Ding! Ding! All change, please... (now replaced with new diary on MFW)

SueP19

Fingers crossed for you 

Crazycatlady2

Fingers crossed all goes well x 

milann

Fingers crossed here too. 

beanielou

Positive vibes.

Humdinger1

Sending good vibes @EssexHebridean! Onwards and upwards love Humdinger xx 

EssexHebridean

Morning lovely visitors - and a special shoutout to the lurkers who've posted, don't be strangers, join in!

Solicitor now instructed (Mr Boss, unsurprisingly) and we have the forms to fill in - he's going to check the costs of the sellers pack from our freeholder later today and we may get that ordered right away as that's something we can offer as evidence that we're pushing things forwards. Now it's time to for trying to get some sort of normal balance back into life really we think - we've done all we can right now and now we just have to take a breath and trust that we can sell. (but yes, crossed fingers still most welcome!)

Banks all checked this morning (on the commute in in fact, which took very nearly TWO FLIPPING HOURS thanks to traffic all over the place. Struggled just to get out of the town (an icy patch of road leading to multiple cars losing control on the slip road off one of the main roundabouts. Blame for this can be squarely laid at Essex County Council for yet again deciding they should deploy their gritters to far more affluent areas ahead of our town! Nobody hurt thankfully but looked like several cars with some significant damage) and then the motorway was dreadful too although we never quite worked out the cause of that. Anyway, all good with the banking, and another chunk of interest landed - this time to my personal long term savings, so hurrah for that! CC needs a wee bit of attention just to balance off last month's statement - but not by much - under £100, and a chunk of that will come from MrEH for something he bought. The C0v3ntry have also just agreed to extend the deadline for us returning paperwork in connection with the new limited access account we're trying to open which is handy - hopefully the additional week might give time for the forms they've sent to arrive! 

Some rather delicious lamb, rosemary & garlic sausages consumed last night along with jacket potatoes and a large helping each of one of our current favourite and seemingly staple foods - spring greens with lemon & mustard from a recipe as posted on the Reverse Meal planning thead. (also involves courgette, and, if you follow the recipe, peas. I don't follow recipes much so my version had broad beans instead.) Delicious! The remaining two sausages are now stashed away in the fridge and will be used later in the week, I think. 
I'm going to throw together couscous tonight in standard Tuesday style. It will probably come with some more spring greens, or possibly some kale. Maybe even spinach - we have copious quantities of all three thanks to the veg box. Honestly, it's a good job I genuinely enjoy green leafy veg! (And for those wondering, yes, we still have cabbage. I'm a bit cabbaged out right now though so a few days upcoming of alternative brassicas I think!). MrEH will - as usual for a Tuesday - be at rugby training so I plan a nice night of yoga and some TV. 

That's it. Little more to say right now to be honest - past the middle of the month DD's and heading for "now, what to do with that surplus" time - all being well. Quite pleased there is still looking like being a surplus allowing for clearing the 0% card, too. (And I'm enjoying the novelty of surplus being a thing - it will al get rather squeakier once we have a mortgage again!) Good reminder from someone on another thread about the upcoming two "free" months of council tax & water rates though - that will be an extra £180 for the next two months that can bounce across to the New House Fund. It'll be interesting to see how much I can amass in there over the time between now and actually needing to part with huge sums of money too - we can already meet the main fees for during the process when needed, so that's helpful. the plan for that is that ALL spare money, or money we can create as spare, will be diverted there for the time being. once we've actually moved, and got the new mortgage, it will be renames as the "Mortgage OP Pot" and we'll rethink how we work things a little. There is a standard £276 a month going there at the moment anyway - which even if we just leave it at that will tot up to over £3k a year - so that's a great starting point. 

Happy Tuesday all - don't freeze out there! 

CL21

Enjoy yoga and tv - sounds like just the thing! 

EssexHebridean

Pah - well my relaxing evening plans were scuppered by MrEH's rugby training being cancelled due to the pitches being frozen, so he turned up back at home not long after he'd left! (Don't get me wrong, I love him to bits, but frankly his TV choices and mine are rather different!) I DID get my yoga done though - I'm trying to make that a non-negotiable at the moment. 

After all the work and excitement around getting the flat ready to market, it all feels a bit odd at the moment. Probably not surprising, but yes, a bit strange.

MSE stuff:
- I've just started idly browsing through the LLL site after getting an email about their BOGOF on sale stuff - and have then given myself a metaphorical slap on the hand, a reminder that really, I don't need ANY more leggings right now, and closed the site again and deleted the email. I could easily use some additional casuals, but they really aren't needed, and my money is best kept firmly where it is right now. 
- Took my eye off the ball with regard to meal planning but handily MrEH is WFH today so I've sent him a message asking him to check what is on the plan. It might be a risotto, in which case all well and good as right now I'm leaning towards sausage and mushroom risotto which would use some of the bag of veg box spinach. If I do that it will probably end up with some added veg on the side too - almost certainly something brassica-ey!) 
- Last night's tea was the planned couscous and also incorporated half the bag of kale and a courgette. 
- I'm racking up the NSD's this week although MrEH did make a small spend in Sainsbugs on Monday - a bag of sugar for the second marmalade batch at 95p and a jar of YS'd Blood Orange curd (which is delicious!) for 19p - however I've just double checked and he must have paid that from his own spends which doesn't count! My Graze box was taken from my own account today but that doesn't count either as it's a recurring payment, so hurrah! 
- The form we were waiting for from the C0v3ntry finally arrived in the post yesterday - MrEH is scanning that back to them today so with luck the new account will be opened in time for the Regular Saver money to get transferred to it later in the week. 
- All banking checked and fine. 

I've just swept £3.30 from my spends account, and £1.01 from my "budget" account to the VSP. I can't remember whether I said but we've decided that for the foreseeable at least the VSP money will be being added to the New House Pot - there is quite a chunk in the main VSP as it mounted up during the lockdown years and didn't get used so much - so it will make a nice difference to the NHP! 

Right - as it's distinctly chilly here again today I think I'll head for another cuppa!  Keep cosy everyone! 

lucielle

Not had risotto for ages, wonder if you can make it with cauliflower rice?  

L

Cheery_Daff

Hello 😊 Have you sold your flat yet?? Hope you've got it on the market and lots of lovely viewings booked in for the weekend! 😊