Bricks Not Books

savingwannabe

Well done on doing all the nice packs for your sisters. Two ebooks is v good. One of my friends writes history textbooks and I really like them!

Your food always sounds delish! :jWell done on the overpayment. All this walking is great. The weather really helps too. Yum to the chocolate and fairy cakes. :T:T:T:T

VintageHistorian

Been quiet this month as I didn't really have any OPs to comment on. No expenses any more, got just over £1 pending on Quidco, but not much done on the money making front this month.

But after looking at my account this evening I can see how much I'm saving from not walking around Cambridge every week day! Ended up paying over £48.56 to the mortgage! This is despite me buying the occasional (no more than twice a week) cup of tea at work, and ordering some cheap second hand books off Amazon.

I also bought some bits for my Christmas charity shoeboxes off Amazon, so hopefully they'll arrive soon. I also need another shoebox, and possibly a new larger one as one of mine is quite small. I was looking at the local receivers list this evening - there's only two of us in this county and the other lives very close to London! One of the other receivers who lived in a nearby county has also dropped off the list. Last year I ended up receiving 192 shoeboxes, I wonder if lack of receivers in my area will mean I break the 200 mark?

New job is going well. I've been given a big project that's giving me a bit of a headache, but I'm enjoying the challenge and the fact that it's keeping me busy. Once it's done I'm going to feel very satisfied as a lot of what I'm doing is updating very out of date content, and it's going to be a lot better once I've completed it. Oh and I'm still really enjoying the walking, even if I am a bit tired out by the time I get home!

Total OP this month is £87.71 - consisting of £37.70 standard OP, £1.45 TT, and then £48.56 from just not spending much this month.

Next month I should actually buy some bits for the house, we shall see!

VintageHistorian

Ended up having a very busy (and productive) Saturday. Did the laundry, baked the double chocolate loaf cake again (DH requested it), also baked some lemon cupcakes to use up the last egg that was left and half a lemon, tidied up the garden by cutting back the last marguerites, and emptying almost all the pots that I was growing veggies in (after harvesting the three remaining peppers, and cooked chicken and parma ham pasta for dinner. Also booked Premier Inn in Cirencester for our second wedding anniversary, we're going to have a couple of days over in the west!

Phew. Going to feel less guilty about having a lazy Sunday now.

Boiler was serviced on Friday night. They found a problem with the expansion vessel but managed to fix it without replacing it (didn't understand it but it involved a bike pump :rotfl:), and also checked our airing cupboard and found that something there needed tightening. £95 all in, the other company quoted us £50 but we trust this guy to be thorough and feel like it's worth the extra cost. Next time though we'll try to book him in advance!

No plans for today other than having a shower and making dinner (chicken breasts wrapped in the remaining parma ham, with homemade potato wedges, and steamed baby carrots and broccoli stems). Suspect DH will remind me that I REALLY need to clear out more of the smallest bedroom so will dedicate an hour to that as well. The first Christmas shoeboxes are being dropped off tomorrow evening - 24 from someone who also dropped them off with me last year! Had an email from someone else asking if they can drop off at least 12 later on in the month, so added to the 4 I'm doing I'm going to have a minimum of 40. Only need 80 to get them picked up in November, so I'm halfway there already.

Right, need to go finish off my cuppa. Have a lovely Sunday everyone!

jodles16

Have read through your diary, you have been very busy! Congratulations on the wedding, anniversary, overpayments, new job and smaller commute, younger sisters both doing well and all the house stuff!


Jodles

savingwannabe

Well done on the Christmas parcels. Congrats on the anniversary trip being planned. Glad the boiler has been sorted and at a good price too.

Have a good Sunday.:j

VintageHistorian

Oh dear, I've managed to miss the whole of October and a big chunk of November on here!

I think it's because I don't have expenses to claim any more so my OPs aren't as frequent as they used to be. I basically wait until I get to the end of the month, see how far off £60 I am, and then just chuck the money to get over £60 in to the mortgage.

So October update;
- Total OP = £68.14
- Didn't buy anything for the house :eek:
- Project at work has been going well, although getting a bit bored with it and wishing it was all over so I can move on to something else (suspect everyone involved in it feels the same way).
- More shoeboxes rolled in from various people.
- Went to my first WI meeting. Talk was on the local church but was more about selling the extension, I felt the history aspect of it was a bit rushed as a result.

November update;
- Current OP = £37.70, need to send over DH's refund for a cancelled train (£15.20)
- Had the past week off for my birthday. Ended up being very busy and not very restful. Monday I had to go to a VW dealership to get a replacement fog light (the whole light unit, not just a bulb), Tuesday (my birthday) we visited Norwich (primarily the cathedral), Wednesday my car had an MOT and I had a haircut, Thursday we had lunch with my parents, Friday I had to travel in to London for a dental check up (everything fine), and then yesterday we went on a 5 mile charity walk with my in-laws before having a late lunch.
- Genuinely counting down the 5 weeks until Christmas when I'll have 2 weeks off and can make sure I have proper winding-down time.
- Took the history shop to a craft fair, made back my table fee plus a bit on top. Got two more fairs booked in, one next Saturday and one the following Saturday!
- Went to my second WI meeting. This was very interesting as it was about community defibrillators. I'm about 30 years younger than the average age in the room :rotfl: They have pointed me in the direction of a much younger WI group in the nearest town, but to be honest I just want a 2 minute drive down the high street, and although they're an older lot they're very nice. Will be paying my subscription to sign up properly in January, and will also audition at the Essex Federation to be on the speakers list.

Today I've done laundry, a tissue managed to escape in to it somehow so I've also hoovered up all the tiny tissue fragments that have ended up on the floor. Dinner tonight will be pork loin chops, with roast spuds and green veggies.

Have a good week everyone!

Fortune_Smiles

Hello there VH :wave:

Congratulations on the new job :T

Glad to hear you're enjoying the WI - I love being a member and it's given me so many opportunities I wouldn't have had otherwise. I'm sure you'll love it.

Fortune x

VintageHistorian

Thank you Fortune!

It appears I did it again - namely forgot about this diary a bit. Will try to be better in the New Year!

OP for November was £54.97, so a bit off the £60 target.

OP for December is currently sitting at £59.97 so I'll try to remember to do a little TT tomorrow to get that over the £60 point, and that will be it for OPs for 2018.

An update from my last post;
- Did the two craft fairs I was booked in but neither of them were very good. I made back my table fee at both but nothing else on top. Particularly disappointing as last year one of them made me an extra £30. Think I might take a break from them next year, by the time the 3rd one came around I was tired of getting up early on a Saturday :rotfl:
- I managed to get all my Christmas shopping done in good time. Included a morning in Colchester running around getting all the last little bits. Getting up and going early (in the car by 9:30) worked well as it was getting busy by the time I left.
- Drove to my parents on the 23rd and had a few days with them. Lovely to have everyone together. My brother and his girlfriend spent part of Christmas Day with her family, and the evening with us (and had two Christmas dinners as a result), and my youngest sister's boyfriend also joined us in the evening for his second Christmas dinner :rotfl:
- Drove over to the in-laws yesterday. DH had to go back to work today so I drove back on my own.
- Stopped off at Waitrose and Tesco on my way to have a look at the post-Christmas bargains. Was really disappointed at Waitrose as they didn't have any of their selection boxes of biscuits! None on the shelving to be seen, let alone bought cheaply. Did however get a ys packet of southern fried chicken to go in the freezer, and a ys pizza for tonight. In Tesco I got a small ys gammon joint, and a ys pork joint, both of which have gone in the freezer and will make nice weekend dinners in January. Also bought two large tubes of Smarties and a chocolate £50 note for 50p each, which combined with the two huge boxes of Guylian my brother gave me, means that I hopefully won't need to buy any chocolate for myself in January.

Once I got home I unpacked everything (DMIL insisted that DH sort through the last of the things in his old bedroom so she can take the unwanted furniture to a charity shop and redecorate the whole room, so I ended up with two more boxes of books and papers in the car). Mum sent me home with some leftover gammon, three slices of cheesecake, and some salted caramel ganache pots that me and DH had brought with us (I was put in charge of dessert and went a bit over the top).

About an hour after I got home my neighbour popped round to let me know that she thinks there's a rodent in her attic. As we are the middle of the terrace she wanted to check if I'd heard anything in the past few weeks. I haven't, which I'm hoping is a good sign. I'm normally super sensitive to those kinds of noises (hate rodents) so if I haven't heard it then I'm hoping it's because it hasn't got in to our side. But paranoia means that I've put a load of food packets (mainly pasta and rice) in to a Really Useful Box and put that back in the cupboard. There's still more pasta out though, along with crisps, biscuits, sugar, flour, and mug cake packets. I don't have any extra boxes for those though but I might look for some in Wilko next week. Mum and Dad get a lot of field mice so I've grown up with food being packed away in plastic boxes to stop it being nibbled! I just hoped we wouldn't have to do the same thing here.

Anyway, neighbour has an uncle who is an exterminator so he's going to take a look for her. I've said that if he wants to double check our attic to just knock. Hopefully whatever he puts down will get rid of it pretty quickly, otherwise I'll be freaking out and jumping at every noise in the house

Plan for tomorrow is to have a relaxing day. A lie in, read my book, maybe have a bath, make a toad in the hole for dinner, watch some DVDs, and generally try not to think about all the things that need to be done around the house. I just need one day (maybe two) to do nothing.

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas! I'm sure I'll post again before New Year

savingwannabe

I am glad you had a great Christmas. It sounds like your sales shopping was useful as you bought food what a shame you couldn't get the selection box but it was good that you did get something. it is great that you are still overpaying despite it being such a busy time financially.

I remember when I heard a scratching noise in the night and was too scared to sleep. I hope there is no rodent around and it is good that the exterminator can check for you. What a kind and useful neighbour to have.

Have a fab New Year Vintage Historian and keep posting. I do love your posts!

_Amaryllis_

Hey, I'm finding your diary really inspiring. I'm currently in the process of buying a house and I'm hoping to OP from the beginning like you have. It's on the outskirts of Colchester.

Your blog sounds really interesting, I'm going to try and find it.

savingwannabe wrote: »

if you like purple have you heard of the song 'Start Wearing Purple' by Gogol Bordello? play it whilst decorating.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_81l4DXlwM

Thank you for this, savingwannabe, I really like it