Hello everyone, please help AuntieMabel on her mortgage free mission!

CathT

Brodiebobs wrote: »

i cant beleive people would pay £1200 for a buggy!!!

Saying that for my youngest i bought a buggaboo off ebay for £110 with the car seat and everything best thing i ever bought loved it to bits, but was whispered about at the school gates... lol... one nasty mum even said in front of her gang "how'd u afford that on your husbands wage..... must be on credit!!"... cow bag.

I have just paid £170 for a bugaboo, a mamas and papas swing and 2 other good quality fisher price toys. I can't believe people pay full price and up to £1000 for these prams. I do have a lot of friends envious of my bugaboo though. One of my rationale for buying it is that I will probably make a profit when I sell it on!

Kitchen is sounding beautiful, i bet you can't wait until it's completely finished.

SAHMto2boys

Just catching up with your diary, sounds like you are doing great. Really like your thinking that although we all want to be rid of our mortgages, life is for living and enjoying. I'm just about to go back to work after being a SAHM and will be working within the NHS in a specialised unit that does several things as well as end of life care.

Your kitchen sounds wonderful and well worth the money. I had a range cooker in our last house and loved it but the house we live was new and completed so I miss my cooker in this house but the granite worktops are beautiful and I love them (is it sad I enjoy buffing them?!). What colours have you gone for?

AuntieMabel

My DH and I both work for the NHS, me in palliative care and him in neurological rehabilitation, we both enjoy our jobs very much but know how fragile/precious life is and unfortunately are reminded of it on a daily basis. I think this is why I try to get a reasonable balance with the whole MF thing. Yes, I would LOVE to be MF, and am prepared to make some sacrifices to achieve this, but life is there to be lived and enjoyed and if frugality takes precedence over absolutely everything else then I don't think it's a good thing (hope this doesn't make me sound like a wishy washy airy fairy type, cos I'm really not!).

I will get so much enjoyment out of the new kitchen (sad I know, but I love pottering and cooking), that I'm happy to make this investment now we're in a house we will stay in for a considerable time. We've saved for about 18 months inorder to have the amount we wanted to spend and I think it's worth every penny .

Everyone round to AuntieMabel's for tea and cakes :D

BTW granite is uba tuba green (I loved it for the name itself). It's dark, alomost black but has lots of 'texture' in it with flecks of gold, dark green and tiny sparkly bits - not too blingtastic though!!

AuntieMabel

The other day I ordered 4 fab full size net hammocks from play.com at £5 each (free postage + topcashback) for my nephews and neices for birthday presents that are a bit different (and very MS). They came today and are as good as I was expecting them to be, however, each one was packaged in a seperate large box when all 4 of them would have quite easily fitted in one box!?

Is it just me??

What a waste of packaging/money/space

DH wondered what on earth I had been buying

AuntieMabel

Hi Guys,

On nights so lots of MS going on but not much time for MSE!

Found a credit note which expires in June for £42 in my purse which I had sort of forgotten about from some HIDEOUS :eek: pyjamas my auntie bought the boys at Christmas. I re-wrapped a present from Santa to be from her, as I couldn't possibly inflict the PJs on them!! Luckily she isn't the kind of person who would ever check with them whether or not they liked them. I managed to get them back to BHS before they had been reduced so got credit for the full amount. TBH BHS isn't somewhere I usually shop but I'm sure I'll be able to spend it on something . Might see if I can use it for summer stuff for the boys or a few bits for my new kitchen.

Kitchen coming along nicely. Granite worktops getting fitted tomorrow am. Also had people round from flooring shop yesterday to measure up. I had budgeted for Amtico or Karndean but they said the floor's not really suitable for it and have suggested I go for laminate which is about half the price! Will investigate laminate this week as hadn't looked at any as I had chosen the Amtico floor I liked.

Went to a shopping outlet place yesterday to buy 2 suitcases as we are going away at half term. Was very disciplined and despite having a quick look round the other shops, I only came back with suitcases!!

Radish72

I would have only come back with suitcases as I hate window shopping,

BHS are quite good for socks and I like the womans PJ's there.

I also got my Mum some lights for her living room that were a bit different

AuntieMabel

Hi guys,

Haven't posted for a few days as have been SO busy with work, children and co-ordinating final push to get kitchen finished! Joiner is doing the final touches today . I am absolutely delighted with it. Will take a few more weeks to get tiling and flooring etc done but we can move all the stuff that's in boxes all over the house back into it and start using it properly.

Have made my first 'standard' OP since starting my MF diary (the ISA OP was non 'standard'!). Have just OP'd £1000 - whoop whoop :D

Continuing my previous rant about Bristol & West/Bank of Ireland's left hand not knowing what their right hand is doing - they asked me today if I had considered making OP's by any other method other than by debit card over the phone, such as electronic payment?? This is the bank which categorically told me that an electronic payment option was not available about 4 weeks ago. I asked if it was a new service and she said it has been available for years!! :mad:
Anyway, I'm now tooled up with sort code/account number etc for e payments but if I want to pay into sub account 4 which has the higher interest rate I STILL have to phone them up and specify which account I want my e-payment to go into otherwise they will use it for the main account. :mad: Is it just me or do they make an effort to make things as difficult as possible for us MFW??

Hurrah - have made first update to my signature :T

gratefulforhelp_2

Can we have kitchen pics please and any top tips on planning it?

Radish72

£1000 Whoop Whoop indeedy :j

Are they all going to be that big? as it will be gone in no time

AuntieMabel

gratefulforhelp wrote: »

Can we have kitchen pics please and any top tips on planning it?

You certainly can have pics when tis all completely finishes. Still tiling and flooring to do.

My best top tips are deep pan drawers, big floor to ceiling larder cupboard, and cupboards which open from both sides on the peninsular bit so stuff doesn't get lost at the back of the cupboard. Also my joiner has made the cupboards with solid backs not the flimsier, thinner, flexible plywood which was on the ones I've taken out - they had bowed badly and loads of bits and bobs had fallen down the backs of the units.

Planning it involved a big piece of graph paper and scale models of appliances and work tops on little bits of paper (as the cupboards were being hand made, I knew they could be any size I wanted), pics of the bits I liked cut out from magazines, and lots of patience. Also the joiner was great for being totally honest in telling me what and wouldn't work - no flannelling.

I've economised on MDF painted units (the joiner spray painted them off site) which look far more expensive than they are; IKEA door knobs; and using my existing appliances but splashed out (in a very MS way) on granite work tops; a range cooker (bought before the VAT rise and stored in my dining room); ceramic sinks (from an ebay shop) and a big fancy tap (online sale). Also my joiner is a local tradesman who is fabulously talented but charges very reasonably :D

Will tell you the final price when it's all finished