greent's mfw journey

newgirly

Hi greent, so sorry to hear you dh is out of work at the moment. Thanks goodness you have savings to help, £70 a week for 6 is :eek:
Fingers crossed something comes along soon, and don't forget to pop in and see us

CathT

Good to hear from you. Sorry to hear about DH's job, hope he finds something else soon.

Lois_E

Ouch. £70 a week is peanuts. You must be so glad you've been so MSE in the past and built up that savings buffer. Well done you. :A

Hope he gets something else soon.

greent

Thanks, everyone Yes, JSA is peanuts - we have a BTL property (from which we make jointly about £400 per year, so nothing in real terms) which excludes us from any other benefits because it apparently brings us in an income lol!

However, we'll survive! And we're spending a lot less on fuel without his job - gotta look for some positives!!

HAve OP-d £110 from mortgage pig and cashback site (which I've turned into Tesco clubcard points) so we're still chipping away at it x

greent

Well, another month is here and our mortgage is officially under £40k now - yeay!!(about £39647, I believe ) I'm going to drop our 'standard' OP from next month unless DH gets a job, as OP-ing nearly £1k/ mth when we're only getting an income of £71 (before tax) per week is daft - I don't want to use up too much of our funds at the mo. I wanted to be under £40k this month, though, so left it as it was for this one.

Spends here at this time of year are never easy to keep on the low side... 4 children requiring new shoes, trainers etc and new uniform, pe kit, rugby boots etc... argh!! I shall do that 'lovely' shop in a couple of weeks! I've started on some uniform bits, though. I also had to buy some jeans for DD and DS1 as both have been growing (how very dare they!! lol ) but DD did contribute one of her Xmas gift cards towards some of her jeans purchases

We've been tidying out things whilst DH is off. He bought some new racking (has been wanting to do so for ages) and took advantage of the nice weather a few weeks ago to paint the garage floor (we already had the paint - bought months ago for bargain price from What!) and now our garage is soo much tidier and things all have a place (we did about 6 runs to recycling/ tip and gave a load to scrapman) - and can easily be accessed - it's fantastic! I have two full racks dedicated to excess 'supplies' - bargainacious fabric conditioner, washing powder, d/w tablets, etc on one and food items on another (lots of tinned toms, chick peas, basmati rice, pasta etc) I also tidied out my pantry shelves and discovered a huge supply of cake/ muffin cases and baking things - we're baking lots in the hols lol!

As part of our ongoing clear out I tidied under the stairs cupboard - again! I've listed about a dozen things on ebay (I keep my 'to ebay' stash under there but have neglected it for maybe 6 months or so - very remiss of me...:o:o) I would have done more but it's now not letting me do anything for some reason so I'll try again tomorrow

I've also got a carrier of stuff to go to charity shop (about the 6th one so far these hols) and some other bits went in recycling. And I have 5 binliners full to take to cash4clothes - if I can remember where it is lol!!! :p:p

ooh - on a good news point DS2 learnt how to ride a bike without stabilisers yesterday - yeay!!! So pleased for him. Just need DS3 to get off the trike and try the smallest pushbike (with stabilisers) now - he's small, though, so barely fits it. I want to get rid of the trike though - we bought it for DD's 2nd birthday - she's 16 later this year! It's very battered now and falling apart, but we've certainly had our money's worth!:D:money:

We're going camping next weekend for 8 nights in Devon (booked months ago) - so I hope the weather starts clearing up We have a massive tent to at least hang out in if it's grim, but it's putting it up and taking it down that I want to do in the dry!! My mum is also in the same field in her caravan, as is my aunty in hers, though - so at least the kids can stay in the dry whilst DH and I put it up if it is raining!!

We've also got 3 nights in London booked at the end of August - have ordered tickets for the London Dungeon (only for the 2 big ones and either DH or myself) and Ripley's Believe it Or Not from Clubcard Boost for whilst we're there. We're also going to do The Eye - and lots of museums

On the job front, DH has a third and forth interview booked in with a global insurance co in London. :T It's costing us a fortune in train travel!!! However, he is, apparently, the only candidate to have progressed past the 2nd interview stage and interviews 3 and 4 are with the CEO and another bigwig, so fingers crossed!!!:D:D It will be a pig of a commute, though - he may have to consider staying up there Mon-Fri if it's too much.

Have just heard Capaldi is the 12th Dr Who - I like him as an actor, but am disappointed someone else didn't get it. I quite liked Daniel Rigby for it, personally!

Anyway, sorry for the rambling post - will get a move on and do some housework now!! :rotfl:;)

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Hi Greent, good luck to DH and his interviews :T:T:T

Tilly x x x

greent

Thanks Tilly! He's nervous - but it has to be a good sign that he's the only one to get to this stage.....

My housework involved loading the dishwasher, doing a small amount of non-dw washing up, making a summer fruits roulade (SW friendly) and now I'm importing 'select' songs from free CDs into my iTunes account and then I can get rid of the CDs (we have a new oak sideboard arriving on Tues for the dining room and I want to get rid of unnecessary items before it arrives!)

newgirly

Hi greent, good luck to your dh for the interviews , and also congratulations on getting under 40k :beer:

greent

Rejoined flyladies on here this week - have been busy today as a result

DD at a sleepover tonight - DH collecting her and a friend tomorrow morning - hopefully new sideboard will have arrived before he goes


I ebay item currently has a bid of £5.50 (woo hoo!!!) and I have watchers on a few others - so hopefully may get an extra £10-£20 to OP if the frenzy continues! lol

Am on a using things in the fridge mission this week, as we are away camping from Sat - not too bad, as we can take some things with us, obviously, but I'd like some of the stuff to go before then! Although as I have 2kg of charlotte potatoes I feel that some of them may be left over to go with us - still, hot potato salad is always a good thing, imo - and I can always cook lots for that and keep some plain and cold in the fridge to fry off with a big brunch.... yummy!!

With the using fridge things up in mind, dinner was a sort of ratatouille with chicken in - using up courgette, onions, garlic (very wizened) 2 half chillis (why two halves??), overripe tomatoes from the fridge and aubergine and chicken from the freezer and tinned toms from the huge pile in the garage.... and a big glass of red wine. Yummy - and loads left for another night. Might freeze it and take it with us, thinking about it - would be an easy and tasty meal whilst we're away, then....

Might tackle a small amount of ironing now. Wetaher has been pants today so lots of soggy washing outside and TD on in kitchen.... meh!

x

greent

Had a manic day yesterday - new sideboard delivered for dining room at 8am, so time spent unpacking that, vacuuming, moving old furniture, putting stuff in new piece etc. Then took all old packaging to recycling centre along with some general rubbish (next week is bin collection week and we're away) and 5 bags of clothes to cashforclothes. £16.20 made, so £20 OPd today And I have bids on 3 ebay items now - yeay!!

PLaydate in park yesterday with small 2 and lots of friends - very chilled and as we went straight after lunch we just needed drinks and snacks (I took raisins - others took chocolate and sweets so all bases were covered!) Then party for 2 yo son of a friend - and then plans changed as a pregnant friend of ours had a car accident. Thankfully she and baby are ok, but the evening was changed as a result (I'm not complaining in any way- that's what friends are for) and we were all shattered from it. Main thing though is that she's fine xx

DH in London today - left 7.30am and home about 9pm I think 3 of the children are still in bed, so am going to wake them now. I have 3rd load of washing in the machine and am going to tackle some of my kitchen when they are up and have eaten Also need to do some top up food shopping.... again!