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

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 55: Day 4

Morning! Second full snow day, after early closure on Wednesday too. We have a good 8" of snow or more (haven't stepped out to see how deep it is this morning). We have built the world's worst snowman because the snow is so powdery it doesn't stick together! Might be wetter after last night's sleet/snow combo though.

I dragged the children out in the snow yesterday to get some food in case we couldn't get any today, and was quite impressed with what we got in town, all local/organic. I must make a note of veg, pulse and dried fruit/nut prices at Aldi/Sainsburys and compare them to the local grocers/bulk food shop to see if there is anything we can reasonably get locally. Made a green quiche, a massive batch of vegetable soup and banana loaf with over-ripe bananas (the preschool leaves them out for free when they don't use up what they get delivered, which is genius - I take loads and freeze them) yesterday, and have ingredients for beetroot and ginger soup, leek and potato soup (apparently we are mostly eating soup this week :rotfl: ), carrot and chickpea pitta pockets and porridge, so we can survive for a couple of days without venturing out if it's really icy.

Speaking of food, I came across a recipe for sourdough crackers yesterday, which I am definitely going to try. Like the blogger, I find my sourdough is miles better if I keep it on the side and feed it daily, but I also find I get more excess starter, and this seems like a good solution.

I'm meant to have clients tomorrow, but if the snow doesn't clear I don't see them making it! Will need to contact them to see about rearranging if the forecast stays grim, although possible the rain forecast later will literally wash away the issue.

Three things to do today
1. Invoice for February work (yeah, didn't do this yesterday).
2. Social media post.
3. Defrost freezer (the irony!).

Debt repayment:
- £1.81/31 March rounding down post
- £1,250.93/£5,000 2018 debt repayment goal.

boxofpaws

Hello TOPM,

I went awol for a few months and have finally accepted I might never catch up on your diary. I gather you have remortgaged among other things, which is a hot topic in my house at the minute. Glad it's all going in the right direction for you

I'm really liking the new diary format. I especially like the idea of a monthly to-do list, chunked down into littler lists throughout the month.

Don't be surprised if you see a VERY similar format in my diary from now;)

Paws

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 55: Day 6

Morning! Clients can't get here today, so I have to swap my mind round to work today on other stuff, and hopefully they'll be able to make it here tomorrow - it's supposed to be a lot milder today, and rainy, so no doubt quite a lot of snow will clear, particularly on the roads.

I had a mega-productive day yesterday thanks to DH not being able to get to work, so we did things like rearrange the kitchen and clean cupboards, which I have been meaning to do for ages. Feels like a much nicer space now. Also chatted a bit about the extension, and have more or less abandoned the idea of trying to squeeze in a bathroom upstairs (unless the architect has some genius idea we haven't thought of), which will (a) keep costs down and (b) mean that one bedroom won't be affected by building work, so we will have somewhere to all sleep if the DCs' room becomes uninhabitable at times.

Yesterday's list
1. Invoice for February work (yeah, didn't do this yesterday).
2. Social media post.
3. Defrost freezer (the irony!).
4. Declutter kitchen.
5. Make leek and potato soup.
6. Make cookies for clients (not sure they're going to last until tomorrow, might need to make another batch!).


DH needs to try to rescue his car today if he possibly can - it's still three miles away where he had to abandon it on Thursday to walk home! A friend has offered to take him if the roads clear a little more.

Three things to do today
1. Food shopping list to get us through until Monday/Tuesday - I have a menu plan done, just need to write the shopping list.
2. Food shopping.
3. Clear emails.

Debt repayment:
- £4.33/31 March rounding down post
- £1,250.93/£5,000 2018 debt repayment goal.

System

If you don't have space for a full bathroom, would you have space for just a toilet and basin.

Sounds like a very productive day yesterday between you and DH . Defrosting the freezer did make me chuckle !

Have a good day.

Suffolk_lass

Ooh, sourdough crackers! sound great.

Before you abandon the idea of a bathroom, my husband designed one that is in the corner of a second bedroom in a standard 3-bed semi. Think half an octagon in the corner of a room, with the two middle bits as the door, a quadrant shower in one corner (quarter circle style) and a toilet and small basin to the right in the actual corner of the room and towel-rail radiator on the wall by the door.

It needed the bed turning 90 degrees and closer to the window and a good extractor but honestly, it was tiny.

If you want to see what he did, PM me and I will give you my email address and I can send you his designs for you to consider. He is an industrial design engineer and not an architect, so used to designing innovative solutions for small spaces in industrial manufacturing. Essentially stop thinking rectangles and think space utilisation.

You should also try googling tiny house plans in google images. It might not be something your architect has done but you don't need much space.

DawnW

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

Before you abandon the idea of a bathroom, my husband designed one that is in the corner of a second bedroom in a standard 3-bed semi. Think half an octagon in the corner of a room, with the two middle bits as the door, a quadrant shower in one corner (quarter circle style) and a toilet and small basin to the right in the actual corner of the room and towel-rail radiator on the wall by the door.

It needed the bed turning 90 degrees and closer to the window and a good extractor but honestly, it was tiny.

We have a tiny shower room / loo similar to that described above (except for the towel radiator, sadly) in our loft conversion. It was put in some time ago, before we bought the house. It works fine as an extra, but I wouldn't like to be without the main bathroom and only rely on that, iyswim.

enthusiasticsaver

I guess most of the expense of putting a bathroom upstairs would not just be finding the space but all the plumbing involved in putting in the waste stack, supply pipes etc. My DD and son in law moved a downstairs toilet as part of their building improvements they did last year and it involved digging out a concrete floor to put a new waste pipe at the right angle for it taking the waste outside to the drains. All very expensive building work. Definitely cheaper to leave the plumbing alterations to a minimum but as a family of 5 having at least a separate toilet/shower room would be better even if downstairs.

Any chance of fitting a third bedroom with ensuite downstairs? You could then split the biggest bedroom upstairs in 2 giving each child their own room and you and DH have the new bedroom downstairs. Of course it may be more living space you need rather than bedroom space.

enthusiasticsaver

When my DDs building work was going on as it involved the whole of the downstairs last year her and my 2 year old GD came to stay with us as my DD is pregnant and they did not want to live in the upheaval. Do your parents or your DH parents live close enough for that to be an option? My son in law had to live in the chaos to look after the cats but he was ok with that until he got very ill with an infection, not to do with building work we hope although we are not sure now

Treadingonplaymobil

Thanks for all the ideas. It's a combination of expense and the way the space works which is affecting our decision. We'll see what the architect has to say (he was supremely confident about getting a bathroom up there). Even if we just have a toilet and sink it means taking a chunk out of one room both for the space and for the corridor to get to it (the stairs come up bang in the middle of the fairly square very small house, the bathroom can't be in the middle because it would block access to other rooms and I imagine drainage would be tricky). We would have two bathrooms downstairs - a shower room at the front of the house and a proper family bathroom at the back, both of which are already bathrooms so already have plumbing in.

In other news, all this snow has made me very aware of our food intake and how to do it on a budget! We needed a food shop on Thursday, so have had to get food from town. We've only been able to walk to shops, not drive, and have been limited to (mostly local and/or organic) produce from the nearest shops. Have had to be somewhat creative to get enough food at a sensible budget. We've spent £56 in total so far, and I'm hoping that will get us through until Tuesday (which equates to around the same as my usual weekly shop if you scale it up to a full week) but it's been really interesting to see how our food choices have had to change - basically veg, a small amount of fruit and flour, milk and eggs. You can make an awful lot with that at your disposal, it turns out! Carrot and chickpea pittas for dinner tonight with savoury parmesan herb popcorn and hot chocolate for pudding.

Cherryfudge

Treadingonplaymobil wrote: »

In other news, all this snow has made me very aware of our food intake and how to do it on a budget! We needed a food shop on Thursday, so have had to get food from town. We've only been able to walk to shops, not drive, and have been limited to (mostly local and/or organic) produce from the nearest shops. Have had to be somewhat creative to get enough food at a sensible budget. We've spent £56 in total so far, and I'm hoping that will get us through until Tuesday (which equates to around the same as my usual weekly shop if you scale it up to a full week) but it's been really interesting to see how our food choices have had to change - basically veg, a small amount of fruit and flour, milk and eggs. You can make an awful lot with that at your disposal, it turns out! Carrot and chickpea pittas for dinner tonight with savoury parmesan herb popcorn and hot chocolate for pudding.

I'd been thinking about this too - I've not been to the shops for some days despite being able to if necessary, and as a consequence have been eating a little more boringly but much more cheaply. There is a little more room in the freezer and cupboards as I make an effort to see what we have in (not usually my strong point) and more baked stuff in the house, which is an indulgence as I can't normally cope with the calories. I think I will be spending more this afternoon though as we're going to an out of town shopping place with a big supermarket and those things I would normally have topped up on because we are getting low (fruit, margarine and sugar) will get bought.

I like the sound of the savoury popcorn, off to look up a recipe!