Simple, Slow Steps To Happiness & Mortgage Freedom

I_want_a_baby

Pearla, thank you - I have always wanted a Belfast sink and never had one. This is the first time in the 9 years we have lived together that we have been able to choose a kitchen. I cannot believe we have managed to get the kitchen of our dreams for such a MSE price!


Giblet, I am a little OCD when it comes to numbers. I get a lot of satisfaction from my spreadsheet lol. Yes it is a very exciting time, the only shame is that it won't be our forever home but we can live with that. Hopefully we will have many happy years there! Your plans sound great too! Can you let me have a link to your diary so I can subscribe? x


So onto my update!


We have had a very lovely weekend.


Saturday morning my husband and cousin went to somerset to collect our new kitchen.
Here is the listing if you want to have a nosey http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kitchen-units-and-worktops-/111320288601?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT&_trksid=p2047675.l2557&nma=true&si=6X6Yo%252BNAhPJBX7zX6TWmqeRQ9yA%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc
I am so happy with them, completely solid wood carcuses, solid worktop, gorgeous sink! They are a bit stained and marked so over the next few months we are going to revamp them and bring them back to looking like new!


After the kitchen was unloaded we had a lovely lunch of sausages and bacon.


I then took the kids and dog home for a few hours. We watched a DVD and rested while my husband set about digging some more of the vegetable patch and removing all the plastic from the carport. In the evening we had a massive bonfire to burn half of the branches we had cut from the trees.


Today - what a glorious day!


I decided to make tea first thing so I made a chicken, courgette and mushroom curry. All were in the fridge and needed using up. I then made 4 portions of chilli con carne to use up the rest of mushrooms and courgette. This will be the next two evenings teas & two in the freezer.


We went over the bungalow mid morning. My husband went to B&Q first to pick up some compost - a bag for the in laws and some for our mini veg planters at home. At the bungalow we finished cutting the branches which were on the lawn (this has taken 3 weeks!), cleared these and stacked the logs up and took the rubbish out to the field. Mowed the entire lawn. Planted more radish, Brussels sprouts, potatoes and purple sprouting broccoli. Dug over and planted two large wildflower areas. Carefully took down the grape vine that is under the carport and laid it in the field.


When we got back we bid on another ebay find.
A bath with taps, toilet, two sinks with taps, shower tray, glass doors, electric mira shower and shower head.
All in 'as new' condition - only used for a short while. All white and pristine.
Won it all for £54.75! Gobsmacked! Collecting it tomorrow night.


The toilet, one sink and shower will do our shower room and the bath and other sink will replace whats in the bathroom. The bathroom has a pink suite with a white loo so this works perfectly!


SO HAPPY!!


Not much on the money saving front. I am taking £40 out of the cash purse for next weeks food. I hope to put some of that into the sealed tin though!


Thanks to all the people who comment, 'thank' and lurk! Hope you have all had a lovely weekend in the sun x


IWAB xx

Muser1

Kitchen is beautiful! Well done you. I love it when people put links on. I'm so nosey x

I_want_a_baby

Thanks Muser! On that note here is the link to the bathroom we won - you can see why we are over the moon, it is basically new! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Complete-Bathroom-Bristan-sinks-bath-shower-macerator-toilet-the-lot-/271446823453?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT&_trksid=p2047675.l2557&nma=true&si=5xQkmlFCe4DGgXZB9M0lQX0cwpI%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

IWAB x

Pearla*Merle

Ooh, wow, linkies! How amazing that you've got a bathroom sorted too, what a bargain, you must be walking on air right about now!

The kitchen is stunning! I'm beyond jealous! :smileyhea

I_want_a_baby

Pearla, yes we are feeling very lucky and happy to have found such wonderful bargains!


My husband is collecting the bathroom suite tonight, again using the free van from work. I have also found a big solid pine bookcase which is from the same ikea leksvik range which we have a few pieces of. It is a bargain at £15, we really need a larger bookcase for the childrens room so I am very happy with this! This is also being collected tonight!


I logged into the online banking & budgeting spreadsheet to see if there was anything to update.


£0.30 Round down dog insurance
£0.29 Round down life insurance
£1.04 Round down food account
£1.63 total trf'd to the big plan savings.


I then went onto Topcashback and found I had £20.44 payable. I will use £10 of this to clear the £10 I used to bet on the grand national (to get £21 cashback). I will put the rest to the big plan and when I receive the cashback from William hill I will trf all of that as well.


I did a food shop today and spent £29.74. I seem unable to stick to a list at the moment! £9.79 of this was a 24 pack of toilet rolls but still spent a lot more than intended.


I am thinking of doing a frugal May to pull our belts back in - something like trying to spend half of our normal budget per week to use up what we have and save more into the sealed tin. (would mean spending £20 per week instead of £40).


Current spendable budgets remaining for April are:
£5.65 cash purse for this weeks food.
£40.00 for next weeks food to last until payday - just over a week.
£10.00 Food money left in bank.
£20.00 Fuel (in bank) half tank still in car.


Off to finish tidying the house before my husband returns. I shall have a think about the frugal May challenge I will set myself.


IWAB xx

giblet1979

I found you again! :jI've got myself so confused, lol... Now DEFINITELY subscribed

It sounds like everything is coming along so quickly...I've still got to have a nosey at your new kitchen link

£20 per week for May sounds very low...have you got any ideas how you might do this? Atm while we are effectively cooking for 5 whilst staying with the parents (usually all different things) it's a bit difficult, but when it's just DH and I at home, I'm hoping we can be more in control of the meal plan and budget.

Hope you've had a lovely day x

giblet1979

P.S. LOVE the kitchen x

Beckyy

The kitchen units look lovely! What a great price you got them for!

Lovely to see you back!

I_want_a_baby

Hi Giblet,


£20 per week is very low but we have full cupboards and our freezers are very full too. I think I could do it for a couple of weeks. To take the pressure off though I am going to challenge myself to save a note into my sealed tin each week. This could obviously be a minimum of £5 but I am sure my competitive side will want to get a couple of £20's in!


Hi Beckyy!
Thanks for the comment, we are so pleased with the kitchen!


So we have had a busy few days (as always!)


My husband collected the bathroom and is it as described, new. Really pleased with that. He then drove 40 minutes away to collect the bookcase only for the people to not be in and not be contactable either! He didn't get home until 10pm and I felt so bad. How rude of them!


Anyway yesterday was another lovely day in the sunshine. I hung the washing out and then set about planting seeds with the children. We planted runner beans, green French beans, yellow French beans, yellow courgette, sunflower, purple carrots, little gem lettuce & garlic chives. We have a postage stamp size garden so I am going to have to juggle the space and the small amount of sunlight the garden gets and hope for the best!


Then we went to my mums house. Whilst there I received a great text from my husband which said he had had a pay review and whilst the company was getting a 2% rise, they were very pleased with him and thought he had a great year so he was getting 6%! This will give us around £100 extra after tax.


I almost cried I was so happy. This will help so much and really gives us a bit of breathing space in quite a tight budget!


On leaving my mums I popped to the supermarket and bought him a few ciders, some crisps and crème eggs to say well done - he deserves it!


We have also found another bookcase for £15 on ebay this time so fingers crossed when we go to collect this tomorrow night we will have no trouble.


My goals for frugalness (from now) are:
1. Have £1,000 in the big plan fund by my birthday 14/07 (currently £370.82)
2. Save a note into the sealed tin each week.
3. Walk my son to & from nursery instead of driving.


These goals should keep me motivated to see the savings add up and the last one should increase my fitness. My sons nursery is 1.5 miles away on foot so if I walk to take and collect him I will walk 6 miles that day. He goes 3 days a week so that should increase my exercise from nil to quite a lot!


Anyway that's all for now I think.


I may just see if I can find any little savings...


IWAB xx


ETA:
£3.75 left after sky DD taken
£1.86 left in food acc (after hubbys treats taken)
Both trf'd to big plan savings


Big plan savings now £376.43

Pearla*Merle

Fabulous news on the pay rise!

Love the sound of everything you're planting up, can't wait to hear how it all goes. I would love to grow a lot more here but we've only got a balcony I also wasn't sure if we were going to be moving or not so didn't want to go overboard with the plant pots - I'm so looking forward to when we're properly settled and I can plants things up to my hearts content