Safely into a frugal September saving as we go...

[northender]

New thread. Thought I needed to get back on track.

Hi everyone 👋

I haven't been around for ages!!

I've only read a few pages of this thread so far but a few things struck me, the first was teens needing so many calories, my 17 year old ds can easily put away 4000 a day I reckon but he's 6ft 3, teen DD's on the other hand eat so little that I'm actually worried, one is veggie and the other has never had a big appetite, she's more interested in a smoothie or milkshake than a meal.

We have finally finished the house, had it valued and it's worth about £75k less than we spent on the work it's been an exhausting 18 months both physically and mentally and the thought of moving hasn't even crossed my mind other than moving far, far away to somewhere very rural.

Tomorrow is payday for both Dh and I, since all the works in the house are now finished and we won't be shelling out so much for tradesmen I've just started making mortgage overpayments of £500 each month, I'm not sure if this will be long term but I'm really trying to get on top of things financially and at the moment we won't pay the mortgage of until dh is 66!

Dh is worried about a second lockdown and has been panic buying toilet roll and frozen food so we have a freezer full of junk food that only he and ds2 will eat! He is also concerned about Christmas and I fear that he will soon start buying random gifts.

I hope everyone here is well, and surviving these days and weeks of the unknown.

Now my head is (hopefully) in the right place I'm thinking I may be able to stop the impulsive spending to make me feel better and finally get to grips with frugality!!

Welcome back camdenhope you feel happy with all the works done to the house, and can relax and enjoy it somewhat now.

What ever happened with the rogue roofers?

Hey Happier!

How are you doing in your new place?

Nothing happened unfortunately, we had to rectify everything at our own cost, it's been really hard, mostly because Dh has some mental health issues and ocd which means he takes things like this particularly badly, he can't just shake it off etc and feels responsible for everything.

Unfortunately the law in cases like these isn't on the side of the victim, the guy that ripped us off dissolved his company and started a new one straight after.

Hi camden I'm still in rented property and possibly will be for a while longer, mortgage offer will expire in two weeks so I hope not to lose the house I've deposit on. They haven't made it fit for anyone to get a mortgage on it so hoping that it will all come together.

That's so horrible for you and DH

@Mrsmadevans

Morning everyone 😀 Just realized it's only 13 weeks today Christmas Eve 😱

😱 13 weeks!

Bulbs purchased but still in car as it keeps raining. We also just had some hail stones.

Trying to persuade dh that he needs some thermals/warm clothes/ decent slippers as he will be wfh all winter and we don't want the heating on round the clock. He reckons he'll be ok in his hoodie!

Welcome back Accountant and Camden, pleased to hear the building work is finished. What happened to the dodgy roofers?

Evening all, the weather is grey today, lots of rain overnight. I do love this sort of weather, but only if I’m in the house warm. Busy day at work today, I’ve decided to prep home learning packs in case we need to go into isolation if someone in our class gets symptoms. So I’ve packed 2 weeks worth of lessons that are easy to do at home with parents, I’ll still be doing zoom calls if we can set them up but I just want to make sure we’re prepared. I’ve also been planning all my lessons with a home learning alternative just in case we go into full lockdown again and schools are closed. We are learning how to write letters in English, our activity is to write a letter to the prime minister about how we would handle COVID, I marked them at lunchtime and there are so many brilliant ideas, I think we should let year 3 run the country. I don’t like to share too much about my work but I would like to say I’m very proud of my class, it’s such a difficult time and they’ve handled it amazingly. I really can’t wait for parents evening to show the parents how brilliant their little ones are.

Cottage pie for tea tonight, I love it. The DC aren’t being as shitty as they were yesterday, I do love them and I really don’t want to wish away their childhood as I don’t want them to grow up. But my god I can’t wait until we can sit down for a meal and have a nice chat rather than screaming.

Welcome back accountant and camden, I don’t think we’ve ‘met’.

sea I hope you feel better soon, colds seem to be everywhere at the minute.

mrs I feel less crazy for being so excited now😂. I bloody love Christmas, but this year I’ve been more excited as I just want to make it magical for the DC after everything. I was reading my Christmas book last night and will start planning Christmas tea as I will be having mom and nan here for it. I’ve already got my winter candles out and am avidly planning activities. I need to take myself over to the Christmas board as not to annoy everyone here😂

Oh happier that’s really frustrating about the mortgage. Is there a specific house you had your eye on?.

I know the feeling orange, every so often we have a meal where everyone sits and eats and talks nicely to each other and it is so lovely but then the next day it's back to disappearing under the table, arguing, knocking over drinks and screeching!

Hi Accountant and Camden lovely to see you both back.

em that is an amazing cake too.

happier hope the mortgage re- application is straightforward.

We had our staff conference today - all done virtually. It was so fab. we had really top drawer speakers in and the focus was on our part of the business rather than the willy wavers and wankers. It was like they finally woke up to us delivering 70% of the outputs with far fewer people.

Happier l know it's mad ! Hope that mortgage is ok love you can do without the stress
Unescorted that is so good you had a good work day makes up for the bad ones
Orange you don't have to go on the Christmas board , it won't get on our nerves love
Life hope you are pleased with the work

Happier hope everything gets sorted in time for the mortgage. How frustrating

Been awake for hours. Brain going a million miles an hour. Lots of jobs to do today which all need to be sequenced correctly. Going to get up in a min and start because I can't settle

Will be a spendy day as need to pay occasional gardener

One blind and plinth down. One to go. Cleaning wallpaper now. Even though it's going eventually it's grim and new blinds will make it look worse

Fingers x happier.

Love a Good work conference

Don't over do it Wolfie. Carpet cleaning here today the snag jobs.

Don't annoy me about Christmas. Love it and behind on shopping

Morning everyone 😀
Off to Cardiff to get a microwave oven and a recycling system bin for DD 2. Any recommendations for the recycling system bin please?
Better shift already ordered Dd2 the pink mixer from Aldis for Christmas 😂 she will have it before then though of course!!!
Have a lovely day everyone 😀

It is breezy here today a really cold wind. Very sunny though so washing is out.
Just been out and did a top up shop. The greengrocers had Brussels sprouts - I love sprouts! Have bought some to have with Sunday dinner.

I don't mind the Christmas chat at all Orange. I've tentatively started my shopping and would really like to get most of it done by November but we will see.

em loved your cake bet ds did too.

Wolf I bet you can't wait until your house is all finished and you can sit back and enjoy it. You're doing a great job.

Had a online shopping mishap yesterday as I didn't finalise my amendments to my reserved basket so got 2 litres of gin delivered and nothing else ... well it could have been worse. Will need to go to real shops today instead.

Mrs what's the pink mixer from Aldi? Is this something I need in my life 😂

Snap snuggly - I ran 3 loads last night so this morning I looked like a right Mrs Mop pinning out a whole lines worth at first light.

Wolf stripping wallpaper is the way to go. At least with paint it is a quick splash plash splosh next time it needs a spruce.

I Am sooo tired today - I am going to book a post work nap. I am on DS pick up duty. If I wasn't I would have "worked" from bed.

So I've cleaned the entire house once. Taken down two sets of blinds/curtains. Taken up the stair carpet (with help). Taken stair and attic carpet to tip. Stairs filthy as is attic. Looks like they plastered/did work on the house, never swept up and then laid carpet with no underlay over the top. There is thick dust and grime and plaster everywhere.

The whole house is filthy and covered in dust again so I need to start again from scratch.

Grrrr

New blinds look good though

Also moved a tall bookcase, again with help

Washed some towels but daren't hang them up anywhere or they'll get filthy

not envy at the brussel sprouts but each to their own snuggly
mrsmadevans I'm interested to see what kind of recycling system you get for dd.

wolf you are a trojan worker, how frustrating to uncover that mess.

I've a wash on, and hoping to escape until next week before I've to do another one.

Yesterday
€23.30 in health food shop on tea/castor oil/epsom salts for tomorrow's detox which I'm putting off until another day now plus dd bought herself a crystal out of her pocket money, she's like a magpie for shiny things
€6 on 2 kinder bueno donuts for them
€9.60 in euro shop on pocket money sweets, flea treatment for dog and biscuits
€19.99 on new phone charging cable
€0.70 on parking
€0.60 on 500ml milk for ds's lunch today, going to try refilling those bottles and see how it goes next week. 1litre is 75c.

Today
€14 on rubbish, I brought it for a 3 hour spin in car yesterday and thought of it after depot was closed so took it in on my lunchbreak tomo
Was going to go to cinema tonight to take a break from my life so bf suggested we go for a few drinks instead, his local is very very local to him and social distancing and hygiene is top notch. Our 'wet' pubs reopened on Monday in Ireland. So see why I cancelled tomorrow's detox!

Dc both gone to playdates after school and with their dad tonight.

Thanks for all well wishes with the mortgage, I've been in this mortgage process almost 11 months now #tiredofitnow

Solicitor thinks if the vendors remedy the septic tank issues, I will be in house for Christmas so I'm phoning the vendor tonight and we'll see how that goes.

Exhausted.

Ds has a great day yesterday. Went pony riding. He loved it. Had everyone round for party. Loved it.

He was so spoiled. But in a good way. Very loved is my boy.

Today we are all tired. Ds didn’t go to bed until 930 last night. He was awake at 6 this morning. I’m exhausted. He has refused a nap. I took the opportunity to get him to sort out his toys. We’ve put some upstairs in his room.

Managed to get 3 loads of washing done. It’s windy as hell here today. Dry ish though.

I have a frugal dilemma of sorts and I need advice.

You may remember about five years ago when I was in and out of the thread that we were incredibly skint. I was commuting about 90
miles a day for a better paying job and after about 18 months of that my car had gone over 90000 miles was on its last legs constantly risking breaking down on a particularly accident black spot bit of motorway. I was worried about How I would afford to fix or replace it.

Df at the time wanted to go from two car family to one as dm was no longer driving. He gifted me his not quite 3 year old nice small hatchback. I get I am very lucky here.

Small hatchback has now done 66k and I love it lots. I have no plans to change it as I'm a drive them until they die type.

Df bought himself a new car maybe three or four years ago. It's done 19k. He wants to replace it (he is not a drive it until they die type).

With me so far? He wants to give me his car. Mine would be sold and the money given to him. It's probably not worth a lot. Maybe 10% of purchase price.

It's a great offer, it's a make I've had before and whilst not as cool as my current one it is a good car. Plus less mileage means less upkeep costs. And it'd be great for the dog (when I get one).

But I'm now in a place where if I really really needed to replace my car I could afford a loan to do so.

Do I take the kind offer and get a slightly less powerful, slightly less sexy but lower mileage and bigger more practical car for free or keep the one I have a let df part exchange the one he has and potentially upset him by declining his gift

£51 petrol

That’s it.

If DFs car was likely to not be a money pit, then I’d accept the offer and spend my money on something else wolf. But cars aren’t really my thing.

£22 on some additional marriage certificates
£9ish Savers
£74 Tesco

Thank goodness it’s Friday!

No real plans for the weekend but might go to John Lewis to spend some wedding vouchers. I think we might also get a visit from the ONS Covid study as DH volunteered us the promise of gift vouchers made DD agree

I still have a problem with my ear. I can’t hear well still. If the last prescription says to take for 2-4 weeks, I have to wait until 4 weeks have passed to contact the GP again? It’s been almost two weeks.

£5.00 on coffees, DH spent £80 in supermarket, he’s worried about Gove negotiating 🤦‍♀️

Hmm I would get df car. May not be sexy or fast but means no loans and something reliable.
Get the sexy car in a couple of years when divorce through and you are fully rid of Him.

£200 builder £90 Sainsbury's ££ TBC aldi