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

themadvix

Just sneaking in a quick 'Morning all' before the last morning of the year expires!

Not a lot to report today - I did finally finish all the 1P surveys and I'm 10p short of payout (and they disabled one of the surveys... grr!). I've also managed a couple of tiny bits of work both for an American client and for the work platform. So that's something. 

Tonight we're having Curried Quinoa and Parsnip... no idea what it'll be like, but we have the ingredients. DH is not a fan of parsnips but we have quite a few at the moment (I blanched 3 portions for the freezer last night too) and I figured a curry might hide the flavour (and give the quinoa some flavour - I'm not much of a fan, but the protein is needed!). I've also stewed some past it apples so we'll have a crumble as back up (and there's naan to go with the main too, just in case!). We decided against takeaway as we suspect we may end up waiting until the NY to receive it!

MS things:
* Clicks done
* 1P surveys done
* Food saved from the bin
* Small bits of work (better than nothing at this point in the year!)

Gratitudes:
* Small bits of work
* DH has some cheery music on this morning
* We ordered a 'cat cam' the other day which arrived yesterday (thinking being as B&W cat hates the cattery so much, we may get a cat sitter, but want more reassurance that cats are OK). This provided much amusement for us all last night - it has a motion detector and pans round, naturally attracting cat attention! 

Happy New Year all, let's hope 2021 is *much*, *much* better than 2020!

Jessy103

Happy New Year, vix! Wishing you all the best for 2021! ❤

Fortune_Smiles

Happy New Year @themadvix .  Wishing you health, wealth and happiness.

Fortune x

Karmacat

Happy New Year, madvix!

greent

Happy New Year!  

earthgirl2

Happy new year!

themadvix

Evening  all,

Thanks for all the New Year wishes! We had a quiet but enjoyable night - went for a run, had the Parsnip and Quinoa curry thing (I liked it OK, but it was too parsnippy for DH, so won't make again), watched The Imitation Game (not a cheery film, given the end result, but a very good film and very interesting, especially as we visited Bletchley two years ago), and caught the fireworks (we weren't expecting them)! Yesterday was relatively lazy, although we sorted some computing bits (discovered our backup server is obsolete so have switched to using cloud storage (free and already paid for for photos)). DH has listed the case/framework of the server on Ebay in case anyone wants it. 

More sorting stuff today and a short walk. Have also taken down the Christmas cards and chopped up those suitable for gift tags for next year. Also had a sort out of my stamps - so many I really don't need to worry about postage forever! We had takeaway last night (to avoid NY waiting times) and have had leftovers for lunch. Tea will be smoked salmon sarnies/picky bits. 

Realised that I actually need to cancel the old cat insurance.... and L&G have technical issues - haven't been able to get through to them today. A job for Monday. 

Have a good evening all!

Karmacat

Sounds good, and a gentle start to the new year - sorry about the parsnips though!

themadvix

Morning all,

Thanks Karma. I liked the parsnips, but I wasn't especially surprised DH didn't (although ever hopeful). I did give him the option to have something else, as it was NYE, but he was fine (and did eat it). I had the leftovers for lunch yesterday. More lazing interspersed with various jobs/sorting happened over the weekend. 

Normally at this point in the year I set a budget challenge for food to run stocks down. While we have plenty in and I'm really going to cut back this month, I don't want to commit to a set amount as due to having online deliveries with minimum spend requirements this could be tricky. However, I do want to keep it low and will be using stuff up. My Mum is going to have some bits on our next order, so that will reduce the amount we have to add to get it to minimum spend. We have lots of food in at the moment because a) people bought us stuff for Christmas (the unhealthy bits), b) we expected people to come for Christmas and c) I had a bit of a brexit stash, which I can finally be satisfied will not be needed. 

Our food costs have soared this year (blame Riverford for their food being so delicious!). Addressing this is going to be a target for me for the next few months. I'm going to make the increasing amounts of yoghurt we eat (am considering buying an Instant Pot with my Christmas/birthday money to make this and cooking beans easier, among other things); I'll also try to use TGTG/Olio to collect stuff that would otherwise go to waste. Yesterday we collected some rolls and oranges from Olio. Rolls are in the freezer and will be keeping us going until we have to travel to the in-laws again - my yeast has had it and I've popped some on their supermarket order. I blanched and froze the last of the Brussels sprouts yesterday as they were beginning to look a bit ropey - we like these in a stir fry. We also had swede gnocchi last night to use up the swede (which neither of us is particularly keen on). It was nice, but I only did half the recipe as it said it served 4 - maybe we have big appetites, but there was nowhere near enough. Fortunately, I have enough swede to do it again! We're down to the last of the veg now and our delivery doesn't come until Thursday, so some interesting meals coming up.

We've been pretty lax about having the heating on over Christmas. This now needs to revert to stricter behaviour too - blame David Attenborough for this one! So last night my wheat-filled lamb was microwaved and I even got out the hot water bottle I've never used before (had it so long I have no idea who it was from?) to warm the bed. If cold during the day, I will do star jumps!

MS things:
* Picked up a project on the work platform that paid an hour's worth of work
* reached payout on 1P, so have claimed that
* clicks done
* Need to return a jumper ordered today (sadly, I'm keeping one, so money out, but it is Christmas money)
* DH has listed a couple of bits on Ebay - one of which my company paid for, so I'll be able to send that money to the mortgage... (OP allowance has reset! )

Gratitudes:
* Some much needed relaxation time over Christmas and NY. I'm hoping the effects last for a while.
* Sunshine yesterday morning as we walked to get our free food
* Free food - and companies being more environmentally responsible - a long way from perfect, but it's a start

Have a good day all!

Busy_Mee

We need to get a grip of food spending here too Vix. I didn't bother tracking or budgeting at all last year. I didn't cope with the food insecurity very well, when the shelves were empty and you had to queue to get in the supermarkets. Basically if we needed or wanted it we bought it. It is a bit harder for me to control spending now that Mr Mee does the bulk of the supermarket shop. I am going to start by tracking spending again to see where we are at. 

We are five adults at the moment, with DD and BF due to leave, hopefully sometime in January, once she completes on her house. I am hoping our spending will drop significantly then. Mr Mee and I quite like the odd beans on toast type meal, rather than proper dinners all the time.