The End May Actually Be in Sight...

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Great to hear about the kids garden set

Best wishes, Tilly x x

Crumpets

Ha ha your post made me laugh :rotfl:2 Edie McCreddies and 2 Suzy Sweets! Your dd will be in heaven...as long as Miss Hoolie doesn't disappear down the back of the sofa with PC Plum...i have my suspicions something's going on there I've never brought any balamory toys as none of mine have been that into it, I'd love to visit where it's filmed though, it looks beautiful. I hope your dd loves it:)

Well done on your bargain picnic set, I'm sure the kids will love it eventually, especially when they have their play house. Dd2 and Ds were playing in their play house before bed tonight, it was so sweet. Ds was sat in his chair waiting for dd to cook him his tea I must check out Asda as I don't go there very often, if there are bargains to be had, I want them! :rotfl:

What are your plans for summer holidays day 2?

RoaringTwenties

Hi Tilly, thanks for dropping by, between the shed, the trampoline, the slide, two sets of table & four chairs & a playhouse you can see about three blades of grass in my garden :rotfl:. Lovely to have time out there though - I think we might take a tip from you & eat out there a bit

Crumpets I've always been suspicious about Miss Hoolie & PC Plum, I'm sure there was a Mumsnet thread speculating about them years ago, think it was after that wedding episode when she's a bridesmaid & he kisses her at the end oh dear I clearly know far too much about Balamory :rotfl: Can't recall if I mentioned this upthread, if I did then I blame my age , but Josie Jump's house is actually a hotel & you can stay there! Planning a trip next Spring if DD is still obsessed by it

Lots of my friends have the playhouses & say they're the best things they've bought! Hoping it works out that way for us. Today will be the test! Am handing them over to OH this morning so I can get jobs done in town, they're going to fly their kite. I need to take the rest if the M&S uniform back & a few other bits & pieces. We re-booked our holiday last night as the weather is looking worse in Cornwall than here at the end of this week! Going Mon now all being well. That's also useful as it allows me to work out the money before we go as we get notice of OHs salary on Fri.

Hope you all have another good days holiday [STRIKE]watching Frozen[/STRIKE]

Crumpets

Brilliant! I'd love to stay in Josie Jumps house, I wonder if it's actually yellow? A few years ago we did a youth hosteling holiday in Scotland and I really wanted to stay on Mull, but it was fully booked I'm sure we'll go again though.

Hope your day has been ok today, we didn't resort to a DVD today, how about you?

RoaringTwenties

It is yellow! It's called Park Lodge Hotel, you can Google it. There is some urban myth about the manager saying something negative about the characters to children who visited & so the BBC pulled out & built a set for later series' apparently! But yes it's there & you can bounce up & down & sing the Josie song on that yellow turret if you felt inclined go on, you know you want to

Yesterday was a great holiday day as I didn't have the kids much :rotfl:. I was in town getting jobs done so OH had them! In the afternoon DD slept & DS crafted & I got my figures done, they're quite depressing actually, I put quite a bit towards our new car last month & then I've bought various bits & pieces like the picnic stuff & kids clothes - all necessary/useful/bargainous, but it adds up doesn't it? Going to go with it for Aug as SIL here from Oz, then take a tighter reign in Sept! I did get some bargs yesterday though, after saying I never do well in the Next sale I got two t-shirts for DS that he'd seen before & liked, one with a tiger riding a motorbike & one with a superhero t-Rex on They were supposed to be half price at £3.50 but one went through the till at £2.50 :money:. Also got a beach bag half price in Boots so I'm a proper mum now, there's loads of room in it for SPF, wet wipes etc And got a Thom Tank rucksack with 25% off in Sainsys for my nephew for when he comes over from Sydney, it'll be useful for when we go off for days here & there.

Today I have a friend coming with her little one for a play, then I'm going to try & get the ironing done if its not too hot! DS plans to watch King Rollo apparently! He's in a Ben & Holly's phase ATM, I do like Nanny Plum I must say (I love Miss Rabbit too, it's that voice ) [STRIKE]my children do not watch TV all the time, honest [/STRIKE]

RoaringTwenties

Finally a NSD! :j Friend brought homemade bread round & kids played out all morning, then we cobbled together a lunch from my fridge! I got the ironing done but nearly passed out with the heat :eek:. Hopefully tomorrow will be a repeat performance of today, weather is so glorious & kids are really enjoying time together so with a bit of luck it'll be another NSD :money:

RoaringTwenties

Just realised I made a mistake with my figures - pleased to find that I have another £89 I'd temporarily lost :j. I *love* mistakes like that :rotfl:

RoaringTwenties

Another NSD :T OH got advance salary details today so I worked our money out, its looking better than I expected for Aug, although it is a five week month. I've now got all DS' uniform except a new winter coat which I prob wont get till Oct, I've put aside money for his new school shoes (£42 argh :mad:) I've decided I am going to skip our usual £209 OP (again, eek) as we are away quite a bit & seeing family & then have SIL over later in month & don't want to be on an economy drive when she's here as it's a once in five year meet-up.

I might put last month & this months OP aside from our savings though, into a kind of MOS in my ISA! When it gets down to the last £1000 of the mortgage I'm pretty sure we'll take it out of our savings just to see the mortgage gone!

We've decided to put more money away for a holiday fund going forward, going to double what I've been saving as what we have put by for this summer will only just cover our accommodation next week & we have extra mouths to feed now! Plus we'd like to try & have the odd weekend trip away in future too. We also need to put more money away for petrol, this new car seems to be drinking it. I think it's just so much bigger & also I realise just how fuel efficient our last car was, it was amazing looking back. TV licence has been renewed by direct debit, I've saved £12 per month for the last year so was just £1.50 under the £145.50 needed

Heading into town tomorrow & have a few bits to buy so it won't be a NSD sadly, but hoping it won't be too spendy...

Signature updated - we're down to the 18's :j

Crumpets

Yay for being in the next bracket :T it's such a good feeling. It sounds like you need to have a re-jig of your budgets, I do too... Things change all the time and I find it difficult to keep on top of it. with our holiday budget, I have two separate pots, one main one for the actual holidays and a separate one for spending money, I like knowing that the spending money is sorted and it's good to see clearly what is allocated for each thing.

Well done for finding the 'lost' £89, what a great feeling

RoaringTwenties

Yes I do need to re-jig my budgets Crumpets! I think we can start saving a little less for car repairs as our current car is 18 months old, when I started putting money aside regularly for our first car it was 11 years old. Hopefully this one wont cost so much in repairs [STRIKE]famous last words[/STRIKE] And deffo want to put more away for hols & need to put more aside for petrol. The fact we put so much aside is I think the reason we always used to feel skint despite having one good salary - by the time I'd finished filling up virtual pots for the TV Licence, Xmas/birthdays, renewing the road tax, emergency-what-if-my-foot-falls-off-and-they've-abolished-the-NHS-by-then fund* we had about £1.75 left to live on :rotfl:

* that's a bit of an exaggeration [STRIKE]though don't get me started on this government[/STRIKE] :mad:

Anyway, I need to get into town today & buy a few bits for SIL visit inc a toilet training inset seat - that's for her three year old, not for SIL you understand Lots of stuff to return to shops too - clothes I ordered from M&S on the 20% off day last week that don't fit. I did get a ladybird onesie though for DS' birthday from my Grannie, so that's good.

Several more days of sun predicted too :T