Nichelette wants her own house (and to be overdraft free)

Nichelette

Thanks Maria . I have a bit more money to come off of the loan now so £600 will be coming off instead of the £490 which is good. I got the cancellation letter through from barclayard on Thursday so that's all done now without any problems.

I've been bagging up my £365 in 365 days money. I'm still not sure what to do with it but I think I'm going to stick it in my ISA for now or I'll have to pay it into the bank over several days because there's a limit of 5 bags per day. I was slightly behind purely because I've been trying not to withdraw much cash and didn't have many coins in my purse, so I've raided my other change piggybanks and come up with £11 which I've bagged up and added to my total. I'm also trying to decide which voucher I want from consumer pulse, they've stopped doing Amazon ones which is annoying as I'm saving for the TV so I'm not sure.

I've been quite busy this weekend, on Saturday I went to see my friend in London who had made what I thought was a really nice potato curry type thing. I don't really like Indian food (I'm not even that keen on naan bread), but this smelt nice so I tried it and was surprised I actually liked it. He gave me the recipe, it's quite cheap and easy to make, and also healthy, so I thought I'd share it.

Aloo jeera

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil
4 garlic cloves
4cm piece of grated ginger
100g shallots (or an onion)
450g diced potato
1tsp turmeric
1 tbsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp ground coriander
1 tbsp ground cumin
2 cardamon pods
3 green chillies
4 tomatoes
300g chickpeas
juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp salt
1/2 bunch of coriander
black pepper

1) Fry the garlic & ginger for 3 mins
2) Add onions & potatoes, fry for another 4 mins
3) Add turmeric, mustard seeds, ground coriander, cumin & cardamon, cook for 1 min
4) add chillies, tomatoes & chickpeas
5) add 4 tbsp water & salt, leave on a medium heat for 20 mins stirring occasionally
6) add lemon & coriander

Serve

I've also been playing with my sewing machine a bit more. I made a bag last night which is the third thing I've made with it. Obviously it's far from perfect, the handles are especialy terrible but I've learnt things whilst making it which will make the next one better. Here's a pic of the outside and the middle with the pocket. The one below is Ollie (who doubled his weight in two weeks a bit ago :eek:).He was born on Jan 5th so he's three months today.

yukkibear

that bag is gorgeous well done, and Ollie is cute too

Well done on the loan you're doing really well.

stacy

Aww Ollie is the cutest!!! That bag was cool for a first attempt, i think people would buy it if you were selling it!! You are doing amazingly, well done and you have a good talent with making these items!

mariagti

Aww Ollie is so cute!

Love the bag too, i wouldnt even know where to strat on making one!

Nichelette

Thanks everyone .

Its been a while since I've written in here. Last week was a bit of a write off, Ollie ended up collapsing because he couldn't use his legs, at first he had an operation as they weren't sure what was wrong with him exactly but he didn't come around very well and we weren't sure he'd make it. He wouldn't eat and it was horrible seeing him because he was exactly like Oscar was when he got ill. He spent 6 days being looked after at the vets, but thankfully we got him back on Monday. His brain was swollen and had fluid on it, and they think he had head and neck trauma. There was swelling on his spine which is why his legs weren't working properly, but that has gone down, and although his legs are still a bit funny and we're having to be careful with him, he'll be okay. The op was out of hours and that alone cost £1300 so thank god he was insured...

Anyway, to better news, another £650 has come off of the loan today, though I've also got my car tax reminder which I was sure was coming in November, obviously a year goes a lot faster than I seem to think... My car is so small a years tax is only £120 which I can afford, it's just annoying that I forgot about it.

Jewellery wise after much pondering I decided to open a folksy shop last night. I don't expect to sell much because I know it isn't very well known, but I was quite surprised to have sold a necklace when I logged in this morning so there is some hope there...

mariagti

Oh god poor Ollie! Good job he is insured! Glad his better now and back at home with you.

I hate it when car tax renewal drops on the door step, mine is double yours for the year. I knew it would be alot so i cant moan...well i can bloody government! haha

What is a folksy shop? Well done on the sale.

yukkibear

well done on the sale, sorry to hear about Ollie though.

Let me know your folksy shop and I'll add you as a favourite.

Nichelette

Thanks you two. Folksy is like etsy but a British version Maria. My shop is my link Yukki, I've just added yours to my favourites too. I've sold another necklace tonight which again I'm quite surprised about. I'm wondering if it's because my jewellery is appearing in the bit that shows new sellers stuff which won't happen forever...

Have also got a pc survey which is quite good timing as am getting OH's birthday present from ebay.

yukkibear

I found you earlier anyway lol. 2 sales well done. That's really good, if you read the forums you'll find that doesn't happen very often.

Nichelette

Thank Yukki. I sold another necklace last night so I'm up to three now. I might just be lucky but I'm secretly hoping that I've hit on something. I could really do with the money lol. I have about £90 in an account which I'm now solely using for jewellery related things. I know it's safe to leave about 1/3 in there for tax but I'm trying to leave it all in there for as long as I can. I'm kind of pretending I don't even have it at the moment.

The figures updated on zopa after the loan overpayment the other day. It's nearly under 8k now which is great. I really can't wait to have it all paid off. I'd love to have it done within a year of taking it out, but I think my 25th birthay is more realistic (7/5/11).