Two thirds of the way there, final hurdle

MERFE

Went out to the post office, couple of parcels to send and got some fruit from the co-op. There are no green apples anywhere, Tesco didn't have any and none in the co-op either, my son will only eat green apples. He'll have to stick to bananas and oranges then. Till we go to sainsburys on Saturday.

Came home and had an answer phone message from an agency about some care work, its only for an informal chat at the moment but fingers crossed. Think I may have to go sit in the car to call her back, the signal in my house is awful but outside its fine. Wish me luck x

Spendless

What sort of course would you look at? I was fortunate in that respect as the first office admin course I did was £15 available to all, but that's 10 years ago before many of the cuts came? Maybe look into volunteering at your child's school, see if that leads to anything? It's certainly not you re the lack of jobs! I can easily do temping jobs and there's still nothing about. Good luck with finding out more about the care work.

Aldi and Lidl have improved in recent year, a lot more branded items now. Though I still think a lot depends on your local branch, I dislike our Lidl though that's the closest to me, preferring Aldi though that's the opposite side of town so I fit it in whilst DD is at her drama class , otherwise it probably wouldn't be cost effective. Do you have the other discount stores where you are, like Home Bargains and B&M? I often find they are cheaper for dry goods that the cheaper supermarkets.

MERFE

Had to go up the park and sit on a bench to make the call, well she is just an agency so she took down what hours I could work and said she would check if there is anything at the Home that is nearby and also check with the care in the community, which is a little further away but not too far. Fingers crossed. So used to not getting a response at all. I also got a message from one of the voluntary roles I have applied for, if I could fit that in as well I would be busy. It would definitely help with an up to date reference. I last worked Nov 2013 and it was in a community pharmacy, I was there 5 years so its been a while since I have looked for work.

Aldi and Lidl would just be too far anyway from here but we lived near lidl just before we moved here and I always ended up spending more in there. I think I have got shopping in asda down to a fine art to get the best deals etc, if its cheaper to buy 2 smaller packs or one larger one and they do the huge mince packs that I buy one and split into 4-5 portions. I tend to buy the wholewheat options and our local Tesco doesnt have the range so the once a month asda delivery is worth it to stock up on these. There is a b&m store, it was good for kids stuff at Christmas, I think they are good for toiletries as well but its in the opposite direction to Tesco so means a special trip. I might try and fit it in on Saturday as we will be going past when we go to visit family.

MERFE

No new news, trying to list some more on ebay, trying not to spend any money. Gonna stick something in the slow cooker in a minute because I am so tempted to get a takeaway tonight, hubby will be picking middle child up from his after school club in the next town so could get something since he is out already, if I have something cooking we wont be tempted. Its good being so rural that no takeaway delivers here.

Hoping for some good weather over half term to take the kids out to the parks for some long walks. I found a pair of waterproof trousers searching for ebay bits so even if the weathers not great the younger two can get all waterproofs and welly boots on. I hate the winter holidays, eldest had a questionnaire home from school the other day and one of them asked if I thought cutting the summer holidays back to 3 weeks and having 3 weeks at Christmas and 3 at Easter was a good idea, no way we need the time off when the weathers likely to be nice.

MERFE

oh not sure now that I want to be paying the Barclaycard back first like the snowball said, I am not sure when the 0% on the Halifax runs out and I looked online but cant see it anywhere so I am more concerned with getting that one paid off because the interest will be much higher if it starts charging.

MERFE

Got my Child Benefit letter today, just waiting for my tax credit award as they didn't send a new one when they reduced it in Nov. I'm going to ask them to look at it again because it reduced £250 a month and all the calculators online say it should have only gone down £140. I think I am really late doing the watersure thing, might only get it for 1 month but I'm all ready to reapply for next years though.

Family party this afternoon, should be fun. Its a fair drive away so probably be a late night for the kids, fingers crossed they sleep in.
Gonna give the kids a cheat meal tomorrow then make hubby a nice dinner after they go to bed.

MERFE

Been taking the kids to loads of free places for half term, the beach, visit family, walk in the woods and now 3 of us have colds. Day at home telling them to shhh tomorrow then.
Got an email from on company saying they are holding onto my application until April as that is when they are recruiting for part time staff so fingers crossed I hear something back from that one.
Ebay has gone well and I made my £80 target for the month, although probably not once the fees come out but close enough, it was certainly worth the effort.
Checked my electricity reading as I think the bill is a little high, updated it online and we are in credit just but I think it will come down a bit as we use less in summer, been here 4 months now and only paid 2 months worth but still in credit. I'm hoping we can get it down to £50 a month which is what I used to pay on the prepayment meters.
We are going to go overdrawn this month but considering we were at the overdraft limit (£500) at the end of January, we are only going to be about £150 overdrawn, its a vast improvement and hopefully not in it at all next month.

MERFE

Another family party today, present bought at the beginning of the month.
Daughters birthday on Monday, just need to find time to wrap her presents. She wants to do make your own pizza for dinner, easy enough and I have all the ingredients to make her cake. I was going to let her have some friends round for the evening but she has a big school trip the next day and needs to be at school for 6:45am, my alarm doesn't even go off till 7am.
Got some more bits to list on ebay when they are at school next week. Been doing surveys and nearly at payout for 2 sites
Left some bits at families when we visited at the beginning of the week so I am going to have to replace them, I had to buy a hairbrush and some other bits I forgot to pack and take as well. Must be better organised to be more mse

MERFE

Daughter loved her scooter and other presents. Busy baking day today whilst she is at school. Need to make her cake but also doing some flapjacks for them to take as extras on tomorrows trip and a cheesy flatbread to go with our make your own pizza dinner. I got some sparkly candles yonks ago to go on her cake.
Hubby is busy at the allotment erecting the chickens fencing and housing so we should be all ready to get the chickens in march/april time.
I've been looking at joining slimming world and thought maybe the online membership was less since its just recipes really but its still £20 a month. I need to either do my fitness pal again or just really get into exercising again, I used to do something most evenings and had so much more energy when I did.

kittycashcake

Done doctors cane prescribe 3 months of slimming world or WeightWatchers, might be worth ringing them and asking? Mine does WeightWatchers I might give it a go!