Getting back on track for 2013 and beyond

kerri_dfw

They are fab kits, just spoke to my Dad about it and even he is surprised as he thought they were really nice presents. I told him that at least I know what to get him for Christmas and I reckon I could probably make the kits myself for a fraction of the price. We're going to grow these ones in our kitchen window, if there's some spare seeds in the packs then I'll make you some pots up and you can have them when we next meet up

Scan was ok, she's just curled up in there and I apparently don't have the "usual layer of fat"...feeling like I can't really say anything about it on the book of face as I'm the tiniest of most of the women I know and I've found it seems to be a touchy subject.


We're meant to be going to a fluoride talk this evening, however I am completely shattered. I want us to make aubergine parmigiano or a veggie cottage pie this evening, I'm not sure I have the energy for both


Have totted up interest and moved some more money into my online saving account, am more than over 5% now although that might drop back to 5% if I need some extra pennies towards the baby things at the show on Sunday.


Ooh I am going to go for a coffee with a girl that lives nearby, she's due beginning of December. This is quite a scary thing for me to do as I'm still quite nervous about meeting new people, but needs must and baby needs to have baby friends and I need some girly friends so I don't go completely mental haha.

brizzledfw

Ooh please..that's a good excuse to catch up. I made apple pastries today..bit of a cheat as I bought the puff pastry but just put on some sliced apple ( with lemon, water, ginger cinnamon and sugar) ..delicious. Will bring some round when I do as still drowning in apples..it's great

Pleased to read about the finances. You are such a good place. Also nice to see you are catching up wth other peeps. You will go spare otherwise. So it's good to get to know people now.

debtfreewannabe321

:dance::dance::dance: I don't know, I go offline for a few days and you've become debt-free!!!! Yay!!!! :j

P.s are you really a size 4 :eek: you sound like my sister she was a size 8 when she was nearly ready to drop :eek:

Hope tiredness isn't too bad xxx

kerri_dfw

brizzledfw wrote: »

Ooh please..that's a good excuse to catch up. I made apple pastries today..bit of a cheat as I bought the puff pastry but just put on some sliced apple ( with lemon, water, ginger cinnamon and sugar) ..delicious. Will bring some round when I do as still drowning in apples..it's great

Pleased to read about the finances. You are such a good place. Also nice to see you are catching up wth other peeps. You will go spare otherwise. So it's good to get to know people now.

Ooh those pastries sound yummy Let me know when you're free and I can come over to you this time if you like? I only have 5 more weeks of work woooohooooo :T:T:T

debtfreewannabe321 wrote: »

:dance::dance::dance: I don't know, I go offline for a few days and you've become debt-free!!!! Yay!!!! :j

P.s are you really a size 4 :eek: you sound like my sister she was a size 8 when she was nearly ready to drop :eek:

Hope tiredness isn't too bad xxx

Yes you missed all the excitement, I was doing the finger dance and everything round the bedroom then took the OH to the pub to tell him over my first debt-free bought pint, I had a J20 and a sundae though
No I am a size 8, the shops have the sizings all wrong. I refuse to be a size 4 it's just ridiculous. I'm not a stick! grrr.


Well have had an email through this morning from the people we bought our beds and some furniture from, they make all their own furniture and it's handmade super duper quality. They're offering bonds at 7.5% for 3 years, so I'm going to sink £1000 into that with a return post-tax of £60 per year paid 6 monthly. I'm also going to see if OH will invest £10-20k into the bonds as well as it'll give him a nice £600-£1200 a year return if he does and will lock away the cash so he can't spend it. I've looked at the companies financials and they look healthy, their reputation is outstanding and their sales come from word of mouth or repeat customers, like us


Last night we made a yummy veggie cottage pie, recipe here: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/10035/golden-veggie-shepherds-pie absolutely delicious and we managed to make 12 portions. We ate 2, froze 7, OH has taken 1 to work, and the other two we're going to make into 3 portions with some broccoli, peas & sweetcorn and feed to my Mum tomorrow when she comes to visit. Considering I've never eaten a lentil cottage pie before, I was surprisingly pleased with the results. We did have to use the pressure cooker pan to make the big batch though as we didn't have a pan big enough. I now have a HUGE sink full of dishes to sort out from last night, however I was too tired yesterday evening to even think about doing it then.


I'm craving a banana & custard pie, I might have to make one as I believe we still have some jam left in the fridge mmmm banana pie yummy. Luckily today is a quiet day in work without any conference calls, so I might just be able to get the kitchen sorted and make an aubergine parmigiana for dinner before OH gets home.


Oh and I've been a really good girl, I want to upgrade our towels and get a couple of new pillows for the bedroom as some of ours have had it now. However, I am just oggling them and not buying them (probably because one bath sheet costs £44!!!) I am not allowed to buy until I've seen how much overtime I'm getting paid this month. I'm allowing myself anything over £2400 as "play money" to buy things for the house. If I don't make anything over that then I'm not allowed to play


Had some more fleabay sales last night, so need to pop off and package those up in a bit. Will transfer the money across now and shove it in a savings account I also invested another £100 into a 10% P2P loan yesterday, it's a lend to let so the money is secured on property. I'm finding this money saving all rather interesting, especially as my portfolio of investments is diversifying.

debtfreewannabe321

everything is sounding fabuloso! Good idea putting money away where OH can't touch it I've been eyeing up too much stuff for the house lately thing is most of it does need buying so i've been trying to be good and just buy a few things each month! I'd love some new towels too, my mother bought my last ones when I bought my first house over 10 years ago she spent a fortune on them in JLewis and they are only just getting holey and past the soft stage now (some people like a rough towel, but by 'eck they're getting a little too rough now lol) so they are on my list. Perhaps i'll get a few each month or something, spread the cost ...and it's a good chance to change the colour too i've had baby blue for 10 years now and am bored I fancy a hot pink, don't think the 3 boys/men in the house will appreciate that one though

kerri_dfw

Well having spoken to OH have decided he should invest between £2-5k in the bond as that's the most we can afford to lose over the 3yrs. Other people on the investments board have said you should just chuck it into a savings account, but I like a bit of a gamble. This weekend we're going to sit down and open different accounts for him to stash the cash in.

Have got myself a new number for the DFBX13 challenge, I'm going to save up the £4600 I used to pay off my debts with. I'm almost halfway there now and I keep adding my fleabay sales to the pots.


Mum is coming up today and she's going to pop to town on the way up to get the lovely jumper I want. I've had some more clothes arrive today, although I'm unsure about two of the jumpers. I'm going to keep the two vest tops though, they're two for £12 and I look pregnant in them! So far all I've kept is a couple of tops and one jumper. I really like the cream one that arrived today, but will get Mum or OH to judge it for me as I'm not 100% sure whether it's my colour or not as I never wear cream.


Have had a message back from the lady that's due in January, she literally lives around the corner although she is due the end of Jan. I'm quite excited about meeting someone else, we seem to have some common ground especially a love of belgium buns. She's suggested we meet for coffee down the road Saturday morning so I'm going to take her up on that


Moneywise, this weekend is our biggest spend on the baby yet. We're getting pushchair, car seat, nappies, wrap sling, and need to try to find a mattress for the cot. Then we can finally stop and be happy that it's all completely finished and ready for her. Other than that nothing needs buying, food budget is on track for the month, and our cooking this week has involved a cottage pie that served 12!!! and aubergine parmigiana that served 4. Freezer is stocking up whoop whoop.


OH and I had a chat at the weekend about Christmas day, we've decided we're going to go to the local W3therspoons for lunch, no washing up involved and we can have a 3 course meal. It's a 2 minute walk up the road and at 39w pregnant I don't want to be slaving over the cooker, nor do I want to have to wash up afterwards. So for £34.99 each we can have a yummy 3 course meal, I can have turkey and OH can have veggie, and we get pudding. It might also include some kind of drink and best of all it is completely stress free yay!!! My parents are coming up on Boxing Day so we'll get some nibbles and things in for then and make sure we have something pre-cooked in the freezer to heat up and feed them. No idea what OH's Mum is doing for Christmas, last year we invited her and she decided she wasn't going to come up last minute. Absolutely noone is to come up and stay until the baby is born, they've been forewarned.


Right, best get onto the next conference call

brizzledfw

Great to hear how your plans are coming along. The portfolio sounds very good! Like it, just remember that you might lose it so don't have too many high risk investments about the place.

Going out to Xmas dinner also sounds sensible..not sure yet we are doing but I am also veering towards a low stress option!

Work a bit crazy at moment but will PM you with some possible dates!

kerri_dfw

well I'm off to the office today *yawn* OH decided to wake me in the middle of the night because I was breathing too loud (!!!) So I'm super duper tired and I should be leaving right now but I'm still sat here in a towel having just got out the shower, so I shall just get there a bit later nevermind. Will use the opportunity to fill the car with loads of fuel ahead of Sunday.

I'm starting to think we should park the car somewhere in Twickenham and then tube it across to Kensington, although if we do then make the big purchases will that mean we have to take them on the tube back to Twickenham? Maybe I'll let go of the super scrimping on this one occasion in favour of ease of transport. Hmm parking is £15, I think that's probably going to be cheaper than the tube for the two of us anyway or there won't be too much in it. I guess if we're one of the first through the door at 9:30am then it won't take us as long to go round. Although we'll have to leave about 7am...it's going to be a Loooooong day but hopefully it'll be worth it to get all the things we need and I can take the OH out for lunch.


Right, it's now 10mins later than when I started writing this so I really should get my bottom into gear. Going to take a jumper back that doesn't look right, giving me £42 back, on the way home tonight so that should bump my figures over the £2k saved mark Had some more fleabay orders last night, but they can be posted tomorrow as I don't have time today and it does say within 24hrs so will just package tonight and mark as dispatched


Brizzled...I'm not putting anymore money into risky investments don't worry. I need to be putting money aside now for when the baby is here and my wages drop, so investing it where I can't get to it won't be a good idea. I'll just shove everything now into my Ll0yds Vantage account to try to get it up to the £3k mark for the 3% interest


Right best go x

kerri_dfw

Well today I have spent £3.85 but earned over £10 from fleabay sales that has gone into a "fleabay stock" savings account, as I think I need to diversify my 20 items of stock a little. Although I am trying to sell it off to make room in the dining room, I quite like having something to get me out of the house for each day and it's something little one and I can do together. It doesn't really take up too much of my time either so no reason to stop. I've decided that I need to have a good pot before I go buying anymore stock though and I now have a good idea of what sells.

I'm off out to Clifton in a minute to meet OH for dinner. He's meeting his ex, who also happens to be the sister of the girl he was sleeping with when he got it together with me. He ditched her and stayed with me, although I have a feeling he told her he wasn't interested in a relationship at the time....now look at him 3 years later and a baby on the way hahahaha I've changed him!!!

OH is going to buy the dinner and I've just hunted down some free parking so I'll go park there, I don't mind a walk if it means I don't have to pay. Although I have done my hair extra nice as I am feeling rather pregnant so wanted to actually make an effort.

Hope you all have lovely weekends if I don't speak to you before then x

kerri_dfw

Flying in before I rest my weary head as today has been HECTIC!!! But it's been really MSE (well if you call spending close to £1100 MSE anyway).

£480 (RRP £820) - pushchair, carrycot, colour pack, liner, bamboo baby nest, changing bag£100 (RRP £165) - car seat to go only in the car as doesn't fit the pushchair anyway and hello it's called a car seat for a reason
£175 - isofix base (full price as it's brand new out in Dec/Jan)
£30 (RRP £39.99) - reusable wipes kit
£300 (RRP £396.80) - 20 x all-in-one reusable nappies, plus 3 hemp boosters and a wet bag to store the dirties in
£55 - bamboo baby sling/wrap


OH bought the sling and the reusable wipes, but in total we spent £1195 including petrol and entry. Making a total saving of £456.79 I'm most impressed and we're ready for the baby to come now. Although we do need the car seat and nappies and the colour pack to arrive in the post first Superbly excited and thoroughly prepared now


Right, I'm off to bed to go and tell OH exactly how much we saved. I can technically add on £30 as he paid for the petrol back and I had already filled up on expenses before we left as I need petrol for Thursday and last Thursday eeee go us