Building The Burrow!

newgirly

Hi pearla, you've been busy -first day of your diary and already rescuing dogs in distress

Crumpets

Well done on the doggy rescuing:T I hope he wasn't abandoned:(

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Pearla*Merle wrote: »

I've ended up having a rather remarkable day. On my way back from the PO I was about to cross a dual carriageway and what do I see but this little terrier trotting along in a cosy winter jacket but no owner to be see. He merrily walked straight out into the traffic (with me practically falling into the paths of the cars to try and stop them from running him over, complete heart in mouth moment, I still feel shivery thinking about it!) somehow he survived and I whisked him off the road before he could dance with death again. Thankfully he had a tag, I called and called the number but to no avail. Managed to make him to walk back towards my neck of the woods while holding his collar (I looked like Quasimodo! I had to hobble along bent double holding his collar so he wouldn't take off again). The Fates must have been looking after this little fellow as I met my Neighbour With A Dog who lent me a lead (she was about to drive off home for Christmas, what great timing), so I had a wander around trying to see if I could find anyone who owned him, but no one was to be found. He trotted along wagging his tail and being generally charming, it was very tempting to keep him! Ended up taking him to the animal shelter who found his chip (Mr Merle came up with that great suggestion, I never even thought about it!), turns out my little terrier is actually from Portugal and had been picked up in Kent as a stray last month! What an adventurous life he's led! The owner hasn't phoned me back/sent me a text or anything, it's so bizarre. Animal shelter are going to let me know what happens to him... think I might pick up some food and such and drop it round some time for them though, they were lovely.

Well done! I hope they find the owner.

Pearla*Merle

He seemed really well looked after and had lots of contact details on him, it was so odd. Maybe he was dognapped? (If so I hope he had a very dramatic escape, while knocking out the perpetrator with his tail!). I can assure you it's not all animal rescue around here... the last creature I saved was a pigeon that flew into a telegraph pole in the middle of a vast, empty field. That was 20 years ago, so I'll set a timer for 2033 shall I? :rotfl:

Edinburgher :rotfl: yeah, our electricity bill is about that, lol. Love it (especially since I'm the one paying it!)

Oh my word, I've just realised I didn't just get carrots and parsnips last night, I also bought cinnamon and raisin bagels! Saturday morning treat *wanders off to get breakfast*

Pearla*Merle

I was intending to come back yesterday morning and chatter about some of the money plans that had popped into my head the night before (was somehow still up at 2am staring at spreadsheets manically), but we had to rush out the door and it's been pretty nonstop since. Now here I am again back where I started - cinnamon bagel in hand, big pot of Yuletide tea, and something festive on the box. I seriously hope the weather is terrible tomorrow so I've no choice but to stay in and rest, I'm knackered.

I can barely remember the past 36 hours, it was all seeing friends, frantic last minute gift shopping, rescuing parcels from the clutches of the post office, a whirlwind of house organising/cleaning and finishing off some last work bits. I'm doing nothing else tonight unless it involves getting up to fill up my glass again.

Moneyesque highlights and lowlights of late...

I've organised my shoes and put them somewhere more accessible so I can get some wear out of odd ones that are kicking about that I usually avoid using as I can't get very far in them for whatever silly reason, but they'll do for short trips and so forth. This will save my decent shoes for days of serious walking about and hopefully make them last a bit longer, plus it will finally declutter some of these other shoes once I wear them out.

Saw a penny on the street today but couldn't pick it up as there were too many people hurrying along, alas!

Saved £1 on my neighbour's Christmas present, and got a free item to boot thanks to a 3 for 2 offer.

Made some gorgeous mustard & pancetta sausage rolls using this recipe, well, kind of that recipe. We stuck in some pancetta and sage as well (eaten covered with copious amounts of redcurrant jelly). So yummy, loads left over too so shall be munching those later.

Discovered lots of lovely (and cheap - even the organic stuff was cheap!) vegetables and other foodstuffs at the market today, I think I'll head down there after Christmas and get into the way of stocking up on some things from there. I wanted to get some beautiful local goats cheese as a treat for Christmas but since we won't be around much over Christmas and already have bits to use up I might save that for New Year.

Going to have a good root around the fridge & cupboards tomorrow and see what I can magic up as either snacks or meals for the freezer. We've got lots of bits in there already to use up post Christmas - Mr M won't eat anything that's been either raw or cooked and then frozen... so I suppose I shall be living like a King and he'll be on the pasta then! :rotfl:

Shall try and return post dinner and write up those money plans(!)

Pearla*Merle

Netflix roaring log fire in the background now, how terribly modern.

So, thoughts on money and plans of actions for the foreseeable future...

Great news I forgot to mention, was accepted for a 0% credit card the other day :j I've never had a cc before :eek: I'm not sure why, combination of rejections thanks to never having enough income, then my own disinterest in them due to experiences with large storecard debt (oh Monsoon, I do miss you, but not the late payment charges!) but now I'm much more money saavy I thought now might be a good time to get one going. (Thank heavens I never had one way back in the day, I'd probably still be digging myself out otherwise!). Anyway, it should help build the old credit rating etc. Plus I really need a new phone - that's why I applied (wanted to keep my super cheap sim-only deal that the phone company seem to have forgotten I'm on and is much cheaper just to buy a phone straight off then), but now I'm not so sure (on the new phone.. wonder if I can string out my current one until it definitely dies). I'm not sure what the limit is nor now long the 0% lasts, but if I can I'd like to use it for some council tax stoozing. :T

Next thing to tick off the list is sort out a First Direct account, want to try and apply for that before the end of the month. Also need to compare & switch energy companies as our fix runs out soon. (Oh, and once FD is sorted then I'm going to take a closer look at all those other handy moneymaking current accounts that are around and maybe put on my money shuffle shoes).

January also means that the TV Licence is paid up, I'll probably stop the payments again. I did this last year with the intention of paying myself the DD instead and taking advantage of the interest it'd accrue, but didn't quite manage it as things went majorly downhill, blah. Better luck this time?? Then in July I can put the payments to myself down to £12 a month and build up all year that way.

This time of the year is always crazy with work/income, I probably won't really know where I'm at until mid-January or early February and all the accounts are sorted, but once that's done I'll be able to really sink my teeth into building up the savings, can't wait! :T

I used to be really good at piggbanking my money, but that's taken a back seat lately as things have been rather too close to the bone for my liking and there was nothing to spare. So the other night I was looking at the accounts app I use, I deleted some old funds and set up some new ones. Mostly I'll focus on putting every penny towards reaching that £1,500 figure, but I'll also put a bit aside for clothes, haircuts, holiday, birthdays & Christmas and new specs. Ultimately the plan is to spend as little as possible on the aforementioned things anyway (friend cuts hair, only need to replace a few clothes and want to make birthdays etc cost neutral), so all that money can then get subsumed into the savings. *crosses all fingers on toes*

Something I definitely want to get back into next year is giving myself around £10 a week for fun & games. £5 for social things, £5 for a little treat to myself (this is part of my Dust Off The Poverty Mindset scheme). Often 'treat to myself' becomes 'woo, build up the savings more!' but even if I don't spend it, I'll track what I should be allowing myself in case I see something later I want to spend it on later (that way I don't feel too bad about as I'd already allowed myself the money, if you see what I mean?). Should also mention that if I use a survey-earned voucher for treats then I can pay the treat money into the savings (win win!). Any leftover social will go into the holiday fund, or for little daytrips, that'll keep Mr M happy. :A

I'm sure there was lots more, I forget. Shall keep adding and amending over the next while/forever I daresay.

pavlovs_dog

just popping in to wish you good luck with your journey PM. Like you we started out at the saving for a deposit end before graduating to the MF boards. You'll get plenty of support and good ideas here.

Pearla*Merle

Thank you, pavlovs_dog!

I've finally got that pesky 10p on OnePoll, another £40 is now winging its way to me, whoop! That'll pay for a good portion of Mr M's birthday present next month, great timing.

Today's going to be very slow going (to a background of festive films though, silver lining!). Will be pottering about tidying up odds and ends, need to do a bit of work and then it's onto making cranberry and white chocolate cookies... oh heck, I'm not sure I've got the rolled oats. Don't really want to go to the shops (again). Can I get away without using them? Hmm. Might see if Mr M can pick some up and I'll just do them later tonight.

muddywhitechicken

That's the cookie recipe I use every Christmas - I think that you need to use the oats (sorry!)

I would be lynched if I didn't bake hundreds of them. Neighbour's teenage daughter actually started dropping hints last month :rotfl:

I also make them in the summer replacing the dried cranberries with dried blueberries, the pecans with pistachios, and the vanilla with lime zest

Pearla*Merle

No worries MWC, I've got Mr M on the case! Lol on your neighbour dropping hints... sounds like you're going to have to get ready to send food parcels when she leaves home. Thanks for the alternate recipe idea, itsounds divine! I'll be filing that one away

So far have indulged in some HFW Christmas cookery telly, a dot of White Christmas and now onto Harvey (which was on my list to revisit sometime soon, so that saves me digging it out of the DVD pile :rotfl:)

House is slowly getting ship shape, bread is on for our spicy parsnip soup tomorrow (though did have several mishaps with it including spilling yeast everywhere - remembered to date the yeast though so no throwing it out long before we need to 'just in case'). Just grabbing some lunch then it's back into the fray, might collapse later with the mending pile, I could do with sewing up the holes in my slippers, make them last just a tad longer.... I'm sure I can make them last til spring :rotfl: