Bracing for impact - re-mortgage free wannabe

sabsob

It's been a while since I posted, and things have been busy. I've been away for a few days, which has eaten into money, but was necessary. I managed a little £10 OP, so I'm at £640 - a couple of things come due tomorrow for auction, so there'll be a little bit more. Food-wise, I need to be careful this week, and minimise outgoings, but that should be okay. I need to run the freezer down again.

Aimingforthegoodlife

I am so sorry for your loss SS. You are amazingly focused on the OPs and I have no doubt that you will smash it!

sabsob

Thank you so much @Aimingforthegoodlife I realise it's the long game, but the OPs keep me motivated. Had some money come through from some book sales, so another £30 have gone in: £670 total. Also nabbed a Lidl fruit and veg box (a cucumber, 2x romaine lettuces, bag of apples, cantaloupe melon, 3x peppers, 4x tomatoes, bag of potatoes, 2x limes for £1.50), plus a great big hunk of cheese, some orange juice, and a loaf of bread, total £6.47. If I plan well, it should last until the end of the week, apart from milk, and possibly cereal

sabsob

I have some lettuce soup in the slow cooker - a first attempt for me. Various types of lettuce often make an appearance in L!dl or TGTG boxes, and in winter, we are not much of a family of salad eaters. So, one head of romaine and one head of baby gem went in the slow cooker, with some garlic, an onion, a potato, the chopped up stem from the broccoli we had last night, and a bit of butter. It'll be green, whatever it tastes like  I've not worked out cost, but bearing in mind all ingredients (apart from butter) started life in a L!dl box, I'd say maybe 20p total, and it looks like it'll be lunch for two people.

sabsob

Some "random" money arrived today, thanks to my one and only craft fair last year, so that's in the mortgage. I was going to go on a listing spree this afternoon, but I haven't. I *did* make a lovely salad for lunch, since somehow, lots of salad-y stuff appeared in my boxes. I opened my fridge and realised I had tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, and pepper, as well as a mozzarella that needed eating today. So half went into the salad, and the other half will top our macaroni cheese for tea.

I feel like I haven't stopped in weeks, but I hope that things will calm down a bit, soon. Kiddo is on half term next week, and I have some annual leave, so I'm hoping to start seeing the wood for the trees

StripeyTightsSpottySocks

Hi sabsob i am glad you are getting time off next week - it does sound like you have been non-stop.

How did the lettuce soup turn out?

And can i ask where you sell your books? I have a few older books and i'm not sure where it's best to list them.

sabsob

StripeyTightsSpottySocks said:

Hi sabsob i am glad you are getting time off next week - it does sound like you have been non-stop.

How did the lettuce soup turn out?

And can i ask where you sell your books? I have a few older books and i'm not sure where it's best to list them.

Hi @str@StripeyTightsSpottySocks - the lettuce soup was surprisingly tasty! I'd never have thought of putting lettuce in a soup, but it works. With the potato in it, it turned out really creamy. Husband asked if I had put cheese inside it, I think that was the garlic So, overall, yes, I'll definitely make it again

I sell the books at WeBuyBooks - it's an app, and you scan the bar code to see if they'll take it, and how much they'll offer. It doesn't really work for "odd books" (foreign editions, old books, etc.), but I've managed to get two parcels together so far, totalling about £55, so not to be sniffed at. If I have a book where I think it's worth more, I'll put it up for auction, or if I have a batch of related (e.g. crafting) books, I'll put them on an appropriate FB group. I'm not sure I've found the holy grail, but I'm chipping away

sabsob

I have another...."something" soup in the slow cooker. If this turns out edible, I'll be surprised. It has:

- 1.5 heads of lettuce
- 4 carrots
- 1 tin of tomatoes
- leftover bag of parsley
- two snack packs of vegetarian fridge raiders (bought for my son, who didn't like them, so I am going to "hide" them
- leftover rice from Chinese take-away
- chopped stem of broccoli
- a couple of handfuls of chopped leek
- veg stock cube

I think it might just be me eating it, but I plan to spice the hell out of it, puree it, and hope for the best. It was pretty much everything in the fridge that needed eating (I froze the broccoli florets). With this mishmash, I am not sure which culinary direction to take it in with spices, I think I might aim for lots of paprika, and hope it resembles something Hungarian, lol - with apologies to the nation!!

We had fruit that needed eating, too, so my son and I enjoyed a smoothie made from half a cantaloupe melon, three satsumas, and a handful of wrinkly grapes, lol.

I am behind with listing, and have a busy day ahead - including a library visit, otherwise, the fines will bite, which would be counterproductive. (In fairness, I use the library both to save money *and* to support the library, so it's not a spending I mind, other than being annoyed at myself for not being more organised.)

Only managed an additional tenner on the mortgage OP, so that's at a total of £880 - I would *love* to get to a grand before the next mortgage payment is due, but we'll see. Have a good week-end, everybody!

sabsob

I've not posted in a long time - our re-mortgage is one month old tomorrow, and I have managed a total of £1500 in OPs in that month. I am just waiting for the first interest payment to hit it, to see where the first full month leaves us.

I didn't get many listings done, I managed to sort another box of books, some of them pretty high quality, so that added some funds, and the listings that came due over the last couple of weeks. Food-wise, I did well until a couple of days ago, we are all ill (not Covid, just cold/general "urgh"), and I bought copious amounts of fresh orange juice, because we all craved it. This week-end will be busy, but I am hoping to get back to listing, ready for the March OPs.