I dream of a MF home for my plants

Idreamofplants

Friday at last. G&T in hand and looking forward to the weekend. Still need to get bulbs. Managed to pick up so craft bits in my lunch, spent £41 and now have a couple of projects to get started on, the first being a new crochet scarf. Got an interview next week for some additional hours for when my fixed term contract ends. Not the end of the world if I don’t get it but would mean guaranteed full time hours for another year. Looking forward to a run tomorrow then some gardening. Going to a farmers market and going to set myself a budget so I don’t buy loads of things I don’t need.

debtfreewannabe321

Amazing OPs very inspiring that your smaller one is nearly gone! 
Did you give the cheese plant some feed? I feed my houseplants quite regularly up to winter even though you're only supposed to do it in summer (or so I was told). They are all thriving after our move (after a few being finnicky and being moved around a few times lol) I have a white flower just appearing on my peace lily now and some new babies on the spider plants  

Idreamofplants

I'm very jealous of your white flower on your peace lily Debtfreewannabie - I have been giving mine so much attention and whilst the leaves look very healthy not a sign of a flower yet I do however have spider babies on my two spider plants which I'm very pleased about. I'm terrible at not remembering to feed the plants - maybe I should see if that helps the cheese plant - it is looking happier back in the kitchen - we shall see.  
I've done quite a bit of outdoor gardening this weekend which is something I don't get around to do anywhere near often enough.  Planted my bulbs from B and M - £10 for 6 packs which I thought seemed pretty reasonable (I may be horribly wrong here - but I'm confident these were cheaper than the garden centre not at least because there I would have bought coffee and cake).  I made a bit of a border for the bulbs to go in which I'm quite pleased with.  The I took out a couple of overgrown and not very attractive looking shrubs from the back garden.  They were gifts from when we first moved in that I happily planted without thinking about how they would grow.  One of them had long rope like beaches all over the ground - it was like wrestling with an octopus to get it cut out! The other was all spiky and I had to take a saw to it in order to get all the branches off.  I have no idea how I will get the root out of the ground - am a bit worried it goes right under the neighbours fence & if I try and lift it out the fence will fall down.  So for the time being I'm going to ignore the remaining stump.
Went out with OH to the forest today - turned out to be quite spendy as we bought an annual pass for the year (£72) which covers the parking charges. Otherwise to park would be £9.50 for 3 hours.  I like to go a lot with the dog this time of year. It helps me to feel less stressed so I think it is money well spent. I bought it from the shopping budget of which I had £400 remaining for 3 weeks (only 2 shops). So this should be fine.  Got lots of other jobs done today including fixing some clothing for my youngest on the sewing machine, and baking apple crumble for pudding later.  Also caught up with eldest for a long chat on the phone.  Sent them money towards their rent (£1240!) because their student loan only covers just over half of their rent for the year.  
I need to work out what the early repayment charges will be on the small mortgage as next month we have 12 months left on the fixed term and I think I will be close to being able to pay it off in full but not sure whether the penalty is 2% of the amount left or 2% of the amount borrowed.  I need to root around in my documents to try and find where this info is unless anyone has any idea??

Idreamofplants

Found our early repayment charges are of the original amount borrowed so £300 if we paid off small mortgage on full this month or £200 next month as we will be within the last 12 mo of the mortgage. The interest in the amount I would need to stay in the account to make the repayments will be about be reduced to about £4 per mo so I’m better off letting it run its course than paying the fine. That’s if my maths is correct! Never a certain. 

Viking_mfw

I was just popping in to say I love your diary name but I see everyone says that! Great work on the mortgage!

Idreamofplants

thanks Viking - I’m a little bit plant obsessed. I mean I don’t really know that much about plants but the ones I keep alive give me so much joy & I’ve never been able to resist buying them in a fairly spontaneous fashion. As a consequence my garden is a random hodge podge of things growing too close together and every window sill inside has plants fighting for sunlight. Whenever I’m feeling blue my OH drives me to the forest nearby and within a few minutes of being surrounded by trees I tend to feel human again. 

NSD here - and then walked to my evening class to get some fresh air and save on petrol. Interview tomorrow so still need to practice my presentation. Not all that fussed if I don’t get it as it’s only to guarantee my extra hours and we are always so short staffed at work there’s usually plenty of chances to work more. Plus on the flip side if I go back to working 4 days next year whilst the mortgage saving will take a hit I will have more time for the important stuff in life / namely my plants  

beanielou

Hope all goes well tomorrow.

Idreamofplants

Thanks Beanielou. Interview was pretty terrifying but I have been offered the hours - it’s a partial secondment for a year and sounds really interesting. The frustrating bit is still not sure whether it will guarantee my hours are extended so waiting to hear about that next week. I’ll probably do it even if they aren’t just for the chance to have a bit more variation at work and for the experience. 

Had a pretty thrifty week so far. V impressed that I managed to convince OH he doesn’t need a new heater for his office (£80 saved) or a blind for the door (£24 saved) as we have an old heater and blind elsewhere in the house.  Hoping to use any money we have left in the food budget to order lots of glass jars from ike@ and then make lots of condiments next weekend. OH v excited about this as he is slightly obsessed with pickling.  Found some lovely wool left over from a craft project that I’ve started to make a friend a baby hat for as a gift. Might have enough to make one for another friend who’s just had a baby as well. Have spent £15 on a couple of bits for my sewing machine - I’ve been thinking of upgrading it for a while then was advised I could add a plate to cover the dogs which was all I wanted a new machine to do - hoping it does the trick - got free postage to the local collection point too. 

Got a long run planned this weekend so plenty of guilt free carbs to be consumed between now and then. 

beanielou

Well done. Hope you hear about the hours soon. 

Idreamofplants

fingers crossed Beanielou

just come on here to record the fact that my peace lily has a flower coming through I'm so happy! I've had her for about 5 years and she was a gift from a colleague for a project I co-ordinated at work.  After the first year or so she hasn't flowered and the past few months I've been moving her all over the house, spraying her with midst, feeding her etc then today I saw a perfect white flower is coming through.  Her current position is on top of a music table that belonged to my grandparents that I am currently trying to sell. I am now wondering whether to keep the table because the plant is so happy on it 
Had a productive afternoon - finished baby hat - looks v cute, went to the library then managed to get a thick curtain from the charity shop that I plan on washing, resizing and hanging in front of the back door to see if that helps warm up the back of our house.  Took my dad out for a coffee which was nice.  I struggle to get along with him most of the time so we don't see each other that often. He's quite eccentric which makes him both loveable and totally infuriating in equal parts.  
Spending tomorrow with middle child Uni visiting for the day so will be a spendy day with train tickets, lunch and coffee but am looking forward to the time with them as we don't often get a day out together. Plus my new sewing machine bits such come tomorrow so excited to have a play with them once they arrive.