£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

Silver_Queen

I can’t wait for you to finish your scarf. The anticipation is killing me!

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 39: Day 7

I know you're all still here really! I'm just so used to causing some enormous drama at least once a week with some mad spending decision that it feels very quiet when I'm being well behaved.

It is POURING here, and I've realised I've left a laundry load out on the line for about two days. Whoops. Not going out to get it in at this ungodly hour though.

Still lots of little bitty things on my list today, must try to plough through them after my clients leave. But at least have made soup and cookies ready for them, with enough mix for another round of cookies in the freezer.

To do today
1. finish knitting my scarf (I'm one away from the cast off row!).
2. Check shopping list on mysupermarket - budget is a bit reduced after a top up shop a couple of days ago, so want to keep it nice and tight, but not use up all the freezer food.
3. continue with DC present lists.
4. make candles.
5. set up new bullet journal - only a few pages left in this one! It has lasted me a record 2.5 months - I usually go through one about every six weeks, and they aren't cheap notepads (250 pages long and nice paper), but they are invaluable for keeping me on track.
6. do gel nails (off to do that now, hence early start even on weekend. yawn).
7. make a list of anything needed for advent calendar

To do this week
1. declutter and tidy DCs' bedroom.
2. declutter and tidy our bedroom.
3. start to put advent calendar together.
5. make a start on the Christmas shopping.
6. start Christmas knitting.

To do this month
1. Keep the total spend at the budgeted level - it's high on YNAB this month (£3,842) as it includes the £470 paid off the MBNA card and all our savings pots are actually budgeted.
2. Keep a tight record of Christmas spends so I can ensure it sticks to budget as far as possible.
3. Keep beavering away at my business goals.
4. Make some candles - we've run out! And I know one person really wants another one for Christmas, so will add it to her hyacinth.

Misslayed

I’m still reading you everyday, it’s compulsive! But for some reason the reminder email I get (as I’m subscribed) lists all the new posts, so I’ve just been reading them there.
You’re nearly on page 100 of your diary!
Keep up the good work!
PS My name is Misslayed, and I am a stationery addict. With you re the journal

Honeysucklelou2

I think it must be paperwhite narcissi that you've planted. They take 6 weeks to flower from planting and are very useful if one misses the hyacinth planting time. They should be beautifully fragrant...enjoy!

Cherryfudge

I love narcissi of all kinds... what I don't understand is why people buy muscari when they grow like weeds in my garden! (saw Mand S have pretty presentation jugs of bulbs today and was going to add it to my Christmas list - ever hopeful - when I saw it contained muscari. Sigh.

TOPM, did you get the laundry in eventually? And how are you finding the frozen cookie dough? Does it defrost evenly enough to use easily? Am wondering about preparing ahead for Christmas...

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 40: Day 1

Look at that! FORTY WEEKS people. I could have had a baby in the time I've been doing this. Thank goodness I'm paying off debt instead.

The laundry is still on the line :eek:. I forgot about it again until it was dark, then I already had laundry out on the airers and radiators inside! MUST bring it in this morning and give it a rinse and spin and try again. Terrible housewife.

Honeysucklelou2 you are absolutely right, they are paperwhites, and they do smell absolutely amazing. The packet said 10-12 weeks though! Stupid Homebase. Or B&Q. Or whoever it was. Must check my hyacinths today and make sure they are doing the right thing. My house is full of flowers at the moment as DH bought me some last week (just supermarket ones) and I now have two pots of beautiful flowering narcissi. Lovely.

We have friends coming for lunch today with their two DC, so once again my food budget has gone out the window. I am so rubbish at entertaining on a budget. Bought two chickens as I wasn't sure one would cut it with four adults and five not-tiny children, and loads of veg (which isn't expensive). Hoping for some leftovers for chicken and leek pasties though. Also excited about pudding - I'm going to make loads of little meringues, a bowl of whipped cream and have a big serving dish of fruit including poached pears, plums, figs, black grapes, blackberries and stewed apples, and people can pick and choose what they want to have with their meringues, like a DIY pavlova - the visiting DC are really fussy, so I figured they could just have meringues and cream if they didn't like any of the fruit. Has bumped my food shop up to more like £120 for the week though - the two chickens alone were £12! Free range, but luckily from Aldi, or they'd have been closer to £20 for two.

I achieved absolutely nothing yesterday after work, was so exhausted. Feel like I'm being very unproductive at the moment. DH had a sort out of the DCs' room yesterday evening and it looks so lovely - he's cleared loads of stuff out and strung fairy lights in the dolls house. Makes me not want to buy anything else at Christmas, they have such lovely toys already. I always find they play so nicely when their space is clear and tidy, they just make more mess once there is mess, if you know what I mean.

I should probably start cooking! Going to do some yoga first though.

To do today
1. finish knitting my scarf (I'm STILL one away from the cast off row!).
2. make meringues.
3. make big roast lunch.
4. continue with DC presents lists.
5. plan next week - DH is away from tonight until Thursday so it's about keeping on top of everything.
6. make candles (not sure how this is going to fit in, but I'm going to end up buying more if I don't).
7. set up new bullet journal.
8. make a list of anything needed for advent calendar.

To do this week
1. declutter and tidy utility room - it is such a dumping ground
2. put advent calendar together.
3. do some Christmas shopping.
4. Christmas knitting.
5. pull out the Christmas decorations and see what we need - I have a vague recollection that we are totaly lacking in house decorations, although we have some lovely tree decs. We are going to get a smaller tree this year though, so maybe I'll just use tree baubles throughout the house so they get used.

To do this month
1. Keep the total spend at the budgeted level - it's high on YNAB this month (£3,842) as it includes the £470 paid off the MBNA card and all our savings pots are actually budgeted.
2. Keep a tight record of Christmas spends so I can ensure it sticks to budget as far as possible.
3. Keep beavering away at my business goals.
4. Make some candles - we've run out! And I know one person really wants another one for Christmas, so will add it to her hyacinth.

Cherryfudge

Treadingonplaymobil wrote: »

Week 40: Day 1

Look at that! FORTY WEEKS people. I could have had a baby in the time I've been doing this. Thank goodness I'm paying off debt instead.

:rotfl:

If I were you I'd want to save those narcissi and plant them near my door so I got the scent of ever-increasing drifts of them every spring.

Lovely and sunny here today: hopefully for you too and you can get the laundry out of the way.

welshlady33

Aldi special buys Sun 19th November
Ceramic bulb kit , choice of hyacinth 3 colours, and 2 types of narcissus £4.99 each
X

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 40: Day 2

Had a lovely lunch yesterday. Enough leftovers for a big batch of chicken soup, so that's good. And some fruit and meringues leftover, but I suspect the DC and I will polish those off today!

DH is away now until late Wednesday, so i'm essentially flying solo with the DCs until Thursday evening, which is rather rubbish from a work/tidy house point of view. Trying to keep my expectations low and just keep on top of the basics. Started a new bullet journal yesterday, so feeling terribly organised and efficient. Hopefully it will make me actually organised and efficient this week.

I made candles yesterday, so the house smells lovely. Oooh, I was going to post my candle method for someone. I'll try to remember to do that today. One batch of fig (I bought scent rather than essential oils, hoping it won't set off my itchy nose, but it's an experiment as I love fig candles so I still sometimes buy them) and one batch of orange, cinnamon and lemon.

The MBNA direct debit appears to have come out today, despite having paid the card off a few weeks ago. Need to get DH to phone them when he's home and get our £25 back! The budget is overall still looking fairly healthy. The child benefit comes in tomorrow and for once has not already been spoken for/budgeted in yet, so it will go towards Christmas shopping and a little bit towards a nice activity with DC2 when we're in London for the weekend at the end of the month (for various complicated reasons I will have an afternoon with DC2 while the other two are off doing nice things, so I'd like to do something treaty with him).

Hope you all have exciting Mondays ahead!

To do today
1. finish knitting my scarf (cough. One away from cast off row).
2. make quiche for packed lunches - DH took them on a picnic last week and they took loads of my batch cooking!
3. catch up on at least minimum level work stuff.
4. continue with DC presents lists.
5. actually do some online shopping for Christmas.

To do this week
1. declutter and tidy utility room - it is such a dumping ground.
2. put advent calendar together.
3. do some Christmas shopping.
4. Christmas knitting.
5. pull out the Christmas decorations and see what we need - I have a vague recollection that we are totally lacking in house decorations, although we have some lovely tree decs. We are going to get a smaller tree this year though, so maybe I'll just use tree baubles throughout the house so they get used.

To do this month
1. Keep the total spend at the budgeted level - it's high on YNAB this month (£3,842) as it includes the £470 paid off the MBNA card and all our savings pots are actually budgeted.
2. Keep a tight record of Christmas spends so I can ensure it sticks to budget as far as possible.
3. Keep beavering away at my business goals.
4. Make some candles - we've run out! And I know one person really wants another one for Christmas, so will add it to her hyacinth.

Sea_Shell

Morning. Before he rings MBNA you might want to check the T&C's as it might be that they will always still take the DD even if an interim payment has been made, or it might have been too close to DD date to stop it. Usually won't effect the DD if the payment is made just after DD, but before next statement issued.