Getting a mortgage and then becoming mortgage-free!

Kittenkirst

Oh and Tilly Tidy of 10p this week ::rotfl:

Kittenkirst

Just nipping on whilst the toad in the hole and the Christmas cake are firing away in the oven.

It’s stir up Sunday today so the Christmas cake has been made - I male this Christmas cake recipe which I’ve used for years and everyone seems to enjoy- https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1160/simmerandstir-christmas-cake

We’ve built our radiator cover for the hallway- bought via wayfair and it looks really pretty. Gfs mum & dad gave us £25 each for Diwali so we put it towards that. I’ve popped the fake orchid (primark) and two vanilla candles (the ones bought last weekend for £1) each and it looks really pretty :heartpuls

We both went to yoga today and I went to a three hour workshop yesterday which was fab- body feels very stretched and worked now

Dinner is sausages from the freezer- either turkey or chicken, can’t remember which- made into toad in the hole with the leftover asparagus, onion and rosemary popped in. Serving it alongside that cabbage we’ve had for what feels like forever and some pumpkin segments roasted off with chilli & paprika.

There’s still one small slice of that Speculoos cheesecake left and two macarons all from Friday so we’ll share that for after a.

Off up north tomorrow so leaving at 5.30am :eek: :eek: will pack a coffee and pull through drive through for my only bought coffee for the week on the way. Taking a colleague with me and we have lunch provided- just need to figure out what to take for breakfast on way maybe the almond cups from nature valley- £1 after cashback on Shopmium- and some fruit. Will have a rummage in the cupboards after dinner/dessert.

Kittenkirst

Good morning all!

Working from home today so time for a nice cuppa and a read of a few diaries before starting work, with the same-day return trips up north over the last few weeks I have found I’m pretty shattered (one day was 7.5hrs of driving in total!) so am looking forward to a day of working from home, resetting my work priorities and getting caught up with everything.

Seem to have got a bit carried away spending wise recently- checked credit card balance and it is a whopping £550....I would say how on earth had that happened but it’s a combination of a few Australian spends and those Bon Jovi tickets bought for next summer

So....need to reign that back in. The credit card has been put back in the cupboard and plans made to get it cleared ASAP. Luckily budgets are all looking fairly healthy and the predicted Christmas spends are included so fingers crossed the silly season doesn’t cause any financial issues (it happens yearly so I should be able to budget for it by now :rotfl:)

In money saving/money-making news Prolific is nicely at £10.91 following a few lucky evening surveys which have already cleared and Shoppix (receipt app) is at halfway towards a £5, not much but it all helps. Managed to take lunch into the office for Tuesday and Wednesday and only one frothy coffee bought this week. Pleased with the improvements there but need to keep it up and not slip into lazy/expensive habits!

I’ve been following lots of debt free community and mortgage free community hashtags on Instagram which is great for inspiration and regular reminders of the greater plans. Found a few new financial blogs to have a nose throug so have sent the links to my home email and will have a read on lunch today.

I’ve been thinking about my career a lot recently and whether this is what I want to do forever. I think I’m fairly good at my job however the company is doing a lot of drastic cost cutting and will be doing more rounds of redundancy etc so it’s always good to have a look and see what’s next.

I think I’d like to stay with the company and see if they make my role redundant- been here 12 years so the tax free payout would be a nice little boost to start again, but I want to look at other options as well.

I love love love all things personal finance and money related so I had a brief look at a financial advisors qualification yesterday, didn’t get far into reading it though as something kicked off at work so cut my lunch break short (after fifteen mins!). Will go back and have a read over the weekend. I know nothing about careers in that industry, what’s required etc but thought it’s worthwhile starting to have a read even if I later decide it’s not right for me.

On the bright side work gave out advent calendars this week- yum! So we’re both looking forwards to those :Xmastree:

Kittenkirst

Hazelnutty wrote: »

:coffee:I really like the Lidl and Aldi coffee - it's become a staple in our house. We get through about a pack a week, sometimes more, so the saving really adds up:coffee:

Hazelnutty- we’re now onto our third jar.
I’m totally converted but gf is putting up with it. I’ve promised her if her favourite goes on offer we will stock up and use this one in-between so we still get the savings but she gets her favourite too

Kittenkirst

Quick update- checked our overpayment total for this month late last night and we needed another 32p to round it up, so 32p quickly sent to make our total November payment a cracking

£600

:j :j

Kittenkirst

Morning folks, woke up with a very painful back this morning so no gym & yoga for me. Instead I’ve had some solpadeine, have a hot wheat bag on my back and laid up in bed. Helpfully I have both Hugo and Oscar snuggled next to me keeping my company while gf is at the gym.

Had a look through cashback apps last night and saw Checkoutsmart was up to £12 odd- I don’t use this one much so requested a withdrawal. Will OP as soon as it clears

Prolific surveys have been approved so got to £13- ive withdrawn that this morning so after the Paypal fee & prolixi fees I’ve Overpaid £12.81 to get the ball rolling on December. Yay!

I’ve done a few more prolific surveys so the balance is up to £3 awaiting approval, and completed a PineCone too so that £3 should clear next week.

Not a bad start from little survey/cashback apps

Planning a new fish recipe tonight- Asian fish en papilloute -which I saw on a Gousto recipe- basically the cod or salmon we have frozen wrapped in parchment paper with mirin,soy sauce, garlic & ginger baked in the oven served along either a shredded carrot salad (most likely for us) or rice with shredded carrot and peas with a little rice wine vinegar for good measure.

Some freezer tetris last night was completed to take stock of what’s in- we have a small lamb joint which we will cook tomorrow with some spices...going to research a recipe today.

Lots of apples (mostly free from work) so will find an apple recipe for dessert this weekend too. We have puff pastry frozen but don’t think gf is too keen on the calories in an apple tart tartin will have a goof rummage in the cookbooks for inspiration.

BookWorm

Hi KK



I don't post much these days but do try and keep up with some mfw diairies. I enjoy yours, so thanks for sharing, and you are doing great!


I also love a tart tatin but agree they are not low calorie. Couldn't resist offering up an alternative recipe for those ingrediants for you here. It's from Tom Kerridges lose weight for good book (which has some fab lighter recipes in)


Happy weekend


BW

Kittenkirst

Ooooh thanks for sharing Bookworm- those tarts sound delicious and fairly straight forward

We also have all of the spices etc already in- have book marked it to make on Thursday night

Kittenkirst

So we didn’t end up trying the fish dish yesterday as gf had fish twice in the week so wasn’t feeling it. Instead we whipped up some chilli paneer noodles which were delicious and made from stores (after much debate and moaning to each other that we had nothing in!)

Today my back has still been pretty painful, but we did get out to Lidl for the weekly shop (£24.97). Picked up some cauliflower and broccoli in a bag for 20p so we ended up having salmon fish cakes for dinner served with a broccoli and cauliflower cheese bake and I made carrot, swede and parsnip mash (parsnip and swede from the freezer, fishcakes from freezer bought YS for £1.13) so pretty tasty but using up some of the store stuffs.

We have friends over on Tuesday evening so we’re doing jacket spuds- twice baked with a chilli cheese stuffing, will do a sweet potato version for the low carb friend going to have that semifreddo we got for the mums evening but didn’t need in the end

Scanned my receipts into the apps so I get some points.

Managed to male the dinner and also make some body coach banana and strawberry muffins (using the work bananas) so they are cooling on the side ready to take to work on Tuesday/Wednesday.

Working from home tomorrow so will have porridge with banana and that hot chocolate powder we don’t like, then we have loads in for lunches. Dinner is something chicken and pepper based but not yet decided on.

Received another PineCone survey this morning so hopefully should have £6 credit the account later in the week ready to withdraw and Overpay!

Kittenkirst

£6 PineCone survey cash hit Paypal so I’ve overpaid it this evening
£21.22 so far for December, still awaiting the checkoutsmart money crediting Paypal to overpay that.