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Striving to save and stay solvent!
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Just lost a long post. grrrrr.
Ds and I have had a nice morning, mostly at home pottering round the house. I didn't sleep well and was up early, so I prepped the veg for lunch. The fridge freezer had been delivered by 9am and I'm really pleased with it. It is a much better size and fits in a different part of the kitchen better. I can't wait to get rid of the big American style one now this week, it will free up so much space and light.
We popped to the post office and spent £60 there on postage for my orders, all covered by the business takings. It means I now have around £100 'over' to pay the credit card down a bit.
We've wrapped the birthday party gifts and have done a bit of craft with DS and watched a movie. We're both really enjoying a quiet day I think!
I've stripped my bed and the sheets are now on the line drying, along with a second load of washing. It's really windy here but sunny, so everything should dry nicely. I need to change DS's bed next, will do so after lunch. Hopefully the weather stays nice to dry everything outside.
Dinner is cooking - and cooking - and cooking... it is taking much longer than it should, which, I think proves my hunch that the cooker is on its way out, I've suspected it for a while.It's a large gas-only range cooker so will not be cheap to replace. I would like an electric oven really and gas hob, but there is no electric point for the oven here so I'm not sure how feasible that is. I'll think of it when I really have to!
DS is off with his Dad this afternoon, so I will continue to get some things done around the house and maybe have a nice soak in the bath. I'll see OH for a bit later, but am looking forward to an evening of doing my own thing in the house to be honest.
Hope everyone's having a nice Saturday xxMortgage @ 03/2019: £125,000, Now: £52,056.86
Mortgage OP’s: £20,591.73
Remaining 10% OP allowance 2025: £1427.550 -
Well done on having that £100 over! Enjoy the sun,we have the wind and heavy showers here...might have to light a fire tonight to get things drying.paydbx2025 #26 £890/£5000 . Mortgage start £148k June 23 - now £138k.
2025 savings challenge £0/£2000 EF £140. Savings 2 £30.00. 170 -
I spoke too soon HSL - the heavens opened about 5 minutes after my last post and I had to run for the washing!
I had a productive afternoon pulling the oven and old freezer out and cleaning under and begind them. I don't think the previous people had ever done so, it turned my stomach. :eek: Now the place feels much cleaner and the floor has had a good scrub. I transferred everything from the old freezer to new and cleaned the old one out too so that's off my list for tomorrow.
The chicken for lunch was ruined. :mad: The oven is completely kaput I think and I'm going to have to fork out for a new one. :(it just doesn't seem to cook anything through for some reason, I'm not sure if it's not holding its temperature or something, but that's the second chicken I've had to throw out and also a cake too. I'm not going to love the price of gas ranges, that's for sure
I popped over to OH's for a few hours tonight. Was going to come back early and have a bath, but was too tired when I got back so pretty much came up to bed. I'm hoping for a little lie in tomorrow as I'm on my own, maybe that will help me feel less exhausted for a day or two!Mortgage @ 03/2019: £125,000, Now: £52,056.86
Mortgage OP’s: £20,591.73
Remaining 10% OP allowance 2025: £1427.550 -
Didn't sleep too great, I had a night of some really vivid dreams which weren't very nice and woke me up.
I was up at 8.30am, so dyed my hair to cover the ever-increasing grey and had a nice shower.
I put over two bags of charity shop donations in the car to drop off today but, once I was out, the traffic was such a nightmare and the area was so busy that I gave up. It's still in the back of the car, I'll have to do it another time.
I went out to Matalan today - I need a suit for something this week and I thought that would be the cheapest place to buy one. I was there nearly two hours, trying on various items, looking for different sizes and lengths and nearly lost the will to live. I'm not an enthusiastic shopper at the best of times, but that place seems to have gone downhill so much. There were hardly any variety of sizes except very small or very large, the clothes were on the wrong hangers and marked wrongly, things were all over the place - urgh - it's put me off every shopping in a 'real' shop again. I can see why I do everything online these days! I managed to get a suit jacket which I may be able to team with a pair of trousers I already have, a top to go under it that I will wear again, some underwear which I was desperately in need of and a storage box things for DS's toys. Goodness, I feel stressed after that episode though!
Just had leftover veg from the roast yesterday for my lunch and am about to make some tomato filo tarts to use up some pastry I took out of the freezer and lots of tomatoes I have in the fridge.
First, I'm going to have a cup of tea and try and unwind a bit though!Mortgage @ 03/2019: £125,000, Now: £52,056.86
Mortgage OP’s: £20,591.73
Remaining 10% OP allowance 2025: £1427.550 -
Just caught up with YNAB all all is looking reasonably good.
I need to return two items this week (didn't need that suit after all) which will return £48 to the bank account. The business money has been trickling in and I'm pleased to say I've been able to pay an extra £228.10 off the credit card this morning. :T
I should be able to pay off another £265 (once I've got to the bank) from the sale of the appliance which is being picked up tonight. That just about cover the cost of the new one though, but with an extra £30, so that's not making as big a dent as it sounds. Balance after that is paid off should be around £764.89.
I'm conscious that there is over £300 going on it next month though for 'that' event we can't get out of, so I'm still going to be trying to pay it down as much as possible in order to get rid of it as soon as I can.
Now I can't believe I'm actually going to say this (are you sitting down?)... but I'm still under my grocery budget by £95! :eek::eek::eek::j:j:j There's only 11 days left until payday. This has NEVER happened before and there's loads of food left in the house, even fresh stuff! I've only spent £79.20 this month on groceries so far, so I will be really pleased if I have money left from that pot at the end of the month to throw towards reducing the credit card a bit more.
CTC & CB has gone into the account.
I have lots of surveys to catch up on, need an evening of free time to do so. That rarely happens though.
I need to clean the oven tonight and empty all the bins and recycling. Living on the edge of excitement, me...Mortgage @ 03/2019: £125,000, Now: £52,056.86
Mortgage OP’s: £20,591.73
Remaining 10% OP allowance 2025: £1427.550 -
So, the fridge freezer was collected last night and I'm so pleased it's gone. It was huge and took up so much space, now my kitchen looks massive and much lighter.
Of the £265 I netted from that last night, £10 has gone in a card for a birthday present, £48 has gone to OH (forcefully - he hates taking money from me!) for things I owe him for; the rest will be going into the bank account today so that I can pay it off the credit card.
I had the car tax bill through today, thankfully it's only £30 for the year. :jA bit of a difference from the £160 I used to pay on the old car. I will pay that today with the bit of money I have left over presently, saves it coming out of next month's budget.
I've taken two portions of lasagne out of the freezer, one for me for lunch at work and one for DS for his evening meal tonight. Batch cooking is so helpful. I love being able to just pull something tasty out of the freezer and not have to worry about conjuring up something.
This morning DS has decided we are having a 'sausage roast'at the weekend, with sausages, roast potatoes, carrots, yorkshire puddings and gravy (his wish list!).:rotfl:I have everything in for it (and a few extra 'green' veg I shall try and tempt him with
) except frozen yorkshire puddings, so we shall make some instead. I'll get DS whisking the batter mix and we might even make extra for pancake for pudding.
Today I need to chase up a £46 cheque due to me, it's taken over a year for this to be sorted, still can't believe it's being dragged out this long for that small amount.
Still lots of surveys to do, have attempted a couple this morning but screened out of those and have too much work to do now, so will have to try and catch up with them later.
Oh - cleaned the oven and tackled the recycling and bins last night and even cleaned (part of) the kitchen floor for good measure!Mortgage @ 03/2019: £125,000, Now: £52,056.86
Mortgage OP’s: £20,591.73
Remaining 10% OP allowance 2025: £1427.550 -
Cheque chased, should be with me within £28 days. It will go towards paying the card down a bit more.Mortgage @ 03/2019: £125,000, Now: £52,056.86
Mortgage OP’s: £20,591.73
Remaining 10% OP allowance 2025: £1427.550 -
I've listed a couple of items for sale locally, will hopefully make £28 and free up a bit of space if sold.
I have a little ebay pile I need to tackle too, mostly stuff DS has grown out of that it 'sellable'. I really need to go through his drawers and see what else is now too small for him first as he seems to have shot up lately.
I've also purchased a few Christmas gifts for DS and one for OH today that I have seen on sale online. Around £50 spent, but I used £10 of my Amazon survey vouchers towards them. I think I've done the majority of Christmas shopping for DS now, but I really need to go through everything I've already bought and make a list now as my gift cupboard is mounting up and I don't want to overspend or double up on gifts unecessarily.Mortgage @ 03/2019: £125,000, Now: £52,056.86
Mortgage OP’s: £20,591.73
Remaining 10% OP allowance 2025: £1427.550 -
No really moneysaving tasks achieved last night, but then no spends either. :cool:
Dinner was cooked courtesy of OH, after helping him paint a few rooms in his house. We have a bit more to do tonight, will look nice when it's done. I'm supplying dinner tonight, just need to pick up a few soft rollls as we're having some lovely beetroot, quinoa and feta burgers.
Tomorrow I will be able to get to the bank and put the cash from the sale of the fridge freezer in. I also need to do a little top up shop so it won't be a NSD, but a low spend day hopefully. I also need to return two items for a refund this weekend and finally drop the charity bags off that have been in my boot all week...
I'm looking forward to a weekend of no real plans - 'pottering' and getting a few jobs done.Mortgage @ 03/2019: £125,000, Now: £52,056.86
Mortgage OP’s: £20,591.73
Remaining 10% OP allowance 2025: £1427.550 -
Just updated YNAB to cover the £30 car tax and transfer some of the unspent grocery budget over to cover the Christmas gifts I've bought this month. A surplus of £8.26 showed up, so sent this to the credit card as a small extra payment. Once I've paid the banked cash off of it tomorrow, it will be back under the £800 mark.
My oven has been playing up and not cooking things so well. I inherited it with the house and documentation shows it's almost 12 years old. It's a gas range cooker, so will cost a lot of money to replace - cheapest alternative gas cooker with an electric fan is around £800 fitted. :eek: I have been seriously thinking about buying a replacement and putting it on the credit card, but the idea of adding to the debt is not sitting well with me, so I will try and keep going with it for now, just not cooking any large joints of meat or whole chickens in it (it is struggling with these), and try and save the money up instead. Hopefully the business profits will permit me to buy one after Christmas. That's the goal anyway.Mortgage @ 03/2019: £125,000, Now: £52,056.86
Mortgage OP’s: £20,591.73
Remaining 10% OP allowance 2025: £1427.550
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