would love to be mortgage free!

Peonie

Wow the bike costs really add up. Your food sounds lovely.

coldcazzie

Yeah sometimes I feel a bit sad thinking about all that money that we could've put towards house renovations or ops.

However, things should be on the up now - it's payday tomorrow and we worked out this evening that even though our tax credits will decrease from April, with the personal tax allowance increase we should work out roughly the same in terms of our incomings, which is reassuring and with our lower bills kicking in next month things should start to right themselves again

coldcazzie

Well... I made a big step today and have set an order to sell up my stocks and withdraw the funds from my 09 ISA. 3 years down the line and it hasn't changed in value so I'm putting it in a cash ISA instead - at least I can guarantee a return that way. Considering where we are at the moment and where I am personally, I am not willing to get involved more deeply with dealing shares, and I need the reassurance of seeing the money increasing, it's definitely the right decision to make.

coldcazzie

Sending big thanks out to Froggy who has sent me a referral for Superpoints - have set my account up so now am sending out some referrals of my own (anyone wants one let me know!)

coldcazzie

Yesterday was a good day got some gardening done, went for a walk with the kids round to a friends for a brew and then to the park (although didn't stay there long as there was a group of 6-8yos from the local school swearing at each other :eek: ), and Lumpy can now officially ride his bike without stabilizers :T :T :T :T

Hopefully more of the same today... having roast duck for dinner tonight which I'm REALLY looking forward to! I love weekends like this hope everyone has a great weekend too!

coldcazzie

Well today I've been around to a friend's, had a catch up which was really nice as I've not seen her in a couple of months.

The weather is just beautiful. I love it like this - sunny, but not too hot. Have the urge to do garden stuff... but at the moment it's being overridden by the urge to do absolutely nothing!

We have lasagna from the freezer for dinner tonight. I bought a double pack of garlic bread, we'll eat one and put the other in the freezer for next time. Think I might break out the ice cream for dessert

Yesterday I filled our water butt up with fishtank water (after watering the raspberries etc), it's now almost full. I asked manwife what he thought about getting another one and he grumbled at me about him needing to pull his finger out re: unfinished projects...so you never know, this year we might get the compost heap sorted and get another water butt!

Peonie

I need to get a water butt. Years ago I bought my dad one and they don't use it for the intended purpose; so you never know I might get his.

coldcazzie

My parents water butt came out of a canal :eek: they're actually surprisingly expensive! It's worth checking out if your local council have any offers on them before you buy one (assuming you can't rehome your parents one) as they can be really good deals - same with compost bins. it's the right time of year for it too - they're often encouraging people to start recycling water and food at this time of year.

coldcazzie

Saying that, I've just been looking at our councils website and the water butts are cheaper at B&Q, which is saying something.... :eek: guess you need to catch them at the right time. Where we used to live we got offers through the door every year of water butts and composters at less than a tenner with free delivery cuz they were really pushing it.

coldcazzie

Yesterday and this morning I've been out digging some more of the garden over, I've a tree peony which needs planting and want to have beds ready for planting out veg.

There's a spot to the right of the steps up to the kids deck where I plan to put the peony which obviously used to be a rockery before it got drowned underneath a thick mess of brambles and buttercups. I clipped all the brambles away and I've dug about a quarter of it out this morning, so far removed 4 large rocks and 2 tub loads of roots and stones and grass/buttercups. Random side note: why is it that whenever you remove turf from your garden there's loads of glass under it?! I don't understand?

Anyway, Giraffe and I went shopping, and spent about £20 on fruit and veg! :eek: definitely can't wait to grow our own! Will add the numbers to my grocery total later.

Still no sign of my tma... I'm starting to wonder if my tutor has fallen ill or something. Hoping to get a good chunk of work done tonight, the nice weather is lovely, but terrible for killing any motivation to sit and read textbooks, type up notes and carry on writing an experimental report! :rotfl: I almost wish it were raining. Almost.