MeandO's mortgage-free musings

DS and I sorted through all of his toys today after school. I reminded him that he needs to make room for any new toys Santa may bring and, as there are lots of children who don’t get toys at Christmas, it may be nice to donate some. It took us an hour and a half, but he was really good and has sorted 2 bin bag fills of toys he no longer wants! We have filled one bag for the charity shop; some we have put aside for family and friends, and some I have since listed on gumtree and eBay to make a few £’s. I’m really pleased, we now have loads more space and the playroom (or other end of the lounge!) is much less cluttered.

As I was listing things, I forced myself to finally get round to listing a few other items that I have been meaning to do for a while now. I’ve gone for a mixture of eBay and gumtree, but if a few things don’t sell on gumtree then I will list them on eBay too.

I’ve also make a good attempt at tidying the bedroom I use as my office. It currently has Christmas stuff in there alongside the new shower and bathroom materials which, I hope will be done soon, but i’ve managed to declutter and tidy everything else in there.

I have a large, heavy piece of equipment that I used to use for my small business which I am now likely to sell. It is really heavy and can’t be posted, so I will have to sell it locally. It should net a couple of hundred pounds though if I can sell it. I’ll look at doing that at the weekend.

I’ve just cashed in survey points for another £5 amazon voucher. I have bought everything I need for Christmas now so I will save it for DS’s birthday shopping or perhaps the January sales if anything reaches out and grabs me!

Had yet more awful news about my Mum's condition last night, so last night was a bit of a write off. I did manage to get a bit of work done, but not a lot.

DS's school has decided to bleed dry us parents even more lately. DS had to take £1 into school today for non-uniform day, plus £2.50 spending money to buy some Christmas [STRIKE]crap[/STRIKE] 'crafts'. There's a 'demand' for £5 for teacher's Christmas presents, courtesy of the band of the 'cool Mum's club' (who don't actually lower themselves to speak to any other parents in the school yard until they want money, but make sure they are heard by everyone every day by talking so loudly to each other about their latest exploits that I seriously thought at least one of them must be deaf at first). Then there's £8 wanted from the school for a photograph of all the classes (why would I want this?!); £20 for a school photo (I ordered the copyright free photo online and saved money), not forgetting the £35 spent on costumes the past few weeks and the £4 for children in need events and £4 for a disco. Seriously, it's starting to take the p*ss now. :mad:
Anyway, I've not partaken in most of the above and DS isn't bothered by most of it excoet the fun stuff, so I make sure he's not left out of that.

The little bit of tax credits that I receive has gone in today and YNAB has been updated. There is a little bit of money 'spare', so I will be splitting that between the mortgage and the savings later.

I have ordered an online shop for tonight. I've bought a few bits for Christmas food shopping to freeze, such as a smoked ham joint for £8, so it is more expensive that normal at just under £70. It does mean that most of the Christmas food shopping is done though, apart from fresh veg. I don't really know what plans are for Christmas Day yet, but it won't involve cooking for more than 3 - 4 of us at the most. Christmas is complicated when you're divorced, with a child, and all your family live a long way away. It's made even worse by the fact that my Mum is so very poorly.

Tonight is DS's swimming lesson and then we need to pop to Home bargains to pick up a card and little birthday present for DS's friend. I already have one thing in my present box, but need something to add to it.
I also need to post some parcels, including 2 returns which sould see £30 back to the bank account.

£114 just spent on the credit card , but it is something I have been price watching for some time. The cheapest it had been previously was £169, so quite a saving.
A BIN has been sold on ebay in the last hour too, so have transferred the funds straight to the credit card to start paying the new balance off.

Another sale of £15 locally for collection on Saturday.

I've donated some of DS's too small bits to a colleague for her grandchildren today and also have a big bag earmarked for the charity shop which I'll try and drop off this weekend.

Tonight I have a bit of running round to do - to the post office and the chemist. Hopefully all spends at the post office will be covered by my business account card I have with them, depending on how much prepaid credit is left on there.

I got stung for yet more money last night once I'd picked DS up - at a school fair. Another £8 gone 'buying back' his artwork... :eek:


I'm hoping for a NSD today. Yesterday was costly!

Another BIN sold on ebay for £15, but have left the money in the account for now as I had to pay £50 in postage yesterday as the business postal account was pretty much drained of credit unfortunately.

The £114 item came and is being returned. Less than impressed with it and happy to have the money refunded. I also returned a few other items for refunds yesterday so they should be credited once received, although for much smaller amounts.

YNAB updated, it's looking a little tight so no extra to throw at the savings or mortgage yet unfortunately.