Making the future happen - museumworker's MFW diary Pt 2

[Deleted User]

Sounds like a busy time indeed mw!
I find I can fluctuate between how stressed I get about the business of life and you are definitely right about the attitude/control of stress being a big part of it!
Sorry to hear about your friends and your loss , hope you guys are okay x

museumworker

OH's payday and OP of £818.52 made .

Feeling a bit glum moneywise as we've burnt through money this month. What with my birthday party, DDs birthday and party, home insurance, a wake and a car service we will have spent £1600 this month :eek:! All of these were unavoidable expenses and we did as MSE as we could. However getting a bit frustrated with myself as keep 'popping' into charity shops, spending a little bit here and there each day and our food spends went a bit haywire first few weeks. So thinking of keeping spending diary for a few weeks to get more under control.

But for now, a mental break. Am off up north to visit family and friends, back end of week.

ETA: have hit £10K OP target :j:j! Should cheer up a bit and look at how much I have done. Now hoping to get it to £12K by end of year :eek::rotfl::D

museumworker

I have some sort of flu like bug (perhaps even flu itself) so in bed yesterday (DD was off) and hopefully most of today, although will have to collect DD from school which is 1 hours walking

Anyway, mortgage statement arrived. As at 01/11/2012 new balance is £160,207.54 ! We are in shouting distance of the £15x,xxxs.

Doubt we will be able to OP £12K though as we had to spend £1k on car insurance renewal. We did shop around, but for the excess we had etc it was actually well priced. Need to get our cash reserves back up as they are around the £8.5k mark at the mo.

icklehelen

museumworker wrote: »

I have some sort of flu like bug (perhaps even flu itself) so in bed yesterday (DD was off) and hopefully most of today, although will have to collect DD from school which is 1 hours walking

Anyway, mortgage statement arrived. As at 01/11/2012 new balance is £160,207.54 ! We are in shouting distance of the £15x,xxxs.

Doubt we will be able to OP £12K though as we had to spend £1k on car insurance renewal. We did shop around, but for the excess we had etc it was actually well priced. Need to get our cash reserves back up as they are around the £8.5k mark at the mo.

Hope you're feeling better soon MW! There's been some nasty bugs doing the rounds with flu like symptoms, so (((hugs)))

£1k on car insurance :eek: That seems quite scary - we are a two car household and have spent about £530 insuring both of them this year! Do you drive a hummer/limo?? :rotfl:

Keep up the good work (and diary) seeing the mortgage numbers decrease makes it all worthwhile!!

ickle

museumworker

Limo? I wish, although I don't drive so I could consider OH my chaffeur :rotfl:! I think it is just because we live in London and park on the street, and we have to have fully comp due to value of car. You are very close to your OP target, well done :T. Dreading to think how little OPs we'll be able to make in the next couple of years once childcare kicks in .

Some exciting news - I have some cheques to cash, one from supermarket and another from $cottish pwer refund - from last year, when we moved suppliers! I called and said I can't remember having a refund, and they just said 'oh yes, we'll send you a cheque'! it is for over £100 - if you've ever moved supplier, please please check you had any balances refunded!

Anyway, both cheques together will take me under the £160K barrier - will update once cashed .

Divali, so school closed; taking DD to buy some much needed new pjs, especially as there is a charity pajama day at her school on friday, and her old ones are embarrasingly small :eek:!

I handed in my AMA paperwork yesterday - the amount of work needed to complete them was epic. Coupled with the awful flu/tummy bug I had last week and a visit to the MIL over the weekend I feel exhausted. So relieved it is all in now, am going to have a week off, then start preparing for the panel interview :eek:!

museumworker

STILL waiting for cheques to clear! Have been busy rearranging things in the house and decluttering as much as possible. As regular readers will know, DS is a rubbish sleeper, and has been getting worse of late. Part of the problem is his chronic wind, I am now trying a dairy/soya free diet to see if that will help. I also noticed that he naps for longer when in the middle of my bed - because he throws his arms out, and has been hitting them against the sides of the crib. Was planning to keep him in our room til 6 mths, but decided to move him into his own room. Went through his drawers and bagged up his too small clothes. Managed to clear a drawer for his nappies to fit into, so now the basket we were using to hold them is a toy box in the living room. His room is now a lot clearer, and he has had 2 full nights in the cot. Managed a near record 6 hour sleep on Friday, and 4.5 yesterday :j! Hoping we've turned a corner. Have spent £30 on a baby monitor tho as ours needs batteries for the parent unit -- so to have it on all night means it would likely go flat (and cost a fortune!). Bought a second hand BT one off ebay that is highly recommended (and now obsolete); OH going to pick it up after work one day this week.

DD had friend to sleepover yesterday, she's a lovely child so we've had a really nice relaxed weekend. One of our friend's brought us (a delicious) dinner last night, so we all ate together, played the Logo game, and then we watched the Killing whilst girls pretended to sleep . Today is lovely and bright - OH has taken them both swimming (which is also free) whilst I'm looking after the napping one. Am hoping to do a bit of foraging this afternoon once dropped DD's friend back home.

We had DD's Badger's fair yesterday - took a big bag of things, but did come back with a couple of things , we were very selective. Best buy was a cd/ipod boom box for £5, we can now listen to our music in our bedroom. It also has a remote - god we are so easily impressed :rotfl:! Spent about £12 there all in all which is fine as it is all a good cause. Won family ticket to a farm in Herts in the raffle, so a free day out for us to look forward to .

We've also been offered a free bike from DD's friend who has outgrown it - we were planning to buy her one for Xmas, so very happy about that.

museumworker

Just called FD - had accidentally paid cheques straight into mortgage , £218.39 OP confirmed. That brings us to £159,989.15 :j:j:j!

A NSD yesterday, which is unheard of. Sorted out my massive piles of books that I promise myself I will read, but never get round to, using advice from here: http://www.becomingminimalist.com/breaking-the-sentimental-attachment-to-books/. Checked their value on ama$on, but paperback fiction really isn't worth anything. 30 books down, plus a couple of other bits and bobs donated.

Also looking to do Project 333 http://theproject333.com/, so currently selecting my 33 items, and bagging the rest of my wardrobe up.

Did my exercise class this morning (£2), unfortunately it is situated in a charity shop, so accidentally spent £1.50, on a book and a covo piece of tableware. The book I plan to read and place on ama$on straight away. The bowl was just so cute and shiny I couldn't resist - going to find a home for it now.

Came home to find OH had stripped the fridge of all ready food, thank goodness I had some morrocan lamb soup in the freezer. Yay for batch cooking! The dairy free diet means I need to be quite prepared as harder to eat on the hoof, so to speak.

icklehelen

Good luck with project 333!! Keep us updated with how it goes - I may attempt something similar as my NY resolution as it's something I've been procrastinating about for years!!

ickle

[Deleted User]

Wow mw sounds a busy old time!!
will have a look at project 33 but my bedroom could end up in chaos in the attempt! :rotfl:

museumworker

Thanks both - my bedroom was chaos for about half a day, but now all bagged up. 6 binliners to go under the loft, that is after I cleared out several (5?) when pregnant. And I felt like I have nothing to wear!

icklehelen - give it a go! We can learn from it together - why wait til new year? I reason if I start now I can change my wardrobe over end of Feb, which makes more sense season wise.

Just need to hoover the wardrobe, found some dead moths in there, probably killed from the moth things have had hanging in wardrobe. Am just about to order some heavier duty moth killing stuff to try and finally get on top of my moth issue! We have some holes in the carpet where they've been feasting . Puts me off wool carpets.

A more uplifting house change - after months of nagging our windows have been refitted properly, and a threshold fitted to our back door :j! It really is noticeably warmer downstairs already. Can't wait til we order our floorboard filling stuff, think we'll see a massive difference in how comfortable our house is.