gratefulforhelp's austerity measures

[Deleted User]

Hi there
good to see you and will be following your journey! lot of great peeps around with good advice and motivation!

pavlovs_dog

welcome to the diary clan grateful :j

XSpender

Hello:wave:

Good luck on your MF journey. I am on maternity leave now and am also trying to cut my shopping bill to help over pay my mortgage.

XS

gratefulforhelp_2

toochoosey wrote: »

ETA....sorry, barged in without realising it was the MFW thread.....OH sorts all that out!!! I'm behind you anyway grateful xx

Tooch you're very welcome and lovely to see you.

The stinkers get you all ways with car insurance don't they? I do pay ours as a lump sum but its a bit painful.

gratefulforhelp_2

XSpender wrote: »

Hello:wave:

Good luck on your MF journey. I am on maternity leave now and am also trying to cut my shopping bill to help over pay my mortgage.

XS

Thanks XSpender, is the little one arrived safely? Or just waiting?

pavlovs_dog wrote: »

welcome to the diary clan grateful :j

Thanks PD

Deleted_User wrote: »

Hi there
good to see you and will be following your journey! lot of great peeps around with good advice and motivation!

Thanks, this site is very inspirational, and lots of great folk around, you're right.

SmlSave

Welcome to MFW grateful

Just popping on to say hi

Courgette

I have a feeling this diary will be a good 'un :T Welcome to this neck of the woods

lav1979

Hi Grateful

Another flylady popping in to say hello and good luck

Currently on mat leave so I'm watching the grocery shopping too.

Not going mad on morg overpayments but try and overpay 50-100 every month which I guess every little bit helps

xxxx

gratefulforhelp_2

Thanks smlsave and lav. courgette how is that little baby?

ooh and lav how is your little baby?

What a mental day. Simple plan, pop out for a bit and home for lunch. Loaded up three pairs of curtains into car (still have no kitchen curtains after 3 1/2 years) plus DDs are doing the bedroom shuffle to free up the smallest bedroom for a nursery, so some decorating going on.

Get to launderette, just catch the guy collecting the dry cleaning (result! normally here you have to wait two weeks to get dry cleaning back), woman in launderette has to weigh curtains, they and DH's wedding suit (he's still wearing it for work in our fifth year of marriage, very MSE) come to £105!!!

On the way, though, I open my post and discover tax office have sent me a cheque (thanks to my ace NUT rep who explained the process to get tax back on union subs) courgette and any other workers at the chalkface, have you done this??? Also did you get discount on union subs for mat leave? You can get six months free if on mat leave for long enough. So that is at least £119, though the forms are hard to understand, and I'm ok at maths...

So far so good, collect script from Boots and drop my mat exemption form into surgery, get back to DH who says "Houston we have a problem" car lights are stuck on full beam and won't turn off...fast track to an eternally flat battery.

So we head into nearest "big" town, drop into garage, they say "leave it with us" so we do, and frogmarch DDs into shopping area

"is it much further, are we nearly there yet, I'm cold et.c et.c"

Get coffee and cake to thaw out (£12 unplanned) and then DH takes them to get their feet measured in Clarks, under instructions not to buy any shoes, since I want to get them when we go to Taunton on Thurs (in Jones Bootmaker, better quality and they have a real rocking horse!) while I pop into Primarni (I know I know) to get 2 pairs fleecy pjs for each DD and a jersey for DD1 who is whingeing extensively about the cold, total spend £20.

Get to Clarks to find DH buying shoes...£30, at least they are quite nice and not tarty.

Waterstones to get DH mum and nephew birthday stuff (from DH's personal budget, we each have £100 per month to spend, he is up to January already)

Smiths to get the girls magazines (£5) and Boots since I have a £5 off no.7 voucher and can't resist nail colour for £1.75.

DH rings and the car is ready, it was a relay £86. I take the girls to a cafe for lunch (£8) how is lunch cheaper than coffee and cake? and DH sprints off to get the car.

Next stop Laura Ashley for paint, their paint is ace, doesn't smell and lovely colours. Normally £24 for 2.5 litres, today £17, yay! Also find two pillowcase to go with DD1's new duvet cover at half price, total spend £50, but normally the paint would have cost that alone.

Off we go to Wickes for floor varnish (we are having girls bedrooms and nursery floors stripped and sanded and varnished) £46. New Argos right next door so pop in for my bounty pack, which is good, but not worth making a separate trip for.

Petrol on the way home, £52.

AAArrrggghhhh! Still hopefully I can look back on today and feel smug about how much I've improved, and most of it is in a good cause, for the modernisation of our house.

I'm thinking next time we remortgage we will do better on the valuation if its in a decent state, last time there was loads of wallpaper off and water running down the sitting room walls.

Tomorrow I will be very MSE and clean, stain and wax the fireplace in DD1's new room with Briwax that has been hanging around forever and some wood cleaner that's also left over. Honest!

eta wake up! I've stopped wittering now.

LilacPixie

i'm exhausted just reading that.