Memorygirls - Make Do and Mend

Memory_Girl

Today is going to be a busy one - hospital runs and all.

Gong to have to be my mad 15 minute bursts when I get home to get everything done.

The first job - apart from feeding the littlies - was to grab a workbasket and throw a selection of bright and cheery wools into it - find a size 4mm and 4.5mm crochet hook and dump it by my sofa for cosy crafting this evening. - DONE!!!!

Got a few minutes left - so pop a mix of bread into the breadmaker - DONE!!!

Throw all my saved plastic bottles into the garden ready for cutting them down into mini -cloches - DONE!!!!

Make the bed - OOps!!! Well there was a baby in there the last time I was in the room (I've not lost him he's now sitting eating cereal)!!!!!

Throw bits of laundry into the washing machine - DONE!!!!

Whew! is it just me or is it getting hot in here??

Made frozen strawberry yogurt last night to show my biggest DS how the machine works - the mix makes four huge soup bowls worth, so instead of being pigs he ran down to invite the neighbours in to sample some (well they gifted us the strawwberries in the first place) A hit all round.

I can feel a happy hour surfing the net looking for scrummy ice-cream recipes - does anyone know if you can make your own "sugar-cones"??? we have a penny jar that we use to save for the summer holidays (then from the summer we use it to save for Xmas Holidays) - it's usually referrred to as "The Ice-cream Fund" or "The Snowman Fund" - DS spent ages looking at it last night and asked - if we made our own ice-cream - how much could we make??

Gallons probably - theres over £80 in there!!

Off to get the baby dressed and get the school run over and done with.

I'll be back

Memorygirl

PS NSD yesterday so off to do my signature

cha97michelle

I love it that you found someone to fix the ice cream maker. Too often people tell you it can't be done don't they and it is such a waste.

I made my own simple ice cream from some brown bananas, a broken bar of tesco plain chocolate at about 27 p, some leftover cheap double cream, a bit of milk and a bit of caster sugar. I only have an electric hand blender, and that worked fine enough and it was gorgeous. It is a bit hard when you first take it out but once the ice crystals melt a bit the kids love it. I will definitely be trying to do it again.

The ice cream man costs can be extortionate, although we have a cheap frozen food place up the road and they were doing 30 football ice creams for a £1 the other day. Nice to have in.

Memory_Girl

Ooh Michelle - banana ice-cream - I'm definitely going to give that a try.

Just delivered my "thank you" tub of frozen strawberry yogurt - very jealous electricians when I presented him the pot. Mind you it's been pretty warm today.:beer:

Had a bit of luck on the school front today - got myself onto the Kaye Adams show on Radio Scotland:j - they were dong a bit on Education. Only ended up talking with the Secretary of State for Education and life-long Learning. :TJust finished contacting his office to get a full meeting - so fingers crossed that happens soon - cos we are homelss in 39 days (the school that is not me and the boys - so no panics please)

All my guests have now gone home - time to rustle up a quick something for me and the boys and get up bright n early in the morning to put our home back together.

Not a NSD - spent 39p on a bottle of LIDL diet coke. But after an airport run - and my media coup:p I think I deserve somehting cold and fizzy. Seeing as champagne is out of my budget I shall settle for the other stuff.

Happy evening peeps

Food, baths, bed and some crochet methinks. Wonder whats on the telly later??

Memorygirl

Lemon_Tree

oh i'm so jealous of the ice cream maker, but it's probably good for my diet that we don't have one. Glad to see you're doing so well.

Clootiesmum had to laugh about the drunk chicken, wish i could have seen that. I so want chucks but we don't have the space in the garden, one day......

Memory_Girl

Got to venture into the wilds of Mr T at the end of the school run today.

I've got Healthy Start vouchers that i can use to get some milk and fruit - with my £3.50 Tesco's points voucher to maybe treat ourselves to a cheap piece of meat that can be "rubberised" I'm thinking brisket or something.

I know we are told to save the vouchers for other things - but TBH the days out vouchers would cost a fortune in petrol to use and there is nothing in the Clubcard deals that I would havein preference to my kids having full bellies (right down off my soapbox:rotfl:) Repeat after me Memorygirl - "you are skint you are not broke" - I guess there is a whole lot of difference between the two.

Got gifted some tomato plants off freecycle yesterday - yipee. They are yellow cherry tomato and will make a welcome addition to our diet later in the year. Must get out into the garden and do some more seeding today.

Time to put the house to rights, plant my garden and get set getting crafty for Christmas:D I know we haven't even got to the summer holidays yet, but I want my house to be running smoothly by the holidays so that I can enjoy my time with the boys - and when they are off for playdates with Grandma I can get stuck into the writing and crafting.

OK - Breadmaker on with Sultana Loaf
Washing machine on
Packed Lunch done (nearly)
Breakfast served and cleaned up
Bed made
Bags for shopping
Menu plan and shopping list done
Hoover pulled out and left in obvious "falling over all day" place so that I can give the downstairs a quick zip over when I get back in.

Then - well time to create my financial plan for the next 5 years - or at least start:

?????????????????
I will be back to work - need to decide when and where
What can I do now
What can I trim from the budget to create breathing space
How much can I ovepay the bank by to get rid of their debt
Where to stash any mortgage overpayments inthe meantime
?????????????????

All thos kind of random things need to pinned down, answerred and a plan stuck in place.

Firstly - fingers crossed for a cheap visit to mr T's

Memorygirl

carebabe

mmmm lovely..........all that ice cream mg and michelle. just sent off my last essay for OU course this am. off to relax by varnishing the back door. lol

Memory_Girl

carebabe wrote: »

mmmm lovely..........all that ice cream mg and michelle. just sent off my last essay for OU course this am. off to relax by varnishing the back door. lol

Ooh!! Just been round to a friends for a celebratory pot of coffee and chocolate muffing as she's sent off her last one too. Shes doing Childrens Literature and TBH I think shes glad its over.

Loads happening - first the frugal stuff. Did a shop of "missing bits" to take me through the last weeks of this challenge - including coffee (Nescafe reduced to £2.49 for 200g) and nappies (Lidl own brand). Got he pricley sum of £9.69 left of the challenge money so I now feel "properly skint":(

Although on the plus side:

ClootiesMum alcoholic chooks have donated a dozen eggies - kids are chuffed to bits to have eggie tea (toast n eggs) followed by jelly and ice-cream. Overheard the eldest say to the baby that these are "happy eggs" from "Happy Chickens" - they should be if they are drinking all of ClootieMums wine - :rotfl::rotfl:

I should get some more Healthy Start vouchers in the post soon - so that really does help us keep topped up with milk and fruit.

We are an ice-cream maker up on the month - and I've dug out the old lolly makers and filled them to pop in the freezer as a sweet treat for later.

The fridge, freezer and cupboards are still pretty well stocked. I heard a mysterious scrabbling in the cupboard off my room at about 2am. EeeK!!!! Mice!!!!! But I knew where the traps were - so got up, set one, got back into bed and about 20 minutes later heard -SNAP!!!!! Gotcha!! I thought!! Then I began to feel guilty about it maybe not being dead and suffering so I got up to check and ended up putting it out in the bin(it was dead) in my jammies at quarter to three.

How MSE - not being willing to share your food with a wee moose;). Had to give the 2 cats a talking to this morning about earning their keep or paying rent though :rotfl:

Still on the case about moving the school into a new home - hopefully have something really exciting to tell you all tomorrow - I mean jump up and down exciting too:j - see??

This afternoon I am mostly - Gardening. Cos it really needs it too. Baby is inside with a bowl of noodles for lunch and a "Singing Kettle" video so I should have a twenty productive minute window.

Started to crochet last night - cushion covers to go with patchwork cushions from ClootiesMum. Going to have a really snuggly home by Christmas by hook or by crook.

Off to sow some salad bits in my "Dig for Victory" garden.

Later ladies

Memorygirl

ClootiesMum

Glad the eggies went to a good home.....

Seriously looking forward to the update tomorrow regarding the school. Good luck.

Enjoy the gardening.

CM

Memory_Girl

I've been having a think whilst out in the garden - throwing smails over the fence into the wilderness beer garden next door.

One of the things I would love to do is pay off my mortgage. But seeing as I am only on basic benefits and the bank is playing silly beggars I've kind of been ignoring the issue and not setting any goals or making any plans.

Now the mortgage is a biggie £126K with £124 left outstanding. Its too big a number for me to get my head around. Its a "someday if I win the lottery" kind of number - scuppered by the fact I never do the lottery:p

So I could pay off

1 x £124000 not likely
10X £12400 ten years of income :eek:
100 X £1240 not so scary a number - but still a bit OR

1000 X £124 now thats a number I can actually visualise:j

So to pay off my mortgage I only have to come up with 1000 ways to make / earn / save £124 in the next 23 years (or sooner cos thats the plan). Thats beginning to feel like a plan I could play with ..........


.................... but then I thought ............. could I make it a game for myself by constantly upping the challenge. Could I start paying off in percentages - playing a game of "double or quits" with myself.

Y1 1% £1240
Y2 2% £2480
Y3 4% £4960
Y4 8% £9920
Y5 16% £19840
Y6 32% £39680
Y7 64% £78120
Y8 balance £6200

No idea how I would do that - some of those numbers look pretty scary at the moment, so the first thing I need to look at is my attitude to abundance - open up my thinking about "how?" money can be generated in the future.

In the meantime 1000 x £124 it is. Think I will draw up a chart to pin in my kitchen with 1000 boxes for 1000 ideas for generating £124.

Time to get my thinking cap on.

Memorygirl

:j:jIn 1000 Payments this house will be mine:j:j

ClootiesMum

1000 X £124 now thats a number I can actually visualise

Excuse me for saying - but WHAT A BLOODY BRILLIANT IDEA

Do you mind if I steal this?