So close, we can smell mortgage freedom!

Jessy103

Happy birthday vix! 🎂🎉🍾

themadvix

Morning all,

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes It was a relatively understated birthday weekend, mainly due to the weather and the train strikes, but it was nice nonetheless. Mr MV got me a very cool card that was actually a series of puzzles to decode - from a company called Enigmagram. I would highly recommend! We had brunch out (with a mimosa for me) and Dad and his partner met us there. Then in the afternoon Mum and Sis popped round to enjoy some birthday cake. Otherwise we were looking at flights for a cheap trip to somewhere (my birthday present) and some sheet music online/playing our instruments - very chilled apart from me trying to explain some basic music theory to Mr MV with my rusty knowledge! We had takeaway for dinner. My gifts have mainly been in the form of cash, which will be put to one side for fun things, especially as I (not Mr MV) don't really have a budget for such stuff this year, unless I earn record amounts! Birthday treats will continue next weekend as we're meeting some friends for dinner at our local tapas restaurant and also hoping to return to the German Gymnasium at St Pancras (as Amex have kindly given us another £150 to spend there!) - once that and the latest Harvey Nick's spend has been taken advantage of (and any lounge access for our pending trip), the card is definitely going back for a bit of a refund - I think we'll have had our money's worth and some amazing treats as a result of it though.

Dinner last night was parsnip dal for me and 'normal' dal for Mr MV (he doesn't like parsnips, funny man!). Additional portions of both in the fridge, so I need to sort them today. This used most of the backlog of parsnips (which I'd roasted a few days ago) and the end of some passata and was otherwise a very cheap meal to cook, all done in the pot (which involved some juggling and keeping the rice warm while I cooked Mr MV's dal).

I think it'll be a soup day for lunch today - minestrone for me and stilton and broccoli for Mr MV. (This will force me to address the dals as one is in the IP pot which I'll need for these.) I have three pieces of my work to be getting on with and if I have time I'd also like to get to the library - there's a book Mr MV would like to read and is threatening to buy from WOB, but it would be much less hassle to get it from the library!

MS things:
* Did sign up to Uber One trial to get free delivery and a discount on Saturday's dinner - cancellation diarised so I don't forget
* HW and clicks - £5 withdrawn from one bookie as had a good win there!
* Extensive use of the IP for cooking yesterday - after dinner was done, we still had 8% of battery, which given the gloomy day and the many cups of tea I had, was good going.
* Have initiated withdrawal of tax money from PBs account

Gratitudes:
* A chance to see all of my immediate family over the weekend
* My birthday card puzzle!
* Birthday wishes

Have a good day all!

Karmacat

Sounds wonderful, I'm glad it was so enjoyable for you  

themadvix

Thanks Karma - it was lovely.

Forgot to say that I have opened a business savings a/c with Newcastle BS - 2% interest and able to open it entirely online without all the faffy phonecall palaver that Santander wanted, despite me being an existing biz customer. Still can't quite believe that. Will transfer the savings (only about £200, for software licences/prof memberships and a slow growing laptop replacement fund) over later.

Have had my invoice for rent for my allotment (is it sad that I'm excited to have a rent bill as I've never had one before?!) - £58 which will come out of my allotment fund. Also forgot to mention that I received £50 of gardening vouchers from the in-laws for my birthday, which will be used to purchase a couple of nice plants for the garden (not vegetables or allotment things!) as we have a bed that is largely empty apart from some bulbs and I'd like to put some more year-round interest in there.

(Procrastination time over, *must* get back to work - just not very exciting stuff this morning!)

newgirly

Sounds like a nice relaxed birthday Vix, I shall check out where the card was from thanks 🙂

EssexHebridean

Glad to hear you such a lovely weekend - that card sounds like exactly the sort of thing MrEH would enjoy! 

themadvix

Morning all,

Glad the card might be useful for you NG and EH!

PBs money arrived, so I sent that straight to savings. I have £140 to find before I'd tip over into the next £1k in the savings account (the division of where this money belongs is irrelevant for the purposes of what I'm about to say), so I've decided to attempt a mini challenge for the rest of the month and try to achieve this. I know I'll get about £15 interest on what's in there (paid on 22nd), so £125 to make. This can only be from non-taxable income, so Ebay/FB sales, HW, 'found' money (roadkill, back of sofa etc.) and winnings (I wish!). I'll allow TTs from pots and my Cambridge pay, but no more than this as I need that money elsewhere. I've identified a couple of things this morning to sell, and I'm sure will think of a few others too (possibly a Ziffit box). I think it's probably unrealistic, but we'll see - it all helps, regardless.

Automatic cat feeder arrived and was clearly not 'new (other)' as it had dry food crumbs in it and squashed litter(?) on the bottom of a bowl, so asked for a partial refund and received a further 10% back, which was fine. It seems to work ok, or would if greedy Ginger Cat didn't keep knocking the whole thing over (it's a fairly solid tower design, and we've wedged it between some furniture, yet it was still on its side this morning when I went downstairs!). Typically the refund will go to my MBNA cashback card (as I used the cashback to pay for it), which I'd already paid the balance off, so I'll be back to having a positive balance on that card! (Only £4, mind you.)

Dinner last night was another portion of dal each for us (and three into the freezer), with rice and garlic flatbreads as we had some milk on the turn, so it was a good chance to use it up. The rest of the flatbreads are also in the freezer. Made enough soup for us yesterday for two further lunches, so that's today and tomorrow taken care of. Dessert was almost the last of the Christmas pud (for me) and a piece of birthday cake (Mr MV) with custard (again using the milk up). Not sure about dinner tonight - there's a few options.

Today will be mostly a Cambridge day, in terms of mindset not location - I have a couple of meetings, am hoping for a catch-up with my boss and need to address some other stuff in my inbox. I do, however, need to finish the project I was working on for client. 

Didn't get to library yesterday, but plan (if weather improves) is for Mr MV and I to walk there this evening (otherwise we may use the car). I could also do with getting to Sains - when I went the other day for loo roll they didn't have any, and the situation is now becoming more urgent! I want to buy one pack and get it on my Nectar prices before I stock up on it.

MS things:
* PA survey
* Clicks and HW
* Batch cooking and using IP
* HG peas went into my soup

Gratitudes:
* Polite and pleasant Ebay trader who was apologetic and happy to offer a refund
* We continued binge watching Ted Lasso on Apple TV last night - very heartwarming and easy watching
* Still enjoying my birthday cake

Have a good day all!

themadvix

Morning all,

The sun is just about shining here this morning! I don't have any of my work to do, but a few bits for Cambridge, but I might, might, pop down to the allotment and do a little bit there. However, I imagine it's very wet underfoot, so I may be limited in what I can do. Would be good to start something though. Also hoping to get back into MSE Flyladying as it made me feel much better about the house when I was doing it regularly.

This morning I've paid my rent for the allotment, reconciled my business accounts, made a decision not to renew a membership for this year as I need to focus on the mortgage, discovered I can't remember the memorable word for my shiny new workplace pension (it's not the word I usually use and there's no hints as to what it has to include) and prepped some RM survey stuff. Desk is also clearer and heated airer away, which is making my work space feel much better. Have added a couple more bits to my 'to sell' list too.

Yesterday's dinner helped to empty the freezer a bit - Mr MV had 12 mini (canape sized) cottage pies courtesy of an Olio collection just after Christmas - they took up quite a bit of space. I had some breaded mozzarella stick things that I'd bought for Boxing Day and chips (the sticks were better than when we had them at NY, but still pretty mediocre, which is why I thought I'd get rid of them - wouldn't have served them to anyone as a treat!). Brussels sprouts accompanied this, courtesy of Olio too. Also took 2 pints of Olio milk out of freezer ready for tomorrow (defrosting in fridge to keep fridge costs down too).

I popped into Sains yesterday and managed to get the loo roll and picked up some thai curry paste too (and a can of coconut milk) - have failed to get the paste in Aldi, so it was good to get it off my list. We might have thai prawn curry for dinner tonight (one thing we have an awful lot of in the freezer is prawns!). Hopefully the loo roll will appear on my Nectar prices next week and I can stock up. £6.60 spent there. 

Also went to B&Q but failed to get most of what I went for as it was oos. (And Karma, yes I feel your pain with the stupid 'marketplace' website - what is that about?! Awful!). Did get some frame sealant and a small, expensive box of citric acid. Will keep looking for alternative sources of that. No cash spent there though as it went on the gift cards we ordered a while ago.

As our Argoose gift cards had all arrived last night, we used £125 worth to order a chest of drawers for our bedroom. £33.95 to pay, including delivery - Mr MV paid for that. We still have £40 of vouchers towards the bedside tables (you can only use 3 vouchers when ordering online), but they aren't in stock in the colour we like at the moment - slightly concerned as it's been a while, so we may just opt for them in white (instead of two-tone), but it would be nice to get them. I also have an MS rewards voucher I can claim towards them, so that will offset their cost further. We have been surviving entirely on hand-me-downs for all three pieces of furniture for the past 10.5 years (all in very old chipboard, both from 1970s and 1990s), so these spends are definitely justified!

MS things:
* 1P survey
* PA survey
* Clicks and HW - small wins on HW today
* Applied for a market research study - would have to travel near to EH (about an hour away), but £75 for the two hours seemed reasonable and it's a trip somewhere new(ish)

Gratitudes:
* Managed my 10k steps yesterday - I have been really bad at moving recently and need to get back into this!
* Free food
* Blue sky here this morning - must get out and enjoy it as I don't think it's going to last!

Have a good day all!

EssexHebridean

That's a lot of progress for this early in the day - and isn't it frustrating about passwords like that? The theory of always using a difference password for everything used to be fantastic when it was really only banking it was needed for, now though it's impossible without using one of the aps that keeps track of them - and there is a little bit of me that REALLY doesn't quite trust those! I do have several logins that I just end up resetting every single time I have to go in - it's a faff, but there you go!

Good work on the Sains trip - I've had enough of their Nectar prices now, and don't bother looking any more. if they worked like the T's ones - just reducing the price of the product at the time of purchase - then all would be fine, but I can't be doing with paying (often a higher price than elsewhere) for a product only to then be given vouchers that I have to go back and use - it's by far not the most convenient store for me anyway so that in itself negates some of the savings made. I'll stick with the simpler system at T's I think! 

themadvix

Thanks EH - it often doesn't seem like I get much done, but it all takes time. I haven't actually done more than about 10 mins paid work yet though today (about to be remedied). 

Re password storage - I use LastPass which has just had a breach. Unfortunately none of them can ever be entirely trusted because of the nature of the hackers, but it helps hugely and almost all my passwords (except banking ones) are stored in there and are nice and long and unguessable. This one, I'd got the password for but then it asked for the memorable word and I still have no idea what it might be.... And it looks like I have to ring them to get it reset - ridiculous!

I agree that T's is a much better system, but I try to avoid them for ethical reasons (despite the Olioing), and there are two Sains within cycling distance, so not much of an issue to go back. But it is a pain! (And is why I'll buy 3 packs minimum of loo roll when I do it - we used to have a WGAC order, so storing last numbers is not an issue!