22 Foxhole East

f0xh0les

Now't wrong with being a skin flint control freak - or what I like to call 'being aware of finances'.

Decided to give DH a Valentine's present, although maybe it isn't as I gave it to him last night. Maybe it was just a Friday 11th present. It was 50 p.

http://shop.australiangeographic.com.au/metal-see-saw-desk-ornament.html

f0xh0les

Oh B0tt0ms!! ... the stupid washing machine has broken.

To be fair, it is older than DS4 (7) so really I can't complain too loudly. I have got to the stage of looking online for a replacement, on two occasions over the last two years, but managed to 'fix' the problem, usually by counting how many times the buttons flash, and then which buttons are flashing and googling it to give me the error code, then cleaning out horrible nasty filter holes etc, but sadly this time the error message means either motor, wiring, or circuit board.

So, £180 on the credit card (just to maintain a spend on it this month - I have the funds to clear it when the bill comes) will be delivered on Wednesday. It matches the replacement dryer from the 'your house may catch fire if you use it' promotion, so they may one day live happily on top of one another. Remembered to get cashback too, only 2%, but still, 2% is not to be sniffed at.

Good job it went on the last load of laundry too, it was quite considerate of it really.

f0xh0les

DH just transferred £180 to my account to pay for the washing machine! He's never done that before! and he rocked up last night with a takeaway - I did the boiled rice, some fried rice with some fridge leftovers, and the potstickers, he bought the main dishes - I always resent paying stupid money for a dish of boiled rice. For 6 people it ends up being ridiculous. So, easy meal last night.

Today I am waiting in for the washer, so had to move all the furniture out of the way to give them an easy run through the house. The kids are playing on the computers. Hopefully they will come earlier rather than later so I can get these kids out in the fresh air while it is not raining.

Today I will send the St3naLine competition form to request dates (has to be by post) and see if I can get when I want in the Easter holidays.

I am getting nothing at all done because the kids are here. I am spending all of my time refereeing stupid arguments about absolutely nothing. Mopping up blood from stupid accidents - silly arm waving dancing competition, while I was busy cooking their lunch, resulted in an accidental nose bleed that was terrifying in its intensity - good job DH was not here, he does not do bodily fluids well. So in all , they are driving me NUTS!

kerri_gt

Not long until they're back at school.

Must be something in the air about washing machines, ours decided to develop a fault at 10.30pm on Monday night which was just the filter needing to be cleaned...very handy when the bloomin machine is full of water...cue tea towels and towel but even that resulted in water all over the floor and in between where the washing machine is and the edge of the floor tiles - so kick board is still off letting everything dry (which also resulted in the cat getting under the cupboards and coming out covered in cobwebs). Still at least it was an [STRIKE]easy [/STRIKE]not costly fix.

f0xh0les

pox.

Just lost a post.

~so annoying!

f0xh0les

Last official day of half term. Tomorrow is just 'the weekend'. DH has swapped his work commitments from last Saturday to this Saturday, so it is a good thing that I had not booked to go away, as he would not have come with us and I would have had to be miffed.

Sent away the St3na request for travel dates form. Will wait and see what happens. Easy quick Easter holidays if it all works out.

I am frustrated by my own children's lack of interest in anything that is not a computer game. I have asked them to do various little things around the house - tiny little things like taking their cup into the kitchen, and they have ignored me. I hate this bit. It drives me nuts. They have passive resistance down to an art form. Going to have to work out a strategy for this one. The smaller ones are copying the bigger ones now. So frustrating!

Holiday homework still to be done.

Lots of things cleared and sorted.
All bedrooms are tidied.

I just need to get my finger out and either do, or pay someone to do, a few bits and my list will probably be halved. Power tools and kids do not mix. I expect to get a lot of things done when they are back at school.

Struggling to not pay more off the mortgage - only £40 odd, but I have a cc bill going out soon, and as it is a short month, I want to see how much I have left over.

I have all my money in one account, so have set up a savings account with rubbish interest, but will use it as a sweeping/holding account. The kids 6% interest accounts will pay out in March, so I should get a couple of thousand back into my account to pay back out at £400 a month (£100 per child per month at 6%). It is not my money, but I can use it toward the roof / bathroom fund and pay back monthly. Kids receive the interest. They get control of the money when they are 16 = £1600 plus whatever they have in their own savings accounts from other family members as birthday money/christmas money = £0 (they have spent it all)

Ten days until the end of the month/payday and I am analysing myself into immobility.

Right. Off to make a chair for a bear. Holiday homework.

f0xh0les

All kids had haircuts for new school term

I have been sawing wood to fill the holes in the doors, like jenga, and sticking them in, and then fillering in to make it all lovely clean lines. Looking good. Only cut my thumb once. Found most of the bits in the shed. Total cost so far £3.40. Four doors down, four to go. Still have to sand and paint them, but I can't find my sander, which will let me do the job in about 10 minutes per side of the doors. Where can the poxy thing be? I last used it on DS4's silver space bedside table. I think it may be hiding......

In other, less paranoid news, I am doing quite well this week, with only a week left to go of February, I have enough left to pay all of March's monthly bills and kids regular savings. This would normally go out of next month's money but does not need to now.

I have opened a savings account to sweep my 'untidy' money into. This month I am going to try and keep a proper eye on how much I can save while still having a bit more of a life.... It is rather embarrassing to say, but I have lived in Leicestershire for nearly two years now, and I do not know anybody. Isn't that awful?? I mean I know the other parents to chat to at the school gates, and I say 'Hi' to the neighbours, but I do not actually know anyone I can ring and say lets go and have a coffee. I suppose, because we have moved about quite a bit, bought a house, and I have the housey diy stuff/ organising tradesmen to be getting on with I am not sat at home watching tv, but I really need to start getting out a bit more. We intend to be here for another 4 years or so, and I can't rely on YouTwitFacebook for all interaction with friends I have moved away from.

Kittenkirst

Don't be too hard on yourself Foxy with not really knowing people, I moved to Leicester and found it took a few years to build up friendship networks etc

I've heard people recommend the meet up app to find people with similar interests for friendship (like book clubs, movie clubs, craft etc), might be worth a try if you can spare the time with looking after your brood

f0xh0les

Thanks Kitten! Most of the things I have found so far during the day seem to be for the retired or cross over the school run times. It is my own fault for being radical and not using a childminder. :rotfl:

Found my sander! :jI was looking for 'the sander' not 'the box with the sander in it'. All my own fault for actually putting it away in the first place.

Foiled a hamster escape plot at 6.20 am. He had it planned during the transfer from cage to exercise ball. Chased the little rodent all over the living room, had him inside the arm of my dressing gown at one point but he launched himself back out like a cannonball. He is back in his cage with a pile of chia seeds and a peanut. Terrifying! Poor thing will end up in therapy. I fear he is neurotic.

So, today is for getting the rest of the doors filled, and start on the sanding. How the other half live eh?

S-i-L is coming to visit in a fortnight so I have found my motivation to get on with stuff and pretend we
live in a clean and tidy house and not in complete bedlam. She will report straight back to M-i-L. She has this idea - although she has not lived in the UK since she was 6 or 7, that all English people are lazy.

She is always going on about it, and then asking me when I am going to get a job.:rotfl: It seems looking after children is only permitted in her world if you are a child minder - all her friends use one!!! - yeah, all her friends have one child and would love more but can't afford the child minder.

So, that'll be fun, at least it is only for three days over the weekend - wonder how many sweetie and chocolate bar wrappers I will find stuffed around the place when she goes (she is a secret eater ). Will let you know what gems she comes up with :T. It is funny how it does not impact on you, when you know it is coming.

Anyway, on with the day. Have a lovely one, whatever you are up to.

f0xh0les

Five days later..... the doors are all sanded, ready for painting, which had to be put off as it is the weekend and I have learnt, to my cost, that kids and painting should not be in the same place at the same time. It always ends badly and means replacing clothes, spot cleaning carpets and having to go back and cover fingerprints.

Spent yesterday putting up 7 shelves in DS1's bedroom in the chimney alcove. Now I know how 'not-straight' the walls are. I am using wooden batons and contiboard. These shelves are not going anywhere! So lots of fun with the old spirit level. DS1 has to fill them with his stuff.

More shelvage to be done in DS2's room today, once DH drags his body out of bed (it's a love affair between a philosopher and his pillow) and it is anti-social to begin using a drill before 10.30am on a Sunday. I just can't do it. So there will be no excuse for all that tat on the bedroom floors, and it may even free up another shortie bookcase to be rehomed. That is the plan anyway.

Took the retired towels to the RSPCA charity shop,for the fluffies, took the chicken brick that I tried to sell but had no takers - was a weird gift for a vegan anyway and I do not casserole veg for hours - so off it went to the charity shop with 18 mini bibles DS2 came home from school with. They had a religious group in for an assembly and they all had to take a bible at the end, so of course many got abandoned on the playground, and DS2 took it upon himself to rescue them - well they have no use in this house, so off they went to the charity shop along with a few books and bits and bobs. I am sure they will be rehomed.
At some point I am going to look and see 'space', as I seem to be taking lots of stuff out of the house but not seeing any real results, just the hint of possible future order.....

Poor neurotic hamster has not been back in his ball since the chase scene. He takes one look through the open door and legs it back into his bed. I think he needs more time.

In 'free fun stuff' today I will be watching Spurs v Stoke, and baking a carrot cake and some choc-chip cookies.

All meals for today planned - lunch is shredded veggie hoi-sin duck and fried rice (using up lots of leftover little bits of veg) and a lasagne for supper.

Need to make Pasties and an iced traybake to go with a drink and two pieces of fruit for Monday's lunchboxes (still using up the 20p pastry).

Ok, that sounds a bit like a plan. Trying not to wish the last two days of February away so I can move money about the place. So I have challenged myself to see what can get crossed off the lists before March.

Have also signed up to the Muddy March challenge.
See you all later....