Bricks Not Books

ladysummerisle

The plan sounds good! Perhaps even list things while you have the energy. We’re restructuring too and whilst we’ve been told no jobs will be lost (aside from ones who volunteered last year!), it does have an impact on motivation at all levels.

One thing I was always conscious of is that I could take a payment holiday to the value of my overpayments. Now it might not work for everyone depending on household income but it does work to keep savings down if any benefits ever needed to be claimed.

I think being aware if hormones are dragging you down too helps. A “this too shall pass”.

VintageHistorian

January OPs ended at £33.72, and February has started with £21.12.

Last weekend ended up being a complete write off. Went to bed on Thursday night feeling a bit rough. Woke up on Friday, got out of bed, and had to go and sit on the bathroom floor for a few minutes as I wasn't sure if I was going to throw up or pass out, or both. Horribly dizzy, stomach unsettled, the whole nine yards.

Luckily Mr VH was around as he was working from home, we had tickets for an event on Friday night and my Mum was going to babysit. So Mr VH got DS up and dressed and fed him breakfast. It was pouring with rain and he can't drive so he was preparing to put DS in the pushchair with a raincover and walk to nursery with him, but luckily the pressure in my ears popped while they were getting ready and that instantly cleared up the dizzy feeling so I managed to get in the car and drive them the short journey to nursery and back. I then retired to bed with a piece of plain toast and a cup of tea.

Friday was spent in bed feeling utterly wiped out with my temperature bouncing up and down. Saturday was a bit more vertical but still feeling rough. DS then threw up on Saturday night as we were getting him ready for bed 😓 Sunday I felt well enough to get up with him and let Mr VH have a rest but then proceeded to feel worse again as the day went on. So I had Monday off work too and kept DS at home, his temperature got quite high at one point so Calpol was a regular feature. Tuesday I felt better and as he wasn't being sick he had a day with my parents while I caught up with work, and then he slowly recovered during the rest of the week. Mr VH took Thursday and Friday as annual leave and stayed at home with him and I went into the office.

Between this, the sore jaw, the mental health wobble. my hormonal cycle all over the place and my bad hip I'm really not impressed with my health right now. I know turning 40 means moving into a new decade but I was not expecting my health to take a dip so sharply and so quickly. New Vitamin C's have been purchased (my last lot ran out back in November) so I'm back on those every night alongside Vitamin D. Once the weather dries up a bit we'll be back out in the fresh air at weekends.

Today we have been out to Aldi. Mr VH likes a microwaveable rice pouch for lunches at weekends and his supply was almost out so we did a big restock of those, got some chocolate for me, and two books for DS from the middle aisle. We then popped to Waitrose and got some yellowsticker sausages so I'm going to make sausage casserole for DS's dinner. He's never had it before but if I serve it with pasta and some garlic bread tonight I think it'll be accepted. I've also raided half a packet of minced beef from the freezer and turned it into cottage pie base, we got a yellowsticker mashed potato in Waitrose too so that will be the topping. Then on Tuesday I can make a bean casserole and Wednesday can be either chicken chasseur or ratatouille, and that should be his freezer stash back to a good level for a few weeks.

I've had a look at the top pantry shelf and realised how many biscuits we have up there so I'm going to hold off baking for a few weeks and use the supplies up there for packed lunches etc. That space can then be filled with baked beans, soups, and maybe a couple of spare packets of pasta. I got 3 bottles of olive oil in the Tesco shop so those are now popped away to be used over the next few months.

Dinner tonight is oven pizzas, hence why I have the time and energy to batch cook for DS today. Tomorrow will be roast chicken in the slow cooker.

Have a good weekend everyone!

sunshineli

Sorry to hear you haven’t been well. Hope you feel much better soon

Merlin's_Beard

Hope you're recovering well! It feels like everyone is sick right now…

VintageHistorian

I am much better. DS is also much improved. He is also a little spotty as it turns out he caught a very common childhood ailment from someone at nursery 😥 Luckily he is absolutely fine as he's done it in two stages and so isn't both spotty and feeling miserably ill. But it does also explain why he was so ill. We thought it was flu despite him having the jab.

I also didn't realise what it was (assumed it was a viral rash as he's had those in the past) until 30 minutes after I dropped him off at nursery, when they phoned me to tell me what it was and asked me to pick him up. Cue a mad panic to book two half days off work, bring him home, catch up on one half day of work during naptime and in the evening, get a diagnosis based on photos sent to the GP etc etc. Again though he's absolutely fine, barely bothered by it, so quite a mild case all things considered. My parents had him Friday morning so I could get my work done in one fell swoop. The crises continue! Do I need to start sprinkling holy water around the place? Bang some pots and pans to scare away whatever bad thing is lurking around? I did celebrate the sunshine yesterday by opening multiple windows to let both light and fresh air into the place.

Money-wise I realised I had cashed out £10 from Shopmium and £40 from TCB last month and hadn't assigned them to anything so paid it off the mortgage instead. That means I have hit my target for OPs in February before the middle of the month.

Mr VH had to work yesterday so I took the opportunity to be lazy and kept myself and DS in pyjamas all day. Made him some tomato and red pepper soup for lunch and a fresh bean casserole for his dinner, and did toad in the hole for myself and Mr VH. DS had a nice day playing with his toys, watching Postman Pat and Disney movies, having a few books read to him, and was overall just an absolute little treasure.

A neighbour kindly gave us some of her boys outgrown toys so this sparked a small rearrangement of things. DS's room has only ever had things for sleeping and living (clothes, nappies etc) in it but he is of course getting a bit bigger now. So we've moved half his books and one tiny bookcase upstairs, along with a limited selection of toys. We've moved his cot around to make more space so he now has a reading corner and a few things to play with. The bulk of his toys are still downstairs but hopefully this is a gradual transition towards him being able to play in his own room while one of us cleans/works/folds laundry in another upstairs room.

No other major money making or money saving going on at the moment. In fact the side hustle spread sheet is looking very sparse this month. I have listed the two academic books I mentioned on eBay but they're a niche subject and will take a while to sell. I have a few projects I would like to finish or make progress on this month but so far they have eluded me. Oh and I'm currently reading a book at the moment that I requested for Christmas but am actually slightly disappointed by. It will get another read, probably next year, before I decide if it has earned a permanent place on the bookcase.

I have set myself the target of adding £30 to the Disney fund this month so I've photographed some more of DS's things and will circulate the usual email tomorrow. I've also stuck some outgrown baby things on the local Facebook recycling group to see if anyone wants them before they get binned, they're not in good enough condition to sell.

Dinner tonight is leftover toad in the hole, with crispy sliced potatoes. Have a good week everyone!

South_coast

Have you tried inputting the academic books into We Buy Books or World of Books? They both have a minimum trade-in value, but if they are a bit niche that might get you over the line faster? You also don't have to consider the price of postage

VintageHistorian

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81885835#Comment_81885835

I haven't, simply because I don't think I'd get anywhere near the value I want (£50 per book, they're normally double that brand new) and I'm not in a rush to sell. The last one I sold on eBay was up for about a year and then sold to someone who desperately needed it for their thesis. I'd rather hang on to them and have a bit more money in the long run 😅

VintageHistorian

£4.80 TT sent to the mortgage.

DS is recovered from his latest illness. DH took two days off with him so between that and his usual non-nursery days we had the week covered and he was fine to go back on Friday. Mr VH worked from home, just in case, so came with me to do the pick-up and DS was thrilled to have Daddy there to collect him.

There is something that appears to be sunlight outside. And some patches of sky that, although not completely blue, are a sort of pale grey. I can hear birds singing and a daffodil has flowered. Could it be that warmer weather is on the way? The forecast is suggesting that Wednesday will actually be quite nice so since my in-laws aren't coming round this week I'm going to take DS on an outing that day, complete with a picnic as he's getting a bit obsessed with cheese sandwiches.

I won't hit the £30 target to add to the Disney fund this month as I just haven't had the time to sort out more of DS's things. But I will keep the target for next month, and I have at least sold £7 of DS's things so once we swap goods for cash I shall be able to put that in the jar.

Not much else MSE going on this week. I have spent some money on a new website for a possible side hustle. I'm still learning the CMS at the moment, I've used plenty over the years but this one is a little complicated, luckily there are helpful videos on Youtube so the stumbling block I hit last night has already been cleared. I'm going to give myself a maximum of 3 years for it to make money and if I haven't earned back my costs plus a bit on top then I can drop it in the knowledge that I tried and just couldn't get it off the ground. I've been thinking about it for 18 months now and kept dropping it in favour of other ideas, but I know if I spot someone else do it I'll be annoyed at myself. And some of my old dependables (print on demand in particular) are very much on the way out in terms of effort vs reward, so I need to find something else (especially as I want something I can already have in the pipeline if I lost my job).

Dinner tonight is pork and chorizo casserole in the slow cooker. 2 portions for me and Mr VH tonight, plus hopefully another 5 or 6 for the freezer. I also realised I've got 2 packs of stewing stew and a pack of minced beef in the freezer so next month will feature stew and possibly a chili.

Have a good week everyone!

VintageHistorian

Total OP for February - £88.58! Glad I remembered that TCB money, that's a great total for this early in the year. I've just cashed out £4 from there as I've been buying a John Lewis giftcard to cover Waitrose shops, only earns a few pennies but I also got a £2 boost when they were doing one of their special offers. It all adds up.

We're a house of germs again. DS has a cough, I have a bad throat and a cough, and Mr VH worked yesterday but has a cough and feels utterly wiped out today. The other two are napping upstairs but I'll try not to wake Mr VH when I get DS up, an extra hour this afternoon will be good for him. At least it's nothing serious, we're just all having a pyjama day today.

Still haven't collected the £7 for DS's toys but I'm sure I'll spot the buyer this week. I'm not in a rush, I'm just impatient to have more money in the Disney jar. I've also sorted out an advert for some of DS's outgrown clothes. I'd get around £15 if they all sold, I've gone for Vinted-style prices without the hassle of posting and packaging. Just need to send the email around at work and hope someone wants to buy. I've also started piles for other clothing age groups but most of them are in the loft, so once I get rid of this current lot I'll get Mr VH to bring some other boxes down.

This is going to be an expensive month as we have two family birthdays, as well as building up towards our holiday. I'd quite like to get a new curtain for the front door but I might actually push that back a few months. DS is growing out of his clothes and his shoes, I've got a basket pending on M&S (while I wrack my brain to think of what I might be forgetting) with pants, socks and pyjamas for him. It's £60 in total at the moment and we'll probably need another £20 to £30 for new Clarks shoes, but they do all last (the pyjamas include summer ones so I won't need to do another shop when the weather warms up), and Mr VH will send me half the money. Most of DS's clothes are second hand but there's some things I won't scrimp pennies on.

The good news though is that DS is one of the birthdays for this month and apart from a bag of chocolate buttons I've already purchased all his gifts. I need to wrap them up in a few weeks, once I located them from all their various hiding places in the office, but I don't need to buy him any more. Especially after the kind toy donation from our neighbour (note to self: Really need to pop round with a lemon drizzle cake as a thank you).

I need to do a freezer inventory but might have to skip that today in light of Mr VH feeling rough. I also want to change our sheets but again that may have to wait until Mr VH is better.

Dinner tonight is the fabulously luxurious chicken and parma ham pasta. I also need to make breakfast and lunch for the office tomorrow, but that can wait until later.

Have a good week everyone!

VintageHistorian

March has now officially started off with an OP of £25.81, including £4.38 from TCB.

Forgot to get the John Lewis voucher last week though so must remember to get one this week.

Swapped toys for money and added a couple of packs of swimming nappies in for the buyer so brought home £10. Someone else has bought a bag of DS's clothes for £15, hopefully we'll swap the bag for money this week.

I got 20% off childrens pyjamas and 15% off childrens pants and socks on the M&S Sparks app so that brought DS's new essentials down to £50. Collected them yesterday and washed them all this morning. Another new development is getting to see new things that are for him. He was very keen to collect them from the shop yesterday and wanted me to open the bag as soon as we got home. He also wanted to wear some of them today but I always wash clothes before wearing so he had to settle for helping Mr VH put them all in the washing machine.

I have added a few more bulk items to the shopping this week, mostly because I'm not sure how global shipping is going to be impacted by *gestures vaguely*, it includes two jars of cheap instant coffee for Mr VH and a tin of the nice stuff for his Fathers Day hamper. I've also just realised that next week is Mothers Day so flowers and a card need to be purchased.

Dinner tonight is roast chicken in the slow cooker. I'm being lazy and cooking some yellowsticker roast potatoes that were in the freezer. Also cleared some freezer space by finding a portion of ratatouille for Mr VH so that's defrosting in the fridge too to go with it. And there will be yorkies and gravy.

Have a good week everyone!