MF Mission....The JHH Dream!!

JHH1982

Hi GG, thanks for the post.

I'm currently nearing the end of your diary and excited to find out if you are definitely retiring next month!! (Just got to the bit where Mr G has suggested it! :T)

Hopefully Bay of E will treat me kindly - I tend to buy but never really sold much - but I will take the wise words (TY) and photograph and describe accurately! Thanks!

Crumpets

Hi JHH, I've just discovered your diary and will subscribe. You seem to have a good plan in place and a lot of determination and I look forward to following your diary

Lots of luck for the bay of e, I have been ebaying for a good few years now and I've only had a few that have been troublesome. Like GG says, if you take lots of photos and are honest in your description you should be fine

Crumpets x

Goldiegirl

JHH1982 wrote: »

Hi GG, thanks for the post.

I'm currently nearing the end of your diary and excited to find out if you are definitely retiring next month!! (Just got to the bit where Mr G has suggested it! :T)

Well done for wading through my diary!

I'm really pleased that I started the diary, as it's been a memorable year for several reasons.

Over a lifetime, a lot of the day to day activity is forgotten, so in years to come, I'll be able to read my diary to remind myself of what it was like in2014

JHH1982

Crumpets wrote: »

Hi JHH, I've just discovered your diary and will subscribe. You seem to have a good plan in place and a lot of determination and I look forward to following your diary

Lots of luck for the bay of e, I have been ebaying for a good few years now and I've only had a few that have been troublesome. Like GG says, if you take lots of photos and are honest in your description you should be fine

Crumpets x

Hi Crumpets - thanks for popping by! I'm already a subscriber of your diary - your days are certainly busy most of the time
I am going to take the plunge this wk and let of Fleabay :T - here's hoping for nice buyers @ half decent prices!

Goldiegirl wrote: »

Well done for wading through my diary!

I'm really pleased that I started the diary, as it's been a memorable year for several reasons.

Over a lifetime, a lot of the day to day activity is forgotten, so in years to come, I'll be able to read my diary to remind myself of what it was like in2014

Yes it's an odd way to store a diary I suppose, although not these days - I'm only 32, but remember vividly and fondly in my teenage years writing daily for many years in my diary (s) that had a lock on the front of them!! I still have them now and do re read from time to time - it brings back many fond memories

JHH1982

MFW Goodness :money:
• Used £6 left over on a gift card in m&s to reduce spends to £9 (dads Xmas socks)
• A root thro the 'ol purse whilst queueing found a £5 Deb & £10 WH Smith voucher
• Was very frugal on my visit to town - stuck to my list and didn't fritter ££ away on anything else :A

The Not So Good :eek:
• A Spendy ish day :cool:
£9.x m&s
£9.x on Xmas cards (this just includes family ones - we make a donation to charity rather than sending out to everyone)
£12.x in the arts & crafts shop - this includes jars, hessian, ribbon and tags for my Xmas home cooked bonanza of chutney, curd & fudge! Even with ingredients still far far cheaper (and better of course!) than shop bought!
£25.x in the fuel station, I normally fill up but it was too cold! Plus a cheeky Mars bar for me an extra nuts snickers for DH

Blessings & Good Stuff :A :T
• 90 min walk in the crisp countryside (right on our doorstep) with the hounds :j
• Cuppa & catch up with the girlies
• Home made quiche cooked, was yummy for dinner with salad
• Feeling v proud (and slightly smug) I resisted buying 'things' or clothes from town today - esp at this time of year! I genuinely didn't find it hard to resist, wondered round and didn't feel compelled or even mildly tempted to buy any carp!! :beer:

• Aiming for 5 x NSD days this week. Today & Sat are allocated spend days, Out with the girls Sat night and getting my hair done :T

This weeks 'to do' list:

1. Make Fudge, [STRIKE]chutney[/STRIKE] and lemon curd
2. [STRIKE]Buy printer Ink/print copy of wills[/STRIKE]
3. Clean the house: [STRIKE]Polish[/STRIKE], bathrooms, [STRIKE]windows[/STRIKE]
4. [STRIKE]New tyres for DH car[/STRIKE]
5. [STRIKE]Buy Christmas cards[/STRIKE]
6. Finish meal plan until Jan 3rd
7. List dresses on FleaBay

JHH1982

MFW Goodness :money:

• NSD :beer:
  

• Glut of surveys completed
  

I'm currently signed up to 5 org's for this! YG,OP,VO, Ips0s, GTM however I think I need to decide on maybe two (once I've got my £££) - and look at ease of surveys vs how many surveys/how long to pay to decide which ones, as it's becoming a bit overwhelming with the amount avail to complete everyday!

The Not So Good :eek:

• All good on the MF front :money:
  
• DH will working late (again) - 3 for 3 this week so far, at least he's WFH though and not on a client site. Thinking about it , I suspect I've noticed him working late more because of being in 'recovery' and not allowed to do much - hence relied on him to' entertain' me (sure there is a song in there somewhere ). Hopefully things should quieten down for him over the next few weeks and we have a 2 weeks off over the Xmas period (which I feel a bit guilty about tbh after my 5 weeks off work !)
• DH took the hounds for a walk today, as I think I may have overdone it the last few days
  

Blessings & Good Stuff :A :T

• Home made roast pepper and tom soup (had toms and peppers to use up!), cobs and lemon curd rustled up today - just call me Delia this week . The soup will be our dinner tonight, lovely on a cold evening!

• Lots of enjoyment had so far this week cooking/baking and generally pottering in the kitchen (we have also of course enjoyed the feast of my efforts!) and it's been pretty MSE to boot :j

• [STRIKE]Inroads made to the meal plan. [/STRIKE] i have now finished - hoorah. I do really enjoy cooking and try not to keep regurgitating the same think week on week so our menu tends to be different things month to month/quarter to quarter. The way I meal plan seems to be quite laborious though but having tried many ways I don't seem to have found an easier way for me?

**War and peace explanation of my menu process, best advised to leave if you are already sleepy :rotfl: **
Essentially I keep a freezer list (on my kitchen door, updated every time something comes out, which I don't like to run too low tbh) ...i sit down with this, my folder (recipes I've printed out, labelled into chicken, beef, veggie etc) cook books or selection of and also master list' which is a tab in my spreadsheet (of things I've cooked before and we enjoyed).
I have a tab in my spreadsheet for my meal plan and peruse all the above material to pick what we are having, my mealplan tab has the following columns: date, day, schedule (DH and my schedule if we are out/working away etc. so I know not to cook), recipe name, location (folder, cookbook etc.), page # …..then I have about 8-10 columns next to that which list the items I need to buy to cook said meal (this generally excludes alot of it as i don't count the week to week things I have as staples, such as fruit/veg/store cupboard items (of which i have alot) I know I have in).
I then basically can see at a glance (and print) week to week what items I need to buy, plus my 'normal' list. This bit is key for me, as it's where I used to fall down a lot.
Additionally I try and add in 2-3 eve meals per week that are 'flexi' …..i.e. I haven't had to buy any 'fresh' food for etc. in the event things change (which happens reasonably frequently with DH work) and I don't cook it - that way nothing is wasted.
I also do realise by the time I've typed this I could have probably finished my MP :rotfl:

• Next door neighbour fed with today's soup *& a cob + yesterday's quiche. His fianc!e is away and he's a little challenged in the culinary dept

This weeks 'to do' list:

• Make [STRIKE][STRIKE]Fudge[/STRIKE],[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]chutney and Lemon Curd[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]Buy printer Ink/print copy of wills[/STRIKE]
• Clean the house: [STRIKE]Polish[/STRIKE], bathrooms,[STRIKE]windows[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]New tyres for DH car[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]Buy Christmas cards[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]Finish Meal plan until 3rd Jan[/STRIKE]
• List dresses on FleaBay

Crumpets

Wow, that is a really complicated way of doing a meal planner, but it probably means you have a lot less waste than us. I do tend to regurgitate the same meals as well, maybe in the new year I'll reasses my meal planning ways

JHH1982

Indeed it is crumpets - but for an hour or two at the beginning of each month it seems to work lol - would not advise it for anyone not OCD with lists & s/sheets though :rotfl:

JHH1982

MFW Goodness :money:
• DH's Birthday present ordered from JL using a £50 gift voucher kindly awarded by work last month. He's wanted a retro type alarm clock/radio for many years, otherwise due to our (my) efforts to de-clutter, he wouldn't have got one!
• A few surveys completed
• Used a £5 gift voucher in Deb3nhams to buy salt & pepper grinders ( for DH xmas pressie). Again he's been looking @ them for a while and with 30% off, plus my voucher it was only and additional £5.50. Apart from a few other little bits only IF I see something he'd like, that's it for his birthday/Xmas pressies.

The Not So Good :eek:
• It wasn't a NSD :eek:! I offered to take DH's car to get the tyres fitted which we ordered a few days ago, & thought I may as well try and use my voucher (expires Dec 1st) instead of braving the madness on Saturday (originally my spend day allocated!) - so £5.50 spent in Debenhams
• Also ordered new LED spotlights for the kitchen @ £47 (currently have the 'old style' spotlights whatever they are) …..Several reasons for ordering LED, a. hopefully in the long term it may save us some £ (this I'm not sure about tho??) b. one of the bulbs had gone so seemed silly to buy just one LED and it would drive me mad being a different colour etc c. hoping it will brighten it up a little..?

Blessings & Good Stuff :A :T
• Lovely brisk walk with the hounds and DH tonight for 20 mins (DH took them at lunch for another 40 min walk) ... the dog's each have a flashing LED collar in Red and Orange and DH and I have those old style (but new) miners lights on our head so we can see where we are going in the dark….Bet we do look like a 'special' little family tho :rotfl:…..In our defence it really is needed , we live on a back lane/un adopted road with no streetlights nor any near & have fields/a footpath about 20 yards up the road - so it really is pitch black - without the collars we'd never be able to see the hounds and without our headlamps we'd never be able to see where we are going lol!
• Gammon and bulgur wheat is on the menu for tonight - I've had in the cupboard for a while, but never used before - lets see how it turns out. *edit -was ok, didn't blow me away but was a nice change*
• Payday tomorrow :j - but Dec is going to be a tight month I fear!
• It's funny how sometimes I get so upset and angry about silly or insignificant things - yet at other times it takes the smallest gesture/thought to bring home how v v lucky I am. I have an amazing Husband who I love dearly. My darling hounds who bring so much joy & my family & friends - all of whom are happy & healthy
• looking forward to the weekend, night out with G/f's, visiting family and putting the :xmastree: up

This weeks 'to do' list:

1. Make Fudge
2. Clean the house: bathrooms
3. List dresses on FleaBay

JHH1982

MFW Goodness :money:

• Not a lot - not even any surveys completed today :cool:
  
• Paid 12.5% of ££ owed to the Bank of Mum & Dad Loan today (part of money shuffles) - It was the first payment to them and it made me very happy :j we are of the starting block so to speak! Cannot wait though until these payments will be getting thrown at our Mort! :mad:
  

The Not So Good :eek:

• It wasn't a NSD (again)!....DH and Daddy dearest had to look at the underfloor heating downstairs as we have figured out the Lounge wasn’t working! I was nominated Lunch gofer and popped to the shop for sandwiches (didn't have any bread or cobs made/in!!)

Blessings & Good Stuff :A :T

• Luckily the underfloor heating Lounge issue turned out to be a switch turned 'off' …..flicked it 'on' and also adjusted the temp from 20c to the recommended 45-50c. For the sake of a couple of sandwiches to get this working, I'm a happy Bunny :T. Hopefully this should make a huge difference as currently when the underfloor heating has been on for a few hours it's barely made any diff to the room temps downstairs (only just over 1c) and we were beginning to get a bit worried for when the temp plummets (supposedly) over the next few weeks! :eek:
  *edit - thought I'd better point out this temp is for the overall underfloor system to run at - not the room temp *
  

• Aldee spesh ribs, HM chips & corn on the cob with a cheeky glass or two of red on the menu for this eve - nom nom!

• The 'money shuffle' is complete for this month (I don't have Gally Girl's little icon unfortuantley)

• House deep cleaned :j:A:T, the first one since my op nearly 5 weeks ago! DH has been fettling and has hoovered - but not much else. Having a sparkly clean house has made me so so happy, that it's almost sad
  

This weeks 'to do' list:

• [STRIKE]Make Fudge - [/STRIKE]moved to Next weeks list as it only lasts ~3 weeks apparently and as this is for Xmas pressies thought I'd best do nearer the time!

• List dresses on FleaBay - will do this Sunday morning when DH is out cycling (I reserve the right to flake out if I have a hangover though! :rotfl:)