greent's mfw journey

brizzledfw

Glad you're having such a good time of it all. DD settled, Xmas planning, bargain deal on the f/f..you're on fire Well done and long may it continue

greent

Thanks

Phew! - that was a tiring short week!

Has been a spendy day today - Xmas presents for DS3 & DS1, bday present for OH, new PE top for DS3 (Tesc0 cheapy)..... BUT I did manage to get a discount/ cashback on absolutely everything

BTL tenants are on hols - so rent will be a week late, as apparently they can't access online banking there (but can access facebook & WhatsApp....) (where's a rolling eyes smiley when you need one?! ) Will make an OP to mtge when it comes in. I *think* we're on target to OP in the region of £5750 for the year (assuming no surprises)- as my target was less than £3300 I'm happy with that

Temperature has dropped and we've had thunderstorms today. Decidedly Autumnal feeling - and looking - the leaves in the garden are just starting to turn. We still have quite a few tomatoes on plants - I may gather them in later this week and leave them on a windowsill - can always make green tomato chutney if they fail to ripen Still lots of pears on the trees (despite one neighbour helping themselves to loads - I know we said they could, but the amount they've taken.....!! :eek:) and there's still time for the apples to get a little bigger (new trees planted last year) Other than that, all we have is a try of rocket just peeking through - will likely end up being g-pig fodder.

Oooh - I 'shopped' lots from the loft again this week - lots of (new to them ) clothes for DS2 & DS3 have since been washed and ironed :T:money:

Today I've made rolls for lunches this week (I may even make up the rolls (bar salad/ mayo) and label and freeze to save time on a morning & see if any of the boys complain...) I've also made vast amounts of laundry gloop using freebie hotel bars of soap :money: - this (according to friends of the teens) makes me 'weird'

Oh - here comes more rain...... time to start dinner, methinks - hearty chilli (currently in the freezer) with (worthy) brown rice (3kg brown rice brought back from DD's shared kitchen - am determined to use it up! )

x

apple_muncher

You are still mentioning things from dd's shared house and she goes back soon!

smallholdingsister

Thanks for the vouchers offer, we are so very far from there now. Used to live at Cam and so right by it, though I first went as a student and was entranced by the Ruddy ducks.

greent

Haha apple! We are nearly through all of the items brought back from there now All of the cleaning stuff has been used up and I think the kitchen now just has a tin of chickpeas, a pack of chocolate cake mix, some dried fruit and seeds - and 1/2 bottle of evoo left Oh - and brown rice.....

It's that quiet time of the month money-wise..... I want to *do something* 'interesting' with money - and nothing's happening! I have no spare bits to round up and be automatically transferred over as we haven't really been spending (well, I have - but on Xmas stuff and that was mainly with Amaz0n vouchers and paypal, so bank account unaffected) The tenants are on holiday - so the rent is late and won't be paid until they are back (Friday) (grrr) - I will make an OP to BTL mtge then. In the meantime I do have a shiny new calendar which has arrived in the post today (covers 09/17 -01/19) which I shall play with later

Other than that, life is just ticking along. Several small fleabay sales of toys have been made, which is good I just need to motivate myself to list some more items now (more toys - so no money for me - possibly explains my lack of motivation!) DS3 is growing like a weed - 10 pairs of school trousers and shorts taken to school this morning for them to use as spares/ sell - all of which fitted him last term!! :eek: And I got him to try on 5 pairs of jeans this morning (dressing up for Roald Dahl day) - only 1 of which fitted (just!!) DS2's not much better - a try-on of clothes from his wardrobe at the weekend resulted in 2 x jeans, 4 x joggers, 2 x l/s tops and 5 x tshirts being removed! I now have a shopping list of things I could do with to fill a few gaps in their wardrobes (thankfully not that many gaps, as we recently 'shopped' from the loft boxes )
x

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

What a busy life, Greent. It sounds lovely. I have three grown up boys and the days when they were all at home were hard work but such fun. I hope you enjoy every moment. Xxx

greent

Thanks, Squirrel - I try to

Worked yesterday morning - it was the 11+/ grammar school entrance exam here in Glos. Always a tiring morning (groups of competitive 10yos are exhausting!) DS1 was a VIth form volunteer (I say 'volunteer' - they didn't have to do it, but there was a £15 cash incentive!) and then in the afternoon was a Cadet volunteer at the local police station open day (always a popular family event) - so a busy day for him! He is good at volunteering for things, though - he generally volunteers for most community cadet events (other than those which are miles away with no transport arranged)

Tenants came back from hols on Fri, so rent arrived and an OP of £408 duly paid to BTL (strange amount to make it round figures on the mtge! ) It is nice to see that figure creeping downwards - am so glad they've finally added it to online banking :T

Spendy weekend - new shower for our bathroom required - at a cost of £540!! :eek: :eek: (direct like-for-like replacement) The previous replacement part OH ordered (@ £90 - refund obtained yesterday) wasn't applicable in the end - mechanism had seized up and something internal had broken) (Shop told us we are apparently meant to take it apart and 'service' it every year - we weren't aware) Not arriving until later in the week, so will have to use the boys' bathroom shower in the meantime (first world problems....)

Y7 progress Tests tomorrow and Tues at school #2 - that'll be fun...... herding kittens comes to mind! With that in mind, I think I shall take myself off to bed
x

greent

Aaaaaand another week has flown by! Today we delivered DD back to Cardiff - along with a car full of stuff (and we'd already taken stuff there twice before!) Loads of food from the freezer/ fridge/ pantry and a Tesc0 giftcard - should see her sorted for a while! I can now properly sort the freezer etc, as I know none of it is 'in storage' for her, so I can see just what we've got

Beautiful day here. Sadly I didn't get the washing hung out before we went to Cardiff, so had to do it when we got back. Am hopeful that it should get *mostly* dry though. Will have a huuuge pile of ironing form it - inc lots of school uniform and OH's shirts. DS1 is away this weekend on a cadet exped weekend (50k trek involved!) so will have all of his lovely stuff to deal with when he gets back tomorrow too..

OH is looking to do the final lawn mow tomorrow - I've asked him to do it on 'high' so that the g-pigs still get lawn munchings over the winter! If the weather is nice I will finish emptying the pots of Summer bedding (bar one full of nicotianas which are still in full bloom and look (and smell) lovely. I stripped the tomato plants of all green ones on Weds, ready for green bin collection day on Thurs, so they are on a windowsill. Some will ripen, but I shall turn the rest into green tom chutney - my mum is also bringing down her green ones, so I'll split the results with her

This afternoon I have also started off some crème de mures - following the recipe link from fs back in 2015 My neighbour has requested some! and I shall do a couple of small bottles for Xmas presents. I've done one bottle of red wine's worth so far and have enough blackberries for one more - but would like to do a third so am hoping for some fine weather at the beginning of the week so I can get some more from the canal path

I genuinely can't think of any money-related news at all, let alone specific mfw news! It's a week before payday, and all is quiet here on the money front. I am reading up lots about matched betting though - with a plan to dip a tentative toe in the waters of that soon
x

Karmacat

You're an optimist about the grass, then it didn't really stop growing last winter round here! I love the idea of your little guinea pigs still merrily noshing on it though

With both you and betterthan reading up on mb again, I'm going to have to go for it, aren't I

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muddywhitechicken

Yes, that's very optimistic greent... I cut the grass on Friday afternoon and it's already visibly grown!