Keeping on the Straight and Narrow...

savingholmes

Hope you get the answer you want on the furlough. Good you managed to stock up on summer clothes for the 4 of you. Not a bad spend at all and a bargain on your home insurance. Hope the holiday refund comes through soon. 

DancingInTheRain

Another NSD today (2/30). The boys were both wide awake at 5.30, by 9.30 they were both grumpy so I put them both in the car and took them for a drive. Both asleep within 10 minutes so I headed to a quiet beauty spot where I could see the Lakeland fells in the distance and sat and drank a coffee I'd taken with me in a travel mug. Simple but lovely  
DH enjoyed an hour to himself before setting up a paddling pool for the boys. DS1 loved it, DS2 hated it so wasn't as much fun as we hoped!
Participated in the final clap for carers this evening then walked to a nearby park to meet up with my bestie who I haven't seen since before lockdown, it was lovely to catch up and set the world to rights
DH gets paid tomorrow and it's our wedding anniversary so Friday's looking good Instead of gifts we've ordered a meal from our favourite Turkish restaurant and bought a bottle of champagne, hopefully the boys will settle for bed and we can enjoy a lovely evening.
Take care all xx

DancingInTheRain

Happy Sunny Sunday 🌞
Had a lovely weekend so far, we've been in full on holiday mode thanks to the gorgeous weather.
On Friday we went to a secluded beach near us, the boys ran wild as no one else there and came back absolutely filthy 😂. When we got home I stood them in the bath and hosed them down in the shower before heading out into the garden to play/relax.
DH popped to L!dl for a few treats for us all so a small spend there.
Once the boys were asleep DH collected our restaurant meal and we ate in the garden & enjoyed our champagne 🍾. Our lovely Mums split the cost of both of these as an anniversary gift so it felt like even more of a treat, the food was amazing too.
Also received the refund from Haven, going to utilise this to pay for the external walls being painted as this was really an unplanned job that hadn't been fully budgeted for.
Yesterday saw us go for a short drive on the fringe of the Lake District, we live approximately 30 minutes away and it was just lovely to see it all again after so long. There was a lot of cars parked in awkward places on the road so I'm guessing a lot of people had headed out to walk/sunbathe, etc.
We stopped off at a park close to home and enjoyed a picnic, again we were lucky that there was no one around so the boys could run wild. 
Another small spend to buy some ice lollies/ice cream and milk as we'd ran out - not doing well on the NSD's so far.
We also let DS1 stay up to watch the SpaceX launch last night, he was beyond excited but definitely a late night for him - he's still asleep!
Planning on staying home today and enjoying DH's last day off before he returns to work tomorrow.

I had a call Friday to say my furlough was being extended by a further 2 weeks. One of my teammates is returning on Monday so we'll see how it all plays out. I must say I'm relieved to remain off as the childcare situation would be so difficult.

Finally my diary is 1 year old today! 🎂🥂 I can't believe how much we've managed to pay off over the last year, being accountable on here, receiving support & encouragement, and reading other diaries have all helped to maintain the momentum and focus. Goodness knows what the next year will bring, might not be completely debt free as we're trying to build savings, but we'll certainly be well on our way. While everything is at 0% it's not too bad and if all the uncertainty settles and our jobs feel secure we could always use savings to clear the debt at some point, trying not to put too much pressure on ourselves with this at the moment.

Thanks again to all who read my waffle/brain dumps, you're all superstars 🌠

sashybo

Happy belated wedding anniversary Dancing. 🥂 And happy 1 year anniversary on your diary today. 🥳 

Sounds like you've had lots of fun with the boys and got them to run off a lot of energy! My DS hates the paddling pool too and just screams. 😂 

beanielou

Belated happy anniversary.
Happy one year dairy anniversary 

DancingInTheRain

Thanks guys x
Quiet day in the garden today so NSD 3/30 achieved  DS2 has stopped using his sleeping bags (kept managing to wriggle out of them) so I've listed them on a 7 day auction online.

Weekly Summary of Survey/Receipt apps totals are:
Receipt Hog - 726/1000 (for £3 Amazon gift card)
Shoppix - 2345/3200 (for £5 cash or gift card)
ZipZero - £3.71/£5.00 (for £5 towards utility bill - water)
SnapMyEats - £8.00/£10.00 (for gift card)
HuYu - 270/500 (for £5 gift card)
Vypr - 7340/10000 (for £5 cash)
OnePoll - £23.50/£25.00 (for £25 cash)
YouGov - 4035/5000 (for £50 cash)
Prolific - £0.00/£5.00 (£0.44 pending)
TopCashBack - £82.37 pending, £1.50 confirmed

DancingInTheRain

Here we are in June and the first day of year 2 of my DF diary.
Signature updated today as this month's DD has gone to the CC today. Still looking to pay the £1000 back to Mum once we receive the cashback from our new mortgage product.
SO's have gone out to the regular savers so our savings are now as follows:
Instant Access EF £3,000
Regular Saver (Me) £2,000
Regular Saver (DH) £500
Total £5,500
Very close to being debt neutral 😬
Also sent a small o/p to the mortgage account today of £22.04 to round the account down to end in a zero.
Transferred money back from our savings pots as my road tax DD is due to go out Wednesday.
Our decorator friend is here today and even the base coat has made a difference, the back of the house looks bigger somehow & it's lovely to see it white and gleaming in the sunshine, can't wait to see it all when it's finished. Hope he's done by Wednesday as we're forecast heavy rain here
Plans for this week are to do some coursework and online training for work, sort this week's grocery order for us & our Mums, batch cook & tidy the house when the weather breaks and hopefully get our Mums round (separately) once the garden is accessible again. Oh and run ragged after the boys of course 😆
DH has a busy work week and his car is booked in for its service on Wednesday (more money to come from the car pot ) so I'm going to try to keep on top of everything else so we can all have a relaxing weekend 🤞

savingholmes

Sounds like you are making the best of everything

DancingInTheRain

NSD Monday & Tuesday taking me up to 5/30. Today will be a spend day as our grocery shop will be delivered and our decorator needs paid.

I took the boys out for a long walk on Monday as our garden was inaccessible due to the decorating. Mum met us and treated us to an ice cream from one of our favourite cafes who were open for takeaways, delicious 😋 DH finished work early to make the most of the weather, we had our supper in the garden again.

Yesterday saw Mum coming to visit us in our garden 👏👏 
We have a raised patio in the garden so popped our patio furniture into the corner of the patio where Mum sat and then barricaded her in with the table & a number of large plant pots and a clothes airer - sounds crazy but it worked 🤣🤣

Me and the boys sat at the other end of the patio so even the baby coped well with the distancing although he was puzzled as to why his grandma wasn't closer to us, a lot of 🤷 gestures from him 🤣.

Mum brought a packed lunch and a flask of coffee so she could eat with us and it was just really lovely to have her here, it's really perked us both up to just be able to sit and talk together while the boys played, absolute bliss 💕.

Need to do the same with MIL, although the weather has broken today 🙄
She got out yesterday to BIL & SIL house yesterday which was her first time out since early March as she was poorly then and has since been shielding so she's over the moon to have escaped her house 🙂

DH has already left for work. Today's plans are to walk to DS1's nursery this morning for a catch up with his teacher and to receive an activity pack. He's also painted a rock to go into the nursery's garden as they're making a rainbow trail to mark these strange times so he'll take that too. 

Groceries due to be delivered between 11 & 1, including supplies for our Mums.
Need to collect DH's car from the garage as it's getting serviced today & then drop our Mums groceries off.
Once the boys are asleep tonight I'm going to try to get some coursework done.

Hope everyone is well, stay safe xx

DancingInTheRain

Forgot to mention that I've sent £30 to the mortgage account, this is money saved from not paying DS1's lunch money at nursery this month.
With the CC being at 0% and savings being built which can clear the balance before it becomes interest bearing next April it seemed to make sense to pay it off the mortgage at this time.