22 Foxhole East 12 August 2016 at 1:55PM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in Mortgage-Free Wannabe 2.1K replies 249.4K views

f0xh0les

Morning !!  Shifted another lb!  blimey that one was hard to budge.  Why is it easier to get rid of some than others? I dunno.

Well yesterday was a fabulous day. Shake for breakfast, went off to the foodbank (only one person cried when they got their food parcel - I hate it when they cry -it is just because they are grateful and they are so caught up in their situation they fight coming to the food bank until they absolutely have to.  But I also know that they have not CRB checked me, so I can hardly sit down and talk to the person as I am not one of the benefits advisors/counsellors/paid staff, and I am not supposed to be in contact with  vulnerable people - apart from that, I am a hugger, I would get arrested for sexual assault or something) anyway, it was not crazy busy, but was steady and a lot of food was taken home by much happier people.

So on the way home I nipped into a charity shop and found lovely blue single  bedsheets for £1 so they went into my basket for DS3, and there were 2 double valence sheets, 3 double pure cotton sheets, a double duvet set in purples and silver splodges, a pair of pjs, and most of this stuff was bnwt  So £13 lighter I drove home via the tofu shop(£4.50), smoked cheese shop (£9) and the furniture charity shop.  There was a double bed frame that I think is on  WayF4ir for £135 that I picked up for £40 and ds4 (the bedwrecker) is delighted with it. Screwed it all together in less than an hour, fits the space perfectly. If he breaks it, he can sleep in the yard. There was also one of those glass patio tables and 2 chairs, like a bistro set, that I picked up for £15, so I will be able to have a cup of tea outside when it finally stops raining and the hayfever meds kick in (I have very itchy eyes this morning).

So there.  A good few things that were on the - keep an eye out for a ....... list - have been found.

DH has put in his promotion form - we will find out in August.

I  have just paid any excess over this week's budget into the cc account.  Still waiting for the bill -  it is 5 days late - still no post since last weekend.  Will pop by the charity shop to see if the missing part of the other double bed has turned up. 

I have decided that the Aldi pasties and sausage rolls are the way forward for school lunches. Will drop in and pick up enough to do the rest of February - only 8 days left of the month.  It has gone quite fast. Only 3 lunchbox free days left. 

Today will be using up the last half of my homemade pesto  with 20p spaghetti, and I might do something with a pineapple.

kerri_gt

F0xh0les reading your finds, organisation and inspiration - could I employ you to come and live my life for a week or two please and just sort / organise things for me for when I get back? 

f0xh0les

I would love to kerri, but my house would be in ruins and dh would  probably be sectioned if I left them for a whole week   It has been quite a productive half term though, I am happy with what I have got done, even with the stupid cough. and it is not over yet......

Chrystal

I second Kerry, and I'm probably in more desperate straits than her   I'd also like to know where your charity shops are..... I think I'm living in the wrong area - but I am thinking about moving!

f0xh0les

I love it when you go into a charity shop and find that someone has donated pretty much all the stuff you were on the search for. like when you find all the right size things in the style you like that you would have chosen yourself.  It  only happens a couple of times a year, but it is brilliant when it does. I still need to find another 3 bed frames, 3 mattresses (new), and the tv aerial for the kitchen and ds2s bedroom is still hanging around drunkenly.  So I am by no means organized, but I do know what I need, and sometimes that is half the battle.

So, yesterday I did the shopping for everything we should need for the rest of the month - except lemonsips and boxes of tissues. DS3's cough has returned, DS2 seems much better cough-wise but now suddenly has a snotty cold (yuck!) someone has velcroed ds1 to his bedsheets, and ds4 is bored to death with the sound of people coughing (he made a protest yesterday).

So I am making soup today. It will help with the weightloss, and it will pack veggies and vitamins into these kids.  We have leftover mac n cheese from last night for the kids for lunch too, the fruit bowl is full - even has a pineapple in it and some weird chinese pears.

All the laundry has been done, so I am going shopping in a minute, and then will clean the house this weekend so that I am ahead of myself and I do not have to be in the house cleaning while dh is on strike - I will be out of the house on Monday anyway -  but I am very aware this is the last week of the month and the budget has to stretch until payday on Friday.  I think I have everything I need, but still, last week of the month nerves have set in. 

Kids regular savings accounts mature in  the next 3 weeks too.

I am very lucky to live about 3 minutes away from a hospice shop that only does furniture, and about 5 minutes away from a 2nd hand furniture warehouse, but  an awful lot of it is tat.

kerri_gt

We have a hospice shop that only does furniture that has actually moved closer to us but by all accounts the parking isn't great and last time i went before it moved it was really rather overpriced for what it was. I also fell out with them a few years back when they were supposed to collect some sofas, turned up and then said the condition wasn't acceptable.  I would never give anything that wasn't reasonable, they had their fire labels on, were a neutral colour and were fine bar a few age related signs. They weren't overly dirty and easily covered with a throw. They were better than some of the tat I'd seen in their shop. I ended up selling them myself to someone who was very grateful for them.
There's something about persistent coughs isn't there, for me its like someone chewing loudly so i empathise with DS4. Even when you know someone can't help it its still totally irritating.  

f0xh0les

I know exactly what you mean about overpriced, but at the moment they have a lot of stock, although double  bed bases are usually about £40. The shop itself is actually rammed full. and quite a bit of it is on sale, So I think it is just a good time of year to go looking, as everyone else is focused on saving money, and they have just had 2 weeks off  at xmas to sort out their tat/ order new tat. Anyway, I am not complaining.  The best thing is that most items will fit into the back of our 7 seater skip on wheels, as  really resent paying £15 for delivery when I can walk there just as fast as I can drive there and park directly outside - I know, dh did just that when we went to get the bed base and we met at the front door.  It is all of 120m away.

crazy_cat_lady

I really need a f0xh0les in my life. I don't know if it's just me but my charity shop shopping never throws up anything even half decent. Although I'm more inclined to believe that it's the quality of charity shop items in the area I live in...

Chrystal

crazy_cat_lady said:

I really need a f0xh0les in my life. I don't know if it's just me but my charity shop shopping never throws up anything even half decent. Although I'm more inclined to believe that it's the quality of charity shop items in the area I live in...

Ditto!  Some of the stuff I see in them beggers belief. 

kerri_gt

crazy_cat_lady said:

I really need a f0xh0les in my life. I don't know if it's just me but my charity shop shopping never throws up anything even half decent. Although I'm more inclined to believe that it's the quality of charity shop items in the area I live in...

I found this to definitely be the case when i pooped into a couple at xmas time in a nearly village. Although most items seemed to be a bit more expensive than locally, there were far more premium labels and things seemed better quality than locally.