Viking's Diary

Viking_mfw

@caeler to be fair, there are several other self seeded buddleias around the place from previous prunings of this one!

70p received from Str33tb33s, flipped straight onto OPs, for a total of £10.40 this year. 

savingholmes

I think buddleia are beautiful in the right place - but the wrong place and they block light. Covered with butterflies they can be amazing though and are good screening.

Viking_mfw

Thought nothing was going to happen today on a mortgage front but I just received 80p from Str33tb33s and flipped it straight over to the mortgage OPs. Little and often seems to be keeping me motivated. 

caeler

It’s a mindset isn’t it! @Viking_mfw

Viking_mfw

The combination of lockdown making me want to minimise supermarket trips and a low spend January target is making for some odd meals. Tonight we will be having cauliflower cheese made with a 20p cauli and Christmas present cheese, hasselback potatoes made with free potatoes from Olio, and some baked beans. It's leftovers for lunch from the other day and I had last night's leftovers for breakfast. I think we could probably squeeze another evening meal out of the freezer and fridge but we are out of onions and various other important things. So it's off to Mr L for me tomorrow and then possible Mr T on the way home for the things Mr L doesn't have. 

I have listed a couple of things on fleabay and need to do a couple more. I have identified some Sylvanian family furniture in a box and need to clean that up and shove it on ebay as a job lot. Had to do some careful googling to identify which things were S F. 

I also checked out music magpie on the offchance this morning and discovered it would take some of the books WBB weren't interested in so I have constructed a small box to go to them. It's fairly low value as you would expect given no one else wants them but am waiting on a friend waking up to do a refer a friend which should make both of us a fiver. Every little helps! I also need to put two thrillers none of the online people will take on the village facebook group just to get them out of the house. We drop stuff off on our daily exercise as having a destination is usually helpful. 

savingholmes

Decluttering the house and making meals stretch. Sounds good.

Viking_mfw

savingholmes said:

Decluttering the house and making meals stretch. Sounds good.

I had 2 huge bags to go to the CS but my appointment to drop them off has been cancelled due to lockdown and we just need the space back! Not just the 2 thrillers but also a comedy memoir distributed to people around the village, or will be tomorrow on my husband's daily exercise!

powerspowers

Viking it sounds like you’re a complete convert from making you first OP a few years ago! Do you have a target in mind? 

Viking_mfw

powerspowers said:

Viking it sounds like you’re a complete convert from making you first OP a few years ago! Do you have a target in mind? 

I don't really, except to see what I can do. Ideally I would like to move to a house with a large garden (an acre if possible) but that is way out of range at the moment. However, I'm thinking every little helps and am finding concentrating on little and often rather than the overall goal is more motivating for me, because the size of the mortgage (just under 275k) is too big for me to think about without getting discouraged. I am also very enthusiastic about waste reduction etc which ties in with some fairly frugal things like rescuing food, growing your own, that sort of thing. 

Viking_mfw

Managed to combine the weekly shopping with paying in the Christmas money and some shrapnel from gtree sales before lockdown. £5 cash straight over to the OPs. Christmas money I'd been given for my beloved hotbin went into PBs to pay back the savings I'd drawn on to pay for it in the first place and the rest went into the ISA. I have been paying a minimal amount into an ISA and a LISA on a monthly basis since DS1 was born but I think that needs to increase now, although I don't think I can afford to double it entirely (the ISA is intended as a uni support fund for the kids). I am definitely thinking about further increases in S&S ISA however as it's for the long term and is the only thing (apart from the Natwest regular saver (!!)) which is beating the mortgage interest at the moment. 

WBB payment arrived today and flipped over to the mortgage for a total of £30.19 overpayments this month. Still waiting for my utilities refund...