MeandO's money-shuffling

MeandO

Thank you all xx

DS and his friend pulled a fast one on me yesterday and asked to invite another mate whilst they were here. I said yes to one more but put my foot down when more names were mentioned and texts were sent. Wasn’t happy with their sneakiness and DS knows it won’t be happening again. Luckily I had enough pizza and snacks for 3 in the house and left them to it for a couple of hours, I was glad when home time came though. Why do early-teen boys seem to be so critical towards each other too? I tried to tell DS that it doesn’t matter what other people think of things, if he likes something he owns, he should ignore their comments and stand up for himself a little. One ‘friend’ won’t be invited over for a good while.

After talk of having to be careful with money, I’ve gone and spent over £200 on the CC yesterday… oops. 

One item I’ve bought on behalf of someone else, so will be refunded the £20 that cost. Another was something or DS at £20. The rest, just over £200, was spent on my share of a short break that OH and I have decided to take next month. We both have a week off together and need to get away and have shopped around and found a good deal, so I don’t feel guilty. I am a little anxious out raiding other pots to clear the credit card, but at the end of the day it’s not like I don’t have the money saved and there is still plenty in there for Christmas and plenty of time to add to that. I’ll send the £20 from vinted to it when it clears and see if I can make any more money towards it by listing the other bits I’ve put aside to sell.

I’ve just realised today (after 8 years of spot cleaning it) that my sofa has removable covers… so I’m going to give the seat and back covers a wash as soon as we have a nice day to dry them. I’ve spot cleaned another mark last night and it’s left a water mark so hoping to get that out.

Not much else to report, I can hear DS stirring so will finish this later. X

MeandO

It turns out the back covers of the sofas do half come off but are then secured by the button being stapled through the whole bloomin’ cover and cushion. How annoying. The seat covers are in the wash though as the sun has come out here, hopefully they come up nice. 

I’ve sorted the bins and recycling out this morning and tidied around a bit. Yesterday morning I tackled some shelves in the kitchen and got rid of loads of paper cut out recipes, old SW pamphlets and other stuff which had just been thrown in a nook, so there was lots of paper to recycle. The shelves are looking much clearer though and I’ve moved all the spices etc there instead, freeing up a bit of space in the utility room. 

We sorted out loads of books to get rid of yesterday too so I’ll be scanning those later to see if they can make us a little bit of extra money. Failing that, there are about 7 or 8 in a set, so I may see if there is any interest on fb marketplace. 

My little box room is becoming frustratingly cluttered again at the moment, all stuff that is on the way out of the house to go to the charity shop or to sell etc - there’s just nowhere else to put it. It doesn’t make a good working environment for me though as that’s where I work, so I really need to tackle it again and get rid of the charity stuff and list the stuff for sale ASAP. 

enthusiasticsaver

It sounds like a productive morning and good call on booking a short break.  So sorry to hear your mum is poorly again and hope she is out of hospital soon. 

MeandO

Thank you enthusiasticsaver x

The books have been zapped and will bring in £8.18 for 17 items once I send them off. It seems criminal to get so little back for some lovely books but it's better than nothing.
I've listed lots of items on ebay/vinted/fb now so will wait to see if any of them sell. Lots of them are DS's things he no longer wants and he has told me to keep the money, bless him, so I have said I will put half to pay for the items I bought him recently and to top up his school uniform pot a bit and the rest will go in his bank account.
The charity shop bag is half full so I'm going to see if I can find anything else to put in there before dropping it off later in the week.

The child benefit was paid in today so I've topped the groceries pot up a bit. I had to fill the car up yesterday and to buy a few more bits we'd run out of so spent just over £80 for petrol and the groceries.  There was £30ish left in the petrol pot which I shouldn't need to dip into before pay day, so I've sent that to the credit card pot to go towards paying the balance off. I've shuffled some other money around and I have £100 towards clearing it so far which I'm really pleased with. If I can pay it off without dipping into the Christmas pot I'll be really pleased. OH has sent me his half of the mini break costs so I've paid that off the card already.

Two loads of washing are on the line whilst it's a dry day, tomorrow is supposed to be wet so I've tried to get it all done today. My lunch is some homemade soup I made a few days ago and DS and I will be having a stir fry tonight with some YS chinese pork strips from the freezer.
A birthday gift, previously bought in the post Christmas sales and put away, has been wrapped and is ready to go to the recipient this week. OH is going to drop that one off later this evening.
It all sounds very organised and productive for a Monday, I'm sure it won't last! x

MeandO

I don’t think I’m cut out to parent a teenager.  It’s the same scenario - he’s been at his Dad’s overnight and has come back full of attitude towards me. He got in the car after school and immediately told me how wonderful his Dad is. It became clear very quickly that his Dad has been discussing things with DS about a subject that he shouldn’t be and trying to get DS to go against me about it. Sorry it’s cryptic, put more simply, the ex didn’t get his own way about something last week so is now trying to get DS on side in order for the ex to get what he wants. I manage to deflect the first few comments and keep a happy demeanour but you can imagine how my evening is going… The worst thing is the ex is such a manipulator that DS is well and truly under his spell. People say DS will see things as they really are when he’s older but I honestly don’t think he will. The longer it goes on, the more he sides with his Dad and the less he seems to think of me. I am so very tired of living this life. 

In money news, the highest value item I listed has sold on vinted for £69.99 so I’ll wrap and send that tomorrow. The item I sold last week is waiting to be collected by the buyer so hopefully that £20 will be with me shortly. There are a few watchers on several eBay items too so I’m hopeful for a few sales, fingers crossed. 

I’ve made a small batch of brownies from some ingredients OH gave me to use up and they’re cooking in the oven. I’m sure DS will be my friend when he realises brownies are available. 

MeandO

Well, I’m the only one who’s eaten any brownies so far, not great for the diet. 

This evening I’ve worked my way through the remaining pile to list so have 6 more items on b
vinted and a couple on marketplace. I’ve dug out some more old clothes and bedding sets of DS’s that can go too. Some are primarni shirts that he won’t wear now which aren’t worth putting on vinted, but a friend of a friend will probably be glad of those for her son, some still have the tags on. There are a few other bits that I could list but they can wait for another day. 

I’ve wrapped the sold vinted parcel and OH brought over the perfect size box for me to pack the ziffit  books in so they’re ready to go too. 

I phoned home earlier and my lovely Mum still remains in a lot of pain. I shed a few tears tonight through sheer helplessness. I wish I could do something to make it all better,

Tomorrow, OH’s house is being photographed to go on the market so I am popping over to help him stage it and am taking a few things over to soften the ‘man pad’ look! I bought some beautiful sunflowers earlier to go in a vase for his table, I didn’t realise until I was at the till that they were reduced to £2.72. They look fresh cut and were perfect so I was even more pleased. I need to take the vase over too as he doesn’t have one. 

MeandO

Two more ebay sales for DS which will make him £57.08 and one £6 sale on vinted for OH. I posted the first vinted order today so hopefully that money will be in the bank soon. The £20 sale from last week has reached my account today so I've added that to the 'paying off the credit card' pot which now stands at £120 - about halfway to clearing the balance. I've listed another item on marketplace for £5 and there's interest in 2 items which will hopefully be picked up later this week making DS another £20, but I won't count on the cash until it's in my hand with FB buyers.

I've withdrawn £100 from the house/car pot as I have a man coming tomorrow to fix some of the handles on my windows as some don't open well. I also want his opinion on a noisy window so will see what he says. I've no idea how much it will be tomorrow but £100 should more than cover it, any left over will go back in the bank and back into that pot.

I popped to sainsbo's earlier and picked up two trays of marinated chicken breasts, one huge tray of salmon and an even bigger tray of chicken drumsticks all reduced, saving around £8. The chicken breasts & salmon are in the freezer, I need to split the drumsticks into smaller portions tonight before freezing. DS gets through loads of chicken so that will save me some money.

MeandO

Another £9 sale made on vinted.  

MeandO

The windows didn't cost me anything today so the money will be put back in my account as soon as I can get to the bank, but it's going to cost me a lot more money in the long run. Some of the windows have failed and some of the frames are so rusted inside that they can't be fixed. Looks like new windows are on the cards, will wait and see what the damage is when they get back to me in a few days.

Three loads of washing are on the go one more than planned as DS had a nosebleed in the night so his bedding has all had to be changed this morning. 

I've had more dealings with the ex today. A simple, polite question about what time I need to get DS somewhere tonight (the ex is involved with this activity and the time changes weekly) and he turns it into a battle all about himself. I've been waiting all week on him telling me the time so I wouldn't have to contact him, but that's asking too much of him apparently. He's a horrible, selfish piece of work. OH spotted him and his girlfriend sat at the desk in a local travel agent's yesterday whilst walking through town, so they have money to plan holidays but not to buy clothes or shoes for his son when needed. And still DS thinks he's god. Can you tell I feel like running into the sunset leaving them all to it and not stopping today?!
I'm off for a stroll to the post office to post the ebay parcels and clear the cobwebs a bit.

Honeysucklelou2

So sorry to read about your mum. I hope that she is feeling better soon. 

My utmost sympathies about parenting a teen in such circumstances. I thought I knew a fair bit about parenting teenagers until the youngest DD became one!!  I appreciate that dealing with such a “co-parent” is exhausting but my DS2 has taught me to stay hopeful. It takes time but they do see things clearly  eventually.

Well done on all the Vinted sales.