Half a house

Silence101

MOT passed, so happy we didn't have to pay for anything more than the test.
Expensive week for food, as we're still between two houses, and the girls are getting quite unsettled, so we've been eating out quite a bit. I can't wait until we finally live in the new house and get back into a routine. It's been a long month really.
Mr S is sorting out the dishwasher. The instructions are really awful, I think they should get a crash course with Ikea, to learn how to do them properly!
I still need to pack some more this evening, I think we'll take the toys up tomorrow, so the girls can play in the evenings after school. Because we have all 4 of us in the car we can't actually move too many boxes at once, so we started with the kitchen stuff, as we could put it away.
I'm counting down the days until this weekend, where we'll finally do the real move.

wishingthemortgaheaway

You will get there Silence.
How are the girls getting on at the new school?

Silence101

Thanks!
Youngest really enjoyed her first morning at nursery, and wanted to go back today (we're only doing one morning a week as I'm not working). Eldest seems to be ok after a wobbly start yesterday. I'm sure by the end of half term she'll be right at home. Luckily she's never really been the shy type.
Still haven't packed as youngest hasn't gone to bed yet, and she gets into everything.
I've booked the oven cleaning for next week. We won't be using it after this weekend, and we have to hand the keys back next Thursday, so this should be perfect timing.
The plan is to completely empty the house by Sunday (hopefully doing most of it Saturday afternoon.) Depending on the time we finish packing the van I will start cleaning the rooms upstairs. If we can it would be good to have most of the house clean by the end of the weekend, but I'll have Tuesday and Wednesday to do more. I tried to take most of the weeds out of the garden, but I might put some weed killer on the last day.
Next Thursday we have the official check out with the estate agents. We're half prepared for deposit issues, so I've mentally decided to think we're not getting it back, but if we do it'll be a good bonus, to go towards our savings/OPs, although Mr S has spotted an expensive sofa he likes so maybe we will be spending it sooner than I planned!

Silence101

We've had to cancel our internet for the next 2 weeks! I've been experimenting with the hotspot function on my phone, but gets expensive as I have no data allowance. Mr S does, so we might try it on his phone in the evenings.
Went food shopping, it's a good 30 minute walk to the closest supermarket. I'm not sure how we'll arrange the food shop once we've moved, maybe we'll start using the online shopping more regularly.

Silence101

We've done most of the move today, but we haven't started unpacking. We just have so much stuff! We desperately need to get rid of a lot of stuff, so we've created a "to skip" area. Mr S will make a trip there next week. So tired, so I'm going to sleep well tonight.

wishingthemortgaheaway

You'll get there with the unpacking, essentials first and chill with the rest.

Silence101

Thanks! We'll start tomorrow!

Silence101

And I'm back. Internet is finally up and running.
We've unpacked, the girls like their room, and our living room looks nice and almost clutter free.
We got all our deposit back from the old house, which is good as our car broke down a week after passing the MOT. We're looking for a replacement, but our budget is very low as the insurance looks like it's going to be very high.

As expected this month has been spendy, but we haven't had to touch our savings, so we're not in a worse situation than before.
I haven't been doing any more OPs, but I'm hoping to be able to put another £50 or more next month.

wishingthemortgaheaway

Welcome back, I assumed you were off grid, which was why you weren't updating us on your progress.

You have done brilliantly not touching your savings, you sound so happy.

Lovely to have you back.

Silence101

Thanks!
It's been a long month! Packing took a lot longer than anticipated, friends helped us on the Saturday, and it looked like we hadn't even packed by the time they arrived, even though the new house was already full of boxes.
It took 2 days to clean the house properly, now I know why people pay or charge so much for those end of tenancy cleans. I also realised some people might run out of time to do it properly and end up losing their deposit. Luckily we managed to do enough to get it up to scratch.
We ended up having to do 4 van trips to move all of our stuff, and it's surprising that most of it fits in the house. We do have a shed, which helps!

We ended up not buying a bunk bed, but the girls still have loads of room in their bedroom, it really does seem bigger than their old own. It helps that there's no chimney breast to take up space.
We found a wardrobe, but it ended up in the shed as storage, because we couldn't get it up the stairs, so we bought another one for £30. It was meant to be for our room, but it's so enormous, it had to go in the girls room. I almost thought it wasn't going to fit there either but it did.

It's half term so Mr S is at home, but we really need to try and sort out a routine again as this last month has been completely hectic!

I'm really not sure where we are money wise, especially as we need to buy a car asap. Mr S is looking online for a bargain.

I did manage to log on to the mortgage online banking, but seeing the huge amount we owe depressed me so much I almost gave up the whole plan. I think I'll be waiting until we hit a milestone before checking again!