Viola's MFW Adventure

viola_brandywine

Not a good day MSE wise. I cooked my turkey yesterday, giving it half an hour longer than the instructions said as from experience it usually needs it. I let it go cold and put it in the fridge and then took it out today to get some meat for my dinner. Unfortunately it doesn't look like it was cooked because it was sitting in a pool of red jelly and the underneath had some very pink meat I don't understand what happened because the juices were clear when I took it our of the oven and what we ate yesterday looked fine. I think I'm going to have to throw it all away. I also found some mouldy peppers in the fridge :mad:

Actually there was one good thing - I managed to find my breakdown cover for a third of the price of the renewal letter by changing providers and using topcashback I almost didn't notice they were going to be collecting the renewal because the letter looked like junk mail :eek:

katsu

viola - better safe than food poisoning, and well done on the breakdown cover renewal.

cha97michelle

I feel your pain. I hate throwing expensive food out, but it is such a risk with poultry. I might have tried to see if any was salvageable. I always check meat is thoroughly done. I've done that before with chicken. Juices were clear, but the meat was still a bit pink, and i was about to carve it and then put it back in.

One of those things. At least you made more than that back saving on your insurance.

misscousinitt

Really sorry about the turkey, but second what others have said and better to be safe than poorly.

viola_brandywine

Thanks everyone. I think I'm going eat vegetarian for the next couple of evenings to make up for it.

MSE plus of the day - closed an old savings account that had £1 in it - this will be a small OP

viola_brandywine

Hi everyone.

I'm glad this week is over, very busy at work and proved much more expensive than I was expecting. Had an unexpected expense today in having to pay towards a weekend away later in the year that I didn't think needed paying for this month - £150. Also had to renew car insurance for £320 which is quite a bit more than last year even though I haven't claimed. I guess it is because of the new rules about women and men having to be charged the same.

All of this means that I have about £200 to last three weeks. This wouldn't be too bad usually but I have to go away next weekend and that will mean an extra tank of petrol. I have decided to set myself a challenge of not buying any meat and just living off food we have in and buying the essentials.

I did get £3.03 from Topcashback yesterday and OP'ed it though

viola_brandywine

Hello again. It's been a hectic and quite expensive couple of weeks. I mostly managed to live on the tiny bit of my wages I had left but I did have to use some savings in the end thanks to unexpected expenses. Anyway, I have recently been paid and filled my ISA for the first time ever by moving my savings account and topping up to the limit for this year. Also opened an ISA for DH and put in £50.

Mortgage remaining - £18,995
0% credit card £996
Cash savings - £5489 (full ISA + DH new ISA)
S/S ISAs and sharebuilder £1900 + approx £1200

Which means mortgage + debt - savings = £11,402

I'm not sure I will be able to make any more overpayments or savings until I get paid again but I will see if I can ebay anything.

Have a good weekend everyone!

liuhut

you'll be below £10k soon then!! thats a great figure to be working on!!
Good luck with you journey
L x

viola_brandywine

Thanks liuhut!

I just got a letter from my bank saying that my debit card is blocked because someone tried to do some fraudulent transactions :eek:

I guess that will stop me spending anything over the long weekend!

viola_brandywine

Wow, it has suddenly been ages since my last diary update

Well, me and DH went away for the bank holiday weekend and had a very frugal holiday. We went to wales and managed to spend less than £100 for the entire 5 days (which was all on wine and beer in the pub and one meal out ). We cooked in the evening most days and had sandwiches or chips during the day.

Unfortunately, even though we had a frugal holiday we had to take £60 out of emergency savings to last until payday. Oooh, I wish petrol wasn't so expensive :mad:

I have just discovered that we have until the end of July to pay off our 0% credit card on not June as I originally thought. This means more OPs/savings until then.

We have decided that we need to replace our settees soon as they are falling to bits and we have seen some lovely ones that fit our living room perfectly. I have just applied for a 0% for 12 months credit card to buy these so will probably order them when it arrives. It will be so nice not to be sitting on a settee where the cushions slide off because they are sitting on top of flattened cardboard boxes. I just need to find a cheap way of disposing of the old ones.

Will post a new mortgage totals and savings update next.