Light the fire...

woodfired

Oooh I forgot to mention my MSE win today. :A

Our car insurance is due for renewal whilst we are on holiday in early Aug so I bit the bullet today to look for a cheaper quote. I spent ages filling out the meerkat site then got a quote for £290, however, the car owner details were wrong (its a business lease and they assumed we owned it) and I couldn't change them so I stomped off to Quidc0 in a huff. They had a cashback offer of £30 for using confused.c0m so I popped over there and 10 mins later got a quote for £296. I paid (or rather the business paid!) and I will pocket the cashback. :beer: And it saved me £101 on the renewal quote sent by last year's insurer. A productive half hour (AND I remembered to cancel the auto-renewal on the old policy - go me!)

woodfired

I won the lottery last night. Unfortunately it was only £128 but every little helps! I will pay this in at the post office later along with some other cash I have been saving up, should total about £400 and I will send to the PB account. I might round it up to £500, will have to check the account first as mortgages/bills due next week!

Not a lot to report besides that, we had two viewings booked but one later cancelled so just the one in the diary and not til 1st Aug. We will have been away for a week by that time so the lawn will be about a foot high and the cat will probably have brought some 'presents' in :eek: :rotfl: to entertain himself whilst we are on holiday. Will have to ask the neighbour to just check the place before they view. :rotfl: They will have to see past the jungle of a garden, not much we can do about that one (third of an acre of lawn so unfair to expect anyone to go in a mow it!).

FloppyDisk

A win is a win so well done. Hope your luck continues with more viewings.

zcrat41

Is it worth paying someone to mow - a local teen perhaps? When our garden is mowed the whole place looks 10 times smarter.

savingholmes

Nice to have a win. Great news on the viewing.

woodfired

Hi All, thanks for the encouragement!
We had a last minute viewer book in to see the house at tea time today so we blitzed the place then decamped to the pub across the road to nosey from the front window :rotfl:

I caught the agent before they left and she said the viewers loved the finish of the house, the kitchen and the open plan layout and thought the garden was amazing. Their only concern was the sizes of the 2nd/3rd bedrooms as their children are 23 (!!) and 18 and both still live at home. They are going to have a think and potentially bring said children back with them for a second viewing. Fingers crossed! So that is 4 viewings so far, all have had lots of positive feedback regarding the house itself and the garden. The only negatives have been lack of off road parking and now bedroom sizes. Hopefully somebody will come and love it enough to buy it, and hopefully that will happen soon!

At least the house is spotless now, less jobs to do over the weekend!

Fortune_Smiles

You're bringing it all back to me Woody - we were just where you are about two years ago. Such a stressful time but it will all be worth it in the end. We've never regretted our move.

Good luck with it all and I'm sure you'll have an offer soon.

Fortune x

woodfired

Thanks Fortune. It is a bit hard work! I'm glad you've said that about your move, we have spent so long (and so much money) getting this place just right, I do wonder if we're crackers starting all over again. But then I remind myself that this place is only as right as it can be, we need more space, and storage, and a drive, and a garage......... x

woodfired

Morning Folks

First Monday morning of the summer hols and I have the day off. We go away very early Friday morning so I am trying to get ahead with the prep as I am at work all day Wed and Thursday morning. So far I have been on a use-up-the-fridge mission, I have the ragu for a bolognese dish for tonight and a lasagne to be frozen for the caravan currently slow cooking on the Esse. This used up 2 1/2 onions, a couple of elderly carrots, a splash of red wine, an old tin of green lentils, a large slice of corned beef (yes really ) and a handful of porridge oats. I appreciate that some of these are not your typical ingredients for a bolognese :rotfl: but they do bulk it out very nicely and you don't taste them in the finished dish.

I also sliced some sprouting potatoes and the other half onion to make two trays of dauphinois potatoes. These are cooking in the Esse also and will go with a couple of frozen 'Finest' meat dishes that were yellow stickered a couple of weeks ago. I often buy the dauphinois to go with these in the meal deal offer but I thought I'd kill two birds and use up the manky spuds. :money:

I'm hoping i'll have enough freezer space in the van to keep the two potato dishes and meaty things frozen to use later in the holiday. I can cook some fresh veg to go with whilst they bake in the oven. The lasagne will defrost en-route to be cooked once we arrive, along with some garlic bread, for an easy supper on the first night after a long day of travelling and setting up camp. That is the plan anyway.

Other plans for today and tomorrow include:
Return 2 x vest tops to N3xt - I hadn't realised that the were £15 each :eek: I didn't like them THAT much! :rotfl:
Return some trousers for DH (too small)
Order and collect change from the bank for the shop
Bank Pound coins whilst there
Empty all laundry baskets and wash/dry everything
Check supplies in caravan and make a note of what we need
Buy cat food for Ralph
Pack mine and children clothes (once above laundry completed)
Calculate wages for upcoming weeks and set up payments for next week
Clean house/mow lawn in prep for viewing whilst we are away

Phew.

woodfired

So I finished the lasagne using some leftover bits of cheese in the white sauce, its in the freezer ready to go. The dauphinois turned out really well to and I'm looking forward to eating them .

We had the remaining bolognese with spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner tonight, there is enough left over for DH a packed lunch lunch tomorrow and a further portion for one of us. Not bad for a 500g pack of mince (8 portion lasagne, 4 portions of spag bol + 2 leftovers).

I went to the caravan and changed the bedding this afternoon. Got 3 loads of washing done and 2 of them dried. I've packed my clothes and made a list of things that are missing/required. I also cleaned out the fridge after using up the last bits of food. We need to sort dinner for tomorrow but then we are out on Wed Eve for FIL birthday so then just Thursday evening to sort. Not worth doing a shop, will find something quick and easy from the freezer.

Tomorrow I will venture into town to complete my banking/returning jobs.