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

debtfreewannabe321

Morning all 

Well yesterday I decided to visit my friend, she was supposed to be seeing me and she had a reading booked in with me too. She had an op last week though and wasn't feeling up to the drive, so I went to her to cheer her up, do a reading and just distract her really. Spent most of the day there before work but came away with three bottles of gin liquor, and a tray of vegan sausages so was well worth it eh. 

I went to work feeling quite renewed actually until I hurt my hand and ended up starting a whatsapp group with my manager, the other supervisor and the national manager complaining about things that need fixing. Their responses tell me all I need to know. Put it this way, manager would make an excellent politician. 

I am in today I have refused all early shifts so I haven't been asked today, I am not bothered either. I have budgeted for this wage coming so I do need to stay until then really which is 11 more shifts. I will see how it goes today when manager sees me in person after my bringing attention to her failings as a manager. I doubt she will care too much and side step the issue altogether. I am beyond getting angry now and have disassociated from the place to be honest.

Yesterday was a NSD again, I wish I had made note of them all through the month as I think this has been my best one yet My boot room is still clean and tidy, and more plants have made their way in to there so it is looking very lush and green in amongst shoe cupboards and boots  

DP is going on about a take away tonight but I don't really have it in the budget, my bank account is not looking very healthy as we are 10 days out of his pay day now and our new month. There is enough for 1 food shop and that is about it. I get paid next Friday so there is one more pay day before our new month starts but I wanted to hold on to it like last month and keep it in there to start my month off right. It was really helpful to this month to have that 1 pay pack ready and waiting. The budget is sort of working okay I think it might need a few tweaks and there will be 2 pay days from me for next month if I can keep hold of the one next week to roll over. DP gets his bonus at the end of April for the next 3 months, we were going to use it to put towards savings but with me jobless for now it will be split into 3 and I will put it towards the budget each month for three months until the next bonus month. Of course, I hope to find another job by then.... So potentially, and of course dependent on the amount in the bonuses, we may not be any worse off with me having no job.

My friend made me feel slightly better yesterday though as I was feeling very down about the fact I have a rubbish job, and I am quitting it and then will be totally jobless and felt a career had passed me by because I chose being a SAHM over going out into the career world. She has a 'good' job on paper, over £40k a year, a pay rise in April of a few grand, and she has debts, in credit cards, loans, overdrafts, and she only has a 50-50 mortgage so still pays rents. She said at least I was in the position now to be able to choose whether or not I stayed. I felt a little humbled by that and agreed. So I am grateful to her for putting a different spin on my situation. I can afford (just) to quit, and I have worked hard over the last few months to be able to do this and so I will be grateful I get to be a SAHM once again for a while until I find something else. She wishes she could quit her 'good' job because she hates the stress and the pressure and never has any spare money left anyway. I did feel for her I have offered to help her with a budget though, we've known each other since school so she's happy to divulge all info on debts and incomes etc without feeling embarrassed. 

I did another reading this morning, I feel like the universe is nudging me to back in that direction once again, follow my spiritual pursuits that I enjoy. DIY brain and stress kind of got in the way of me being able to meditate and do readings for a while (oh if only I had kept a diary back then on here, I could have amused all with the ins and outs of a full renovation whilst living in it, from fleas in the carpet to flying ants terrorising us to dust everywhere whilst walls came down, wall paper came off and paint was on everything.)

I've already walked the dog today so he's happy and laid in bed so I might get on with some housework now he isn't under my feet. He will be 12 in a few days I might make him a little doggy cake to celebrate Okay off for now  

debtfreewannabe321

House is tidy 😀 and dinner is sorted. Pizza and HM wedges for the kids. Leftovers for the adults we have a spaghetti bowl mix with plant balls in that DP wants to chilli-fy! So we will have that. I haven't done the online shopping for the weekend yet, I'm getting lapse at it this month for some reason. It needs to be done though otherwise I waste money if I go into the shops and also spend more on petrol getting there and back than a delivery slot price! 
Explained how the budget should sort itself out to DP with his bonuses if we can stretch my wages to end of April, he seems to think it will be fine. So all good so far I really do need to stay at work until I get my wages though otherwise we will be short by £280 for next month so I will smile, and detach and get on with it ...okay work calls now 👋 wish me luck after my messages to national manager yesterday haha. 😉

LadyWithAPlan

redofromstart said:

Great update.

mr Redo and I did a vague picture of our house in excel with blocks of varying value- and coloured them in as we ticked them off. It lived on the fridge. Always motivating to colour a square in rather than have a bad takeaway.  We started with a 1% aim, then 10% and then got carried away with lucky circumstances. 

I have a badly drawn by hand vague London flat (2 floors with balcony - now I am planning on a garden) that I have been colouring in since 2020 - all £500 boxes ... I love seeing the progess but maybe some smaller squares would be easier as well ;
Loving your drawing too Debtfree

debtfreewannabe321 said:

Thank you @slm6002 & @beanielou you make me want to hold out hope. He was so horrid last night I cried!

We were super restrained too, DP said to me every time I picked up clothes, how many squares would that colour in anyone listening must have thought him mad. But it made me look at shopping in a different way, I'd rather pay down our investment than have a new top I will be bored of in 2 months. 

Genius behaviour on your DP's part ...  
Sorry re your son's teenage years - they are never pretty
Good your friend was able to give you a re frame .... I am sure you will find something you love..

skint_spice

I’ve finally caught up with your diary! I need some of your motivation to sort my house out. Good luck with DS, mine was horrible for a while but we get on well now he’s 25 this year. 

debtfreewannabe321

LadyWithAPlan said:

redofromstart said:

Great update.

mr Redo and I did a vague picture of our house in excel with blocks of varying value- and coloured them in as we ticked them off. It lived on the fridge. Always motivating to colour a square in rather than have a bad takeaway.  We started with a 1% aim, then 10% and then got carried away with lucky circumstances. 

I have a badly drawn by hand vague London flat (2 floors with balcony - now I am planning on a garden) that I have been colouring in since 2020 - all £500 boxes ... I love seeing the progess but maybe some smaller squares would be easier as well ;
Loving your drawing too Debtfree

debtfreewannabe321 said:

Thank you @slm6002 & @beanielou you make me want to hold out hope. He was so horrid last night I cried!

We were super restrained too, DP said to me every time I picked up clothes, how many squares would that colour in anyone listening must have thought him mad. But it made me look at shopping in a different way, I'd rather pay down our investment than have a new top I will be bored of in 2 months. 

Genius behaviour on your DP's part ...  
Sorry re your son's teenage years - they are never pretty
Good your friend was able to give you a re frame .... I am sure you will find something you love..

O..M..G £500 boxes I would be there all year trying to colour one in It's why I opted for £20 ones I thought I might look like I am making some progress then haha. Yes I think DP is a genius with that one because I did put it all back thinking actually I don't really want it. I think sometimes I just like the thrill of coming away with lots of shopping and then I'm really not that bothered once it's paid for *oops*

debtfreewannabe321

skint_spice said:

I’ve finally caught up with your diary! I need some of your motivation to sort my house out. Good luck with DS, mine was horrible for a while but we get on well now he’s 25 this year. 

25.............. my eldest is also 25....he started being nice around 21 when he moved out and realised mum wasn't such a dragon after all I wish he would impart this on his little brother who isn't only the exact replica to look at but also has the same attitude as him so only another few years to go for this one lol. 
Oh and I rant away a lot I wouldn't be surprised if you skipped four pages and nothing important was missed  

debtfreewannabe321

Morning all! 
My weekend got away with me, I think I snuck on here a few times ready to post and then was needed elsewhere to do something else, sigh, I am almost pleased it is Monday even though I have work later  
So Saturday DP woke up fresh as daisies and ready to do some DIY. I have to say I wasn't feeling it really. But I got roped in anyway. We only have one room left to do, we ummed and ahhed about whether to even do it if we are getting ready to sell but it was a mess as we had a flood in there right after we moved in. It is the smallest toilet room ever, it had wallpaper floor to ceiling and the ceiling was boarded with what looked like old wooden slats off a bed and it has a small brown Upvc window and carpet tiles in a navy blue. The room is directly below the bathroom. The bathroom had been fitted by old owner to sell the house, before he did it up it was apparently just a shower room and he fitted a bath to sell. He put the bath in the wrong place and it basically wasn't fitted well and it had been leaking down the side of the bath, through the floor boards and into the small toilet room. By the time we moved in the wallpaper was falling off, the ceiling was falling down and, well, it was a mess. I started stripping the wallpaper about a year ago and then gave up with it, we lived with it half torn down for about 8 months then I decided to use leftover paint from the kitchen to smarten it up after pulling off the wallpaper properly. In the kitchen the paint is a lovely yellow, subtle not stark and brightens up the dark room nicely. In the toilet room it was awful and lairy and just yuk and showed up every flaw on the wall so we lived with that for a few months and decided yes we ought finish it properly as the rest of the house is done to a nice standard now. I thought it a good idea to use old coving to put around the ceiling to make the bed slats look like a proper coherent ceiling, and paint it all white. It worked and it looks good now. I bought the wallpaper the other week as I said on here, on sale, I chose it not because I loved it but because the colour scheme fits well with the rest of downstairs, dusky pinks, sage greens and soft whites and beiges. So this weekend just gone DP stripped out the makeshift shelving thing the old owner put behind the toilet to disguise the fact the toilet sits about 1 foot into the room we can't move it easily to push it back because the soil pipe doesn't go out the wall it goes out through the floor. Odd but we left it anyway as we don't plan on staying here I said let's make good. So we had plans to also put shelving behind the toilet to disguise the fact the loo sits a foot into the room we went to town looking for some wood or an old bookshelf we could butcher to fit it. DP found a perfect one in a second hand shop for £15, much cheaper than buying a sheet of MDF. I also happened to come across a bike that I loved, an old red raleigh one with a cute basket. So we also bought that *oops* £65. Those two purchases were probably the sheet of MDF and petrol money had we gone to b n q and DP probably wouldn't have moaned about having to use second hand materials. Que sera sera. 

So we got home, DP set about making the shelving unit, I set about making dinner, tidying and washing clothes etc, usual jobs. We also had to spend £9 odd in the co-op as I didn't get an online shop and I also couldn't be bothered with a 30 mile round trip just for the supermarket. So shopping is now due tomorrow, the earliest slot I could get on Saturday. 

The small toilet room now is mostly papered with lining paper (the walls are so uneven at the bottom) and I have given the window sill and window frame one coat of paint, it needs another 2 at least. The room already looks nicer just with lining paper and a whiter window frame. The shelving unit DP has made will be big enough for toilet roll storage, a bin, cleaning stuff for the room and a plant to sit on, so was well worth the effort as there isn't anywhere you can fit shelves or a unit in there otherwise. So we abandoned that yesterday and left it part finished. DP still needs to plumb in a sink, we need to finish painting the skirting and the door frame, and window. I painted the door, on the outside - the hall side it is dusky pink, on the inside of the toilet it is a sage green. I think all those years of living in an army house made me hate magnolia and gloss white doors that turn yellowy after a while painted in a nice colour is the way forward for me. Let's hope there is lots of buyers when we go to sell who like pink and green doors  

I also did 2 tip runs for a friend yesterday. I had forgotten I promised to help her until she messaged me whilst I was mid way through painting the door.

None of my other little jobs got done that I had planned and my nice clean and tidy house and boot room is messy *sob*!! So today, I am going to get dressed, get on with tidying, do the ironing and sort through all the charity shop stuff, get rid of it all and have my dining room back. I have a lovely large bench in the dining room, it is FULL of charity shop stuff and things to bin. So that is high on my list to do today. I put the shopping in for early tomorrow, I should get through to payday with that one now. I will update when it arrives and I see how much was substituted as to how much it costs me. 

I made £10 on pr0l1f1c yesterday! I hadn't had a single survey from there since signing up and saw an email inviting me to one, I did it and immediately after another one popped up and then another?! Like buses.....wait forever for one and then three come along at once. One totally frazzled my brain as  was testing memory and quick responses.... so I totally deserved the money for that one I cashed out £10.77 and that has been sent to MOP. I have a bit more pending I think. I also cashed out my v1nt3d, that hasn't hit my bank yet but I will send that to MOP when it arrives too. I am short on my goal for that this month but never mind can't be helped.
I also have plans to get into the garage, get my old bike out, take the seat off and swap to my new bike and put new bike seat on old one. I would like to sell the old bike for similar price to what I paid for the new one so we break even on that. Old one is actually better I think it has more gears, it's heavier and better made and a good brand, sadly i was too short for it and could never reach the floor safely so just would like to break even on spends vs sale on that. And work later.... OMG I didn't update you on that, suppose I ought to as I have shared everything to date on here anyway. Long story short, I went in, manager called me to her office. She started to have a go at me for going over her. I said, I shall stop you there, I wouldn't have gone over you if you had listened to us without laughing it off, so in the case of health and safety and you breaking laws I am afraid I will go over and above you every time. Carry on....so she carried on and by the end she had promised to do half my work, moved everything I asked her to, cleaned out one area that was a danger to health and a safeguarding issue and was nearly in tears by the end, her voice shaking and her eyes welled up. I think her manager had given her a bit of a rollicking and wasn't aware of how she was running things there. 9 shifts left....yay!

I am going to figure out how much it is going to cost us to send both kids to city for their next school they are both due to start in September. No school buses to this one sadly. So I am going to see how much it will cost because if it is too much we need to seriously set about looking to move and soon. As it stands I was happy to send them on the train or bus and we take our time and get the location right next time. House i'm not so fussed about as we are both good at DIY -so long as space is right. Area needs to be right next time. DD will be of working age soon, I want a new job and DS2 is only a year behind DD. There is nothing here for youngsters, my friends kids all travel into the city for their work spending up to an hour travelling and over an hour's wages each time. Anyhow, lots of jobs calling me I best go off and do them I suppose. Thanks for stopping by all  

debtfreewannabe321

The money from v1nt3d arrived, I have rounded it up so that I could colour another square in on my house MOP so £20 sent over in all today.
I have possibly sold an old tv too someone is coming to look at it later on. Might be another square coloured in  and DP returned my new bike this morning I went to use it and one of the gears didn't work at all. He tried to fix it himself but it wasn't having any of it, I said let's take it back now before it's too late. A little gutted really as it was the perfect size and a lovely colour but I want one that will work properly. So DP has put the money back into his account for that and we will keep looking.

Not a NSD as DP car was flashing up all sorts of breakdown signs and warning alarms it is a company car so not too much of an issue to us aside from, we will be stranded here if it needs to be fixed. I ordered a battery for the key though and said don't ring it in yet as the other day when I was driving it it told me the battery was low on the key and then started flashing up things to me too. It went fine after that so I wondered if it was something simple like the battery on the key...one can hope eh. Ordered 4 new batteries as they don't seem to last very long, £3.99...so a low spend day but not a NSD sadly. 

I have sorted the dining room out, charity stuff is in the car ready to be dropped, all DIY stuff returned to the garage until next weekend. I wasn't having my newly sorted out room being the new dumping ground it's so hard to keep order in a house when you are the only one who cares about things in their rightful homes. Righty ho anyway, gonna hoover quickly and get ready for work. I polished all the wood furniture this morning with some orange oil and eevo mixed together, it smells nice throughout the house now so I will hoover so the floors look the same (who thought beige carpet would be a good idea with a dog *d'oh*).

debtfreewannabe321

Morning all, well this morning has been a bit frantic. First I will rewind to yesterday though, I went to work and after work I had dinner prepared, a dhal with rice. DD had decided to feed herself macaroni and cheese though so we ate the dhal, DS, DP & myself. I had had a rubbish shift at work, one went home sick half way through so we were left short and had to fill in with only an hour left on shift and he had done probably 20% of his work rather than about 60% before going off which is where he should have been by that time. So anyway after dinner I wanted some snacks, I was exhausted.

We had nothing in as my shop was due this morning so I went off to T3sc0. I stupidly asked DS & DD if they wanted anything, that was my mistake, right there, DS actually came with me to be fair to him with his own money, DD sent us off with a list of pringles and cheese. So I ended up spending £12.51 rather than my budgeted £5. I only had a little bit of money left in my bank for shopping this morning. I get to this morning and something was niggling at me to wake up early and check my emails. I did so, when S'burys shop for you they charge you for the more expensive options if they substitute for more expensive stuff *sigh* there were a fair few substitutions and my card was declined. I was about 50p short *grr* so I sat waiting for 7am panicking and thinking my shopping would be cancelled as my slot was 7-11am! I got through immediately (well at 7 after having waited twenty minutes for them to open) and paid for the shop (after transferring the extra over from EF) and the shopping turned up a while ago. Had I not bought snacks for DD I would have had plenty over, the cheese was nearly a fiver on it's own! Ugh. And I asked for a refund when he turned up as once again the peppers were mouldy. I would have had enough with that off the shop too he refunded me and asked if I wanted to keep them which I did. I opened it up and actually only a small bit was mouldy, I cut around that one and saved at least 2/3 of it and 2 whole peppers were fine! So that was good

Then I had messages pinging every 2 minutes, whilst I am unpacking my shopping, two people are off sick today (one from yesterday plus another one!) Manager who doesn't know how to manage for toffee was asking us two supervisors what we would like to do and how we should split the work, aw lawdy I am in awe at how that manager blagged her way into this job, cos she couldn't manage a p155 up in a brewery. We then, whilst not being paid to do so, had to work out how to delegate everything. We did so because it will make our shift easier but we were both pretty annoyed we were even discussing work at 9am.......... 8 more shifts....  

DS has used my washing machine twice in two days how will I ever save any money when he seems to undo my hard work to save money. He refuses to wash his clothes in with ours for some bizarre reason. This is a new thing and at first I thought, okay well at least he is becoming independent and learning how to use household appliances but 2 or 3 washes a week is more than what DP, DD & myself make in a whole week! 

After the bike went back for the refund DP account was looking healthy which is amazing right before payday! However this morning, unbeknownst to me he had arranged to spend that money and then some, on something else on fb! He went off to collect it first thing and was back by half 9. DS now has a floor standing punchbag. It is better than what he had and he uses his gym every day (he has one corner of the garage for this) so he gets more use out of it than I would the bike, but DP could have asked me first. The punch bag he currently has is the same size (bout 6ft) but it hangs from the ceiling in the garage and basically he is destroying the garage roof with using it so it was a necessary spend I guess. We are £70 down though instead of £65 down from the bike. As he needed sand for the base.

Onwards though, I have dinner out the freezer, cottage pie I just need to make some mash to top it. I will put a cabbage on the side with it too. I do enjoy having easy dinners from the freezer. The first week of the month with the non stop cooking is totally worth it for 2 easy weeks at the end of the month. I think people are sick of dhals and spag bols now but I don't care I will eat anything if it means I have an easy dinnertime. DP is looking forward to me being home all day again I think (well just over dinnertime is what he meant) so that we can eat at a normal time not when I get in which is after most people's dinnertime and I can stop DD eating all the snacks on shopping day because I am there to police it. I made some protein balls the other day, chopped nuts, soaked seeds, blitzed and soaked dates, and some cacao powder, all mixed up rolled into balls and coated in coconut and popped in the fridge. LOL well the dates I usually use.. they come de-stoned. I decided to use a different brand and there were stones, we all collectively nearly had broken teeth thinking we were biting into nuts so a warning went out be careful ....i will de-stone next time oops. 

My little fussy dog got a birthday treat for turning 12 - some posh new wet food. Which true to his name he stuck his nose up at he is snoring happily in his bed right now, little old man dog. I will take him out for a walk, do the mash for dinner and then get ready for work as I am in early to cover sickness. I so wish I could see how it will all fall apart when I leave and the other supervisor leaves the following week after me am I mean for wishing this? Probably but I don't care, it's true

Righty ho gonna catch up on here quickly with my tea in hand, then get on.  

debtfreewannabe321

Running total on my food shopping even with small added shops this week from coop and Mr T is £439.33!! This is my best yet and I think we have enough in now until our month resets on the 25th!! I am also due that refund for £2.10

Oh and edited to add the tv I had up for sale sold! I have £25 cash sat on the side. I will wander into town in a bit and pay it in to the post office and send some across for the MOP I am determined to pay as much as I can now we are nearing the end of the month and all bills and food are paid for. wonder if I can make some more money selling more bits and bobs ..hmmm