Sat/Sun 10th/11th October - What small DFW things will you do this weekend?

crazy_cat_lady

Morning
Up and about with a bit of time to myself this morning - nobody else up yet. Just me, the cats, cuppa and time on here.
Fairly productive day yesterday all in all - plus I got time to watch tv late last night which is always a bonus. Still, there's always more to do - so here's today's little list.
Post my letters re PPI claim
batch cooking day
tutoring
take dd to her tumbling class
get ds to clear the floor in his room so I can change his bed
aim for nsd
try not to stress
I think that's it - that will actually take most of the day once things start happening so I'm going to make the most of a bit of 'me' time now.

lego_mum

Morning Ccl & all who follow,

I've been up for about an hour too, we had such a busy day yesterday with ds1's party that the everything just got left last night as we went to bed, kitchen a mess/ sitting room had loads of wrapping paper around etc that I didn't sleep well just knowing what I had to get up to if that makes sense!
Anyway, looks loads better now and its not even 8am so can't complain.

My list
Health & Fitness plans (lose this weight once and for all, no fad diets ever again!)
:starmod: Walk at least 7000 steps to get bounts points done pleased with this as I've not been hitting this target on a weekend until now
:starmod: Eat for health done lovely meat & veg lunch
:starmod: Drink water through the day done
:starmod: Monitor fitness goals etc using my fitbit daily & adjust when needed done and made a point of getting extra steps in

Daily jobs:
:starmod: Wash a load at 30 degrees done
:starmod: Hang washing on the line if dry done
:starmod: Check banks/update spreadsheet
:starmod: Delete junk from emails
:starmod: Clean & tidy fridge (make sure we don’t waste anything) kids having a left over sausage each & a ys crumpet, cooked left over bacon to put into dh's sandwiches for tomorrow
:starmod: Use something out of the food use up box added items left over from yesterdays party
:starmod: Plan today’s meals from stores b-ys crumpets, lunch at my parents (i'm taking the veg & birthday cupcakes) Tonight will just be leftovers
:starmod: Make families lunches for tomorrow done
:starmod: No heating on yet, plenty of blankets & jumpers available done but its quite mild here today anyway

Tidy home = Tidy mind
:starmod: Clean the kitchen using minimal products
:starmod: Tidy at least one cupboard dh's wardrobe sorted
:starmod: Gather together items for the cs added a couple of dh's t shrits
:starmod: Work out how to change light bulb on dh’s fancy reading lamp

Money making schemes
:starmod: Inbox pounds 5 searches done
:starmod: Swagbucks
:starmod: Check Fpl
:starmod: Check luckyphone done
:starmod: Check for surveys

Freebies/vouchers/offers
:starmod: Check 02 priorities done
:starmod: Check tcb/quidco done
:starmod: Check cos/shopit done

Extras
:starmod: The maths factor with the boys done
:starmod: Reading with ds2 done
:starmod: Ds2's homework done
:starmod: Take back library books & collect one's we put on hold for ds1 instead of buying books like we used to.:D 6 taken back and 9 brought back home, pleased ds1 enjoys reading
:starmod: Get fuel whilst on way to mums from sainsbobs to make most of extra points offer done
:starmod: Have a day off contact lenses, rest my eyes & save the cost of the lense done

Waiting in for a Mr T delivery then we'll go to my parents who live by the beach and hopefully get a nice long walk in.:)

Have a good day all.
bob ds1 has more money in child trust fund then ds2, we have agreed that we will match whatever is in ds1's when the time comes. Going forward we always split birthday monies etc between the two of them. For instance ds1 was very lucky to receive £75 in birthday money at his party yesterday, this will be split between the two of them so £37.50 each, some of it to be banked and some for them to buy something. That way they both get some money to spend in aug (ds2s bday) Oct (ds1's) Christmas & Easter. Hope that makes sense.

YORKSHIRELASS

Morning

You sound a bit more positive this morning CCL. If it helps even a tiny bit things are pretty rubbish here too.

Made £4.50 on my ebay stuff yesterday. Not worth the bother. DS1 had a lovely N*xt coat, only worn a couple of times, got some good photos of it - and it didnt even sell for 99p.

Bob my eldest son has slightly more in his savings account because I have been putting £10 a month away for them both since they were born. Seems fair enough to me. Glad you are both doing well.

Went out for a family meal last night. Mum paid for the whole meal with her bank card and said we would sort it out later. Then when we went back to theirs she pulled me into the kitchen and said I could just give her £40 instead of the £65 we owed. She is such a love.

Finding everything hard going at the moment. Taking DS to footie then out for tea today. Need to go and look at some tiles for the kitchen while we are out.

Have a nice Sunday everyone x

Bobarella

Thanks LegoMum and Yorkshire. Both good points/strategies.

I was reading a few threads on the families board where people were discussing hideous favouritism by grandparents of specific kids. I have found my DHS family are not a family to give cash but they will always buy a lot at Xmas,birthdays, bags full. And they give their time very willingly. Whereas my side. Will send cards and cash. But never come to see us. I'm not really bothered TBH. You get used to things don't you.
Anyway that's a bit tangential this morning but I think so long as we get a savings account open and don't fritter any kind gifts away where ever we start off or however we do it can be changed down the line.

carrielovesfanta

Morning all

Am down in the big smoke. Typing on my phone so a bit rubbish. Not too much money spent and saved a lot by bringing a packed lunch yesterday. So much free prosecco at the wedding that I only had to pay for water (no tap water?!), and taxis.

Also brought porridge pots for brekkie but may need a top up with bacon buttie

Have a good one all

clf x

lego_mum

Bob Just to clarify, ds1 has more money in his CTF as when he was born we put gifts we'd received for his birth in there too, when ds2 arrived money was tight so we ended up using his gift money to buy the things we needed at the time (not necessarily baby things if that makes sense, so we feel like we "owe" ds2's account.) The reason we started splitting birthday monies was because ds1 always receives more money through the post from our family up North then ds2 (I think some of the family haven't remembered we had ds2!!)

crazy_cat_lady

Sorry you're having a stressful time - Yorkshirelass - doesn't make me feel any better because I wouldn't wish these levels of stress on my worst enemy. Chin up, what doesn't kill us only makes us stronger etc...

princess_pea

Hello all,

CCL Sorry you're still feeling down. I follow Fenwicks on Facebook and their Christmas windows should be open soon. Worth a trip with the kids? It would cheer me up a bit

Yesterday turned out to be a NSD but we'll have to go to Aldi/ Pets at Home today.

We went to a poetry slam last night. I'd been before but other half hadn't. Luckily he loved it! There were some really talented poets there. I must admit I like the humorous/ rude ones the best!

Bank/ FPL/ surveys/ spending diary to check and update

Need to clean the bathroom before some friends come round later

Catch up on last night's Strictly!!

Have a lovely Sunday everyone

Bobarella

LegoMum- it's an interesting one. I see exactly what you are saying. And looking at it now, DS got £500 into his CTF from the government at birth. DD won't get that.
However, when we had him we spent quite large sums relatively speaking on things like a baby backpack that we used to carry him in till he was around 2.5. Those cost about £100 brand new. Then there was the 3 pushchairs I think only the main one came out of our spends the others were family bought. The oodles of expensive boys clothing too that I stupidly remember treating DS to (little cool bibs at £6 a pop) anyway my main point is, she has all that to use again. So her money is now just for saving. So maybe they won't be so unequal after all.

Sorry for becoming a baby bore! Trying to stay on topic roughly

foxgloves

Hello Frugalistas,
Started with a little spend as we popped to our village farm shop for a sausage cob. It's so much mroe enjoyable now, as we rarely do this, rather than just about every weekend in the Spendy Years. Anyway, some money saving contributions too:
*Bought garlic ready for planting later this month. We get a good crop from it, so worth the money. Stores well & all grown with no chemicals so healthy too.
*mr f volunteered a morning doing heavy garden jobs inc opening up 2 big compost bins & removing all the compost to spread on veggie garden beds. Fab stuff. Dark, crumbly & FREE! Always amazes me that our kitchen waste & garden rubbish can be upcycled into something so good & useful.
*Brought agapanthus pots, pelargoniums, tender herbs, etc, under cover of greenhouse before I risk losing them in the cold weather.
*Picked up another 3lbs windfall pears.
*Gathered another bucket of apples.
*Even managed to pick a final yoghurt pot of blackberries.
*Sort apples to find best undamaged ones for wrapping individually in newspaper for storing.
*Use some of the nibbled/bruised ones with the blackberries to make apple & blackberry sponge pudding for dinner.
*Put sweet-pea seeds to soak overnight ready to sow tomorrow (free seed).
*Make tomorrow's packed lunch & work snacks......mr f is already enquiring whether there is likely to be any leftover fruit sponge & I haven't even made it yet!
*Found my hyacinth vases & started off 2 hyacinth bulbs. Probably too late to get them flowering for Christmas, but they'll certainly make it for new year ready to cheer up a windowsill. If anyone wants to do this, look for the hyacinths described as 'prepared bulbs'. Charity shops often have the glass hyacinth vases on their bric-a-brac shelves for around 50p. The bulbs cost me 60p each this morning, a very low spend little cheer-up for a cold, dull January day when they are flowering & filling our lounge with scent.
*Finish a couple of library books. Need to return a big bag of stuff to the library this week.
I think that's everything for today.
CCL - I hope the coming week is a little less stressful for you. I've been there with the anxiety/stress & it's so wearing, just feeling so wired all the time. You do a stressful job - teachers no longer seem to be valued as highly as they should be - & your current home situation is piling on domestic pressure, meaning that home isn't the 'escape' from work stress that t needs to be. Where your OH is concerned, I've experienced anxiety syndrome at the level where leaving the house is extremely difficult. Unfortunately, avoiding going out makes things a whole lot worse. I can remember my GP asking me if I wanted some group counselling or some medication & I said 'Neither. I want you to sign me off work for a couple of month while I practise going out on my own!' I did have a low level of anti-anxiety drug for a short while, but it was all the little trips out I kept doing which did the trick. Anyway, I hope things are better for you this week. The early waking is horrible. For most of my working life, I woke at 3.15 a.m on weekdays.....so regularly, it was as though I'd set the alarm! It is very wearing.
Yorkshire lass - Sorry you are struggling too.
OK, mr f has just brought me a rather attractive sandwich so I shall sign out.
f x