Make hay whilst the sun shines.

brizzledfw

Enjoy the camping!!

Ooh do post the recipe for chocolate spread..we get through stacks and like you I hate the fact that Nutella uses palm oil. OH has spent time with orphan orangs and it seems hypocritical to now eat it when it's such a destructive product. There is some ethical palm oil about..but not much.

Boo to mortgage. I am just sticking at my current product (.99% above BOE base) and paying it down as hard as I can. Planning on £2k in September so need to stash that away.

MoneyMission

This one's for you Brizz:

https://www.sugarhero.com/lick-the-knife-clean-chocolate-spread/

Try dipping mini breadsticks in it - you'll be hard pressed to stop!

We're finding the cakes and biscuits hardest to go palm oil free. And bread. It's in loads of bread. I'm not adverse to making my own bread but time is of the essence and a plastic wrapped sliced loaf is such an easy store cupboard staple. My fave bread has sustainable palm oil in it but I'm not convinced ANY palm oil is OK. There's a white loaf that's OK but I'm a wholemeal / granary girl at heart. Still searching.

MoneyMission

And camping was a total shocker! Had 4 other campers run over to help us pitch in the gale force winds on Friday. Nearly took off like a great big blooming kite! And then it rained. And rained. And then rained some more.

Thankfully Mr MM had waterproofed the old girl (tent, not me!) earlier this year. She's ten years old so we replaced some poles at the same time. Grateful for his efforts as we'd have been a soggy family otherwise.

Day dawned bright and sunny on Sunday so she dried off before we packed her up and brought her home.

Still love camping despite the awful weather. Nothing beats a bacon sarnie cooked on camping stove.

brizzledfw

How's it going MM? Camping is always fun although most times now we cheat in a camper...but Dd1 is under canvas right now with some mates as it happens.

We have now made the chocolate spread and love it. Reckon even the lodger has been converted which is some result as he's German and partial to that kinda thing :rotfl:

MoneyMission

Finally. The BIG WORK PROJECT has finished. Done on time, ever so slightly under budget and everyone very happy. I had lots of praise and congratulations in the office and they've given me a spa day voucher so I can relax properly.

I'm now on two weeks annual leave. The kids go back to school on 6th and I'll have 3 blissful days at home by myself. Will go out with friends one day and use the other two days just to get some little jobs done that I never get round to otherwise. Or perhaps I'll just get my hair done and go shopping!

Brizz - glad you enjoy the chocolate spread. We've now made it with milk chocolate which is much more to Girl MM's liking.

Off to potter in the garden and try to get on top of the weeds!

MoneyMission

Slightly ashamed of myself. Haven't ever managed to summon up the powers to drive to my nearest @ldi or £idl. My town doesn't have one (rumours have it that one is coming though!) and I've always maintained that it's too much faff to drive to the other side of my town, up the A road and past the next town and out the other side to visit one.

Managed it today and did a comparison when I got home. I put all the equivalent items into a Sainsbobs online order and it came to £84 ish. I actually only spent £55.15! Saving of £29 on my weekly shop. That could be £1,508.00 per year :eek:

There were a couple of bits I couldn't get but on the whole was pleasantly surprised. It took 20 minutes to get there but 35 on the way home because of traffic so will only go when I'm not working. Seriously hope the rumours of a local @ldi are true!

brizzledfw

Well done on making the effort. I am guilty of the same thinking...its just not close enough but I should be more focussed, as you say the savings are potentially enormous

Also well done on the praise at work. Glad you are valued

MoneyMission

Had a major attack of CBA with driving to @ldi. Haven't been back since first bargainous trip. Have decided not to worry about it as my time is precious and valuable to me and my family!

Have also decided to release the purse strings a little bit on general family expenses. We're saving for another BIG TRIP to see our friends in America in 2019 but I've been focussed on getting it saved NOW. Silly me, we've 20 months to save it and I can drip feed that account without us living on gruel.

What I really need right now is a bit of a break from working flat out at everything - job, kids, parents, life, house, garden, horse etc etc. So, have upped the kids lunch money pots and will now only send them with snacks that they can 'grab and go' from cupboard. They can buy pasta / panini / pizza at school.

I'm going to see if I can move the visits to the horse from a Sunday to a Saturday so that we have a whole family day together. I've upped the family days out pot by £30 a month too as we need to do a bit more bonding. If I can achieve both these things I think we'll have a bit more down time together as I feel we're 'drifting' a little.

I think this has all come about because work is now taking more of my time. I really enjoy it and want to be committed but I can't do everything to the level I used to when I only worked 12 hours a week. Well, I could but I'm choosing more fun and happiness instead!

brizzledfw

Soundlng good choices. Well done x

MoneyMission

Just reported £306 OP for September.