So close, we can smell mortgage freedom!

themadvix

Morning all,

Haha @savingholmes, I'm not sure about exotic! 🤣 Tonight's dinner is my birthday dinner, postponed from last weekend because of train strikes - when we have had the credit to the account it will be 'free' (and because we've dined there before we should get a free glass of fizz on arrival!). Tomorrow's dinner was a suggestion from friend and we're going to the trusty tapas bar, where the waitress recognises me now. And the football was £12/ticket or similar, so very reasonable. We've got a couple more football matches lined up - Spurs v Utd which was postponed from September (when the Queen died) and then we're going to see the Lionesses with Sis, Niece, Mum, Dad and Dad's partner as Niece's Christmas present from Sis. After that, I think there'll be a bit of a hiatus. And a lot of our social life in the last year has been funded by Mr MV's 'post-Covid fun fund', saved during the pandemic for doing things afterwards. It's nearly all gone now, so we'll be watching the pennies a bit more carefully again - at least until the mortgage has gone. We're good at making the money stretch as far as possible.

Dinner last night was cheesy pesto pasta (cream cheese bought before Christmas and lurking at the back of fridge), pesto discovered in freezer when trying to fit cats' free chicken in - 18 days' worth!), with a garlic baguette courtesy of an Olioer who didn't collect her batons. Another good use it up meal. Lunch for Mr MV today will be the last broccoli and stilton soup and I'll have another egg baguette I think (yesterday's egg baguette with the free fresh egg was delicious). 

Pleased to see there's 80% off listing fees for the weekend on Ebay - will be taking advantage of that. Also have had a small sale on which I'll be able to convert the postage to cash. Have also had a booking for cat sitting in Feb and an enquiry for later this month that will probably become a booking.

Work today will be entirely Cambridge focused (unless I hear from clients), but we'll finish early to go into London, so not a whole day's worth. I have a new project from one of my managers and we've worked out how I'm going to extend my contract that works for all of us (me, friend/boss and other boss).

MS things:
* Clicks, HW etc.
* NV survey
* PA surveys
* PC survey
* Use-it-up dinner (when isn't it?)
* Small ebay sale - approx £1 for my challenge money!

Gratitudes:
* A flying visit from Sis and Niece yesterday, which was mainly spent persuading Niece that the cats weren't going to spontaneously attack her (after B&W cat hissed at her on Boxing Day, which was really entirely my fault for disturbing him when he was trying to find some peace).
* A short day today
* Sunshine! I believe it might stay like this all day too!

Have a good day all!

Karmacat

You *are* good at making dosh stretch, and how nice that Mr MV is good at it too.

Poor niece - the cat I've got staying with me was said to be "he never gets his claws out" type cat.  Thing is, if he looks at me, I tend to stroke him 🙄 and he gets over-excited, and does end up with his claws out - not scratching, but pricking.  Sound asleep right now, though

themadvix

Morning all,

A lovely, but not cheap weekend. I messed up the train tickets for Friday night, so we ended up having to spend more on additional ones (and this is why I normally leave it to Mr MV to sort tickets!). We did get the bus back from the station at the end of the night, so at least that was cheaper than a cab. We had a lovely dinner though - ate far too much! 

Saturday we visited the in-laws, I popped to the zero-waste shop near them (£18 spent, inc £3 on a chocolate bar for Mr MV's Nan - if I'd known it was that much I'd've found something else, as I doubt she'll appreciate it!), we found some more stuff in their loft to clear/sell, and we visited Mr MV's Nan, who is newly ensconced in a home nearby. In the evening we went out with good friends to celebrate my birthday - a drink in a pub and then dinner at the tapas bar. It was delicious. We walked there and back, so no transport costs. 

Yesterday we went to the WSL match at the Emirates. More money on train tickets and food... And the match wasn't that great really. We did charge the car for free and saved a few quid on the tickets because we drove to meet Sis and Niece (the fact that they ended up leaving from a different station will be glossed over here!). 

So, back to tighter belts (literally and figuratively) this week. We've been fasting until lunchtime since Friday (that's the literal belt-tightening, which is much needed), so milk consumption is way down. Two pints of our delivery this morning were cancelled and we're not having veg box this week, despite it being our usual week for one. We'll have JO's tikka masala (with quorn) for dinner tonight to use up some passata and coconut milk in the fridge. I think I'll make Spanish lentil soup for lunch too as we have all the ingredients and it's healthy and filling. 

I did get some bits listed on Ebay yesterday, but still more to do later today while the offer is on. Made a small sale straight away (again from in-laws loft, so just postage benefits for me) yesterday. I am meeting a new cat client this evening, have another repeat booking in the diary for next month and was back on the long-term cat sitting gig as of Saturday.

Workwise today, I've got a bit from a client, have already done a small platform job and need to finish something for Cambridge.

MS things:
* Clicks and HW done - no movement on HW today
* PA survey done
* Ebay sale
* Eating less from now, so less spent on food! 🤣

Gratitudes:
* Delicious food out both nights
* Lovely to see friends
* Mr MV's Nan's new home is lovely

Have a good day all!

themadvix

Morning all,

It's gone proper chilly again here - the 12 degrees frost protection kicked in overnight and there's still a hard frost outside. Bizarrely, something odd is going on with Hive/Apple Home so heating is not staying on today - I'll have to keep topping it up. When I go out, I'm hoping it'll reset something (I may have fiddled where I wasn't meant to!). I have thermals on top and bottom, so I can cope with it being a bit chillier than normal.

Managed to get almost all the bits listed on Ebay that I needed to yesterday, so today's task will be FB marketplace. Work is still very quiet - I've got some Cambridge stuff to get on with but the Americans have been very quiet since the New Year and my main client hasn't yet been in touch. He will be though, and then no doubt it'll all happen at once! (I'm betting no later than 2nd week in Feb when Cambridge work will be very busy!).

My plan for today is to get some Cambridge work done and then head into town on foot (assuming it's not too slippy out there), feeding cats on the way back. I need birthday cards for various family members, to pay in some birthday money and might pop to the library too. Also still need to post Ebay parcel.

New cat client meeting went well last night and the timings for their visits will fit nicely with my long-term cats. 

I don't think I said, but after all the faffing with vouchers, neither Mr MV nor I like the new chest of drawers we bought - it's cheap feeling and poorly designed. We won't be buying the accompanying bedside tables, so have £40 of Argoose vouchers to use for something else at some point (potentially on camping mattresses as our self-inflating camping mats have a tendency to uninflate when laid upon - fine for one night, not for a week's holiday!). We're still unsure about what to do with the chest of drawers - it's certainly only going to be a temporary measure, if we decide to keep it, which is so annoying and very disappointing, having waited so long to get something nicer than our old set.

Mr MV is probably taking his team out for lunch today, so my plan, food wise is to finish the soup for lunch (tomato and lentil - from Cranks) and have leftover bolognese on a jacket potato for dinner. (Mr MV doesn't like jackets, so it'll be a treat to have one).

We booked our random short break last night - off to Gdansk at the beginning of March. £150 for flights and two nights in a central old town 4-star hotel - we'll be using the 'joint birthday/Christmas money pot from last year (or the year before?!) to pay for it. Hoping spends while there should be very low - we've seen estimated costs for meals and it looks cheap. Annoyingly prices had increased since we were looking earlier in the month (partly because the cheap Jan/Feb flights were gone), but still pretty reasonable.

My main client has just emailed to say that the first item for the busy period has arrived.... he'll send it later. Hooray!

MS things:
* PA surveys
* Clicks done
* MM surveys
* Leftovers for meals
* RM CD survey signed up for
* Had renewal for car insurance through - will investigate that today too (savings from budgeted amount can be TT'd to that savings goal!)
* 23p interest from closed savings a/c to savings goal

Have a good day all!

Karmacat

 I had to have a look at Gdansk tourism - it looks amazing!  That's a great destination  

themadvix

It does look pretty nice there - but was booked entirely on cheapness! 😂 

EssexHebridean

Ooh jealous - I love Poland! Lovely country, lovely people, and unless it's changed a bit which it sounds as though it hasn't, it is indeed super cheap for eating and drinking! (Exceptionally good pizza, oddly, in my admittedly limited experience!)

A vote here for not keeping the chest of drawers if that's possible - if you're not happy with it now, then that's unlikely to improve any over time IMO. 

As for self inflating mattresses, my current one is an Outwell Dreamcatcher which is brilliant. For a weekend I blow it up on arrival, and at most it needs a single quick puff of air the following evenings, no more, often not even that. Highly recommended. 

themadvix

Thanks EH - lots of good info there! Never been to Poland, and being pescatarian, a bit concerned about food (not a fan of pickles either), so good pizza is really useful to know! 😁

Thanks for the inflatable mattress recommendation too- will check it out.

 We’re not happy and time probably won’t change that but we don’t want to spend the money we’ll have to to get what we want right now. I don’t know whether we’ll be able to return it given it’s not flat pack anymore… and there is a bit of damage where we used a wrong screw (although that could easily be blamed on the terrible instructions - definitely not IKEA!))

themadvix

Morning all!

Plans slightly adjusted yesterday, but got all my jobs done and Mr MV picked me up from town. Birthday money paid in and cards bought for Jan - £4.40 spent in CF. He's sold the spare solar panel (the DIY one we had), and the man came to collect this morning. Annoyingly, after fees (£80, despite being listed on an offer!), we're a bit down on what we paid for it, but we also had a year's use out of it! That money is earmarked for OPs, naturally. So when we got back from town, we were scrambling on the garage roof in the gloaming (and freezing) to get it down. 

Dinner was as planned last night - Mr MV had lunched out, so I had jacket pot and bolognese and we had some dessert - mainly so I could finish off the Christmas pud. Today I'll be finishing the soup for lunch (Mr MV in the office, will use his stash of loyalty points for lunch) and then I think it'll be some sort of thoran, using the last of the savoy, some broccoli and some sprouts. Loosely based on this recipe.

Work has arrived with a vengeance at last - a large project for a US client, the first bit for my European client and a quick little job too (Just seen an email from another client with a little something as well). So I'll be walking to the cats later, but otherwise at my desk.

MS things:
* Food use-ups
* Walking - dual purpose, both exercise and free
* Birthday money now earning interest
* Books out of library (to avoid temptation for Mr MV to order from WOB).

Gratitudes:
* Another sunny (but chilly) day here
* Lots of work
* Lovely library books and lots of exercise.

Have a good day all!

EssexHebridean

That cabbage recipe looks like an interesting one - I may need to bookmark that! (Frankly right now, anything that uses cabbage is on my radar!) 

Yep - get your thinking around the chest of drawers completely - we were in exactly that state with all sorts of things with the flat until such point as we had enough in savings to clear the mortgage completely as soon as the fixed term ended...and while we were reaching that point it was truly amazing (looking back!) the things we were content to put up with rather than spend money on replacements!