museumworker's quest to consign mortgage to history!

cha97michelle

youtube is amazing for teaching yourself knitting. I still can't get my head round crochet, but as i did teach myself to knit i should be able to do that too when i get some free thought time.

Museum worker. Toots makes a lot of sense. A year is not that long. Look how quick this one is going. Better to be completely healthy before a baby, or you would drive yourself mad. Just think how ill you get now, and then imagine having to feed/change/play with a young baby who can't be left. Also, lack of sleep. Get better and then you will feel ready to tackle anything.

museumworker

toots and chamichelle you are so right, the year will fly by, we are just both a bit sad to have to put it back. I'm young enough, but OH wants to be a dad before 40 and is 38 this year :eek:! I don't really have much choice, the irony is my migraines were really bad 10-12 years ago and went away during and after pregnancy! But a few months of normal family life, being able to go to work and on family days out without having to cancel would be lovely. I just hope the meds work, so I don't spend too much time having to try lots of different types.

toots the dining table sounds lovely, and great wish list. We got a vintage (50s-60s) swedish teak extending dining table and 6 chairs for £300 inc delivery from ebay a few years back, we love them! Looking for a teak side table but not seen quite the right one yet - at least that will fit in the door (but that's another story which left me £100 poorer). Will have to look at the attic42 site (blog?). How do you manage to freelance - do you advertise or do people approach you?

courgette I've been on ravelry, it is a fab site, I just got a bit confused as the american crochet patterns use different terms to the british crochet patterns, and can't always tell which is which! Perhaps if you have a particular pattern you can recommend from there you could post it or pm me?

earthgirl good luck with the knitting, I can only knit scarves but would like to knit other things after this. Let us know what you make!

chamichelle I have watched some crochet videos on youtube but they were going so fast I couldn't keep up! Maybe now I know the basics it will be good to reinforce what I've learnt. Again confused between american and british crochet though.

Not much to add - had very busy tour of the museum store today :j, bit shattered after that but meeting some friends for drinks/food in a couple of hours on the South Bank. Used to work with them 8 years ago but we have kept in touch and meet up a few times a year, am looking forward to it . Will be good use of my personal money .

Checked tcb and have another almost £4 payable, so have claimed that, when lands will be another OP.

Have put a referral to the site up on my facebook page as they are offering a good bonus and I never really do things like that. I should really email my contacts with a link too, one for the weekend I think.

p.s. if anyone reading this diary has not yet joined topcashback, please do pm me for a referral. I can highly recommend it, got £300 back in first year and don't even really shop online much! It won't cost you anything and will help pay £5 off my mortgage

Courgette

I've heard about the US/UK crochet terms problem before. I'm not a crocheted either I'm afraid so couldn't recommend any patterns. Bit rubbish, sorry about that!

museumworker

no worries, it is a very good site and I'm sure when I'm more confident I will use it lots! I should clarify, they actually use the SAME terms but mean different things, which is even worse!

Just checked the salary checker, OH will be £12pm worse off this year than last, with my payrise and tax changes I will be £38pm better off :j! So overall we're winning, if only slightly.

rlc22

Hello mw,

I've not been around much and have just been reading about your run of migraines I hope that the medication helps you out as it sounds like you've had a really rough time of it.

Hopefully you won't have to be on them for long and then you can start thinking about mini-mw's again.

x

museumworker

Thanks for your good wishes rach. Glad to hear you are enjoying your new job, when I'm a bit more together I will catch up with everyone's diaries.

Had good night yesterday, am not drinking much due to medication, and also need to take them not too late so just met the girls for a drink. We had a good old chinwag for almost 2 hours, by which point they were going to go eat - it was 10pm so time for me to head back. Lovely to see them, and hoping to catch up with some of them again over half term. Total spent: £6, a lot less than I thought I would!

Delayed over 50 minutes on the tube today, so annoyed have already put in a claim for a refund from tfl!

Had our monthly mortgage statement through from FD, left it on dining table and OH saw it - he's over the moon about our current balance! He's just been on the phone rabbiting away about how much he wants to OP, how we can save money and OP any little savings... at this rate he'll have a MFW diary too :rotfl:! Great to have a supportive partner though, I admire those who manage to OP without OH on board (or on their own).

Right, must crack on as am determined to finish that blinking article today!

oooh, just did some procastination , and the last article I wrote is now featured on the front cover of a glossy newstand magazine which comes out tomorrow :j:j:j (that makes it sound sooo much more exciting than it is, it is a bit of a specialist publication).

And DD's school will take childcare vouchers :j, so we are going to put up the amount OH has taken from his salary, should save us about £600-800 pa once we have got it all up and running.

museumworker

Had good day at work, much helped by boss buying me lunch, and a meeting hastily moved to the pub so we could enjoy the sunshine .

Passed an M&S on way home, and did some much needed shopping. New shoes for spring/summer, 2 bras, pack of pants and some knee high socks for sock party tomorrow (don't ask!) - have spent £75 :eek:! All however are essential purposes, I've just binned my last 2 bras as they really are no good at all. Shoes for any shoe queens (lula-hula, if you're reading!) are here: http://www.marksandspencer.com/Contemporary-Footglove-Leather-T-Bar-Shoes/dp/B0047RB8K8?ie=UTF8&ref=sr_1_16&nodeId=547477031&sr=1-16&qid=1302291308, have a little bit of a heel but should be able to walk the many miles I do in a day in them, reheel them, and will go with my vintage style clothes . The shoes I lived in last summer I had to bin as my sisters cat sprayed on them - despite my sister liberally dousing them in febreze so I could at least get the train home that left in a hour, they still stunk. These shoes will NOT be left anywhere at my sisters!

OH got paid 2 weekly for some reason, so we have put it ready for mortgage collection on 5 May, and put our may £200 standard OP in now :j!

Have crazy jumble sale to look forward to tomorrow morning, friend is moving in tomorrow afternoon, and have bbq/sock party in the evening. Sunday should be much much more relaxing, thank goodness! Need to up my dose of migraine preventative tonight, so may struggle somewhat to get up tomorrow... hopefully the lure of cheap jumbley bargains will give me that extra incentive I need!

[Deleted User]

Mornin mw
good to have OH on board- I agree it is so much easier and nice to feel you are doing something positive together!
hope the jumble sale went well!! what a lovely way to spend a morning and hope you got some bargains!
shoes look lovely! I used to live in heels but have worn flats for the last several years and dont know if I could get used to heels again so would need some tips on comfortable heels- let me know!
enjoy the bbq- its certainly the weather for it! may I just ask ...what is a sock party??? sounds intriuging!

earthgirl

Hmmm, lovely shoes... I was trying to resist new shoe purchases! Hope the jumble was good?
how are you getting on withthe makeup?

museumworker

Took the shoes on their first outing yesterday and they were very comfy! Heel is barely noticeable. Will wear all day tomorrow though and see how I feel after that!

Jumble was ok, got lots of t-shirts, jumpers and some shorts for DD for £4 which will see us through the summer - mostly H&M but also some next stuff. Got a few pairs of vintage shoes for me, doubt would wear every day, but some evening shoes would wear occasionally, £1 a pair. DD got a crochet circular blanket for her room. With tea, biscuits and drink for DD, entrance fees and some other bits and bobs spent just under a £10, all for a good cause.

Friend moved stuff in, she'll have her first night here today. And sock party was fun, although I drunk too much and I really don't think I'm meant to on these tablets, I have bits of the night I can't remember and that is after 1 bottle of wine and 2 g&ts! I don't think that is such a massive amount to have on a full stomach over several hours, but clearly it didn't agree with me. I also feel pants today, still in bed .

Make-up is fine earthgirl, I'd consider getting them again although I do prefer the bourgeois eyeliner there is not a massive amount of difference. The eyeshadow though is not as good in this colour as in the other ones I have used, it slides off the eyes after several hours so am going to email rimmel to complain.

So today I would like to:
* take DD out on bike / to park
* wash OH's car with DD (she is excited about this!)
* finish de-weeding front garden
* 3 washloads
* put away clean washing
* declutter for 1 hour in spare room
* photograph at least 10 things to put on ebay
* check amazon stock and switch back on
* finish writing article in the evening