Diary of a home owner wannabe (my 6 year journey)

pennyforthepot

Thanks guys - things always seem worse when you're in the middle of the fire. Love the idea of being an MS ninja :rotfl:

Things have settled down now and DH has apologised for his behaviour and acknowledged that he is feeling depressed. So I have promised we will work on that together one step at a time

Meantime back in MS Land - need to put some fuel in the j€€p (need to look into changing cars once we have moved as I worked out that it costs £1 for every 3 miles driven:eek: - hope £25 will last me for the next 9 days - puts me over my fuel budget by £20 but this cost should go down quite a lot once we have moved (12 days to go)

We had booked a trip to the Festival of Thrift next weekend which was going to be a weekend away for me and DH but we have cancelled that and we are going to put the money allocated towards a meal out tomorrow for the 6 of us at pizza £xpress for DSS2s 17th bday. I really wanted to go - but needs must.

Other spend today £12.50 on bday cards and ingredients to make a birthday cake.

To Do List:
[STRIKE]Ironing[/STRIKE]
G[STRIKE]o visit my bezzie friend to off load[/STRIKE]:)I don't know what I have to moan about, she has 9 kids , one deaf, one Down's syndrome, 2 hard of hearing and dealing with separation from her husband :eek:
[STRIKE]Packing - getting there - odds and sods now[/STRIKE] 3 more boxes done
Hole filling - need to fill in where all the pictures were hung and tv's put. Can't do it all as we still have tv's up but will make a start work in progress
[STRIKE]Write a list of what is left to do in each room most of which I can't do before the removal company have been[/STRIKE].
Fill out redirection formhalf way through the form but too tired to finish - will finish tomorrow
[STRIKE]Meeting at school for DS Duke of Edinburgh award[/STRIKE]sat in this meeting, turned to another mum "I think this should be compulsory it's such a good thing to do" Then looked down at the info sheet to see it cost £400 to do it - immediately changed my mind - thank goodness it goes on his end of term account which his dad pays There should be a small nominal fee but charging such a high price makes it prohibitive to those who can't afford to do it. That just isn't right
[STRIKE]Take kids over to their dads[/STRIKE]whoops - snuck into mc Ds for DS after the meeting. He was starving and about to go off to another lesson at his dads and he hates the food his SM cooks - she's heavily into Bulgar wheat and bean casserole (no offence anyone but he's a teenager who just wants meat:rotfl: ) Can't remember the last time I took him and he did promise me that he would take me to Buckingham Palace to pick up his DUke of Edinburgh Gold award -yeah right (must get that in writing :rotfl:) if I got him a McDs
[STRIKE]Cook chilli for dinner[/STRIKE]simmering

PFTP x

Shelbi

Hi Pennyforthepot,:hello:

Your thread is seriously interesting I love your idea, truely inspiring & cant wait to read more. Just thought id de-lurk to say with regards to eb@y that if you go to the account settings page you can request them to raise the no of items you can sell, they post yoiu a code to check your legit but once done you can have a larger limit, mine was raised from 10 to 100 so worth a go!!:) Good luck!!! x

pennyforthepot

Shelbi wrote: »

Hi Pennyforthepot,:hello:

Your thread is seriously interesting I love your idea, truely inspiring & cant wait to read more. Just thought id de-lurk to say with regards to eb@y that if you go to the account settings page you can request them to raise the no of items you can sell, they post yoiu a code to check your legit but once done you can have a larger limit, mine was raised from 10 to 100 so worth a go!!:) Good luck!!! x

Thanks Shelbi - I shall have a look at £bay once we've moved. I still have quite a few bits to get rid of but they're all packed away now.

It's funny I've been MSing seriously for about 12 months now and until I decided to de-lurk and start my own diary things were running pretty smoothly - 2 weeks into my diary and I seem to have hit every hurdle I've tried to jump. Next month will be financially painful but having the diary and knowing that fellow MSers are cheering me on helps to keep me focused (give or take the odd bottle of wine of course

Will try to keep you entertained

PFTP X

pennyforthepot

Another busy day today - when is it ever any different?

Birthday boy is waiting till tonight to open his pressies (DS and DD go to school from their dads on Wednesday mornings) Not sure how to wrap up driving lessons so that they look like a really expensive present He has decided he wants a meal cooked at home (very MS of him ) so it's gammon, dauphanoise potatoes with cabbage and bacon for dinner tonight - followed by homemade birthday cake - DSS1 is coming over too, so hopefully it will be a fun evening. I think DSS2 will realise that once you hit 17 (apart from 18th and 21st) that birthdays don't yield quite the same amount of excitement as they did as a child.

Spends today will hopefully be fairly low as I already have the gammon and potatoes, just need to get some other bits and pieces so hopefully around £10 - let's see

Lots of bitsy things to do now for the move and most of them are on going so I won't be able to tick many things off my list.

To Do List

• [STRIKE]washing x 2[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]ironing[/STRIKE]
• moving logs from down the side of the house to bottom of the garden work in progress
• filling holes work in progress
  [*[STRIKE]]TV licence - change of address[/STRIKE]
  [*[STRIKE]]empty and clean drawers in kitchen[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]take uniform to second hand sale[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]take last bits to charity shop[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]finish off Post Office redirection form[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]pack two more boxes[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]notify schools of change of address[/STRIKE] change of plan DDS2 wants a pizza from the game you play with black bricks with dots on - £40
• [STRIKE]shopping for bday dinner[/STRIKE]still got a few bits as we can have the gammon tomorrow
• [STRIKE]cook bday dinner[/STRIKE] phoned for takeaway :rotfl:

Busy busy busy - but not busy spending money

PFTP x

iquit

The way you plough through lists is amazing! Hope the birthday boy enjoyed his day.

pennyforthepot

iquit wrote: »

The way you plough through lists is amazing! Hope the birthday boy enjoyed his day.

Thanks Iquit - I find that putting it down on here really keeps me focused - plus the thought of leaving it means there will be a mad panic before we leave. Bday boy had a good day particularly as we had a last minute change of birthday present plan which I will expand on in my next post.

PFTP x

pennyforthepot

Pizza went down well yesterday, particularly in my tum

We had a last minute change of plan on the birthday present front yesterday which amazingly will save us money. So to explain:

Two years ago DSS1 moved to London and needed to sell his car. To help him out I offered to buy it off him for £600 which was what he was going to sell it for as it needed a service and MOT and bits doing to it. My plan was to use it for the three kids to learn to drive in and generally use whilst they were still at home. The car has been sat on our drive for two years and when we made the decision to move we agreed that we would sell the mini (my baby) and start to use the car we had from DSS1 as our second car as we also have a jeep and as we wouldnt be needing the cars as much due to our new location it wouldn't be a problem.

I suggested to DH yesterday that we could give the car to DSS2 as a birthday present as it would cost nothing to give it to him (we would just have to borrow it from him when we needed it instead of us borrowing it from us when he needed it). By the time the next child learns to drive it will probably have clapped out any way. Whether we own it or DSS2 owns it we would still have to tax and MOT it - so no extra cost there. So the cost of driving lessons that we were going to give him for his birthday will now cut in half as his mum will have to pay for half of them

Sorry that was really long winded :eek:

Not a particularly productive morning so far. Ironing has been done but everything else I tried to do has been a problem.
Mail redirection - went to PO with completed form and was told instead of £50 for 12 months it would be £100 because my two kids have different surnames - so I had to take their names off.
Went in to book a carpet cleaner at my local Budg£ns for after the removal company had been, got half way through filling the form when I was told I couldnt book it but just had to come in on the day and hope it was free - that's not particularly sensible.
Went to get some wooden floor polish only to discover the flooring shop had closed down.
Went to the bank to change address of the second hand uniform shop account that I used to run only to be told I was no longer a signatory and didnt have access to do it.

Did manage to move some logs though and empty out my desk and filing cabinets with all the company accounts in there.


Other than that things are tickity boo :rotfl:

Short to do list today as I'm going out to lunch with one of my bezzies - and she's just text me to say its her turn to pay :T

To Do List:

• move more logs getting there
• [STRIKE]go to lunch and have a good natter[/STRIKE]you know when your friends are true friends when they ask you to smell their breath, it stinks and you can tell them:rotfl:
• fill holes in kids bedrooms
• [STRIKE]update budget accounts[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]cancel company magasine that DH doesnt read[/STRIKE]
• deep clean our bedroom and clean inside windows
• clean inside windows on landing leaving the cleaning till tomorrow - sat down instead and started attacking the change of address notifications - can't believe how many there are to do - must be all the bank accounts I have
• and relax - its nearly the weekend :Tglass of wine in hand

so spend today:

£50 redirection - offset with savings on rent
£5.85 - bits for tea tonight (£19 over my food budget and still 6 days to go till the end of my financial month)

I always find the last week a struggle no matter how carefully I try and budget - next month I'm really going to be careful

PFTP X

pennyforthepot

Up bright and breezy this morning after a good night's sleep and a doze on the sofa

9 days to go until the move :eek:

Already cleaned the kitchen, done the ironing and just about to put my second load of washing on. Lots of things to do today. I have written a list for DH and the kids as this seems to be the only way they are capable of doing what I ask them to:o

I have some spends to make today including rugby boots for DS, boxes for the files, small food shop and I will have a look for some paint to touch up the walls where I have filled them.

To Do list:

[STRIKE]DD to Gym[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Rugby boots for DS[/STRIKE][ done"Red"]customer services at the direct sports co. is disgusting [/COLOR]
[STRIKE]washing[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]St@ples for file boxes[/STRIKE]didnt have any
[STRIKE]Bee and Queue for paint[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Mr T food shop[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]deep clean our bedroom[/STRIKE]took longer than I thought
[STRIKE]move some logs[/STRIKE]all
fill in holes in DS room
clean inside windows on landing (should have done yesterday)
[STRIKE]Cook gammon and dauphanoise pots for dinner[/STRIKE]nom nom
[STRIKE]watch Breaking Bad - binge watching with DH[/STRIKE]sat down and waiting to start

[STRIKE]But first a bath [/STRIKE]

PFTP x

FacelessNumber

Hi PFTP!

Your lists have inspired me to start a diary with lists too, amazing how motivating it is to have it written down online!

Hope the next few days go smoothly for you!

FN

edinburgher

So, did you get most of your list accomplished? Please update, we need closure