Gap is Back - Time to Knuckle Down

beanielou

I love home made macaroni & often put courgettes in as well:)

girlatplay

beanielou wrote: »

I love home made macaroni & often put courgettes in as well:)

I love courgettes too. Sometimes I make cheesy vegetables instead of pasta. It's usually courgettes, broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus and sweetcorn. The crew like cheesy food but I'm quite aware that so much cheese is not good for you so I made it with the veg one time to at least try to get some of our 5 a day in there, and they loved it. They also loved the puff pastry I put on the top Anyway, one time I made it with veg AND pasta and that went down extremely well!


Pork is cooking away nicely in the slow cooker.
Christmas cake is now in the oven.
I've stopped for lunch before making the mac cheese.

Just opened a letter from the loan company. It's my annual statement. I'm happy to discover that they work out the interest in the same way as I track it on my spreadsheet so going forward I can put the net outstanding balance in my signature and track it down from there. The good news here is that I am already below the £6k mark! Not including interest, I have paid off £1,700 of it in the first year. I had a bit of luck with a small work bonus a few months back though (I paid £200 to the loan and the rest into emergency fund) and I know that won't be happening again but as I've discovered, if I focus properly I can find £53 out of nowhere!

Afternoon plan: lunch, other diaries catch up, mac cheese.

girlatplay

Quick run of the loan figures through What's the Cost calculator and I'm pleased to say I was spot on with the DFD date. I can now check it regularly and set goals each month. I'll wait until January then go for it.

Lunch was finished ages ago, I'm just faffing around now as I don't want to do anything else

girlatplay

I've achieved all of my aims today. I've really enjoyed being off work and around the house. The macaroni and the cake are for other people so that makes me feel needed and gives me purpose, plus I like cooking and I am trying really hard to master baking.

NSD today!

beanielou

Glad that you have had a good day

savingholmes

girlatplay wrote: »

Thank you so much for this comment. You've actually hit the nail on the head. I never thought about that before. I've just thought that through and that is part of the problem. It's just been LMG and me for so long and now she doesn't really need me anymore. Well, she does but not to the same extent. When I get to cook for us and even for the boyfriends too I feel like I'm doing something useful but when it's just me I feel a bit lost. I'm going to explore that a bit longer in my head and see if I can work something out from there. Thank you for saying something that seems kind of obvious to me now. Thinking of you too xx

Thanks. I think I thought as a working woman with a career that I would somehow be immune and was shocked to find that I wasn't. Most statisticians suggest that providing we are in reasonable health that we get happier with age - so I am hoping that when I get over this 'grieving' process that I will be happier than I was before.

girlatplay

savingholmes wrote: »

Thanks. I think I thought as a working woman with a career that I would somehow be immune and was shocked to find that I wasn't. Most statisticians suggest that providing we are in reasonable health that we get happier with age - so I am hoping that when I get over this 'grieving' process that I will be happier than I was before.

Yes, the career part doesn't seem to help much. I'm working my way through it in my head. Thank you again.


Just back from a lovely few days away Christmas shopping with boyfriend. Spent far more than I planned and didn't get everything I wanted to get. We both spent quite a lot on food which is surprising as we only ate two meals a day and had one coffee each (no food) at what should have been lunchtimes. Anyway, we're back now and I can get back on track.

There are still funds left in the Christmas budget so all is not lost. Got a few social events in the next 3 weeks so I'll need to be careful with it as still a few gifts to buy.

I had a small meal last night when I got back and LMG had planned her own tea so that was good. I took two meals out of the freezer for tonight. I've just had pulled pork on a roll and LMG has veggie lasagna for when she gets home later.

I have £20 left in the grocery budget and it's payday tomorrow. Think I'll put that £20 into the Xmas budget along with December's Xmas budget amount from my salary plus December's birthday budget amount which hikes the Xmas balance up by £80. No birthdays now until March.

I'm not going to put any more to the loan for the rest of this year now. Just want to get through the festive season and then start afresh.

I finish up work on 20th December and I'm off until 7th January so a proper break. Payday in December is the last working day of the month (no change from usual) so all should balance out by the end of the year.

[Deleted User]

Glad you had a lovely time away, you definitely deserved it Sounds like all is going well on the budget front too, and how nice to get a decent break too - we've got to draw straws in the office, to see who will be in - I'm not holding out much hope :rotfl:

beanielou

That's a lovely long break to look forward to

girlatplay

[Deleted User] wrote:

Glad you had a lovely time away, you definitely deserved it Sounds like all is going well on the budget front too, and how nice to get a decent break too - we've got to draw straws in the office, to see who will be in - I'm not holding out much hope :rotfl:

beanielou wrote: »

That's a lovely long break to look forward to

I'm lucky that I can choose to not go in during Christmas and New Year. That has not always been the case in my working life. My team are all finishing up on the Friday.


Friday was payday so spreadsheet amended and all pots (sorry BlackCoffee - I had a boss once who called them "little pockets of money" and that really grated on me) topped up. The dd's won't show off my account until tomorrow.

I did a PA survey a few weeks back which had a problem at the end, I got thrown out half way through typing a sentence and couldn't complete. I reported a problem but didn't hear anything. Next thing I received a message saying I had been disqualified for failing attention checks. I was really mad because I had really enjoyed the survey, I took proper care and put a huge amount of effort into it. I wrote a grumpy email to the person explaining what had happened, that I had reported it at the time and to please give me feedback if I had indeed failed an attention check that I hadn't noticed. Weeks later (I had forgotten all about it) I got an email from the person apologising for the delay and saying they would investigate. Next thing I had received the full amount for the survey (£1.20) plus a £3 bonus payment by way of apology. They sent a nice email with a proper apology too. I've cashed out and sent the money to the emergency fund.