Getting rid of a London-sized Mortgage

VDOT47

It is doable Tropically - I only allow myself £80 a month of cash to spend, and often have some of that left over at the end of the month to throw at the mortgage. Petrol and one-off unavoidable spends go on the 0% CC and cash is used purely for lunchtime snacks, drinks, things which cannot be paid for with card.

edinburgher

That is impressively low - Mrs E and I struggle with more than double that at times!

VDOT47

That is just mine - OH can do what she wants with her cash, after putting agreed amounts into the joint account.

Tropically

The £100 won't cover my partner's spends and I can't be responsible for that! I will not try and mooch off him though, as sometimes I am prone to do.

Day 1 is COMPLETE as a NSD. Alas, there was no free lunch but I had my cabbage and lentils plus a leftover biscuit. I resisted the urge to get the 50p bowls at the market (so cheap! its frugal! no, bad you have food at home) as I walked home. I picked up the veg bag (comes out of the joint account as a subscription and we have to eat!). I resisted the urge to buy delicious things at the deli pick up point. Now safe at home, with a vegetable stew on the hob.

Tropically

I did have fun on Thursday. I finished a book I had on my kindle ages ago.

On Friday night, I took my team out for a quick drink after we successfully completed a year long project. I got approval to expense the first round. It could have just ended there. Free drink, nice time, go home. I intentionally picked a cheap pub instead of the office favourite where a pint is more than £5.

Ah, if only. It wasn't a crazy night but I did buy a round of raspberry Sambuca that I really really didn't need. The cost of the 4 shots round was £15 even. So I have £85 left for the month. I can get carried away when I go out with a particular set of coworkers that I really like.

On Saturday, our lodger moved out and we returned his deposit less the two nights in February. Yay to being able to wear my housecoat around now, boo to not having the money. We've put the room up on Airbnb again, but for a minimum of 4 nights rather than 1 night like it was before.

Later on Saturday, we went on a trip to the seaside to visit my future in-laws. I had bought the train tickets a few months ago, so they were only £30 for the two of us. I also bought them on cashback. I confess to this because while I'm not going to take this out of my entertainment budget, and while I did spend the money, I spent it a while ago. We missed our train and had to wait 20 minutes at East Croydon. I resisted the urge to buy myself a pity drink. We brought a water bottle and that was enough. I am going to count this day as a NSD.

Sunday, we spent most of the day with the in-laws and then travelled back. We again missed our train and again had to wait at East Croydon. We took a different route back and discussed what we wanted for dinner. We were going to have baked potatoes but we had no sour cream. I looove sour cream and might have cracked and got some. Luckily the bus stop in front of the only open shop was closed, and we pulled to one slightly further away. It was not worth it to us to double back for the sour cream so we made do with beans and cheese instead. We also had some side veg of peas and cabbage to get our 5 a day. So Sunday was a NSD as well!

I've got my lunch today - aubergine and lentil stew with pomegranate molasses, no plans this evening except to read more so should get a NSD. Don't count it yet, it's still early.

[EDIT - of course I meant February, not living in the past!!]

Tropically

Managed another NSD yesterday! Although when I went home, I was absolutely starving and frantically google recipes while on the train home. I walked by the market again and my recipe would have been a little bit improved with some spring onions. I had to try super super hard to resist because I had onions at home and while not the same, they would be acceptable.

I have two problems now. The first is that my partner is slightly allergic to cats, and we have two. He takes an allergy pill if the cats are particularly cuddly although he doesn't need them if doesn't get cuddles. Since I'm the one that brought the cats into the house (with permission!!), I have to buy the pills.

The second problem is that we are also out of salt! In theory, we don't need to go out grocery shopping this month. We have a house full off food, and we get a vegetable bag each week that has 8 types of vegetables. We have rice, noodles, tofu, tomatoes, coconut milk etc. All the staples. Plus we have lots of frozen veg too, as well as frozen meals from when we've meal prepped. But how to get by without salt? Yesterday, I scavenged a small packet of salt rescued from a fried chicken escapade. I can probably find some more of those, but I think I'll have to go to the store and get some. Hopefully I can minimise whatever I buy by not going shopping when hungry.

try_harder

You are doing well .Hopefully it will get easier for you to resist as you see the great savings you make.I hardly ever manage a NSD sadly.

Tropically

I didn't manage a NSD I caved and went to the chemist to get the pills and to the supermarket to get the salt. Even though I said I shouldn't go hungry, I went after work when I was ravenous. I bought milk (which I needed) and YS cheese (which I didn't need). I picked up a gluten free garlic bread stick with a YS and put it in my cart. I put it BACK in the fridge because I did not need it, I'm not even gluten-free! It wasn't that much cheaper than gluten-full garlic bread but I saw that YS and thought it was a good buy.

I got home with my salt, allergy pills, YS cheese and milk. I texted my partner to say I got salt and he said, "Oh.. me too!" WHAT?!?! I didn't even need to go get it!!! I put his allergy pills on the dresser and then when he got home salt in hand, he said, "Did you get allergy pills?" I said yes and he said, "Me too!" Okay, so no one has ever complained about having too much cupboard salt or having too long of a supply of allergy pills. I didn't need the cheese, but I did use it that evening, along with the milk to make veg-filled mac and cheese. I used half the amount of pasta and loaded it with cauliflower, green beans and leeks. It was very good!

I also roasted a squash we had in the fridge, and scooped out the seeds and toasted them too. Wash them, dry them as much as possible, add a bit of oil and worcestershire sauce, bake at for 15 minutes at 180-ish. Sprinkle with salt and eat warm. A delicious snack from the squash guts you might have been throwing away!

I asked my partner if he could make a lunch with the squash I had roasted, and casually left the cook book open to the Save with Jamie (the best cookbook ever written) page that has 4 ways to use leftover squash. He went off-piste and made a chilli using WAY too much chilli powder, and I was coughing and spluttering in the next room. We will see how spicy it is today for lunch. The other chilli ingredients were all tins we had lying around anyway.

Tropically

Oh yes, the allergy pills were £7.49 and I spent £3.49 on salt, milk and cheese so I am down to £74.02.

try_harder

Oh no ,me too .I spent around £16 on two bottles of vitamin supplements ,still health is more important. Hope you have a NSD today.