Busy Mee's Last Leg

Busy_Mee

And so a bit of normality with the March update

repayment mortgage.          £47,266.61
IO mortgage.                      £166,000.00
total mortgage.                   £213,266.61
repaid in March.                     £1,934.74 

ring-fenced savings.            £210,038.20
offset mortgage to.                 £3,228.41

odds and sods                      £746.85
Principality.                            £625.00
Total.                                      £1371.85
paid to mortgage.                     £500.00

I am really pleased that I have been able to chip a further £500 off the mortgage, effectively using free money from the odds and sods account. It makes the focus on all the small stuff worth while.
I am hoping that we should gets some refunds on our holiday trip soon and I intend to chip another £500 off the mortgage in April if I can. We are edging closer to mortgage neutrality every month 

beanielou

Looking good 

longway2go

Looks like you are doing amazingly. 

savingholmes

Great progress on clearing down the mortgage

Busy_Mee

So another week of lockdown done and I feel like we are getting into the groove of it now. I think the trick it finding little bits of joy wherever you can. I have done some lovely walks with the dog, exploring new footpaths near where we live and it definitely feels like spring has arrived, with lots of bird song and new lambs bleating in the fields. 

I am finding joy in cooking from scratch, using up what we have in, as well as enjoying extra little treats from the supermarket. This week I have made a meat and potato pie, using up a portion of casserole from the freezer, a layer of parboiled potatoes and a pastry lid using a packet of ready rolled pastry reduced to 20p. This has been languishing in the bottom of the freezer a bit too long but tasted fine.

I also made toad in the hole to use up some sausages and minestrone soup to use up some bendy veggies from the fridge. We made a bit of event of the minestrone soup on Friday, with fresh crusty bread and a glass or two of nice red wine. Who needs to go out to an Italian restaurant ?

Tonight we are having a Mexican night, with posh chilli (Thomasina Miers) made with casserole steak, red rice and nachos.

I bought everyone Easter Eggs this week and there was much banter on the family WhatsApp group about who was having which egg and who was going to cough on the one they wanted to make sure they got it  .  We have also been sharing quizzes etc on the group, which has also been good fun.

In financial news we have just received the interest on our N@tionwide regular savers of £81.44 each. This is the last as N@tionwide aren't doing regular savers anymore. Mr Mee's account has already been switched to TSB and I will probably just keep mine in case of a similar switch offer. Anyway a nice boost to our ring fenced savings, with more to come from FD, HSBC and M&S.

Other than spending in the supermarket, we are hardly  spending  any money at all. Good for us but not good for the economy and I feel like we should try and put money back into the economy as soon as things reopen.

South_coast

I think a lot of people are feeling the same way - I predict a frenzy of splurging on holidays, days out, meals out etc. While I'm extremely tempted, I think I will try and hold off on booking a holiday until next year - I think the travel companies will be keen to recoup their losses and prices will be sky-high. A nice restaurant, though? Mmmm, can't wait 😀!

Suffolk_lass

No more 5% RS but I did go for another HSBC 2.75% in Feb. I have just checked and it is still on offer - amazing times - what looked poor then, looks canny now!

teapot2

Another one finding joy in small things, am trying to make sure I take time to notice and try to be in the moment when I'm in the garden or our on my walk

savingholmes

I agree - its a time when we no longer take the 'everyday' for granted and are grateful for another day. I am finding a lot of joy in getting my garden shipshape by pruning and weeding even if I have to mostly sit on a chair to do it. At least I am out and I can see the difference.

Busy_Mee

Good morning and Happy Easter weekend. I have had a much better week and am definitely in a better frame of mind about the whole crisis/lockdown situation. It all feels better controlled now, people have better safeguards in place and most people are adhering to the controls.......anyone would think I am a control freak 

The weather of course has made a huge difference and my early morning walk with the pup has been wonderful. Mr Mee has been gardening all week and I have been slightly jealous as I have watched from the window whilst listening to another tedious teleconference.

I am so glad of the four day weekend. I discovered this week  that our local independent garden centre are doing click and collect on plants. You order and pay on line and then pick up from the car park. I think they can continue to operate because they also sell pet food and their cafe also has a pop up food shop. The upshot is I now have some pansies, and tete a tete for my pots and also I got some eggs and bread flour from their food shop. I mentioned getting plants to my colleague who lives in another part of the country and she checked and her garden centre was doing something similar, so this does seem like a common approach for garden centres. Now I know plants are not essential but I have justified it in that they have cheered me up, and it would be a crying shame for growers to lose all the plants they have been nurturing; and it is helping another business to survive.  

This weekend we are doing Easter. I have sent Easter Cards to our old folk.....I don't normally send cards at Easter but just wanted to send a bit of cheer as they are of course self isolating. I am baking and have a special request from DD for Creme egg brownies  I will also make some other Easter goodies. Oh and I am having a go at making Sour Dough bread (inspired by Suffolk Lass). I have set up my starter and will feed it for the next 7 days. Apparently you need to give your starter a name so mine  is called Fred  I am cooking a roast dinner on Sunday and we all have Easter Eggs. 

I fear I will have put on 3 lb by Tuesday but intend to get back on weight watchers properly next week. I have drifted over the last few weeks, food has become one of my main pleasures and I have been comfort eating.

In financial news I added the N@tionwide interest to the ring fenced savings and rounded it up. I now have £210,250.00 in the ring fenced pot. I also discovered I had  £42.58 payable in TCB so that was promptly shuffled into the odds and sods account. 

I have done a bit more spending this week on Easter, buying Easter cards and a few decorations from Am@zon and the stuff from the garden centre. We are of course saving loads on petrol, Mr Mee does a 70 mile round trip twice a week to see his Dad under normal circumstances. Other than that our main spending is on food but that has gone up considerably. I think we are spending an extra £30 a week on food at the moment. This is for a few reasons,  food prices have increased and we are eating every single meal at home (no breakfast out, takeaways or eating out). I have also changed my mindset about the cost. I am not shopping around, just going to Sainsbreeze because I can get everything I need in one go and I like how they are operating the social distancing controls. 

I am also keeping well stocked. Not stockpiling, but immediately replacing things so that we don't run out. In normal times I have a week of using things up and running stocks down at least once a month. I must admit the shortages have made me feel a bit insecure about food and I also want to be in a position that if we have to go into isolation for 2 weeks, we would have enough food. I just feel very lucky that we are able to do this and can afford the increased costs, I know lots of families can't and am so glad that food banks continue to operate.

Anyway I think that is all of my news. I hope you all have a lovely weekend staying home and staying safe x