22 Foxhole East

f0xh0les

Good morning!
It is September! Pinch, punch, first of the month, and all that.

Got up at 6.00 on a Saturday, why? because I am a pervert.
No, I was just awake, so I got up. The light has changed and I am a happy old thing this morning.
Made coffee and logged on to find my mortgage balance remained the same:(, and suddenly at 6.40 the amount changed so I can tell you the latest numbers.

Daily interest is down 5p a day, every day , on last month, to £4.53
Monthly interest was £140.66

So I have just made a sneaky overpayment of £340.65 to bring it down when combined with DH's payment to £103,271.88 which to be honest is frankly messy. So I will transfer £271.89 in a minute to bring me back down to the month's goal of £102,999.99
on the first day of the month:eek:

Got another £2 of vouchers from the postal people. Put into the box for Christmas. My bank keeps reminding me I need to start saving for Christmas. Every time I log on. Swines.

This month I have DS2's 14th birthday - main present will be a laptop.
DH will sort that.
He will probably opt for a chinese takeaway over going out for Pizza.

And I forgot to tell you! My house has moved. I was walking through the very desireable bit of town (3 minutes walk away) and looked into the estate agents shop window, where they were advertising a house on my road as being....... C-Park! Well, I have heard of people moving house, but not houses moving area. Gentrification has crossed the main road then. I was hoping for it, but did not expect it so soon. All to the good. It has probably just stuck another £40k on the asking price of the house. :rotfl: Huzzah! but still only relevant when we come to sell. I just keep reminding myself that we are still saving £500 a month on when we were renting:eek: we are able to save money while overpaying, by December we will be down to £100k which is basically at least 50% of any resale value( when the kitchen and bathrooms are done). So all on schedule and on plan.

Off to juggle budgets and move money about into the various 'pots', and to make a list of what diy stuff I still have in the house, and what jobs I can use it for - I am still aching from humping furniture from the kitchen, through the dining room to the back room (on my own). Got stuck at one point behind a sideboard. It was funny! so rearranged a sideboard and a tv unit in the back room, moved everything around, and went to get the kids from school, who all traipsed through the back room to the kitchen, and did not notice:rotfl::rotfl: did not notice the sideboard was not in the kitchen anymore, did not notice they had walked past it,inothing:rotfl:
So DH came home. Parked his bicycle. Walked through the back room, through the dining room, into the kitchen for a quick kiss, completely oblivious until he turned back to go through that an enormous lump of pine had moved out of his way.:rotfl: MEN!!!
Why do I bother??? Because I have to live here too. :rotfl:

After/in school activities worked out to an extra £84 this week - but that is DS3 and 4 done until October half term. 30 kids at £3.50 each a session is over £100 an hour.
There is only one coach. Ok, so he may have to hire the school field, but there is no equipment outside of balls. The school is open anyway due to the after school child care club. Someone is making a lot of money on this one.

One doing Athletics(Mon) two doing Football(Fri) and one doing Swimming lessons (Mon, in school time).
DS1 is doing an after school product design extra session as they have not had a regular teacher for all of last year and have not started on their coursework yet:eek:. So he will be busy, and of course, it is not on one of the days the smalls are out after school.:rotfl: Plus the robotics club will start back soon, also not on one of the days I am picking up other kids. So I think I will be back to Wednesdays being the only non-after school club pick up day.

I see a lot of soup in their futures!
Remade the biryani recipe this week. Went down very well, again, and DS4 hopes I will make it every week:j Unheard of! well, unless it is pie or a roast. He is a simple creature.

Back to porridge for breakfast in the mornings. It is so much cheaper than sugared flakes or crack-hoops. But I cannot quite get the amounts right. It is a bit 'magic porridge pot' this morning. DS2 decided he would not wait for the porridge (the xbox was calling) DS1 has not appeared (or there would not have been enough), DH is continuing his love affair with his eyelids and DS4 has decided he hates porridge today. Who knew??

Me and DS3 have eaten it and it was lovely. I think porridge is like beans on toast. You don't have it for ages, and forget how nice it really is. Then when you do have it, you wonder why on earth you don't have it more often.
That is my storecupboard wisdom for today - you're welcome!

Just in case you forgot -

£102,999.99

apple_muncher

You'll be into 5 digits before long! Well done you.:T

Was with you on getting up at 6 this morning. Like you, I was simply awake.

f0xh0les

Be careful Apple, it started the Saturday before the kids went back to school for me.
Suddenly up at sparrows crack, totally awake and ready to go. Every day.

DS1 (aka Tiny) is going to be 16 in October - at least I don't have to worry about CTC and ChB ending until 31st August next year. Bit unfair on those kids who are born in August.

Not getting much done today, watched Korea win the Asian Games, so all those in the Korean squad have got out of compulsory militiary service. No wonder they were so happy to win.
Did the big weekly shop - had to spend £50 to get a free £5 voucher. So took over a self service till and hand to run back to the freezers twice to get to £50.24. All stuff I will use and it can sit in the freezer until needed. I do love a free £5 voucher - I got one last week too! It came out and the woman on the till didn't give it to me. so I said 'excuse me, am I not supposed to get a voucher this time?' and she looked about a bit, realised she hadn't noticed and handed it over.
I know how many points I have!

I have committed to trying to get 20 NSDs in the September Sunshine challenge.

Got £4 vouchers from the postal survey again today, up to £12 already. All good. Also found two plastic wind up speed boat bath toys for 20p each. Will put in the cupboard for presents / advent calendars. It is so hard not to just give them things as I get them, but they are not behaving well at the minute. The two smallest are developing an attitude. It has become much more apparent in the last week. Year 6 boys always get an attitude, I find.

Just clearing up a whole lot of paperwork to get it out of the way.
I have unearthed my large stash of candles - now I need to find a metal box or biscuit tin to put them in. Then hide it under the sofa for ease of access.
Menus planned
Lunchbox tat all sorted.
Feeling like it can't be this easy - surely I must have forgotten something.... oh well, I will find out sooner or later. Maybe I am simply this good. By tomorrow lunchtime though I will be the personification of evil, when I make them do their homework. Mwah ha ha ha ha!!
Pouf!
Cue swirling smoke and the flick of a cape hem.

wishingthemortgaheaway

Great news F0xgloves.
Is hubby still planning on moving jobs and you all having to up sticks again?

Wish.

f0xh0les

He is being advised (strenuously) to go for internal promotion by his dept head.

He has his job search open, so should a position become available elsewhere he would not dismiss it out of hand.

I am wondering if I have been daft paying down the mortgage instead of doing up the bathroom/kitchen first. But I have changed my mind a few times, and a few things have occurred to me in the mean time. So I think I have been right not to barge on ahead and do it. Sometimes you have to live with it, to realise what is just not going to work. And the realisation you are just going to have to knock down a wall to solve all your problems.

Who says violence doesn't solve anything?
Someone with a lack of imagination.

in_need_of_direction

i was a truly evil mother who insisted on homework being done on friday night with the loss of saturday activities being held over them as a threat

gallygirl

f0xh0les wrote: »

Who says violence doesn't solve anything?
Someone with a lack of imagination.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:.


Oh, five figures soon, well done

f0xh0les

It is DH's Xmas present. I am quietly getting on with it. He has no idea. He would not believe I could save £600 - £1000 a month from the housekeeping. Not the way he spends money.

I will hopefully be able to put a printout of a £99,999.99 balance in a card for him in December. He will be suitably impressed. As will I be if I manage it to be honest. I am going without a lot to do this.

Then it is full steam ahead with the major stuff in 2019.

Kids are being rotten today. They refused to go to table tennis this morning. They were up in time, but did not want to get dressed, and said they were too tired. They just wanted to play on the computers. Sadly.

I honestly think they just see me as some major stress-head out to spoil their fun. I get so bored being in the house! They would sit on their butts all day. Right up until I said we had to stay home because of xxx then they would want to go out.
I can't do right for doing wrong with them at the moment. They are tired and argumentative from going back to the order and routine of school.

Oh well, I am not here to win a popularity contest.

kerri_gt

Ahh yes, the magical year 6 when they are the big ones at school and ruling the roost, ready to be bought down a peg (or several) once they go into year 7.

Kids are so ready to go back to school, I can see it in the ones out shopping, they just seem unrelentingly listless and whiney.

greent

f0xh0les wrote: »

Oh well, I am not here to win a popularity contest.

Agree with you there - we are here to parent, not be best friends. I love my kids unconditionally and with all my heart - doesn't mean that each of them at times aren't pains in the bxx and need bringing back into line at times, however much they dislike it.