1 mortgage, 2 babies, 3 years to be MF, 4 goodness sake!- weezl's diary

hornetgirl

I expect all you diehard MFWs have already thought of this, but don't forget there's a couple of months of no council tax coming up if you pay over 10 months. When I work our budget out, I always include a council tax payment in all 12 months, then when the "free" months come around, I move the money into the account where mortgage overpayments are accumulated. (We have to pay a minimum of £500 for irregular overpayments). It gives the fund a nice little boost

phizzimum

hi weezl - how are you feeling?

thanks howlinwolf...we do actually have one, but I wouldn't have bought it if I'd known I could borrow one. Its the sort of thing that you use a few times and then it's just lying around.

hornetgirl - our water bill is also on a 10 month system (not sure if that's standard or not) - so that's another little bonus overpayment. thanks for the reminder - if we don't quickly transfer the money to the mortgage then it just gets swallowed up somehow doesn't it?

OrkneyStar

weezl74 wrote: »

Deefa, the chilli worked out at 43p for a generous helping

It's an enormous batch!:

2 cans asda SP kidney beans
4 packs SP mince
I large can costco tomatoes (equivalent of 5 asda ones)
3 packs dried onions
herbs, chilli, cumin to taste.

Lob all in Slo cooker, eat with jacket potato.

Shortbread for afters, whole dinner for 50p :money:

Weezl, I love a lot of your ideas and posts, but the bit highlighted in bold is why I could not do as you do lol!
Perhaps adding lentils instead would be yummier and healthier than Smart Price ?
Also up here we only have Tesco, Lidl and Coop, along with small shops, so again would find it hard to get the Costco things!
Money saving is harder work on a small island me thinks lol!
Good luck with new bump by the way .

boredofbeingathome

phizzimum wrote: »

thanks boredatbeingat home (i always want to call you bob atbeingat home, cos of your avatar!) I've got a bit complacent with our energy usage, so that's inspired me to try to keep it under control a bit more.

Everyone calls me BOB anyway- shortened version BoredOfBeingathome/ Blackadder fan and of course my avi is Kate/Bob:D You can tell i was bored at home when i thought of that one.:rotfl:

Cunning but complicated eh?:rotfl::rotfl:

I would say it has taken me roughly a year and very little in terms of painless cuts- i just took readings every week and then went from there.

weezl74

OrkneyStar wrote: »

Weezl, I love a lot of your ideas and posts, but the bit highlighted in bold is why I could not do as you do lol!
Perhaps adding lentils instead would be yummier and healthier than Smart Price ?
Also up here we only have Tesco, Lidl and Coop, along with small shops, so again would find it hard to get the Costco things!
Money saving is harder work on a small island me thinks lol!
Good luck with new bump by the way .

Hi Orkney Star, thanks for posting

I like it when people have different opinions it what makes these forums a good debating place

If you don't mind me asking, what is it about the smart price mince? Do you feel that from an ethical stance or a quality of the meat stance?

It must be very limiting to just have a few shops, do you ever go on a food equivalent of a booze cruise to the mainland?:rotfl: I bet the island makes up for it in a zillion other ways though

ps I'd eat a lentil chilli no probs but DH is really into his meat...

OrkneyStar

weezl74 wrote: »

Hi Orkney Star, thanks for posting

I like it when people have different opinions it what makes these forums a good debating place

If you don't mind me asking, what is it about the smart price mince? Do you feel that from an ethical stance or a quality of the meat stance?

It must be very limiting to just have a few shops, do you ever go on a food equivalent of a booze cruise to the mainland?:rotfl: I bet the island makes up for it in a zillion other ways though

ps I'd eat a lentil chilli no probs but DH is really into his meat...

When I lived on the mainland I would eat supermarket mince occassionally, but never thought much of it. My mum would normally buy butchers stuff! Since I moved here I just think nothing beats local steak mince! It is largely a taste thing but I also like that there is less food miles, and supporting local traders. TBH we would rather eat less meat and have vegetable based meals other nights, I feel this is healthier and cheaper! On Wed night we had spag bol, but me and DS had ours with quorn, whereas DH had his made with LO mince from another night (chilli night!). I am not judging anyone who uses value meat/smart price meat, it is just not to my taste! As for using lentils, well I really like them, although sad to see they seem to be a bit expensive these days. Split peas just don't do it for me!
When we go away (not so often these days on one income!) we do tend to drop by Asda in Perth and Morrisons in Invergordon (and perhaps a few other places such as Hobbycraft )......tend to stock up on non-perishables/tins/cartons etc- partly cheaper stuff and also partly some different things that it is not so easy to get here. You can get a lot of great food here, and it can be done on a budget (we do approx £200 pcm for two adults, DS (2) and 1 skanky cat), but I think more planning is needed as we do not always have such vast choice available any time!
Ok, hope that answers your question.
I too like that we don't all think the same, we learn from others and need a range of ideas, values and opinions to do that!

HowlinWolf

I made Shaz's coconut cake today or at least I started to until I realised that the 2 bags of coconut I thought I had were actually raisins. So I adapted the recipe and in place of the coconut I added 3/4 of a cup of oats and 2 mashed bananas. I also reduced the amount of milk to 3/4 of a cup. It took about 50 mins to cook at 180 (160 fan) and is lovely an moist.

hornetgirl

OK, this has nothing to do with mortgages whatsoever, but never mind. I was in Tesco today and spotted a brand of yogurt I'd never seen before - it was called Nom. It just reminded me of Weezl and all her nomnomnoms on the other thread

weezl74

HowlinWolf wrote: »

I made Shaz's coconut cake today or at least I started to until I realised that the 2 bags of coconut I thought I had were actually raisins. So I adapted the recipe and in place of the coconut I added 3/4 of a cup of oats and 2 mashed bananas. I also reduced the amount of milk to 3/4 of a cup. It took about 50 mins to cook at 180 (160 fan) and is lovely an moist.

Well rescued! :T:T:T:T sounds lovely

hornetgirl wrote: »

OK, this has nothing to do with mortgages whatsoever, but never mind. I was in Tesco today and spotted a brand of yogurt I'd never seen before - it was called Nom. It just reminded me of Weezl and all her nomnomnoms on the other thread

I shall get some

weezl74

evening/morning all (not too sure how to define these inbetweeny hours!)

MF update: this month sees us go below £64,600

Sorry I haven't been posting much, work has been very stressful and with being pregnant, work stress, and looking after fergus, and trying to 'nest' ready for his sibling, it is hard to make time to keep a diary on here .

I do really appreciate you all popping in and your kindness and encouragements

My dilemma at the moment is about overpaying in the final year of my mortgage (theoretically april 2011 to april 2012) because of the way mortgages work, by far the huger savings on interest are made early in the mortgage, as I'm sure all you MFWers know! The difficulty for me is that this seems to mean living the last year of the mortgage incredibly tightly financially in order to make the MF date 2 months nearer. Somehow it doesn't seem worth it!

Am I just being a wimp?

Happy for all opinions to be aired here

Much love to you all,
Weezl x