Mortgage free in Forever Home :-)

themadvix

But you can never have too many chickpeas…! 😁 (Sorry, I think it’s true though). Don’t forget to check out your local zero-waste shop too - especially for smaller quantities or things you’re trying - it can be cheaper than buying more than you need and they are not all extortionately priced (my local one is very reasonable).

KajiKita

themadvix said:

But you can never have too many chickpeas…! 😁 (Sorry, I think it’s true though). Don’t forget to check out your local zero-waste shop too - especially for smaller quantities or things you’re trying - it can be cheaper than buying more than you need and they are not all extortionately priced (my local one is very reasonable).

Brilliant idea re using a zero waste shop for ingredients I just want to try ...  I think there's one in the big town, but I will see what other options there are locally to my home / work. 
Think hubby would disagree with you about the chickpeas - he seems to have a terror of pulses ....    

KK
 

KajiKita

Spend day today:
£14.80 for the wedges (physio came back to me).

Got out for a walk round the block today with a colleague at lunchtime in the sunshine. Really enjoyed it and I'm hoping I can do more of this when I move across the road next week in my new job

In other news, my armpits hurt where the mean physio made me do lots of press-ups last night!  Bah! 

KK

Suffolk_lass

themadvix said:

But you can never have too many chickpeas…! 😁 (Sorry, I think it’s true though). Don’t forget to check out your local zero-waste shop too - especially for smaller quantities or things you’re trying - it can be cheaper than buying more than you need and they are not all extortionately priced (my local one is very reasonable).

Just as well really, I have two tins, three takeaway boxes of frozen (pressure cooked ones) and a jar with two packs in - oh, and another pack (because I thought I was running out 

KajiKita

Some steady progress - not so much on the financials but in good habits, awareness, communication etc.

Asked hubby to help me with a freezer audit last night (we have 3 pantry sized ones - a shared one in the kitchen where the frozen veg and some of 'our' foods etc lives and two in the cellar (one each, for vegan or meat based foods, batch cooked meals etc).

This also then led onto a conversation about how small the groceries shop might be this week and a wider discussion about my financial situation - he was surprised when I mentioned that I had binned, without looking at, a gardening catalogue that arrived yesterday and was suggesting that I got it out of the recycling again (I didn't!). He is happy to scale back our plans for the house this year to give me time to get on top of my debt and get some savings behind us (I'm the higher earner of the two of us so it's me that has more scope to do this rather than him). It would also give us both more time to actually enjoy life in a quiet way, rather than constantly working (either work-work or on the house). We just have a few jobs that need to be done (worn out / missing curtains for one) but we can make a list together and then explore how to keep the costs on these as low as we can.

Hubby appreciates the overall aim of paying the mortgage off earlier - he's a carpenter and he is physically starting to feel the effects of wear and tear on his back, joints etc. so his motivation to help with this is quite high.   

A cat toy made of string has gone down very well btw - our cat is very bored atm and has destroyed all her toys. Rather than buying more I tried making a toy by plaiting and knotting lots of pieces of thin string together. It's not a thing of beauty but both she hubby love it - they have 'string-time' together, every morning atm .... (it is very sweet ) 

During the freezer audit I found c. 7 x baby meal sized boxes of HM vg savoury mince which were meant to be eaten on toast for breakfast. It didn't work - it made the toast soggy and limp (ugh!  ) and I found I couldn't face eating it first thing in the morning. Added to that, I am now not eating breakfast at all (fasting to shrink a bit) so these things are sat there, lurking at me reproachfully and taking up space in *my* freezer .... I am wondering if I could make myself some vg lasagnes (I have some individually sized foil containers waiting for recycling from shop bought lasagnes ...) with it, or possibly roast some going-soggy-in-the-bottom-of-the-fridge baby potatoes and then have the mince over the top as a weekend lunch option?  I have to cook up some more farro wheat and pulses this weekend so I will try one or other of these mince options as well. 

Curtains are one of my jobs. Any ideas on how to go about finding cheap curtains / fabric options? I have a (ancient) sewing machine and some limited skills so I can certainly shorten overlong ones if I can clear enough space somewhere to use the machine. The other possible option might be SiL who makes curtains as her home based business, but I'd need to find some fabric first.  

KK

KajiKita

Two other jobs for the weekend:
- Reinstall batteries in the heating controller and reprogramme it again (sigh ...)
- Make a stock list of all the toiletries I have in the house (to reduce unnecessary / early spend)

KK

Suffolk_lass

Argh curtains! I have a large bag full to take to the charity shop today! There seem to be far more than I thought I had. We only re-used the JL ones downstairs in this house as we are open to the fields at the back (light excluding blinds), plus inherited a pretty one with poppies on and a matching picture which are in the 3rd bedroom (DH's study) which faces the bungalow next door and use blinds in bathroom, loo, hallway and my study, at the other end. Moving from 5 to 3 bedrooms I have all the dark(ish) blue, lined curtains we had in various rooms there that were just sitting in a crate, in a bag, taking up space. Do say if you want them...

Other suggestions - ready made from Dunelm or scour your local charity shops - easy to chop down and make cushion (covers) with off-cuts

KajiKita

Suffolk_lass said:

Argh curtains! I have a large bag full to take to the charity shop today! There seem to be far more than I thought I had. We only re-used the JL ones downstairs in this house as we are open to the fields at the back (light excluding blinds), plus inherited a pretty one with poppies on and a matching picture which are in the 3rd bedroom (DH's study) which faces the bungalow next door and use blinds in bathroom, loo, hallway and my study, at the other end. Moving from 5 to 3 bedrooms I have all the dark(ish) blue, lined curtains we had in various rooms there that were just sitting in a crate, in a bag, taking up space. Do say if you want them...

Other suggestions - ready made from Dunelm or scour your local charity shops - easy to chop down and make cushion (covers) with off-cuts

That's very kind, but if you're in Suffolk and I'm in Herefordshire, wouldn't the shipping be expensive?

You've nudged me actually ... I think I have some old curtains in the spare room, in the deepest, darkest cupboard that goes over the top of the stairwell. I *want* some nice curtains for the recently redecorated dining room (so does hubby) but I *need* curtains for the kitchen (desperately thin) and the snug (falling to bits!). Perhaps if I can purchase nice *want* curtains for the dining room cheaply, I can recycle those into the kitchen (they'd go with the colour scheme in there better) and re-purpose the curtains lurking in the spare room to the snug, which if I am remembering correctly what's up there would also work colour wise ...

Another job for this weekend then, is to have a good ferret-about in the tip that is the spare room!   

KK  

Suffolk_lass

We have roller blinds in the kitchen and gardening downstairs loo - very easy to disassemble and replace the fabric. If you wash it in a waterproofing detergent, they become wipe clean, and it removes the flappy bits. If your old ones are awful, PM me and I'll send pictures

themadvix

An old double duvet cover (or single, dpeending on the size of the windows) can make an acceptable and easily made pair of curtains - and if you have a pole, you can get rings with little clips on to attach the curtain (I'm a sewer, but not an expert and making curtains was beyond me, but this I could do!)