SF's road to mortgage freedom!

slowlyfading

Oh my gosh, our meal out last night was AMAZING. Totally worth the expense.

This is what I had:

pre-starter of a cup of pumpkin soup with lemon and sage
starter - mussels in a star anise and lemongrass sauce
passion fruit sorbet
main - ox cheek, mini fillet steak, chestnut and beef casserole with horseradish mash and veg
christmas pudding with cinnamon ice cream
coffee with amaretto.

:drool: I have never eaten so much in my life, but man it was so worth it! The soup as the pre-starter was divine; I've never had pumpkin soup before but it was so smooth and tasty. Mussels are my favourite and I made sure I had all the sauce in the bowl! The main was lots of meat (more than I realised!) and I didn't finish it all - DH did though can't beat a good christmas pud and the coffee was the perfect finish.

Today will be slightly lighter on the food side I need to do a meal plan and then go and do some food shopping. The rest of the day will be spent writing christmas cards, wrapping presents and relaxing only 5 more days of work to go! :j

edinburgher

That sounds wonderful SF, anything 3 ways in a dinner is usually a good thing

Mrs E and I are considering a many course meal for Hogmany, you may have convinced us!

slowlyfading

edinburgher wrote: »

Mrs E and I are considering a many course meal for Hogmany, you may have convinced us!

Do it :j :j just don't eat anything beforehand

Well, I've been food shopping, and I've written the Christmas cards DH is in the process of wrapping presents and I'm just having a break before I start writing all of the tags.

I do love this time of year

edinburgher

DH is in the process of wrapping presents and I'm just having a break before I start writing all of the tags.

Mrs E wrapped 75% of ours this morning as I cleaned the fish tank. Oh how I love that woman

slowlyfading

Why is this week going so slowly? :wall:

Today's been a welcome NSD, so I'm up to 11 for this month. I think I'm going to struggle to meet my target, but never mind. I desperately need to keep an eye on the budget over the next week; our funds are really low and there's still things to pay for... :eek: I feel really unorganised this year, I'm not going to let it get like this next year.

I'm also not sure whether we're going to make the £7,000 OP target that we set this year. It'll be very tight if we do, put it that way! We're reducing that next year, and I'm looking at other ways in which to help with budgeting and saving.

I feel really stressed about things this evening I can't wait for the holidays.

slowlyfading

It's the holidays :j and payday :j:j

I've transferred money to various pots so it's all sorted for now. I'm not sure what we'll end up spending in the next week, so I've left a bit of a buffer just in case. I'm hoping not to need it

I got a £10 M&S voucher in the post today off a friend, so when the next dine in for £10 is on, I'm going to treat me and DH to that I also got a bottle of champagne from someone at work, so that'll be a lovely treat at some point over the hols

Not much planned between now and Christmas - just relaxing and eating probably

edinburgher

Happy holidays SF - your plans until Christmas sound ideal!

Here's hoping you and DH enjoy yourselves, when does he finish up?

slowlyfading

DH only has Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day off we're looking forward to it though

slowlyfading

I've been to Mr M's today with what I thought was a short shopping list (and therefore cheap) but still managed to spend £39.96 :wall::wall: it did include cat food, cat litter and toilet rolls, but still! It was absolutely heaving in the shop as well, it took me ages to get round. Some people's trolleys were piled high with stuff, couldn't believe it! Mr Ms is open on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day, and yet the amount of food some people were buying would last all month!

Anyway, moving on. We're going out tonight for an Indian with some friends, which I'm looking forward to I'm a bit of a wuss when it comes to spices, so I'll be going for something mild we'll share a rice and a naan as I can't fit it all in myself, but it'll be a nice evening I'm sure

Tomorrow we're visiting various friends/relatives so that'll be a busy but equally lovely day.

I do love this time of year

slowlyfading

Today will be spent delivering gifts and cards to various family members can't think of anything better!

We're having sausages and mash for tea, at DH's request, so nice and easy I've been pondering whether to try and do a monthly meal plan rather than weekly, to try and get us out of the rut of eating the same things. Does anyone do this? Is it helpful? Although then you can't plan for things that are on often... hmm.

Can't believe Christmas is in three days.... :eek:

MSE part - I'm hoping today is going to be a NSD