Half a house

Silence101

Today is MOT day, so no idea how expensive a day it’s going to be yet. We replaced the windscreen wipers, and the difference between the old ones’ performance and the new ones is like light and day!

In other news, we’ve seen slimy trails in our kitchen for a little while, and once found a snail, but I woke up in the middle on the night yesterday and went downstairs and found not 1 but 6 slugs!! :eek: MrS is convinced that they just come from the allotment produce, whereas I’m rather worried there’s a gap somewhere that they’re using to come into the house. I guess we’ll need to do a few more 3am checks to see if we can find anymore!

Silence101

Phew, the car passed its MOT, I’ll need to sort out new tires in the near future, but at least we don’t have to organise a retest.
I also need to see what quotes for car insurance as I’m hoping they’ll go down a bit this year.

Silence101

Slug update: we found 5 more last night. I guess we’ll have to do a few more middle of the night checks, to see if they finally disappear. If not, we’re going to have to look for a gap somewhere!

Garden
I bought a few packets of spring flower bulbs, as this year was quite disappointing. I thought that they would multiply over time, but we had a lot less spring flowers this year than last. The garden needs quite a lot of work, as it’s getting overcrowded at this time of the year, and some plants are really taking over. But considering it was just turf 2 years ago, we’re doing pretty well!
MrS planted lots of tomatoes plants which have all grown really well, but nothing is ripe yet, although some of them are starting to, so we’re hopeful we’ll have a lovely crop before it gets too cold.

School
I’ve been sewing name labels in the uniform, but it’s such a boring job, I’ve given myself the task to sew at least 5 a day, so hopefully it’ll all be done by the start of the school year.

Children’s room
The curtains should arrive today. MrS helped the children tidy up their toys, but ultimately they just have too many for the space available, but it’s a seemingly impossible task to get them to downsize their belongings. So the plan is to try and avoid adding to it as much as possible. If we could get to Christmas without buying anything for them we might be able to see an improvement. At the moment, they just don’t look after their stuff, so a lot of bits get broken, but if we could get rid of some toys I’m hoping they would learn to look after their things. I’ve heard of toy rotation, but we don’t really have the space to put the spare toys anywhere. Maybe once the shelves in the built in cupboard are sorted, it might create enough spare space to make it work.

Silence101

Slug update: didn’t find any slugs in the middle of the night, and even more promising, didn’t find any slug trails this morning, so hopefully that will be it on the slug front!

TT £9.10 yesterday, into the savings account. I’m hoping to be able to send quite a bit more at the end of the month, but I don’t know what we still need to buy this week, so I’m waiting a few days.

MrS wanted to eat out yesterday, but I convinced him to eat at home instead as our fridge is full, so I think we’ve saved £15/20 at least by doing that. I need to think about what we’re eating at lunchtime today, as everyone is so hungry after church, fast food always seems to be the (expensive) answer.

Silence101

I’ve ordered some photo frames for all the school photos we’ve accumulated these last few years. They were getting very dusty, and as they’re so expensive we really needed to start displaying them properly.
I’m going through the house, making a list of the odd jobs (like the photos) that we have put off, and trying to get them done ASAP. I’m sure that’s one reason why some homes look lovely and sorted and others (ours) are just missing something to make it work. That and the fact that all the odd jobs = clutter! We have been working on the living room this summer, moving furniture around/putting furniture in other rooms, and it’s improved a lot, but there’s still some areas that need work.
The upstairs bedrooms just have too much stuff in them to create the space we want at the moment, but as we spend the majority of our time downstairs, we’re prioritising our efforts there for the time being.

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The frames have arrived, so I’ve sorted all the photos, but I forgot to buy hooks when I was in town yesterday, so we’ll probably finish the job this weekend. It’ll be nice to tick it off the list of things to do.
I’ve TTed a bit more into the savings. We’ve been dipping into it quite a lot this year, so I’m trying to top it up again before doing extra OPs. We are waiting for the new deal to start sending the regular £50 OP, as it coincides with a pay rise.
The pay rise is decent, but it will wipe out any tax credits, so we won’t be as flush as it first seemed. We’re still going to be better off, and I want us to really be careful not to get used to a lifestyle inflation, so I’m hoping we can plough most of it into savings/OPs.

Silence101

Expensive morning, as eldest said their school shoes were too tight. We tried a few shops but ended in in Clark’s. It was so expensive, but it seems to be the only shoes that fit. It wasn’t a planned expense as I thought the old shoes would be fine until half term, but their feet had grown a whole size!
Hopefully these will last a year!

Silence101

TT £50 into savings, they are slowly looking healthier. Really hoping we won’t have to dip in them this month, but I do need to sort out new tires for the car.

A bit behind on sewing all the name labels in, so I need to catch up today and tomorrow.

I’ve been decluttering all weekend, and our bins are full! Most of it was recyclable, but there was some bulky normal waste too (torn up waterproof sheets and the like). MrS took all the charity stuff in his car, so at least it’s out of the house. He might not be able to get to one until this weekend, but it stops the hall being cluttered, and most importantly, the children can’t keep rummaging in the bags!

Our bedroom is a tip, so I have a lot of work to get it back to presentable. I’m just not quite sure where to start, as it’s such a big job. I guess I just need to break it down into tiny bite sizes.

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As the weather was/is so lovely, I did some gardening this morning, instead of trying to tackle the bedroom. I planted lots of bulbs, so I’m hoping for a colourful spring. The soil is pretty bad in places, due to the sand used for construction, but I’m hoping that if I spread some compost on it later in the year, it might be enough to improve it slightly.
Off to see a friend this afternoon, and then it’ll time to start packing bags ready for school tomorrow!

Silence101

Eldest was back at school today. Youngest wanted to bake cakes, so we spent the morning in the kitchen. I think eldest is tired out from the first day so I’m hoping for an early night for the children.
Tomorrow youngest is at school in the morning, so I’m hoping to tackle the bedroom. We need to create an office space for MrS. Technically the space is there, as we already have a desk and bookcase in the bedroom, but both are full of random things so aren’t actually usable at the moment. I’m not sure I’ll manage to sort it all tomorrow morning but if it could be done by the weekend, it should make his life easier (and everyone else too, as the children will be able to play downstairs without bugging him.)