MeandO's money-shuffling

MeandO

A lovely lady collected the items she wanted and the rest has now filled the boot of the car and is ready to be donated. I went round the house and pulled a few more bits out of cupboards that can go too.

I've emptied the bins that needed emptying, put some cleaner down the sink as I can still smell the drain/plughole smell in the kitchen 🤢 and picked the wet towels and a couple of DS's hoodies off the line that I put out to dry earlier as it looks like rain now.

MeandO

Hello all,

I'm feeling a bit wobbly today. I won't to go into detail, but yesterday turned into a really distressing afternoon with DS and it will take me a while to process much of it and put it to bed. I'm really trying to move forward today but I do feel like I've had the stuffing knocked out of me, so apologies for any vagueness and potentially boring posts to follow, I just need to concentrate on the day to day normality of doing jobs and trying not to dwell on things.

___

The second load of washing is spinning and will join the first load on the line shortly. It's a good drying day so will hopefully be all dry by this afternoon. I can see the bottom of the washing basket again.

The recycling has been sorted and bins taken out and washed out. I emptied a few bottles of near-empty booze that had been sat in my utility room for a long time. I rarely drink, it is not mine, but stuff that has acquired either from people gifting it to me (despite not being a drinker) or from OH bringing it over. OH would have a fit if he saw what I threw down the drain today, but I'm on a mission lately to free up space and make the house work for me/us, so I'm getting a bit ruthless at returning things to their owners (OH) or throwing stuff we don't want/use. There's a rather large, catering sized ice maker that has been in my utility room for over a year now which belongs to OH, most likely he got it free from work. He uses it in the summer, but seriously, the same outcome can be had by filling an ice cube tray or some ice bags without taking all that room and electricity up! It's going back to his this weekend which he will probably get arsey with me about, it but he has a large house for 1, I have a small house for 2.

Shoes have been tidied away and another hoody (which I originally bought from a charity shop but wasn't that comfortable in) has been added to the charity shop bag. I dropped all the stuff off at the shop this morning, so my car boot is now empty. I tried to do it yesterday but they had a 'no more donations today' sign up when I drove there after work. I'm enjoying the tidiness of the box room although didn't get round to tackling the 'list it' pile so it's still piled up on my bedroom floor.

Yesterday I picked up yet more groceries as we had run out of fruit & yogurts again with DS eating like a horse lately. Whilst there, I made a point of buying in some more dry, tinned and long life items to put away as per recent advice so ended up spending a lot more than planned, but reached the 'challenge' threshold on the supermarket loyalty app and claimed £4 back which will go towards Christmas grocery savings. There's £28 saved in there so far. I also received a 5p off per litre fuel voucher so will wait until the car is running on empty again before using that and filling the tank.

We've been asked to join friends in the pub this evening as one is celebrating their birthday. It will be lovely to see them all and I enjoy it when we get together, but it's really the last thing I feel like doing this evening if I'm being honest. DS will be at his Dad's and I just want to be in my little house on my own tonight with no TV, no noise, a candle lit and reading my book. OH will take offence if I say that to him though.

Anyway, what will be will be. For now, the washing is calling to be let outside…

Have a lovely Thursday all xx

debtfreewannabe321

It's okay to put yourself first and say no. As i have been told time and time again 'No' is a complete sentence. although I usually prefer to say, I am not up to it today, very sorry (slightly softer approach). And i will leave it at that.

So sorry you had a bad day yesterday with DS. I don't need to ask details, I had enough of these myself with two hormonal sons that I could take a guess as to why you're so upset. Big hugs to you and well done for throwing the booze away, at first I thought you meant you'd drunk it after a bad day (no judgement here for that either i have been there and done that too!)

ArtyJ931

Absolutely agree. Do what you need to do to recover. Nobody will give it a second's thought.

MeandO

Thank you DFW321 & ArtyJ931, you are both so right. I did meet friends in the end as I actually felt like seeing people after a busy few hours of school related meetings and a grumpy OH, but only went for an hour or so. I think it did me good actually as I got the chance to sit and chat with 3 other lovely (female) friends whilst the men went off and watched sports and I really enjoyed their company.
I was tired afterwards, but didn't sleep at all well. I stayed at OH's as his is within walking distance to the pub, but got up and left at around 5am and came home as I was wide awake and just wanted my own bed (without listening to someone else snore!). I drove home in my pyjamas and jacket! 😆 I slept for a few hours then so at least some sleep was had.

It's pay day today and I've shuffled money to the relevant savings pots, the first month of lesser amounts now for most after altering the budget to cover everything. 😕 I ordered a gift for a friend's birthday last night. Their birthday isn't until January but I spotted a gift that was made for them so bought it and deducted money from the gifts account. At least that's sorted now.

The backpay was lovely to see but has already gone or been allocated to pay for things.😫 I've set aside the UC equivalent for next month out of it and the rest has gone to paying down the 'debt.' (I'm calling it debt as it motivates me more to pay it off, but it's a collection of amounts that I need to save for/pay for or allow for within the next year). That's now at £3760.22 from an original amount of £5755.68. I am hoping to clear it all by the end of April which will be a big challenge. I will be able to pay a lump sum of £600 off of it in December and I have budgeted just under £150 a month to throw at it, so there will be around £2152.78 to find or make by then to cover it. I'm not sure how I'm going to do it but I will try my utmost.

I've requested a refund for a couple of items that I ordered but were damaged with £10.66 refunded to my CC. I'll send that amount to the 'debt' once I receive it back as it was money I didn't expect to have.

I've earmarked a few other clothing items for charity/to list yesterday after trying things on as a lot is now too big. I haven't mentioned it on here but I have been tracking my food, eating well and have lost quite a bit of weight over the past month to six weeks. I am trying to ease the pressure on my joints and get to a healthy weight for the first time in years. I am around 20lb from my target presently and am feeling better in myself for losing weight but I can't say it's helping my symptoms yet. Fingers crossed it will soon.

Mrs_Money_Penny

Happy pay day. Well done on the weight loss it’s so hard to loose weight. Glad you enjoyed your evening out. It’s always good when it turns out better than you were expecting. I’m trying to sort through my wardrobe have lots of things I never wear.Will get them on this afternoon. x

MeandO

Thank you and good luck with the decluttering, Mrs_Money_Penny. :)

Since posting I have tackled the piles of clothing earmarked to list and just have one bundle left to do now. It is the biggest bundle, but I'll lay them all out on the lounge floor later and photograph them. I also listed a couple of items I had planned to give to charity but will see if they bring in a fiver or so before I fill another bag and take it to donate. Ah, just spotted 3 items hanging on the back of the door I forgot about, so will list those as a bundle too.

I've taken some YS salmon out of the freezer for OH and I later (and crossed it off my freezer inventory so I keep track of what we have). I've just had notification of a new CB offer with 'Floyds' bank for 5% cashback with Asd& for anyone who banks with 'Floyds' and shops at Asd&. It's multiple use, instore or online, but needs to be activated in the 'Offers' section of the app first. I will pick up more fruit, yogurt and eggs (AGAIN!) and anything else we've run out of from there at some point to get some cashback at the same time. I'll send the CB to the 'debt' when it materialises. :)

MeandO

Happy Saturday all,

Shopping was £38.72 last night and a further£18.20 this morning on things I couldn’t find yesterday and some ingredients for baking tomorrow. OH came with me last night and I paid for his shopping too and he transferred the money so that I could reap the cash back reward and also earned £2 in my ‘cash pot’ via the supermarket app. :) I thought my shopping seemed a lot cheaper than expected and, upon inspection of my receipt this morning, it seems that the huge pack of (12?) chicken breasts I bought reduced to £9 and the mince reduced to £3.43 had actually been scanned at 90p and 34p! I’m going to round that saving up with the refund I mentioned yesterday and send it to the debt. It’s around £23 I would have expected to spend anyway.

I’m currently sat with a coffee, reading for a while before DS gets back. Not many jobs to do today, other than try to cut the grass later if it’s dry enough and dead head and tidy up a few pots out the front. Then perhaps some more reading and relaxing! Sounds like bliss! X

MeandO

I forgot to mention, one of the dresses I listed on eBay sold for £5 yesterday so will send that fiver to the debt too when it clears. I’ve wrapped the parcel up and will post it tomorrow.

Mrs_Money_Penny

Glad your having a relaxing day you so deserve one. I sold a dress as well £3 it all helps hope some of the others go.

I have a night to myself as well. I may watch a film this evening. x