Diary of a Secret Saver

Molly41

Grubby children and dogs are a sign of very good parenting - I tell myself this constantly - oh and a messy house!

Harri-bear

Oh, my house is constantly messy! Yipee!!! Quite surprising really, when both of us work full time and are never in for any length of time. No dogs, I'm afraid, but have got two cats who do their fair share of leaving hair all over the place.

Speaking of work, hubby is back on Monday - I made him ring them yesterday. Need to see this as a fresh start.:)

Harri-bear

Well it's been a funny kind of day. Pine cone hedgehogs made and children now de-glittered. Nothing on the list has been done (surprise, surprise), however, some financial jobs that should have been done ages ago have now been completed.

Hubby has cancelled the auto-renewal on his x-box (he was given a 12 month subscription at Christmas and had not put it on).
Saving £6.00 a month.

PPI on the loan has been cancelled - we have tried cancelling this sooooo many times and Hal***x just hasn't done it when we've asked.
Saving £9.00 a month.

We are going into the bank tomorrow to transfer the loan payment to come out of my account. I will rest much easier when this is done.

I also need to send off my PPI letter as have been meaning to do this for ages. We have been paying approx. £9.00 a month for the last 11 years - crikey, is it really that long!

The children enjoyed swimming. They went for the family swim, which runs from 10.00 till 11.00. I'm a bit cross that they weren't allowed in to get changed until 10 on the dot, which meant they missed a good 10 minutes swimming time, and when they did get to the pool the cover was still on the small pool and they had to wait another 5 minutes. Now, call me unreasonable, but I do believe an hours swim should be just that. After all we've paid for the full hour. Think I might complain.

Cottage pie has been consumed and enjoyed. I should confess that I can only make 2 things in the kitchen and both of them involve mince.:) I do make a good cottage pie and a good lasagne, but that's pretty much it. The children would tell you my Yorkshire Puddings are 'horrid'!

This started me thinking of my younger days when I worked at a holiday camp and we used to make boiled eggs in the kettle. You could have a complete meal, if you cut your bread in half and stuck it to the wall heater! :rotfl:

DD1 is looking a bit off colour and is complaining of a belly ache and headache. We have to be careful as she really likes the taste of Calpol and has been known to tell a few porkies in her time. Having said this she has been quite weepy today and this is very unlike her. Think she might be coming down with something.:(

Harri-bear

Okay so have just fired off an e-mail to the council with regard to the swimming this morning. No more procrastinating for me!:D

Had the following conversation with DD2 -

DD2: Mummy why haven't we got the heating on?

Me: Because we want to save our money so that we can do fun stuff.

DD2 (after thinking for a minute) : In that case can I have a new monkey suit?

Harri-bear

Horrible weather again, here today.

Sorted loan out, now comes out of my account on the 15th of each month - instead of weekly out of hubby's (he found this impossible to keep track of). Hubby is giving me extra each week to cover this and I can get it straight out of his account - now that I know the password .

After the budget talk with him on Thursday, it was established that he would have £40 left each week for 'spends'. This is fine by me, but tonight he said 'Well now I've got some money, I can buy a new controller for my x-box tomorrow'. I pointed out that this was a little insensitive given that I've bailed him out to the tune of £1200 this week! He's agreed to hold off on this for now, but I do know he needs to budget these 'spends' as well.

Done some baking today - not much, but did make some lovely cherry scones. Made two attempts as the first batch were really sloppy and there was no way you could cut a shape out of the dough. Hubby made some choc chip muffins, which, in my opinion were no where near as good . He tends not to stick to recipes, being a chef, but it's quite clear that he needs to when baking!

debtfreewannabe321

just catching up with you

It sounds like i get to join the good parenting club on both accounts of grubby kids and house and love your DD2 answer to the heating being off lol! My ds2 asked for a spiderman suit as it was so cold in the house and I said why didn't he just put a jumper on and his reply was that when he had his spiderman suit on it would keep him warm as he would get to climb the walls and ceiling and be jumping about lots :eek: hmm perhaps not! LOL

Harri-bear

Hee hee, I just love the reasoning of very small children! Usually, when you think about it, they're quite right about pretty much everything .

Up early to take DD2 to nursery today, then have got lots and lots of work to do. Also need to sort out a costume for DD2's theatre group. Just how do you make a 6 year old look like an antelope?

She's doing something out of Les Mis as well, but luckily we have plenty of old clothes (usually she's still wearing them!:rotfl:).

Harri-bear

Finally got off my bottom to do some work. 2 weeks of literacy planning and 1 week of maths done. Lots of marking still to do, but will spread these over the next few days.

Hubby has taken DD1 to do the weekly shop :eek:. I have given them a basic list, but I'm sure they will come back with all sorts.

Have been sorting some old books out to sell and checking out the various websites. Our friend (who's now gone to live in Canada) gave us a load of books so have been pricing these up. It turns out that Ray Mears is very popular - who knew! We have two copies of one of his books and they will resell for £5 each!

Got a few things for sale on ebay, but no bids so far. All set to finish Sunday, but given the week I've had it's hardly going to make a dent anyway .

Now I'm just enjoying the quiet before Hubby and DD1 come back.

Harri-bear

Just received a really nice e-mail from our local swimming pool and they are going to send us a complimentary pass for a family swim. It turns out, that the other day a few things weren't done correctly (which cost us 15 mins of our swimming time). Anyway, I am very pleased with how professionally they have dealt with this and the girls will be chuffed to bits . They really are water babies.

debtfreewannabe321

OOh fab news about the swimming what a nice treat!

I have tonnes of educational text books which are actually worth a fair bit when priced up. Thing is I couldn't get anyone to buy them. But i refused to throw them away (having paid so much out for them ) so they are sat taking up room in the house and i'll never use them again. Right dilemma, i want to de-clutter but I want to do it MSE which means money to me and not to have to throw it all out to recycling/charity (that sounds awful, i do actually give charity tonnes of stuff!)

How did hubby do with the shopping?!