Arte, I think anyone would find it stressful staring down the barrel of a move without finding a house to live in!! I wish you good hunting - house hunting - and may it be something lovely right near the best school. I'm glad your toilet strategy is working - that's quite a clever example of using the best leverage, really.

Yeah, I think the TF is getting generous in her dotage. Back in the DD1 day, she used to pay silver, the gold coins were few and far between (and DD1 was pretty much oblivious to the value of cash anyway). Oh how having a teenager in the house changes the scale of economies! We can't be quite so stingy now, H is all cashed up, plus here in SA they have the 10c deposits on cans & bottles, so there's some diligent collecting of recycling going on here. The grandies save all their bottles and cans for my girls too, so while E's still slightly confused about the difference betweens dollars and cents she's getting pretty good at counting them LOL.