MeandO's money-shuffling

MeandO

Thank you for your kind words @Mrs_Money_Penny and @Skint_yet_Again. The kindness from this forum and colleagues is really comforting at the moment and I’m ever so grateful for you all. 💕

I had my jacket potato with beans at lunch time as I was hungry and cold so thought a hot meal may warm me up. I haven’t had food this evening yet, as had some toast earlier and am feeling full.
I made DS a butter chicken and spicy rice dish, then he had fruit and oat pancakes after! There’s a portion of the chicken & rice left over for the freezer and two tubs of the sauce that I made from scratch as I batch cooked that one.

I’m not sure what’s happened today and I’m not sure what has changed, but the old DS has come home from school today, not the aggressive, angry, Mum-hating one. 👀 He even asked for a hug! 👀 I’m too frightened to count my chickens yet, but it’s making me so happy just to see that he is actually still there underneath it all. Who knows, it may all change by bedtime or he might be after something, but it’s been a lovely few hours here which I really needed and I’ll definitely take it after the week we’ve had so far.

I walked to the shop and posted my Sister’s card this evening. £1.80 for a stamp!! Way more than the card cost!
I’ve done the few bits of ironing I needed to do, unstacked the clean dishwasher and have restacked with the dinner dishes. I’ve just had a lovely hot shower and washed my hair and am now lounging in my PJ’s. I might treat myself to a hot chocolate shortly. :)

Oh, I’ve bought a birthday present for OH too. His birthday’s not until early next year but the item was on offer and I usually struggle with what to buy for him, so I’m pleased to have found it. Money will be transferred from the gifts pot for that one shortly.

DS was cold, so I turned the heating up a little bit. It’s now on 19 which seems lovely and warm in this house, any hotter feels too hot unless it’s the middle of Winter. The house seems to naturally fall to around 15-17 degrees in the mornings when the heating’s off so hopefully all that insulation I had installed is actually working properly.

Right, off to make a hot chocolate and put the cooled batch cooked and leftover meals in the freezer. Night all x

MeandO

Just sent another £27 odd to the debt made up of a little bit of interest and some rounded down funds, so total debt now at £1440.02.

Also, I’d somehow got the mortgage figure wrong by a whole 2p, thankfully in my favour, but that 2p messed up the rounded number! I’ve just sent £1.98 to the mortgage to now round it down to £63,998. At least it’s now starts with a 63 rather than a 64, just a shame it started with a 49 not so long ago, but I’ll get there again as soon as I can.

Honeysucklelou2

Your reading room sounds like a haven. Would an angle poise type lamp allow you to use it more?

MeandO

That’s a great idea HSL2 and I do actually have one upstairs that I don’t use much so could ‘shop from home’ for that. Unfortunately there’s no space for a cupboard/ledge to put the lamp on in the spot I usually sit in in my ‘reading room’, but I could put it over the other side of the room on the sideboard and sit in the less comfy spot just when it gets dark and a lamp is needed. Thank you for the suggestion. 💜

MeandO

Hello everyone, I hope you’re all warm, well and content.

I had a lovely weekend, away for two nights with OH and 6 of our good friends for our annual pre-Christmas catch up. It was much needed and I have come back feeling like I’ve shed a bit more stress of the past few weeks. Money was spent on eating out but I don’t regret it as we don’t do it often and we really enjoyed. We all kept it as budget friendly as possible, using a group on voucher for meals for 4 of us the first day and hotel picnics for tea both nights. The hotel was paid for some time ago and was also a good price as we booked early. We didn’t need to pay for train tickets or petrol as friends drove (electric car), but we paid for car parking to say thank you. I’m already looking forward to next year’s trip!

Unfortunately, DS didn’t have such a good weekend 😥 and it transpires he spent most of the weekend alone in our house after being dropped off by his Dad. DS said he had friends over which was fine by me, knowing these friends are respectful, but he later admitted he’d just spent the day on his own and lied so I wouldn’t worry and his Dad wouldn’t pick him up. It makes me really sad. He had huge rows with his Dad over the weekend and both of them were crying when DS was dropped back to me a day earlier than planned, as soon as I’d got home from the weekend away. I had to sit and play middle man and sort those two out for an hour then. Swings and roundabouts here at the moment!
DS just needed lots of hugs, I think. He gladly accepted them and even curled up in my bed with me for half an hour before going to sleep that night. He’s been calm and happy and well behaved ever since. I think we reached boiling point and mass overwhelm the previous week. I hope this calmness continues, for all our sakes.

Anyway, DS has been fed tonight - pasta and stuffed chicken breasts - none left to freeze as it all disappeared quickly! 😃 Tomorrow will be butter chicken tacos, the sauce for which I made in a batch last week so need to defrost overnight.

I also came back from the weekend to a full laundry basket which, considering I’d emptied it before I went and DS didn’t do anything, I’m not sure how it happened! No school uniform had been washed over the weekend by his dad either (thanks for that, ex 😠) so two loads of washing were done yesterday and put on the line early in the hope of drying. The lighter items more or less dried but no chance for the heavier clothes and the dehumidifier alone wasn’t working well and clothes were starting to smell musty. I bit the bullet last night and bought a heated airer from Argoos as they currently have 1/3rd or 25% off depending on the model. I also cashed in some nectar points for an extra £2.50 off. I really didn’t want to spend the extra money but it is needed as I have so much washing with sports kits etc. I drained the last money in my ‘Reno, replace, repair’ pot to go towards it. I haven’t set it up yet, will report back on effectiveness when I’ve used it.

The debt is down to £1090.05. I took some money out of the car pot to pay it down as I had nearly £1K in that pot and only the car insurance to pay for imminently. I’ve left £500 in the pot for now and it will be built up again before an MOT or service is needed.
The ex owes me £60 so that will be paid off the debt too once he pays me that, soon hopefully, but I won’t count on it.

I spent £61 yesterday on shopping which is a big shop for us, but the fridge was practically empty and we’d run out of a lot of things. I spent £2.25 on a huge pack of specifically requested biscuits for DS today as he wants to make something with them, the latter was taken from my purse.
The £61 shop should now last us until the end of the weekend. I’ve told DS he has a quota of favourite yogurts in the fridge and they have to last him the week!

The UC has been paid today and it was around £40 less this month because of my little pay rise and my extra AVCs were not actioned when they should have been. That means I will be short next month and will need to find some way of cutting back or making up the £40. :(

Right, off to set DS up on my laptop. He needs to do some work and has left the charger for his at his Dad’s. 🙄 x

MeandO

Morning all,

I've been worrying about money since last night and am feeling a bit beaten by life today. 😔I'm not sure what kicked it off, just the constant stress of something to pay for all the time and how difficult it is now to run a house on one income. Also having a bit of debt built up (which is less than £1K now once I receive money I'm owed), but it just makes me feel like I'm constantly treading water and my head keeps disappearing under. 😕 It all just feels a bit rubbish today.
In attempt to put my mind at rest, I'm going to have another look at my budget as see what I can do, if anything. 😔 I also want to pull out the Christmas gifts I've already bought and start writing down what I have so I know what I still need to get. I'm panicking about that too. :( I've just sent a message to one of OH's relatives to basically say I'm not buying for their (nearly grown up) kids now and for them to do the same for DS, I'll just buy a token gift for them all to enjoy. I'd like to do the same for the other relative but they have small children so it's a bit different. Will see what comes back, but that's what I'm doing. If they take offence, they take offence, it's not like we ever see them anyway! I'm also doing the same for my niece and her partner this year. we're not close for various very valid reasons.

One load of washing is done and is on the heated airer with the dehumidifier is on. It was a real faff to set up and takes up so much space and I must admit, I was thinking I should have just bought another dryer, but I'll see how it goes. I have another load of washing to do but can't do that until the first load is dry. I also picked up some stain remover from HB this morning (£1.39 from my purse) as DS has managed to get stains on several items of clothing that aren't very old and were not cheap and now he won't wear them. He is a nightmare for getting toothpaste and spot face wash (which bleaches fabrics😫) everywhere. It's even taken the colour out of the bathroom vinyl flooring in places but I'm not replacing it until I have to. He's also got food on some clothes and taken his time to put them in the wash, buy which time it's stained them. I did give him a bit of a lecture about looking after things more carefully, but I doubt it will have any effect. Hopefully the stain remover has more success than my mini lecture!

Tea for DS is sorted tonight, I took some HM soup out of the freezer for me. I've just had my porridge & fruit so hopefully that keeps me going for a while. I'm freezing, but am not putting the heating on, so have two jumpers and my fingerless gloves on and will get the blanket to put over my lap shortly.

Skint_yet_Again

I would just wash them as best you can and give them back even if stained without buying replacements MeandO. He will learn to be more careful. If he needs replacements tell him to use his Christmas present money and don’t give him extra.

I know it’s just relentless pay out at times and hope your relatives see sense about the Christmas gifts

debtfreewannabe321

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82199206#Comment_82199206

I did exactly this too. My DS was the same and wouldn't wear stained items. I also never replaced items and the kids always had to wait for a birthday or Christmas. They never bother listening until they have to pay for their own items then all of a sudden they take super good care of everything 🤦🏻‍♀️.

Regarding finances I've been feeling the same way. We're now a single income household with what feels like a huge mortgage (relative to our ages) and a massive loan and CCs ☹️ got no advice on this one other than trying to reduce outgoings which we all know is becoming harder and harder to do. 🫂

MeandO

Thanks @Skint_yet_Again and @debtfreewannabe321, no replacements will be purchased as I can’t afford to! I’ll buy some more of the items for Christmas as he doesn’t actually have a lot of clothes so could do with some more. I’ve washed the items today with stain remover and some throw in the wash deep clean stuff, so hopefully some of the stains have come out at least. Time will tell when they’re dry.

The sun came out a little earlier and a wind picked up so I moved most of the washing outside to dry on the line. It’s been picked in and is around 90% dry so is on the ‘normal’ airer by the radiator for now. The second load is on the heated airer now, hopefully dry by bedtime, but I’m still not overly convinced…

I made tea early today as DS has a school thing on tonight, but he hasn’t had time to eat it yet as literally ran in, changed, then had to run out again. At least it’s cooked for when he’s home.
I had to force myself to do it, I have absolutely no motivation today and am feeling exhausted. Had my 2nd B12 shot today so hopefully that starts to work soon, although it didn’t make me feel any better last time I had them. 🤨

We ran out of bananas and were low on milk so I nipped into &sda and picked just those two items up today after I had my injection. I started to browse, but then remembered I only had around £3.60 on me and was determined to pay for these with change from my purse, so grabbed them, paid with coins and left. That’s definitely the way to save money!
We have around £100 left in the grocery budget to get us to the 24th. If I follow similar shopping habits as this week it should be doable, hopefully with some left over to go towards the debt. I’m going to try shopping in @Ldi next grocery shop to compare prices and produce. I’m not impressed with &sda’s fruit lately, it goes off within a day of purchase sometimes. The huge queues and one checkout open used to put me off &ldi, but they have self serve tills in our local one which will save time, hopefully.

I’m just counting the hours until bedtime now, I’m exhausted today. Had a cracking headache earlier too but paracetamol has chased that away thankfully.

Have a good evening all x

debtfreewannabe321

I hope the B12 kicks in soon 🤞🏻.

My heated airer was a large square like one like lakey land ones and I used to throw a sheet over the top and it would help trap the heat in and things would dry much quicker. I used to put things like jeans on a radiator though as they took days to dry on a heated airer.