A new royal start

QueenJess

Just realised I was 69p away from my next mortgage target.  Can't be having that, so I managed to find a couple of Qmee surveys and quickly cashed out.  So now I'm at £86,399.63.  Next target sub £86,350.

coldcazzie

QueenJess said:

Ha ha... is anything in life ever sorted?!   

Hmm... you may have a point there! 

QueenJess

Decided that I needed to do a bit less today than yesterday, but still get a few things done.

I did have a think about my eBay/charity pile of stuff that I need to clear in order to eventually sort out the study/room of doom.  I did manage to:

• Scan the few books in the pile into Ziffit as I just can't be bothered to sell them individually on eBay.  Just under £7 and they accepted all of them, so packaged them up ready to go.
• Actually put one item on eBay!
• Requested a free jiffy bag for some random jewellery in the pile from the Alzheimers charity.
• Looked up the nearest place to deposit clothes which can't go to a charity shop... may have to visit the supermarket car park to do this at a moment I think it'll be quiet (i.e. not the weekend).

After that I just couldn't be bothered to do anymore!  I definitely have to do this stuff in little bits as it is so dull.  Would be great to get all the rooms (bar possibly the room of doom) done by the end of the year.

Also did the usual washing and put away all the clean clothes.  I remembered to post my dad's card for his birthday next week too.  Meal planning is done for the week and the shopping list done.  Looks like a long list again unfortunately.  I think I've been buying too many treats and also pretty much used up my cupboard store.  It's looking pretty bare in there now.

Dinner was a treat - roast lamb with garlic and rosemary, veg, roast potatoes, parsnips and homemade yorkshire puddings.  Yum!  Extra yorkshire puddings for the freezer and extra lamb for the next two nights meals of course.  Pudding will be more of the apple and blackberry crumble with custard once we can squeeze it in.

Back to the grind tomorrow!

QueenJess

Urgh.. definitely have that Monday feeling.  Achieved absolutely nothing at all today.

It does just feel like I am counting down to the end of Jan at work.  If I was told I have x, y and z to get done by the end of Jan, then that would be fine.  At the moment they haven't worked it out and I never know if and when another piece of work will fall in my lap, so it is impossible to plan anything.  It's not a terribly efficient way to work and I find myself looking forward to it all finishing.  Thus far the work is not very challenging and not something I would want to do long term, which doesn't help.

The weekly shop was £95 😬.  Really need to try and cut back again.

Dinner was leftover lamb with rice, spices, veg and apricot.  DS was a total nightmare and there were tears and tantrums at the table because I had the audacity to cook it all in one pot and so there were "bits" (i.e. the stock cube) on the rice.  He point blank refused to eat the rice and then started to be stupid with the rest.  I swear he's only a pain when DH has to eat separately as he's on a call.  In the end I let him have toast, but insisted he eat the veg and lamb.

DS has been in a funny mood since I picked him up from nursery.  He fell over and scratched his face and bumped his head at nursery.  Apparently he didn't cry, wasn't very bothered and happily went off to play.  I know he is fine, but he likes to look sorry for himself as he knows he'll get more attention.

Pudding will be apple and blackberry crumble and custard later.  Tomorrow must be better than today by default!

MagicCat

Well done on the mortgage target, you get through them so quickly!

Your diary reminds me I need to tackle my son's bedroom at some point - he has a ridiculous number of toys, including a lot of half broken plastic tat inherited from his cousins every time SIL has a clear out (I tend to just donate anything usable and put the rest straight in the bin now but it's taken a while ). He's a nightmare to get him to get rid of anything though so I've been putting it off!

Hope Tuesday is going a bit better, it sounds really stressful not being able to plan work at the moment, sometimes doing nothing is worse than being busy!

QueenJess

MagicCat said:

Your diary reminds me I need to tackle my son's bedroom at some point - he has a ridiculous number of toys, including a lot of half broken plastic tat inherited from his cousins every time SIL has a clear out (I tend to just donate anything usable and put the rest straight in the bin now but it's taken a while ). He's a nightmare to get him to get rid of anything though so I've been putting it off!

Oh yes, the stuff seems to just breed doesn't it?!  My parents kept every toy, book and puzzle me and my sister ever had and so it all comes DS's way 😬.  I've started telling DS that he needs to decide to get rid of things otherwise he won't be able to get any new things for xmas/birthday.  Trying to train him young!

QueenJess

Felt like a better day today.  Lunchtime wins were:

• Made an eBay sale, so I packaged it up, paid for postage online and popped it in the letterbox.  Only £5, but it all helps and will go straight to mortgage OPs.
• Packaged up the nursery jumpers ready to return (wrong size.. *sigh*)
• Put all clean clothes away
• Some general tidying (the house is getting dangerously close to actually being tidy!!!!)
• Chasing up a refund which has not appeared on my account.

Got a few payouts today and am now frustratingly close to my next target... just need to find £10 from somewhere..🤔 Will see if I can click through a few surveys tonight to help.

Dinner was the last of the roast lamb as a stir fry.  Pudding for DS was banana and custard (I had too much custard to use up).  Pudding for me/DS will be a fight over who has the last piece of the apple and blackberry crumble and custard.  The loser will have to rummage in the freezer for a raspberry muffin...I can already guarantee I will be winning and eating that crumble later 

QueenJess

I'm not very happy with our food spends at the moment, so I decided to do a massive cupboard stock up in ASDA online.  Spent £90  but I am really hoping this then brings down our average weekly spends to something a bit more sensible.

I used to shop in ASDA before CV19, but after the panic buying and queues I got too stressed out about the whole thing and DH is tasked with the food shop (with a specific list of course!).  But he ditched ASDA because of the chaos that was there for a while and goes to a much more expensive shop instead.  He doesn't want to swap back as he is used to the more expensive one and we know the right times to go when it is basically empty and he likes the cleanliness of the store etc etc.

I'm sure I'll go back eventually, but for now I'm staying home as much as possible.  I'm not low risk and so I prefer not to take any risks that are not necessary.  Means I only leave the house for nursery drop off/pick up and walks, which is annoying, but I will just wait it out for now.

Anyway, this spend will take me over the monthly grocery amount so I will be back to a small negative balance.  Hopefully this works to bring the overall spend down though and then I can plan to do a monthly online stock up there and DH can continue buying the usual fresh stuff weekly.  I'm sure he'll be happy with a smaller list at least!

May try and plan the food next week a bit better and see if I can have a cheaper week to make up for the last couple of weeks.  Need to dig out some new recipes (and probably some old ones!).

QueenJess

Boring day today.  Mid-week slump.  Lunch time wins were:

• Contacted Ziffit as the drop off place couldn't scan the barcode.  They were really helpful and have arranged for someone to pick it up instead.
• Towels changed and washing done
• Flu vaccination booked for DS

Veggie night tonight.  Pizza and salad for dinner (jacket potato and beans for DS).  We are slumming it again with puddings until the weekend, so fruit & yogurt, muffins or plum cake from the freezer are on the cards for later.

May spend some of the evening browsing for some new cheap recipes for next week.  I know I saved some previously and should dig those out as well.  I also need to start braving the tedious car insurance renewal hoops that have to be jumped through every year 😔.

MagicCat

It's interesting what you say about the food, I used to shop at Aldi and it was definitely cheaper, we've been shopping online since lockdown and spending a lot more. I've been thinking of doing a monthly Aldi super shop for cupboard and freezer staples, then a couple of smaller top up shops for fresh stuff in the hope it will bring the bill down so will be interested to see how it works for you.