Extending our house without extending ourselves beyond our means

PurpleFairy26

missymoo81 said:

Love all the tips on your thread Purple, you do such a great job, and well done on the epic day of productivity, you have put me to shame and inspired me to try and get done bits done today!

Thanks missymoo I do find keeping myself busy helps me as I can’t go anywhere at the moment and it helps me not think about that too much! Plus when you start something it invariably leads to something else so there is always something to do! 

savingholmes

I am in awe of some of the food leftover suggestions. I still waste too much food... 

janb5

I printed off the recipe you gave which is very interesting .  Looking forward to trying it- thank you

PurpleFairy26

Today I spent a merry hour whilst supervising school work checking whether every felt tip and biro worked 😲🙄 I’ve now got a big pile for recycling (if I can find somewhere) and safe in the knowledge that the box that now needs sorting to a more logical places all work. Most satisfying 😊

we also picked lots of cherries from a local orchard this afternoon. Hoping there is enough for a jar of jam! There’s tonnes more if only I was 15 foot tall! Did spot some other trees that are about 2 weeks away from being ripe. 

Taught one of the smalls to cook spag bol for tea. Was most yummy, they did most un supervised. 

Some leftovers for lunch. Good day in the sunshine. 

hugglemonster

Great news on all the cooking and the cherry jam sounds delicious! 

Some of the charity shops near me won't be taking any items in the shops but will arrange collection due to needing to store it for 72 hours and clean, maybe this could be an option?

Glad you had a lovely day in the sun, we're hoping the week improves as we want to do a BBQ on Sunday for my Dad's birthday.

H x

PurpleFairy26

Looked in to options for charity donations. The one I normally donate too are saying no at the moment but yes when the shops open next week. Ours isn’t on the list to open so I’ll just keep it in the loft a bit longer. No hardship to us. I just need to make sure I don’t forget about it! 

Wow it’s been warm today! But so lovely. Ate lunch and dinner outside and will try and sit out for half an hour once smalls are in bed. 

Got all my washing done as it’s looking not so great for the next few days. Just need to put it away now, but that’ll be fine as I’ve taught the smalls to put their own away so just a pile in each room and mine and mr PF to put away and, unsurprisingly we have much less than them. 

Need to do a bit of work tomorrow. First in what seems like a very long time (longer than COVID). Will ease myself back in gently. Am at home so cant complain at all. 

There’s a lull between now and the beginning of the month when most of the DD go out although someone on here the other day said they have all theirs on the same day. Gone are the days where I wanted to spread the cost over the month as I was juggling stuff when I didn’t budget properly. So I’m going to see how easy it is to change the date of mine to the same day. 

We’ve been gifted a new to us bit of furniture which looks fab. I’ve only pencil sharpening left to do in the room of doom and a small box (about the size of an ice cream tub) to sort of lots of faffy things that need a home. 

Then, if the weather turns, I can turn my attention to painting. We still have paint in the stores that we had pre lockdown to use up before we need to venture anywhere. So could definitely be getting on with that. If the weather stays fair, I’ll be out in the garden ‘helping’ hubby who’s doing a fab job. 

Need to chase the landlord next door who hasn’t even acknowledged my e mail. I’ll send a polite reminder with a ‘We’ll assume if we don’t hear from you by X we are ok to continue’ they know we are due to contact them and the context so not sure what the issue is. 

1 of my 2 missing parcels has arrived. But a gift I sent has gone awol. So still 2 to keep an eye on. 

My courgettes have started to grow 😊 

PurpleFairy26

Missing gift arrived and I received an e mail about the other one missing parcel. Hopefully it’ll come soon. 

Our ‘just for points’ vouchers arrived and along with 2 gift cards for small amounts I’ve cashed out from a cashback site we’ll have enough for the item we want 😃  have also claimed a small amount in cash from another cashback site. I have just 1 amount pending now and once that is paid (from last October so goodness knows when....) I was not use that one anymore and use the other. The cynic in me says they won’t pay out until my renewal is due so they can take a fee! 

We’ve been putting our shopping on the just for points card during lockdown as we’ve been buying online. If we ever go back to a shop I’ll still do this as it’s definitely helped with the £ value of the vouchers. 

Also cashed out hubby’s rewards for the last couple of months on his new bank account. Could have had vouchers for a little more but have had cash for now as the bonus was negligible, will see if it’s better next time. Obviously we can put the cash to good use! 

Quiet weekend planned. Not going anywhere so more home jobs to do and get sorted. Saturday is normally housework day and bed change day so will look at getting ahead with those. Although will be a washing free day due to the much needed rain. 

Want to get my sewing machine out from under its cover to check it’s all working ok so I can finally think about doing these blinds. And some knitting would be good to finish current item. 

foxgloves

Glad your vouchers arrived, PF. We use our 'just for points' credit cards for buying groceries, petrol & planned expenditure. I just make sure everything is paid off in full so as to avoid interest charges & take care to commit the expenditure to the correct budget to keep my accounts straight.
F x

Bluegreen143

Subscribed to your diary after reading the last few pages (I’d love to start from the start but would take a while to get through! You seem so productive in your garden and doing stuff round the house. Love the food waste chat too. Good luck with everything. I’ve just started to use YNAB again after a break of a few years so hope I can get back into it.

PurpleFairy26

foxgloves said:

Glad your vouchers arrived, PF. We use our 'just for points' credit cards for buying groceries, petrol & planned expenditure. I just make sure everything is paid off in full so as to avoid interest charges & take care to commit the expenditure to the correct budget to keep my accounts straight.
F x

Me too. Had it originally for online planned expenditure and big purchases to maximise points but always paid off in full. In fact most weeks it’s paid off so the bill is never big. I even paid one transaction this week whilst it was still pending. It was for someone else and they’d given me the money so didn’t want it in my account.