And so it begins: The Pig Vs The Mortgage

Karmacat

Is it your actual half term right now, PP?  Its on in the north right now, but the south, not till next week (unless you're at a private school, which my sister was).  Sorry about the hassles following you, but your OH is right, one step at a time on one at a time, it will get sorted.  And yes, the forecast is utterly shocking!  Hope you don't have anything loose in the garden!

Baileys_Babe

Karmacat said:

Is it your actual half term right now, PP?  Its on in the north right now, but the south, not till next week (unless you're at a private school, which my sister was).  

Just to confuse things it is half term in this part of Yorkshire next week and our for our friends in the Midlands.

pinkypig

Hello.  Has it really been 6 months?  Hangs head in shame 😌
New school year is imminent and that always feels like a fresher start for me than January so here goes…
Like everyone else I’m feeling just a little bit scared about the future and know from experience that here is such a good place to be when you want to make positive changes when faced with life’s, shall we say, ‘challenges’?
I know from my MF journey that tiny steps add up to big strides so I’m ready for a reset.  Doubt I’ll be able to rekindle the laser focus of my MFW days but you never know!
Main issues to tackle are;
SIPP has taken a significant hit due to turbulent times and equally turbulent markets😱
Dent in savings due to rent arrears and damage by horrid tenants (gone now thank goodness).
Further (larger) dent in savings due to big home improvement and large maintenance job on smallest rental (£9k 😱).  Worth it in the long run though.
Grocery spend creeping up and not just due to prices increases.
Excercise routines not as good as they were since leisure centre membership cancelled.
Too much snacking and not enough water drank - yep same old piggy🙈
Sleep routines could be better.

To rectify the above I have ;
Rejoined the GC

… that’s it!!!!  A work in progress I think 🤔.  I’m off to have a newly refocused MSE day whilst pondering the many positives of the last 6 months and to start to formulate a plan of attack!
Happy Saturday 😀
PPx

Cheery_Daff

PP!!! Welcome back!! 😀 Lovely to hear from you. Sorry about the horrid tenants and unexpected spends, but good to see you back and ready to refocus!

Karmacat

Hello PP!  Yes, best to get here first and then formulate new plans - such a lot of new information from Martin about bills, and that's only part of it.  Hope you're doing well I'll keep watching to see what you decide  

Baileys_Babe

Hi @pinkypig 👋 great to see you back. I think we are all reviewing out spending and lifestyles now.

pinkypig

Evening 😀 and hello ‘old’ friends - so very, very good to ‘see’ you.  It gave me a warm little feeling inside - you’re the best 😀

I’m currently mentally preparing myself for my first day at work in almost 7 weeks.  I hope I can remember what to do 😂

I feel a bit nervous which is daft after all these years but it’s the same every September.  I’m actually quite looking forward to getting back.  I love my holidays but I also quite like the routine and the sense of purpose of term time.  Remind me of that in a fortnight when I’m counting the days until half term!

I’ve had a lovely, very MSE weekend with weather that was much better than forecasted.  We resisted the urge to have a holiday weekend and got lots of jobs done and I’m actually quite glad that we did.

We are doing a garden project and it’s a bit one step forward and two steps back and has been a work in progress for far too long.  OH has taken charge and it’s now moving on at a pace and hopefully should be finished soon ready to be appreciated all autumn and winter and enjoyed next summer.  It’s also making that area very lovely and very low maintenance which is just fab.

Other than that I’ve batch cooked, meal prepped, had a clean round, caught up on laundry and generally pottered about.

I’m still getting my head around what I want to achieve and where to from here but in the meantime this weekend’s small steps to happiness and financial freedom were;

Stacked logs that were delivered last week in anticipation of lots of log burner use rather than the central heating being on.  I’m also researching and considering a heated throw for when OH is working from home and for chilly evenings.  I love my electric blanket which is very economical and I’m hoping the heated throws will be similar.  Does anyone have one? Do they keep you cosy without costing a fortune?  I’m also thinking of getting DD one for her birthday,

Made pasta bake using cheese sauce and roasted veg found in the freezer.  Did two dinners and there’s three lunch portions in the freezer.

Put the SC on overnight and then again during the day and did a large batch of veggie Thai curry, coconut dhal and three bean chilli for the freezer which has become very depleted since our return from holiday.

Picked blackberries every time I’m out with the dog and made a crumble for pudding, two for the freezer and 5 jars of bramble jelly. There’s also a large bag in the freezer for future treats.

Made a double batch of scones.  Froze some and ate some.

Had HM pizza night and watched two episodes of a new series.

Did a spin class, a run and a yoga session - not on the same day 😱

Visited mum, had a catch up with DS and video call with DD.

Meal prepped breakfast for this week (different varieties of overnight oats), did a meal plan of dinners and will have leftovers for lunch and did the food shop for £32.47

Made three pots of spicy lentil soup to use some bendy carrots.

Line dried three lots of laundry, folded it and put it away.

Had a NS week apart from the logs, the weekly grocery shop and filling up the car ready for work this week.  It’s the first time I’ve filled it up since mid July !!   I’m also currently lift sharing which has really helped out since fuel prices rocked as I have a long drive to work.

I’m off to have a quick walk with the dog followed by an early night with my CS book which I’ve just started and need to get into.

Happy Sunday 😀

PP x

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, that's an epic amount of small steps there! Well done! 

What are you doing for your overnight oats? Do you do a giant load of different flavours and just leave them in the fridge all week?

pinkypig

Cheery_Daff said:

Ooh, that's an epic amount of small steps there! Well done! 
What are you doing for your overnight oats? Do you do a giant load of different flavours and just leave them in the fridge all week?

Hello Cheery, I hope you’ve had a cheerful start to the week 😀
I always used to do one batch that did my work breakfasts for the week they keep ok in the fridge but it could get a bit dull.
Years ago i got hm fed up of plastic food storage cracking, warping and generally looking and smelling grim , I invested in Pyrex food storage with clip top lids.  They are amazing! Never discolour, take on any taint or food smells. The glass bits are oven, microwave and freezer proof, they stack in the fridge and freezer don’t leak and look proper fancy when you open the fridge and the freezer 😂.  They are great for overnight oats but I only had medium and large so couldn’t do individual portions.  No more though as I have expanded my collection this summer  to include some smaller ones so I now have variety 😀. This week I have blackberry and apple, cocoa, banana and peanut butter, sultana. apple and cinnamon and mixed red berries.  I make them on Sunday night and leave them in the fridge.  Any with banana i add on the day I eat it or it goes black and slimy but otherwise the keep really well .

pinkypig

Hello 😀

I’ve completed an actual day of actual work (albeit without actual children) .  It’s a start 😂

It was so nice to see everyone and hear about their summer adventures.

It was inset this morning and it was really useful and answered some very pertinent questions so I move forward armed with clarity.  Novel but nice😂

I had a terrible night’s sleep which always happens after a holiday.  I slept ok once I got to sleep but I was tossing and turning until after midnight which is no good for me.  Hopefully I’m tired enough to get to sleep nice and early tonight.

I have money news 😀. £24.02 from TCB on it’s way.  Most of it was from changing my boiler insurance.  It was a cheaper deal and the policy was as good plus there was £22.50 CB.  The rest was bits and bobs from eBay.

When it arrives I’ll transfer it to savings.

I need to do a financial update, a life update and a goals update.  I’ll do the first two and the weekend and will continue to mull over the final one.

In the interim, today’s small steps to happiness and financial freedom included;

Wrote a comprehensive to do list for work.  It’s huge and needs prioritising but I feel like I have a plan at least.  I also got one big task and four smaller ones done before I left tonight.  Tomorrow afternoon is also directed time so I’ll crack on them.

Free money from TCB 😀

The last few bits of damp laundry that went in the airer last night folded and put away.

Cheap healthy eats (Overnight oats for breakfast, hm soup and a small portion of LO for lunch and batch cooked coconut dhal, a couple of poppadoms and some mint and yogurt dressing for dinner).

Took coffee and water to work.

Had a walk and lovely chat with favourite colleague.

Car shared to save some fuel money and miles on the car.

I didn’t however manage any exercise other than a walk, took all the info I needed to swallow a frog with to work and then forgot to do it.  Never mind, there’s always tomorrow 🙄

I’m now off to get ready for bed and an hour with my book and hopefully lots of lovely, uninterrupted sleep 😴 

Happy Monday 

PP x