Pay off mortgage and start having even more fun 😁

newgirly

😆 love a cheeseboard, not to the insane level my parents and brother go to mind! 

Plans are starting to fall into place and this years Xmas day out next week is breakfast, cinema and dinner locally, this is a lot cheaper than previous years of afternoon tea/theatre/dinner in the city. Plus it will be by car so easier and cheaper on that front too. Looks like we may well scrape through to new year hopefully without too much big spending. We will be going to a very small high street Xmas market near ds2 Sunday (dil at work) then the cinema afterwards, so maybe breakfast or something in spoons there perhaps, he’s fed up at the moment so I want to cheer him up ❤️ 

Dh has been Xmas shopping for me with dd - it’s an excuse to pop to the shops and go to the pub, which they have always done 🤣 I told him I really don’t want anything plus he’s broke 🙄 I’d already sent screenshots of a couple of books on York I spotted on vint3d for sale so dd could assist in this , so not sure what he’s got at the shops, hopefully not lots of chocolate! 

newgirly

Out again at the shops today, i did Lidl yesterday with a basket and spent more than expected but not enough to use my £5 off £50 coupon 😒 this irritated me greatly so I went back today to stock up 😬 tins, jars, tomato purée, ketchup, cheese, etc. couldn’t get any freezer stuff as it’s full with random any bits still 😩 with the imminent 8p veg on the horizon I’m hoping we can keep costs low, I didn’t stock up on meat for dh really so that’s still to pay for. I’ve now spent £125.25/ £350 grocery budget which runs from 4th Dec to 3rd Jan 🙄 I’m going to say there’s £20 allocated for top up bits from now until 14th Dec , then there will be about £10 a day left afterwards. We are not hosting at all over the main period and I’ve already stocked up on greasy big fakeaway type frozen pizzas for when dd comes over beforehand as they like them. So plenty of planning and cooking for me this next couple of weeks, I’ve been terrible lately and eating cheese and crackers for many meals! 

This week’s meals will be …..

Tonight: chicken tikka masala and rice for dh, it was 2 portions but he just served up the whole lot and ate it as I was upstairs from the sc 😆 , I’ve had crumpets as I’m cold and tired.

Sat:  veggie chilli and rice for both of us 

Sun: sausages, roast potatoes and veg for both- veggie ones for me 

 Mon: veg cannelloni ready meal that needs using up for me with veg, bacon and veg homemade pasty and mash/beans for dh 

Tues: same again for dh, freezer homemade sweet potato curry me with small Nan and mango chutney 

weds: beef and ale stew and veg dh, left over veg chilli and jacket potato me (frozen chilli leftover from sat!) 

Thurs: Thai veg curry and rice both 

Fri: out for a free dinner with parents! 

sat: home made pizzas both 

Sun: sausage casserole dh with nice bread, lentil dhal me (will make a batch and freeze) 


Thats takes us to the 15th when I will then have £10 a day, cheap veg starts about the 18th I think, that will help 😁 Its not the most inspiring menu up until then, perhaps I’ll make an effort to find some nice new recipes ready for the Xmas week 🎄

newgirly

Time seems to be racing on fast this month, I stayed in yesterday and did the washing, it’s all on the heated airer drying. Today dh has popped to “work” in the place he can potter, with old work friend who wants to make a book for a friend, then after that we are going to ds2’s to a little Xmas high street market and then the cinema. Family tensions are still ongoing which is stressful and this year the run up to Xmas seems very flat, unlike last year which really did feel like a joyful end to a bad year.

I’m still constantly ruminating about whether we should move and what the plan will be if the factory doesn’t rent soon, we had a chat yesterday -under duress from dhs point of view 🤣 as come march we will need to start paying the business rates and that will drain everything including the offset making us mfw's again 😩 dh has a guy he knows that wants to rent it, he has messaged a few times to ask what “mates rates” we could do and how much it is 😒 well the price is on rightmove so it’s not hard to check! He’s somebody we rented a bit of space to years ago on the ground floor and he was often behind with rent so I’m not very keen at all. After pushing dh on how long he would like to subsidise it for the answer was at least another year 😱 I can’t see this happening as I’ve just emailed the agents to reduce the price again, hopefully this will push things forward in the new year. 

I don’t know, we are in a very privileged position, however life still seems a bit of a struggle at the moment. I feel like we could make things a lot easier for ourselves and I don’t want to end up in a trap where we can’t let go of things as it’s taken a lot to achieve them 🤔 Personally I’d rather have less stuff, less house, less factory and more time enjoying life, travelling and turning the heating up 🤣

Right this lie in is now over, I’m off to make roast potatoes in the slow cooker, not the best I’ll admit but we are out and about all day and then we can just cook some sausages and veg quickly 😊

beanielou

As I get older I realise that life is too short so understand what you are saying. 

newgirly

Thank Beanie 🙂 I doubt we will make any big decisions unless really pushed to financially, I just feel like i would like to be more proactive than reactive. 

Great day yesterday, popped to ds2’s for a cuppa and a cat cuddle, she crawls up your jumper to keep warm 😆 then we went to the local Xmas one day only market a ten min drive away from him and it was massive! A fantastic market for a little local town, many stalls and even Morris dancers and a mini funfair. My dad belongs to that rotary club and had help set up (although wouldn’t visit with us on Sunday -boo!). It tipped it down the whole time so we just got really wet 🤣 ds2 and I had £2 veggie samosas , but dh was in his element, his favourite things in life are pork based food items which I virtually never buy. He had a hog roast roll for lunch then brought home a pork pie the size of his head (£10!) and two pots of flavoured port scratchings 🤢 he used his own money for all of it so no money spent! We will defiantly be back next year , hopefully with dil this time as she had to work. 

After that we want to the cinema wet through and watched a terrible film in a busy screen full of idiots making a noise eating and one was even taking photos of the screen halfway through 🫣 it’s not usually like that where we go, but we do try avoid busy periods. 

The slow cooker potatoes were dodgy when we got home, kind of chewy 🙄 usually I would keep swapping out the tea towel absorbing the steam but we were out all day so couldn’t. Dh never ate the sausages due to the pork pie, which will also be his dinner again today 😁 I will also not eat the cannelloni I had planned for tonight as it’s my Xmas day out with friends today and we are eating out, I forgot!

newgirly

Where has the week gone? Had my girls Xmas day out on Monday, big brunch, quick look around the shops then posh cinema with sofas and then back home for dinner at prezz0. Vouchers used for most of it and usually we go to the city for afternoon tea and a show so a lot cheaper than that 😁
Then the German Xmas market Tuesday at a garden centre not too far away with mum, aunt and dd, no spending done as my Aunt bought coffee, then dd came for lunch after. I’ve also been running around sorting parcels and taking things back, plus a trip to lid! yesterday to collect my free biscuits and veg on the app, they had run out of the free cake that was in there too ☹️ ended up stocking up on lots of boxes of my daily treat of flat white pods so i don’t run out over Xmas 😋

Ds2 and dil popped round yesterday afternoon on the way home from ice skating at Canary Wharf, lovely to see them and they took more stuff from the room of doom - hooray!! Ds1 is the nightmare with a ton of stuff still here, it’s only been 18 months though so early days for him 🤣 we may well tackle it over Xmas and see where we can find that it can go, his outdoor shed is flooded and unusable, so I think this will end up being left here. 

Spending this month (until 4th Jan) so far is at £185.37/£350 eek! We have loads on the cupboards though and a couple of bits of meat, sausages and a small pack of beef I think in the freezer for dh, it should be fine. Cheap fresh veg is coming soon and we have a few days where we won’t need dinner too, like tonight when we are out with my parents and they are paying 😁 
We have also planned to go out Saturday for the first time this year without anyone else - except when we are on holiday of course) it’s not something we ever do really now, it’s expensive and better spent on holidays. Anyway it was dhs suggestion to go out so I’m thinking of the cinema (free passes 🤣) and maybe the chain Italian nearby, or even the carvery, although that feels a bit odd on a Saturday night. There’s a bit left in the £1 a day Xmas savings pot (£35.55) so I guess I could use that towards it. 

newgirly

Oh dear I forgot about the tractor run I wanted to go and see yesterday 🥲 ds2 text while we were in the cinema (we saw Nuremberg which I’d highly recommend) so it was too late by the time we came out, the roads were gridlocked so no point at all. Instead I fancied a takeaway from the big M place, something I have about once every year or so 😬 so we stopped off and got ds2 and dil in-law one as well and then descended on them for an hour or so. While there dil gave us a huge basket she had made full of lots of our favourite things, gourmet sweets and popcorn, nice hand wash and even gift cards for the cinema to get icecream 🥰 plus a lovely card.  It was a thank you for being nice in-laws and letting her live with us apparently 🤣 very kind but not at all necessary! 

Today has been spent wrapping a few last gifts, eating some of what was in the gift basket and making a beef and ale stew - plus a couple of pies to freeze from it. 

After a weekend of no self control food wise, I decided I need to cut right down, it’s 17 weeks until our holiday next year, so giving myself a target of 17lb off by then, not easy when it’s Xmas soon and I seem to find it impossible to lose weight easily now, but I have to have something to work towards or I’ll just keep eating 😳 Even though I’m not buying naughty stuff for us, it seems to find it’s way to us via other means 😆

I might have a mooch online for some nice low cal recipes for me this evening….

daisy_1571

that was lovely of your dil.  Might not have been 'necessary' but definitely shows lovely manners (and nature) to say a personal thank you like that.  Not every family would be so welcoming so it shows she appreciated all you did for her

Dxx

beanielou

How lovely of your DIL. 

Greying_Pilgrim

Agree with Daisy 100% - it maybe wasn't necessary, but it was lovely of DiL, to be so kind and thoughtful and recognise what you did for her.  I love hearing occasions when families/relationships 'work' - it's perhaps less of a common occurance than meedja sources would have us believe 😉  BRAVO team 'newgirly' 😁

Greying X