I really really want to be........mortgage free!

ourcornercottage

Nothing much doing money wise today, usual £8 on miniocc's clubs and £5 spent treating a couple of soccer moms to coffee to warm up as it was dithering outside today. We are taking it in turns to buy

Then food shopping and although I didn't need a great deal I brought miniocc a comic for being so good when he isnt feeling also I snapped up some ski underwear for miniocc that they had in aldi as I had been recommended it as good for the littleuns to keep warm at football training. He had been really cold these last 2 weeks despite wearing layers so I thought I'd get these give them a try. If they dont work they will be nice jimjams anyhow. I also planned some batch cooking so got the ingredients for them too. A total of £51 spent including all this stuff so well happy with that

The first round of batch cooking occurred this afternoon and I did 6 portions of lasagna and 8 tin sized portions of leek and potato soup. I have planned for tomorrow Veg chilli and rice. Im hoping to make about 6-8 portions that I can put in the freezer for lunches at work. I was given at a discounted price some batch cooking containers so I could review them so I am putting them through their paces. See I told you I take my product testing and reviews seriously!

I also plan to put some face mask through its paces again tomorrow for another review which will crack miniocc up as he thinks its hilarious!

I have just sat down and watched The Imitation Game which is an absolutely fantastic watch.

No other money news apart from I have added a blog post to my blog which I have been neglecting a little of late. I'm back on it now though!

CathT

Your pension contributions are impressive. We really need to up our game! We loved 'the imitation game'. Some great films being watched by MFW's this weekend. We watched 'focus' with will smith this weekend and I surprisingly really enjoyed it. The synopsis didn't sound too exciting but it was a really good film.

Batch cooking is a must in this house. Saves us loads of money and to me through out the week. Its so much easier to stayout of the supermarket if you are organised with a food plan.

ourcornercottage

CathT wrote: »

Your pension contributions are impressive. We really need to up our game! We loved 'the imitation game'. Some great films being watched by MFW's this weekend. We watched 'focus' with will smith this weekend and I surprisingly really enjoyed it. The synopsis didn't sound too exciting but it was a really good film.

Batch cooking is a must in this house. Saves us loads of money and to me through out the week. Its so much easier to stayout of the supermarket if you are organised with a food plan.

Our contributions need to be impressive as we left it so late to start unfortunately. Trying to make up for it now but these amounts may have to be tinkered with if we can't keep it up at this level. TBH it isn't sustainable long term but we need to try and get a years worth of payments under our belt at this level at least.

I'm going to have a look for that film, will watch it tonight when miniOCC has gone to bed

Gonna start the veggie chilli batch cook in a minute when I finally get up. It's mainly for work lunches as BF is gluten free so generally doesn't have sarnies as he doesn't much like most Nov the gf bread. It's also useful for when miniOCC has an after school club and needs feeding quickly!

I don't know if I said yesterday but we had hm pizza. One useful tip is if you have a bread-maker (we brought a secondhand for £20) and always have mozzarella in the fridge making a hm pizza really easily. The dough takes 45 mins in my breadmaker which I put in when I get miniOCC from school. I then make into a pizza base and put in a warm place whilst I try the toppings ready then in the oven. Quicker than ordering a takeaway! To make the tomato sauce I just blend onion, garlic and a tin of tomatoes athough for something different use chutney you may have in the fridge. Just an idea.

No spends planned for today will batch cook and walk the dogs. May make some jam later if I can be motivated as I have loads of fruit still in the freezer!

ourcornercottage

Been having some rants on the freebies forum this morning, there are some real ***** on there. Honestly you would think that the whole world is made up of total idiots.

Anyhow I'm avoiding those threads from now on and staying with the tolerant, intelligent MFW's over here who can actually think outside the box!

I really need to get a bath and walk my dogs but as this had been the first day we haven't had anything in since the start of the year I'm enjoying being a slob this morning

Lexi-lu

Hello OCC

Hope you're having a relaxing day. Your pension contributions are great, I have recently been considering increasing mine a bit as I also started late. Thanks for posting about the hm pizzas, I have a bread-maker and use it all the time for bread but have never tried using it for pizza dough. Just checked the manual and instructions are there for it so will have a go with DD one evening this week.

LL

Fay

ourcornercottage wrote: »

Had to add another £50 to my ISA and send in another DD form. Good job I checked that.

I received my 1 months free tastecard from a MSE link today, which is a bit annoying as BF will be eating out every day for the next week

Is anyone else using bounts? I have been and have over 1000 points already! This is almost enough for a £5 gift card If you join then I can give you a referral code and we get 100 points each just PM me

TBC.....Lunch is finished at work!

What is bounts? I keep seeing it mentioned but have no idea what it is lol

Maximum_Saving

That is excellent planning of your finances. I wish you you much luck paying off your mortgage. I am also trying very hard to pay off my mortgage. My plan is to have my mortgage going down one thousand pounds a month so it reaches around six thousand pounds when its term ends. This is on 31st August 2017. So I am saving money to reach this on or just before 1st September 2017. My mortgage would have an early repayment fee of around 5% of my mortgage balance. It will be amazing to be mortgage free.

hiddenshadow

Fay wrote: »

What is bounts? I keep seeing it mentioned but have no idea what it is lol

http://bounts.it/ - it rewards you for doing fitness things. Think it can connect to a fitness device or various phone apps. You get points for hitting a certain number of steps each day, or for spending 30 minutes in a gym, etc.

I signed up a week ago and have 30 points from my Moves app (based on steps/day). Plus another 90 bonus points from Bounts itself, and 700 points via a MSE referral code. Think you can cash out starting at 769 points (a £10 am@zon gift card is 2,778 points, which isn't bad for walking around).

ourcornercottage

Lexi-lu wrote: »

Hello OCC

Hope you're having a relaxing day. Your pension contributions are great, I have recently been considering increasing mine a bit as I also started late. Thanks for posting about the hm pizzas, I have a bread-maker and use it all the time for bread but have never tried using it for pizza dough. Just checked the manual and instructions are there for it so will have a go with DD one evening this week.

LL

Glad to be of help. A takeaway pizza can be £15 we make ours for £1-2! And you get exactly what you want.

The good thing about increasing your pension contributions is that you can easily reduce them again if you cant keep it up. Plus of course the government little add in too!

ourcornercottage

Maximum_Saving wrote: »

That is excellent planning of your finances. I wish you you much luck paying off your mortgage. I am also trying very hard to pay off my mortgage. My plan is to have my mortgage going down one thousand pounds a month so it reaches around six thousand pounds when its term ends. This is on 31st August 2017. So I am saving money to reach this on or just before 1st September 2017. My mortgage would have an early repayment fee of around 5% of my mortgage balance. It will be amazing to be mortgage free.

WOW you are so close to being mortgage free. The end is in sight for you. I am unfortunately still about 10 years away with a £1000 a month reduction I can't wait until I first get under £100k, then 5 years to go. At that point I can't imagine how excited I will be. I will be trying to get the boys to live off beans on toast to get it gone!