Extending our house without extending ourselves beyond our means

brizzledfw

Just catching up..Havent dropped in for ages..sorry PF

Boo to stressful FB sales She sounds on the make to me. Avoid!!

HM spirits are great presents. We do it a lot. Gin or vodka usually. Not entirely cheap as you need to buy the spirit, but everyone loves it and so so simple. The kids help me make mine :rotfl:, train 'em young....maybe something for OH to do? Baking and food and drink making is generally is good with small (or bigger ones )

Enjoy the summer. I have 3 days left until a fortnight off. Can't wait...xx

PurpleFairy26

Morning lovely and sunny here for a change and yesterday was payday, what more can a girl want :rotfl:

Big money shuffle done, and various pots updated.

EF looking healthy, not had to touch it despite vacuum purchase
Over 90% complete on my 1p challenge, well ahead of YE target. Have decided this will go straight to LPDF when complete and then I'll just pad to the end of the year but will likely start again next year, I've saved £600 without even really trying
Paid some off the architects fee which I've borrowed from ourselves. I know it's all the same pot in reality, but it's just how I've split them up

Food spend still tracking at new lower figure and friezes still full. Will continue this as it's working for us, will need to do a meal plan tomorrow but small shop again this week

Sold 3 things on fleabay, annoyingly one not paid after 3 days. Will give until Monday and then log as unpaid why make a bets offer and then not pay :mad: have a few other things listed and will ray and list a few more this week, including one of the chest of drawers. Was going to do together but realistically it's just not possible and I need the space (so I can empty the other one)

More wardrobe Jenga tomorrow and hopefully some more things found for fleabay and some more room made have a children's clothes and toy sale in a month too, so will start labelling those soon as they can just sit in the garage when done.

Off to BBQ today with family so should be NSD and back to activities for DD (paid for from activities pot so neutral for budget)

Right must get one. Purps. Enjoy your weekend.

[Deleted User]

Morning PF

Have a lovely day x

PurpleFairy26

Late Night last night so I wasn't hopeful for today but turned out ok.

Swimming lessons for smalls, was so tempted to suggest going out for breakfast after, but we came home and had scrambled eggs instead.

I made a crumble with gifted apples and hand picked blackberries and crumble mix I'd made before from freezer. I also made some hummus, did double and froze half. Also froze a bag of cooked chickpeas

Did meal plan for next week, really short shopping list :T

Spend two hours in the garden , wedded all borders, mowed front lawn and weeded out the front. Looks so much better. Will try and do back lawn one night this week if dry, DH did it last week, but was wet underneath so could do with another cut, as will the front by the end of the week. Brown bin was full so I had to stop :rotfl: De-fuzzed the grass from the underside of the mower to prolong its life

Used a mixture of vinegar and bicarb in both plugholes to clear them through, now running much better

Was tempted to make some biscuits to see us through, but in reality didn't need them and haven't missed them. Have been trying to be good and not snacking unnecessarily

Could do with doing an hours work tonight to get ahead for tomorrow as have smalls at home when I'm working. Not feeling it to be honest, would rather knit for an hour.

Must email architect too, have notes, just need to get round to doing it.

Also managed a run today, so all in all very productive and no spends :A happy Sunday

PurpleFairy26

Another week has been and gone but managed to hang on our pennies in the main :A

I got some things listed on fleabay. My chest of drawers will sell and I'm already happy with the price with 2 days to go, anymore will be a bonus. Curtain lady finally paid so will post tomorrow, just need to find cheapest route. Bought big plastic bag home from work that was going in the bin to send them in.

Had lounge carpet replaced for free this week due to a fault so it's currently very tidy :rotfl: as we haven't put much back.

Bought 2 things for back to school that were required for smalls, need to go collect tomrrow. Was 25% off

I plucked up the courage to dye my hair tonight :eek: I *think* it's ok. It's a very similar colour but my hair is very long and thick, might get DH to help me next time but he was out tonight. At least I've not got any splotches on my face or hair line, so that's a bonus :rotfl: this is money saving in that I would eventually need to have it done at hairdressers, even though I don't pay to have it done at the moment it was slowly changing colour

TT 76p today to savings :rotfl: will move fleabay once parcelled up too.

Looking forward to long weekend, spending time with lovey friends and family, hopefully in some sunshine

PurpleFairy26

We've had a lovely weekend so far. Smalls are back at school tomorrow so today was going to be low key, just a visit to a fairly local ish place for a couple of hours using our annual passes, however DH has gone to bed (on nights) and I can't find the car key :mad: I'm so annoyed. Particularly as we have to of them. I've looked in all the obvious places but no joy. I also noticed his annual pass isn't with the other three when I went to get them :eek: Going to go blackberry picking instead to get out of the house for an hour

I had a list of other errands I was going to run today too which have all gone out the window. Trying to focus on the positives :

We have some lovely flowers in the garden at the moment and the garden is currently nice and tidy
We have loads of tomatoes, I think I have found a good spot to plant them
The weather is gorgeous
I've managed to kit the girls out for school this year for the cost of two pairs of school shoes, 1 school cardigan and 1 bag :T considering I have one starting for the first time, this is pretty good.

Yesterday I also managed to finish the wardrobe building :T our wardorbs are over 50% emptied and I maybe able to finish that off later depending on when DH gets up. If I can get them emptied, I'll take them down today too or at least next weekend.

I've sold an item of furniture on fleabay that's been collected tonight that's currently taking up some space, with this gone and the wardrobes down the next phase can begin in earnest :T

Need to set myself some realistic targets of what I want to achieve in the final two rooms (plus stairs, hall and landing) by Christmas.

PurpleFairy26

So the lady cam to get the furniture, on time and was very happy with it Money to 1p fund. This and another small fleabay sale means I have met my target of £667.95 (£3.65 on 1st Jan minus 1p every day until Dec 31st) by end of August (66% of year passed :T) I have moved this to my LPDF which takes it to over 12% repaid :T I've had a letter this morning confirming the sharesave I took out 3 years ago isn't worth anything extra, but I'll get my £720 back in about 5 weeks, so that will go straight in the same direction.

Today I was ready ahead of schedule, so stripped 3 beds, vacuum through the whole house, including the stairs ( never my favourite job) and cleaned the bathroom. Have left the shower head to soak as it was looking manky, and also constantly dripping - albeit slowly. Will see if that has done the trick before I fork out on a new one.

Project freezer use up continues and food spends remain low. September will be a challenge as pretty much all the meat will have gone. Will look at online butchers to see if I can get a good deal for a multi box of some description.

DH payday tomorrow, hopefully from both jobs, but definitely one. The other, it appears, based on the last 2 months could be anyone's guess :rotfl:

PurpleFairy26

Afternoon frugal pals. A very productive day so far. Roasted gifted rhubarb this morning, have put in dish for crumble tomorrow. Used half a frozen banana in breakfast smoothie in #projectuseupfrozenbanana :rotfl:

DD been dancing, subs paid from dancing budget so all good there. Balanced my cc I use for points.

Got voucher from mr s through post. 250 points to enter code on website and select how many points I might save for Christmas - done :T another for 600 points when I spend a £1. Have put in purse to go with one I got as a spit yesterday for 250 points when I spend a £1. Good haul :T

Made mango chutney used frozen (OOD ) mango that's been taking up space in the freezer. Made 3 jars :A

Made apple and sultana muffins whilst chutney was cooking and put some blackberries I picked yesterday with some frame the freezer to macerate to make creme to mure.

Very satisfactory all round I think.

Wardrobes half taken down and just 2 boxes to get out to sort. Once this is down can do lots, I planning on taking a days holiday on Wednesday and will do some last bits then as I'll have the house to myself. Hopefully strip some paper too :T

PurpleFairy26

So the wardrobes are down :T I worked this morning but have just managed to get them down in about half an hour. Not bad going seen as the filly sools who lived here before bought ones that were too big and could only have made them upright in situ :eek: anyway, gone forever and bedroom looks like it's had an extension :rotfl: pulled top layer of wallpaper off at same time as it was terribly dusty.

Productive week continues. If only I didn't have to work it rather gets in the way :rotfl:

Just stopped for a slice of hm quiche for lunch, rest will go in freezer in a minute, portioned. Have also made pineapple chutney (from OOD frozen pineapples) and a litre a blackberry liqueur. Trying to find some small bottles that don't cost the earth (or are indeed free ) to decant it into for gifts.

Going to make a cake now before I get in with vacuuming upstairs.

DH got paid and was more than expected so repaid 2 'pots' that I'd overspent on and also paid some to LPDF. Also did a big cupboard shop yesterday as DH has increased discount at the moment so will save us in the long run, didn't go too mad. Also got a Christmas present that was half price to put away. Must update my list.

Right must get on otherwise I'll stay here all day.

brizzledfw

Sounding good...especially that liqueur..;)