Learning to walk before I run

QueenJess

edinburgher said:

@South_coast - a Collab between Hello Kitty and the Turtles 😂

Wow.. that sounds utterly weird 

themadvix

Michael Pollan is spot on. Love his work.

edinburgher

Horrible stormy weather here - high winds, lots of rain, cold. 

Continued in goodish habits by making DD1 pancakes for breakfast. She loves the buttermilk pancakes that come ready made from Mr S but a) they're £3, b) they come in a plastic tub and c) they're probably hoaching with additives. Managed to make some nice fluffy pancakes on the cast iron frying pan, they can't have cost more than £1 even with the relatively large amount of butter that went into the recipe. As for the maple syrup poured over them? No comment I'm also going to do HM sausage rolls with some of the 50% off sausage meat I froze after Christmas. 

• £5.24 to Extension
• £1.54 to personal cash savings
• 46p to EF

Our free balance is somewhat depleted after booking our Christmas break. I'm going to try and get us back to £8,000 spare by the end of the month, probably through virement. Should be too hard, it will entail finding £60-70.

After the recent pressure cooker vs Instant Pot chat over on Greying's thread I watched a fascinating video in which a chef made incredible chicken stock using an Instant Pot, a blender, and a coffee filter! Science is fascinating, bonus points if it tastes nice.

beanielou

They are the pancakes I buy from mr s. Usually on np and I just shove them in the toaster. 

edinburgher

@beanielou - They look nice but our £,£££ grocery bill needs taming

Thanks to @Nichelette for showing me how to get 7.5kg of potatoes from Mr L for free 

edinburgher

The HM sausage rolls were delicious. Because the sausage meat was only 50% off they probably cost about the same as a freezer pack of 4 Gregg's sausage rolls but they were much larger and tastier (if I do say so myself)  

We'll be having a frittata with the last of the Christmas potatoes today and some stoorie mature cheddar. Then again, if cheddar was specifically bought because it was at least 2 years old, is it ever truly stoorie? I'm not quite sure what to do with the frittata, maybe buttered leeks and steamed carrots... 

I am finding the post-Mounjaro world to be difficult but not impossible. For example, today I've had:

• 3 Shredded Wheat with blueberries and semi-skimmed milk
• 2x full fat coffees
• A sandwich with HM bread, ham and a little cheddar
• 6-7 rice crackers with reduced fat houmous
• An orange

Not great but by no means terrible!

Another useful day at work, I have drafted 70% of a report for one of the many boards that govern our organisation, which is pretty decent for a few weeks into the job. I've also caught up with reading and shared some relevant press materials from the weekend.

A few financial bits and bobs:

1. Discovered that I'd set up our Extension target wrong in YNAB (it was a month too long). This has added c. £20/mth to the target that I need to set aside
2. Realised that our new mortgage payment still includes a voluntary OP of c. £29/mth.
3. Considered using 2 to cancel out 1, then realised that 1 was still less than the mathematically simple monthly payment I'd calculated on the back of a metaphorical fag packet and did nothing. It will sound like a silly thing but sometimes it feels like a real luxury to not have to do anything financially. 
4. Considered reducing AVCs again but did #3 and made no decision. I can tuck away £220/mth as things stand, going down to £44/mth only actually nets us £100 of walking around money.
5. £5.19 to Extension
6. 52p to EF
7. Set up a very small DD to WaterAid after hearing a fantastic advert by David Tennant during my regular podcast. WaterAid was a charity that I have supported historically and to be honest, I often feel ashamed that we don't give more to charity. I dig deep for Christmas collections/sponsoring nieces and nephews etc. but I also realise how useful regular funding is. I received a lot of frank advice along the lines of "charity begins at home, don't spend what you don't have" when I started this particular incarnation of my diary 4-5 years ago, but our circumstances are completely different now. I think I can claim back the HR taxed part of charitable donations at no expense to the charities, too? 
8. £8.10 withdrawn from Prolific, £1.43 to Tax.
9. My S&S ISA has passed the psychologically satisfying £2,000 mark

Edit: Gratitudes and all that - lovely MIL sent us £200 of Christmas money for the girls, £100 invested for each of them

themadvix

Lovely Christmas present from MIL there. 

Can you translate 'stoorie' for the southerners? 😉

edinburgher

themadvix said:

Lovely Christmas present from MIL there. 

Can you translate 'stoorie' for the southerners? 😉

Old/dusty/unloved 

themadvix

edinburgher said:

themadvix said:

Lovely Christmas present from MIL there. 

Can you translate 'stoorie' for the southerners? 😉

Old/dusty/unloved 

Ooh, that's a good word! Loving the nuances there!

pavlovs_dog

themadvix said:

Lovely Christmas present from MIL there. 

Can you translate 'stoorie' for the southerners? 😉

hoaching was another new one for me too. Every day's a school day