Climbing the Mortgage Mountain step by step

savingholmes

Enjoy the hot tub while you can. I imagine a lot will pack it away this winter. 

It takes a while to get use to kids not being there. I missed DS desperately when he went to Oz for a year - but at the same time it seemed full on when he came home again... You get used to it after a while - either way

Me_v_The_Mortgage_Mountain

Hi All

Finally managed to catch up after the weekend, which was lovely.

We did our grocery shopping on Friday night, which didn't take long or cost very much with DD gone, then home for a shared fish n chip supper and and evening in the hot tub, we were out there until 11.30pm!  Saturday I picked up my new glasses and then we prepped and organised for Mum's party in the afternoon.  Mum had a lovely time, Pimms and Pizza, loads of presents and flowers and surrounded by family, DDIL organised a beautiful birthday cake in mum's favourite colour of mauve.  When everyone had gone home DH and I tidied up and then collapsed in bed exhausted.  On Sunday we went paddle boarding, only the pump wouldn't work (all sorted now) so I ended up going sea swimming and DH watched we took coffees from home and enjoyed them in the sun, that evening we lit the pizza oven again and used up some leftover dough etc to make pizzas for just the 2 of us!

 I had to work on Monday but we set up a large TV so that staff and clients could watch the Queens funeral if they wanted.  DH was at home and was going to cook dinner but when I got home he hadn't done anything as he could only find 'random stuff' in the freezers!  We have 3 freezers full of meat etc, chicken (whole and breast) minced beef, sausages, burgers, venison, salmon etc.  I did tease him that 'that random stuff is what I make meals from'!  Anyway he treated us to a Chinese, which was cheap for just the 2 of us and I had enough for lunch the next day.  I definitely need to school him in the art of putting meals together from nothing!

Yesterday I took some of the 'random stuff' from the freezer for our dinner,  previously frozen leftover gnocchi with sausages etc and served it with the last of the potato salad and coleslaw from Saturday and a focaccia from the last of the pizza dough, waste not want not!  Tonight is mushroom curry as we have a punnet of mushrooms that need using up.

DD had her first proper day at Uni yesterday and went clubbing last night, looks like she is fully embracing the experience!  I am sending her £25pw for food and she is managing well on this buying large bags of rice and pasta, fresh veg and yogurts, she has her rent money put to one side in a separate account.  Still no support from her father!

No great MSE news, just trying to keep spends to a minimum.  I have completed my 1p challenge so that's £660+, plus over £150 in TCB and £40 in ATR all for Christmas/holiday spends.  I will be submitting my Gas and Electricity meter readings next week to keep on top of that, I'm hoping that with DD leaving and the £60pm COL help we won't need to increase the monthly payment.  I do find it annoying that British Gas only update your account once every 6 months despite me submitting monthly readings.  Pay day next week and I am pretty pleased with how my account is looking this month and the savings are slowly building again after what has been a very busy year with our wedding and several big family birthdays etc, just need to keep the momentum going.

have a great day,

MvTMM

savingholmes

I find BG irritating too for the lack of regular bills. How hard can it be?

Glad DD is settling in. 

Glad your mum's party went well.

Me_v_The_Mortgage_Mountain

Hi All

Just a quick check in.

I was given a box of lovely Cornish new potatoes yesterday much to DH's delight, he loves a new potato!  So dinner last night was new potatoes roasted with onion salt and rosemary, premium sausages from the freezer and frozen mixed veg.  We also did our grocery shopping last night and despite me popping a slow cooker in the trolley for a christmas present, we still came in less than we would have with DD at home.

Got a nice weekend planned, nothing too extravagant but I love that DH doesn't work Saturdays anymore.  Tonight we are off to the cinema, £4 per ticket, grabbing a cheap dinner at 'Spoons on the way.  Tomorrow the plan is to do some chores and then go paddle boarding and Sunday there is the last of the Bands in the Park for this summer, and they are a really good band too, so will take a bottle of wine and go enjoy that if the weather holds.

I'm working from home most of next week which I'm really looking forward to as the office has been full on lately.  I'm hoping that I'll find some bits of time to sort out some cupboards, update pensions etc and make some lovely homemade dinners from our stocks.

Have a great weekend everyone.

MvTMM

savingholmes

Paddle boarding and bands in the park sound great treats to look forward to.

Me_v_The_Mortgage_Mountain

Hi All

Blimey, Thursday already, where has that week gone?  We had a lovely weekend, all our plans came to fruition and went well. We wore our wetsuits for the first time on the boards, they are winterweight 5mm ones and I was concerned they might feel restrictive but they are really stretchy and comfortable and kept us nice and warm.

I don't know where to start with the economy etc, it's a whirlwind and very scary.  I'm grateful that we still have 3 years of our fixed rate mortgage left and it makes me even more determined to pay off as much as I can in that time.  I'm reading our gas and electricity meters today ready for the price hike on Saturday, not used the heating yet, blankets and oodies for us!  We are using up and eating things from our food stocks.  I have made use of discount codes for 0cad0 and B0ther to stock up on dishwasher and laundry tabs, should have enough of both to get us through the winter.

DD is coming home this weekend, bringing her best friend with her, can't wait to see her.  She has requested a roast on Sunday which I'm more than happy to provide  

I've been quite busy this week but have managed to do a bit of pottering and sorting.  My plan today is to attack the coat cupboard in the hallway and make room for our wetsuits, dryrobes etc, that will free up some space in the spare room.  Tomorrow I want to pack away some of my summer wardrobe.  Over the weekend and Monday I need to sort pensions etc and hopefully list some bits on Facebook and Ebay.

Busy days ahead!

MvTMM

savingholmes

Glad you were able to go paddle boarding again. 

What are you doing with your pension?

Me_v_The_Mortgage_Mountain

Hi All

@savingholmes - primarily, I need to update my pensions with my name change but I was also going to look at what 'pots' I have where and see if it was amalgamating them, my main one I will leave be as that is a really good final salary scheme from the 90's.  I'm not as savvy as you with these things, your diary baffles me at times!  I'm currently full of a cough and cold so haven't had the headspace to even look at this.

We had a lovely weekend with DD, I was oncall so limited what we could do but she went out to see friends.  I cooked her favourite pasta dish and a huge chicken roast on Sunday, she commented that she had missed home!!  Most of the food came from stocks.  We were paid on Friday and DD's was wrong for the second month running , she queried it and was fobbed off that it was right, she pushed back again with dates and times etc and has now been told they owe her £1000+ but as they are making an extra payment she has been taxed on it

Meter readings taken and submitted on Friday, BG have a usage graph on the app and there is a marked drop in our usage so fingers crossed the price hike won't be too painful for us.  I have gone through all of my clothes, bags and shoes, my wardrobe and drawers are lovely and tidy, summer clothes packed away and a HUGE pile in the spare room to Fackb00k or Eb@y.  I also attacked the coats cupboard and we now have plenty of space for wetsuits and dryrobes.

And on another note, has anyone else watched Dahmer

savingholmes

Glad DD has recovered her £1K - that's huge. 

Well done on the organising.

On pensions - I've read quite a bit of the pension forum which does help. You can always post queries on there. 

Me_v_The_Mortgage_Mountain

Hi All

Hope you've had a great weekend. 

I found this weekend a little frustrating, the weather was lovely and the tides fell right but I didn't dare to go swimming or boarding as I still have this chesty cough and cold.  We did a lot of sorting and prepping for winter.  DH has washed the windows and installed new solar PIR lights front and back to replace the mains operated ones, I am really impressed, they are bright and each has 3 adjustable lights so they can be angled to cover the whole garden.  He also removed the stump of a huge dead shrub from the front; something that has been bugging me for a while (I cut it down as far as I could with a handsaw but it needed a chainsaw for the rest), we now have plenty of wood for the pizza oven!  I did more sorting, washed all of the garden cushions and packed them away, washed spare bedding and duvets ready for visitors over half term.  Finished sorting out my wardrobes etc and listed loads of new and nearly new clothes and shoes/boots on FB, have made £30 so far.  I also dug out the old electric blankets, one for us and one for DD so that we can get nice and snuggly in bed without using the heating.

Because we weren't going out at all we have had some nice meals at home.  We did our grocery shop on Thursday and got Cod'n'Chips on the way home (one large portion between us with mushy peas is plenty).  Friday we had a previously made crustless quiche, packed with veggies and then in the evening snacked on hummous (bought for 20p and frozen) and crisps.  Saturday DH made me a fry up in bed and that night we had venison steaks, dauphinoise potatoes, mushrooms and veg with a port and rosemary reduction (all from stocks), yesterday I made DH smashed avocado and poached eggs for breakfast and in the evening we had Korean style salmon fillets, teriyaki sticky rice and veg followed by homemade apple and blackberry crumble (DH was given a big bag of cooking apples and the blackberries were in the freezer), so the diet is going well!!! 

Still haven't sorted my pensions! 

Have a great day

MvTMM