misscousinitt's MF Diary

misscousinitt

What a lucky girl I am...

One of the things I have been meaning to do was to get all my gift cards together - I knew that I had a few, some from birthday and some more from Christmas (even one from last Christmas).

Now as I have no money for myself at the moment I thought that I might go and have a spend in the sales with my gift cards - I have just found them all and added them up.

£30 M&S
£25 Amazon
£75 Next
£30 House of Fraser (for both of us)
£20 Nandos (for both of us)
£10 Asda
odd amount on a Waitrose card
Plus what I have left on my John Lewis card they gave me as a leaving present (over £100 - can't remember exactly)

Wow...that's quite a bit.

Intend to treat myself and the house with what I've got.

Oh, and I found €80 left over from my holiday in Greece in 2016 that can be put towards spending money for a holiday some time - god knows when that might be, but at least I have something towards it.

Quite shocked, but really pleased and really grateful to my friends and family that have done this for me - it pays to squirrel sometimes - but not for too long as I don't want them to expire on me.

MCI

Goldiegirl

Hi, MCI :wave:
That's a decent stash of money that you've found!
All the best for 2018 - I'm hoping to be a more regular visit this year, as I was missing everyone!

misscousinitt

I hope to be a more regular visitor too.

I miss everyone and clarifying things on here helps me to focus - something I need to do to move my home life and business forward.

Freezer inventory on the cards tomorrow before shopping - still loads of food lying about but not much in the fridges - need to stock up with fruit, veg and things for my lunches -have a terrible habit of either eating rubbish or nothing at all now I'm at home - neither option is good for me!

MCI

misscousinitt

Freezer inventory done and a rough 4 week meal plan also done.

Got the 2017 spreadsheets up to date, created the new one and paid the credit card bill.

Sorted a big pile of paperwork out - which I am currently sitting amongst whilst typing this (the cat has also found herself a spot amongst the paperwork to sleep!) - found all the stuff I need for tax return, a cheque for £7.60 which I hope they will still cash and 3 old £ coins which I know they will exchange at the bank.

A lot of paperwork regarding the ops found (though my last one is eluding me - only saw it before Christmas so can't be far away). We are heading towards the 19 year mark - we took the mortgage out for 23 years 2 and a half years ago so ticking down nicely - I know that our ops will have more of an impact as time goes on, will be making another one this month (probably tomorrow).

Got to book my MOT for Feb soon once I know what markets I am doing - dreading it in case it's expensive - first time without a proper safety net for these things and although I have a little money put by I don't want to spend it all on the car!

Feel really tired today, so going to finish this filing, have a cuppa and put my feet up for a bit.

Tonight's tea is roasted vegetable cous cous with fish in a Spanish style tomato sauce - using up odds and ends of veg and some store cupboard ingredients.

MCI

Goldiegirl

I've found it really helpful to have a freezer inventory. I now keep it up to date every time I put something in or take something out. I think it helps, as things don't languish in there for ever. That's the theory - but there's one portion of pea and ham soup that's been in there since this time last year!

Karmacat

I have a huge stash of various sorts of dried beans ... I update the inventory every time I add or subtract a packet ... freezer is only used to keep nuts and seeds fresh, and store supermarket bags of frozen veg, so I don't use it in the same way as other folks, but inventories are wonderful things

misscousinitt

I couldn't agree more about inventories, but am terrible for keepinng things up to date when I am busy! I need to do a stock take of all the packaging etc...I have for the business and put a figure on it - it will help me to get some perspective on the value of what I have and may give me some ideas on how to use it.

Went shopping last night with the vouchers in my bag - what a pity there was hardly anything I wanted to buy! I did get some new underwear from M$S and a perfume set from N£xt; we also used £4.99 of the Asda voucher I had to get some flavoured packet rice and cous cous (reduced of course) for quick meals; also picked up a couple of marinades so we can perk up plain dinners with the minimum of fuss (a lovely treat for me when I'vee been in the kitchen all day and don't want to spend hours creating a tasty dinner for us).

I am sitting on the bed, with the cat curled up on my feet and I have been updating my web site, creating social media banners and deciding what to put in my 'January Sale'. Nearly done now, just need to take a couple of photos and upload a couple more products.

This afternoon is going to be tax return time (well, mine anyway). This year is simple (ish), I am trying to get all my figures straight for next years too - plus it will give me a handle on where I actually stand and allow me to create some budgets for things like consumables, marketing etc...

I wasn't feeling very well last night - I think it's the knock on effect from all the snacks and things that I don't normally eat. I took it easy with what I ate last night and I have skipped breakfast this morning and just had mint tea and water - got some soup out of the freezer for lunch with some seeded bread which I will have shortly.

Still eating from the freezer and we have venison sausages and mash with veggies and gravy planned for tonights' tea.

I need to ring and book a meal for tomorroow night as we have counted up all our change from last year and ended up with £60. This is a wonderful treat which I am really looking forward to. I am really appreciating these treats now we don't go out so much.

The microwave has started to spark - we have had it since 2005 and it was originally DHs grandads' - it has served us incredibly well, but I need one for my business even if it is mainly for melting chocolate and butter together - believe me it makes the job much easier, quicker and reliable. So, I have been looking at £rgos and they have a decent make reduced £44.99 - we have nearly £40 of nectar points, so I think these are going to go towards paying for this - not my intended use for the points - but needs must.

On another nice note, I have downloaded my first lot of codes for our free cinema tickets I get with our gas and electric deal - need to have a look what's on...fortunately I don't have to use them this month, but as January is such a depressing month I hope we find somethiing to go and see - maybe The Greatest Showman.

I suppose I better remove the cat from my feet and go and manually heat my soup in a saucepan!

Wish me luck with tax return number 1!

MCI

Karmacat

Good luck! Your very first tax return!! Take it easy this time - if its at all complicated, I write down what I've done (I have a currency conversion, so I write down how to do it, i.e. whether I need to multiply or divide, oops), I try out the tax return several times to see if it looks right, and when I'm satisfied, I do a print screen of every page. And I do the print screen thing every year, because the way I have to input the complicated bits changes every year.

Simple is lovely and I'm envying you the cat

edinburgher

Happy New Year MCI :beer:

Congratulations on your new life, could you PM me a link to your online shop?

I realise it was last August, but I !!!!ing love the fact that you were given a PH meter for chutney when you left work :rotfl:

misscousinitt

Thanks KC

It's not my first ever tax return as I have been doing them for several years for the MIL and this is the 3rd one of my own for myself due to various dividends we used to get at work and now my property income.

Nevertheless, I have taken your points on board and it is indeed really useful to write things down and make sure that you print everything out. It will definately be more complicated next year with employment, house income and self employment all mixed in for good measure and your tips will be very handy.

Cheers.

MCI