Keeping on the Straight and Narrow...

beanielou

Sounding good 

DancingInTheRain

Ooh what a scorcher here today, we took advantage and spent the morning in the garden. The boys enjoyed alternating between running around and jumping on the trampoline.
I took my laptop out and did a bit more work on my assignment, which I've been working on the last couple of days. It was a bit tricky with the interruptions for cuddles, drinks and toilet/nappy breaks but made reasonable progress. 
We had a delivery from Mr A today for us and our Mums so that took up a good chunk of the afternoon putting that away and delivering to our Mums.
DH finished work a little earlier than usual so we packed a picky tea for the kids and went for a walk to a local park. It was very quiet there and my Mum came to meet us (at a distance of course), was an enjoyable half hour although DS2 kept wanting to run over to Grandma for cuddles bless him  
The boys were both asleep by 7 so I've just sat and finished & submitted the assignment. I'm pleased to have met the deadline as I'm really lacking in motivation for this course so at least that's another assignment off the list barring any possible amendments that may be requested.
Finances are ticking over nicely, budget remains on track and looking forward to income coming in soon - CB due Monday but should come in on Friday due to the Bank Hol; My (reduced) pay on Tuesday and DH's pay next Friday. Still waiting on the Haven refund. We should have been at Haven next week. DH and I have left our annual leave booked with work and we're looking forward to
our first completely work free week of the year. It's also our wedding anniversary next Friday so we're looking at ordering a meal to take out from one of our favourite restaurants to celebrate, can't wait!

beanielou

Well done on the assignment

savingholmes

That sounds like a good day for all. Love the idea of a takeout from your fave restaurant. DS cooked us steak and chips tonight - and I have to say it was better than any restaurant I've eaten.

DancingInTheRain

Steak and chips sounds lovely SH 😋
Just been to L!dl to pick up a few bits I couldn't get on the A$da delivery on Wednesday so we're all stocked up. Have scanned the receipts and hit the £5 payout on Huyu 👏 I've chosen an A$da gift card and will use this when I do the next food shop and will then transfer £5 to the CC seeing as it's 'free money'. This is my first time redeeming from this site and it's been very quick and efficient 🙂
It's super windy here today so a lazy day in the house. The kids have lost/hidden the remote control so we're stuck watching CBeebies 😵
DH finishes work in an hour, will see if he has better luck finding the remote control 🤞

sashybo

Hope you found the remote Dancing!!! 😱 😂 

Well done on reaching payout with Huyu, I've only cashed out once with them so far but they were pretty quick. 👍 

DancingInTheRain

We found the remote eventually, it was hidden in the kid's toy kitchen!
We had an enjoyable evening Friday, had our usual fakeaway - I made us a slow cooked pork in a Chinese style sauce with stir-fry veg and noodles, was delicious if I do say so myself 😊
The weekend was a bit of a wash out due to me having a migraine for most of it, leaving me out of action. It's a while since I had one and it really knocked me off my feet. As the weather was so awful here, DH and the boys have pretty much had a PJ weekend and watched films, played games in the house and DS1 has been introduced to the joys of the Xbox!
I'm feeling much better today and the weather's looking brighter so I think we'll all benefit from getting outside today, DH and I also need to look at renewing our building & contents insurance as we still haven't got round to it. The renewal quote has just come through at a reasonable £120 but will still check what other deals/cashback are out there to see if we can make it more cost effective.
We should have been setting off on our first family holiday today so need to make sure we factor in a bit of fun for us all this week. The refund for this still hasn't come through although they said it could take up to 35 days, today is day 21 so 🤞 it shows in our account soon.
Happy Bank holiday Monday everyone, stay safe xx

DancingInTheRain

Woohoo - building & contents insurance sorted! Got a policy with a new provider for £100.53 plus £30 cashback so that's a good result. My car tax will go out on the 1st and then that's all the annual bills sorted for a while although my MOT will need sorted soon and DH's is due in July, still waiting on our mechanic reopening but it would be good to take advantage of the current situation and move our MOT's forward by a couple of months so they don't collide with all the other bills we have at this time of year. Even though we budget for them with our savings pots, it still hurts to see them all empty in April and May
I also sat last night and uploaded all our Asda e-receipts dating back to September to the HuYu app before the deadline expired this has pushed the points on here from zero to 230 so was worth doing.

Current Survey/Receipt apps totals are:
Receipt Hog - 686/1000 (for £3 Amazon gift card)
Shoppix - 2065/3200 (for £5 cash or gift card)
ZipZero - £2.69/£5.00 (for £5 towards utility bill - water)
SnapMyEats - £7.00/£10.00 (for gift card)
HuYu - 235/500 (for £5 gift card)
Vypr - 7260/10000 (for £5 cash)
OnePoll - £23.20/£25.00 (for £25 cash)
YouGov - 3975/5000 (for £50 cash)

DancingInTheRain

My pay day today, have paid the balance of our monthly spends CC (groceries/petrol/Mum & MIL shopping) and we're ready to go for another month.
No spends today so NSD 1/30 achieved.
Lovely weather here today so DH and I have cut the grass, jet washed the back yard, cut some bushes back and rearranged the boys outdoor toys to make the back garden look more spacious. There's just a flower bed that's now covered in weeds that needs dug out and replanted and for the first time in 7 years we will actually have a lovely garden! My attitude has always been one of extreme apathy, as long as I could sit on the patio and have a glass of wine I was happy   Lockdown has made us truly appreciate having the outdoor space and the boys love it.
The cherry on the cake is that our decorator friend has called to say he can start work on our external walls at the weekend, it'll look fantastic out there once it's all done. Here's hoping we can have some sort of family bubble gathering out there next month  
I'm so over lockdown it's unreal. I'll continue to follow the rules but am feeling increasingly frustrated by it all to be honest. My furlough is due to end this week but can see it being extended so we'll see what June has in store...
Hope everyone is well, stay safe x

DancingInTheRain

Spendy spendy day today. I've gone through our wardrobes as the boys have gone through a growth spurt and DH and I have limited summer wear which has been a problem with all the recent lovely weather. As I was heading to A$da to pick up our click and collect order I decided to go in to the store to see if I could get the bits we needed. £88 spent but all 4 of us have enough t-shirts/vest tops/shorts to see us through summer. Thankfully DS2 has all of DS1's outgrown clothes so nothing needed for him although I did pick up a pair of wellies for him.
DH also ordered some replacement cord for our strimmer as that ran out yesterday. By the time we take into account grocery spends too that's a lot of money going out today, although DH did point out we would have bought those clothes and more than likely a few other bits by now if we'd have gone on our holiday this week as planned, so it could have been worse. 
Both boys were asleep just before 7 so DH and I enjoyed supper on the patio in the garden tonight, I'm going to catch up on 
here for an hour or so while he has a soak in the bath and then see what tomorrow brings. 
Still no word from work re: furlough being extended but I'm leaving it to them. As it stands I can't see how my role can be delivered at the moment and we'd really struggle with childcare as although DH is not a key worker, he is public sector staff, therefore can't be furloughed. Both our Mums are desperate to help but obviously can't so will just have to see how everything plays out, strange times indeed
Hope everyone is well xx