So close, we can smell mortgage freedom!

themadvix

Afternoon all,

Re train trips, I'd highly recommend checking out the offers from the local mainline service providers. I've downloaded the LNER app and we can get cheapy cheap deals to various places we've not been/fancy a break to - they have a deal finder option and I intend to make use of it!

A cheerier day today, fortunately! Have been back to allotment (twice) and weeded some more, planted out the pak choi I bought, sowed carrots, spring onions and radishes amongst them, protected them (hopefully) and planted a sad caraway I also bought at the garden centre. Also harvested half my garlic and the first of the lovely looking potatoes. Somehow managed to avoid the utterly insane showers we've had - including hail! And I put a request out for a spare butternut plant and someone has offered me one! Am intending to collect at 5 today - it's easily within walking/cycling distance, but not in this weather, so will see what it's doing later.

Have made pizza dough for dinner tonight and made a chocolate banana loaf to use up the two very brown bananas that made the trip to Harrogate and back! 

It's more like four seasons in one minute here at the moment - torrential rain has eased right back and no doubt sun will be out in a sec!

I've done some Cambridge work today, but tbh wanted to get a bit further with allotment. Have also done my tax return, bar the pension page, which I'm waiting on a response from Vanguard for. I seem to have an email in March this year summarising the activity from the 22/23 tax year, but nothing for the one just ended... most bizarre. I only need to know my contributions, but I can't seem to work that out simply. It's frustrating as I'd quite like to get it done - means I can make pension and LISA contributions. Earned £800-odd interest last year too, so I need to get cash out of my savings accounts before I have to start paying tax on it!

MS things:
* Clicks, HW etc.
* Have been clearing the backlog of 1P surveys - nearly there!
* YG and MM surveys at the weekend
* A cat sitting booking for September (yes, the sun is out now!)
* Using a hg spring onion and hg (frozen) spinach on our pizzas tonight
* HG potatoes will be used for Sunday's Fathers' Day roast

Gratitudes:
*  Some HG produce - it has helped improve my mood wrt the allotment
* Brown bananas being much tastier in a cake
* The lovely lady who has offered me her BNS plant

Have a good afternoon/evening all!

LadyWithAPlan

Never heard of Seat Frog and apparently they are doing this for planes too soon 

themadvix

Morning all,

Didn't know that LaPlan, but as I'm trying not to fly, then it's not so relevant.

Have now harvested all my garlic and onions. Peeled and trimmed garlic yesterday and can definitely see the difference in the netted and unnetted crops in terms of leaf miner activity - but nothing was destroyed, so that's OK. Very pleased with half my garlic as it was sown from last year's crop, so completely free and very self-sufficient. Have also started harvesting my potatoes as they were first earlies (2.25kg so far, about 1/5 of the plants). Lovely and tasty - we had some roasted last night and will be having again on Sunday with the families for Fathers' Day. We don't eat many salad potatoes and I had mistakenly thought that this was all you could get as first earlies, so am pleased to have found perfectly mashable/roastable tatties that are ready this soon (potentially allowing me to get more stuff in the ground after them.... although that relies on there being stuff to put in the ground). Have applied nematodes to the allotment to hopefully eliminate many slugs. I don't like doing it, but frankly I was getting to the point of wondering if anything would grow this year - at least, unlike the weather, there are options for slugs and this one won't hurt my resident frogs (who seem to be unable to keep up!). They should take 3 days to take effect, so will try to get some more plants in the ground at the weekend in the hope that they won't be eaten.

Am beginning to enjoy some strawberries and raspberries from the garden too. And the odd bit of rhubarb, but none of my plants have enjoyed the weather this year and the triffid in the garden is recovering from being split in the winter. Both the allotment and garden harvests are reducing my R'ford spend - only £20 this week and while I may put an order in this week, I think it'll be down to less than fortnightly soon (if the courgettes ever get going).

Money-wise I've had my Nw Fairer Share and this has been split into current savings pots - currently I have garden furniture (nearly full), birthday party (also going to cover Mr MV's present, I'm hoping - no idea what it is though!), holiday (topping this up as we want to go to Germany for the Christmas markets via Eurostar) and long-term. The latter is a fledging account that is earning more than it would be in an ISA, but I think it will move into one fairly soon. I don't want to add it to my S&S ISA/invested LISA though as I'd like some long-term cash savings, at least while interest rates are moderately keeping up with investment growth.

Have also been paid Cambridge pay and it was fortunately a big one as there was a large Amex bill to go with it - although a lot of this was covered by savings pots, albeit we're definitely not saving enough to cover cat costs at the moment.

Cat-wise, B&W cat had been throwing up a bit more than normal (every other day) and so rather than take him to the vets, with the cost and stress involved, I tried the 24/7 free vet helpline we get with our insurance. Brilliant! The app was a bit glitchy (said I was next in line at one point and then wait time went back up to 40 mins - although I didn't then have to wait 40 mins), but I had a video call with a vet who was very helpful and made a few suggestions, which seem to be working. Why can't the NHS work like this?! Assuming improvements continue, this has saved £60+.

Car wise, we still haven't sold Mr MV's car, but it is an CarWow auction today (prompted by the appearance of what looked to be a good deal, but by the time Mr MV went to see it yesterday it had sold). In any case, we need to sell ours now and between that and savings, we are at the point to buy - just need to sell it first. It has been on Autotrader for two months, but offers were silly, so now going down a different route. Mr MV did manage to get photos of mine (still on his parents' drive) this week, so hopefully he'll get them on the website this weekend.

Birthday party wise, we're booked to see a man about a room in a bar this evening! If the pricing matches the website, I think it should be a winner.

Work-wise (how is this last?), it has been very quiet this month for SE. Partly because the European elections will have had an impact (a lot of my work is politics-related) and partly because the US clients have fallen off the map - I need to see what's going on there, but unfortunately I think it may be AI-related.

MS things:
* Have got back on the 1P horse - balance £8
* S&S survey for 800 points
* Clicks and HW - have been having some small wins lately, so close to payout with a couple of them
* Have just finished some cat sitting

Gratitudes:
* Lovely chat with Devon friend by text last night
* A dinner that was almost all homegrown
* Played my new board game last night and it was good!

Have a good day all!

themadvix

Afternoon all,

We've booked our birthday party! Room was lovely, they can cater for our GF guests and it all seemed pretty reasonable, so that is one thing sorted. I do need to send over the room hire fee, but there's only £200 in the account for the party and it needs to be £300... could borrow from elsewhere, but will see if Mr MV can find some first. Food will be another £300 and we'll sort a welcome drink, but compared to a lot of venues, that seems very good value (we have our own space, entrance, toilets and bar, with ability to play our own music through the sound system (or have a DJ if we wanted). The hotel across the road wanted £17 per head for the buffet (the £300 should cover good nibbles for the 60-odd we'll expect to actually turn up - and we could top up a bit if we wanted too (at £11/head)) plus a much higher room hire cost too.

Car-news - there is none currently.

Work news - still quiet, although some work has arrived from an American client, which is nice. For a new client of theirs too, so hopefully the beginning of more to come.

Allotment - the beeping slugs had eaten my last courgette seedlings and the French beans (including the replacements I'd got at the swap - but not the ones I'd bought as I'd not planted them) and all but one carlin pea. Despite the nematodes! (Which in fairness may only have just kicked in). Oh, and my replacement cuke seedlings in the garden too! I have been to the garden centre this morning and I now have two courgette plants in the ground with copper tape on a plastic-bottle collar around them, adjacent to a sunken beer trap, with wool pellets (and the nematodes). Same treatment for the squash which I was gifted. If this doesn't work, I give up! Have also planted the bought French beans and wool pelleted around them. If the slug don't get them, we may never want to eat another French bean after next winter - I must have nearly 20 plants in the ground!

Had a lovely day yesterday with my Dad, Stepmum, Sis and Niece and Mr MV's parents. Potatoes were from allotment, and sage and onion in stuffing plus redcurrant jelly and the plums and apples in crumble were all homegrown. It does make a difference if you haven't had to spend a fortune on slug deterrence/replacement plants. Unfortunately, before the washing up was done our dishwasher decided to go on strike.... we're not sure what the issue is (have tried a couple of things, looked up the delightfully flashing lights), but Mr MV will investigate further. If it can't be fixed, it'll be £600 for a new one 😔 In fairness, it was £200 11 years ago, which was much longer ago (and cheaper) than we thought. 

Cat news - B&W cat seems to have perked up and stopped vomiting, so that's good. And I realised that the cat savings pot might be very depleted but apart from a tray of chicken and some litter, we won't need anything for at least a couple of months, if not several, so that's good.

MS things:
* YL survey (realised my instant reaction to 'we need money' is to see what surveys are available 😂)
* YG survey
* HW and clicks
* Comps - did my usual and then blasted through 30 pages of the comps board last night

Gratitudes:
* A lovely day yesterday
* The sun is here at last!
* Birthday party booked!

Have a good day all!

EssexHebridean

Hurrah for getting the party booked - that's very cheerful isn't it! 

I feel for you on the slugs - we have now bought more runner bean plants and those are in with wool pellets all round them, and I have started off some more of the bush (waxpod) beans plus some borlottis in modules in the hope that they will a) germinate and b) not get eaten - not sur either of those things are likely, right at this point! I've got two more cuke seeds in that same module set as well - we only really want one more plant, but if they both germinate and get to pot-on size we'll find space for the other one. It's so flipping disheartening when it feels like all your work is coming to nothing though isn't it! 

themadvix

Thanks EH! Yes, party should be fun - we've got about 75 people to invite and compared to the last big shindig (our wedding), it seems very easy and low-cost! We're only inviting family children (and one babe in arms), otherwise it would be a creche not a party, but the other factor is that the venue doesn't allow u-18s after 9pm - we've cleared this with Sis and BIL though and the children will at least be able to celebrate briefly with us (it wouldn't feel right to not have Niece there, but equally, we'll want some adult time for dancing and not watching what we say all the time.

You are spot on about it being disheartening - all those plans and they just get eaten by slugs! I have a feeling we might be too late for the borlottis to dry properly (but I guess it depends on the weather in late Sept/Oct) - but I too have sown some more! Tempted to try a few more Coco Sophie, but it really probably is getting a bit late now.

greenbee

I have two spare cucumbers, and a climbing courgette and a blue banana squash if anyone wants them (and several tomatoes). 

themadvix

greenbee said:

I have two spare cucumbers, and a climbing courgette and a blue banana squash if anyone wants them (and several tomatoes). 

Still trying to get rid of the toms then! 😆

 Thanks, but assuming the slugs stay away, I think I’m sorted now. Going to have to investigate a blue banana squash though!

EssexHebridean

The squash does sound fascinating doesn't it! With a relatively small space we have to be quite aware of how many squash type plants we can cope with - I think I will be investigating the various climbing options for next year too as that sounds like an excellent space saver! 

greenbee

I'll let you know what it's like if any make it this year!