Finally I have a mortgage I can start to pay off!

themadvix

Sister's baby arrived yesterday, so I'm now an auntie to a beautiful baby girl! Haven't seen them yet but will visit later today. Yesterday was therefore necessarily spendy - in the morning I popped out and bought reduced Christmas cards - 112 for £4 and both blue and pink wrapping paper and card. Once we'd had the news, I went out (my Dad drove so saved petrol money ) and spent £14 on pink stuff for baby (some of it was reduced and all in T*K max). Combined with the mobile we bought in Germany, I think this will make a nice present (I sincerely doubt I'll be able to stop myself from buying more bits at later dates!).

Managed to get some work done around the excitement and waiting (although not helped by Dad popping in unannounced and not leaving whilst waiting for news of baby....grr!). Paid all Christmas money into the bank and the cheque for MIL for Christmas food.

Today will consist of visiting sister, collecting parcel from sorting office (which I think is replacement scales ), work and money shuffles part 1, so I can get the tax money in in time for Feb's PB draw. Proper, focused MSE work will return next Tuesday when everything is blissfully back to normal (with the addition of baby!).

kirtsypoos

Congratulations on the new niece! Such an amazing feeling

try_harder

Such wonderful news,glad all went well for your sister ,lots of lovely cuddles to come .

Watty1

Congratulations auntie

themadvix

Thanks all, I've met my niece today and had a lovely cuddle She's gorgeous, and quite heavy! (nearly 8lb!) Snuck into hospital outside of visiting hours and did get booted out, but it was worth it - wouldn't have been quite so annoying if all was quiet but the sibling of another new baby was wandering around dribbling milk from a milk portion on the floor while the rest of the family were skyping loudly with their family.... my mum and I weren't exactly causing disruption! Sister liked the pressies I think and is doing well. They're being discharged shortly.

Have also collected replacement scales (thanks to mum for the lift ) and done quite a bit of work, so a good day all round. Off to the Swedish furniture shop this evening for a couple of bits (and, no doubt, dinner - which is naughty as we had takeaway last night, but won't have time to eat before we go). Will look at kitchens while we're there, as hoping to replace ours this year (using some of DH's winnings).

themadvix

Belated Happy New Year!!

We had a quiet night in on Saturday - watched a couple of films and decluttered a schnapps collection my aunt had bought DH for Christmas the year before (some were okay, others went down the sink, bit more room in the spirits cupboard now!). Had a good day's worth of decluttering generally - pile for the car boot is growing. Felt so guilty about takeaway followed by Swedish dinner that I even cooked and used up some cream cheese in a yummy risotto - a fairly virtuous start to the NY!

Sunday we visited sister and family and my Dad took us out for lunch (which was distinctly mediocre, but saved on cooking/food costs!). Also went to the orange DIY store for two new light fittings - for finished cloakroom and landing. We had looked in Ike* but hadn't seen any we liked.

Yesterday we went out for the day to sunny Southwold, seemingly along with most of East Anglia. We took tea and hot choc and hot water in my new flask and so only cost was lunch (we thought hot food might be necessary in the bitingly cold temperatures!). We had an amazing lunch in a little French cafe which filled us up for the rest of the day for £20, so I think it was a good deal.

Everything back to normal today and I've just made the first OP of the year - £500. This is below target, but considering Christmas, a trip to the Christmas markets and the fact that it was a distinctly average pay month for me, I'm not too worried at the moment. (It is a stretch target too!). According to the spreadsheet this brings us down to £104,249 - achingly close to five figures! It also puts us as having paid off £928 of capital this month - I can't wait until we're paying £1000 off each month, it'll be so satisfying!

I've allowed a bit extra for my mum's birthday present/arrangements this month as it's a big one and have kept back another £50 with which I'll be opening an S&S ISA.

Targets for the year:
£500/£10,000 Mortgage OPs
£50/£600 S&S ISA

I've not physically added to savings this month as I'll be letting my TSB RS top up from my TSB current a/c because of the drop in the balance that interest is paid on. I'm undecided about what to do in future - as our mortgage rate is 2.99% (TSB only pays 3% on £1500) and I'm reasonably happy with what we have in cash savings at the moment, I'll definitely let next month's come out of the current a/c. I'll have to decide what to do after that.

Think that's enough waffle for now, time for some work!

ETA: Forgot to add, flea tablets arrived and prescription seems to be valid for 2 years' worth (have to re-order in June) - winner! (£175 vs. £300!)

themadvix

Had a productive day yesterday, doing various jobs, including reading the meters. We received a bill from our energy company recently (paper, despite asking for online billing??), which made no mention of the reading I had submitted when asked to do so. So I submitted one yesterday and this will now be part of a monthly routine. We're pretty good generally at switching things off, but there's always room for improvement and DH seems to have been slipping a bit recently, so it will be useful to keep an eye on this anyway. DD is only £65 for gas and elec, so I think it might be optimistic to get it down by much, but every little helps.

Made a focaccia last night using a packet mix I'd bought for Christmas and hadn't used - tasty lunches today and tomorrow! Also used up an open bottle of cider and the end of a cabbage in a recipe - realised we didn't have half the ingredients but made it work somehow! Veg box due tomorrow, so stocks will be replenished somewhat!

Am planning on using a lot of storecupboard bits up this month - so many bits I buy and then don't use as intended. To this end, I tidied one of the cupboards last night so I can actually see what we've got to use (plenty of paracetamol apparently!).

Have just amended the SO for my TSB RS, so that it goes in three days earlier - might as well have the extra interest.

Today I will be making gift tags from Christmas cards and opening an S&S ISA. Work is ticking over nicely, will be doing some of that too Dinner will be daal and rice, but using up some puy lentils that have been lurking at the back of the cupboard (yummy, but no regular recipes for them).

*DramaQueen*

Have just read your diary and am loving it! it has definitely made me want to be more thrifty!

Can i ask which internet monitoring things you use? i've got one i use on my phone but if theres others out there i am keen to make some free money from them!

Sam x

themadvix

Thanks Sam - glad my waffle helps?! We're on the Kant*r TV & web panel which you have to be selected for (https://www.volunteer4panels.com - also do Shopnscan), I've also been selected for Refl*cted life, which is a Newvist* panel and then I did a survey recently that signed me up to the 'SmartAp*'.... Seems to be good and pays well, but no idea how I got onto it! We both have Window phones, so very little action on the mobile front - it's all laptop/desktop based. Kanter is unbelievably annoying because it doesn't work well (and support is truly terrible), but it's a £5 in vouchers every month (on top of other benefits from S&S and FOTG) and £30 bonus at the end of each year. We get Le*sure Vouchers which pay for meals out (and recently a couple of presents), so keeping at it when it's annoying has even greater benefits!

Used normal lentils for daal last night as I found this recipe http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2233/sausage-and-lentil-onepot on Fortune's diary and thought I'd use the puy lentils up with that - that's dinner tonight. Did use up a random bag of rice though, so cupboard is still looking clearer. Have finished a bottle of EVOO today too - all this clearing out will hopefully make new kitchen installation easier! (Not that we're at the ordering point yet, hall needs to be finished first.)

Have put £25 of fuel in my car this morning (had a couple of errands to run and a niece to cuddle ) and am going to see how long I can make it last for. Have two definite engagements each week, but other than that car should only get used for odd shopping trips (and I'm not buying anything until all the random stuff has been used up!) and sneaking to see niece/sister. (I may cheat on those days when DH has a hire car for work and use his a little bit.) As the theory is that DH will pay my cc bill and I'll pay the equivalent off the mortgage each month (not sure how feasible this is), I need to stretch every penny - especially on boring stuff.

Have been getting organised for the weekend - we're off to York overnight and discovered that there's only 1 bus before our train, and I'm not entirely happy about risking our weekend away on 1 bus. So we may be being very MSE and walking to the station (about 2 miles) very early on Saturday morning! Will be packing snacks and my new flask for the journey and have sussed out the free places to visit - determined it's going to be a bargainous weekend!

I did open my S&S ISA yesterday, but have discovered I need £500 to start investing... so will be moving that into there tonight - a bit frustrating as I was hoping to just drip feed £50/month in. In smaller matters I did make gift tags out of the Christmas cards too!

All the regular bits and pieces/surveys continue....

themadvix

Had the sausage and lentil casserole last night, but was a bit underwhelmed. Means I won't need to replace the puy lentils though! Had fewer lentils than the recipe so made a smaller amount (saved two veggie sausages), added some mushrooms from veg box for DH (a result as I don't like them and they often end up mouldy) and managed to make three portions - third one in freezer. Also added some balsamic vinegar - have discovered we have 3 bottles of the stuff! Any suggestions for using some up are welcome!

Discovered a large quantity of dessicated coconut in the cupboard - DH doesn't like this, but my Mum (whose birthday it is soon) loves coconut-related goodies, so have found a Hummingbird recipe for 'coconut jam sandwiches'. Will be even better to use up some jam too - we got given 6 large (the size only available in France) jars of Bonne Mother jam for Christmas (useful, but will last years and we have a tiny kitchen!)

Continuing the virtuousness, I finished the fairly dry foccacia as cheese on toast for lunch (I let DH have nice rolls from freezer :A ) and chopped the end up into croutons for the freezer I even updated my freezer inventory! :A This level of organisation won't last! (Although I do think updating here regularly definitely helps with my focus.)

Have loads of work all of a sudden, which is good. Focus is still meandering a bit, but getting back into the swing of things now. Have been good at achieving everything on my to-do lists each day this week, so house is looking reasonable too (or it was until I chucked all the receipts from my bag all over the dining table....

One of my jobs for this evening is to return a new, unused 'poo tube' (the pan connector) to Wockes.... I have to find the receipt first, hence the mess. Also collecting a parcel I missed being delivered, train tickets for tomorrow and another plumbing bit from another DIY shop (I know how to live :rotfl:) Most importantly though, I'm hoping I can get my phone back from being repaired - it should have arrived back at the store by now! :T I have missed it!

Ahem, in MSE news... I have paid my tax bill.... and Santa are now acknowledging that I sent them £500 earlier in the week - always glad to see they're on top of things! Couple of surveys done, but mostly it's about getting through the work.