Cheery's buttling diary: tea in one hand, plant pot in the other, running shoes on

Tescodealqueen

Glad you enjoyed the rice pudding. That and stewed Apple and blackberry are my favourite autumn and winter treats XX though the roasted plums sound very Interesting

Cheery_Daff

Ooh - you've reminded me that I actually brought some of the rice pudding to work for a snack this afternoon :j :j Most exciting :j That'll be a nice treat when I finally finish this thing I've been putting off for the last week

Jam set :j In fact, it set so hard you practically have to slice it :rotfl: :rotfl: Lesson learned - don't boil for quite so long... :rotfl: Why on earth did I pack my jam thermometer?? :rotfl:

Lunch was tasty - parsnip and lentil soup from the freezer, and a bit of corn on the cob left over from last night :j

Looks like we're going out for tea tonight for a friend's birthday :eek: A south Indian restaurant I haven't been to before, but I do like south Indian food and have been most distressed since our local restaurant closed down Might see if I can save any and bring leftovers to work for lunch tomorrow :j

Ooh, that might ruin my jam making plans :eek: Might have to get home early to the plums all chopped up and heating up before we go...

No real house news today. Our buyers have been in contact with estate agent and we've arranged for them to come round to measure up at the weekend. We're going to make sure everything is clean and tidy again and have a good thing about anything we'd be willing to leave behind (they were eyeing up some of our actual possessions at the viewing :rotfl: )

Had a quick email from the solicitor (I chased after hearing nothing at all since handing the form in) - searches have been ordered (no idea whether last week or 5 mins before he emailed :rotfl: ) and should be back in anything from a week to a month - should have some indication of timescales 'shortly'. All far too vague for my liking! :rotfl:

So, so far it looks like we MAY expect:

Mortgage decision - by 30st Aug (8 working days if building society's own timescales are to be believed)
Searches back - by 21st Sept (at latest - if they weren't even ordered til today and if they take an entire month - hopefully they were ordered earlier and won't take that long)

Does anything else need to happen after that, other than arranging dates?? Is it completely outlandish to believe we'd be moving early October? Eight weeks since we offered will be 4th Oct so that's probably the earliest I suppose.

<drums fingers on desk impatiently>

:rotfl: :rotfl:

PurpleFairy26

How exciting cheery thanks for the jam recipe, I've already a couple of jars of blackberry and fancy doing the plum and blackberry one. Am I being a bit daft, but do you just roast the plums and mix at the end or put them in at the beginning in the saucepan, it's like a step is missed out. Your advice would be appreciated.

Fingers crossed people get a bit more specific with you soon on dates. I don't do vague either :rotfl:

I love roasted plums too, this recipe is one of my favourite

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4604/roasted-stone-fruits-with-vanilla

I also make rice pudding with almond milk, thoroughly yummy and very creamy for not too many calories (if you use the unsweetened version)

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, I've got almond milk - been puting in breakfast smoothies with banana, tinned peaches and peanut butter :j Good suggestion for rice pudding! :j

Ah yes, it did miss a step out didn't it? I just made it up :rotfl: while the plums were in the oven I started heating the blackberries and sugar, and then just tipped the plums into the pan as well after they'd been in the oven for 15 mins. Reckon it worked out fine - it was just later that I boiled the whole lot for too long...

Managed to get home in time to chop up the rest of the plums for tomorrow's plum and ginger experiment they're all soaking nicely now with a fair bit of sugar over them - already lovely and soft and juicy :j

Went out for curry tonight but actually pretty thrifty :money: shared a starter, Mr Cheery's stomach still isnt up to a full restaurant meal so he had a biriyani which I ate half of, which meant i didn't need to order rice. No pudding, no tea, although I did have a soft drink. £20 between us including tip :money: and £2 for parking cos we didn't get our acts together in time to walk into town...

Managed to cobble together tomorrow's lunch when we got back :j parsnip and lentil soup defrosting again, and i've got a couple of potato cakes, a tiny bit of goats cheese miraculously not eaten at the weekend :rotfl: also the last handul of mini breadsticks from a couple of weeks ago (boring but fine for munching at work), couple of satsumas, and we found a packet of strawberry angel delight so Mr Cheery is just making me a bit of that for an afternoon sweet fix :rotfl: Not too bad :rotfl:

Meeting a friend for a cuppa in W@itrose tomorrow - you only get free tea these days if you buy something else, but that 'something else' can be a 25p piece of fruit... :money: no other spends planned for tomorrow (although actually I'll need to put into the work tea kitty)

Right, bed!

Cheery_Daff

So - today's MSE spends

50p on 2 bananas to qualify me for the free w@aitrose cuppa (I could have just had one, but these will do for breakfast smoothies anyway)
49p for 2 pints of reduced milk for the tea kitty at work
15p for a reduced half cucumber

Not too bad :j

Also I cashed out my Prolific Academic balance the other day and that's now hit my bank account and been swiftly dispatched to the savings account - signature updated :j Just done another 45p study and will check back every hour or so throughout the day :j

Cheery_Daff

Nothing else from not-very-prolific today :rotfl: Nothing else to report!

Had a nicely thrifty tea - fried up our gifted purple beans with the last 2 mushrooms, half a block of the 3-for-£1 paneer, and a few other bits of veg, and had it with boiled potatoes, donated by the owner of the dog we're looking after. Sprinkled over a bit of fake parmesan. Got half of it left for lunch tomorrow :j

Which reminds me - I haven't sorted anything else lunch/snacks wise for tomorrow! :eek: Got a couple of bananas at work, and a couple of satsumas I can take, and I didn't eat the breadsticks yesterday, and I have a few oatcakes that can pad dinner out... Also got hot chocolate that will get me through the I NEED SOMETHING SWEET part of the afternoon Maybe that's enough... (I could certainly, er, do with eating a touch less at the minute )

Evening of jam making and house stuff here - got the pack from the solicitor with the property info form, fixtures and fittings, and leasehold stuff so have filled in most of it and fired off a couple of questions (mostly about the leasehold - yes, technically we 'owe' some ground rent - 18 years worth to be precise, but since it's 50p a year I don't think anyone cares and I have no idea who to pay it to! :rotfl: )

He's been pretty swift at responding so far, so hopefully we can get that completed and sent off tomorrow (once we've decided what we're taking and leaving, that is). To be honest, there's really not that much we'd leave - fitted carpets, maybe a couple of sets of curtains if they want them, water butts, compost bin, outside planters if they want them (but I can take them if they'd rather not).

Also had to rootle round to find buildings insurance documents (had one scary moment when I couldn't see an email from them and thought we may not have any :eek: :eek: but fortunately found the right bit on the bank statement, and managed to log in and retrieve - phew!). Also sorted Mr Cheery's tax documents for the mortgage people, and various other bits.

And spent quite a lot of time clearing up jam from various crevices around the kitchen :rotfl:

Must be time for bed now - snoring dog at my feet seems to think so :rotfl:

Cheery_Daff

Forms sent back to the solicitor this morning :j and agreement form to terms with mortgage broker also returned :j

No news about mortgage yet :eek: Been a whole week today! :eek: <drums fingers impatiently again>

Food wise... Nipped to @ldi last night for peanut butter, came out having spent £14 :eek: This is why Mr Cheery is in charge of shopping :rotfl: but I only got 'normal' stuff, milk, fruit (including 6 kiwi fruits for 49p), lolly ices, cheese etc. Won't need to go shopping for at least a week now :j

Brought a bit of cheese to work for lunch with some of Pippi's oatcakes that she kindly donated :j Most jolly :j Also brought a couple of kiwis, couple of apples, still got a banana from the other day, oh and a couple of slices of malt loaf - forgot about those! :j :j

Last day at work before holiday :j but I'm NOT concentrating at all need to get on.Got some library books to return so perhaps a little stroll will start off my productive afternoon And stop me staring at the phone quite so much :rotfl:

Cheery_Daff

Well, the afternoon turned rather productive in the end and I only got home about 7pm :eek:

Still, I don't have to go back now til 5th September :j :j :j :j

Shelled out £1.30 to post forms back to solicitor
Did a couple of Prolific surveys totalling £1.76, and a secret one for £3 so quite a lucrative day :money:

Me and Mr Cheery are going to treat ourselves to a takeaway tonight Just a small one though - we're going to share one portion of rice and one of tofu, so the whole thing should cost us about £6. Not toooooo bad (could be better, I admit, but there we are )

Meeting a friend for brunch tomorrow, and I've suggested we go for a picnic in the park, although not sure whether we will or not. Also planning a bit of cycling, and a fair amount of tidying up and garden pottering as our house buyers are coming round on Saturday morning to measure up :eek: Quite scared that they'll suddenly change their minds, when in reality they're probably just excitable like we are :rotfl:

Sent a quick email to the mortgage broker seeing whether we've got our valuation booked yet - I would have left them alone but he did say it would happen 'the back end of this week' and by my reckoning, Friday is most definitely the back end! So we may have *some* news by tomorrow (or they might just ignore me, I suppose :rotfl: ) I assume everywhere will be shut on Monday so we won't hear til Tuesday if not tomorrow - wah! :rotfl:

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, just cashed out £25 through secret survey site :j Won't be here for a few days but when it arrives that'll mean £50 in survey money cashed out this month :money:

Of course, it's taken me since just before Christmas to get to £25 on this one, so it's hardly going to pay the new mortgage, but still... :rotfl:

Cheery_Daff

Afternoon MSE chums :hello:

Nothing much to report. No mortgage news yet, despite broker saying they'd likely instruct the valuation by the end of this week. Suspect we won't hear til after the bank holiday now, pah.

Not had an Prolific surveys today, and been screened out of about 10 Sw@gbucks ones - which reminded me why I gave up on them in the first place :rotfl:

Our house buyers are coming round tomorrow to 'measure up' :eek: I'm proper nervous - what if they change their mind after their initial enthusiasm?? Guess I can't control that (other than making the house spotless and cheerful again). They have only seen it for about 20 minutes I suppose Means I can ask them how their own mortgage is progressing (although I'm in no position to push them given we don't know about ours yet!)

£25 from secret survey site has cashed out :j so £25 transferred to house fund - up to £13,758.35 now :j Will be most depressing the day that bank account goes down to £0 in one fell swoop :eek: Although I guess that'll mean we're nicely settled in our new house so I'll probably be quite cheerful :j :j

Right, best go and get on with some cleaning and tidying and garden sorting :j