Shortie's DFW Diary

lurvlyloz

well you need a treat now and again

Shortie

OMG.... is it really THAT long ago I updated this? I knew it would be a sheepish return but 2 months??

---

There it is - that's my line drawn in the sand - I'm stepping over it and will try and get into a routine of updating thismuch more often


So, there has been lots going on, and I've stayed relatively on track. I worked really hard to keep out of my buffer one month and with exception of my online banking telling me I'll go £2 overdrawrn this month (I get paid Friday) I've not gone into my buffer the last few months - woo hoo!

Life has been very busy - still in the proces of selling our rental house so that I can pay of debts, and get building work done on our house. That's becoming a bit of a farce now though and I think I've mostly switched off and am leaving to the agent and solictor

With the money from the sale of my Mini we redecorated and refurnished both boys bedrooms - they're super chuffed and yes, ofcourse they are a blooming mess already!

I got Mr Shortie a stonking bargain of a car, but it's newer than what he had and is more fuel efficient. and, after he then sold his old car, he sold it for only £100 less than we paid for the new one (his was a rare car) so happy days there - the car effectively cost only £100!

We've booked a holiday - we have money building up in a savings account and we've not been anywhere for years. So next year is a biggie and we've booked a cruise. We asked both sets of inlaws along too for a family holiday and they both said yes, so quite looking forward to it (even though it is next August, lol). And, the money from the sale of Mr Shortie's old car is now tucked away for holiday spending, as if the OT money I'm getting in my pay of Friday for work I did last month

We've been at kids birthdays and family functions all over the place so not really had much time to switch off but it's nice seeing people.

My eldest has been in and out of planned ops, and more to come as the last one actually did the reverse and put him right back so more of those to come. And now my little one is joining the bandwagon - had an op on Friday of last week and we were then told he might need more

Mr Shortie is, as we speak, trying to sort out our kitchen. I was always our bug bear - it's tiny but also feels grotty regardless of how much cleaner you throw at it. There is no draining board (but we have one in the dingey annex we hate going into - that's the building work we're pallning) and it's totally uninspirational. My folks are having their kitchen redone and were throwing out their sink and worktops so I've rescued that from a trip to the tip and we're reusing the sink (with draining board!!) and some of their worktop to fit into our tiddly kicthen. We're moving the placing of the sink so we should get more usable worksurface from it too - woo hoo!! We're also going to paint the kitchen walls white to make it feel cleaner. We have white units already, so then it'll be white walls, white units and a black worktop

Wow - that was big update!


So, going forward...

I will try and get on this evening and join back into some challenges - I don't follow them religiously but I like to follow them to keep inspired. I've been doing much better at not spending money on lunches in work (and have managed to turn that into a little bit of weight loss as I am now focussing on what I'm bringing in with me), and I hardly ever spend during the week unless I need petrol.

Next month at the moment I don't have any plans for the spare money I have left after my monthlies come out. But then I said that last month and I spend my spare on blinds for the boys rooms, and bathroom that I'd had quoted for at the beginning of the year - whoops!

Oh, and I have got most of my little one's Chrimbo pressies - just on the look out now for something on eBay to finish it off... I know it's early but he pointed most of it out in Tescos (the kids know that Mum and Dad do pressies here, and Santa does the stocking) and it was on sale, so i went back in on my own soon after and grabbed it! And, feeling inspired I raided a box of 'bits' that was in the loft at the weekend and I've got plenty for Santas stocking pressies too - woo hoo! :A

Shortie

Urgh, that didn't go quite to plan.. I knew I havd a tax code change coming but for some stupid reason I thought it took effect next April. We can check our payslips online in work 2 days ahead so I had a nose to see if my overtime made it into my pay. Which it did. Along with my tax code change which stings

I always knew it was coming and I always made sure I had enough cloth to cut so I coukd afford it but I thought it was coming next ywar by which time I would have been in a position to pay off my debts, freeing up what I pay to make the tax code change more bearabke

I can afford it, I'm just going to have to be more careful again with my spare pennies eaxh month. Urgh

Shortie

Okay so the month isn't going quite accroding to plan so far, but it's not bad, not by a long shot

The tax increase hit me quite hard this month (as I say, I knew it was coming, just wasn't expecting it now) and then at the weekend my laptop started to seriously mis-behave. I have a new charger in the post for it but I suspect it may need soldering inside the laptop too.

Oh and I ran the risk of siezing my car's engine on Saturday when the service light came one (I thought it was suddenly feeling ropey), to find when I got to the carpark I was aiming for that I was completely out of oil. I only replaced the whole lot earlier this year during a service - Mr Shortie pointed out to me then that I had practically no oil and I thought it was because I hadn't checked it since I'd bought it. Whooooops. Lesson learnt there to check my oil every few weeks. That and save up to put her in the garage to check out where the oil is going.

Anyway, a quick stop at Wilkos in the shopping place I was at, and I managed to get 1lt of car oil to limp her home on. The nearest Halfords was miles away and I didn't dare even drive her out of the carpark without oil! Anyway, I got her home on the oil I bought (the service light disappeared on the way back so it must have just been that the triggered it) and when Mr Shortie got home later he dug out the oil from the deep dark depths of the shed and she's full again.

Have had to boulster and account that Mr Shortie was buying house bits from by mistake - I wouldhave been spending it anyway I guess, but I didn't realise it was being spent (I thought it was coming from his own account)


Sigh...

But I'm still oing alright as long as there are no big issues between now and next payday that need money thrown at them

Shortie

So, an update.

I get paid the tail end of next week and I still have a little bit of money left. There are two new kid's parties to go to this weekend so my money will stretch to those and some emergency petrol money

Mr Shortie paid out for the vets trip yesterday - our male dog has upped the pee'ing around the house. The vet wants to rule out a water infection (fari enough, good plan) but I think it psycological as he's always been proned to the odd session and I find him rushing out and peeing over the cat's pee now too. I have nooo idea how we will tackle this (hence the vet getting involved) but I do know this - my house is not a toilet. My dogs are a small breed and don't think twice about using the catflap. It's always easiliy accessable too so there is no reason in my mind why he's doing it other than marking territory.

And 'old pud' has lost a lot of weight recently and I got a shok picking him up the other day to discover just how much he'd lost :( I did have a google so I have a suspicion about what it is, but the vet found a lump on his liver - she's hoping it's just a fatty lump and not C - she gave him a shot of antibiotics ans a week to see if he puts any weight on before we start blood tests etc. I felt awful when I realised how skinny he'd become - I've been so preoccupied with so much stuff recently that I didn't notice..

Shortie

Dusts off diary once more (not really sure what I'm achieving with this diary at the mo other than it's interesting to read what has been going on at various points...)

So, infection ruled out for male dog and both dogs (we hav a female too) and the cat go back tomorrow. I think the cat is on his last legs though We were all surprised he survivied the house move last year as he was suddenly looking old then.. but now I've noticed he sometimes walks sideways - gets to where he is aiming at and jumps on the sofa etc just fine, but I wonder if his hips are going too. Well gutted - him and his brother (who was run over a couple of years ago) were our first pets when Mr Shortie and I moved in together

Anyway.. other than impending vets bills, I managed to avoid catastrophe next month after calling the tax office today. I called them last week to enquire about something on a self assessment tax return (yet to be started) and the chap went through figures on the phone with me which was helpful as it confirmed my own workings out weren't completely wrong... I then got a letter on Friday while I was in work to say my tax code was changing :eek::eek: I have the tax money aside in my mortgage account so I can pay it in one lump sum in Jan, but omg, I would sink if they took the tax out monthly as of next month. She's changed it back and kicked off the self assesment process for me so I'm not just waiting for my unique reference code to turn up in the post.

In other news, I'm trying to be really good with work lunches and am eating Mr T Value tinned fruit with yoghurt for breakfast, and Mr T value soups for lunch. Last of the big spenders me, eh? I simply cannot afford to spend much on lunches at the mo if I want to also do bits with the kids too. And I'd rather spend the money making memories and being a cheap skate on my breakfasts and lunches

This weekend my sister is over staying with my folks and she wants to go out for a meal (as she won't be around at Christmas) so I'm going to have to just suck that one up and we'll need to try and be sensible with the meal.. And on Saturday we're taking the kids to the £1 cinema to see Despicable Me 2 , taking sweets and snacks from home, and then going to the soft play nearby as that's free as we have a year's membership

Shortie

Feeling surprising bouyant today (if not also pooped) woo hoo!

£1 cinema tickets booked, so we're off to see Despicable Me 2 tomorrow. I'll haul out the sweets we have tonight and I'll let the boys make up their own pick and mixes, we have a punnet of grapes in the fridge, and we'll make up a couple of small bottle of squash to help keep the costs down. Then one of us will pop to the local cheapie fruit and veg market while the other will take the kids into a local soft play centre (free as we have a year's memebership) - again taking another set of snacks for in there (they don't mind strangely), but we'll buy the jugs of squash in there and guy iin some chips to have with home made sarnies I've got £15 out already to budget of the snacky bits in the soft play centre so that's covered. The fruit and veg will come out of the food shopping purse.

1 week into pay day and so far, bar a team lunch yesterday (only £3 for a hhuuuuuuuge falafel and salad wrap) no unexpected spends which is good - there's usually a queue of things waiting to bit fixed/bought/etc on payday

The dogs we given a clean bill of health so we're looking down the psycology route with the weeing. To give everyone a break, the male dog goes into the dog crate over night or if we are out for a little while - ironically, he seems happier?? Or maybe it's just that I've relaxed more as there are no more puddles round the house, so maybe I just see him as the lovely dog he always has been, rather than the frustrating piddle-machine? Either way, there has been some relief this week from that, thank goodness...

There is a chance I could get a weekend's work in November which will help as it will mean a bit of overtime

I also updated my signature with my repayments, and as small as the change is, it's great to see I'm at 3% now and that my loans are still going down - woo hoo!! Every little bit helps

I'm planning to get some new trainers, possibly tomorrow, as I've got one waterproof pair of shoes left at the mo and they're not fab, and the Karimore trainers I like are on sale for £12 in a nearby sports shop so it seems daft not to grab a pair.

Am also changing my hairstyle again - I've been trying to grow it out from a short spikey hair do - that's be the short spikey hair do I'm thinking of cutting it back into, lol...

And I'm seriously (really seriously) considering getting new tatt My friend drew it for me about 2 years ago but I am still undecided where to put it - the ideal place for it to go is notoriously also one of the most painful so I've been putting it off. And I would need to save to have it done anyway. I have no idea what has gotten into me - I tend to get tatt urges when something fundamental is changing in my outlook on life.. I don't take as much rubbish from people as I used to (which has ruffled a few feathers) so maybe that's it?

Who knows? I'm just loving this super bouyant mood

lurvlyloz

Great to see such a great post!

everything sounds great for you atm.

Whats the tat like?

Shortie

Oh heck, I seem to have fallen out of the swing of updating my diary again I've also not yet updated the Grocery Challenge which isn't like me..

it turned out to be a relatively expensive month in the end, as there were vets bills for our old pud, who then passed away the night before he was due to be PTS - but of course the vets bills for 'sorting things out afterwards' wasn't something I'd planned for this month

The house sales is up and down again.... We were looking to sell the rental house with the tenants in (as they were still in contract, the idea being they would live out the contract with the new landlord and then if he likes them they renew etc..). So we accepted an offer from someone wanting the house asap with the tenants in (great!) who then kicked off the surveys and told us he wanted the tenants out - not great as we've had to then wait out their contract and file a possession order when they didn't move out. But it's okay... the buyer is happy to have the current tenants back in the day after completion, he just doesn't want them or their possessions in on the day of completion :wall:

Anyway, long story short, the current tenants have now found somewhere else to live, were due to move out Friday just gone, the buyer was going to have one last quick look over the house on Saturday and we would then look to exchange and complete asap (or go back on the market if he tries to be an @rse like he has been at every single opportunity so far - I'm a patient person but this guy has really stretched mine so far). Their new property wasn't ready so it's apparently all happening this coming Friday, and the buyer will view this Saturday. Fingers crossed eh?

Thing is.... when this does all finally go through (either with this chap or if we find another buyer) then we'll be debt free, and looking to overpay on the scary-sized mortgage instead :cool:

It's just blooming well getting to the point of excahnge that is proving painful, lol


Still, I've been exercising my creativity ready for a weekend away in 2 weekend's time - it's a big annual 'do' where lots of people meet for a weekend and the Saturday night is a pohs gala dinner, with a charity raffle, and a little gift given to all the women. Anyway.. this year is mine and Mr Shortie's turn to organise it so I'm hand-making the ladies pressies, and also making some table favours for everyone. It's nice to be able to wind down making stuff in the evenings.. Well.. I say 'wind down' but I am known to get frustrated when the stuff won't do what I'm trying to get it to do :rotfl:

Shortie

OOohh hurry up Friday and the Saturday! As far as i've been told my tenants are still set to move out this Friday, meaning the buyer will be going to see it again on Saturday

Fingers crossed it all goes well. The current goalpost getting the tenants moved out... but fingers crossesd the buyer doesn't try and pull yet another trick when he goes to view the house

Either way though, if the house is vacant come Saturday we're either going to be exchanged and completed in a couple of weeks (and I can then pay stuff off to become Debt Free - woo hoo) or we go back on the market... and as it's a vacant property now, we should be able to get more for it (the housing market has increased since we accepted the offer, but also the buyer knows he got it at a good price as there were sitting tenants)

I just want Friday to happen as planned with the house becoming vacant, so that we can then move forward in either direct to sell the darned thing

Patience is clearly not a virtue for me any more with the house sale, lol.