Wishing on an ickle star

icklehelen

Not sure where the days are going at the moment! I suppose it's keeping me out of mischief and helping with the NSDs!!!

My fluffy post arrived this morning which made up for not winning anything on the competitions. It also amused me that the postie drove to the house to drop them off then went off on foot!!

Updated MFW2013 with the automatic OP that I've set up after payday for £62.25. Have decided that the extra little bits that I'm putting to one side in our 123 account will stay in there. They are earning 3% (pre tax) whereas interest rate on the mortgage is 2.19%. If interest rates rise they'll go straight on the mortgage otherwise I'm going to set an amount at which point I'll add it to my MFW2013 total! This will give me something to focus on while I can't OP larger amounts - can you tell I'm having withdrawal symptoms :rotfl:

Cooking Sunday roast for my mum and dad tomorrow as it's dads birthday. 'Bought' his (and my nephew's) present from Am@zon using vouchers from S&S.

Signing off before I end up

ickle

icklehelen

Another busy week over and just managed to get caught up on diaries.

Another month of no extra OPs but we now have EVERYTHING crossed that our plans come together by next weekend! Really excited but terrified too!

Going to see what I can get for my car tomorrow - hoping I can make some £££ on this which will make up for not OPing much recently.

DH and I have agreed that Monday is to be spent as a family and I believe the weather is going to be great here so I've been looking to see where we can go that we haven't been to before. Quite a few things would cost us a small fortune - one even charged for under 2s!! There are one or two places to choose from that are free/low cost so I'll let DH decide!

Happy Bank Holiday!!!

ickle

icklehelen

Just done some spreadsheet updates before we go to find out how much my car is worth!

Really glad I changed to DDs to S@ntander 123 as April brought in £14.86 in interest and cashback - much better than the £1-2 I was getting from previous account. Still waiting for S@ntander to sort the cashback through TCB tho :mad: Why do some track fine within a matter of hours and others not? This one tracked with a big fat 0 in the amount!!!

Other accounts interest total is £3.33 - these are all added to my extra bits pot for OPing when I get to my target . . . which I haven't set yet But need to check ISAs as I believe there will be a couple of hundred to report on them too!

More shuffling and sorting to do - probably tonight thanks to my rock and roll lifestyle!!!

Loving the washing stuff I bought during Real Nappy Week - and if it does last four years that'll be a huge saving even on top of the bulk buying saving I normally make!! Premium brand washing products seem to work out at around 30-40p per wash (less if bought on offer) the bulk I was buying in meant it was 13p per wash but this is about 3p per wash . . . how sad? :rotfl:

Speaking of washing - nappies to go on the line before I go out as its another beautiful day here!!

ickle

icklehelen

What a fabulous day! The weather here has been amazing and we made the most of it with our family day out!!

The whole day was very :money: and cost us a bit of fuel! We went to a farm which was free then went on a lovely walk nearby and had a picnic in the middle of a field!! DD loved seeing all the animals but wasn't so keen on stroking a lamb or the goats!!

Came home in time for DDs nap and went up to my dads to tend to my veggies in his greenhouse. Came home with lots of rhubarb (he doesn't like it) which is been washed, chopped and in the freezer to make into something yummy later. Had to stop myself eating it all tho - it was rather nice sitting in our garden eating it with a little sugar!!

Early night for me tonight tho - the weather (and glass of wine with dinner) has made me rather tired!!

ickle

fothers365

Sounds fab!

Our rhubarb is a bit disappointing this year- not enough to harvest for a crumble yet sadly.

Which farm did you go to? I think we are fairly close to you so MSE kids days out are always good to know about, especially ones involving animals where my lot are concerned.

Should be more sunshine today for us:T

icklehelen

Hi fothers!

It was Whirlow Hall Farm - they ask for donations rather than charging and we support them throughout the year at different events so felt that this could be a freebie this time!

Been getting good use of my lovely convertible car thanks to the weather - going to miss it but I do need something more practical! So long as the rest of May lets me make the most of it then I can't complain!!!

ickle

icklehelen

Just spent a rather frustrating hour trying to sort out why a DD had not worked! Rang the receiving accounts bank (S@ntander) who said I needed to ring the bank it was coming from. This is DH's account so I rang and went through all the button pressing then he spoke to them and guess what . . . yup they said it was the receiving bank that needed to sort it!!! :mad:

So back to S@ntander where I had to tell the girl it WAS a DD which totally confused her - she was trying to tell me that I was wrong and it was a SO! Grrr! Anyway she passed me to someone who knew more than her and he was very pleasant but couldn't work out why the DD hadn't happened so opened a case for it to be sorted by their team and they will keep me informed by text!

Thank goodness for saynoto0870 otherwise these calls would have cost me a small fortune!!

I hope it all gets sorted as this is one the DDs set up to ensure I keep getting my £5 reward from H@lifax!

ickle

fothers365

How frustrating!

I hope it is sorted out soon for you.

Thanks for the name of that farm- I have bookmarked it for a visit at some point:)

icklehelen

Wow it's been a busy few days here!!

Needed temporary insurance cover on my little car for prob a month max - the companies that advertise on the tv for this sort of thing sit on the same ethical seat as payday loans companies IMHO! One months was going to cost me anywhere between £190 and £350 :eek: so I've taken out an annual premium and will just have to grin and bear the cancellation fee (even at £50 this will make the months cover approx £70!) Will be intrigued to see what happens as I did go through TCB!!

DD had a play date yesterday with her best friend . . . well she's my very good friend's daughter so they don't have a choice in the matter!! :rotfl:

Yesterday afternoon was spent reorganising the freezers and updating the 'stock sheets', meal planning and then the weekly shopping. Very happy as this was under £30 as we'll be eating mainly out of the freezer and this also included Sunday roast (so glad we now have an @ldi nearby!!)

Been keeping up with the washing but it's so depressing seeing it all hung up inside again after making use of the line so much recently!!

Usual spreadsheet and accounts check done this morning (I actually look forward to Friday mornings so I can update all my weekly spreadsheets ) Have updated MFW2013 as the £250 regular OP has landed.

I also looked at my comparison spreadsheet with no OPs and realised that at the rate we can OP (at the moment) we are paying off approx £1000 every two months instead of every 3 or 4!! I'd love to be able to pay it off faster (wouldn't we all) but even at this rate we'll be MF 9 years earlier than the original term!!

Time to get DD to tidy up - she has left a trail of destruction behind her while I've been writing this!! Really should stick to updating during her nap time or after she's in bed!!

ickle

fothers365

It sounds like you have been keeping busy!

I have washing out today and yesterday in the hope that the high winds will trump the passing showers and it will more or less dry outside.

I must admit I have become somewhat spreadsheet obssessed these days. I like to sit down at night before we watch some TV and update our budget sheet with the days spendings and our meter readings sheet with the days totals. We got solar panels last year so I am reading the meters most days and plotting some very exciting usage graphs. I know how to have fun don't I?;)