Going to get rid of my mortgage!

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Spendless, I teach food tech and I would never send home a recipe with a jar of ready made sauce on! However, occasionally the kids do "adapt" the recipes we give by including things like ready made sauces (grrr!)

The girl child got her wish tonight and made her pasta from scratch (quote "Why would anybody want pasta from the cupboard when they could make their own?!") with her very own cheese sauce. It kept them occupied for a bit with the rolling etc that is needed for pasta. Im going to a wedding tonight, not sure if there will be food there or not.

A NSD so far but Ive got £30 out of the bank, £20 for babysitter and £10 for drinks (will just drink soft drinks). I listed some stuff on ebay last night after reading tilly's diary where she seems to be rolling it in from ebay selling! Im trying to think of other things I could sell but I really cant think of anything as we had a huge declutter before we put the house on the market. The house is quite minimalist now and even the kids toys that they dont play with have been got rid of.

Hmm, how can I make about £20-£30 before the weekend??! Any ideas?!

Spendless

Have a search through pockets and in bags for forgotten change?

Any cash for clothes places near you that you can weigh in?

Ditto anything scrap metal (I once took bits and pieces that husband kept saying he was taking to the skip and never did-I got the princely sum of £1.87 but hey ho.:p)

Weigh in/bank any coppers you shove in change jars.

Any foreign notes left over from hols you could exchange?

BTW- Jar of ready made sauce was def teacher's instructions- I queried it myself-lol

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All coppers/ foreign notes/ piggy banks etc all emptied apart from the kids ones (dont want to touch them!)

Will keep thinking!

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I love half term! I am sitting here watching the lunchtime news with a jacket potato, the kids are at holiday club, and Im having a lovely time all on my own! Ive cleaned the house from top to bottom, put my washing mountain away, repainted the bathroom ceiling, and Im going to have an afternoon nap in a minute before I pick the kids up blissful!

Had a lovely time at the wedding last night, hog roast to eat, yum; and I only spent £4 on 2 diet cokes.

A NSD for me, Ive OPd another £3.63 from a bank tidy up, Ive got a couple of watchers on my ebay items (no bids yet), and found something else to sell which Ive listed on a facebook selling group, but may list on ebay later. Im wearing my "new" clothes that my friend gave me on sunday so feeling like a new woman!

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Today ended up costing me more money than expected. I forgot my car insurance expires tomorrow so renewed it (had previously tried to get cheaper quotes but renewal notice was actually the cheapest for once!). So that was a few hundred pounds gone. I paid for that using the credit card but we do have a "car" fund so it will be paid off using that, not out of personal/food/bills accounts.

Then I booked tickets for a nightclub we are going to on this hen do at the weekend. I booked tickets for me and 2 friends, also paid for on the credit card. Ive emailed my friends asking them to put the money in my account so hopefully they will cough up soon!

Best thing is that I forgot I am owed some money! I also booked and paid for the hotel that we are staying in on saturday night, and my 2 friends who I booked a room for havn't yet paid me. So, I politely reminded them of this in the email also, so they should both end up paying me about £30 each, which will cover my ticket for nightclub, and give me some spending money!! Yay Being organised does pay off sometimes- I booked this hotel room about 6 months ago and said to them we would sort out the money closer to the time!

This evening Ive listed my item on ebay on a 3 day auction to get some pennies in the for weekend also- had somebody sent me a message asking if they can pick up friday evening as they need the item urgently. Fingers crossed it will sell then!

Tomorrow is going to be busy, got 2 viewings of the house, both arranged about 5pm this afternoon, lucky the house is nice and clean, but a bit unfortunate that the kids will be around, hopefully they wont make too much mess.

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For those that are interested... cookery lessons continued tonight with homemade pizzas! Tomorrow she has written a list of about 5 things she wants to cook.... we shall see..

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Ive had a really lazy day today, in fact I didn't leave the house all day! Viewings took place this morning, then the kids spent the rest of the day playing with the neighbours kids.
We are going out for the day tomorrow and plan to take a picnic, I did think I might have to pop to the shops to get some stuff for the picnic, but I raided the freezer and cupboards and have made some mini quiches, some red lentil pasties and some chocolate rice krispie cakes. I will defrost some soup and heat it up to take in a thermos, and we will have a tasty lunch on the sea front tomorrow!!

I will definately need to go shopping at the weekend, Ive only got £30 to spend so I will need to shop wisely but I can't last until next month without going shopping. We have only a couple of apples and pears left in the fruit bowl.

Ive got a bid on one of my ebay items and watchers on the others so fingers crossed they will go. I'm feeling really tired tonight and a bit blah, really starting to dread the hen do at the weekend as I don't want to go, can't be bothered with it all, feeling guilty about leaving the kids, don't want to spend my precious little spending money on going places I dont want to go. Also we have a wedding the weekend after so the kids will be babysat again, the boy child especially is not very good at being left overnight.

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Ebay items are doing well, one is due to finish tomorrow and at £5.50 already!

We had a lovely day out with our friends, we went to Hayling Island in the end, took the kids bikes and they all cycled along the sea front, and we walked. Stopped for a bit at the fair and the kids had a few rides on the fair, we found some old coppers in the arcades and the girl child won about £1 in 2ps - which then kept all the kids entertained for a while putting them back in the machines! They all had a lovely time playing on the beach and collecting shells, it was nice just to sit and watch them!

We were going to have fish and chips on the beach but by this point we were all so cold we took the very sensible decision of having dinner in a nearby pub. It was actually fairly cheap, kids meals were £2.99, anyway- the husband decided to pay out of his personal account- good job really or we really would have starved next week!!

The whole day out didnt cost too much, we ended up buying coffees for all our friends but in return they paid for all the kids rides at the fun fair (think we did quite well in that exchange!)

Im EXTREMELY annoyed with swinton, as when I purchased my car insurance I confirmed the amount charged to my card with the lady on the phone; they have only gone and charged me an extra pound. I know it's only a pound but it is the principal of the thing- imagine if they did that to every customer. When she said the amount I queried it on the phone as it seemed £1 too expensive and she told me she had made a mistake- but now I find out I have been charged the extra pound!!

Tomorrow should be another no spend day- going into work in the morning, I will take the kids with me- they will be happy on the computers etc there, we will have some lunch at work; then we are going to a friends house for the afternoon, followed by swimming lessons, followed by me collapsing in a heap wishing it was the start of half term rather than the end!

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Just finished my dinner of "fridge risotto", i.e. risotto made with whatever I can find in my fridge. In this case, it was 2 celery sticks chopped finely, 1 carrot, half a green pepper, half a packet of ham chopped up, and a handful of frozen sweetcorn. Was yummy though, the husband was moaning about all he ever eats these days is "wierd concoctions of food" but even he had to agree that it was quite tasty!
I had a NSD, I nearly caved when the kids wanted to go to Burger King after swimming but then I remembered they had had chips yesterday and I had enough food at home for tea so there really was no need to go there.
1 ebay auction is finished now, just waiting for the next 2 to finish.

I rang swinton this morning to complain about my car insurance overcharge- turned out I was overcharged by 25p!! The guy on the phone couldnt believe I was complaining about this, I know it is quite petty to complain about being overcharged 25p, but to me, it is the principal of the thing- I was told I would be charged one amount but then I was charged another. Anyway, Ive been told I will get my refund in a cheque next week, so yay!

Ive got to go shopping tomorrow morning to get enough stuff to last us the week. Only £30 left in the shopping budget so just enough to get milk, ham, cheese, veg and fruit. Ive got plenty of flour for bread and loads of pasta etc and lots of meat in the freezer. Next week I will be able to do another big shop when we are in a new month.

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I went shopping yesterday morning with my £30 budget for the week- spent £28.52 so was really pleased with that!

Last night I went on my friends hen do- I had a budget of £50- I had £50 in my purse to cover drinks, food and parking(over night parking). I was really pleased as I stuck to my budget- I spent £30 last night and then had £20 left over this morning to pay for parking. I am so proud of myself! I didn't drink too much, alternated alcohol with water. We also went to a casino for a couple of hours, where I discovered they give out soft drinks and coffee and tea for free!! So I filled up on free soft drinks there. I lasted until 4 in the morning before I went to bed, which I think is pretty good going, had I drunk much more I think I would have been really sleepy so actually drinking less helped me stay awake.
I did have a massive craving for McDonalds this morning so did treat myself to a dirty McDonalds breakfast- it has been ages since I had one of them, and, boy it was good! That was paid for with the shrapnel in my purse so even in my budget.

My personal bank account is now at 0.00 so Im waiting for pay day which is on Thursday. Ive no need to buy anything before then so we should be fine.

Early night for me tonight as I had about 2 hours sleep last night and am back to work tomorrow. I can't cope with late nights!!