Dreaming of financial freedom!

I'm glad someone else on here like TWD too... and yes, more Daryl would be appreciated! Although, shamefully, I quite like Negan.
You're right, what is meant to be will be and I think right now we're meant to stay put and overpay on the mortgage so that when the time is right we will have a bigger deposit and will be a more comfortable position to move

Thanks TMV I teared up a bit when I opened the care package. I sent really nice thank you cards yesterday to my friends and DH and I wrote a card each to our previous manager. They should receive them today and hopefully it will make them smile!

Well, I took the PJs and slippers back last night. I had to go to 2 different Tescos as the first one said they can't accept clothes returns as they don't sell them there - fair enough. Even with the added hassle, it was worth it. I felt like I'd made the right decision and it's spending the odd bits here and there on things we don't need that ends up with us asking where all of our money has gone at the end of the month!

I took my Grandma shopping last night. I've only been out a handful of times since I got ill and this was the first time doing anything that took any real stamina (pushing her wheelchair, bending, lifting, reaching etc.) and boy was I tired afterwards! After putting the shopping away I made a nice cup of tea for us both and my mum had bought my Grandma and me some cakes from Patisserie Valerie so we had that with our well deserved break. It felt good to finally sit down, and although I was tired, I slept well last night Grandma very kindly gave me £35, which again I tried to avoid (she took out a £20 and I tried to stop her at that but she wasn't having any of it). I thanked her, and I am grateful for the money but I can't help but feel guilty; I'd take her for free. Anyway, I shall accept it in the spirit it was meant and add it to the OP pot.

I'm thinking of ways to help mum sell the rest of their vinyl records, that hopefully don't involve posting them. Not only are they heavy, I can imagine they wouldn't necessarily arrive in one piece. She took some down to a record store in town and got a fair price, but she took some more valuable ones down and the store owner valued them this time. He was a bit of a young know it all and was giving mum a sob story about his overheads etc. anyway he offered her 1/3 of what she (very conservatively) thought they would offer, bearing in mind last time they offered her half of what they were going for on eBay so her estimate was based off that kind of logic. He was basic taking the mick - big time. Anyway she said she'd rather give them away than let a spiv like that try and take advantage. I'm thinking Gumtree and Facebook sales might be the best way to sell them for a fair price without postage, but if anyone has any ideas or experience with this kind of thing I would love to hear it.

DH is working in Bracknell the next couple of days so his meals are mainly covered by work. For some reason they don't pay lunch, which seems harsh to me as we normally make lunch at home but he doesn't have facilities when travelling so he has to pay for a meal in the canteen or buy something from a shop/cafe, which isn't always easy depending on where he is working. That ends up costing him quite a bit more than my homemade sandwiches or soup etc would so it's extra expense incurred by them which to me seems like they should pick up the tab, but it's not massive so it's not the end of the world. At least they pay our salary and the rest of his expenses.

Good thinking Jessy, I'll investigate

I've opened a regular saver with FD as the interest rate is at 5% for 12 months - pretty good considering the usual low rates at the moment. The plan is to save £300 a month, which is the max allowed, and then when the interest is paid at the end of the 12 months I can either pay off the credit card in one lump sum or keep saving until the 0% rate ends in the hopes of making a little bit more interest. I have a long time to think about it so I'll just let it build up and decide later.

I've had quite a few NSDs recently, although I did buy myself a plant at the supermarket the other day and DH and I had fish & chips for lunch... still not bad by our usual pre-MFW standards

BIL was round yesterday and he fixed an issue with my PC, and got the speakers working again (some trickery with drivers and OS versions - I barely understood a word he was saying but it is very handy to have a techie in the family!). I can finally do surveys that require sound! I reckon in the past 2 weeks I've missed out on about 5 surveys because they required sound, so it will be nice to be able to do them all going forwards.

We also had friends round yesterday for lunch and to play some board games. We made pasta with salad and garlic bread for lunch. We all enjoyed it and by not going out we all saved money and had more time to play...win-win

Tea tonight is sausages from the freezer. As we had a large lunch we'll just have a sausage sandwich for tea. Not the healthiest, but we're both feeling a bit poorly and tired still so we want something quick and easy.