Pix's aims, dreams and reality

nattypants

You're doing great pix, it makes such a difference to keep posting on your diary regularly :T I find that even when I'm just posting crap (which is pretty much 100% of the time), having a diary on MFW keeps the focus PLUS the folks on here are so nice, I often wish everyone was part of my RL:)

pixnmix_2

Thanx Natty, you're so right about the diary keeping the focus. I read mine back the other week and realised I've drifted off and then bobbed further and further underwater! No more.. Pix is firmly back on dry land
Have done the freezer stocktake and have about 2 weeks of evening meals in there. Plus have a couple of meals worth in OH's freezer. Will transfer those things to mine at the weekend (we live in separate houses) The meal planner is difficult cos sometimes it's DS on his own; or him and me; or both plus his GF; or those plus my OH; and about once every 10 days DD and her fiance add to the mix. Sometimes (2-4 times per week) I'm at OH's for tea, so it's nowhere near easy to meal plan!
The 2 weeks estimate takes the above into account

Knackered typing all that in...dunno what reading it will do...so apologies if anyone does

Edit: soup was so nice the whole 2 litre crockpot full was devoured by 4 of us.... Saves waste and ham sandwiches for lunch tomorrow
. ..Happy pix

pixnmix_2

Did I say I have the best ever OH when it comes to sniffing out foodie bargains? Well i do. We're having beef steaks stir fried with noodles and veg for total of £1.99 for the 3 of us. Full price for the stuff to make it would have been £9. Well pleased with that. I love YS's!!

NS day 2 of the new year for me today so I'm a happy bunny. Tomorrow night I'm having dinner at a friend's house, so I guess that together with the YS honey & mustard pasta bowl OH got me from Mr T tonight for lunch will result in a 3rd NS day tomorrow too. Go me!!

pixnmix_2

Lots of news to scribble about today. I've had 4 nsd's out of 5 so very pleased about that. Yesterday I took lunch in to work (ham sandwich) and fancied some soup, so trotted (ham, trotted....geddit?) down to the canteen and bought some lovely mushroom soup to have with the sandwich. £1.50 lighter I felt a bit guilty but £1.50 spend over 5 days isn't bad is it

In other news...I phoned the building society today to check my mortgage balance....now £100,171,59! And end of this month the fixed rate ends so the payments will go down by £66 a month if the variable rate (3.99%) stays the same. But Pix isn't just going to accept that! Oh no!! I have some jobs round the house to do then going to sit down with the laptop and work out exactly what other mortgage lenders can offer to better that deal. And then as of beginning of February I'm going to overpay by paying what I already do, cos I won't miss the money. Also, I've switched energy provider, that starts middle of the month so i'll get more energy for the same money. Not bad eh?

On the downside, I've just had a call from OH who's in Asda. I had asked him to price up steam mops. I can justify it cos i have tiled kitchen and hall floors, and lino in both bathrooms. Also, it uses less water, and I'm on a meter...well I can't really justify it but anyhoo, I have asked him to get it for me..reduced from £30 to £25. I hate doing the floors, and when I tried his it is so much quicker and hygienic too.

Another decision made today is that I've started saving my £2 coins (see siggy below) and was going to save up for a new bed, as mine's old and lumpy. But, changed my focus from making house a home then sorting the mortgage, to making the house mortgage free first. So, the £24 I now have saved up is going to overpay the mortgage end of the month

Last bit of news is that I've had OH up in the loft to get the ornaments etc down to photograph for fleabay. Those will be sorted either today or tomorrow, and will then decide if it's worth waiting for the next free listing weekend or not.

Right, enough procrastination! On with the housework

pixnmix_2

Plan of attack for a wet cold Sunday: Tacking the rest of the cleaning that I avoided yesterday (bathrooms...yuck!) and then.....
* Checking listings on fleabay (I listed 6 items yesterday, and then realised it was a free listing day). After advice given to me on another forum, I've decided to hold off listing the rest cos apparently the market for some categories gets flooded with items, so reducing chance of a decent sale.
* Go through cookbooks, cupboards and freezer list and then menu plan for next 2 weeks.
* Photograph my other items for sale ready for the big fleabay hit

That'll do for now. Off to tackle the toilets... Note to self: find out what a floating toilet is...Nattypants mentioned it in her diary and I have visions of having to wear a lifejacket before going for a wee..not a happy thought LOL

nattypants

I have answered on my diary also, but it's this pix

http://images.google.co.uk/search?num=10&hl=en&site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&q=juicer&oq=juice&gs_l=img.1.1.0l10.3008.4183.0.6621.5.5.0.0.0.0.147.527.3j2.5.0...0.0...1ac.1.cnkDkVONM0c&biw=1024&bih=672&sei=za3kUPaVEoyShgf20oCYBg#biv=i|2;d|ZwuSmo-kddwO6M:

nattypants

I can't appear to provide the correct link on this iPad, if you google 'wall hung toilets' you'll see what I mean:D

pixnmix_2

Replied on your diary too Natty. Those toilets look cool but i'd be too scared it fell off when I was on it

Think i'm gonna stick to the traditional type but I hope you get one soon

pixnmix_2

Ooopps, today i spent money again! All £16 of it. Monthly coffee money was due at work and went to Morrisons to get fresh sage for OH to use in a risotto. En route I passed the reduced section and got £14 worth of sausages, meatloaf, chicken and garlic bread for £7. Have done my spending diary and updated my banking spreadsheet And polished my well tarnished halo to a sparkle!

No other news to report, except I didn't do the menu planning but I know what I've got to use up so won't be a problem to be honest. Oh..and 2 of my ebay items have a watcher each on em so quite pleased about that

pixnmix_2

Oooohh how excited am i tonight! Been looking at remortgages online and there're some amazingly good 5 year fixed deals at the moment. One that i'm considering is with the bank I do all my banking with. Phoned em up and the advisor found a deal that can shave £100 a month off what 1'm paying now. Its £995 arrangement fee but £250 cashback. At 4.09% it's not the best APR but does give me peace of mind for 5 years. I worked out that with overpaying that £100 every month as a minimum I can knock 3 years off my mortgage term. Together with my pay rise in April money going towards it, that's a wee bit more too. Gutted that my LTV is 63% though cos I could have got a much better rate if it was 60%. Still, there's always hope for remortgaging for a better deal in 5 years time..if I haven't paid off the loan in full by then....you just never know!!! Going to spend some more time browsing deals tonight with a snowball