Queen Bee fighting for her Hive!

Queen_of_the_Hive

Its so refreshing to wake up to a damp morning. Must have rained lightly overnight Been out into the garden to empty the two rainwater buckets which admittedly had a minimal amount of water but every little bit counts so water butt is filling up nicely with that and the water collected from the shower. One autumn task me and OH need to do is set up guttering on the shed to fall into the water butt. Its funny, I've had the water butt for a good year maybe 2 and never really used it but now I am hooked. Kinda feels like am saving some money indirectly as well as teaching the kids about the value of water as a resource. Will keep diary posted. 

So in other fronts, was pleasing to wake up to our first published review on the holiday let. Its only a score, not a written review but the score is good so we are chuffed. Hoping this will boost bookings. 

This evening am planning to do a bit more work on the accounts & a bit more cleaning. Tomorrow I must go to the gym. Today should comfortably be a no spend day. 

Queen_of_the_Hive

Well woke up at early o'clock again Really need this to change, am feeling really tired 

Yesterday was indeed a no spend day and today should be one too. Made cottage pie with OH last night, added a pear to it which is a bit random but we have some pears to used up so one down 4 to go... Will stew them down and freeze or something with them. 

Not much is happening on the money front today just that it needs to be another no spend day. 

Queen_of_the_Hive

Wowsers a diary update is well and truly overdue! 

So summer was fun, lots of head in the sand, enjoying the moment and spending £££. But since September started I've actually enjoyed getting back to the familiar rhythm of school runs, working from home, chats in the playground and all that jazz. September is typically a time when I go into a form of hibernating & enjoying being home, although by October am usually ready for a bit more out and about. 

On the finances I've so far this month naturally cut down and spending less which I need as I have no real budget for Christmas and like everyone atm concerned about rising costs. I've been humming the mantra 'reduce, re-use and recycle'. So for reduce, this is evident with food shopping been buying less & making more of the food bits in the freezer. Favourite new meal was slow cooked roast chicken. The meat was so soft and fell off the bones, meaning less wastage . 

As noted in earlier diary entry wardrobe broke so bought a new to me wardrobe from a local family. The wardrobe was delivered in August and I've had fun going through my clothes and finding ones not worn for a long time. So will def be re-using them instead of just sitting hidden away. 

This weekend me & OH minus the kids are visiting family and we are finally able to be able to pass on some toys and books my kids have grown out so a bit of recycling too

On the money saving / frugal front - some of the good things we are now doing:

* Reducing shower times & taking a bucket into the shower with us to collect some of the water. This has shocked me at how quick we have managed to fill our water butt & now looking to buy a second water butt to fill up too which should help us next summer.

* I've started to keep an insulated flask next to the kettle as an overflow if there is any hot water left after making cuppas.

* I bought a wearable blanket - it cost £20 and is lush. Going with the mantra warm the person not the room. The kids and OH are not sold on the idea but we will see if that changes when it gets really cold.

* I've been doing this for a while but using our mini oven (discovered this after our main oven broke last year and took months to be replaced). We bought a small table top Ninja cook type device and its a game changer. Am now discovering how to cook multiple items at the same time by how we fill it. Small wins!

* Cooking porridge on low heat on the hob - its my one luxury.  

* We are trying hard to cut down our trips to the cafe - my partner is guilty of this! 

* Generally just cutting down on spending. Am actually enjoying this one! 

* Monitoring our energy use - have got good at turning off vampire devices and am continuing to look for hidden ones. 

Queen_of_the_Hive

Trying to get into better habits and update my diary a bit more often than of late

This weekend was bizarre - original plans was for me and OH to attend a music festival for the day but like many events this was cancelled. However as travel tickets were booked and paid for we still went ahead and visited family for the night. This was lush. Return trip to the capital where we live and we got caught up in the road closures for the funeral. In fact it was so surreal, we were ended up on a coach parked on the Kings rd along with many coaches which were caught out. Think someone forgot to tell Victoria coach station the plans! Anyway no point in getting upset so me and OH had a wander around town. Its not an area of town we normally go so this was fun. I also made the decision on Friday afternoon to join 'The Queue' and I can only have positive things to say. 12hrs it took and felt and honour and privilege to take part and do my bit.

This weekend I did end up spending more than I wanted to. We had a meal out which was not planned for but as we were so shattered from the bizarre weekend, cooking was not an option and the meal was a lovely way to end our trip. Am now currently £89 over spends for the month which I need to keep a rein of especially as there is still 17 days left to go till new credit card month. So will continue to live off the freezer and make some wise food choices. 

Yesterday I did the cleaning while watching the funeral so my home is now in good shape. I have four bags in my hallway, one for the charity shop, 1 for a friends for her son, one is clothes that can no longer be worn to go in the clothes bin at school and one of some dressing up stuff for nursery at school. So the plan is to get these bags to their rightful places which should help to clean some space at home

I've ordered some more washing machine tablets from eco shop and need to update my MSE signature. Will have a think about what else I can do for - reduce, reuse and recycle mantra for this week  

Queen_of_the_Hive

In between diary updates I've been a bit up and down. Like a lot of us on the debt free diaries, generally overwhelmed with the current state of affairs. When I get like this I tend to eat, eat, eat and find it hard to stop. After having bad tummy ache last night I really need to get myself back on track and look after myself as if I go down then the rest of the crew suffer so trying again today.

Yesterday I made some yummy mushroom soup so I have that for lunch today and going to portion and freeze for work. I went to the gym yesterday too. The gym is running a monthly challenge to do 15 visits in October so have signed myself up... am sure I can do this.

In the financials - my savings are pummelled by stock market declines and everything going up rapidly. Am now starting to look for another job to fit around my main job to help to balance the books.

On the positive for financials - I've finally paid off the credit card with big balance from summer spending and am now very much in cut back mode and starting to buy the kids Christmas gifts. Ebay has come up trumps. Bought a set of books for eldest for half the price in the shops. Not sure what the story with those was but they were in mint condition. Then bought the youngest a hornby train set for a good price too. Just hope all is good with it. The train set is being paid for in cash from Christmas money from last year. I wasn't as good for saving for Christmas this year but should be ok. Currently £223.76 overspending till new credit card month which is actually munc better than it is has been for a long time.

I've got back into reading and have been enjoying finishing books which I'd started but not completed. So the most recent one was Thursday Murder Club. I know a lot of people really like this book. It wasn't my fav tbh but an easy read. Just started back reading book 3 of Ken Folletts Centuary Series. Read book 1 and 2 and 150ish pages into book 3. Used to be in a book club and found I couldn't keep up with the book club book plus others so many got picked up and put down. Anyway now we are in autumn cosy mood reading is lush.

Drawingaline

I am so like you, eat, eat, eat!

Ebay for train sets, what a good idea. Its on one of my sons lists so will have a look.

Queen_of_the_Hive

I haven't posted on here for a while but I've still been plugging away at the budget. With the rising cost of living and working only part time its really started to bite and put me in a funk for part of the month. However having come out of this now I thought it was about time for an update.

So this month we as a household have been pretty good with our energy use. My OH previously invested in all sorts of USB powered lights so these have been in use. I've continued on my mission to turn off the phantom devices, the latest one was finding the plug socket for the tv in the living room. So yay, thats now off! I've also been keeping a watchful eye on the smart meters too & then paying for the energy used each month. It is normally paid quarterly but this way I feel we are being more watchful with what we use.

Showering at the gym has become more routine and I actually enjoy it, feels like having a shower is a treat. The showers at the gym are quite nice.

So budget wise I was having a calmer month until this week when we had two disasters which have put pay to that. We took the kids to a well known musuem and the little one was a bit too giddy and knocked my phone out of my hand, fell to the floor and it smashed the screen. The glass didn't break but the innards of the screen went. This was an expensive repair - resulting in OH buying me a replacement secondhand phone of same model for £210 inc data services. I defo need to pay him back so will take this from savings. Secondly we had another disaster, we discovered a water leak in our business property that occured not long after we left the place. We don't live close to the property so have a headache to sort this out remotely. The business is still getting going so this amount will ultimately come out of our pockets

We've had a lovely half term though and the kids have enjoyed halloween which is what its all about . New credit card month starts in a few days time.

Today was meant to be a NSD but after paying the monthly bills, I needed to sort out some travel tickets of which i've compromised comfort & time for cost as its just myself travelling this time and also ordered some acrylic paint to do some early Christmas crafting with champagne corks

Tomorrow is back to work day having had last week on annual leave so expect it will be a busy day.

Queen_of_the_Hive

Drawingaline said:

I am so like you, eat, eat, eat!

Ebay for train sets, what a good idea. Its on one of my sons lists so will have a look.

Hi Drawingaline - good luck with train set hunting. The one I bought was secondhand but has not been played with. Just hope my little one likes it. He hasn't asked for it in particular he just loves his trains & something we could add to which is also appealing.

Queen_of_the_Hive

Happy 1st Nov!

Well am not quite sure what is going on but so far this week I've been feeling yukky, not sure if its a bug or hormone related but would rather be in bed with a hot water bottle rather than sitting at the laptop but needs must and work is calling. Made it to the gym this morning for the hoped perk me up. Think i'll be taking a nap at lunchtime. On the positive i've showered at gym not at home so a little money saving today.

Today should be a no spend day and decided to cancel tomorrows milk delivery as we have some in the freezer which I'll defrost instead. Saving £2.20. 

Apart from that a quiet day ahead. The house could do with a good tidying. Will see how am feeling after work and will try to do a bit on that.

Have a good day everyone

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hello Saturday,

Time for a diary update.

This week has been awful - been in a bad place with all the worries of the world and how these affect us as family. Thankfully my partner and I do talk and are working through it together which I am really greatful for. Meeting for lunch with a good friend so that will be nice.

On the money side of things - not many changes. I have a slow cooker cookbook - bought a couple of years ago but its now making its money's worth and slowly working around the recipes. So for this weekend am doing some meatballs in a tomato sauce in it. Should be ready for dinner tonight.

On our energy use - it is comforting to see we have used less units of electricity and no GCH yet. We spent £112.50 in Oct which I'll pay for in the next few days. We are going to pay in full so that the £66 energy rebate is put aside. We have a gas meter and so far have enough on there to get us through the winter (we think) & HOPE!

I've started couch to 10k this week. Completed week 1 yesterday and ready and raring to start week 2 today.

Maybe go to fireworks today, see how the weather is later. Rain is forcast where we are.