greent's mfw journey

greent

Hi tattycath - thanks for dropping by! It was good seeing the students last month - won't see them again now until they're home for Xmas :xmastree:

All is good here. On the subject of Xmas, I bought the bird for Xmas dinner today - ys! :rotfl::rotfl:

Good shopping day today - at Sains I used a £3 off £20 voucher, bought items totalling over £8 which I got free with a shopping app (we'll use 3 of them and the foodbank can have the 4th). Everything I bought there was either free (after claiming for it), YS, on offer or I had a voucher for extra N3ctar points for buying it Total before freebies claimed and £3 voucher was £28 and some pence. Tesc0 shop saw me use a giftcard from tcb for £28.50 and £21.50 of expiring CC reward vouchers and I grabbed a good YS haul of things which were on my list anyway :T

Increased our OP sto to BTL wef next month - only by an extra £30/ mth, but it all helps. OH has also opened a SAYE through work - don't think it starts until Jan, but it's all a bit more future-planning I've also been researching pensions for me - and I'm down to a choice of 2, so will make my mind up next week on that - hopefully...… I'm also thinking of applying for a role at DS2's school - it's an ad-hoc one, so hopefully I could still work it around invigilating at DS1's old school..... And the experience would be good for other things when DS3 goes to secondary (next Sept - eek!) I shall email them over the weekend for more details - I'm just going off a message included in the Head's weekly message. I'm not convinced about going for it, but I may dip my toe in the water. I don't want a 'real' job - something ad hoc would suit me just fine - I'd like more work than invigilating gives me, but nothing too regular (I very much want my cake and to eat it, I know! :p)

I've been looking at more FI/RE stuff again of late along with simple lives/ minimalism. Definitely trying to move towards a simpler life - I don't think I could ever be a minimalist in the strict sense, but I know that we have less things and change our things less often than many of our peers.

Karmacat

It's all going super well at your house, then, greent and I'm ever so impressed by you finding a Christmas bird with a ys on at this time of year!

chumpy45

Great bargains GreenT! I do love a YS or money off haul and sounds like you certainly accomplished that. I have been investigating pensions stuff too via the work pension advisor (independent but recommended via work). He is taking for ever to get back to me though. I love The Escape Artist blog - FIRE certainly changes the way you think about things. Enjoy the weekend.

greent

Yes, Karma - I was well chuffed at getting the YS bird! :j:

I also like the Escape Artist, chumpy - I like his style. I'm trying the MAd Fientist at the mo - although it's not grabbing me as much. I've also joined some FI fb00k groups over the past week (hadn't occurred to me to look on fb00k before - doh!) and I'm enjoying finding my way around them, too.


So.… I sent an email on Sunday to DS2's school about the cover supervisor bank role - got a reply saying they were having people in on Weds (today) for an informal chat and inviting me along... I said yes - thinking it was a group chat for all interested parties at first and then deciding it was an informal style interview (I was caught like that before(many years ago!) - went for a chat about a role and got offered the job at the end of it - totally threw me, as I wasn't expecting that) so dressed accordingly. Indeed it was! - sort of informal, but with a spreadsheet of questions/ scenarios they put to me - anyway, I thought I'd done well when at the end (after only 15 mins - allotted time was 30) the assistant head said she'd be delighted to have me as part of the team - so I wasn't overly surprised to get a call with a 'proper' offer this afternoon. Now I just need to tell my boss, before they ask her for a reference! I shall still be invigilating, though, so it's not as though she's losing me at all - I can blank out whole weeks with the other school and say I'm not available for cover work during any exam periods. Pay per hour is slightly better than invig, but there is more travel to DS2's school (it's in the next town)

We have the 'Victorian Xmas Market' starting here tomorrow (about 3 miles away) - full of lots of lovely foody stalls and craft-y things and the like. Many are local traders and almost all are small/ artisan ones. I shall be popping along tomorrow or Friday to have a wander around - I like picking up a few things for gifts from there - they tend to be a little different and I like supporting the smaller businesses It has the advantage of also being close to Sains and Icyland - both of which I need to visit in the next couple of days (for more offers!)

apple_muncher

Yay! You are a proper employed person now, greent. All growed up . Well done.


And the market sounds lovely. Enjoy.

Karmacat

Congratulations, greent! And well sussed

greent

Thank you

Xmas market visited last Fri (sooooo rainy on Thurs - we still have road closures and floods in the county as a result) - bought some mini flavoured gins locally made from sweet potato for my mum (and a wee bottle of sweet potato toffee-apple flavoured moonshine for me ) and some local preserves (marmalades and chilli jams) Resisted all the yummy food stalls to eat for lunch and did my food shopping at Sains and Icyland instead.

This week I've made strawberry and prosecco jam (3 jars for presents, 2 for us) and cherry & plum jam (again 3 for presents, 2 for us) - clears some fruit from the freezer and jars from my stash, too - win:win.

Money-wise.... made a £5 OP to the BTL (every little helps, right? ) and had a flebay sale netting me around £7 (whoo-hoo!) - which has gone to the hol fund. Current account is still looking really good, despite setting up the 2 new accounts@ £400/ mth each. Have spent £99 on dentist appt for me (checkup and hygienist - I don't pay into a monthly plan, as I just go and see them once a year, so it's much cheaper (so far)) All my Xmas shopping so far has been from c/ac except for a family outing a couple of days after Xmas - we used to go to the panto each year, but it's the same 3 recycled year after year and we outgrew it - so this year we're having a family escape rooms visit instead - so instead of watching Sleeping Beauty we're escaping a Zombie Apocalypse :rotfl: :rotfl:

D/w is playing up again.... I don't know whether to get someone in to attempt a repair (again) or just give it up as a bad job Sigh.... at least I have the money in the slush fund if necessary (but I don't want to spend it!!!)

Moneyfordreams

Great news on the job... :T:T

and for keeping Zombies in a job post October :rotfl:

Suffolk_lass

greent wrote: »

Thank you


D/w is playing up again.... I don't know whether to get someone in to attempt a repair (again) or just give it up as a bad job Sigh.... at least I have the money in the slush fund if necessary (but I don't want to spend it!!!)

I don't know how handy you are with maintenance greent but I always have a bit of a go myself first and the UK Whitegoods repair forum has been great for me. Admittedly all W/M and T/D related but I have repaired both, successfully, based on advice from that site - the link is here, if you want to have a look. DH has sorted the D/W and both times it was a tiny object under the catch filter in the bottom. We have been in this house for 15 years next week and we are on our 2nd W/M, 2nd T/D and third D/W - they do seem to have a finite life

greent

Moneyfordreams wrote: »

Great news on the job... :T:T

and for keeping Zombies in a job post October :rotfl:

The kids are all really looking forward to escaping the zombies :D - it's booked for that in-between time between the 25th and 31st and is on a weekday afternoon - so was cheaper than a weekend/ evening booking!:money: - I'm figuring a late start to the day a brunch-y type thing for food (will probably involve Xmas dinner leftovers still - my eldest 2 love Xmas dinner sandwiches/ rolls for the following few days ) and then pootle to the zombie space.

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

I don't know how handy you are with maintenance greent but I always have a bit of a go myself first and the UK Whitegoods repair forum has been great for me. Admittedly all W/M and T/D related but I have repaired both, successfully, based on advice from that site - the link is here, if you want to have a look. DH has sorted the D/W and both times it was a tiny object under the catch filter in the bottom. We have been in this house for 15 years next week and we are on our 2nd W/M, 2nd T/D and third D/W - they do seem to have a finite life

Sadly they do - we've even been told that our family is 'too large' for a domestic WM!:rotfl::rotfl: We do normally have a G00gle for things - and yootoob is also a fab place for how-to videos - I normally can tell the (very friendly and reliable) repair shop (local business in town) what the issue is over the phone if it's something we can't sort ourselves (ie: we can normally diagnose even if we can't repair). We (well, I, tbh) think it's solved for now (thanks to G00gle ) - it's not 100% - but it is almost 5 years old, so I'll allow it a bit of leeway - it's ok if I load it about 80% full, so I'll go with that. OH is sadly waaay too busy at the mo to be fussed with the DW, so the g00gling/ sorting-out was done just by me this time (thankfully it wasn't too hard! )


Almost December!!!!! How did that happen - where did November go? - I seem to have lost around 2 weeks, I reckon! I've had a mad present buying splurge this past couple of weeks (mainly deals/ all price-checked and -where I could- cback obtained/ vouchers and discounts used/ reward cards used) but all within budget and it's been so crazy because DD and DS2 have bdays either side of Xmas and I tend to get all of the kids presents from my mum and then she gives me the money (she never price-checks) so I've had stacks of stuff coming here! I still need to get a few smaller pieces for 3 of the kids (from my mum), 1 small thing (gin chocs from H0telCh0c0lat) for my mum, pretty much everything for DS2 (so double, as his bday is Jan) a book for DS1, a pair of C0nverse for DD and then presents for bestie and her hubby (waiting for inspiration to strike - or it may be desperation if it gets too late! :rotfl::p) Then I think I'm done..... SOunds a lot, but I can knock off a few of those on Sat morning (preferably by clicking beforehand and collecting!) (whilst waiting for DS2 to finish his maths masterclass (their words, not mine!)) and then harass DS2 for some ideas...… And it's all in budget (we honestly don't go crazy - waaay less than most of our friends do with their children and we don't buy for many people nowadays) and mostly from the current account (small amount of spending on 1 CC because they've promised a January gift if I spend a certain figure - but have been paying it off there almost as soon as I've spent it on there, so I think the bill currently stands at just £42 :T)

Ummm… mortgage? (suppose I should mention that on the MFW forum! ) - not much happening there. I'd like to see if I can get the whole thing below £49K by the end of the year (will equate to around £5.8k reduction over the 12 months, I think) but we are having some work done on it and that may impact the payment we make in Dec (depends if the work needs to be paid for in Dec or Jan, basically!)

Oooh - and I need to look at sim-only deals for 4 of us - the company currently pay the mobile bills for OH, myself & DD and I have an old (out of contract) deal for DS1 - as the co is closing totally at end of Jan, I need to get them transferred to us as people. (we will still pay for DD and DS1's whilst they are at uni - seems silly to make them pay if we have to top them up with money anyway... will get DD to pay for her own when she gets a job after uni (which will hopefully be by this time next year - her course finishes mid-late Sept 2020) Probably needs to be with 02 - coverage by all providers is really poor where we live (the next street is fine!) - 02 is the best, but even with them certain rooms in our house are a 'dead' zone:( And the 02 piggy-back ones aren't quite as good as 02 in the house (but fine in the garden!) We don't even live in a proper rural area!