The Last Leg; 6 years later, debt free in 2021

greensalad

Suzanne54321B said:

I do like Ken Follett. I have a habit of pre ordering on Amzn and forgetting until they arrive 🙄
I used to be all about proper books, but I tried kindle and am hooked...reading in bed without hitting myself in the face with a hardback as I’m nodding off is wonderful 😬

Yep, I'm the same! I'm a big book lover (both in how much I love books, and the fact I love BIG books) and originally hated the idea of reading on a Kindle. But it is soooo good. Carrying big hardbacks into London everyday is no fun. Also, probably the best benefit of a Kindle imo is knowing how far progressed through the book I am. Sometimes very long slowburn books can feel like a slog but knowing how long you have left helps me stay motivated. I love my Kindle!

I did actually pre-order The Evening and the Morning but then realised how stupid it was of me to pre-order a digital download haha. I ended up cancelling it.  

I did the whole of 2019 without buying a single book. I was really strict with myself. When I first started decluttering and going on "low-buy" for things I found books was the one category that escaped me. There is something shallow about buying more clothes and makeup and skincare than you need, but somehow buying books always feels virtuous. I'm the sort of person who will read anything, even stuff I don't think I'd like, so I can feel informed in critiquing it. This meant that if anyone recommended me a book I'd go on Amazon and buy it just like that. My bookshelves were filling up with books I hadn't actually read. That's why I challenged myself to read as much as possible in 2019 and buy nothing.

Nowadays I've read quite a good chunk of the books on my shelves and I intersperse it with library borrowing. I'm actually quite bad in that I so much prefer reading on Kindle I'll get a copy of the book from the library even if I own the physical copy. 

And I donate a lot of books too. My rule now is that I only keep a) classics b) books that are my favourites or c) books by authors I really like. So if I decide Price and Prejudice is on my reading list (as it was this year), I'll go and buy a nice hardback copy to keep because I know even if it's not my favourite it'll be good to have the classic on the shelf (for friends, for future children etc). I always buy Margaret Atwood books because I love most of what I've read of hers. And I'll keep favourites and upgrade them to fancy copies.

But anything that I read once, thought was OK and have no intention of reading again goes straight to Oxfam.

greensalad

First purchase from the list, got my jersey to make my joggers. That means I'll have three pairs. Though the first pair were from a cotton jersey I don't like as much. But excited to have 3 different pairs which should see me through the winter before I switch back to leggings (too cold without fleecey joggers in my house from now until April probably!)

greensalad

Groceries on a budget this week. We always seem to massively overspend. We really need to reign it in, but ugh I love l the fancy food we eat. 

Actually the "groceries" isn't the problem it's the little stops at the shop for in between bits that turn into buying a bottle of coke and some crisps too...

Regardless, we decided to challenge ourself this week by writing our whole grocery list based on what we had in the cupboards and freezer and it turns out it's a treasure trove! We ended up pulling 7 meals out of the cupboard and the only things on our list were butter, nachos and squash lol. BF picked up a reduced-to-clear lime squash (which is delicious, but apparently most people don't like it) for 36p. I'm considering going back and buying a few more bottles of it to keep in the cupboard.

Some of the meals are a bit weird, like I'm pretty sure a plate of just dauphinoise potatoes from a tin isn't a normal meal but it's in the cupboard so why not. 

Tonight though is nachos, a really dirty but delicious Saturday treat meal. I made cooked salsa from green tomatoes and canned it to preserve but one of them didn't seal so it had to go in the fridge, so we've got a jar of that to eat. BF has dug out some cannellini beans in water and is magicking up some chilli with a bit of tomato paste and some herbs. Pour that on basics tortilla chips and cover in cheddar. And all we had to buy was the tortillas.

Also got plenty of flour so we can keep ourselves topped up on marmite sandwiches all week. Might treat myself to a bag of satsumas too!

greensalad

Just finished making a litre of pickled green tomato relish and omg, this stuff is so delicious. Tangy and tart and sweet. Of course I tried it from the pan so it wasn't fully pickled yet and the flavour will develop but I can tell it's going to be great. Much nicer than my salsa verde disaster (too much onion, went pink, tastes weird). I'm so happy with the relish though.

We don't eat a tonne of stuff I can envision relish working well with over the winter. Works better with hot dogs and burgers I think (I'm veggie, so veggie ones of those for me) but I think it means we'll be able to hold onto the relish until next summer bbq season rolls around, which is of course long before green tomato season! So I'm very happy with that.

Also pretty set I want to buy a pressure canner next year but they are £250 to import from the US and not made over here. We spent probably that much on the garden this year hobby-wise and it's been great - I want to be able to safely store the fruits (and vegetables) of my labour so it might have to be something to start saving towards. At least I won't need it until next summer as I have nothing to can right now! 

But it does mean I can safely store squash for long periods. Currently one of our favourite meals is pumpkin katsu. Obviously proper kabocha pumpkins aren't available in the UK so I was planning to grow some next year. If I get a pressure canner I can have kabocha all year round!

I'm going to put a new line into YNAB to start saving. Hopefully there will be some Christmas money leftover that can go to it too.

Kakiste

nachos are one of my favourite meals. Basically if I can drown it in hot sauce and sour cream then it's a winner in my book! 
Pressure canned sounds an excellent idea. It's a big outlay but then you'll save so much money from that point 

greensalad

Kakiste said:

nachos are one of my favourite meals. Basically if I can drown it in hot sauce and sour cream then it's a winner in my book! 
Pressure canned sounds an excellent idea. It's a big outlay but then you'll save so much money from that point 

Do you make salsa? We started doing it a few years ago and it's what makes nachos the best imo. So fresh and delicious and not really that expensive. One large tomato, one red onion (a little smaller than the tomato), half a lime squeezed (use the other half to put in a bottle of Corona!), a nice big fistful of fresh coriander, and a chilli. Chop it up or put it through a food chopper and done. Sooooo delicious.

Kakiste

I have made my own salsa before but it was a special recipe (pineapple salsa) which was lovely. I'll try your recipe next time I'm doing Mexican. Do you reckon frozen coriander would work? My plant outside was overrun by strawberries over the summer and is only just surviving. 

greensalad

Kakiste said:

I have made my own salsa before but it was a special recipe (pineapple salsa) which was lovely. I'll try your recipe next time I'm doing Mexican. Do you reckon frozen coriander would work? My plant outside was overrun by strawberries over the summer and is only just surviving. 

Hmm I've never frozen coriander before so I couldn't say! Does it defrost back quite nicely? Worth a go. Just don't use dried, I tried that once and it was like eating dust.

Kakiste

I've only used it into hot dishes and never on anything cold so can't quite comment on the consistency but the taste was still good. 

greensalad

Been quiet on here for a while, not feeling motivated to write. Not for any bad reason, for a pretty good reason actually! I'm getting a bonus! I've never had one before, the past few years in my company have been bad. But this year COVID has actually made our business do better. I'm so grateful that I'm still in a job, and getting a bonus too. So many people are not so lucky at the moment.

But the thing I'm waiting on is just the number... It's so exciting but I just don't quite know how much it'll be as its complicated to work out. So I'm just holding tight to next week I find out.

If it's what I think it is (my attempt at calculation) I think we will be able to hit our first big target of saving the full £8,000 in our house fund. The reason it's £8,000 is this is the LISA maximum amount you can get a bonus on so depositing it means £10,000 + interest (about £5 at the moment lol) so once we reach that target we'd have filled out LISA's until April when we can get the bonus again.

Unfortunately after this house savings will have to come to a standstill for a little while as in January my partner has to pay his very last tax bill (that's covered by money still in his company, which is fine) but also his student loan bill. He will be paying off his student loan in FULL which is very exciting and means we'll have about £250 more per month from January. But first we've got to pay the bill. 

So I'm going to save it in premium bonds because interest is so low there's no point saving it anywhere that is "slightly" higher when we're talking about £10 or so of interest. And hey maybe I'll win big! 

So from the end of this month (if my bonus is enough to fill our LISAs) we'll be on a quest to save £5,000. I actually don't think we'll make it by the end of January, but rather February, and will have to ask HMRC for a month's delay which I think will be OK as I'm pretty sure they say yes to any repayment plans up to 12 months. But we should clear it in Feb and be up £250 a month towards the house savings still.