Mortgage freedom/FIRE diary

Poppycat1

@greent - do you apply directly with the schools or is there an agency that you go through?  I really do think this would be ideal for me.

I received my online payslip today so done a bit of shuffling and overpaid £100.  That leaves £3,650 left of the overpayment allowance for this year.  The £650  will be paid off when wages are paid in on Thursday.  I was down about £70-£80 on my monthly salary due to receiving half pay since 10th March.  Not sure if they have put me on half pay until the end of the month or until tomorrow when the certificate runs out.  I have a few days leave before going back.

So I have baked 4kg of the Olio potatoes today.  I hate peeling potatoes, we very rarely have mash because I hate peeling so much.  I thought if I baked them I could scope out the potato.  So some will be used to top some mince and beans.  A couple will be put in the fridge for tomorrow.  The rest will be frozen to have at a later date.  Any skins left will be kept for potatoes skins with maybe grated cheese, will leave a bit more potato on those ones.  I forgot I already had a bag I bought so I may make wedges with them tomorrow.  Small Olio collection today of soup, mushy peas, biscuits, soya sauce and chick peas.  I received some red peppers last week so made red pepper soup last night.  I have only tried a little and it wasn't that great but it may be one of the dishes that improves with waiting.  Kind of wished I kept the peppers in the fridge after roasting for salads.  Spent some actual money on food today, 6 tomatoes reduced to 40p and 4 lemons reduced to 40p.

I haven't mentioned this, maybe because I wasn't really sure.  I have reduced the time that I want the mortgage paid off.  Originally it was when I stop receiving tax credits a few months after DS2 reaches 18 (August 2025).  I have reduced it to December 2024.  Partly because my five year fix ends Dec 2022.  Currently there seems lower rates on 2 year fixes than five year fixes.  So around 20 months left on this deal then apply for a 2 year fix and hopefully that will be the end of it.  Even if I don't reach it, it just means a couple of months on the SVR.

greent

I have found all the positions via the school websites or someone else mentioning it. Here it seems that the invigilation vacancies don't all get advertised on the sites like e-teach dot com, so may be worthwhile keeping an eye on the vacancy pages on the websitesof a few local schools/ their Faceb00k pages  

Poppycat1

Thanks @greent, not sure why but always thought it was agency style job.  I will do some research over the next few months and see if I'm suitable.

It's that day again, pay day!!!  Money shuffling has been done and I have overpaid £650 leaving £3,000 left to find for this years overpayment.  The payment has taken a month off the term and it is now 13 years and 1 month and should of been 16 years and 9 months.  There should be another smaller overpayment of around £400 next week.  Would really like to get it to £500, we will see.

I have been continuing with Olio and today picked up some sweet & sour sauce, rice, tin of sweetcorn, fruit cocktail, peaches and 4 hot cross buns.  Later I am collecting some raspberry jelly pots, wholemeal wraps x 2, Mr Kipling lemon bakewells x 2 (she has 17 boxes of these!) and a cinnamon swirl pastry.  I'm back at work for a trial  shift on Saturday, just for 3 hours so I'm trying to get the kitchen sorted and the Olio things packed away.  DS2 took himself to the Co0p last night and came back with some dark chocolate with raspberries in for me.  He was so pleased to give it to me.  I was good and only had one square last night and it was lovely.

Prolific has been very slow so not much done there.

I think I saw on here about receiving a voucher for signing up to Echo pharmacy home delivery.   I've been using them a while now and thought I would investigate.  If someone signs up for the newsletter we both get £10 voucher for some well known shops, including food shops.   You don't have to sign up for the service just the newsletter.  If you are considering it could you please use my link please?

https://friends.echo.co.uk/camille-3dv2

Off to colour some squares in.

Edit:  Just like to say that I feeling incredibly grateful at the moment.  Grateful we have family, friends, cats, a home, garden, lots of food and for the simple things. 

greent

Have signed up - seems like a good deal - thank you x

Poppycat1

ahh thank you @greent that's lovely of you. x

DancingInTheRain

Just read your whole diary, very inspiring and I'm very jealous of your Olio finds, it's virtually non-existant where I live unfortunately.
Also used your Echo referral link, hope you don't mind ☺️ x

Poppycat1

@DancingInTheRain - thank you.  I do go on a bit, I'm glad you found it inspiring.  Olio is amazing, I'm going to try and get some posters, then put them on the notice boards at work.  I feel greedy when  I explain what I get but there is so much of it.

Thank you much for using my link.  I appreciate it a lot. x

Poppycat1

I forgot to say that a couple of days ago I received a £15 gift voucher from Waitross.  I sent an email to say that I had been charged for the I newspaper when I was told it was free.  I was very complimentary about the staff member and could they pass the message on in case everyone didn't know about it.  They asked if they could send a gift card so I said yes expecting it to be worth 65p.  So nice surprise.

Yesterday I replanted my little plug plants.  I love to see them after, it's like they have a good stretch and double in size. They are now sitting pretty on my kitchen window sill.  Tomorrow afternoon I going to sow just a few tomato and around 8 cucumber seeds, Mum wants three so hopefully a few will take.  I still have the geraniums to repot as well.

Olio collections went well that I mentioned yesterday and I also collected 4 Cost a muffins.  A lady normally does a large collection late on a Friday night from Tesc0 so I'm keeping an eye out for that.  Received a really nice Wicked vegan lasagne last week.

I going in to work tomorrow for a trial shift.  It's only for 3 hours and it's a weekend outpatient area so shouldn't be too busy.  I'm still anxious about it but I know I can do it now.  

greent

Wow - brilliant result on the giftcard!!

Poppycat1

Yes, @greent it was a very pleasant surprise.  I will go online just before going there next and check out the special offers.

I went to work today!!!!  Only for 2.5 hours but it went well apart from forgetting my uniform blouse.  Weekends are always better and nothing came up that I couldn't deal with.  Although there was plenty of deep breathing which helped.  I'm shattered, came back and had a nap.  Back in on Tuesday, 7 am - 12.

I picked up some Olio stuff this morning before work.  Welsh cakes, green grapes x 2, strawberries x 2, wholemeal bagels x 2, tomato soup, humous and four green peppers.


£1 earned with PA.  But nothing else done that is money saving.