MeandO's money-shuffling

WinterWeather

Hope you had a fab Christmas, sending hugs across the miles for a happy & peaceful New Year xx

debtfreewannabe321

Also popping by to see if all's okay @MeandO 💖 I hope you have had a good Christmas.

Chrystal

Hoping that you are OK?  Thinking of you.  XXXXX

Chrystal

Thinking of you and hoping that you are OK.  XXXX

liltdiddylilt

Hi Me&O - haven’t read back… but I wanted to pop here & say hi & I love you bunches, before starting a dreaded dfw diary of my own. ❤️ 

I’ll be back. But I’m juggling so many balls, spinning some serious plates & scatty as ever. So it may be a minute! 🙈 xxx

MeandO

Hello lovely people,

I’m so sorry for the radio silence of the past 2.5 months. Thank you for all your posts and checking in on me, I feel bad for causing concern with my absence.
Thankfully, nothing major occurred, I just haven’t been feeling too well off and on, had a few things to work through and took a step back from some parts of life to just ‘be’ for a while. It’s been a bit of a strange time and is hard to describe but I really felt the need to almost hibernate from the World for a while and now feel like I’ve ‘reset’ somewhat. I feel in a completely different mindset about several things compared to last year, perhaps it’s the anti-d meds. They’ve really helped me with the anxiety, worry and constant crying and now I’m (mostly) chilled, laid back, don’t stress with the small stuff and rarely ever cry, in fact I seem a bit hard nosed at times! 🤣 I also LOVE being in my little house, enjoying my own space and chilling out. I rarely get bored like I used to AND in big news for me, I didn’t get upset over Christmas AT ALL. It’s the first time in 13 years that I have been able to get through Christmas without major upset over DS. I just accepted things for the way they were, relaxed and moved on. It was so freeing. The situation with the ex has also eased, not in that his behaviour has improved, but in the way I am dealing with it. I have accepted I can’t change that for DS and I am choosing to keep necessary contact friendly and allow DS to make his own observations and tackle his own issues with his father himself unless he asks me to step in. I have taken a step back and let a lot of things go for both mine and DS’s wellbeing.

I’ll stop waffling now and update on the finances….

Christmas was completely covered and paid for from the gifts pot. For the first time ever I had saved enough to cover everything, despite spoiling DS and OH. I have just about managed to cover their birthdays, both within the next month, but that pot is now down to a minimum and will be built again up over this year.

My parents very kindly gifted me some money at Christmas time which I paid straight off the mortgage, adding 99p to round it down to exactly £48,800, so total OPs this year so far are at £300.99. I was planning on OPing to try and reach the 10% again this year but I have around £670 on the credit card that I need to pay off first. This has been built up in the last couple of weeks on spends on improving our home (something I have been thinking of doing for a couple of years but kept putting off for fear of spending money). I also bought a new bed base for DS as his old one started creaking loudly whenever he moved. A mattress topper (reduced from £89 to £50) has been ordered to make my bed more comfortable as I am realising the importance of good sleep and how much it affects my emotions. I have also ordered one for my parents as my Mum is in constant pain and I’m hoping this may help her a little. They don’t know about that yet otherwise they would try and pay for it, but I will gift it to them when I see them and not tell them the price. 😉 I need to pick these up tomorrow, hopefully they will be worth the money or they will be returned. The last spend on the card was a weekend away for OH and I next month as his birthday gift. I have the money in savings to clear the card now if I had to, but as it’s 0% I will pay it off over the next month or two. I have already paid off £600+ this month, reducing it from £1300+. Once it’s cleared, everything will then be thrown at the mortgage OPs again.

The last few months have made me realise that I was possibly being too hard on myself with regards to not spending and saving money and I was almost forgetting to live for the now. Whilst I have no intention of running up debts, I am relaxing a little and finding more of a balance between saving and spending and making the most of our lives. I have even been looking at taking DS on holiday for a week this summer and have given him several options which I would have jumped at at his age, but he doesn’t want to go! He said he would prefer to stay home, go see the family for a week and just stay local with his friends, so he has saved me a small fortune! I am a little disappointed but also relieved not to have to travel far and all the stress and planning that comes with that. DS finds travelling quite tiring which I understand, so I have suggested we either look at a last minute deal nearer the time or just do a weekend away here and there. He is going abroad with school at Easter time and I believe his father is planning on a week somewhere in the summer, so he won’t be missing out. He may also have another sports competition, much like last year’s, which will involve him playing for his country again if he is selected. It is closer to home this year so travel costs should be a lot less. It’s also in the summer hols so will take up a week of that.

Today I’ve been busy shifting furniture round the house, ‘shopping from home’ and re-purposing a large ikea book/shelving unit which we’ve had for several years, from downstairs in what was the playroom (now a lounge), up to DS’s bedroom. It’s provided much more storage for him and looks great in his room, he’s chuffed! His old bed has been donated and is being collected tomorrow and I’ve listed another piece of storage furniture for sale as it’s now not needed in his room. I’ve put his new bed together and attached the headboard, cleaned the walls down behind the cupboards and wiped all the window frames upstairs as they had started to go black in places. New windows are still on the list but I can’t afford them for the foreseeable. The condensation has been driving me nuts over the winter, but I try and run the dehumidifier as much as possible in DS’s room which does help.

I am making a conscious effort to reduce our food bill and keep within my £350 a month budget. This includes all cleaning and household products too - any household consumables, basically. We never have takeaways, it’s been years since I ordered a takeaway and we very rarely eat out, probably once every couple of months and then it’s always somewhere inexpensive. I always cook from scratch and don’t buy convenience foods so have been trying to find the best options for fruit, veg and fresh produce which is value for money and doesn’t go off as soon as I get it in the house. I always split up packs of meat, sausages etc and portion them before freezing so am not sure what else to do to save money whilst feeding DS good, healthy meals and boy, can he eat at the moment! This month I am experimenting with buying grocery gift cards online via a perk I have access to at work. A £150 supermarket (Asd@) card has cost me £144 and I am using it up gradually as I normally would spend there. I am also trying really hard to only buy what is on my list and to only go to the supermarket when we really NEED items, rather than just popping in a picking up things that weren’t planned for. Online orders worked really well in the latter past of last year and I was saving money by not going to supermarkets very often, but my free promotional delivery period ended and I found the prices of items were gradually creeping up so it wasn’t such a good option anymore.

I’m also trying to make the most of the peak saver Sundays and save washing/drying/cooking/hoovering etc to Sundays when I can. It’s not a lot, but the app tells me I’ve saved nearly £7 doing so over the past few months so it’s better than nothing,

I’m also keeping up with the AVCs too monthly at around the £250 mark. It’s difficult and I do have to balance the budget more carefully but I’m hoping future me will thank me.

Right, my bed is calling… I just need to say, LILTY - it’s so wonderful to ‘see’ you back! It’s never been the same without you. 💓I’ll catch up with your diary soon when my eyes will stay open, I’m struggling now!

Lots of love to you all x

Mrs_Money_Penny

So lovely to hear from you. Glad you are feeling better. x

RedLipstick

Good to see you back. We've all been thinking of you and manifesting all the peace to come your way, so it's good to read such a positive update. Well done and again, welcome back! x

Newstartforme

So lovely to hear from you , you sound so calm and positive, really has made my day to know you are doing well , well done on your lovely Christmas, it can be a tough time of year as well for some xx

MeandO

Oh aren't you just the loveliest lot. 💕 Thank you Mrs_Money_penny, RedLipstick and Newstartforme, your thoughtfulness and kind words really touched me this morning. I think your manifestation worked, RedLipstick as I do feel 'at Peace' about a lot of things that previously were a major cause of anxiety.
You are all so kind, thank you. xx

So, onto today…

The furniture donation has just been collected by a lovely lady, I'm glad it was of use to someone and hasn't gone to waste.

I've contacted a(nother) roofer about the (still) leaky kitchen roof. OH had a go at fixing it which helped for a while but unfortunately didn't solve the problem. Fingers crossed this guy can fix it for a reasonable price. I also need him to look at another little leak which showed up in the last bad storm but hasn't happened since. OH has contacted a recommended company to get some quotes for new windows for his house so I have asked them to quote on replacing the worst one for me too, we'll see how affordable or out of the question that will be.

One load of washing has been done and dried in the TD as the weather is 'orrible. A few of the items were for the charity shop bag I've been filling, but I like to wash them first. I now have a full black bag plus a few odd items that won't fit in there so I'll take those to the shop this week and get it out of my way.
After having a lot of new clothes for Christmas, DS sorted out loads of things that were too small for him or that he wouldn't wear now and I have been slowly selling the branded items on vinted for him. He's had over £100 from this which he's put into his savings account with just a few things left that remain unsold at the moment. Some other bits have gone to charity already. I have slowly been working through the house again, getting rid of things we no longer need or want and donating or selling bits. It's quite cathartic and it's nice to feel like we don't have too much 'stuff' taking up space. Next on my list are three small 'drawers of doom' in the utility room which have all sorts of random junk in them - elastic bands, blue tack, fixings, spare keys etc. They're a mess and I would like to get rid of what is not needed and tidy them up a bit. The under sink cupboard needs doing in there too, so that room will be the next and probably last to tackle, other than the shed which will have to wait until nicer weather. I know there's not much junk in there though but I can think of a few things that can go such as old garden toys etc.

Ooh, I have just looked out of my window and have seen my first daffodil of the year in a neighbour's garden over the road. A welcome sign that spring will soon be springing. 🌺🏵️