The march to financial freedom

kbl

Hi Ali, never posted here but have been following your journey and wishing you well from the sidelines don't know if it works but have read somewhere that if you freeze candles, they last longer?

Ali-OK

Hi kbl and thanks for posting.

That makes sense about the freezing- will have to try that one out for sure

I wonder how many candles it would take to set the smoke alarms off - there's tons when I blow them out at night. I should invest in a snuffer tool really.

Was with a client today who had a log-burner installed last year and have reduced their gas use so much that their supplier has put a new meter in thinking it's faulty. That's the sort of gas use I'd like

Ali-OK

Today has gone quick and a NSD achieved :j

I've popped a dinner candle in the freezer, so once the current 2 are finished, will use a room temp one and the frozen one and see if they burn differently.

Tried golden syrup on porridge today - very nice.

Financials for today:

Bank account checked
freepostcodelottery checked
Nectar Adpoints - finally got it reset tonight and have clocked up 46 points
Nectar Canvass - nothing in for me there. Last points picked up were on 20th December, so might be time to try out Inbox Pounds or Clixsense. Must be due one soon from P!necone too.

Nectar card value - £22.44

All the Jan birthday cards are stamped and ready to send, just need to make sure I post each one on time and tax bill is on theTo Pay list for early next week.

There are local rumblings about increases to 13/14 Council Tax, but the figures don't get agreed or published until mid March and we usually get the new bill end of March to start paying in April. Not much time for budget planning for it.

Might pay a visit to Morries tomorrow night to see what YS items I can pick up as haven't got any fish in the freezer and keep fancying a bit of smoked haddock.

Hope everyone has had a good day.

Ali-OK

Good evening,

Another day almost over and in exchange for cooking Somerset Pork casserole, mash and veg for DB and nephew, I now have the 3 table cloths and a pack of 20 napkins for the 19 due for pre-Christmas lunch in December.

I've been on a YS hunt at Morries - 7pm seems to be a good time as reductions were taking place and quite a few people doing the same thing. Is SB similar for timing? Are there best days to go?

Though there wasn't any fish reduced, I did get:

YS large Cathedral City cheese - £1.99
YS Minced Pork - £0.99
YS Ardenes Pate - £0.25
YS Loaf of Rye Bread with sunflower seeds - £0.19
YS 5 mixed bread rolls - £0.09
YS Blackcurrant Pie (family size) - £0.29
YS Double cream -£0.45

Plus more milk, braising steak and bacon (both on offer).

Total spend £9.69

I'll add all that to the Grocery Challenge thread and update sig shortly. I think this could form a new strategy of YS shop on a Wed eve with my usual weekly shop at Aldi on a Thurs or Fri. That way any YS purchases can form part of the new weekly meal plan and will hopefully bring costs down a bit further (except pie and cream which is defo a treat ).

Pate on rye toast for lunch tomorrow, possibly Friday too, will make a nice change from days of corned beef sandwiches :rotfl: The pork mince will go into home-made burgers, bacon and cheese into a couple of quiches. I'd better get baking, though I'm working on Saturday, so will have to space it all out a bit. Rolls perfect for DS lunches with the cheese too.

I have a confession on the cleaning front, I absolutely love using (and the smell of) Flash liquid Cotton Fresh (the blue one) for bathrooms/cloakroom. Wilkos have got the 1.3L bottle on offer at £1.50 - the 1.4L is £3 in all the supermarkets according to mysupermarket.com. As I'm out of the Blue (using the last Lemon which is normally reserved for the kitchen and utility ), I think I might get a stock. I restrict the use to just weekend cleaning, during the week I use Stardrops which only has a very feint whiff of lemon. It's the one product I've been looking out for there to be offers on and finally! I've tried the Aldi equivalent before and it left a speckled film finish on the tiled floors.

The dogs have almost finished another big food bag, so I shall be adding one of those to the shop tomorrow too.

Financials:

Bank account checked
freepostcodelottery checked

Nectar Adpoints - on 46 still, but a 5 pointer is there and I can't get it to play. Says its no longer available now. Oh well.

Nectar Canvass - my prayers for points were answered with 2 surveys and 180 points

P!necone was just a selection survey, so might get something coming through from there soon. Fingers crossed.

Not much else to report - waiting avidly for the mortgage update letter to arrive - it's 7 days tomorrow and they did say 7-10, so that means it'll arrive on day 10 then! :rotfl: I think I'll have reduced the interest by £2.21 going by my calcs.

Hope everyone has had a good day.

PS. Frozen vs. room temp candle burning has commenced - going down at the same rate so far!

Ali-OK

Quite a lot to report today, but bet I forget something - I normally do :rotfl:

Work - a good day, peppered with visits to MSE, though I am not needed to work on Saturday now. Not too upset about that, the month is nicely on track so far and I seem to be drawn towards cleaning out the fridge and the oven :eek: . A case of anything but doing the study :rotfl: Ooh, baking... could have a baking day .

Ald! weekly shop done today. Spent £13.60 in there and a further £4.50 by ordering 3 bottles of Flash Liquid from Wilkos website which I'll collect. Still on track for groceries so far, though couldn't get tinned chopped tomatoes, big dog food bag and bleach.

I swapped the meal plan around with yesterday so we had one of the batch turkey curries with rice and Naan bread tonight. Porridge this morning and some of the YS rye bread toasted with YS pate at lunchtime. Having same lunch again tomorrow, it's very tasty.

Meal plan for next week:
Sun - Roast chicken breasts with trimmings
Mon - Toad in the hole and veg
Tue - Spaghetti bolognaise
Wed - Baked potatoes, cheese and beans
Thur - Lattice chicken, new potatoes and beans
Fri - HM burgers in rolls and chips
Sat - Chilli, rice and garlic bread (no surprise there )

Financials:

Bank account checked
freepostcodelottery checked
Nectar adpoints - the ad that disappeared last night (Star Wars) came back today along with 2 other ones, so up to 63 points now
Nectar Canvass - the 2 surveys yesterday I thought were 180 points have been credited as 200 points. See how bad my memory is :rotfl:
Nectard Card - is up to a nice £24.49.
Nectar search bar is up to 40 points.

The Activity Courses that DS usually does for 2 to 3 weeks each year (1 Easter, 2 Summer) have just been released. It's £160 per week this year :eek:. He doesn't really want to go, preferring instead to go to my Mums each day. Hmm, I have some asking nicely to do, though he does humour her well and makes her a great cup of tea . I'd better start saving for Mum's biscuit tin refills if she agrees - he takes after DB :rotfl:

Candles still burning away and the heating is off too. Looking forward to reading the meters at the weekend to see how we've done this week.

Need a NSD day or 2 now, but am running out of foundation and fave lippy. Can use the £3 off No.7 voucher when I do buy them so it won't be quite so expensive. There's always something!

Ali-OK

I knew I would forget something yesterday - and so I did!

The vanilla ice cream that we had 3 tubs of is reducing nicely and it's avoided it going to waste - I've been turning it into chocolate milk shake with the help of some store cupboard Nesquik choc powder and Ald!'s chocolate sauce. DS loves it and fortunately I found some straws in the kitchen declutter as it is so thick!

I completed another 2 short Nectar canvass surveys last night - 20 points a piece as well.

Onto today - a busy work one and DS finishes school earlier by an hour, but managed to get business banking done with minutes to spare. If I bank on a Saturday morning, it loses 2 days interest and every penny counts.

Exciting news in the post - not the latest mortgage figures, but the result of the test I had at the GPs on Monday - it is all clear :j. Last summer, I had some pre-cancerous cells removed and had been on tenterhooks for this follow up test. It's nowhere near the level of those going through the Big C and I take my hat off to them (KJ that's you ) for their strength and bravery. I count my blessings every day more than ever before.

I got 2 loads of washing done and out on the line this morning for the day and another 2 loads washed tonight - that's all on airers. Bins done, towels changed and a bit of tidy up, so am ahead for the weekend houswork. That usually means I'll grant myself a lazy Saturday morning though :rotfl:

We've had a quick freezer dinner tonight of chicken, chips and beans.

Financials:

Bank account checked and weekly business expenses reimbursed
freepostcodelottery checked
Nectar adpoints - a triple point email, for Oxfam but I'd already watched it yesterday, so just 6 points for me - up to 69
Nectar Canvass - nothing today
Nectar card - sitting at £24.78 - the Oxfam 100 points has been credited and an eShop from Xmas shopping back in early November. Due 400 from British Gas, but think that'll be end of the month.

Achieved a NSD and plans are for one tomorrow. Town beckons on Sunday - the Wilko order of Flash Liquid is ready for collection.

I'd like to get some baking done over the weekend including some HM dog biscuits from the Grocery Thread - that will be quite a saving on buying them hopefully.

That's about it from today - very tired tonight, had a power nap which turned into 1.5 hrs after dinner - bad idea! Bet I wake up properly about 11pm tonight :rotfl:

Hope everyone has had a good day and looking forward to the weekend.

OrangeFairy

Hi Ali,

That's great news about your test results. I need to pay a visit as my 3 yearly check should have been in August and I haven't got round to it. Ill try and arrange it before the end of the month.

I am having a bit of a housework weekend mixed with de-cluttering and painting woodwork!

Though I am so tired I reckon a lie in is in order tomorrow!

OF x

Ali-OK

Hi OF,

You're doing brilliantly on all that door painting and decluttering still too. I finished the kitchen and utility and since being back at work properly this week, haven't done anywhere else! Painting the kitchen and utility is still to do here, so would be nice to have decluttered the study, loft and DS's bedroom before then and be ready for all the jobs outside come March/April (depending on weather of course ).

Do get your check arranged, it's well worth peace of mind, or like me, early preventative treatment I'm back to annual now and it'll go on my Christmas 'To Do' list! How lovely :rotfl:

Ali-OK

Today's update.

Quite a few small DFW things achieved today:

- elec and gas readings taken and submitted, heating hasn't been on since this morning.
- another washing load done and put on line to dry
- cleaned the fridge out
- candles on tonight
- dinner from batch of chilli
- housework completed upstairs, half done downstairs.
- caught up on emails with friends from abroad
- did an hour of work stuff to get caught up
- sorted 4 piles of paperwork clutter and either filed, shredded or binned.

Financials:

- another NSD :j
- bank account checked
- freepostcodelottery checked
- nectar adpoints - no advance on 69
- nectar card value - £24.99
- nectar search bar up to 50 points

I may put off going into town tomorrow in favour of another NSD. I can always collect the Flash Liquid from Wilkos Monday afternoon as I'm in that area for work.

Didn't get any baking done today. Rolling that over to tomorrow.

Ali-OK

An early update for today.

DS and I embarked on a baking session late this morning. Oh boy, did we make plenty of mess :rotfl: but the result was:

- gravy cakes for the dogs. Never quite got to the dough stage - had too much gravy to start with, so it was more a thick yorkie pud consistency. Anyhow, cooked them and tried them out on the dogs and they LOVED them! Now have them in an airtight box and if I'd have had my brain in gear on Wednesday eve last week, should have picked up YS liver to make liver cake with. That'll ensure a fab recall Will try for gravy biscuits when the cake runs out.

- cheese and onion potato cakes. DS's idea so we gave it a go and they've come out reasonably well. Have 7 for the freezer, after test driving one.

I started decluttering the study this afternoon. Some stuff moved to the loft (3 suitcases, photographs, music books and sheet music), lots of shredding and sorting of paperwork done and a few piles ready to be filed, once I can get to the bookcase.

Few bits in ironing pile, so they're done and put away.

Financials:

- bank account checked
- freepostcodelottery checked
- Nectar adpoints - still 69
- Nectar Canvass - completed a 60 pointer this morning
- Nectar search - up to 53
- Nectar card value - still £24.99

Cheque written for my tax bill and will pay via the local PO tomorrow.

3 in a row for NSDs :j

Relaxing eve tonight and prep DS's stuff for school.

Another weekend that's flown by!