A new royal start

QueenJess

Still not feeling brilliant today (although better than yesterday), so not much achieved today.  I did manage to do some tidying and finish the shopping list for tomorrow though.  The list still looks long to me, so not sure it will be as cheap as I am hoping.  I looked into booking a flu spray thing for DS as I had a letter from the NHS, but our local doctors don't have them in yet.

As I was sat around, I did more surveys and cashed out another £5.  Also got a reply from my fruit/veg box people as I had a melon which was so overripe it was water and I had to compost it.  Never had a problem in about 7 years of using them and I'm not usually one to complain but thought I should as they are expensive and I think they genuinely would care and want to know.  Got a small credit on my account which will help for the next order I make (not this week).  Got DH to cook dinner, which was leftover roast chicken with chips and veg (so easy peasy).  Puddings you can take your pick right now, homemade biscuits, plum cake, ice cream, lemon drizzle cake, chocolate chip muffins...!

Hopefully, I will achieve something tomorrow... still need to clear up the garden (which I've been putting off).  Also need to do some cleaning.  I keep thinking about writing a list of things to do, but I think it'll be too overwhelming, so I'm picking bits off each day and hoping it gets small enough!

QueenJess

Feeling a bit better today, but still have the same headache I’ve had since Sunday.  It’s quite irritating.  Not pushed myself too much today as a result.

Did a load of washing, tidied some of the house and done some more surveys etc.  Dinner was the last of the leftover roast chicken as a casserole with still a big pudding collection available (choc chip muffins, lemon drizzle cake, plum cake and ice cream) or DS’s favourite biscuits he is still chomping through.  I have my eye on the last unfrozen piece of lemon drizzle later tonight 

DH was too busy today, so is doing the food shopping tomorrow.  Even he has commented that the list is long, so fingers crossed I can keep it under £100 (preferably £80…).

In other news, I am finally down to the 200’s in the mortgage!  Now at £88.293.47.  Next stop below £88,250 hopefully.  Just another £44 to find from somewhere.

I have also decided to net off the very small joint emergency fund I was starting to build up against my food pot.  So as long as I don’t spend more than is on the gift card (about £250) for the rest of the month, I will pretty much be back in the black.  Building up an emergency fund for the joint account (this is separate from my own personal emergency fund and will just be for if something breaks in the house) is on the list after sorting out these negatives and building up enough to pay for a new bed for DS in the Jan sales.

Already not looking forward to October as I have a feeling it’s going to be a very spendy month, with lots of things coming up (like car service, insurance, MoT and a bunch of other things).  Plus end of my employment.  As a result, I’m trying to be very stingy this month so we hopefully have more funds for next month.  Still not spent anything this month apart from usual bills, but then we are only halfway through the month and I will need petrol at some point.

Boo.  Just got an email from my energy provider and they are raising their prices by approximately £9 a month.  I would love to get some solar panels on our house (the garden is South facing) and use our own electricity (we don’t have gas), but DH thinks they look ugly and won’t agree.  Don’t have the money to do it anyway at the moment or the imminent future… will try and grind him down over the next 5 years…  Perhaps the tipping point will be when I get my next car as it might be an electric one by then?  I only replace my car when it is suitable only for scrap.  Probably at least another 5+ years to go.  But then I don’t have a spare cupboard for all the stuff I think they install.  Definitely one for the long term plans..

Also, I still really need to get outside and do some gardening..

I asked DS earlier what he wanted to do when he was older.  He said "cuddle mummy and play".  Little cutie! 

QueenJess

I felt like I did quite a bit today without actually achieving anything at all… must cross some things off the list tomorrow.

I did, however, clean out the main bit of the fridge whilst DH was out food shopping as it was the emptiest it was ever going to be.  Spent £90 this week on shopping!  Still below £100, but more expensive than I think it should have been.  Did have to buy a few one-off things like flour etc though.  Will have to analyse the receipt tomorrow and see what cost so much.  Need a cheap week next week.

Also phoned my parents for a while as not spoken to them for a bit.  Not much money-making activity today.  Back to it again tomorrow.

Had homemade pizza and salad tonight.  DS had jacket potato and beans as he doesn’t like pizza (strange child).  Still got tons of pudding options floating around the freezer, so not making anything until much later in the week now.  Must make some more flapjacks though as DH is starting to munch through the expensive oaty bars again.

Got some leftover tomato pizza sauce and not sure what to do with it.  Since it’s just tomato really, I might try it with pasta for lunch tomorrow.

Started soaking some beans to try and grow my own beansprouts for stir-fries.  Not done it before, so should be fun.

QueenJess

Not done a huge amount today.  Also not been busy at work and so been feeling a bit lost this week.  Not entirely sure what to do with myself.  Not sure how I’m going to cope come November with no job.  Might have to make a new routine for my days.

Anyway, I did manage to squeeze a bit more out of the budget and reduce the mortgage down to £88,235.97!  Next aim will be in the 100’s.  Would be over the moon if I managed to get into 87k before the end of September, but it isn’t realistic.  I did also do some surveys etc, so hopefully, I can cash out again soon.

Actually spent some money today!  Realised that DS’s vitamins were running low.  You can only get them in H&B, but courtesy of the MSE discount code, I got them ordered at a discount and free delivery for £16.5ish.  I got 8 months worth and 3 large packs of dried fruit for the flapjacks (only the ones which are actually cheaper… most seem more expensive than the supermarket in H&B).

No cleaning today, but I finally rechecked the library books I’ve had out since forever for DS.  Library still isn’t open so they have auto-renewed the books until 2 November.  One thing less to worry about for the moment.

I think I need to write a list of the things I need to do before I leave my job.  I’ve hunted down most of the things I need to give back, but I need to download the most recent payslips and probably lots of other things to think about.  I need to consider also how much to put on the supermarket gift card before I go as it is a 4% discount.  I would max it out, but the maximum is £2.5k!!!!!!  Will have to think about that as there isn’t too much room in the budget at the moment.  I also have another staff discount which I should use before I leave… I think that’ll be another October job.  October is going to be expensive!

Made myself and DH pasta with leftover tomato sauce and salad from yesterday’s pizza and leftover cherry tomatoes for lunch.  It was really yummy!  Tonight was smoked haddock in a cheese sauce, mashed potatoes and peas.  I used to make it all the time and don’t know why I forgot about this recipe.  It’s lovely!  Still eating our way through the various desserts - might have a fruit salad and yogurt later.  I have my eye on making a crumble over the weekend.  Love a good crumble.

Whilst DH puts DS to bed, I may tackle a couple of items to put on eBay.  Interestingly no takers for the ones I put up last week.  In the past, the same items went really quickly.  Not sure whether it is slow for eBay at the moment or if people have abandoned second hand for new stuff.  Saying that the things I had up are actually new…  who knows.  May check the pricing to see if they are being sold much cheaper.

Must achieve more tomorrow… maybe I should actually start a to-do list!  Been too scared to as I bet it is enormous.

South_coast

Is the supermarket gift card through a third-party website/app? I've *cough* used the app for my old company discounts since I finished, I'm set up on it with my personal email address so I don't know how they'd know whether you were still working there or not? 

QueenJess

South_coast said:

Is the supermarket gift card through a third-party website/app? I've *cough* used the app for my old company discounts since I finished, I'm set up on it with my personal email address so I don't know how they'd know whether you were still working there or not? 

Ah yes - it is a third party site for the supermarket gift card one and I think I've logged into it on my personal computer before. I'm sure they are probably poor at removing people from the list, but I probably don't want to rely on that!

They just moved to a new system and new site for it. Not sure if that makes it more or less likely they would remove me?

South_coast

Only one way to find out 😀

QueenJess

Tried to be a bit more efficient today and get a few things actually done!

• Washing done and hung out
• Beds changed
• Flapjacks made
• General tidying
• A few surveys etc done.

Another spend day today.  I’ve been looking for a planter to go on my windowsill in the kitchen for months now.  Finally found one I liked on eBay and so decided to order it.  It’s not particularly cheap and if I had anything more than 0% DIY skills, I would attempt something myself.  However, it is a perfect size and I will finally be able to re-pot my basil plants and grow a third type of basil.  Who doesn’t need three different basil plants for cooking?!  Love basil

I refuse to feel bad about it as I have literally bought nothing all month and bought very little in general in the last few months.  I also need some large plant pots for some ginger I had leftover from the supermarket that I tried planting.  Both bits are growing well, but I need outer pots as they are currently on a massive tray I want to take back out to the shed.  If anyone knows anywhere online that doesn’t cost a fortune, then let me know!

My beansprout beans are sprouting already, even though I “sowed” them only last night.  Not sure what word to use since you throw them in a jar… I guess sowing is as good as any!  Hopefully, I will be able to use them in a stir fry next week

For lunch I made a tomato and basil soup for me and DH, partly to use up some creme fraiche (which I then completely forgot to add to the soup…).  Still got another 5 portions   Dinner was cottage pie, with an extra meal’s worth in the freezer.  Puddings are still all the same choices.  1/3 of my freezer space seems to be desserts at the moment.  Really need to get through some of them before I make too much more!  I think I’ll be down to making one dessert a week until we work through some of the backlog!

Need to start to think about meal planning for next week.  I also really need to start using the slow cooker again.  For some reason, I find it difficult to find recipes I want to make in it.  Need to have a closer look at that.

Anyway, nearly the weekend - yay!  I refuse to “work” at the weekend and will be spending time with DH and DS.  No cleaning or surveys needed (unless I want to!).

QueenJess

Not much done today as I'm really tired.  Did get some washing done and hung up though.  Also spent some time playing with DS who has been very clingy today.  Did the odd survey earlier.

Dinner was fish and chips (which DH cooked) and pudding is fruit salad and yogurt.  Bit of TV later and then off to bed early.  Rock and roll!

Bargainhunter30

Have you thought about Matched betting and casino offers for some extra tax free cash? I use Team profit and TeamCasino websites to guide me through but my friend uses ProfitAccumulator. They work the same and tell you step by step what to do. I've made over 3k since November (people make loads more with extra time and effort, I haven't put loads of either in). Definitely worth a look at. Its funded our home improvements and OP's this year. Good luck and enjoy some time off x