A quest of happiness, new adventures and mortgage freedom!

porgiegeorgie

On a completely separate note, but the house has been invaded by spiders this week! Just found another one in the bath, have sent it outdoors but I'm sure it'll make its way back in.

The other explanation is it's just one really adventurous spider I'm spotting all over the place...

Downshifterella

Hi Georgie
Congrats on the imminent arrival of your little one and your MF quest!
:eek: on spiders peppermint oil rumoured to work....might have to find some myself as it's getting to that point where they like to come inside where it's warm and dry!
Look forward to following your adventures! X

porgiegeorgie

Realised it probably looked like I'd abandoned ship! I haven't felt very well for the past couple of weeks and then earlier this week I caught a sickness bug that's been going around at work and it completely knocked me sideways. Out of bed and eating an ice lolly today, so fingers crossed the worst of it is over.

So, an update!

MFW
£600 OP for Sept just made. Probably my last large one with maternity leave starting this month. Mr G is waiting for a chunk of expenses back from work so didn't make any OP this month.

Mortgage as it stands:

Current balance: £113,175

Average monthly OPs: £942

Total overpayments: £17,900

Daily Interest: £11.28 Feb 16 to £9.00 Sep 17

Time off total term: 2 years and 5 months :j

(Today's OP won't have taken effect yet.)

Baby
A small selection of different cloth nappies has now been obtained from the Bay of E We'll see what works best when the Bean is here and go from there. Even the newborn ones look so big!


House
Walls in the upstairs sitting room and nursery are painted, just the skirting boards need to be done (we realise we did them in the wrong order.) Mr G got fed up after five minutes of trying to paint the super pointy artex in the sitting room and bought a paint sprayer to finish the job, which was in his words "the best fifty quid I've ever spent" :rotfl:

Work to install the new heating system starts Monday morning. This has involved organising removal of an asbestos gas flue at the same time so fingers crossed everybody turns up. Once the heating is done and the new radiators are in we just need carpets and those rooms are done. Except for furniture, which is so far down my priorities list right now it isn't really registering...

Last week Mr G noticed a damp patch over the nursery window, since we had the roof replaced this year we think it must be the gutters, it's at the right height. Mr G organised for them to be cleared and yesterday two guys turned up, looked up at the house and then left... Mr G has messaged them to find out what's going on, but with it being the weekend no response yet. Our house is tall so we chose a company that said they can reach up to 40ft (which our house definitely isn't!) and Mr G sent a picture beforehand so they could see what it's like, he's not very impressed.

Work
I wasn't planning to finish work for another two weeks but after this week it may be sooner. Will see how I am feeling Monday and go from there.

On a slightly work related note, my role is a self-employed one so I can't get SMP from work. Instead I applied for maternity allowance and had a message from the DWP informing me that a decision can take 24 working days. It has now been 24 working days but no word on it yet (I know I earn enough to qualify.)

By the looks of it MA got a bit complicated after the NI2 contributions system was changed and from what I can gather HMRC should be contacting me so I can make an advance NI2 payment for this year ahead of submitting a tax return next year. I'm really not sure how much I trust this system to work. I'm also worried I may have messed it up a bit by forgetting to pay my July balancing payment for last year's tax bill :eek: I paid the moment I received the grumpy letter from HMRC but I'm really hoping that hasn't somehow messed up my application. I can't believe I forgot to pay it, so unlike me.

Luckily we're not relying on the money, it would be nice to get it sorted before the baby is here though.

Matched Betting
I remembered this afternoon I had a free bet that was due to expire today! It's down now and so that'll be another £22 in the MB pot.

Besides from a couple of qualifying bets I haven't done any MB this past week and half or so, have felt too grotty and was afraid of making mistakes.

I did however, sign up to 0ddsM0nkey after using their free account oddsmatcher and deciding that it was worth it for the time saved looking for odds.

Current MC profit is £100. Once I'm feeling a bit better I'm going to really attack the welcome offers.

Fun
Erm... does not being sick anymore count?

Mr G and I have made a list of a few things to do before Bean arrives, mostly visiting restaurants we've been wanting to. This weekend should have been a cinema trip but alas, it was not to be.

Things to do in the next week
Rest!

Hopefully reschedule our cancelled cinema date.

Ask Mr G to get some carpet quotes. And actually decide on carpets.

We have a list of baby things that still need to be gotten. I might delegate some to Mr G and order a few things myself.

Mr G was mumbling something about starting some batch cooking the other day, I might suggest if he has time this week might be a good time to start.

And that's that. Now I need to lie down again..

Have a good weekend everybody

wishingthemortgaheaway

Evening.

I've just found your diary. What an exciting time you are about to enter. My little one is 16momths old and has me up at the moment just because he'd like a cuddle.

Sounds like you are doing great on the baby things. I quit my job whilst on maternity leave and still haven't found a new one and we're surviving. It's amazing what a strict budget and money saving can do.

For money making.
Sign up to survey sites and mystery shopping. You are going to have hours sat on your bum in the early months, so surveys are a good way to keep you occupied while middle of the night feeding (I breast fed so didn't have to hold a bottle, not sure how you'd hold bottle, baby & phone) mystery shopping is good as you'll get out and about with purpose, without spending a fortune.

I picked a couple of things I was prepared to spend money on activity wise, swimming and baby sign. We didn't go to a soft play place until he started walking (don't see the point personally, although some people do)

We did Nct classes and met up with our other Nct friends a lot.
Coffee shops and at our houses.

Probably too late now, but 'the nappy lady' has a questionnaire on her website which will help you decide what cloth bums will work for your lifestyle. Nappy libraries are also good.

Finally (and yes I am very evangelical about this because it has made my life a thousand times easier)
Find your local sling library and hire some slings, please don't go out Ono the high street and buy one of the off the shelf brands.
A sling library will show you a range of slings for different stages of babywearing and you can try before you buy.
Slings are like jeans, some work, some don't what works for your friend won't work for you.
Some brands you can buy on the high street follow the T.I.C.K.S guidelines for safe babywearing, but some don't. You need to find a wide based carrier that holds baby's lags and hips and bum in the 'm' position (sometimes called 'froggy legs') and not dangling supported only by the crotch.
Slings have transformed my life as a mum, it's amazing what being able to do something with two hands feels like, while still giving your baby the most amazing cuddle. My little one has been in a sling, on both me and my husband since he was 8 days old. He loves his slings.

(Sorry, I do sound really preachy, but it is the most useful tool I have in my mummy bag)

Good luck.