So close, we can smell mortgage freedom!

Jessy103

Boo to rotavator man, but yay to lots of work!

Have a great time at the Beatrice Potter exhibition 🙂

savingholmes

Good that you have more business in. 

Sad about the rotavator - but as you say even a partial refund gives you a gain.

themadvix

Evening all,

Had a lovely day out on Tuesday at the V&A and Mum treated me to lunch afterwards too. We took snacks and I used my Three+ deal to get a £1 cuppa from C@ffe Nero on the way home. Also was randomly given some vegan 'pulled pork' at Kings Cross! It's got a 1/12 date on it, so will work out what to do with that at a later point.

Yesterday went to the physio who pummelled me into misery - I need to tell him to be gentler next time as I was so bruised I couldn't face cooking dinner (or doing Olio). As Mr MV was barely awake we ended up with takeaway, but it will do us for tonight too. I did manage to stew the rest of the apples last night and today have turned them into apple butter, which is delicious! Bought some smaller jars from H0bbycraft for it as once its opened it doesn't last that long (suspect that won't be an issue though) - now have 8 small jars for gifts and two larger ones too.

Otherwise, I've done EOM finances, paid myself (the first time in I don't know how long that income has reached my expected levels) and done all the money shuffles. When everything has settled tomorrow I'll make transfers to savings. Still have plenty of work!

MS things:
* Clicks and HW done
* Apples used up (I think I could have had more if I'd wanted, but we'll save that option for next year, once I know bottling has worked
* 100 bonus points on my Advantage card for something I was going to buy in Boots anyway

Gratitudes:
* The bruising is easing now
* Mr MV is on his way home
* Freshly bought crumpets to enjoy with the apple butter - rash, I know, actually *buying* bread products!

Have a good evening all.

savingholmes

Sorry physio was over eager.

Well done on apple butter. How is that different to apple sauce?

themadvix

Morning all,

Thanks SH. Apple butter.... pretty much apple sauce! I don't know why it's called butter tbh, but that's what all the recipes call it.

In money news, my Cambridge pension is now open and this week I paid in £3.06 and they contributed £1.84! 🤣🤣 I'll be able to retire in no time! Especially as my temporary employment has to end in March as I'll have done as long as is permitted under the temp scheme. However, it's free money and I've never had an employed pension before, so I'm enjoying the novelty!

Money transferred to savings this morning. Amazing what a difference savings pots make - I had cc bills of ~£1400 but because a lot of it was to come from pots, I was able to put away considerably more than I have recently into general savings (most into accessible places for the mortgage OP, allowing a contribution to my ISA too). Invoicing was down somewhat on last month, but I'm expecting quite a bit of Cambridge pay this month, so it'll balance out I think. 

Had a shirty and firm reply from Mattressman re the mattress - in their opinion the mattress is not faulty and they will not be paying anything out. Onto Hypnos. The fact that the test is flawed is apparently not something they're prepared to address.

Today I'm focusing on Cambridge work (although I do have other work to do, but the deadline is further away) and then picking up Niece from school - glad it's sunny today as I have to walk from Sis's house. I would love to get to the allotment and/or have a cuppa with mum before picking her up, but will have to see how I get on.

MS things:
* Clicks done and a few pennies won on the HW - less than £1 to earn on VB before payout, so should be next month; claimed £5 from L4dbrokes the other day; less than 1000 points on MS rewards to payout
* YG Safe updated
* YG survey done- I'm £2.85 away from payout now, so hoping to get that before Christmas
* Screened out of two MM surveys - but not far off payout there either

Gratitudes:
* Leftover takeaway made for easy dinner last night
* Sun is shining
* Forecast is slowly slightly improving for Sunday (London to Brighton - had I mentioned we're going on the car this year?! Likely to get very wet!)

Not so good - my back... Trying to work out how to convey that physio is making back worse not better😔 I'm sure it's not deliberate, but his assistant was much better.

themadvix

November goals. I did say I was going to do some!

* Look at Christmas list in comparison with 'pantry' - I've got loads of preserves/drinks etc. bottled/jarred up, so I think some people can just get some of these, others can certainly have a little something.
* We have a lot of socialising going on this month - it's busy. Eliminate additional spends where possible (i.e. we're going to the football again - we may need to eat dinner there, but I can definitely take snacks rather than pay £4 for them this time).
* Make the necessary birthday cards - I have got back into this a bit lately. I made one for cousin for Wednesday; I have one to make for Wednesday this coming week; plus a 1-year-old one, one for a friend and one for Mr MV.
* Find bargainous birthday present (or give cash) for 1-year-old.
* Sort out cat sitting insurance - mega cat sitting marathon begins at end of the month

Think that's enough to be going on with, given the busy socialising and work fronts (a couple of deadlines looming this month).

savingholmes

I would ask for the assistant!! on the physio. No point suffering unnecessarily

themadvix

Morning all,

Had a fabulous weekend away with our friends who, as usual wouldn't even let us buy a coffee (we pretended not to know what they were talking about when they mentioned that we'd had to pay for taxi!). It's lovely, but really wish they'd let us contribute. The run on Sunday was very, very wet for the first half (down to Crawley), and we were all absolutely sodden when we stopped for coffee (unless you had full fishing gear on, I think this was the general consensus - the water just gets in!). Fortunately it dried up just after we left Crawley and so the second half was much more enjoyable - lots of people out waving and cheering us on, beautiful villages and the lure of the organiser-provided stew at the end. The car ran beautifully, despite the weather, even going through some impressive puddles (most of which our driver slowed down for - we did get splashed at one point though!) We did manage to buy ourselves a lunch-ish snack in the hotel and some drinks.

Coming back yesterday was a nightmare because of the M25 chaos (stupid idiots) - we left Brighton about 10.45 and didn't make it home until 4pm. Our friends (who were giving us a lift) still had to get back to Yorkshire. I *did* persuade them to stop at Costco for fuel and they were thrilled with the cheapness of the fuel due to our membership! 

Back to reality today, with renewed desire to own a lovely car (probably not a Brighton car unless we win the PBs as they attract a hefty premium) - but a post-1904 one would still allow us to be 'proper' members of the car club for a fraction of the price (this is a long-term goal, don't worry!). Also a renewed desire to make sure I get to go up to visit them in Yorkshire when Mr MV goes for work - I hadn't seen our friends since this time last year (although had seen their son and his girlfriend in the summer). An automatic cat feeder is the new target for my TTs (I've got £16.81 in there already, so hopefully not too far to go - although a fairly clever feeder is the aim, to flummox greedy ginger cat).

Dinner last night was pasta bake with some spinach that needed using, some of the giant R'ford cauliflower and hg tomatoes. Tonight's will probably involve some Philly (donated by sister on Friday), and lunch may be pesto pasta. 

Car MOT is booked for tomorrow afternoon - I don't have high hopes of it passing, but we'll see. And depending on what needs doing, we'll make a decision about keeping it or not. 

Today is catching up on stuff (including doing a lot of still-damp-from-Sunday washing - urgh!) and work for Cambridge and my UK client - plenty to be getting on with. Tomorrow I'm hoping to go to a coffee morning, but I'm not sure really - it's a fair way and then I'd need to be back to drop car off for MOT (unless I can take it and then use Mr MV's, which is a possibility, but only if he can get a hire car).

MS things:
* Have been asked to continue RM survey until March instead of finishing at NY
* Clicks done
* HW done (nothing today though)
* Did get to the allotment on Friday briefly and garlic is all growing well. Leeks and sprouts will be pickable soon and still some savoys ready  - have cancelled this week's veg box as a result.

Gratitudes:
* Feel very lucky to have such lovely friends
* Huge privilege to take part in the London to Brighton run
* Sunshine today  - think I'm going to go for a quick walk round the block

Have a good day all!

savingholmes

Well done on the run!! Very impressive!

themadvix

Morning all,

Thanks SH - not much impressive about my part in events - I just sat in the back and waved! 😂

Important money stuff this morning - have got my act together and transferred buffer fund to Atom (where I already had an account), so that's earning 2.52% now. Have also popped £3k into short-term fixed savers - one 6 month and one 9 month one (around 3.5%-4% depending on which). 

Have initiated the transfer of my pension from Nest to VG and have also invested the cash that was sitting in my VG pension as the markets have settled down now. Also got around to investing this month's ISA money too. 

Have decided that I will cancel appointment with physio - can do this by email as I'm such a chicken. There's another physio place just over the road, so might give them a try. 

Dinner last night was a lovely baked cauliflower dish with a Japanese twist. Would cook again and there's leftovers for my dinner tonight. Have got a portion of tomato and lentil soup out of the freezer for lunch and will have this with the last of the Olio ryvita. Mr MV may be home for lunch (but not sure what he'll eat!) but he's away tonight, so no dinner required for him. Fridge is looking a bit bare, but there's food at the allotment and I'll see what arrives with Olio too.

Assuming his hire car turns up before he goes off, I will have a car for Olio collection tonight. Mine is going for its MOT this afternoon, so we'll see what happens there.

Otherwise, I have a couple of meetings this afternoon and plenty of work to get on with, so that'll keep me busy. I wasn't enthused about this week when we returned from Brighton on Monday, but now it's already Wednesday (and my evening class, sans homework being done, is out of the way) it's looking up!

MS things:
* No food wasted and plans in my head for what we have got available - should cope easily until next veg box
* Clicks and HW done - nothing won there though
* Money sorted
* Pension transfer underway
* PA surveys done
* Have checked Nectar offers and will go to Sains for Friday night's pizzas (we're having BIL and wife over for pizzas and games night)
* While we used quite a bit of imported electricity yesterday, we made good use of what we generated, only exporting 0.7kWh.

Gratitudes:
* Despite not having done my homework (and nor had the other two), we had a good evening class - the time flew by!
* Dinner was good
* The hire car has just arrived - hooray!

Have a good day all!