Settling in for the long haul

Dakota_Rose

And my larger item has sold overnight 😊 I am pleased I held out a little bit. That’s £75 for the credit card.

Declaring a no spend day now. We have a family feast planned for dinner tonight from our family treats pot. We are making a selection of Chinese dishes for the children to try for the first time and have even ordered chopsticks to elevate the experience 😂. We saved £50 for it, but even with extras, it was £32 - all M&S pre-prepared dishes. We have more than we need and may well save some for a second dinner. This is significantly cheaper than a takeaway for the five of us and we’re all looking forward to it.

Dakota_Rose

Reporting back to say that yesterday was indeed a no spend day.

Parcel has been booked for collection this morning and the payment should clear today so that can be sent back to the CC.

The feast night was a success. It was lovely to see the children trying new dishes and they were so excited for it. It looked like a real feast too with lots of little dishes to try. Little Miss didn’t enjoy the food as much as her brothers but it was good to see her trying something new. Mr D and I very much enjoyed the food.

The walking pad arrived yesterday and I’ve had my first 30-minute session on it. I don’t know whether it was the heat or my fitness level, but I had worked up a proper sweat by the end. No breaks and a very ‘brisk’ walk meant it made a good workout for me. I had to wait until late evening to have a turn as every one of the children required repeat chances - just too exciting to resist - I felt like a fairground operator for a good hour in the afternoon supervising their turns fairly 😂.

And onto today, which should be another no spend day. I need to exchange an item though as a new water bottle (I bought for going back to work) has a sharp spring sticking out of the lid that we hadn’t noticed when buying. Mr D attempted to fix it but declared it would break if he tried any harder. Now, this was a lookalike of a more expensive branded water bottle I had been eyeing up. I’m having an internal debate as to whether I should exchange it for another or accept you get what you pay for and ask for a refund instead.

Blackcats

Good morning - your feast night sounds great. My kids used to enjoy the m n s Chinese or Indian ready meals too. We used to do an ice cream station treat night too with little bowls of chopped fruit, marshmallows, choc chips, ice cream sauce etc to add to a bowl of vanilla ice cream. It was vanilla because we could never agree on any other flavour despite heated debates on the yumminess or disgustingness of strawberry, chocolate etc 🙃

re your water bottle - my mum used to say "buy cheap, buy twice". I realise that doesn't sound very MSE but for an item that you will use every day at work it might be worth buying the best bottle.

ohdearhowdidthathappen

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82102619#Comment_82102619

Fab idea. Have you tried the takeaway bags? Waitr0se do a lovely Thai one for about £12, you’d need 2 for 4 of you. From memory, it has jasmine rice, pad Thai, a couple of curries and spring rolls maybe 🤔 They also do Indian and Chinese, but Thai is the best I think 😋. I want one for dinner now 😂

Dakota_Rose

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82103803#Comment_82103803

Thanks @Blackcats, I’m leaning towards agreeing with you re the water bottle but didn’t return it today as I was avoiding all temptation on an intended NSD. The ice cream station would go down a storm with my tribe - I’ll add it to my mental list of family treats to try 😊.

Dakota_Rose

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82104143#Comment_82104143

Part of the feast was a takeaway box - just £11.50, which had 3 mains and 2 sides. We then added a few more dishes to bulk it out and it was nice to choose specific ones for that.

We don’t have a Waitrose near by so I’ve never shopped at one. The newish M&S food to us is a big hit though we only ever venture in as a treat.

Dakota_Rose

So today was a NSD, and a nice mix of productivity and relaxation.

We spent some time at Mum’s this afternoon which was nice. We have a good collection of items gathering there for the car boot sale we are planning. I’ve listed a few things on marketplace and eBay today though to try and give us a head start and avoid losing £££s on more valuable items. I tried our luck via World of Books on the decent amount of books we had between us and was pleased to see that they accepted £25 worth to be collected on Tuesday. Now, I don’t think we would’ve made anywhere near £25 just on books at the boot sale so we’re chuffed with that as a head start. If nothing else, that’ll cover the pitch fee and provide a kitty for us.

I’ve got a buyer interested in 2 of my unwanted Lego sets - a friend gave them to us and we’ve worked hard to find replacement bricks and rebuild them - so that should be another £50 in cash later in the week. I’ve spent £12.50 on replacement bits but still a nice profit. This will be sent to the CC.

So lots of money sensible things today:

• Selling fixed-up Lego sets
• Listing lots of bits and bobs for sale
• Sent £78 to the CC
• We halved our pizzas before freezing so were able to double up on a fakeaway dinner without waste or piggery
• Last night’s leftover stir fry was used as a very tasty side dish to tonight’s pizza dinner
• Saved a few car boot sale-destined items from Mum’s for ourselves (toastie-maker I’m looking at you)
• Reading for entertainment
• Avoided the shops = removed temptation to spend ££
• Little Miss found my pair of earbuds underneath her bed today. They’ve since been replaced from her own spending money so I’ve now got those on charge and am looking forward to using them while on the walking pad.

Littlest unfortunately dropped the ‘old’ iPad when crossing the path to Mum’s today and it smashed spectacularly. There were many tears and apologies but we will live without it. It was mostly used by him and Little Miss for a game they enjoy. We’re not paying to replace this at the moment - my kindle tablet has been dug out and put on charge to fill the void. It won’t be as exciting but there’s a lesson to be learned there.

ellenvan

I definitely agree about the lesson learned.

If the iPad was just replaced straight away it's too easy.

Well done on your sales. Car boots are fun to do. But only really worth selling low value goods in bulk.

Dakota_Rose

Happy Sunday all. I really like this day of the week - always has a more relaxed feel to it.

I’ve had two small sales today. £4.50 for the car boot sale tin (Mum and I will split this 50/50, with Little Miss keeping everything for her sales) and a £4 personal sale on Vinted which will go towards the CC when cleared.

Today’s entertainment was free - we visited my brother for a movie afternoon and we both brought snacks so that was really nice.

I’m heading out shortly to return my faulty water bottle and I think I have decided just to get my money back rather than exchange for another.

Hope everyone is enjoying a relaxed day 😊

jwil

Well done on your sales!