Discount Duck’s Quest For Mortgage Freedom

DiscountDuck

DS caught covid. Given DD and I were initially shielded this was a bit of a worry but we are still testing negative and we’ve just got the absolute best friends, who have left everything from magazines to keep him happy in his room, to cornflakes because they’re my comfort food, to candles and multivitamins - all as gifts at the front door. I really am such a lucky woman. 

We’ve been doing a bit more batch cooking lately, which made it easier when DS first got shut up in his room and I was stressed. Lots of nice soups and stews that I can reheat. We made the Hairy Bikers’ sausage casserole with Richmond veggie sausages and it was epic. Cheap for the quantity it made and delicious, it’s going to be a regular I think. 

The hens are both productive although Boudicca is particularly angry at the moment. I know she’s always an angry ginger bird who starts fights, hence the name, but she really is a witch lately. I’m looking for enrichment toys to see if that helps. 

We finally found a cavity wall insulation company that’s prepared to come and do a survey as they do smaller private jobs. Fingers crossed. 

Stupid brother is being less stupid at the moment, which is always nice. Mum is stable and doing ok considering we aren’t safe to have face to face contact for a week. I’ve dropped off stuff she couldn’t manage without but other than that I’m trying to stay away in case DD. OH and I are carriers. OH has come down to help with DS so he doesn’t have to come out of isolation on the school run for DD, and she doesn’t have to be trapped here with him instead of school.

So overall, on the up. 

powerspowers

Poor DS, is he ill with it? Hope he is ok and the rest of you stay well too. 

DiscountDuck

DS wasn’t poorly at all really, just a slight headache on two days that calpol fixed. The house stinks of dettol but we avoided any of the rest of us catching it which was a relief.

We’ve got the hens some enrichment stuff - a mirror with bells around it, a pecking seed block and a skewer on a chain to put cabbage on. They seem happier. I’m going to try to find out how to make our own hen seed block when this one runs out, as it wasn’t cheap and I suspect I’m paying for the plastic, reusable, stick it hangs on.

In other great news we’ve been doing this Rocket round Leicester challenge where you find artist decorated rocket sculptures and collect the codes on them, a bit like geocaching. Some give you nothing, some do discount codes for things like 50% off swimming at any Leicester leisure centre, and some enter you into raffles. It’s a downloadable app for £1.50, the money goes to Loros, it’s just great fun and good exercise. Well so far I’ve won tickets to the Van Gogh immersive exhibition and a £50 shopping voucher! How lucky am I?! 

DiscountDuck

Well my run of good luck continues. I’ve been gifted a very tatty antique chest of drawers on the WasteNot FB site, it’s a Leicestershire wide page where you gift things to save them from landfill. I’ve given loads away on it but never asked for anything before and was really pleased when no one else wanted it and the lady offered it to me. 

It is spidery and missing handles and scratched and dusty. Poor OH was horrified and unsure why we were going to fetch it and take someone a thank you card and home grown veg for it! But it’s going to be stunning when it’s restored and it reminds me of my grandma’s, which I asked for when she passed away and wasn’t given as my aunt wanted it. We used to spend hours looking at the treasures and photos she squirrelled away in the bottom drawer. I have her mirror that went on top of hers, and it will suit this other one once it’s restored. I’ve got it booked in for restoration with a local family firm and think the cost is worth it as it’ll still be cheap in comparison to buying one from an antique centre. They think they can get replacement keys for the locks too. It’s making me happy.

I’ve started making Christmas presents. I’ve done a nice heart shaped hanging lavender bag and made a start on a glasses chain so far. I also picked up some lovely stocking fillers for the kids at Home Bargains including bath bombs and paint by numbers, really cheap. 

We’ve been swapped a load of bramley apples for some of our bean and cucumber glut so have been making tons of apple pies and crumble bottoms for the freezer. It’s been lovely. They’re so expensive in the shops now! I couldn’t believe what shops charge for just a couple so we’ve been lucky to do this trade, and our friend thought the same about French beans and salad. We’ve been promised some nice plums too for a cabbage. Food swapping really is brilliant. 

themadvix

The chest of drawers sounds like it will be lovely when properly restored and clearly will mean a lot to you.

Very envious of your apple glut - we have a triffid-like rhubarb plant so an apple crumble is a rare treat here. Definitely agree with you about the price of bramleys in the supermarkets though  - I don't know how they get away with it at this time of year when people are giving them away! Definitely agree about food swapping being brilliant - it's so satisfying!

trix-a-belle

I love the vision you've given of the chest of drawers! i'm on the hunt for a sideboard/dresser for my kitchen at the moment and not quite finding one to fit the mash of styles/wood colours.

Also jealous of the apple glut, I went blackberrying yesterday round the lanes and will probably do another 1 or 2 runs over the weekend to get a freezer stock but am yet to find a source locally for apples but am going looking at a tip off tomorrow. That was the best thing about last winter, having a decent stash of pre prepped cooking apples and crumble topping in the freezer to assemble as desired

DiscountDuck

Yep, we are super lucky to have a friend with a bramley glut. On my way home from Wilko’s yesterday (shopping trip for gold spray paint) I spotted a very nice looking apple tree on the verge along a footpath, and because it’s outside the village and near the edge of the river it’s absolutely laden. If I get my decorating finished today I’m going to walk over with the dog, it’s only a couple of miles I reckon. 

I’ve been decorating DS’ bedroom as his birthday present. It’s what he asked for and he would like blue and gold ancient Egyptian theme. In the attic conversion bedroom of a semi detached house it seems a bit odd to me, but you’re only a kid once and it’s not like he’s able to have a party because I’m still too Covid averse for my daughter and I, given how virulent the Delta variant is in Leicestershire. 

Wilkos spray paint turns out to be fantastic, way better than the more expensive brands I’ve used before - with great even coverage and a really nice sheen to it. His old IKEA toy boxes unit is now gold, he has dark blue walls and I’ve got scarab beetle door knobs for his clothes drawers. He has a gold waste paper basket, some palm style house plants, and I got a huge decal for his sloped ceiling that looks like a hole in the wall with a view of the pyramids. Another decal has a gold scarab beetle outline to go under his bookcase. An hieroglyphs duvet cover and his name written in hieroglyphs with an eye of Horus on some papyrus paper in a cheap but nice looking gold Wilkos frame have brought the theme together. Shopping several weeks in advance on Eb*y has saved me a fortune and allowed me to find what I wanted cheaper than other places. Plus that, I always go through TopCashback which has now funded the duvet cover. 

If he goes off ancient Egypt, which I don’t think will be for quite a while, the doorknobs can be changed and the decals will peel off if I’m careful - leaving him with a nice plain looking indigo blue room. The only thing that won’t undo is his gold toy boxes cabinet but it was second hand from my stepson over a decade ago anyway and doesn’t owe us anything. When he doesn’t need toy tubs we will likely pass it along on WasteNot FB page and another family will paint it whatever colour suits them next!

I’ve joined the Too Good To Go app and am booked in at two Co-Ops at 9-9.45 tonight. It’s taken me a while to get brave about it, but I can do a little 5 mile loop and pull both of those in. This little experiment is costing me the grand sum of £8 so we’ll see how it goes. 

My good luck is well and truly back. My grandad always used to tell me how I’m naturally lucky, and despite having had some really rough times I do believe I am. I almost always win something on any raffle or tombola! Yesterday I went to visit my uncle for a cuppa and his little sheltered housing complex was having a fundraiser for a care home for disabled people, in their communal gardens. I won a big box of 240 teabags and a makeup box. I put the makeup back as it seemed a shame to waste something we won’t use. Uncle won an art set which he gave me for the kids and they’re going to be thrilled with, and they had a sock manufacturer there selling surplus and samples really cheap. Leicester is famous for hosiery and still has quite a lot of manufacturing. I got a bag for £20 including 4 pairs of slippers, fuzzy Christmas socks and lovely pattern packs of 3 from brands like Cath Kidston - enough for Christmas presents for about a dozen relatives and friends plus stocking fillers for my own kids and some new socks for myself. I didn’t know they were going to be there, I just turned up on the right lucky morning! 

I have been meaning to buy myself new socks for ages. But they’re so expensive in the supermarket it feels like robbery! I’m very happy with these and I know my friends are the sort of people who appreciate nice socks and presents which aren’t ‘stuff’. Socks and a bottle of home made sloe gin or a nice jar of chutney will go down very well. I’ve been given a recipe for elderflower delight, a bit like Turkish delight, which I’m going to test out and do as presents if it goes well. The beaded glasses chain worked well so I’m onto some cross stitched bookmarks now. 

Jessy103

The Egyptian bedroom sounds fantastic! 

Well done on the sock haul! 😀

DiscountDuck

My good luck has continued, I’ve won an Alexa dot. Mum will be getting it as a Christmas present, because she will love being able to ask it things she’s forgotten and getting it to play her old songs. 

I’ve taken over dealing with Uncle’s finances. I went round for a cuppa and it was freezing. It turns out he hasn’t dared to turn on the heating because he can’t afford it. He’s too intimidated by the forms and his perceived humiliation of applying for any benefits to have asked for anything. So I’ve done all the paperwork on his behalf and applied for housing benefit and council tax benefit. When he showed me his bank statements I couldn’t believe what he was managing on. Our local council have been fantastic and gave us an authority form for me to be able to do it for him without us paying a fortune for a lasting power of attorney. The benefits advisor at the Job Centre was super nice and has signposted me to other things I can apply for on his behalf once those benefits hopefully get granted, plus how to do a LPA affordably ourselves. There are some really nice people working in local government who genuinely want to help folks. Let’s just hope it goes through the red tape and gets issued so that then I can apply for the warm homes grant for him before they close applications. 

I’ve got lumped with doing the poppy collection for the village by our church warden. I don’t know how when I’ve got two kids, a job, a frail mum and an increasingly forgetful uncle to look after - but she was a bit pushy about it and I just didn’t feel able to say no. OH has said he will help, which I appreciate, but it has made me realise how much I still get shoved into doing for other people’s convenience which they have more time and energy to do than I have. I need to work on boundaries still, but can’t stretch to going back to counselling and she only works on days I also need to work so it would be time off, which would make it double expensive.  Free tips on how to say no to people would be great please.

We’re still eating out of the garden. Getting to the end of the peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes but still going for French beans, butternut squash, carrots and cabbages.  It makes me happy every time I take an onion off the plait in the pantry. Life’s all about the little joys. 

Half term was great. We went and stayed at OH’s house in Wirral for a few days and went over to Liverpool to World Museum for a whole day. DS was in his element round the Egyptian floor, which is huge. DD had a lovely time too, particularly with the planetarium show. It’s such a bargain day out and is just the absolute best museum. Leicester’s are good, but just not on the same scale. Their aquarium floor is so soothing and beautiful, the cafe is in an art nouveau part of the building that’s just stunning, it’s a wonderful place. DD and I got our sea glass hunting fix most days and found some lovely old bits of pottery too. Mum loves coming with us on FaceTime and feels like she’s been to the beach. 

I paid another lump off the mortgage. I’ve been saving up all the money I save by buying second hand off ebay and making my own stuff from scratch instead of buying etc. If I keep going at he current rate I might just scrape being mortgage free by 45. I know that’s later than many people who scrimp and save like I do, but the degrees kind of prove I’m doing things better late than never and I’m proud of myself for the nice life I’ve created for my kids, albeit later than I should have done. When one day I’m mortgage free I’m going to use the money I would have spent on the mortgage to take them travelling and make even more memories together - assuming at that age they will want to come with me?! 

trix-a-belle

well done you for picking up uncles bits, poor thing but I fear there are many more out there who don't have support from someone.

re church warden & saying no, get your big girl pants on, have a line established (keep as general as you like and don't specify, personal circumstances is often good as people often don't feel they can delve further) and parrot the line as required.
I don't think its unreasonable for you to go back to the church warden now and say you have had to take on several urgent close family responsibilities and are just too overextended to do the poppy collection, you wouldn't want to let them down by being unable to complete it in a timely manner.

mortgage free by 45 is nothing to be sniffed at, plenty more don't get anywhere near that so don't just judge yourself against MSE capabilities, you have 2 kids and still have to live.