Pay off mortgage and start having even more fun 😁

newgirly

This one asks for a lottery ticket purchase £1 and then a donation, I only went for the 50p donation this time…

Grocery spending is currently at £101.91/£310 for the month, so I’ve spent a little more than should at this point and I need to get salad , milk, rolls and some strawberries or something for lunch as aunt and dd are coming over. I’m buying in m@s quite a bit now as it’s easy, most of what I buy is price matched, the things that I would pay more for - like feta in m@s instead of salad cheese in main supermarkets etc. I’m trying to get elsewhere. But I have to say our wastage has gone down massively since the last two moved out. I felt like there should be things more “to hand” like I’d buy a tray of blueberries and leave them in the fridge so others may eat them which they often didn’t so if ended up throwing a few as I’d forgot, now I’m washing on purchase day and freezing in tiny pouches for myself, plus I now buy carrots loose every few days, it feels so old fashioned 😁  so hopefully all this will be fine tuned as time goes on. I’m always out and about near shops so there’s no need for big shops which is were the waste often happened or the unhealthy stuff! 

Spent far too long last night trying to find a pdf i bought on etsy that was sent to an old email for some cake toppers I got  for dds birthday for dh to print out, only cost £1.66 and saves messing about resizing stuff. I shall just buy a tray of cupcakes instead of a big cake now and decorate with Pedro Pascals face which she will love 😆

KajiKita

I am totally relating to the getting-bigger, it-not-shifting, needing-a-whole-new-wardrobe thing ...

I have been spending money on new clothes for myself this year, especially underwear. BUT I can report that the effect of wearing clothes you like, in a size that fits, is a boost to confidence, a loss of the miserable self consciousness about not looking good at all (yes, I still look 'big' - to me - but better) and less guilt as all the small clothes are swept out of the wardrobe and out to the CS (or in your case V1nted)

KK

Jessy103

I was just catching up on celebrity gogglebox and they were watching a documentary on Netflix called the poop cruise and it was a ship where the toilets had stopped working! I couldn't help but think of you NG and thought 'Gosh, I hope NG never gets a poop cruise!' 🤞🤣

newgirly

Hi KK, thank you 😊 it’s hard now sometimes as it feels like “giving in” but especially with vinted it gives the option of easily selling and buying the same thing smaller or larger. Glad you feel better in the new clothes 🙂

Jessy my dd insisted I watched that program as she knows how much I love cruises and thinks it’s funny 😆 I watched almost all of it, gross! To be honest I was put off way before all the issues as it looked like my idea of a nightmare cruise with thousands of lively drunk people partying 🤣

Aunt visited yesterday, plus dd which was nice. She’s throwing herself and her friends a severance themed birthday party tomorrow so I’m dropping round a lot of printing dh has done first thing so she can get ready for it. Will be popping to the shops as usual and will get a bit of top up shopping and some cupcakes for dds birthday as well as sending off another vinted parcel, a pair of jeggings for £3 this time. 

It looks like the heat is ramping up again 😩 so not much will be happening this weekend for me except a bit of washing and dd and family coming for tea and birthday cake, we may have to visit the in-laws too as it’s fil’s birthday. Mil had insisted that everyone comes for his birthday party again this year but she rang yesterday and didn’t mention it so maybe it’s not happening now, i’m unsure of when it was going to be. He was very very unpleasant to dd on her last visit 😒 so I’m not exactly keen, it will probably end up being dh and I popping over for an hour instead. 

newgirly

So glad it’s started to cool down a bit this evening, yesterday was a nightmare 🥵  I spent hours helping dd get ready for her party ,cleaning the flat and decorating etc. hopefully it went well I’ve not heard from her today, must be hungover 😆 dh has been at work but came home at a reasonable hour so went to a pub on the outskirts of town for a quick drink, I drove past ds2 just leaving work so messaged him and he came too as dil was working late, so that was a bonus 😊
 Also did all the washing and popped to town for a quick coffee with best friend, then visited my parents after their Isle of Wight trip.They enjoyed it and apparently the hotel was fantastic and new but very expensive, plus they said some of the towns they visited were a bit  run down which is a shame. I’ve never been but it’s somewhere I’d like to visit 🙂

South_coast

I occasionally have thoughts of visiting all of the islands around Britain - but I think there may be rather a lot of them 😬!

Watty1

South_coast said:

I occasionally have thoughts of visiting all of the islands around Britain - but I think there may be rather a lot of them 😬!

oh what a splendid idea.  Off to goggle the islands (for personal reasons I'll leave the Scottish ones aside as a start).

newgirly

Indeed but it would make for a very interesting blog though sc - do it so we can follow you 😁

I’d like to do a Scottish road trip (not in our electric car mind) we took dd when she was two for a few nights to visit an great aunt who lived on a caravan park on the shores of Loch Lomond, stunning ❤️  That’s another one to add to the list, along with a world cruise which no doubt we will never do as they are so long, plus I don’t want to fly more than a few hours now 😆 

I can’t help feeling a bit like this is not what I thought mf life would be like at the moment. I guess the money still has places to go and the factory needs renting out so we are on half the income, we need to work out a plan of when dh will retire and I’m not really sure where to start. Much is up in the air, I’m trying to find the balance between retiring on a small amount and being frugal or dh working for longer and doing more, when pressed on this it seems he’s wanting to retire early but also would like to have money to do more , so I’m non the wiser! I’ve tried to ask him to sit down and go though everything so we can work out a plan, but the timing is bad as he’s busy and stressed and to be honest not that interested. 

It’s probably better for me to work out a few different scenarios and see which he thinks he would prefer. I know roughly his pension pot from work, is around £58k while mines about £4K 🤣 so hardly money we can retire on, so it’s a matter of how much do we need to save for void periods when renting the factory and should we just live off the rent being more frugal or does he work longer and we do more travel and spending on stuff, he’s 53 this year. Perhaps a bit of both? 

He’s now giving his equipment and jobs to someone he knows nearby who has a unit, the guy will give him a small percentage of work he has taken over and also said he’s happy for dh to use his unit and work there when he wants. This initially caused tension with me as I don’t want him working weekends in the future, however longer term it might well be a good idea, if he does retire he can potter around there doing bits of work which I think will keep him happy 🙂 lots to think about! 

Anyway, enough waffle I’m off to have some lovely yellow stickered sourdough toast for breakfast 😊

newgirly

I’m sorry to wish summer away, but I’m sick of this weather I want cool crisp mornings and pumpkin lattes 😩 I’m feeling quite fed up today with no real reason except I’m missing having a house full and dh is never here and when he is he’s asleep in front of the tv ☹️ 


What to do to rectify this I wonder? I think perhaps I need a slap about the chops and a to do list for the week! 

Ring hospital and book blood check as self tested and it’s haywire, will go tomorrow 

Start diet, nothing happening with that lately and I’m overeating 😩

meal plan for the week 

carry on with bedroom renovation, so far I’ve cleared and cleaned and primed the window sill 😒

visit gym twice 

Go to dentist and hygienist 

log into girls cruise booking check in and get arrival slot 

give whole house (except 2 messy bedrooms full of stuff still ) a good clean 

Stop procrastinating and work out where to start with retirement planning and budgeting 

Ring great aunt and see how she is

declutter at least one black sack of stuff 

Tidy garden as much as I’m able without touching cobwebs 🤣


That’s I I think for now 😊

South_coast

Could you and DH set up some kind of business together? Something very tiny that you could pick up and put down whenever you want, where you wouldn't be reliant on the money but it could pay for a few treats? Off the top of my head, I'm thinking something like making things that you could sell at boot fairs or craft markets etc