Extending our house without extending ourselves beyond our means

Bobarella · 17 January 2017 at 10:43PM

Darn the Christmas break!!!! Time to lock up the Barbie's till they toe the line says I.

Horray for new airing cupboards and free brews! Boo for not having a spare £500....

PurpleFairy26 · 22 January 2017 at 9:33PM

Last week was crazy busy. But the good news is:

Both girls asleep :T
Carpenter has done an amazing job in their room, just back tomorrow to finish last bit but I love it.

We had our new carpet/flooring in our lounge diner. Looks amazing so much better than I envisaged :T
We've continued to keep food spend to a minimum. Using various random things from the freezer. I did do a mu$cle food order tonight but ordered a bundle and 5 x 500g of lean mince for 99p each :T
Managed to keep on top of washing, drying it inside so no extra electric for the TD
Continued to PAD, savings looking good :T
Avoided going out for tea/cake twice this weekend

The could do better news:
Managed no exercise last week, not good for the soul
Work was crazy busy and likely to be the same this week
We've had the heating on a bit on the evening as it's felt v cold, we still have one room without radiator though too

Another week has passed by and we're hurtling toward February. How did that happen! Good news is febs holiday is paid off and we still have money on the bank with only 1 weekend left until payday

PurpleFairy26 · 23 January 2017 at 9:44PM

Cat christened the new carpet with a fur ball :eek::eek: luckily it cleaned up according to the instructions the fitters left.

Was working from home so wanted to take the opportunity to get some stuff done (other than work!)

Man finished replacing wood and doors in DD room, we ordered carpet for there. I'm really thinking of moving in there

Checked my banking and moved some funds around, another pad to savings

Made bns macaroni cheese, was lovely and allowed me to a) use packet of frozen bns from freezer and two squaffles that were lurking in fridge b) use some macaroni that I cooked last week I'd not used and c) had to use a pasta combination of macaroni, orzo and wholewheat to have enough
Forgot it made a double batch so I have one for the freezer too

Got lots of work done
Managed to spend some time with DD doing her homework
Some boots arrived I'd ordered in the sale, they're too narrow so I'll and them back. Shame as they had a lovely fur lining and would be nice and warm
Nice and snug under a blanket watching midsummer murders

Lots of hot drinks

I've ordered a new baby gift and a christening gift from a local artist
Made a rice pudding whilst oven was on

Productive day all round

1LuckyLady · 23 January 2017 at 10:12PM

wow PF, it sounds like all the work on the house is coming together now

Bobarella · 23 January 2017 at 11:53PM

Oh no! Cats and hairballs! Ewww...

Glad everything is going so well

brizzledfw · 24 January 2017 at 9:46AM

Have a good day PF

PurpleFairy26 · 24 January 2017 at 11:51PM

I've spent much of this evening doing additional work, but hoping it will make tomorrow not so bad as I have lots of work on then too

Washing ticking over on radiators/airer DH asleep so haven't managed to empty DW and re-load to do overnight, will do first thing in the morning and catch the last of the cheap leccy

Leftovers in SC (plus some new sausages I've not tried before) including BNS and cheese sauce left from yesterday, carrots that had frozen in fridge in garage that I stashed in there pre Christmas and forgot about, passata and an onion. I carrot was just too cold to hold, so I put that in my veg stock bag in the freezer to make friends with a broccoli stalk

leftover rice pudding for pud:D DH taking HM soup to work for supper. I'll take rest tomorrow for my lunch.

Money shuffle around, including PAD for today and tomorrow to savings, now at 3.40 for tomorrow

pot already at nearly £100 :j

Parted with some hard earned savings for craftsman who did work last week. work looks amazing still. DH will do some painting/ staining in there on Thursday and although I wasn't going to I have decided to get a new curtain pole. Current one is wood and sticks badly and now we have nice painted walls its very noticeable most of the paint has come off it. There's a place I've used on line before that is cheap and gives decent cash back that I will use, need to get additional curtain hooks for a previous pole I ordered from them that didn't justify the postage on its own so win win. Need to look for Brownie uniform for DD, will start on fleabay.

PurpleFairy26 · 30 January 2017 at 10:11PM

Wow, nearly another week has gone by. Why does work get in the way so much :rotfl: I could definitely fill my time (very usefully) not at work

obviously would nice to still be paid the same

Good week this week, current account still in positive and only 3 days until payday. Pad challenge still happening, pot already at just over £100

DH has agreed to swap his bank account to t$b to get switching reward

I already have an account for interest purposes only. Will look into getting a joint one when his is set up and then we can just permanently stash max savings across the 3 and forget about it (bar shipping £500 through it each month) until they slash the interest.

Seriously considering swapping DDs accounts. Was looking in to it anyway but after queuing for 15 minutes in local bs today to withdraw some money and acknowledging the shocking interest rates combines with shoddy service, I might just choose to go somewhere more flexible. Something to ponder

Need to text plumber tofix radiator and then we can confirm carpet. Have picked and they have given us approx date.

Managed to pay £2,32 cheque in today that is over a year old from when we switched energy companies. It's been out with me on many an occasion :rotfl: just never made it to the bank. Has also been lost and found several times

will go straight to savings

Found a local veg shop in town that's actually a market stall (normally only open twice a week) that's now a pretty permanent pop up shop. Bought £4.50 of fruit today

hubby said he'll go back on Monday for veg and fruit for the week :T hopefully that'll help food budget enormously as we eat loads of fresh stuff and a1di is too poor quality here. Things don't last a day unfortunately. L1dl opening next year or late this. Very exciting

small things and all that :rotfl:

PurpleFairy26 · 5 February 2017 at 9:48PM

Well, January has been and gone - fairly quickly in my view.

The good news is last week bought pay day :T we used the first £140 from our savings that we'd specifically put aside for family things that are happening this summer. It felt good

EF now at 87% (well at least target one of it!) less than 2 months to target (assuming I don't have to dip in to it) will then have a 2nd target
I've listed 21 items on fleabay today and have 2 large bags sorted out to go to charity shops
I've another large bag of stuff to list, just doing in stages.

One of 4 wardrobes removed from bedroom (after being emptied) and furniture juggled. Seems so much more spacious, can't wait to get rid of the other 3

Plummer and carpet booked, leaves me a couple of weeks to finish painting, including sanding windowsill. Then blinds can go up. Hopefully wardrobes can be in by end of march :T

brizzledfw · 6 February 2017 at 1:53PM

:j to that EF and the family fund too.

Your continuing home improvements sound great as well.

I am finding EBay a bit of a drag, but have some listed. Fingers crossed they sell

Have a good week

Extending our house without extending ourselves beyond our means

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