museumworker's quest to consign mortgage to history!

museumworker

Courgette - Gherkin - not appreciative of finds? Is he not a mini-MFW in the making? If he started saving now, he could have his house paid off in....:rotfl: [tries to make a serious calculation and stops as mind spins]

TYO - clothes swap!! I went to an organised one a few months ago and it was good fun, there is a website I can link to if you like which lists all the ones going on. Organising your own one sounds fun too

CathT - I quite fancy a rice cooker, although OH has banned me from any more kitchen implements .

Loft is looking amazing now. Insulation in, tackers have been (which means all boarded up floors and ceilings). Plasters due in soon, so not much more left (apart from windows, tiling, plumbing and electrics second fit.... ok, maybe a bit more left!). I strangely think the room looks BIGGER now it is boarded up!

Very cold day at the museum store, have been cracking on with projects as keen to get some proper paid work done. Had friend over for dinner, was fish pie from freezer, she brought wine and pudding and we had a good chin wag. Managed to donate her a duvet and jumper so some decluttering managed too . DD put 5 dresses in the charity bag as well.

Have reserved three ds flips games at toysrus, combines reading with game play - £5 each so got one for dd and one each for two of my nephews. Are £15 each on Amazon, so a good price, and another few gifts sorted . The grabbit thread has been brilliant for Xmas ideas this year.

museumworker

Another grabbit found, £3.99 for wii game - mario bros crash brawl for nephew .

DD is at her dad's now. After work am dashing to the home of MFWs - Fortnum and Mason - :rotfl: for a present for friend's 40th tomorrow. Then am meeting friend to go for free cocktail in Pitcher & Piano, thanks to this weeks newsletter , and am going to pop into a local craft fair on way home to see if can get any more Xmas presents.

OH home tomorrow afternoon :j:j:j

tootallulah

I love Fortnum and Masons, it is a great shopping experience. It sounds like the loft is going well you will be finished for the holidays by the look of it.

museumworker

Yes Toots, all the staff looked like little elves! Loft had better be done for Xmas, as I'm planning to decorate it then! Had free cocktail - and remembered why I never go to Pitcher and Piano! There was glass all over the floor of my cubicle, and when I told the bathroom attendant she said 'I know'. Why doesn't it get cleared up then?

The craft fair was really good, £1 and a free drink, ended up having a fantastic slice of homemade cake for £2 (:o which was my dinner), found a little stocking filler for DD, and have some cards of people I would buy presents from in the future, as most sell on etsy. Spent most of time going round with friend saying - we could make that! I could have a vintage stall! You could sell your framed photos! I would love it give it a go, and maybe with a decluttered house next year I will have the headspace to actually do some crafts!

Plasterers are in today, came at 8.30am :eek:, so even though could have spent whole day in bed, am up and about to go out. My to do list for the weekend:
* [STRIKE]take trolley load of stuff to charity[/STRIKE]
*[STRIKE] visit local fair[/STRIKE]
* [STRIKE]see OH :j[/STRIKE]
* [STRIKE]collect games from toysrus[/STRIKE]
* [STRIKE]change bedlinen[/STRIKE]
* [STRIKE]washload x 3[/STRIKE]
* [STRIKE]40th party this evening[/STRIKE] great fun was had by all
* meal plan for week
* pull together stuff to knit brother's xmas scarf
* declutter 2 x 15 min bursts (I'm hoping for more, but that'll be a start!) have done the shed - took 20 mins, and our skip is looking a lot fuller now
* CPD work (groan) this is going to have to wait
* exercise x 2 does walking round for a couple of hours yesterday count?
* hoover, dust and general tidy
* start writing Xmas cards for overseas friends
* [STRIKE]show OH presents[/STRIKE] and plan the last remaining ones

CathT

Is work almost finished in plasterers are in? That's great! :jThe house we are hoping to buy is a 3 storey so basically the master suite is in the loft, am sure yours will look fab!

Hope you get through your list of jobs. I have such good intentions but not much gets crossed off my list (but I do things I didn't plan!)

Craft fayre sounds good, I am hoping the christmas markets will be starting locally soon. I think once we hit December next week it will feel so christmassy!

museumworker

We have about 3 weeks left, we have to have our new windows in, finish plastering, second fix plumb and electrics, tiling... the end however is in sight and the builder said on Sat if they were still there at Xmas something will have gone terribly wrong. Did the maths with OH yesterday and we have after all of the extras about £600 left, so a small contingency if anything does go wrong (which I hope it doesn't). I hope you do manage to secure the house, you sound very excited about it.

I did manage some things off my list, and other things as you said that weren't on there! Friend's 40th party was great, they were fantastic hosts and served lots of lovely food and drink, met lots of nice people. OH came more or less straight off the flight, and enjoyed it too . We had a lie-in yesterday, not up til 12.30 which is unheard of for us! Went to see the new allotment OH will be sharing with friend, it looks great - lots of work to be done but he is very excited about it, and everyone we met was really friendly. It is literally 5 mins around the corner, so not far to go either. Ground was frozen - as were my toes by the end of the visit - so no work done yesterday.

We decluttered our shed, taking full advantage of the skip outside - gone are old outdoor toys, plastic chairs we never use, bags of ??, old carpet and other debris. The shed stinks of cats/foxes; when we redo the garden (probably 2012) we will replace it with a smaller one with a door to try and avoid that problem! We also tackled some of the cupboards in the kitchen, and have got rid of a slow cooker for one, a set of green earthenware plates we never use, are gifting some collectable espresso cups and a vintage coffee set we also never use, and other bits and bobs are going to charity. I also have a few things to ebay (coffee grinder anyone?), I feel very positive that our house will be decluttered.

I bought a pair of jeans (skinny with slight boot cut at bottom) and a vintage breton style winsdsmoor jumper which need to add to clothes budget (£5.98). My local market was selling 2 thermals for £5, so have been using these this weekend (although they are slightly short, so the search for the perfect thermal continues!). I spent £5.25 on veg at the market, and we are going to run down our freezer supplies to have another cheap week, am hoping £10 all in. Yesterday OH did those reduced lamb shanks in the slow cooker, they were delicious! Does mean we've done well with our food shops in Nov, as over the last 3 weeks I will have only spent about £80! We need every penny we can get at the minute, was thinking about the cost of carpeting, furnishing etc the new rooms last night and my head started spinning so badly I couldn't get to sleep!

Anyway, time to crack on with work. Have good days everyone!

CathT

Everything is going really well with the works then. I think a lto fo us are trying to spend barely anything on food at the moment - perhaps in preparation for the big christmas shop? We never go mad on the food and as we are going out for lunch won't go OTT. I made a big pan of stew yesterday but with this cold weather don't think it will last long!

Good news about the allotment, apparantly there are big waiting lists for them - have you been waiting long? When I first found these diaries in the summer i rmemeber lots of people commenting on home grown fuit and veg. My own tomato crop failed miserably!

museumworker

I find stews and slow cooker meals are so cheap, especially if you make a big batch. My waistline may regret it, but that is Spring's problem! I just want warm filling food at the minute - and lots of it!

We are sharing allotment with friend who has been down on list for 2 1/2 years, there are quite a few around here so lists not as bad as some places! Like you, I do not have green fingers so leave that to OH.

Payday tomorrow :j, and more to put into savings - a bit confused how much as OH was doing some banking magic the other day, but have worked it out as £1,360 this month :j, that will of course get eaten up by building works but is savings nonetheless.

I have bought some snow grip things you put on the bottom of your shoes, I am terrified of falling over and these came recommended from woman at work. £16 inc delivery, although think had £3 in paypal from surveys. The snow was fine this morning as was fresh, but once gets compacted it is really dangerous. I twisted my ankle last year and was in agony for about a week, so anything to avoid that happening!

Met old boss for lunch, cost £10 which I will take out of new pocket money I get tomorrow, having exhausted November's . NSD day yesterday.

[Deleted User]

Hey mw
Good luck with the snow boots- I agree its when it turns to slush the ankles are at risk!
Yep loving the stews and comfort food too at the moment and trying to budget but finding it harder to know what I want even when its cold and dark and horrible getting in for the evening! may need to have a spring of shred at this rate... eeek! :rotfl:
great savings this month!!

tootallulah

Looks like everything is coming together well for you. The loft sounds really exciting. Snow grips are a good idea I am going to look into that. Have you worked out a challenge for next year? I need someone else to be striving!!!