Getting it together...one £ at a time!

teafor2

Morning HG Hope you all had a lovely weekend. Your hubby is certainly a grafter isn't he.

It was too hot for me as well so I was also glad when it cooled down a bit. Not so keen on it raining for most of the weekend though. I always feel sorry for people at work when it's nice then come weekend and the weather is rubbish.

Not long until pay day now xx

Homegrown0

Hey all!

Pay day has finally arrived, although the cash isn't going to be around for long. There's so much to pay for this month that we will really need to keep on top of spends to avoid overspending. Need to spend some time on my spreadsheet today to get everything in line.

My bathroom is now completely bare except the shower and a few tiles around it. Things will get moving this week so once we've had advice from the plumber i'll get ordering and organising what's next to get it done. Hoping that it'll be complete by the time schools go back in two weeks but maybe that's a bit ambitious.

Did a bit of decluttering at the weekend and have a nice long list of things to tackle next...just need to find the time!

doingitanyway

Excited about your bathroom. I will live vicariously through yours for now

Pay day :T

teafor2

Goodness HG, you don't let the grass grow do you I've no doubt with you and your organisational skills behind the work force it will all be done in the 2 weeks xx

Homegrown0

Well, hello there MSEers!

It's been two long weeks since I set foot on the boards and today is really the first day that my head hasn't felt full to bursting.

You'll be pleased to hear that the bathroom is DONE! My husband did it all himself with a little help from his plumber friend for the pipework - it took him 7 days, 5 of which he was at work then got to work as soon as he came in and didn't stop working until midnight. Then last weekend he pushed through and got it all done.

I'm super pleased with it - it's such a treat to not have a hideously old, dirty-looking bathroom. It's so clean!!

We had said that we'd be delighted if we could do it for £2k and i totted up the figures this morning. I counted everything, even down to the big tub of industrial wipes my husband bought from B&Q and including all labour and materials, we spent £2,075.27.

When my husband lifted the floor, there was a LOT of rotting and a lot of floorboards that should've been there but were just completely absent. That accounted for quite a chunk to replace that and board some of the walls etc.

We have a pretty robust plan to pay for this - of course, because of the leak it all happened very quickly so half is on 0% finance with a bathroom company over 6 months and the other half is on our credit card. I've written it all into my spreadsheet sums and it'll be paid off by January, which is when our loan also finishes.

Wow - what a ramble!

Aside from that ,work has been MENTAL. So, so busy, and of course I've been juggling having #1 off for the summer holidays so i've had the work and mum guilt in equal measure. It's almost over so back to the routine we go.

Day-to-day spending hasn't been too bad. I did well with uniform buying this month and got most of it from Sainsbury's. MIL bought his school shoes for him, which was lovely of her and the five birthdays that we have this month haven't yet killed me, but there's still one to go!

Next month is going to be torture - a lot of travel and juggling of things. I so wish i could hide from it all but i'm going to attempt to be pragmatic and organised about it all.

Plans for our extension are also in progress so we're going to need to throw a ton of money at that very soon!

How are you all? Good, i hope?

I've missed the interaction on here, so i'm going to have to build some time into my day to come here and update, even the little things. It really does help me to download stress sometimes.

If anyone needs me, i'll be rocking in a corner over here...

doingitanyway

OMG So happy for you to have a nice bathroom.

And well done hubby.

Life sounds busy but you are pushing forward so that is great. Nice to see you back.

Homegrown0

It is delightful DIA, I keep popping into the bathroom just to look at it

It has been a bust day today at the kids' clubs. Been out of the house from 0900 to 1545 and got home just in time for the rain to come on.

It's so heavy and the kids are knackered. They are on the couch with blankets and and film and I'm making the dinner now.

A quiet one on the cards for us!

Trying really hard to spend as little money as possible and we just need to make this a way of life going forward to make sure we are in the best position for the impending houseworks.

Not a lot in the bank now so looking forward to pay day. It cant come soon enough. Just need to carefully meal plan this week and maybe top up a little bit of fuel.

Days until pay day: 11
Loan payments left: 5
Nursery payments left: 10

Homegrown0

Sunday morning, still raining...

I'm sitting with a coffee writing a shopping list and meal plan. Trying to shop from my own cupboards first as foxgloves would say.

Also need to look at the week ahead and see where we are going to be and what we need to do. I'm generally not as organised as that and it ends up throwing our meal plan out of whack because I haven't accounted for an evening that we are out or home too late to start cooking the thing we had planned.

We dont have much planned for today except visiting my mother in law so hoping to get the ahooping done early and then get stuck into some decluttering and organising.

On Friday I lost the plot with piles of clothes that were sitting aimlessly in our spare room so I sorted them out and pulled out some dresses in my wardrobe that haven't been worn in the longest time. I not have 32 items listed on ebay and 4 of them already have bids! Hopefully people are feeling generous and want to bid on my lovely stuff

Days until pay day: 10

redofromstart

Happy new bathroom!

Homegrown0

Thanks redo

Sunday was pretty good - i used my calculator on my phone to count the cost of everything i put in my trolley, just to keep track and avoid putting too much in the trolley. Stuck to £35 in Aldi and £13 in B&M for some toiletries so pretty pleased with keeping the spend to a minimum.

Also had a playdate yesterday with my sons friend which only cost £2 for them to have a couple of turns of game so that was a nice treat.

This week I'm hoping to keep spends to a minimum/ zero for the most part. My son has a competition on Saturday so that will require spending for his entry and us as spectators.

My husband is taking on so much extra work right now - it's really helping with the planning of funds and covering costs of the renovations and the bathroom, but it's a lot for him. He always says that he'll take the work when it comes and i agree with him because he can go a few months without anything extra but we'll keep an eye on it because i don't want him to run himself into the ground. He still has a few holidays left from work so he can take a few days when he needs them.

It does mean that there's more of the day-to-day workload on me (i.e. everything house/ kids related) when we normally have a 50/50 split so it does take its toll on us all but it's worth it in the short term.

Got a bit of work to do on my spreadsheet today so will tackle that at lunchtime and make sure we're on target with finances over the next few months.

I've noticed a few people talking about the big C on their diaries, and it has been on my mind too. I've started a new tab on my spreadsheet to store ideas and start on the old organisation front. I hate being disorganised for Christmas. Whoops, i said it!