Apple muncher's number crunching

apple_muncher

sweetdaisy wrote: »

That's brilliant news, lovely to hear your DH has had a job offer.

Thank you sweetdaisy. It's lovely to get this news before the redundancy money runs out. Dh had a call from another place who were interested in interviewing him. But I said that being interested in you does not mean that they will definitely want to employ him. So he's not to now turn the concrete offer down! He should just be happy that another place likes him!

We've had a chat about what to do with the extra money, even though we'll not see any of it until the end of Jan! Ideally lots towards the mortgage, plenty in savings and a substantial amount into pensions.

Had a lovely time at dd's Christingle. 125 kiddies from her school and they were so well behaved.

Another NSD for me, a few jobs done. Will be making more reindeer food later with dd. Choc mallows all done.

Pearla*Merle

Great news on the job offer! Have fun plotting & planning for the future

apple_muncher

Pearla*Merle wrote: »

Great news on the job offer! Have fun plotting & planning for the future

Thank you PM. I'm already planning and plotting!

After a very quick casual chat ( ha ha, that's my version of a discussion!) I've signed up to the 2014 mfw thread, to pay £11,600 towards the mortgage. Also want to save £5,200. This is fairly conservative, based on expected income. And we all know how quickly that can change! If my extra days fail to materialise then i'll re-jig goals.

Final finger puppet is done. Tomorrow I can wrap them and post them off. Will also post cousin's and niece's presents.

Need to do dh a stocking of stuff. He currently has a paltry 2 presents for Christmas! But must still keep to budget, as will not receive any extra income until the end of Jan. Will pop into town on Fri, possibly, for a mooch around, before my end of term lunch.

dd wrapped some of her toys for me today, what a sweetie! I now have to wrap some stuff for her now, as I promised to!

Habibiboo

apple_muncher wrote: »

Thank you Habiboo! Love the name by the way -how did you choose it? Thank you or dropping in to join my wittering.

:wave:
Hi AppleMuncher ~ the name's a bit of a mixture "Habibi" is Arabic for darling / my love and is an endearment my OH picked up when working in Sudan. He can't call me Darling in English for a particular reason, so he calls me Habibi. Boo is one of our dogs. When OH & I got together it was second time around for us and we had both had our families and are unable to have children together, so Boo is the child we never had! Don't worry though, I'm not one of these people who treats pets as fur-babies, I do realise she's a dog (although she's beautiful and clever, so I suspect she takes after me) whilst our boy dog is as mad as a hatter and stinky to boot ... wonder who he takes after?

Well done with getting items posted - sometimes the worst part of the process can be the PO!

apple_muncher

Made the most of £5 off a £40 shop at Ald1 today and also got present for dd's teacher (to supplement the biscuits and peppermint creams) and rest of stuff for food bank. Then went out and got another paper, as the voucher is valid until 24th Dec!

Have started work on a paper version of 'big spends, birthdays, etc'. Can't understand spreadsheets so am doing paper! I want to fill in the big annual spends (various insurances, etc) and birthdays. Hence the name! Then I'll do a sheet to note the monthly dds.

My mum's coming to stay for a few days tomorrow and should come to dd's nativity on Mon. I'm really looking forward to seing her. I may take her back home on tues and stay over at her's, but am fighting a stinging sore throat that sends shooting pains up to my ears. V glad to have had several days off sugar as that is what I crave now, but I KNOW that would only feed the 'bad bugs' and not help at all! Tho I probably inhaled a fair amount of icing sugar when I made peppermint creams this morning!

We had a rough night with dd last night and I was falling asleep as she was reading her book tonight so I don't reckon I'll last much longer in the awake world! But must just go over bank account and get big spends noted... Or maybe just go and rest...

apple_muncher

It's lovely having my mum here for a few days. She still can't quite work out how to open the front door from outside, so we can't let her wander off too far for now!!

dd had a fantastic time at the big soft play place. She been so excited since winning an invite at kidz klub, and I'm glad it lived up to all her expectations. On the way home I suggested we stop off at a certain shopping area to have a quick run round the charity shops. She didn't need asking twice! She got 3 dollies and 3 nice dresses for them, a bu1ldabeaf small bed, toiletries (half for her and half to divvy up between friends), and we got 10 books between us, including one for dh's stocking. All for £8.40. Now that's a bagful of bargains!

My cardreader for nw arrived the other day so I've finally used it to set up a direct payment link to the mortgage and sent a trial £10 to see if it works! Want to also set up one direct to savings, but will see if the mortgage one works first!

Not much mse stuff going on really. Bills go out as usual, am trotting on with DDD, have set payment and saving goals for 2014. Have had some surprising news at work which I wouldn't/couldn't share online, but it should be a happier place to work next year. Phew!

Overall, I'm quite enjoying keeping tabs exactly on my spending. I realise how extremely blessed I am in that there is a surplus every month, I have a job (and extra hours for 8 months), and dh has accepted a job and starts on 30th Dec.

Today I am grateful for the wind, raspberries, charity shops, lemsips (still) and holidays.

newgirly

Hi apple muncher, just wanted to pop in and say hi and welcome, its great your oh is starting the new job, a great start to the new year , best of luck

apple_muncher

newgirly wrote: »

Hi apple muncher, just wanted to pop in and say hi and welcome, its great your oh is starting the new job, a great start to the new year , best of luck

Thank you newgirly for dropping by. Yes, we're well chuffed about dh's job. I think he's making the most of his free time now that he knows there's going to be an end to it!

Dd has just one more week to get through. This is the first year that she's not had fevers, so the g-f stuff is working and her gut is healing up. Her weekends tend to be full on for a littl'un and she's struggling now, lots of upsets at small things. If only she'd have an early night!

Am hoping that once the payment route to the mortgage is running smoothly, then I can start doing Tilly Tidies! Something to get excited about!

Tomorrow is dd's nativity (she's a donkey) and I also plan to take in a tub of biscuits and peppermint creams for the staff room. If I can get my act together and assemble it nicely. Must also make dd's lunch. That should probably be the priority!

Have not been knitting for a few days - twould be good to start on a long-standing project to at least attempt to finish it by Christmas...

Enough rambling! Would like to report mse stuff and nsd, but used a 20% off everything code to buy in a big lot of laundry detergent, plus another whole 75p off voucher.

Payday is the 28th so quite a way to go yet!

apple_muncher

To try to do today:
- dd's nativity DONE
- get more balm tissues and lempsips and Ca1po1 DH TO DO
- pay cheques into bank DH TO DO
- check payment arrived in mortgage account DONE
- maybe get milk (but this would mean spoiling a NSD) DH TO DO
- spend 30 mins streamlining emails DONE, SORT OF
- do some Latin prep: overview + timescales, maybe some detailed planning... DONE
- knit some of Angelina
- wash up DH DID IT
- do laundry WILL DO TOMORROW
- drink copious amounts of water, to help sinuses ONGOING

Nowt big there, but am feeling so rotten (snotty, pounding head, tight chest and running nose) that getting any of it done will be an achievement.

apple_muncher

Today's to do list was much smaller:
-laundry DONE
- 30 mins on emails sending and deleting DONE
- make white choc fudge DONE
- knit Angelina DONE- discovered had her body and legs stuffed, and head, ears plus ear edging, 2 arms already done, so stuffed head and added ears and attached to body, and started leotard RESULT!
- send another payment to mortgage DONE

Twas a spendy day as was befuddled enough to pay for dd's milk online instead of waiting for a real spend day. The dh suggested we do the shopping - Ald1 - so off we plodded. It wiped me out, but got it done with his help and saves me doing it on my own anothrr day. Used a £5 off voucher and got dh some alcohol and me some fizzy water. Somehow the amount spend on each of us is rather unbalanced! Imagine £15 of fizzy water!!!!

Been thinking about 2014. Bout right for this time of year, no? We were to make 5 goals/aims for the DDD which I did, but I want to add more things to aspire towards, and maybe focus on different ones each month. Also thought that if I put them here, then they are accessible and a good reminder 8 or 9 months down the line.

- pay £11,600 to mortgage
- pay £5,200 to savings (offset)
- have a summer holiday
- weight down to 125lb
- sew 14 items
- make a will
- make money from my knitting
- buy only necessary clothes
- ringfence time with dd
- every time I use a money-off voucher, pay that amount off the mortgage
- start and maintain Tilly Tidies
- at least attempt to meal plan!
more to add:
- aim for 12-15 sugar-freedays per month
-aim for 20 grain-free days per month
- exercise ZCUT or old B0dyrock x16 per month
- declutter 365 in 365

It's a little frustrating that I can't do much saving until the start of Feb, but getting used to being frugal, as a long-term lifestyle, is always useful!

Time to go and read to dd and try not to give her my germs in time for the hols.