A new royal start

South_coast

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South_coast

I've just done a survey that got 12.00am and 12.00pm mixed up. Fortunately they were free text questions and I was able to point out their mistake 😀

QueenJess

I had one that seemed to be going on a bit.  It had the percentage at the bottom and was slowly creeping up.  Then it finished at 54% complete 

QueenJess

Today's lunchtime successes were:

• Washing done and hung up
• All clean clothes put away
• Amazon vouchers finally arrived and so I stocked up on DH/DS's favourite snacks that were on offer and bought the last 2 books for DH's xmas presents.  DH's xmas presents all bought now and spent £60 in total, which I think is plenty. (I also judge how much he has on the day from everyone and hold things back for his birthday if he has too much.  His birthday is just over a month after xmas).
• Ordered 3 nursery jumpers to show willing (don't ask, otherwise I will go off on a rant about the ridiculousness of mandatory, but pretending not to be mandatory, uniform for nurseries and you'll never get rid of me!)

Also got DS to make my dad a birthday card for next week.  I'll make my one hopefully this evening in front of the TV.  Just need to remember to post them at the weekend.

As predicted really, this month is all spend, spend, spend.  Bit scary, but currently all within budget and money I have in the right pots.  Still got lots more expense to come with more presents to buy and my car service/MoT.  I'll be relieved come November!

Veggie night tonight.  Dinner was tomato pasta with salad and garlic bread (extras for lunch tomorrow).  Pudding is the last of the Eve's pudding and custard.  Pudding wise we will now be slumming it until the weekend when I'll make a crumble.   Good job I have a few things in the freezer.

Still not got an official letter from work re: my extension.... I have emailed HR and hope that kicks them into action.  

QueenJess

I keep filling out these surveys which ask in the general questions if you own a home outright, with a mortgage, rent, live with parents etc.  I keep hovering over that "outright" option thinking "one day".... 

QueenJess

Today's lunchtime successes were:

• All clean clothes away
• Finished my xmas wish list and sent it to my parents
• Received my cheap photo frames today and had a nice time putting some photos in them and putting them on display in the living room.

I did finish a big work thing (that was driving me crazy) and celebrated by actually sitting down and resting over lunch!  I did then order myself a fake orchid online... need to stop spending money for a bit now!  I think all homeware spend is now suspended for the month after buying that and the cheap photo frames.

The mid month lull seems to have dawned now.  No money to move around, mortgage paid for the month and a long time until pay day.  I am also waiting on lots of surveys to be approved so I can cash out and also on cash appearing in my account from places I have cashed out from.  I was hoping I would have smashed through the next target by the end of the week, but I don't think my cash outs will make it in time.

I didn't make my dad's card last night as I was knackered (not been sleeping well).  So that's on the to do list for tonight.

Cheat night for dinner tonight - Caribbean chicken and rice from the freezer.  Pudding is anything from the freezer... generally raspberry muffins or plum cake and ice cream.  I made DS some chocolate chip muffins for his pudding.

Thank goodness it's Friday tomorrow.  This week seems to have gone on forever!

QueenJess

Not feeling it at all today, just a bit fed up.  Don't want to think about making extra money etc and so am taking the evening and probably most of the weekend off.

On the plus side I finally got my letter from work confirming my extension until the end of Jan.  Today I managed to change the beds and do a load of washing.

Dinner was chilli (jacket potato and beans for DS).  Extra chilli portions for the freezer (trying to have a one in one out thing going on each week, so I usually have 3 meals in reserve in the freezer).  Puddings are chocolate chip muffins, raspberry muffins or plum cake with ice cream.  Tomorrow I was going to make biscuits with DS and get him to ice them, but he has informed me that fairy cakes are much better.  So fairy cakes it is!  I bought him one of those pre-made icing things that he should be able to squeeze and make patterns all over the cakes, so I'm sure he'll love it!

coldcazzie

Just read all of your diary Jess! You've made great progress in a small amount of time - clearly got it sorted! Very jealous of your ability to OP the full 10% each year! Glad to hear you're going to be working for a bit longer than you thought.

QueenJess

coldcazzie said:

Just read all of your diary Jess! You've made great progress in a small amount of time - clearly got it sorted! Very jealous of your ability to OP the full 10% each year! Glad to hear you're going to be working for a bit longer than you thought.

Ha ha... is anything in life ever sorted?!  This year is a bit of a fluke with the overpayments and it'll all slow down now.  But then I always thought it was more important to overpay at the start of the mortgage than the end as that's when you are paying the most interest.  I did manage to overpay an enormous amount at the start as well due to some money left to me in a will and that really, really helped!

I have to say that one of the things that really helped me save the deposit in the first place and then more recently continuing to save and overpay, was that anytime I got a promotion and a pay rise, I only allocated a bit to myself and sent the rest to savings as a direct debit on payday.  It means I never got used to having my actual salary (although I will miss my savings figure going up!).  Hopefully it means it'll be easier for me to adapt to having no income!

QueenJess

Definitely need to put my feet up this evening as I've had a very busy day today!  Absolutely knackered

Started the day right with a nice treat - some croissants from the freezer.  Everyone enjoyed those Then I decided to tackle the remainder of DS's room (i.e. toys).  I really have no idea how he has managed to accumulate so many toys... it is something to do with being the only grandchild on both sides and when he had his birthday last year we had a party.  He got a ridiculous amount of stuff then.

Anyway... we (DS and I) went through everything in his room and I managed to convince DS to get rid of some of the things he doesn't use anymore.  I then managed to move some of the toys from downstairs to upstairs.  Whilst I was at it, everything was fully cleaned out and the whole room cleaned from top to bottom.  I now keep going in there and staring at how beautiful it all looks!  

I was going to stop there, but DS was thoroughly enjoying himself and so stupidly I then decided to tackle the toys downstairs as well.  Everything was pulled out, cleaned, reorganised and some things put in the room of doom to get rid of.  It took forever!  The room of doom is even more awful than usual now!

Then I did a load of washing and put all the clean clothes away.  Next I made fairy cakes and an apple and blackberry (from our garden) crumble for pudding later.  Then we used our national trust membership to go on a lovely walk round some woods and gardens.  I printed off a sheet so me and DS ticked off as many different tree leaves as we could find on the way round.  Then DS found some puddles and had a lovely time getting himself absolutely soaked.  That made his day!

Back home and DS helped me ice the fairy cakes (not sure that his choice of green icing looks the most appetising!).  Dinner was fish and chips and DS opted for fairy cakes for pudding.  DH and I will have the crumble and custard a bit later when we have some room.

DH will herd DS to the bath soon and then it'll be his bedtime.  Definitely need a quieter day tomorrow!  I've completely spring cleaned my bedroom and DS's bedroom now.  Still got the living room (not much to do there though), kitchen/diner, study and the room of doom to go at some point.  That list gets progressively worse though!