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

themadvix

Afternoon all,

Snowy here today, although not enough to cover the grass. The pond is well frozen though - the cats enjoyed running across it this morning!

Beetroot curry was edible last night and I got to evening class- it's been quite a while as the teacher has been away, then I missed a week and then the teacher was away again! Pleased to say it went well (my enthusiasm for going out in the cold and dark always wanes if I've not been for a while, so this is important!) and I got all the homework right! (That never happens!)

Tonight we're having falafel (lots of chickpeas in the freezer ). I've not made them before, but they seem straightforward enough and they're yummy. Will combine with some lettuce in the fridge that needs eating and couscous. Might try a rice pudding too - it seems like rice pud sort of weather.

Finally persuaded DH to try the switching game last night when we discovered that he had more than the £1500 you earn interest on in his TSB account. So it's being switched to NwBS, and I'm introducing him, so £200 should be heading our way. He'll get 5% on £2500 for the first year too, so a winner all round.

DH popped to Aldi yesterday and spent £2.88, so total spend for groceries in Feb was £66.36 + milk. I have no idea about the milk though because Milk and More have changed their website and payment system (from monthly in arrears to weekly in advance) without any explanation of how that's going to work for this month, where I can see my invoice or how it'll work in the future with orders continuing to be adjusted until 9pm the night before (when I'll have paid for it the previous Thursday). And... their contact centre isn't working properly.... excellent! :mad: Rant over... Milk will be about £17 I should think, so just over £80 for the month.

I have a long list for a delivery though, which I think I'll get tomorrow, as we're rapidly running out of anything to eat and top-up shops aren't the most efficient way to go about things. Also need to sort out home insurance, as it's due soon. Comparison sites suggest Admiral will be cheaper than the renewal. I'm not impressed that they didn't ask me about home insurance when I rang last month though - I know I won't be able to add it to the multi-car policy we already have, which by rights should be cheaper still! :mad: Oh dear, honestly, I'm not in a particularly bad mood - these things have just frustrated me!

MS things:
* SBs survey, Crowdology survey (working to getting to paltry payout and then closing), MM survey, YG survey, NV survey - lots of surveys apparently! VB poll, MS rewards done too.
* Still eating from the freezer
* DH switching :T (oh that sounds like something completely different! :rotfl: )

Gratitudes
* Good evening class last night
* Central heating
* B&W kitty enjoying the cat shelves - I caught him hanging out on them earlier
* Cats in the snow/on the pond

Back to work now.... stay warm!

Karmacat

themadvix wrote: »

Niece is gorgeous and a very happy baby, but very hard work - she's constantly on the go, doesn't like to nap, into, onto and under everything. She **loves** the cats. They are getting more used to her and on the odd occasion that they get close enough, she really understands being gentle with them - it's so sweet to watch!

Wow! She sounds amazing - not unheard of, but very unusual for a tiny one to understand gentleness :smileyhea as for hard work ... I remember similar visits, and I remember being utterly, utterly shattered

* Peanut butter flapjack in the oven now (with last of the butter....

Ooh ... is the recipe short enough to post on here? That sounds very useful.

Lots of SBs yesterday as it was their birthday - so over 50 collected

I missed that! I did do quite well, but put it down to chance :rotfl:

themadvix wrote: »

The pond is well frozen though - the cats enjoyed running across it this morning!

!!! I've never seen that before! Brilliant

Finally persuaded DH to try the switching game last night when we discovered that he had more than the £1500 you earn interest on in his TSB account. So it's being switched to NwBS, and I'm introducing him, so £200 should be heading our way. He'll get 5% on £2500 for the first year too, so a winner all round.

:j:j:j

Oh dear, honestly, I'm not in a particularly bad mood - these things have just frustrated me!

Insurance, and running out of food ... argh!

* B&W kitty enjoying the cat shelves - I caught him hanging out on them earlier
* Cats in the snow/on the pond

:A:A:A

themadvix

Aargh, just lost my response to you, KC, queen of the quotes!

The flapjack recipe is here, on the left-hand side just underneath the ingredients for jammy flapjacks. I just didn't bother with the chocolate topping. I won Sam Stern's Student Cookbook many years ago and I can safely say it is one of my favourites - it has so many good basics in it and then myriad ways to 'change them up', as he puts it. Can't recommend it highly enough!

Niece is very good at being gentle with younger babies too. She also loves to pick up her soft toys, cuddle them and 'aaaaah' - so sweet! And she understands so much now, that she knows what gentle means, I'm sure.

themadvix

So, it is snowing here again today - not a lot, just gently coming down, but it is gradually accumulating. I fear Brownies may not be on the cards for me tomorrow, but we'll see.

Supermarket delivery has just arrived.... £95 after discount! :eek: However, it didn't even completely refill the freezer and I managed to get everything else in the cupboards, which is usually unheard of when I've had a delivery. So stocks must have been low. This should keep us going for at least two months though largely.

Loving the new 10p coins - we might just have to collect the alphabet, rather than paying them into the sheepbank!

Dinner last night was excellent and very MSE. Used frozen chickpeas to make falafel (they came out really well and made enough for lunch for both of us today too), hm pittas and then rice pudding (also came out quite well). Feeling very smug about the tastiness of it all, considering it was all made with stuff we had in!

Undecided about what to have tonight, but possibly veggie toad in the hole - we've got some PSB that needs eating and it's not the sort of thing to put in a curry, casserole etc. I feel it needs to be warming food still!

Interesting to see we are likely to run out of gas today... I feel I'm doing my bit to avoid that as I've got thermals, a thick jumper and then a hoodie on and two pairs of socks. However, heating went off less than 30 mins ago and I can feel the temp dropping again

Didn't get around to sorting home insurance yesterday. Did have a look, but the Admiral cover doesn't include legal protection, which the renewal does. Further investigation required.

MS things:
* Good use of freezer food
* MS rewards, SBs survey, NV survey, VB poll done, PA surveys yesterday
* Payday, invoicing and money shuffle day today - sadly all this work won't be paid until next month, so it's going to be another tight one
* Sorted out DDs on my new NW account, so intend to do Hali switch once they've confirmed.

NY resolutions (it's back!)
* Have booked walk with DH for tonight and aim to ensure I do my 250 steps every hour today
* Small amount of eve class work done
* Yoga tonight

Gratitudes:
* I don't have to drive in this weather
* It's not too bad with us
* Fish are still alive - was worrying about them in the night, but tails flapped as I swept the snow off the ice this morning

Keep warm!

Karmacat

Thanks for the recipe linkie, madvix - oopsie on queen of the quotes though I do like typing in html, it makes me feel I can still use the knowledge I take in :rotfl:

Sweeping snow off the ice on the pond to see if the fish are still alive _pale_ thats quite an image you have there! I warn you, I want to nick it for the post-apocafic book

themadvix

Haha, feel free to pinch away! Apparently the fish are fine under the ice (they're semi-comatose at the moment anyway), and cold water is oxygen rich, but they don't like the dark and the plants will keep photosynthesising and produce more oxygen if they can see the light! I quite fancy myself for the 2020 curling team now though!!

I know what you mean about typing in HTML - it was a long time ago that I learnt it, but I still feel clever using it!

Karmacat

Thanks I had another example this morning: my brother's on his way home right now, and has undiluted screenwash in his windscreen wiper reservoir. But it froze up, and only *unfroze* after 100 miles or so ...

That's really interesting about light vs ice vs snow ... I do remember while shopping for a garden pond that if you have fish, they should have a part of the pond thats over 18" deep, so they'll have free water to swim in.

themadvix

That's good to know - ours goes much deeper than that, so I don't need to worry about them!

Am feeling very grown up at the moment, as the condensate pipe on the boiler had frozen and I had to sort it out and restart the boiler - not something I had a clue about (fortunately DH did lots of phone chivvying and there were instructions to follow). More icy stuff!

The washer bottle story sounds familiar - we had similar problems in December when we went away.... and I don't know that it ever did defrost..... the van must be better designed for that than our car. We ended up buying an extortionately priced bottle of screen wash at the services and sloshing it across (in the car park!).

themadvix

Afternoon all,

Had text messages and emails from Santanduuur this morning telling us the money wasn't in the current account to pay the mortgage... Cue frantic logging in, calls to DH etc., only to discover that NW, where the money comes from must have been a bit late. By the time either of us logged in the money was there. Santa now doing their usual and showing the money as having been applied to the mortgage while still sitting in the current account... sadly it's not an offset...

In good news though, the mortgage has dropped below £95k and will stay there I paid myself yesterday and did the money shuffle but unfortunately as it was a bad month, paywise not workwise, I had to dip into my savings again, so the deficit has taken a hit. The pain was lessened a bit by the fact that I actually had quite a small cc bill, as there wasn't much in the way of food on there and no fuel (still no car, but new exhaust did arrive yesterday - am I going to make DH fit it in the snow??!).

Have the heating on continuous at the moment as I don't want the condensate pipe to freeze again. It's on low though, so hopefully not a horrendous bill to come.

Had the last of the falafel in pitta for lunch today - quite pleased with how many meals they did us in the end. Used up a sad looking parsnip last night and some PSB. Will be having stir fry tonight so will use up some more sad looking veg.

It's snowing quite hard again here now and Brownies has been cancelled, so I'm just waiting to hear that DH is on his way home (hopefully early) and then we'll be tucked up in the warm for the night.

MS things:
* VB, MS rewards, OP (£16.90), and several MM surveys.
* Using fridge contents up
* Generally not doing much because of the weather!

Gratitudes:
* House is toasty and warm (heating is so rarely on long enough to get house warmed through that it's been plenty warm enough, even with thermostat at 15! (Hall where thermostat is is coldest room though
* It's Friday!
* (Weather permitting) We're visiting some friends in their new house on Sunday - should be lovely.

Have a good weekend all!

earthgirl

You too, glad you are staying warm and dry.