Early MFW

cookiemonsie

Hi Floppy & Jillybean,

Thanks for stopping by

Good news; I checked with the bank again and apparently I can make overpayments straight away :T Roll on payday so I can make my first OP. Probably won't be very much for the first couple of months as bike tax due at the end of this month and we're still waiting for refunds of council tax, gas & electric (they're taking their sweet time refunding me!!) Plus the first months' bills in the new house are a little more than usual as it's the first month but a little OP is better than nothing. Planning on counting up the penny jar later to put that towards the OP too

I applied for the cashback card at lunch so fingers crossed. It's not the end of the world if we don't get it as we don't need it, just thought its worth getting some cash back for spending my usual amount buying petrol, groceries etc.

While I was out I did unfortunately end up spending an unplanned £28 in boots but that's only because Hubby needed some razor blades (for shaving not because he's fed up of me moneysaving ) they had my toothpaste on 3 for 2, I needed some shower gel (on offer), indigestion tablets as we'd completely run out (I buy the biggest pack as it works out cheaper and they don't go off for ages - just a shame they cost £5.29 for the biggest box!) and a birthday card. Nearly fell through the floor when they said how much it came to but it was all needed so I'm not going to let myself sweat it.

Keep at the veggies Floppy. It takes a while to get used to growing things (especially if you're a natural born plant killer like me ) but you'll soon get it. If you like salad then lettuce is one of the easier things to grow and you can do it easily in pots.

Almost had a heard attack when I thought I'd lost my phone earlier too but I found it!

Have a happy weekend all

cookiemonsie

Just counted the penny jar - £27 pounds, 1 Euro & 1/2 a franc! So that's my first OP

cookiemonsie

Hi all,

Not been on much lately - can't believe how fast time is flying by!

Great news in that we got the credit card so bring on the cash back for the overpayments It's been an expensive couple of days tho; decided to invest in some exercise equipment for home which actually saves money compared to even the cheapest gym membership I can find for us. Also had to buy a lawnmower and hedge trimmer as we've actually got a garden to trim now! I tried to be savvy tho - the lawnmower was on sale & the hedge trimmer was an Aldi special buy & it works a treat

Bit of disappointing news; we paid the mortgage application fee of £995 rather than adding it to the mortgage & the bank has reduced the monthly direct debit rather than reducing the term. Gggrrrr! So I'll be paying a trip to the bank tomorrow I think :mad:

Had some home grown produce the last couple of days - couple of apples & tomatoes which were lovely. My mushrooms are doing fantastically well & it looks like there are some blackberries ready too so doing pretty well :T

Anyways, stay positive everyone after all its Friday tomorrow AND it's a bank holiday weekend :T Think I'll be ripping down an old crumbling garden shed - free exercise!

HelenDaveKids

Good luck and welcome to MFWers!!

cookiemonsie

Hi all,

Hope you all had a lovely bank holiday weekend. I didn't have a massively frugal weekend - the supermarket shop which was a shocking £26 over budget!

We hacked back the weeds around the shed on Saturday and confirmed that it is absolutely unsaveable as the bottom is completely rotten (it's basically being held up by fresh air and more weeds!) so we went online and found a new one in the sale. Hopefully that'll come in the next couple of weeks so we can actually put stuff away out of the garage! Just got to take the old one down and get it to the tip somehow (decided not to do that on the bank holiday weekend when everyone would be at the tip!)

Got my seeds out yesterday and planted some spinach as we're going through it like its going out of fashion so that should save a few pennies. It's the last chance to plant them now so fingers crossed the keep producing all the way through to October. I re-potted my cucumber plants but I think I left it too late and may have killed them when I transferred them (the roots were quite deep and I don't think I got enough when I moved the plant). :mad: Live and learn I guess - next year I might have an idea of what I'm doing!

We had the spare bedroom priced up for a new carpet and was a bit disappointed. They've quoted £216 for the carpet, fitting etc which isn't too bad I suppose but I was hoping for less. It was a 'cheap' carpet too so I'm not sure if we can make that any cheaper.

Overpayment wise I think we should be able to make a first overpayment of £250 :T not a fortune but it's a start. I am going to wait until I get paid in September though to make sure we've got everything extra covered for the first month - you never know what's going to happen with first month direct debits!

Off to work now bye for now!

FloppyDisk

Well done cookie, can't believe you've gotten your garden going so quickly after moving in! And now is definitely the time to buy garden bits, I was looking at BBQs today.

Have you checked every nook and cranny of your new place now? I ended up having to buy a new shower, boiler, cooker and kitchen within the first few months and now have the credit card to pay off so haven't been able to attack the OPs at all! Looking forward to being in your position (no sign of my potatoes sprouting yet either!!!)

Floppy x

cookiemonsie

Hi all,

It's Monday and it's cold here but it's sunny at least Not been on for a little while perhaps in shame! Haven't made any overpayments as yet but it is the first month so I probably shouldn't be feeling quite as guilty as I am! I think I might be able to make an overpayment of around £200 when I get paid at the end of September but the car insurance is due so I need to wait and see what the renewal cost is. Mr Monsie wants to book our honeymoon too as we haven't had one yet so I might not be able to make decent sized overpayments for a little while yet. A little is better than none I guess.

Had a pretty frugal weekend £53 spend in the supermarket and a big monthly spend in costco of £92 (but that'll last at least the whole month making it more like £23 a week). Still a bit more than I'd like on food but at least we're heading in the right direction (down rather than up!)

Our new shed was delivered on Wednesday so I spent the day tearing down the old shed (very sore hands on Wednesday night!). Didn't get a chance to get it to the tip though so Saturday was spent going back and forth to the tip to get rid of the old shed then Sunday was spent building the new one (with one or two arguments along the way! :rotfl:) It looks good although the perspex window was too big so we need to get a stanley knife to cut it to size!

Also trimmed the front and back lawn yesterday and built a raised bed by digging out where the old shed used to be and using massive stones we found round the back of the garage for the edging. Saved about £20 on a ready made kit from the garden centre so I've just got to get 1 more large bag of compost and I can plant winter leeks and cabbages On a slightly sadder note we had wicked strong winds last week and they completely distroyed my pop up greenhouse (plastic cover on metal poles) so I had to take that to the tip too I think my cucumber and pepper plants won't last long once it starts to get cold (or rather colder!)

The first mortgage payment came out on 1st September which was strangely exciting! I dread to think how much of that was interest though!

MSE wise I managed to get 6 cineworld tickets for £35 last week on livingsocial which is great as our weekend treat is usually going to the cinema so that'll keep us entertained for the new few months. I also found that they do the same pick n mix sweets at poundland so I'll be going there so save a bit of money (last time we went I got pick n mix and it cost nearly £10 and there wasn't even a lot there!!:eek:)

We're also regularly using the home gym equipment I invested in last month and it's going really well - over 4 inches lost so far on tummy and hips and my arms and shoulders are starting to get some definition - I will fit onto those work clothes I've got just sitting in the wardrobe!

BTW Hi Floppy! It's novel to actually have a garden which is probably why I'm showing so much interst - I'm sure this time next year my interst will have reduced! I think we've checked everywhere now. We had to get a new shower as soon as we moved in but luckily Mr Monsie's dad is an electrician so they knew what they were doing! We also had to put in a new tumble drier hose (which was really awkward but we managed to do it) and get some work done on the roof but we knew about that and the vendor knocked the cost off so that wasn't too bad. I have found that the gutter is leaking a bit whenever it rains so we need to get that fixed but I can see that is caused by a joint with failing sealent so I'm hoping it won't cost too much to fix. Fingers crossed there's nothing else we haven't found yet!

So all in all my muscles are aching but a great week and weekend. Plus, it's still completely awesome to have finally bought our own place! :j

Have a good day all