MeandO's money-shuffling

MeandO

Hope you enjoyed your film, Mrs_Money_Penny. X

DS’s sport fees that I thought would cost £26.99 a month are only £9.99 this month, so there’s £17 ‘spare’ that I’d allocated to it. I’ve sent that and the £5 eBay money towards the debt, so a nice unexpected payment of £22 towards it this evening. 🙂

MeandO

Morning all, Monday again already.

Yesterday was a poor health day with high levels of exhaustion and pain in the afternoon/evening. I'd achieved most of what I wanted to get done though so I mostly rested instead of meeting friends as we had planned to do.
I was glad to get the grass cut last week as I wouldn't have been able to get it done if I'd left it to the weekend thanks to the weather. The garden looks so much tidier once the lawn has been mowed. I still need to weed the pots out the front, will try and get that done this week. I hoovered through the house at the weekend too and all the washing was done yesterday during the half price electricity hours. I also did some 'half price cooking' and made a plum strudel cake from a recipe I found in a magazine. It tasted as good as it sounds!

The ex has got the CM payment wrong this month, reducing it a month early which I knew he would do. It's strange how he 'forgets' to change it when the amount goes up, but he's a month early when it goes down. I've text him to let him know, to be fair to him he has sent the shortfall over straight away.

I've taken chicken out of the freezer to make food for DS this evening, hopefully it'll make (and last!) for more than one portion as the frozen batch cooked meals have pretty much all been used up. I've picked up more squash, milk, eggs, bottled water (for school & sports - it's cheaper than DS buying it and he always loses reusable bottles!) and snacks for DS this morning as we had almost run out.

No more interest on any of the ebay items. :( I've posted the one sale today. Vinted keep coming back with the same AI response to my ongoing complaint with them. They never respond directly, it's always a generic reply. 😡Awful, awful customer service.

I bought a Christmas present at the weekend for OH, spending £19.99 from the 'Gifts' savings pot. We have agreed not to spend much on each other this year and to just put the money towards a weekend away instead, so I'll pick him up a few little treats and that will be it.

The car was running on fumes so I filled up this morning using the 5p off per litre voucher I had. That took £70 of petrol down to £68, so a £2 saving. I'll send it on over to the debt. Every little bit helps. :)

Not much else to report, hope everyone has a lovely week. xx

MeandO

Morning lovelies,

Yesterday was a reasonably nice day until about 9pm when I discovered mice have made it back into my utility room cupboard in the last day or two. 😒 I sealed the hole I thought they were coming in last year but OH came and helped me empty the cupboard again (I was too scared!) and we found a hole around a pipe where they may be getting in. I'm not paying the pest control people £100+ again so we gloved up, threw most of the contents away, disinfected and OH brought some bait to put down. I've bought wire wool this morning to put around the hole and then I'll fill it. Today I need to put the utility room back together and throw some of the half used tins of paint that I pulled out of the cupboard and store the rest that needs to be kept in the shed, covered, to try and stop the cold affecting it. The utility room needs ripping out, it's made up of old (30 years plus) kitchen units re-purposed by previous owners and it's in a bit of a state, but I can't afford it and won't be able to for some years unfortunately.

Still no interest on the ebay items. :( OH said I can use his 'minted' account to list the items we would like to sell. He has only used the account once or twice and was going to close it but said we may as well use it to generate some £'s and get rid of the pile of stuff I have to sell. FB marketplace hasn't worked either.

Another load of washing is on and will go on the line to dry as it's windy out today, hopefully no rain forecast. I've used the last of the fabric softener this morning so will need to put that on the list.
The dishwasher was put on a hot wash with a bottle of dishwasher cleaner in last night, so that's now sparkling. Shame it's not that easy to clean the bathroom! That's next on the 'to do' list

Whilst picking up wire wool this morning (and yet MORE yogurts as DS has eaten all but one already!), &sda had some good reductions on houseware items. I picked up two lovely clear cappuccino cups for 30p each and 3 packs of microfibres tea towels for 25p a pack. They match OH's kitchen colours so I will put a couple of packs aside for him. They also had really pretty large butterfly/flower cups for 20p each and decorative wine glasses for 20p-60p if anyone is on the lookout for some!😉
I was due to meet some friends for drinks/food at a local pub this weekend but one of them has asked if we can do something cheaper/free as money is tight. I'm glad tbh, as I wasn't looking forward to spending the money either. We're meeting at one of the houses instead and I'll bake a cake to take. :) Much more my sort of evening!

There were two portions of food left over and boxed up last night, but then I was hungry so decided to have one for my tea as DS wasn't overly keen on it. One has gone in the freezer for later use. I have taken a big pack of mince out of the freezer to defrost to make a meal I know DS loves tonight and that will make at least two portions to freeze too.

foxgloves

We've had ongoing problems with mice since we moved in over 20 years ago, @MeandO. It's always been around this time of year because it is starting to be colder at night & they are looking for a warm place. The other thing which we have found can herald an infestation is when a neighbour moves a shed or outbuilding. It's a classic home for rodents under sheds, etc, so they are instantly packing their little spotty hankies & looking for pastures new. We have been less affected since we adopted Soot & Ash as they are both cracking mousers, especially Soot, which surprised us seeing as he'd never even set so much as a single paw outside until he came to live with us. We had to have pest control years ago for a really bad incursion. It was when you could get a council pest control officer to come out & it was £40 for as many visits as it took to get rid of the problem. It's very different now, having to use private companies. We don't use bait because of having cats but we have found the humane traps useful…..though you have to be ok with taking Mousey off for a reasonable distance for release otherwise you don't break the cycle as he comes scampering back. Our current favoured method is an electronic trap which is baited with peanut butter then left somewhere unobtrusive. It flashes a light if it has caught a mouse. They are electrocuted instantly so I find disposing of the corpse very easy as the trap comes apart & I just dig a little hole & tip in the unlucky pantry-raider. I'm lucky that I have no fear or squeamishness when dealing with mice. If it was spiders, oh my life, that'd be another matter as am badly phobic.

Hope you can get it sorted out. It's frustrating when you think you've solved it & they trot back. Our pest control chap all those years ago told us that a young mouse can get through a hole the diameter of a pencil. That's always stuck in my mind as it's a truly tiny gap. He also said that a lot of mouse incursion is through tiny gaps in wooden floors & was sure that was the source of our big infestation when at its worst, I actually caught 7 mice in a humane trap in 2 days! I hope Soot & Ash earn their keep this Autumn. I always think if they keep the numbers down outside, there will be fewer to try coming indoors!

F x

MeandO

Red spotted hankies made me laugh @foxgloves! You almost made them sound cute!
Oh, I'm definitely too squeamish to 'de-trap' them and I don't think I could even get OH to do that job for me either. Spiders are also a foe of mine, especially the big ones. The pest control guy I had out last time also told me about the pencil-sized hole. Unfortunately, i think I have a few of those and won't really be able to know I've totally eradicated all potential entry holes until the utility cupboards are completely ripped out and the room is taken back to the walls, but that will have to wait unfortunately. I haven't seen any sign of the furry foes today, I'm hoping us removing any potential bedding material (they took chunks of my car washing sponge and even the roll of recycling bags!) will put them off.

MeandO

Just paid off the recent purchases on the points spending CC and had allocated more than needed for it, so sent a further £32.05 to the 'debt.' That's taken it down into the next £100 bracket.

My mortgage deal on one of my sub accounts ends next month and it's going to be painful as the current rate is 1.74%. There's £12K left to pay on that sub account, I'm considering a 2 year tracker rate as the other fixes are just awful at 5% or more. I'm not sure if that's wise or not, but I'm loathed to fix longer at that percentage rate. :(

MeandO

Just paid off £1.17 from my spends pot to round the 'debt' down to £3680. I like a rounded number. :)

MeandO

I’ve maybe just done something a bit risky, but I had £925 built up in my ‘annual household bills’ pot and, other than house insurance and a boiler service, there really aren’t any other household bills I pay annually. The house insurance is not due for renewal until June, so I’ve just withdrawn £680 and paid it straight off the ‘debt’, adding £1 from the spends account to get it in the £2000’s. :)

There is £880 in my car maintenance/tax and insurance pot atm and £154 in the repair/reno fund which I can always use towards bills if I think of anything I’ve missed. There’s plenty in the gifts pot too to cover Christmas/early next year birthdays.

I’ve made food for DS with two portions ready to freeze. The washing’s dried and picked in and I’ve successfully investigated and rectified the banging noise from outside - gas box door had come undone in the strong wind. Trying to think what to do this evening as my eyes feel a bit too tired to read much and I haven’t the energy to do any jobs such as cleaning the bathroom. I guess an easy evening of not much is ahead of me!

MeandO

Morning all,

I'm exhausted. The teen is testing me with late bedtimes and a attitude last night and this morning. It's so hard trying to deal with bad attitude calmly and with patience when I'm THIS tired. I even considered taking the day off just to sleep today, but I've had a coffee and will soldier through.

OH came over and helped me block up the 'mousey' hole last night and I thoroughly scrubbed the cupboard. It's now all dry so I'll start putting things back in there today and getting the utility room back in some sort of order. I'm grateful we sorted it ourselves and it didn't cost me £100+ in pest control fees like last time. Hopefully that's the last time they'll get in.

I don't have enough washing to do a load today but I have a bit of ironing to tackle later. I still haven't cleaned the bathroom. It's still on the list. 😑

I have a (pointless) Xray tomorrow. Pointless, because I know it won't show anything as the issues I have aren't 'boney' as the GP put it…🙄,, but she didn't know what else to do so just requested an xray. I'll play ball and go along but I'm hoping physio in a couple of weeks will be more helpful. Further bloods may also shine a light on things, but the soonest appointment I could get was over a month away so there'll be a bit of a wait on any answers that may come from those.

My lovely Mum is due to have surgery next week, the anaesthetic for which is really risky with her problems, but the surgery is essential and the recovery is not going to be an easy one. It's going to be a worrying time. I was hoping to get there to see them before now but I just haven't been able to. 😞

I'm planning a NSD today other than maybe a little PAD to the debt to make me feel better.

I need to get some meat out of the freezer to cook for DS tonight so off to do that to give it time to defrost.

Have a good day all. xx

vampirotoothus

Hi it may be worth keeping an eye on FB Market for new to you kitchen units for the utility, as people often rip out fairly good stuff to replace with new. It may be an inexpensive modernisation for you. V x