So close, we can smell mortgage freedom!

EssexHebridean

Vinted is certainly the site of the moment for clothes isn’t it. Definitely no use to me - by the time clothes escape some form of wear in this house they are usually fit only for rags, and sometimes not even that! 😂

QueenJess

I’ve never sold on Vinted either, but I am a prolific buyer on there and love it. If I have completely worn something to death, it’s very likely I can buy the exact same thing on there again.

I would say people will probably find your items,  but the better your title of your item and the colour, type etc, the easier it is for someone to search for what they want. I don’t usually browse and instead look for something specific like a long sleeved top in black of a certain brand and size for example. If there is a special feature then I may search for it, but unless it’s in the title of the item it doesn’t find anything (eg wedge heel).

themadvix

Morning all,

Good Vinted chat here. I tend to agree with you EH, but it was an unsuitable Christmas present (which I felt awful about, but...). And I do need to sell a dress that I bought on Vinted a couple of years ago - I didn't feel comfortable in it at the time and I've put on a little bit of weight since then.

Had a lovely day with Niece last Thursday - we baked, went for a walk, made pizza for us, Mr MV, Sis and Mum, played games, gave cats a lot of treats and did some painting. It was a long day and I was exhausted by the time we'd said goodbye to the visitors! 😂 Friday I cat sat, popped into town (paid in some cash and bought £26 of fish from the fishmonger. This should keep us going for at least the rest of the month) and did various other jobs, before we went out for drinks and tapas with the pub crowd for my birthday. We had a lovely time and I was given some very unexpected presents (including two wooden coasters with our cats' faces laser-pyrographed onto them - absolutely love these!). Saturday involved excessive exercise - walked down to parkrun with Mr MV and did a walking lap (I hadn't slept, so didn't fancy the run), back home (each way is approx 2km on top of the 5km/2.5km in the park), popped by bike to Christmas cat sitting job with the key (he gave me £20 for the £4 of cat food I'd bought ), to local shop to pick up parcel, but didn't have ID so failed, down to feed other cat and then home. Then later headed out on foot to collect parcel, realised I *still* hadn't picked up ID, so came back and got on bike and went and did that. Collapsed in heap on sofa in evening (with delicious fish pie)!

Yesterday (birthday) Mr MV and I visited some new-to-us woods for a walk, which was lovely, stopped for a toastie in a local cafe and then saw my family in the afternoon/evening. All very nice and much better than last year when the weather was *so* miserable that apart from breakfast out, we sat indoors all day.

MS things:
* Mr MV paid on Friday and yesterday! And the friends decided to cover the cost of my dinner, which was very kind and unnecessary!
* Dinner tonight will be chilli, using hg beans and chillis and using up open passata and chilli chocolate
* Clicks and HW done
* Dispatched Vinted parcel (and love the jumper that was in the one I collected)

Gratitudes:
* Some lovely messages, thoughts and presents
* Brilliant time on Friday evening 
* Nice weather yesterday - it was so nice to get out and feel the sun on my skin!

Have a good day all!

Suffolk_lass

Oh, a belated Happy Birthday to you. I'm also using homegrown veg in a chilli (borlotti beans, and of course, my own passata). It's a great way of upping the fibre without adding any starchy carbs, which I am reducing for a couple of months. After Christmas sugar, cheese and alcohol, I often have to stop consuming these to restore my skin and get rid of the eczema flare up they cause

themadvix

Morning all,

Thanks SL Chilli was a good one last night, even if I have to use bought passata One day I'll be successful enough with tomatoes to bottle my own! Problem is, even if I get a second plot and pop a greenhouse on it, there's a lot of blight down there, so no guarantees my toms will succeed there. A healthy detox diet sounds like a good plan after Christmas indulgences.

Have woken up this morning to a small piece of work for a client that may (hopefully) lead to more - and a very complimentary comment in the email, which was a lovely way to start the day. Have also had confirmation that my UK client and I will be working on a project in April/May/June that we had quoted for. It may well be a nightmare, but that's an issue for another day! (We both had mixed feelings about it and were quite happy with the possibility that the quote might not be accepted!).

In most exciting news, I have cleaned the oven!! 😮 This doesn't happen - I generally don't see the need, but decided it would be helpful to be able to see through the door. Quite a bit of bicarb and washing up liquid later and I can see through. Have also cleaned out the tray that sits on the bottom and wiped the seams (as it were). Now I just need to order a new bulb and I'll be able to see what's happening inside.

Supermarket delivery has arrived and been put away. Dinner tonight will be cauliflower laksa, with some sort of greens from the allotment (spinach or chard, depending on how things are surviving the cold). Aside from Thursday's R'ford delivery and a top-up at the refill shop (desperately needed), I'm hoping there won't be much else in terms of grocery shopping this month.

I need to pop the cat sitting key back to my most recent client at some point. I may also pop into town to enjoy my birthday freebies - Costa, Greggs and £5 in Hobbycraft. Otherwise, it's cracking on with report writing for Cambridge and keeping on top of Cambridge admin today. Evening class resumes tonight (although only for two weeks as teacher is then away for two weeks).

MS things:
* Clicks and HW
* YG survey
* 1P surveys
* PA surveys, inc longitudinal one (I've missed a few of these)
* Finally received the payment for cat sitting over Christmas and it was a bit more than I expected
* Birthday freebies (ooh, just heard the post, that'll be my car tax renewal then - usually comes with birthday cards! Plan is to have got rid of car before month end - it failed MOT by replacement back box has arrived this morning, so hopefully can get it passed this week)

Gratitudes:
* Sunshine again here today
* Lovely compliment from client
* OS Flylady thread - it's definitely getting me on track 

Have a good day all!

themadvix

Morning all,

Well I had a nice little jaunt yesterday to get my birthday freebies. A slice of tarte tatin from Costa, except she couldn't get it to split into the slices, so I got a slice and a half - dessert for both of us sorted (£0 additional cost); some non-Christmas fat quarters for gift bags and some labels in Hobbycraft (£5.50 additional spend); and some vitamins in Boots which, if bonus points are taken into account, I saved £6 on (£18 actually spent though, but these were needed and on 342 as well). Cycled 8 miles too (cycling 1000 miles in the next year is one of my 40 before 40 goals - which I don't have 40 of and haven't published anywhere! I have about 20 at the moment, am still thinking of them and am still undecided about sharing with friends and family). Also popped to the allotment as planned and picked some spinach. Hoping to get down there later today too, even if just for half an hour as there's plenty to do and I think short visits are better for my back.

Cambridge folk are all out at an away day today (no one invited me!), so I'm in charge of all the inboxes (slight exaggeration there) and will be trying to finish the first report as far as I can and start on the second one. Also have some data entry to do for my boss/friend. Slightly concerned that I haven't received a payslip for this month (should have done by now - payday is the 15th and it usually arrives 7 days beforehand).

Haven't started yet as I finally cleaned out the fridge, having been putting this off. Not too much grot found, but debating how long buttercream keeps in the fridge.... Any thoughts welcome! Operation Use-It-Up is now also on for all the sauces/jars etc. which have been in there too long. I may bake later to finish up a jar of mincemeat. Undecided on dinner - there's quite a few options, but I can't make my mind up!

MS things:
* Free dessert, heavily reduced bits in H'craft and Boots
* Cycled everywhere (although did then need to charge bike - but a lot less energy required than car!)
* Exhaust arrived for car - without paying for fast delivery. Mr MV may have time to fit this tomorrow - if so, will try and squeeze in re-test on Friday
* Dinner last night was a stir fry in the end, and Mr MV used so much other veg that the spinach I picked didn't get used - so dinner will incorporate that tonight, at least.

Gratitudes:
* Cold but sunny weather yesterday and today - excellent for solar (we generated nearly 2 kW yesterday, which is excellent for this time of year) and excellent for cycling too
* We're seeing Mr MV's uni friend at the weekend - we last saw him in SF as he moved out to California a couple of years ago.
* Non-screen time last night after evening class (least said about that the better!) - playing a card game I was given for my birthday - Sushi Go! - I think it'll be good once we've got the hang of it.

Have a good day all!

Baileys_Babe

Buttercream keeps in our fridge for a month or two without a problem. I do make it with a splash of water or fruit juice, slightly salted butter, icing sugar and possibly cocoa or lime/lemon/orange zest. We do run our fridge on the cool side which will extend the life of the buttercream, but not cold enough to freeze the cucumber, etc.

We normally have a jar of mincemeat on the go, we find it useful for making use of those last bits of pastry.

When playing new games we often look for video playthroughs.

EssexHebridean

Vitamins - you have reminded me! I was going to pop to see if I could get some magnesium from the little branch of the footwear related chemist along the road from work. I have time when I leave here this evening, so will do so! 

And before I go further - belated happy birthday!

Oven cleaning AND fridge cleaning all in one week? You're putting the rest of us to shame! I do try to do the oven door (or not the rest of it) monthly now as it saves the elbow grease required for making headway through properly baked on stuff.  

Do you think the Cambridge payslip might just have been a bit disrupted with people going back late after christmas, perhaps? I mean it shouldn't affect things, but perhaps it does? 

themadvix

Thanks Baileys Babe... the buttercream in question is more like 6 months old! It probably only contains butter and icing sugar, so it's probably OK, I think. It doesn't smell bad.

I've got another whole jar of mincemeat and I'm not convinced about the recipe I used this year - pretty sure normally you heat it up, but this one didn't and said it would only keep for 3 months.... So I'm keen to use the open one at least (for space reasons if nothing else), but probably both sooner than next Christmas. And I must find the proper recipe again!

Good idea about the video - as with all these things, it was easier once we got going - I don't know how/why game instructions always sound so complicated! Also will help when the deck is properly shuffled too, so that we don't get clumps of cards. The main thing though is learning the values of the cards so you can be a bit more strategic than we were last night. I'm not complaining though - I won (by all of a point!), which is rare!

I've been down to the allotment (tidied fallen over netting etc. and removed some rubbish, picked the only romanesco worth picking), forced myself to get quite a bit further on with the report (hooray!), and decluttered the drawer under the oven, a couple of boxes with random bathroom toiletry type stuff in (apparently storing these spares in more than two additional spaces though, which is no good at all!) and tidied surfaces in the bedroom (as per Flylady). Also enjoyed my lunch in the garden - coat on, but the sun was out and it was lovely (one of my 40/40 goals is to enjoy a meal in the garden at least once per month).

I have plans for the allotment this year. I'm going to invest in a push mower (with birthday/Christmas money) and an edging tool (Sis may have one, or Freegle) and really get on top of the grass/edges. Will make paths from woodchip (provided by council) and remove wooden bed edges, as per Mr Dowding's recommendation. This should maximise space, minimise slugs and make it a bit safer to walk on! Having a push mower there will be so much easier than trying to use the strimmer (carried from home) or the lawnmower (brought in the car) that require batteries. I'm also going to buy a few bits rather than making do - clips for netting, longer bamboo canes, wire mesh to make some arches. I'm all for reusing what's already there, and I have, but I can now see which things would make my life easier and the plot more productive.

Have a good evening all - gorgeous sunset here visible from my office.

Cheery_Daff

Shame you're not closer, I have a push mower you could have! I bought it when we moved here, intending to mow the entire garden with it with great enthusiasm 😂😂😂 That lasted about 5 minutes 😂😂 It does the tiny patch by the house ok, but the rest is so lumpy and full of mole hills that I think even Arnie would moaning about the push mower 😂😂 

Good work on the allotmenting though 😊