Light the fire...

woodfired · 9 June 2019 at 4:38PM

Quite a productive day so far, two loads of washing almost dry on the line and another washing as we speak.

I weeded the sweet pea area then planted out my baby plants I'd grown from seed. I love sweet peas. I've shuffled my pots round and brought out the ones from the 'nursery' area that have grown on nicely and are starting to flower. Hopefully the rabbit won't find them too tasty and devour them.

I also found a little time for a swing in the hammock seat on the veranda of the summer house, it is Sunday after all.

In the house, I've tidied and cleaned downstairs, made prawn brioche rolls for lunch and I am about to tackle the pie for dinner. I have lit the Esse to cook dinner and heat the water for kiddies bath later. I'll sort the washing out whilst they have a play in the bath (they're old enough to leave alone but within earshot). I was planning on making a jam sponge for pudding tonight but then found a jam roly-poly whilst digging in the freezer so we can declutter that instead. :beer:

Finally I have ordered an online Tesc0 shop to arrive tomorrow. This is to make use of some money off vouchers they have sent, £12 off an £80 shop is the first one. I've done a meal plan
and shopped accordingly but ordered extra meat for the freezer to take me up to the £80 mark - I find I spend much less online than I do in store and was struggling to reach £80.

zcrat41 · 9 June 2019 at 8:57PM

Hi wood fired,
I've very much enjoyed Reading your diary. You've done fantastically!!

Well done! Very inspirational - especially the recipes!

woodfired · 10 June 2019 at 4:41PM

Hi zcrat, you're very kind, thank you.

I do find keeping a diary helps me stay on track and I use it as a point of reference quite often too, eg. when checking how much we owed at certain points. Thanks for your lovely comments.

woodfired · 10 June 2019 at 4:56PM

Monday. Done. Phew.

A busy day today, work this morning 'til 12. I was busy there as the main order came in and needed unpacking. Then came home and pegged out my washing (was supposed to rain but been lovely all day) then nipped out for a run. Didn't get very far as I realised I wouldn't be able to complete my run and be back in time for TESC0 man so had to turn round and take a shorter version (turned out well as I seem to have got very unfit in the last few weeks!!

:rotfl:) The delivery arrived at 2.30 so I then had 50 minutes to make a cottage pie and unpack all shopping before collecting children from school. I managed to make the meat sauce (bulked out with lots of veg and a handful of porridge oats) and it was yummy with my secret ingredient of a spoon of marmite. Yum.

Nephew came at 3.30 for tutoring for his final Science exam and I am now waiting for the potatoes to boil for the topping. As I said, PHEW!!

Will serve the pie with veg on the side and there should be loads for tomorrow's dinner when I've been at work all day which is a bonus.

Tomorrow the new van is going in to the garage for an MOT and check over, hopefully nothing major is found. Will drop off tonight and leave the keys in the morning.

Just need to top the pie with mash, bring the washing in and run the hoover round the lounge and all will be tidy and ready for DH getting home. Aaaaand relax! :rotfl:

woodfired · 12 June 2019 at 7:06PM

Today I finished work early to attend the funeral of a very well-liked elderly local lady. It was a lovely send off for her.

Afterwards, I took a delivery in our new van which was MOT'd, taxed and insured yesterday and is all good to go. Delivery was easy and I enjoyed driving the van!

It was after 4 when I got home so I started dinner straightaway and lit both fires as the weather is still horrible.
I made toad-in-the-hole for the first time and it was lovely. I roasted some old parsnips with carrots and onions to use them up and had with mash and gravy. The whole family enjoyed it on this cold damp day.

In money news, there is none. No news that is :rotfl:.
Been sticking to my meal plan which has worked well so far, lots of meat in the freezer for next week's plan too. We are keeping spends low in general, although, we have organised a charity pub walk for this weekend to raise money for a little girl with cancer who needs treatment in America. We are charging £10 a head to take part, £1 will pay for the bus to take us to the start and the rest goes to the charity. Hopefully there will be over 30 people so a decent contribution and a nice day out. This will cost us a bit but it's for a good cause. :A

woodfired · 14 June 2019 at 11:31AM

I've been playing with my OP spreadsheet again.

The numbers don't quite add up to my actual mortgage balance for reasons I cannot figure out but they're not too far off (actually tried another members spreadsheet they had posted and that was the same ) and it does give me a rough idea of how much I need to find. Sub account 2 (on the high variable rate) was at £12227 in Feb and is now around £4800 by my reckoning. With another £3000 OP and the regular £300 monthly OP sent to this account we are on track to have it cleared by the time sub account 1's fix ends in Oct. This would mean the mortgage would be at around £108k by Oct. This would be fantastic if we can pull it off! £3k in 5 months is ambitious but not completely ridiculous. Still aiming high.

In other news, DD was trying it on this morning, she fancied a day off school as it's times table and spellings test day but I persuaded her to go in eventually.
DH is on a corporate golf day, gets him out of the house for the day and it's all paid for so no spends needed aside from sharing a taxi home later.

I am home trying to motivate myself to do some washing and cleaning. House is a bit untidy but I am distracted by diaries on here!!

I really need to have a look through the fridge as I am conscious of leftovers in there that need re-purposing and eating up. Need to empty the fridge out and see what I can create from the odds and ends. This will be dinner tonight.

Tomorrow is our charity walk so I am also going to prep dinner for then ready to throw in the oven when we get home (trying to avoid the temptation of a takeaway).

woodfired · 14 June 2019 at 8:22PM

Finished up quite a good day today, although DD came home at lunch time poorly and promptly made a full recovery. :rolls eyes:

I had made myself a list of 'big' jobs to be completed in June and I managed to tick two off the list today, clearing out and re-organising my wardrobe and then doing the same for the under-the-kitchen-sink cupboard. I still need to clear the garden of junk and take to the tip, clear out under the stairs and sort out the summer house (full of junk). 2/5 completed in one day though, not a bad start.

I have also done a couple of loads of laundry, one has dried on the line, the next has been pegged out late tonight for a head-start on tomorrow's drying (a few bits we might need tomorrow are drying on the Esse). Just a white wash to do and the baskets are empty. :T

Tidied and cleaned the kitchen and the rest of downstairs. Had a look through the fridge contents; ate some leftover sausages, mash and roasted veg for lunch. Leftover burgers for dinner for me and sausages/mash for children, DH still out (3 course dinner was provided at the golf do). Still got some mash and veg to use up, may do bubble and squeak with poached eggs for brekkie? Would keep us full on our walk too which would be a bonus.

Now I am sat with a chilled glass of Prosecco enjoying my tidy house and a bit of peace and quiet before DH gets home. Happy Friday folks.xx

woodfired · 17 June 2019 at 4:33PM

Half day at work today. Home at 12.

Tidied and hoovered, ordered some wood for DH, sent a parcel, collected some change for the shop, updated spending spreadsheet, lit the fire ready for the children coming home (cool and wet again here), chased up bank business manager about loan fix (again!!!) :mad:.
DSis messaged to say Dream House has been reduced in price (she's an Estate Agent) so chased up accountants for latest set of accounts (again!!!) :mad: Should be with us this week. Mortgage advisor has b*ggered off on holiday, back next Mon but hasn't been much help so far. I'm hoping he'll pull his finger out next week and give us an idea if the whole thing is feasible or not. Sigh. Now I'm worried that somebody else will swoop in and buy it before we can get ourselves organised (looked fairly overpriced before, more appealing now).

On the bright side I have left over beef and potatoes from last night's roast dinner. Fresh batch of (huge) yorkshire puds have just gone into the oven, just need to cook some peas and dinner will be ready.
DS seems a bit under the weather and is very tired. A good hot dinner and an early night will do him the world of good.

woodfired · 23 June 2019 at 6:47PM

Another weekend over and done, where do they go?!!

Reading back through my last few posts i've realised that I've managed to complete all of my 'big' June jobs. We have cleared the garden of old/broken furniture/toys/trampolines and lots of other random junk. Delivered it to the tip this afternoon so fully de-cluttered. I have also de-cluttered under the stairs. It seems the main problem was a huge amount of hats/gloves/scarves/waterproofs that won't really be needed for another few months so I've moved them to the attic room and there is now much more space under the stairs and once it was re-organised and some extra hooks for coats put up it looks great. Finally, I sorted out the summer house, not too big a job, simply a tidy up, moved some bits to the proper shed, washed the cushions and throws then a sweep of the floor. Done.

In amongst all of that we found time to host 15 friends for an afternoon of games in the garden followed by an evening around the firepit which was lovely. Hope everyone else had a fab weekend.xx

FloppyDisk · 27 June 2019 at 4:39PM

Hi Woodfired, how are you getting on with your Esse in summer? We had a good look at them with our new kitchen in mind but couldn't justify it as our boiler works fine as it is (will probably die just as everything is installed!)

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