Spend Nowt, Buy Nowt, Owe Nowt

Suffolk_lass

Good progress there, well done. Not sure what you have in the way of small independent shops or local co-ops but they are the best source of GF components round here. My BIL has recently been diagnosed and due to a country-wide apparent shortage it is on my "please could you look while you are shopping" list

XSpender

Suffolk_lass said:

Good progress there, well done. Not sure what you have in the way of small independent shops or local co-ops but they are the best source of GF components round here. My BIL has recently been diagnosed and due to a country-wide apparent shortage it is on my "please could you look while you are shopping" list

We have a decent sized co-op and a Tesco local both of which have a small GF range of bread/cereal etc and the co-op also has 2 small shelves of frozen.

I have half a tiger loaf in the freezer and  a couple of pitta bread and will make my own ‘breaded chicken’ using a Helmsley+Helmsley recipe that used ground almonds and spices and is to die for.  It’s like clean eating KFC.  Well, so they say.  I have never eaten KFC as I was veggie up until my coeliac diagnosis.

I did try the flat bread recipe you recommended and will use that again for pizza bases.

Suffolk_lass

By the way, I am v impressed your credit card has not been used since Christmas Eve. I might try the same as we have the home insurance (over £100 per month) coming out in one vast lump on next month's bill so I could do with that being it for spending! I dohave some things on order with Amazing for when they are in but not sure when they will hit.

XSpender

The downstairs loo makeover has been completed and zero pounds spent.😁

I have finished all the painting in the utility room except the doors as I only have a half inch brush and don’t want them to be streaky.  I found a lovely roller blind but it was over £80 when priced up 😮 and I wasn’t prepared to pay that so have opted for a £16.99 plus p+p one from Dunelm and will order it later today.  I may need to make a visit to wilc0s for some water filter cartridges soon so will buy paint brushes and grey furniture paint for the shelving unit thingy and the room will be finished apart from new flooring which we can’t get until everywhere reopens.  I will just have to keep my eyes up and avoid looking at the brown Brillo pad carpet floor.

DH and DS have spent the last 2 days in the garden.  DH nearly did himself in yesterday removing a massive tree stump. He will be back in there today and I will finish the last bit of the conservatory tidy up and give it a clean. Except the floor which is filthy again after yesterday’s mop from the gardeners boots.  The weather forecast is looking good so I am going to strip and wash the other beds.  We have decided to rehang the curtains in the dining room (no money for new blinds, the quote was astronomical) as they still go and in the living room.  They will need airing and pressing as have been packed away so will hang them on the line this weekend.

The cake tins are empty so will make something today and maybe some buckwheat cheese scones too.  I also need to portion up the meat I bought earlier in the week and get it in the freezer.  I was good with the meal planning last week and just told DH and DS what was for dinner and it worked really well where this week I have been a bit looser/open to suggestions and would like to get back on to a more fixed plan.  Tonight, however, our award winning and GF fish and chip shop is accepting orders so we will be having a treat 😄

My other idea for today is to find a branch out of the pile of garden waste that I can paint white (have white spray furniture spray in the garage) and turn into an Easter egg tree. I don’t have any eggs to hang off it so DS and I will decorate some egg shapes cut from card to hang from it.

I am quite enjoying being resourceful and not having the option to just go to the shops to buy what I want. It is similar to how I feel about stopping using the credit card, in my head it is not an option to use it so we have to do with out or do something different. It is definitely a behaviour rather than a math issue as Dave Ramsey would say.  

brizzlegirl

Sounding completely brilliant and so positive. We will be out in the garden this weekend too.

take care 

xx

XSpender

It is promising to be a beautiful day today as forecast.  DH and DS are still snoozing but once I am awake I have to get up (or they were when I started writing this post!) I am still waking up around 6.45am and have had a lovely quiet hour drinking tea and reading this morning.  I have also put a load of washing on and made some baked oats for breakfast which are currently in the oven (but now consumed).

I stripped the 2 guest room beds yesterday and found that the dog had peed on one of them and it has gone through the duvet and stained one of my best sheets but luckily not to the mattress. He likes to sleep in there during the day but we are going to move him to the breakfast room/kitchen which is warm and sunny which is what he likes. I will order some of the enzyme treatment on line to treat the mattress and room just to be on the safe side.  He is going to be 15 this year.

More progress has been made in the garden and we had a fire in the bin thing last night which has got rid of a lot of the old garden waste and 1 green bin is now full.  Today we will be concentrating on rediscovering a border which is just under half the length of one side of the garden.  It has some shrubs in it but lots of bramble and weeds, the ivy has got everywhere and there is a lot of dead leaves to be raked out.  

DS and I will make some more eggs to hang from our Easter tree as I had in mind a table top one but the only suitable branch was more like 3.5ft tall so will go on the floor.  It is skinny rather than wide spread so won’t take up too much room. DS also made a start on his Easter cards and has now decided to send 5 so we need to find some more cards to stick the decorations too as I would like to post these on Monday as I have a birthday card that needs to go then too.

I ordered the blind for the utility room but it won’t arrive until early May!

We enjoyed our fish and chips.  I had to collect them as delivery was going to be 2 hours but on-one else was in the shop and they followed social distancing and even delivered them to my car.  I must do a meal plan today for the next week and use up some stewed apple I have defrosted.  DS loved the banana cake I made and I have frozen the other ripe bananas to make it again.  I have no excuse for wasting anything when I am at home all day.

No debt payments have gone out as yet this month.  We should have paid off close to another £2000 by the time I go back to work bringing our total close to £4000.  We will still be a fair way from our target of £10k by the end of the year unless we both return to full time work and I can increase our snowball and use the buffer to clear some more debt.  I am concerned about what childcare will be available over the summer when I do go back to work.

Suffolk_lass

Maybe you could explore local holiday play schemes in anticipation of summer - local independent schools often advertise them - our DS used to go to the local high school for the one he attended at age 10-14 (gave income to the school, lots of work for teaching students in the hols and lots to do for children of all activity-preferences!) and it was one massive round of sports, play, art and crafting, and socialising with other children of a similar age (good for an only child). He went for two weeks every summer and loved it.

We also did child-swap where our DS went to a friend for a week, and they came to us for a week (well 2 friends, actually) - we could not compete with the family who had an outdoor swimming pool and woods but five days of pond-dipping, fishing, bike rides and picnics seemed to cut it with the other boy. The second boy we took away camping so his parents had a complete 5 days without him which everyone seemed to enjoy. They were not able to reciprocate with a holiday but our DS really enjoyed a week of complete down-time, hanging out at their house and playing games (it was only five days!)

XSpender

No sign of yesterday’s sunshine. 

I am stiff as a board today after raking, chopping, cutting back and moving garden waste yesterday.  We found a birds nest with 4 tiny blue eggs in it so we have left that bit to do later.  We also found that one of a pair of 7 foot plants that we were looking to keep was actually growing on top of a big concrete paving stone and not in the border! I know we haven’t done much with the garden since we moved in but it appears to have been neglected for much longer.  DH and I are keen to do something with the garden as it is a boring rectangle at the moment with skinny borders with not much in them but brambles and ivy gone mad.

I was looking through a small garden design book my mum had given us years ago when we lived at our other house which had a small garden.  She had suggested one design for our current garden but one of the other designs caught my attention and I scribbled a kind of mirror image variation of it on a piece of scrap paper and DH agreed it will work well in our garden as has the elements we are looking for.  No gardening today though, we are both too stiff and sore.

First 2 debt payments paid today and we have now not used a CC for over 100 days  . One of the direct debits is based on the pre BT balance and I had budgeted for the payment being based on the new balance so have moved the difference with a TT to round it up to the buffer fund.  This is now at £400 and is on top of our basic EF.  We are still waiting to have our holiday money refunded, we should have been leaving on Easter Saturday 

I have found a supplier of enzyme treatment but it is not cheap.  We have some money in the spending pot but not enough to cover it and also need paint brushes etc when we decide to do a visit to Wilk0s. We also have DS birthday early next month and will have to order his gifts in plenty of time as delivery times appear to be a lot longer.  

Plans for today are housework routine, help DS write his Easter cards and post them and a birthday card while walking the dog, meal plan, decorate the Easter tree, ironing and remake one of the guest beds. I may also make some cornflake nests with min eggs in as all this activity is making me want chocolate and I didn’t buy any.

apple_muncher

You didn't buy chocolate?!!? I'm cancelling my visit to you!

brizzlegirl

All sounding really good XS, well done 

Take care xx