited, would we find enough worth having to warrant the delivery charge?

• How many items would turn out to be out of stock and therefore we'd end up with either weird substitutes or an emptyish delivery.

But today I plucked up courage to give it a whirl!

So I bought:

Goodies Mincemeat with brandy 820g 1 £0.99
CASE PRICE De Identified Sticky Toffee Sponge 10 x 130g tubs 1 £0.99
Buitoni Pasta Express Pennette 500g 3 £1.485
CASE PRICE De Identified Eat Smart Moroccan Style Cous cous snack pot 6 x 60g Blue 2 £1.98
CASE PRICE De Identified Lemon and Coriander Style Couscous 15 x 110g Sachets 1 £0.99
CASE PRICE De Identified Mediterranean Style Tomato Cous Cous 15 x 110g Red 1 £0.99
CASE PRICE De Identified Nut Roast Mix 8 x 150g 1 £0.99
CASE PRICE De Identified Supermarket Golden Vegetable Savoury Rice 15 x 120g Sachets 1 £0.49
CASE PRICE De Identified Supermarket Pasta Shells in a Tomato and Onion Mix 9 x 110g 2 £1.98
De Identified Simmer Soup Creamy Vegetable 59g Sachet 10 £0.99
Zanier Vialone Nano Rice Flavoured for Risotto Primavera 300g 1 £0.80
De Identified Approved Manufacturer - Orange Marmalade - 450g 1 £0.60
Loreto Spanish Olives Pitted Black 4kg 1 £1.49
1 Scholl Party Feet 1

the party feet were free with my order!

initial maths shows this to have been a good value shop. The delivery charge is 40% of my total spend. So in order to make a like-for like comparison, I need to add 40% onto each item to see how it compares to the supermarket. The couscous for example works out as 9.24p per 115g packet once I've added on 40% for delivery.

this equivalent from asda works out as 54.39p for the same amount:



back with more thoughts in a minute

weezl74

Loreto Spanish Olives Pitted Black 4kg £1.49 add 40% to allow for delivery: £2.09

cheapest asda equivalent would be £7.24! :money::money::money:

xxx

mumtoomany

Hi Weezle,
got my approved foods order today.(ordered Christmas eve). I've found it cheeper postage wise to go for the other delivery company. you have to order a lot more but only £7.50 for about 60 kgs. My order was £56.60 of which delivery £7.50 so a much smaller % of total.

The sticky toffee puddings are very good according to DS! Enjoy.

Mumtoomany.

weezl74

mumtoomany wrote: »

Hi Weezle,
got my approved foods order today.(ordered Christmas eve). I've found it cheeper postage wise to go for the other delivery company. you have to order a lot more but only £7.50 for about 60 kgs. My order was £56.60 of which delivery £7.50 so a much smaller % of total.

The sticky toffee puddings are very good according to DS! Enjoy.

Mumtoomany.

thanks mumtoomany! I'll see how I like this order and if we're happy with it all I may well do just that! Do you find it hard to find 60kilos of stuff though? I wonder if I'll struggle to find enough that we'll use...

Sian_the_Green

In_Search_Of_Me wrote: »

ahh well I can beat you both...for those who havent met me (Weezl and shaz have .)..it would be fair to say that excercise is about as enjoyable to me as the dentist...what did my sister give me for Christmas? A years subscription to Zest magasine...I tried to change it but alas, she got it with clubcard points so I cant switch to another mag...what a waste but have to be impressed by her frugalness.

I know that when I e-mailed to ask for a subscription to be cancelld for another magazine they offered me the chance of changing it for another provided by the same publishers, worth asking, they might have something else that you prefer

mumtoomany

Do I find it hard to order 60kg?

Not really, DD2 added a few bits and I tend to buy lots of dried stuff (beans, soup mix etc) it's quite heavy and lasts for ever. The biggest problem is finding somewhere to put it when it arrives! I have 10 food cupboards in the kitchen and another 2 in the utility room, I still struggled to fit it in and have 12 litres of orange juice on the table and several, no MANY items on top of cupboards. Must stop buying food! If the snow carries on I could invite the whole of the forum members for tea and still have food left.

Mumtoomany

Cazzdevil

You're making me feel tremendously guilty Weezl! You've managed to pay more off your mortgage in 2 years than is remaining on my 10 year mortgage! Hmmm... Action stations methinks