MeandO's money-shuffling

MeandO

Afternoon, I hope a lovely weekend was had by all. I haven't slept well all weekend so am feeling shattered and in need of an early night tonight. I've also noticed that tiredness really makes me want to eat rubbish which then makes me feel worse so a bit of a vicious circle! Am definitely in need of another coffee soon though.

On Saturday I picked up the paint for DS's room (£27 ), and two plants at 50% off to go in the pots outside our front door after removing the spent summer flowers. £31 spent there which I've taken from the house pot. I now need to find the energy to paint this week before DS is back at the weekend. It won't be done today.

I had an engineer appointment booked to come out and look at the broadband yesterday as it's not been working properly since they installed it. Half an hour before the end of the appointment time slot I had a message to say they won't be coming and they re-booked it for today. The same happened today - a message to say they won't be coming as are too busy. It's so frustrating, but they have applied a £30 credit to my account for each day they haven't shown, so if they don't show again tomorrow that will be my bill paid for the next 2.5 months. 

Last night OH and I picked a big bowl of blackberries and about 20 big eating apples from an unoccupied piece of land nearby. Such a shame it's been left, as you can see that it used to be well tended and looked after. On the plus side we have a huge pan of apple and blackberries stewed down for crumbles and some to freeze for winter use. We also have around 6 or 7 apples we left for eating as they were too lovely to cook.

I've sorted another bin bag full of clothes, some games DS had as a little'un and no longer wants and some bric a brac for the charity shop which I am planning on dropping off later. I'll start another bag then as I'm sure there's more that can go. I'd really like to streamline the kitchen cupboards and utility room as the cupboards and drawers feel a bit full of stuff and we don't use a lot of it. The shed needs tackling as well as there are garden toys in there that need to go.
I have put the suitcases back in the attic from our recent travels now though, so at least my little box room feels a bit tidier.

Oh, and I just had my car tax renewal letter drop through the door. £195 for the year! When did that go up?! The money is in the car pot to cover it, but with breakdown cover due, a major service booked in and possibly new tyres/brakes needed this month that pot is going to be drained, if it covers everything.  

MeandO

I've just added a few more listings to vinted - one item of clothing and a couple of random decorative items. I also reduced the price of all the bits I had left on ebay this morning in the hope of generating a few sales. A couple of listings that haven't sold in ages have been put in the charity bag, so they have been deleted from the 'bay.

I'm feeling a bit  about the spiralling cost of everything at the moment and the lack of savings. It's highly unlikely I'm going to be able to afford to find the £1300 to reach the mortgage OP 10% this year now, and it's not looking hopeful that I will be able to afford to renew my gym/fitness studio membership when that's up in November. Hopefully I'll feel a bit better after I've received the backpay and little increase in salary this month to boost the savings, plus I've asked the ex to pay me back the full amount of money he owes me, but he didn't reply so I have no idea whether I will get that.  Although the backpay is likely to mean I won't receive any UC next month, so I'll have to take that amount out of any backpay to cover the usual income so I can cover everything. 
I still feel like I need to re-assess the budget AGAIN. It's just not working and every month is difficult, although I have had extra things to pay for these past few months, but it seems every month is like that lately.

Sarahwithlove

It definitely feels like everything has increased in cost but the wages haven't gone up anywhere near as much to account for it. 

Mrs_Money_Penny

Things are so expensive I got two bags of groceries today in *idl and it came to £45. Since when has 5% fat mince been £8.17 😱x

MeandO

Yes, you're both right Sarahwithlove & Mrs_Money_Penny. £8.17 for mince?! Wow. What was it, unicorn?!  That is just crazy.

I was right down in the dumps yesterday and felt like I just had to get out of the house after work. I had a quick last sweep round for stuff to chuck in the charity bag, decluttered the mug cupboard of mugs I don't particularly like and put it all in the car and drove to the charity shop. I had a quick look around the rails they put all their 'new in' stuff on first and found some really lovely clothes, I think all donated by the same person as the stash I picked up a couple of weeks ago as it was all similar expensive brands and the same size. There were also 2 men's rugby jerseys and a branded T shirt I bought for DS which I know he'd like. They would usually be quite expensive and were obviously unworn - one still had the tags on. I bought 10 items which cost me £27. Two items didn't look great on me when I got home so they went straight on v!nted and have already sold for £22. A third item was too big so has also gone on there and 30 people have favourited it so far so I'm hoping for a sale soon. I've priced that at £12 (t would have been around £65 new ), so that will be more than the money back that I've spent when it sells. Everything is in the wash and will be out on the line to dry today. Unfortunately, I was so excited by my lovely finds that I forgot to drop the bag and box off of donations!    It's all still in the back of the car, so I will do that later in the week. Today I want to get on with re-decorating DS's room after work.

Last night I made three blackberry and apple crumbles from the fruit we picked, there was also a tub full of cooked fruit to go in the freezer. We also picked about 5 or 6 more apples and every day I'm picking a few more red tomatoes from my garden. I've given one of the crumbles to OH's parents, we had half of one last night (the rest I'm sure will go tonight!) and I'm going to somehow try to get the third one in the freezer. That may not be possible though as I don't have a huge freezer and it's rather full, it'll take some serious freezer-tetris skills.

The broadband company are supposed to be coming out today but I'm half-hoping they can't make it again for the extra credit towards my bill.  I also had a call from the local water company about my leaky loo and there's a plumber coming out on Saturday to hopefully fix it for free. It's a water-saving service they offer so will be great if that can be done as I'm sure it's costing me a lot of money in water usage.

OH is intent on using things up from his freezer this week so food is costing me a minimum all week as he is basically feeding us. I think it's fish and veggies tonight with jackets or new potatoes - whichever needs using up first.

Have a good day everyone, hopefully it's not too hot where you are. I'm grateful it's a bit cloudy here at the moment which is providing a bit of cool relief from the temperatures that were forecast. We actually had some rain last night too.