NST Challenge - Spring is here!

liltdiddylilt

For those destined to clean the tops of cupboards this month... Astonish Cream Cleaner. Big yellow bottle. Savers, pound shops etc. Best cleaner I've ever used. And if you can't find that, next best is soda crystals mixed with bleach and water. Dream team for cutting through grease.

Lovely to hear your good news LSD... fab how much of a difference it will make to your life and just shows how well your hubbys boss thinks of him!

Bob I am sorry you didn't get it. It would have been a weight off eh - I am sure something good is coming... a baby person for one thing!! Baths solve everything!!

Another spend free day for me today. I got my mojo back :cool:

Had a look today and have earned nearly £15 in interest this month got £57 outstanding on TCB... slowly clawing back the money I lost to my clothes spree last week. So when that bonus hits at the end of the month the accounts will look healthier. I really need to work on selling some old baby stuff and junk on fb/gumtree.

Have a lovely evening all. Wonder if I could get through the entire Easter weekend without spending hmm? xxx

WelshKitty85

Hi everyone! Thanks for all the kind words. I shed a few tears yesterday but am ok today. Have submitted an application for a masters degree (needs to be in asap to stand a chance of applying for a bursary) as I thought even if I get accepted I can still change my mind. Have also started an application for 1 job and received an application form for a job at the place I volunteer.

Have been to work today. Grabbed a mug-soup thing as I was leaving the house but was starving at lunch time. However, I resisted the urge to spend and instead raided the biccies that a lovely customer brought in for us. So it has been my first (of many I hope) SFD of the month.

Grandparents have asked to have the children over the weekend. I am working Sunday anyway so I think I will do an egg hunt and give them all their treats tomorrow as I have a day off. We are going to the cinema first thing for an egg hunt there and fancy dress competition. I will be taking a little princess and price charming with me!

Oh, and we may be doing another egg hunt on Saturday before going to the ice cream parlour, then kiddies will be going to grandparents Saturday afternoon. It's going to be an egg-citing few days!

Synonymous

Hi everyone, just caught up on the new thread, count me in please Fmess, when you're back from holidays!

A few things before I forget!
Bob, it may have been the first thing you checked, but maybe see if the fuse has blown before you replace you tv?
Dyson vacs - I fixed mine last month when the motor overheated and used manchester vacs (easy to find on Google) for my spare parts. They do the accessories too, and I expect they are cheaper than direct from dyson, and free delivery over £25 or something. They also have tutorials and info on the different models and if they are worth fixing. If you're under warranty though then serious parts probably need to be official ones.
Little skint dragon, I think it was you asking about a savings account for monthly/annual costs, just to add that I would also make sure that everything your saving for in that pot is as cheap as it can possibly be (insurances, etc) and then the pot itself wont need to be so big and you can put the extra into debt-busting. If you can save it in time also pay insurance in a lump sum, not monthly installments as usually this is actually a disguised loan which you are paying off all year and with interest, and look around for cashback on your insurance as that is a big money maker. I've had about a thousand pounds in cashback in the last four years from Top Cashback. (Sorry if any of this is obvious, a lot of my friends didn't know these things, but they also don't read MSE!)

For anyone wanting to try mindfulness, I have a code for 3 months free at Headspace if you PM me, it might be out of date now but it's worth a try! Also freebuddhistaudio has a section of free meditations of varying quality - don't let the Buddhist part put you off - all modern mindfulness is taken from 2,500 year-old Buddhist meditations! The 'Metta Bhavana' in particular is a lovely meditation on developing loving-kindness for yourself and others.

I'll set my budgets and report back, not sure why I'm still awake, but that's about to change!

Bobarella

Morning All
Opened up for 9 but it's totally dead out there. Hopefully get a few pop ins later.

Fmess - sorry for my bath comments making you jealous. It must be awful not having a rubber duckie to play with

Lilt -thanks for the top tip on cleaning products. Very useful. And the kind words. You sound like your back on top form too!

Welsh kitty - really hope you get your mojo back soon. And enjoy the child free time too. It's good for all of you.

Synonymous - no we haven't. I've just text my husband to do so. Basically the TV is on, at the wall & has the red standby light on but won't do anything. So not sure really. I've just had so many appliances that end up costing you a £50 call out and then can't be fixed. At 7 years old it's well out of warrantee and fit for purpose period too. So I don't LG would do anything anyway. But it would be very annoying if it was fixable. ..Thanks for the suggestion.

So today I am not expecting to spend anything from our budget. My husband is taking our son to a free small furries workshop at our local Pets at Home this morning & I suspect maybe a Costa afterwards but if I'm not there I'm not counting it!
I don't think I have any other news yet today. Am up to £14 in tips this week which is brilliant!
Oh and my son's Nan sent him £10 in a card for easter so he's pleased. He has almost £800 in his own little savings account now purely from savings such. I wish my parents had done the same for me!

Bob

mothernerd

Hello everyone, sorry for the lack of check-ins. I have been without internet access since Monday.

My budgets are
Food £50 Fairly modest but I have quite a lot in the freezer and want to work my way through it, empty and clean the freezer and fridge freezer and then only use the freezer (fridge/freezer can be larder or general storage space and will be freegled at some later date). Spent about £21 including toilet rolls.
Travel £24.50 This is for a one week bus pass (currently £13, came down from £18 a couple of years ago but due to be increased but can't remember if the sign said £14 or £14.50 plus a couple of anybus all day tickets. This week I planned to start walking to the other house once a day and bring back plant pots and other shed stuff (heavier stuff means using the dolly). Wild weather has made this untenable but will try again soon. fall back position is to have a week's bus pass and ferry as many loads as possible by bus (the pass means I can travel before 9.30am and buses run from 5.30am until 11pm most days). I need the anybus ticket if I need to visit the solicitor (when house sells) or at least £4 to put the cheques in the bank (waiting for the fourth but largest from F Useless energy company) and would also do as many trips as possible to make best use of it. Would have gone to the bank yesterday but wild weather meant all my clothes were in varying stages of dryness. I had things which covered my bum so spent the day getting things dry outside and then pulled the driest skirt off the line to go to the library but it was too late to go to the bank.
Extra £50 Mainly for DS3's birthday. We are having a sleepover and having invited people he has no idea how to entertain them. Will involve buying food or snacks and drinks (non-alcoholic, he's going to be 25, he's allowed alcohol but doesn't like it but non-alcoholic is cheaper). We may need some new pillows as the existing ones have been re-made at least twice and we now may not have enough for six people (so I'm having the new pillows, they can have the scratty ones). I have spent £8 of his birthday money on a 3-pack of boxer shorts for him (the old ones are going to be used for heavy duty/ use and throw away cleaning tasks). not very exciting but he does need them.

Other plans. Food bank donation and a the Council Tax bill that isn't on dd paid on Monday. Need to lose weight or not having anything to wear will be permanent (not buying any larger clothes and serious look at naked body was a shock - too much comfort eating and food rewards). Want to increase walking and third thing is to do something I enjoy every day (re-write the list of non-food rewards - dancing/ reading etc).

Big news is :T I went in the bath yesterday:T. Got in by myself but needed help from DS3 getting out. I can get into a crouch position in the bath (can't hold it for long) but can't 'push up' to standing yet. So he had to pull me up, but I can push once I am past the knees unfolding position, if that makes sense.

I will read all your adventures later (have about 50 posts to catch up on) but have to steel myself to go to mum's partner's house. Twin grand-daughters plus partners, children and dogs (think they are puppies who can jump on your knee) are expected. The only sensible man is the one who will be working late, the 26yo fiance is an idiot and the 80yo has Alzheimer's (so both act like 6yos) and then the poor 5yo gets it in the neck after they have 'teased' (bullied) her or led her into mischief. I may be back soon.

traveller

Morning everyone and lovely to see you back Mothernerd

Bob, sorry about the TV deal, hopefully something better will be along and I hope you get some trade in today

Fmess, I am so jealous of you only having a shower, that is my dream but everyone else loves the bath, plus our water pressures rubbish lol.

Finally managed to find the paint I need in stock so reserved four cans for the hallway and home-based have a buy one get one half price deal at the moment so that 60 instead of 80 pounds to be spent on paint. Ive budgeted 200.00 for the project and hope I don't go over.

Well have a good day everyone

WelshKitty85

mothernerd well done on managing the bath!

Bobarella hope it picks up for you again today - not too busy, just nice and steady for you!

Had a lovely morning. Took DS and DD to cinema. Cost £6 for all 4 of us and was paid for in advance last month. They had an Easter egg hunt and got loads of free sweets to munch on whilst watching the film. They both also won the fancy dress competition! I'm very proud of DSs outfit as it was a homemade Prince Charming from school uniform, an old pirate costume stitched to hide the skulls, and a paper crown that he decorated about 9pm last night. They won 2 free cinema tickets each so that will be another day out next week!

Back home now. I planted some baskets outside their bedrooms as they were getting changed and a trail of chocolates down the stairs, leading to a stash of Easter eggs. We are now watching a film on tv and will have a nice dinner as we won't be home most of Easter Sunday.

I have just ordered a new fridge freezer. It cost £187 out of the £200 I have budgeted. I went through a cash back site and also paid on a cash back credit card, but that will be paid off in full at the end of the month.

academiablues

Hi everyone!

Fmess hope you have a lovely holiday
Thanks everyone for the well-wishes, feeling much less sick today, and it's already been a spendy one - OH went food shopping and spent £33 - I ended up with too much of most things, as he has a tendency to buy two of things (not BOGOF, just two of them!) and he bought two tins of peas when I'd written peaRs down(!!!) - why he thought we'd need tinned peas when we have frozen ones in the house I do not know! So will cost me a couple of quid to rectify that later!
I also spent £36 on petrol, as we're getting around a bit this weekend. Got friends coming over tomorrow, so should be a spend-free day.
Hope everyone has a lovely Easter

liltdiddylilt

Fmess have a lovely time on holiday! Everyone seems to have gone away these last few weeks. Much jealous!!

Bob if you can find that Astonish stuff, there is nothing it can't do!! :D But soda crystals and bleach is a mainstay in this house too, and the soda crystals help me use half the washing powder I used to for the same results

Jellytot has a savings fund too. I save £300 a month into a regular saver now I am df and at the end of the year she gets £1500 of it. So by the end of this year she will have £3k. I hope to keep it up so that she has a decent little fund for a car or a house deposit or whatever she chooses

academia glad you're feeling a bit better today!! LOL at OH and his peas

mothernerd lovely to see you back and hooray for a bath finally!!! Slowly but surely eh


Ok.. so today is the first day of a 12 day holiday. Him was supposed to look after Jellytot and give me a relaxed day. Had arranged to see a friend and her daughter (they came over for coffee and a play) at 10:30am. At 8am I awoke to the noise of the small knocking on her door and shouting. Got up to go and let her out as she has had the door handle removed because of nighttime dangerous wanderings... Opened the door and started yelling for Him. A sea of sick and poo greeted me. Clothes and blankets covered (luckily nothing on the bed at all!) and the carpet was wall to wall disgusting. He whipped the blankets etc out and just dumped them in the bin. Not very :money: MSE but frankly one 3 year old fleece, a pair of slightly too small pyjamas with a hole in and some old bed socks were not worth keeping or even wasting washing powder on. A bunch of teddies and dolls got dumped in the machine.. Small chucked in the shower to have a good scrub and I started on operation clean up. Soda Crystals, Vanish & Small & Mytee in boiling water... I scrubbed the carpet wall to wall for 2 straight hours and three bowl loads of the washing solution before it started to come up clean when I squeezed the bubbles out of the carpet. I then vacuumed and nearly killed the machine, it was sucking so much water out! :eek: - so then had to empty the entire machine out and scrub it and set it all out to dry!! Carpet is cleaner than it has ever been but I have actually rubbed my fingerprints off, despite wearing heavy duty rubber gloves. Sore fingers

Think someone accidentally sneaked some dairy into madams dinner last night despite everything saying dairy free. That seems to be the only explanation for the mess and very distinctive smell. She's been fine all day!!

Friends were over only half an hour after the original time in order to give me time to shower Sat and drank coffee and ate biscuits while the kids trashed the house what is poo and trashed toys between friends :rotfl:

Not a SFD. Spent £3.25 on about 6 packets of biscuits hoping to please everyone but they are mostly all still unopened so that was a waste of money. Never mind, live and learn and eat lots of biscuits myself later

Hope you all have a lovely Good Friday xx

Bobarella

Lilt - oh my goodness. Poor Jelly. And what an awful start to the day for you all. When you say someone snuck in the dairy do you mean your OH? What a lot of extra work you've been caused. Really hope everything improves. Amazing savings progress for Jelly too. What a lucky little girl she is.

Mothernerd - that is amazing about your progress. Huge congratulations!!!! And good luck with your crazy house full!

Welsh kitty -well done to your children winning the prize, what a nice easter for them.

Academia - Glad you are feeling better.

Today did pick up. Went from having taken £11 at 11am to £186 by 3pm. It was bedlam. But I am alive and my business budget is happy. This week we are up £50 on last week and we have taken more each week since we reopened. No where near normal takings yet but all very positive signs.

Have a good evening all.

bob