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

LadyWithAPlan

GF pasta at Lidl?!? Need to go on a hunt 

I had initially read ‘naughty cows’ then was confused why they were digging up anything in your garden .. Hope you solving the crow problem 

Monzo has lots of pots you can set up to hold amounts for categories - I used to use them and v easy to move monies between them 

dawnybabes

If you’ve a Morrisons near you they do cheapish GF pasta and oats …..

dawnybabes

Also if you’re ’down south’ basically anywhere below chesterfield - Aldi are trailing a GF range and people are raving about the breadcakes / baps / tea cakes / barm cakes / rolls (delete for whatever you call them .,) 

debtfreewannabe321

I sometimes shop at Mr M but it is the other side of town and when I've four SM's within walking distance here I tend to only go if someone is demanding donuts from there However, I do have an Ald1 in walking distance. I never go in there as I don't like the store layout, but I will go and look if they have some GF! I have been buying my weekly shop in L1dl then going to Mr T for the GF, VG stuff I can't get in there but it works out so expensive so it would be great to have options. I have also noticed our little Mr A has lots of options now for GF and VG. Makes my tummy happy   I've just looked on t'internet and our local Ald1 is apparently stocking their new GF range- yay! I'll go have a look on Sunday when I next shop

debtfreewannabe321

Morning all, I am loving these lazy mornings and not having to get up stupidly early. Early mornings were for my teens, twenties, thirties, I realise in my forties I have outgrown them I feel much better for getting up in my own time and going to bed slightly later. 
I need to do nothing today aside from wash my hair and make a curry. I washed my hair last night after dying it.....however, hmm, let's just say I managed to dye the hair, the face, the scalp, the neck and the arms too. Certainly got my money's worth. And even after scrubbing last night it wasn't budging, so daily hair washes until it comes out 🙈 and I will remember not to buy this dye again, the last one was amazing and didn't leave any colour anywhere aside from on my hair!

I'll do a wash as I have been putting it off, I was hoping for a dry day but I think pigs might fly first. Will have to use the TD instead.

I checked my gas/elec app though and our monthly usage has dropped massively. March's usage was £143.24, April's usage was £76.08 and this month so far is £56.51 and the month ends this weekend! I am in debt with them at the moment but I refused to put my DD up because I wanted to state the amount as I knew my usage would drop, and I wanted to put it up £30 it wouldn't let me until I reached £50 more a month (i've tried this several times now and the amount I need to up it by does change as the debt goes down, I will keep trying until I get to the amount I want to pay). So anyway the debt should be paid off over summer, and then I will try and up the amount to where I want it to be. The debt accrued when those utterly ridiculous bills were coming in for hundreds every month. So I know the debt will only continue to go down now I have sorted that out. 

I have read 2 books this half term, I am enjoying getting back into reading again. I stopped for years when I did my degree, I think most would call it burn out, and I didn't touch a novel for a long time. So I am enjoying finding my reading passion again I also read my cousin's dissertation for her and made a few suggestions which she was grateful for and used before sending it off I am enjoying reading and writing in my own space, it does make me wonder if I should maybe find another online course or something. I believe I can access some free ones through work, I will ask around about that I think. 

I don't have much else to say, which is nice, it's the opposite of feeling overwhelmed with too much to say and think  about. I'm going to try and enjoy these last few days off and make the most of them. And when I do go back to work I do only have 4 weeks until I am off for a very long summer break  

debtfreewannabe321

I've cut the grass and had to get down on my hands and knees with scissors to do the edges. This reminds me of a memory of my grandad when he bought a pair of scissors in the late 80s and they claimed to be able to cut anything. Anyway he was cutting his hedge one day with them when we turned up and I remember mum and her siblings all calling him a crazy old man 😁😆😆 I think I've evolved into him 🤣 I think I might need to buy a strimmer ...there are too many edges 🤣.
NSD here yay!
I've purposely avoided going out of the house so I didn't spend. 

I've made a few decisions on the budget thanks to unexpected spends from nowhere (i.e a boiler service which has somehow turned into a oooo sorry it is the BIG service this year at 6 years old- of course it would be!) and a few other small things which escape my mind right now. But thankfully thanks to my kinda floating - to be used for anything like this pots of which I have two- I can cover it from there instead of having to redo the budget again. I had ynab saved up which I'd put around £80 away for so that's half the cost of the service because I'm not renewing that anymore. Then I will borrow the rest from the yearly pot. And just keep paying back into it. Hopefully it will be full enough to pay for the car service and also insurance once they're due. It's all a learning curve when you're in a new house and coming back to budgeting after being absent for a while 😬. You forget the odd thing. Or two. I shall add boiler service to my yearly costs going forward. 

debtfreewannabe321

I had a little pampering session last night after dinner. I did my nails- both sets, face mask, I'd already coloured my hair a few days ago and I used my body brush and moisturiser. What I wanted was a spa day 😉 (don't we all) but this was the next best thing lol and I feel better for it 😁. 
My hair has grown a fair bit since I got it cut I'm debating letting it grow long or keeping it short and choppy. It definitely looks more styled short but I still am in shock every time I look in the mirror at myself after 40+ years of long hair 🤣. 

I'm going to hell on earth today, aka a kid's indoor play place, to meet my cousin and her two daughters. My DD has agreed to come and play with them...I'm wondering if this one session will either make or break her decision to want to teach children 🤣.

Right I'm off to hang out a wash before I go and eat something as I don't usually like anything served at these places and would rather save my money. I'm hoping to report back with no headache and minimal spends on entry. 

slm6002

I am very glad that my children have passed the age of having to go to soft play places.  I don't envy you at all, but hope you have a good time meeting up with family 

debtfreewannabe321

slm6002 said:

I am very glad that my children have passed the age of having to go to soft play places.  I don't envy you at all, but hope you have a good time meeting up with family 

It wasn't too bad. The last time I went there I nearly cried afterwards 🤣 seriously it was that loud and overwhelming and the music blaring and too hot that I swore I'd never go back. Since then they've clearly had air con fixed and also the music was on very quiet and no absolute screaming banshees like the last time. So I survived 🤣 

debtfreewannabe321

As above, day out survived although I do have a mild headache now. But it feels like a thunderstorm headache (as I like to call them I have always got them when the weather is very close and muggy like it is now). However since then it has rained so it's eased a bit. I'm sat in my greenhouse decompressing 😁 it's too wet to sit outside as it keeps spattering with rain still. 
It was good meeting up with my cousin and her children were lovely and polite and my DD did a grand job of taking them into the play place even though she's a little too old to want to go herself 🥰. My cousin and I sat on the side and chatted and caught up with the family. We were once a very close family so it was nice to catch up on all my other cousins (this cousin and I are what's known as double first cousins so we share all the same cousins/ Grandparents and friends of family on both sides). I'm quite tired now though.
I did naughtily stop at the range and I bought an aubergine plant. It looked quite big and healthy to me but cousin and DP both said it's got a lot of dead flowers 🤔 here was me thinking this is where the aubergine grows from, maybe I'm wrong though 🤣 I've never got this far with one before as snails and slugs usually feast on them. I'm keeping it in the Greenhouse and I've potted up a couple of sizes. I don't want to put in the ground as too many weeds are popping up everywhere in there. 
I've got to iron DD uniform yet and make dinner so I'll have to go back in in a while. 
We all ordered mcd's back and took back to mine so they have only gone in the last hour. Conversation was good though and not awkward like it can be after years of non communication so that was good. 


I've had a squirrel trying to get into my greenhouse for a nosey ... wondering what it might dig up when I'm not looking so maybe I ought to leave the doors closed a bit more. We also had a whole flock of what looked like yellow birds but I'm not sure what they were. They got scared away from my lawn when I went into the conservatory...I got scared too 🤣 they all took flight at once 🙈. Then I saw them flitting between trees together. Not sure what they were they were more yellow than a goldfinch 🤔 not very good on my bird breeds. 
I saw a tip on a FB group about picking your strawberries when they are still white and ripening on a windowsill so you don't have to fight the birds for them....not sure if it works as it had mixed reviews in the comments and the netting is working okay. Although the strawberries as they grow are trying to escape out the sides of it.

I've been paid from the temp job! £20 more than I thought so that was good it paid for my aubergine plant and plant food today as well as mcd's 🤣.

Right I'll be off. Nothing else to report 🌺.