Getting a mortgage and then becoming mortgage-free!

A_Frayed_Knot

So glad you had such an amazing and wonderful holiday, so many memories to treasure. Just a pity you both felt so naff for some of the time away.

Back to the grind.

CathT

Crikey I check in for first tome for a while and your holiday has been and gone! What a shame you were both unwell but it still sounds like the most amazing trip with many memories made.

What's the plan for the rest of the year now the trip is done and you've already exceeded your OP target?

Kittenkirst

Thanks both

CathT- very good question! Well the planned OPs up until Christmas are for a further £605 which is banking on a few things:

1. me not splurging too much on Halloween,
2. Christmas spending remaining within budget &
3. also paying off any additional holiday spends on the credit cards in the next two months so we don't incur interest!

I think the key areas we can focus on to make more OP's are:
1. My car insurance renewal- due end of month so looking now.
2. Our gas/elec switch is mid November- cash back from comparison sites is usually a good OP (may not pay out until 2019 though.....)
Sky renewal is end of this month too- we use this heavily but will look at what we could drop and do the haggle dance with them- is like to shave at least £10 a month off if we can....
4. The food shop- we've got in a rut with what we eat so will invest some tine in looking at new recipes/old forgotten recipes and try to make them lower fat/ lower cal but budget friendly
5. De-clutter pre Christmas and do the eBay stuffs....I'm also tempted to try some reselling on eBay but need a bit more thought into what will sell best.
6. Prolific, pinecone & food cash backs!

We did the shop today- we had cleared the fridges and larder of perishables so had to buy staples like cheese, garlic, onions etc. The new Lidl have a 6 week welcome card where if you spend £20 you get a free item- yesterday 1.6kg washing powder (25 washes). We split our shop in case we could get 2 wash powders but combined it Dane to £34.
We then nipped next door to Tesco for the bits we couldn't get (namely my 0% Greek yogurt) and a few Shopmium bits- 4 breaded fish down to £3 with £1 cashback (now in the freezer!) & a tube of Primula (£1.50 but will get £1.5 back).

That makes the predicted £30 grocery shop a steep £42 with £2.50 due back....need a bit more focus next week. Also I automatically bought blueberries (£1,89) and Greek yogurt (£2.06) but with the temperatures here being pretty chilly now I should probably swap back to porridge/overnight oats again which is often a fair bit cheaper over the months (especially if can get windfall apples/ free bananas from work!)

We did get a few freezer items and some of the veggies will carry through to next week so not too much of a disaster.

Kittenkirst

Jet lag is proving to be quite a pain at the minute, so I've used the time and been googling some new recipes/ ideas. I'm at work at 8.30am and am pretty much dreading the piles of emails....

I picked up a nice squash in Lidl (84p) today and been trying to find alternative recipes other than soup- I like the idea of roasting it with some crumbled feta on the side of dishes but have also found a nice taco recipe (we lovvvve Mexican style food!)

Making a note of them here so I can refer back and tick them off:

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/420645/chard-sweet-potato-and-peanut-stew%3famp (with cashews instead)

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3091674/melanzane-parmigiana

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/chicken-tortilla-soup-recipe-1939403.amp

https://www.shelikesfood.com/roasted-butternut-squash-and-black-bean-tacos/

https://cookingonabootstrap.com/2018/10/06/black-bean-tarkari-38p/

Will continue having a good read through and also through the old Style forum pages. Time to add some more meals to our repertoire and get a bit more adventurous in the kitchen l!

lessavyfav

Yum, I love butternut squash. I made Anna Jones squash, potato, kale and almond tray bake lots last winter - it is so flavourful!
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/dec/12/vegetarian-christmas-lunch-anna-jones-modern-cook

Hazelnutty

Yum! I'm definitely looking that recipe up!

Kittenkirst

lessavyfav wrote: »

Yum, I love butternut squash. I made Anna Jones squash, potato, kale and almond tray bake lots last winter - it is so flavourful!
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/dec/12/vegetarian-christmas-lunch-anna-jones-modern-cook

Ohhhh that sounds delicious too! Thank you for the link :heartpuls

CathT

I eat so much 0% Greek yoghurt, I get the @ldi one which is so much cheaper than branded and really high protein. I use frozen blueberries/raspberries in porridge, might work out cheaper for you? Always put a dollop of yoghurt on though to help with protein.

Thanks for posting recipes. I'm trialling gluten free so feeling a bit restricted with menu choices at the moment!

Kittenkirst

Gluten free seems like quite a challenge- one of our good friends is Coeliac and I hadn't no idea some of the items that contain gluten (malt vinegar for example...makes sense when you think it through but wouldn't have twigged!)

Frozen raspberries is a good idea- I will take a look as I do like raspberries in my porridge in the winter, especially if we have any coconut in!

I've pulled up loads more recipes that look interesting and have bookmarked them but the ones above are ones we have ingredients in at the moment for from the Sunday shop.

Off out to a gig tonight with a mate, booked the tickets ages ago, he's offered to drive as knows I'm struggling with the jet lag- not sure what dinner will be tonight but hoping I can sway him for a cheaper option....my credit card bill hasn't arrived for Oz spends (£552) so not too bad but we need to review gfs and divide that up (we use hers for the reward points!) which is a task for the weekend.

Back to work yesterday went ok, like usual there is so much to do, not Enough time and lots of stress but at least nothing changes :rotfl:

Found £3 in pinecone from August which I requested a pay out for but didn't appear, double checked it now and withdrawn...will OP as soon as it clears. Two quick one poll surveys done this morning and will check out Prolific on my breaks today- need to get back on this with a vengeance! Looking at predicted OP's for the year if we stay on track it'll be £95 short of £4K....my mini mission is to get that to a nice round £4K or more before 31st December.

The mortgage statement has arrived so I started reconciling it but got quite tired (at 9pm!!!) so will try finishing that over the next few days and make sure my figures are all aligned and correct (love it :cool: )

Also, a massive positive is due to the holiday a bit out of sorts with dates and only just realised payday is on Monday- wooooooo! :T

Kittenkirst

Car had passed its MOT! Wooop and only £45 to pay (instead of the £200 I budgeted for!) :T :T :T

Pretty pleased with that! Working from home today and it's been pretty hectic, but managed to make a nice chicken noodle soup using the leftover chicken from the chicken crown we ate yesterday (£2.79 at Lidl)- Used the crown bones for a broth and then added dried noodles, tinned sweet corn and some chilli, basil, schezchuan peppers and garlic. Delicious & frugal too! :money:

I've downloaded the Green Jinn app today to have a look at using it this weekend. Finally opened all the post and have some vouchers for pets at home including one for a free small bag of cat food. Yay! Will pop in the purse and when in the office tomorrow nip over at lunch (it's across the road from my main office!)

The Harrington's cat food is back on half price on Shopmium at Tesco so will get three of the four options available (kittens both hated the plain chicken one, as did gfs parents cat Joey!) and will do another transaction for the gf so we can get 6 bags for £16.50 (£1.40 a kg). Shopmium also has Iams cat food on offer so will take advantage of that too on both of our Shopmiums- stockpiling the kitten food to see them through the winter :A

If anyone fancies trying Shopmium if you use my referral code in the app you get a freebie- jar of Nutella at the mo- and I get £3 credit which is given back as cashback when I buy items

Referral code: ACEAHKFA