Hopes and dreams for a new home...

Iris_Blue

No probs! You learn something new every day!

Just been to clarks and got DD some shoes £28. the shop assistant said that the old ones were immaculate and suggested that we put them on ebay - it made me chuckle as that's what I planned to do with them anyway. They've hardly been worn with staying in the house so much.

Also went to Nxt and got the little children some new clothes as baby blue is in 6 month clothes already. I feel that I should dress him now instead of keeping him in babygrows so much .

We spent £48 there and with the £28 spend on DD's shoes that has took us over our monthly clothes budget of £58. It should even out over the year anyway, so I'm not bothered about that.

Froggy-G

Iris

Is there any chance you could find a tall enough ladder to get your gutters done??
Just wondering as I have done mine myself and it was a 20 minutes job front & back of the house..
If you find the ladder, I don't mind popping over to help out if you want?

Froggy

Iris_Blue

Aren't you lovely Froggy!

Thank you but we need them looking at by the roofer anyway as they are leaking near the brackets. I'm also going to ask him for a quote for a roof tidy up as well as cosmetically its a mess but it works o.k . If it isn't broke ....but not everyone sees it that way. If I can do a tidy up on it first then the buyers surveyor may not look at it too closely. OH said that it's only one or two slates that have come away but I'm a worrier and fear the worst.

Froggy-G

No worries, feel free to ask.. I know you have your hand full...:p

Froggy

pammyj74

yeah sorry its bicarb, baking powder has that in it but needs hot water to react apparently.
I havent tried it before so just testing it out.

Iris_Blue

What a gorgeous day! :j

Today , for the first time this year, I plan to hang out some washing outside and save on electricity costs. I'm also going to make some HM tomato soup again to use some squishy tomatoes up and DH can take it to work this week in his flask.

DH is going to watch the football at home so I'm going to sit with him and look at money again and see it I can borrow from a few budgets to OP more as the more we pay now the better with us wanting to move home. I want to get the balance down as much as possible without affecting us too much. Obviously as football is on I won't be able to speak :lipsrseal or move but we'll still be together

DH gets his bonus this month too ( he won't see it though it will be in and out of the bank! ) - I'm excited about it but he said not to get my hopes up as he's only been there 6 months or so so it won't be too big. I can live it hope though!

Iris_Blue

I have a fair few budgets that started in January that will help me keep ahead of unexpected bills. I've always accounted for car insurance, car tax etc which I pay in full when they are due and then start again by putting away for the following year.

In January 2011 I started accounting for everything, birthdays, holidays , haircuts , car/s and house maintenance,dentistry etc instead of using the money out of my left over monthly money.So far, this has worked brilliantly and I'm in front of all my budgets except the clothes, car/s maintenance and birthday /christmas , the first 2 should even out over the year and the b/c one - well I've bought all the presents already in the pre christmas / christmas sales at a fraction of my budget :j Go me - so I just owe that back to my money.

I'm also looking forward to seeing if I keep to these food shopping, clothes & haircut budgets. What a challenge! I don't think I can actually cut the fuel budgets :think: - that ones just there as a guide.

I've just gone through the budget sheet and Op'd what was in our dentist fund My treatments free with my maternity exemption certificate until October so that helps and the children are free so it was only a low budget anyway. Every little helps though hey.

Current Op for March so far is £161.20

Iris_Blue

What a lovely day it is here!

Third lot of washing is currently on the go which I'll put in our super duper energy efficient dryer later. The rest is currently on the line , mostly dry already even the towels.

I've just had good news that the car accident claim we have had going on since 2007 is being paid out in about 7 days. Everything has now been agreed and it wasn't DH fault. It's such a relief to have it coming to an end after all this time.

DH has applied for another job today, his 5th application now in a week. He's back at work today so hopefully he'll have news there about the transfer he's put in.

Approved foods have emailed me about the missing items in my delivery . They have refunded my account and given me 10% back too. Excellant service! We got free milk from them with the order, the mini cartons that you get in meetings..they were fine in our cups of tea for the first day..after that ... _pale_

The roofer man has got back to me...needs a new roof but he said don't bother and split the cost with the buyer if they mention it. Wise man. He said the gutters are a mess and it'll be £50 to clear them , which is pretty cheap going off online prices. I'm happy with that as its a massive job as its a semi, with 3 sides to clear and they have grass growing out of them! I want him to replace the odd slipped slate too.

We walked to the post office , it was so nice to get out ( didn't find any money on the ground though!) I posted my mums birthday card to France which I made myself. I hope she likes it. I've not told her I did it myself, so I'll see what she says about it Mums can be hard to please

gerbiljo

Sounds like uv got plenty to look forward to, well done on your budget cuts, hope the roof gets sorted too

Iris_Blue

I've just been sat here and really had a think about what I could do for lent. I'm not religious and it's not something I want to talk about either but I like the idea of doing something for a period of time,having little goals and Lent is going to be this time for me. Michelle has said on her diary that she's cutting cakes and treats out and it's really made me think ..what could I do ? I've hmmm and arrrr'd and hmmmd and well..there's not much I could give up really. I don't eat much cake or chocolate for it to affect me, don't drink much or smoke at all.

So I've come to a decision to challagne myself for the next 40 days. It isn't really mortgage related but maybe it will give me time in my life to raise money and come up with fresh ideas about the mortgage. So this is what I've decided:

*Excercise 3 times a week. Yes, yes I know I should be doing this anyway but ....

*Tackle one room in the house a day , giving it a good clean/tidy.

*Try and stay off MSE as much and live my OWN life and stop reading about other peoples ( I always was the nosey type )

.. now you may laugh but actually this is a biggy. Just think how difficult this is going to be? 1 solid hour a day should be more than enough time to update my diary and read the others I mainly read and keep up with and after that log off! I can’t read everyone's so why do I try? ..Well I know the answer to that is that we read for any ideas of what WE could actually be doing ourselves, but in reality no one is really doing anything different that what we do already. For me I think it's becoming obsessive and information overload. I'm embarrassed to say that I feed my baby whilst on here..why aren't I looking at him and enjoying him? I feel that I've got my life all wrong

So with that ..I'm offski :rotfl: ....day 1 starts here

Wish me luck!