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

Jessy103

Congrats on the OPs vix! 

Have a lovely Christmas x

rtandon27

Hello Vix  - sending you season's greetings & best wishes for a happy and healthy 2022. - xxx RT

newgirly

Merry Christmas Vix 🌲

Karmacat

Hope you've had a lovely time, vix - it sounds like you were well set up for it - and lots of puddy cat cuddles as well  

themadvix

Morning all,

Thanks for all the Christmas wishes, we did have a lovely time and everyone tested negative at all points, so we saw everyone we were meant to!

 We have rather a lot of food leftover from Boxing Day! I didn’t even get all of it out to cook in the end, so there’s still a spinach pie and picky bits in the freezer. DH and I finished most of the fridge bits off yesterday and stripped the turkey carcass. Three tubs for the cats and a large amount left for DH’s turkey curry (we buy bigger than needed deliberately). I’ve solved the problem of what to eat when DH is tucking into the curry - there’s a parsnip dahl recipe that looks nice and DH doesn’t like snips. Both of these will be frozen in portions (turkey curry has been known to last until the summer before now).

We also received quite a few bits of food and drink as presents, so will put them away upstairs and get them out as needed (if I leave them in the kitchen they end up being eaten to’ get them out of the way’).

 I’ve seen lots of plans for the new year and promises of new diaries on the forum… still being in limbo with regard to moving, I’ll hold off for now - but it’ll be the ten year anniversary of this diary in March and we should have a better idea of our plans then, so perhaps I’ll start afresh then. In the meantime is the same old, same old - spend the minimum, while making the most of life and OPing the mortgage…

MS things:
* YG surveys
* MM surveys
* 3 weeks of ‘free’ food for cats from turkey
* didn’t spend anything (or do anything!) yesterday
* cat sitting completed
* cats/humans received enough treats for Christmas to last 3 months at least
* HW spun and a few pennies earned

 Gratitudes 
* we saw people! in the flesh! simple things!
* a lovely time with both families
* some lovely gifts (including new socks - I was desperate for socks!)

 Have a good day all!

themadvix

Have just picked up a cat-sitting job over NY. In some ways it's a bit of a pain as I'll have to drive to it and it's twice daily, but it's money!

themadvix

Morning all,

No cat-sitting happening here as the lady tested positive on Tuesday, so had to cancel. Which, while the money would have been nice, is a bit of a relief.

Other work is trickling in though - I didn't tell the Americans I was OOO, so they've had a few bits for me, which is better than nothing. 

Along with two other Olio food waste heroes (what they call the people who collect from stores), I have helped to save the excessive potato and satsuma order from the large Tesco in our town (there are 4 four stores in total 🙄). I still have about half of them in my kitchen (25 2.5 kg bags of potatoes and 15 nets of 'easy peelers'). It was so big that Tesco delivered the stuff to a fellow FWH. What hasn't gone by this afternoon is going to be offered to the homeless shelter. And if they don't want it? I don't know. Everyone I know is getting potatoes! We are begging Tesco to reduce their order next year.

We don't even eat many potatoes - I often have a backlog from my veg box! But we had mash last night (with leeks and cream - oh, so delicious!), have leftovers for bubble and squeak for lunch and will be doing our best to eat a couple of bags. I may parboil a load for roasties for the freezer and make some chips too.

DH made 4 portions of turkey curry and I made 3 portions of parsnip dal - all in the freezer (and we had some for dinner on Tuesday too).

MS things:
* Saving food!
* It's been so warm the heating has hardly kicked in
* Clicks and spins have been done
* 1P surveys
* OP of £57.81 made to bring mortgage to tidier £36550. (Money came from present fund, which seemed rather healthy looking for this time of year!)

Gratitudes:
* Lovely Olio FWH whatsapp group has been created - we've all said how nice it is to have met each other this year
* Lovely newbie Olioers coming for food - and have been grateful and communicative (plenty who haven't, but we'll gloss over those!)
* Caught up with someone I haven't seen in 9 years yesterday (while delivering potatoes!)

Inspired by Jimmy, I'm going to see how long a streak of 10,000 steps I day I can get (from yesterday). I'd love to go a whole year! I spent quite a while marching on the spot yesterday, which at least means I can do it without getting wet (no dog-walking requirement here). That's as far as I've got for 2022 plans! (Apart from minimising expenditure on the boring stuff and maximising OP savings, without missing out on life - which is what we all try to do anyway, right?)

Have a good NYE eve!

Fortune_Smiles

Well done on saving all those potatoes MV.  Do you have a community cafe/kitchen near by that could use some?  Maybe even a local pub/restaurant.  I've previously donated gluts of cooking apples to a pub where I know the landlady.  She made crumbles with them.  Or the local church?  Not sure whether the Olio rules allow.

Fortune x
 

themadvix

Thanks Fortune. Olio rules say fine what you can away through the app but what you can’t give through the app find a home for it any way you can. My go-to is the homeless shelter as they’ll always take it, but I don’t want to lumber them with all of it if they can’t use it. It’s not fair on them and doesn’t save the food. I’ve also posted about it on Nextdoor, and said specifically that charities are welcome. At this time of year churches are a bit tricky to get hold of unless the individuals responsible for helping with food distribution happen to see my post - vicars are having a break and offices are closed. The mosque has already had half of the delivery (thank goodness, there would have been even more had it not been for them!). 

Don’t think we have an independent local pub or community restaurant/kitchen. Don’t think food banks will want them as they focus on stuff that’s easier to cook and tbh probably have enough from their tie-ups with supermarkets! I will try the refuge too if the homeless shelter doesn’t want it all.

themadvix

I want to set a challenge of not buying any food and see how long we can go. It won’t last all of Jan that’s for sure and I’m going to exclude milk (but in the interests of a lukewarm attempt at veganuary i have just had tea without milk). I’ll also allow spending of my Nectar points (£15)/Coop (£2) as I’ll need tea and fresh ginger soon and probably coconut milk for curries.

 However, we have a lot of food in at the moment (ignoring the half ton of potatoes and satsumas!) and there’s Olio. We have picky party bits left in freezer from Boxing Day which we could eat tomorrow night if BIL and fiancée join us, we have a spinach filo pie, we have plenty of veg (🥔), smoked salmon, prawns, two batches of curry, part baked rolls, cereal, literally loads of food (and drink).

 We’ll either eat out or get a takeaway for my birthday next Friday (restrictions permitting), but apart from that, we’ll see. Next veg box is due next Thursday - will see what the veg situation is like by then (and what free veg is available on Olio too), but if it’s ok, then I’ll skip it. We’ve got loads of onions from an Olio haul a couple of weeks ago (on top of veg box deliveries).