Tales from the Avenue

TalesfromtheAvenue

Thanks HM.


Yesterday I had to stock up on groceries and unfortunately it was a big shop as I was low on most things. I went to Aldi to keep costs down, but it still came in at around £45, so the grocery budget is pretty mch depleted now. I'll have to top it up a bit from other funds in YNAB and switch some money around. Annoyed at myself as I was doing so well. It was a bit extra than normal as I bought a fair bit of meat - we were asked to go out for food tomorrow, but I offered to cook a roast instead as would be cheaper and DS would enjoy more.

Apart from that, it's a low spend weekend. I had to post ebay parcels this moring, but they were only £5 something, so a lot less than I thought they would be.
I also popped ina bought a few bits in Sainsburys that I coudn't get in Aldi, that was another £5 odd.
OH paid me back £5 for things I picked up for him.

I sorted the rest of DS's clothes this morning. Nothing really worth putting on ebay, but another pile off to the charity shop on Monday and tidier drawers.

Feeling extremely tired today and a bit achey and shivery. Just want to snuggle and go to bed early really, but already arranged to cook dinner for OH and his son tonight. Nevermind, sure we'll have fun.

Hope everyone's having a good weekend x

Bobarella

Hope you feel better soon.

TalesfromtheAvenue

Thanks Bob.

Feeling even worse today unfortunately, not much sleep again and an early wake up from DS who is super tired himself and not sleeping well, so we had a few battles over mealtimes and behaviour yesterday. ☹️ It's been a tough 24 hours.

Have sacked the idea of cooking lunch today and we're going out to a cheap local carvery instead. I can't do entertaining people today.

DS is out with his Dad for a bit, should be back soon. I took advantage of some free time to list another 3 things on gumtree, hopefully they'll sell and bring me in £90.

I've sorted a few more bits for the charity shop too, I'm planning on dropping those off tomorrow.
Will see what else I can turn out to sell too, I really need to sort my wardrobes next.

Happy Sunday all x

Bobarella

Oh dear, really hope tommorow is better.

TalesfromtheAvenue

Thanks Bob.

It's been quite a tiring week so far. I had the day off on Monday as the plumber was coming out to fit the bath. To cut a long story short, it's costing me more than first quoted and involves me doing a lot more work myself than I would have hoped, so I'm not too happy. Also means I'm going to have to try and save money to get the shower done later in the year.
I've been tiling nightly at the moment, so I'm shattered presently and have had to spend money on materials which I could've done with saving at the moment.

Money is dire. I'm still up to date with YNAB, but it's just telling me how much money I don't have! I've had to transfer £50 back over from the holiday savings, just to cover food and DIY things, so I need to save another £20 back into that account when I can.

I've continued the ebay and gumtree purge, but not made much money really. Someone picked up a £20 item last night, but will save that for DS's dinner money over the next two weeks (+ an extra £2).

I dropped 4 bags off to the charity shop on Monday, so that has cleared a bit of space.

<<<<< this kind of sums it all up, basically.

Bobarella

Oh boo to all that. It's not great having to spend your savings but at least you have them to use

[Deleted User]

You must be shattered, but it'll be nice when it's done.

As Bob says, it's good to have the savings to fall back on x

TalesfromtheAvenue

It's been a bit of a rough week and a half but the sunshine has definitely helped brighten the mood today.

I also managed to lose sight of the finances for a wee while and, a bit of impulse spending later, booking a break for me & DS (cheap, but still couldn't really afford it!), means I now desperately need to watch my money this month. I'm my own worst enemy, I really am. Anyway, it's done now, so I need to get back on track. I need to make up the holiday pot to the tune of another £70 in the next three weeks. There will also be more spent on fuel this month (only spent £48 last month, which was excellent), as I have a few trips planned, so I will have to budget for around 3 times that amount.

I have pretty much had to stop work on the house too. There is lots that needs doing, but I just don't have the money at the moment. I have finished the bathroom to the point that it needs to be atm, but the flooring and other tiles will have to wait until the time when I can do it. Trouble is, as I'm now part time, my wages only just cover the bills and savings towards the car tax/insurance & house insurance costs etc, I'm really not sure how I will be able to save anything else.

It's also worrying me that I don't have much in the bank if I suddenly have an emergency. There's £350 in the car/house pot presently; everything in my ISA, bar £50, will be used up when the windows and door is due for payment and there's £100 in the account I save for DS's school uniform and shoes etc. I guess I will just need to save every penny I can to build funds up, but there was me hoping to overpay this mortgage and get it down somewhat.
Guess I wasn't really being very realistic was I.

Anyway, to finish on a more positive note, I've had a good day today. Saw OH this morning and helped him with some jobs, then came home and had a lovey few coffees and chats with OHs family who dropped by. It's so nice having people pop in to see me, I don't have that luxury normally as don't have any family of my own here or any friends to do that.
Once they'd left, as it was such a lovely day, I cut the grass for the first time since moving in and swept up two bin bags worth of leaves. I sorted the shed a little bit, put the legs on my new garden table I bought a while back in the sales and weeded the garden. It looks so much better out there now and made me feel much more positive.
Just wish I'd had a washing line out there to do lots of washing and hang it out, but unfortunately found the one left by the previous owners was broken when I went to put it up a few weeks back. (That's something else I need to buy).

Now I'm going to make myself another cuppa, put a bit of tv on and then get an early night. I'm full of cold presently and didn't sleep at all well last night.

Happy weekend all x

Cherryfudge

I'm sure the work in the garden is every bit as valuable as that in the house. Being out in the sun always helps me feel better, and it's been so nice today.

TalesfromtheAvenue

Than you Cherryfudge, it certainly made me feel a lot better.
OH, I and our little ones spent a few hours out there yesterday morning, we planted some sunflowers and the boys played with their cars and trucks, it was nice to finally use the space. First garden job to work towards is plant the borders up gradually as they need a lot of love presently. There's also loads of Ivy over (and in ) the outbuildings that I need to get rid of. The more costly jobs can wait for now.

So, it was my birthday at the weekend and I really did have a lovely day. OH and his son made me a cake and DS and his Dad cooked lunch for me and bought another cake, you can never have enough cake in my books! I was very spoilt, had some money from my parents which, I would like to use towards the garden fund I think, rather than just let it disappear into the bank account. Maybe buy a washing line with it, or some plants or decking, I haven't decided yet. I also received £40 in gift cards for Asda, so that will help a lot with the grocery budget this month.

Today another chunk of money has gone in the bank account, so I have allocated this within YNAB. By doing this, I've also managed to free up £48.08 that I have paid over to the holiday account, so only around another £30 needed to cover our break away in April.

After work, I need to wrap and send off two ebay parcels and also a parcel to return which should mean a £15 refund. There's a bit of money from ebay sales in the paypal account, but this should cover ebay fees and postage tbh.

Have a good day all.
x