Buying a little piece of Middle England; Manifesting my way to mortgage free.

beanielou

You do not need any more food this week.  

Neither do I so no need to do a Waitrose order. 

redofromstart

I find whoever I use for online food shopping, the odd thing turns up at a standard I wouldn't have bought but I hate food shopping so the positives outweigh this mostly. 

debtfreewannabe321

beanielou said:

You do not need any more food this week.  

Neither do I so no need to do a Waitrose order. 

Yes I'm sticking to that mantra....no more food! We've got enough

redofromstart said:

I find whoever I use for online food shopping, the odd thing turns up at a standard I wouldn't have bought but I hate food shopping so the positives outweigh this mostly. 

I have to agree as I hate going into the shops. As much as I moan we're too far from them, they overwhelm me to be honest as there is too much choice and I spend way over budget doing it in person.

Well some might remember my impulsive spends last weekend on DP new jacket, some new pillows, some wallpaper and bowls etc from the outlet store which totally drained the diy/ clothing budget to a very measley amount. Oops. Well I've been trying to figure out a MS way of making this okay for next month. I still needed DIY budget as we want to finish the downstairs bathroom. Only a small toilet room but it needs a sink installing and the walls aren't good and there is carpet in there 🤢 my idea was to panel it as the hallway it leads off is panelled and wallpaper the top half and gloss the bottom half as this worked well in the old house. I then wanted a few shelves built at the back of the toilet, basically to hide the fact they had it installed about a foot into the room and there is a whole heap of empty space behind the toilet (why would anyone do this...seems to have been the council who did it though as neighbours have complained of same thing) then I am painting windows and replacing floor. It already has a new door on which I need to finish painting. Well I put on my thinking cap, we'd put aside £250 for this job. However I scored with the wallpaper - 2 rolls for £16! The old toilet doesn't need replacing and I decided against the panelling and new skirting. We will sand and repair and repaint the old skirting. I have found some lining paper on FB mp for £5, I also found a sink with all the bits attached (waste stuff and taps etc) for a £5er too! I am going to get DP to fit the sink. We will use leftover tiles from our bathroom for the splash back and I will then line the walls and use the wallpaper over the top. I am keeping my eyes peeled for flooring but I think DP said we had some laminate leftover from doing the hall and dining room so that might be sorted too. £250 budget and it has cost me £26 instead as I have all the paint for doors, windows, skirting and ceiling already! I also have some leftover bits from the bathroom such as a towel rail and the toilet roll holder I will keep the old one and just re-spray it. 
I'm pretty impressed with myself cutting the budget by £224! Fingers crossed we can pull it all together for that price now and don't need any extras.  

beanielou

That's fantastic 

debtfreewannabe321

Goals for Feb (Jan 26-Feb 25):
1- 15 days free of social media 10/15
I reckon I can do this!

2- Practice gentle yoga every day for at least 10 minutes - started so well but a pain in my leg stopped me mid month although I have done the odd day so all's not lost on the routine.

3- Read 1 book to the end -starting a second one today in the hope that it helps with goal number 1.... Even my DD has deleted all socials this week. I think a boy is to blame but it's good to have a break so I won't complain. DONE 🎉

4- Catch up with 3 friends in real life 
Highlights of my month catching up with friends! DONE 🎉

5- Two weeks of no sugar (I meant to do this in Jan but had too much Christmas sweets left)
I have actually done two days woop!

6- NSD 10/10! DONE! 🎉 

7- Get out in the garden and start the clear up after winter (we've dead fallen trees everywhere)
DONE 🎉 it looks good now and lots of spring bulbs popping through that we can actually see now the building rubbish is gone and fallen branches moved! 

debtfreewannabe321

Morning all, well today I intend to have a productive day (famous last words eh ) DD is back to school, DS is still at his dads, quelle surprise, with no word on when he will be home, DP is back to work and I am not back in until this afternoon's shift. So I have all morning to get the house straight and get dinner sorted (it is one of the freezer portions) and walk the dog. 

I had a moan about the survey sites the other day, well I haven't been invited to a single pr0l1f1c since I got the invite join and that is the one every one is banging on about on here. I felt a bit dejected to be honest lol. Anyway, I had made a new email for the surveys to flood in to. I went on yesterday and had a look at the other sites I had joined up to (from the MSE page on surveys, so I used their link-Top 25 online survey sites in the UK - Money Saving Expert ) and sw@gb^cks was one along with a few others. Well since yesterday I have managed to make £10 on the s-bucks one and £3.45 on p@ne1 0p1nion. I can cash out the s-bucks one but not the other one yet. If you click the link from MSE to join to s-bucks and make £10 in 30 days then they will credit your account with another 2000 points- £20. I kept getting timed out on the surveys if I am honest, I got through on a few so a few points here and there- where I managed to make the money quickly was downloading games. For example if you're good at scrabble (I'm pretty good at it) you can make your way through the levels quite quickly and each time you hit a certain level you will get credited 50SB, 100SB etc. I made this playing games in between cooking, cleaning and whilst just chilling with a cuppa yesterday. I also downloaded a few others that are puzzle types (candy crush type) and I am pretty good at those too....it seems i've found my skill. I have noted down which level I need to get to on each and then I can stop. I will make sure they log on the SB site before offloading them though. 

NSD yesterday. I think I might even be able to make it to 15 this month!
Was talking to DP about the non sugar goal yesterday and I thought about it and actually I haven't eaten any chocolate, cake or sweets for over a week. The failings was a bit of jam on toast in the morning! So if I had foregone that I would have actually had a fair few days under my belt. I was pretty proud though that I had almost done it  

This week I need to make a meal plan as my new month starts next weekend, finalise the budget for Feb-March, do an online shop ready to be delivered next weekend, try and have as many NSDs as possible so that next weekend I am starting the new month with wages in the bank! DP also has his stage 2 interview this week! Praying he gets through to any other stages there might be....or to the job offer itself! We know lots have gone for it though, and a few other internal recommendations like himself so we won't place all eggs in one basket just yet.

Okay going to pop and get dressed, stick a record on and start my clean up (house isn't untidy but I want to deep clean a few areas a day so that it's had it's spring clean) Also I believe that if you wish to bring new adventures, jobs, homes, etc into your life then you do well to declutter the old stagnant parts in your life first. So I always start with a deep clean (which includes a deep declutter) and it means I am always on top of what is in my home, and everything has it's home. I wish I had been like this when the kids were smaller but it's never too late to start haha. Okay i'm off if I have any more MS news I might be back.

debtfreewannabe321

Oh and something that I'm super grateful for....Spring is on it's way and lighter evenings! 🌷🌸

~FlowerPot~

beautiful snowdrops x

debtfreewannabe321

~FlowerPot~ said:

beautiful snowdrops x

I love spring flowers, we've got a load of daffodils popping up all around the estate, along with tiny crocuses and snowdrops surrounding them, so pretty

~FlowerPot~

debtfreewannabe321 said:

~FlowerPot~ said:

beautiful snowdrops x

I love spring flowers, we've got a load of daffodils popping up all around the estate, along with tiny crocuses and snowdrops surrounding them, so pretty

I love spring so much the spring flowers equal to me, the return of the light, and i love that. Autumn used to be my favourite season when I was young, but i much order spring now, the promise of new things and a fresh start!!