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Ding! Ding! All change, please... (now replaced with new diary on MFW)
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Morning all - hope we all had a nice bank holiday weekend?
Milann the camera was the thing I checked way before the ankle - thankfully fine - I think my reaction was just to hang on to it tight so it never hit the ground! I have my priorities in life, and camera preservation is one of them!!Ankle meanwhile is still sore and still has various different levels of bruising come out - it could be worse though. Beanie thank you - I did! And SH the flapjacks were lovely!
Hello Rosa - lovely to see you! Yes - I frequently find myself just opting for the password reset now too as so often it's the best and most practical option!
Big bike was collected from the shop on Sunday - I had nearly £10 of loyalty points in their scheme so I made use of those and the service cost me just over £30 thanks to that - so I shall call that a small MSE win I think. I then cycles back the long way which was a really nice ride - through the lanes all the way back to the big roundabout at the bottom of town, it came to just under 7 miles and I've already worked out a great way of making it into a loop as well - I'll be heading out to have a go at that at some stage. Bike is now miles better on the gear change too - still a little sticky in the top range but I know how to make it jump across now so not too much of an issue. I think I'll offset the cost from April surplus on my personal spends as that seems to be more sensible than taking the money from anywhere else. The balance of the surplus will get split between my airshow and clothing funds this month.
Had a nice productive day of voluntary role stuff plus some batch cooking yesterday - although I did have one slight disaster to rescue I cooked the black beans I'd soaked - having never cooked them before I assumed they'd take a similar amount of time to the other sorts of beans that I HAD cooked before - big mistake - they weren't quite mushy when I checked them after an hour but they were certainly headed that way. Got them off the heat and drained quickly at that point but they were definitely too far past to just freeze for use in chillis as I'd planned so got my thinking cap on and after a bit of googling found a recipe for a black bean soup that I decided I could adapt. Ended up with a part blended smoky soup which tastes delicious - in fact probably something I'd consider cooking again, but deliberately this time! It's made 5 portions too - and we'll have one each as an evening meal this week as it made more sense to rejig the meal plan than try to get all of it in the freezer. Also made the planned keema and sweet potato curry - 3 x 2 person portions from that and again one is left out ready to have for tea this evening. Lunch yesterday was a delicious seafood risotto which left us both wondering why we don't cook that more often - I rarely even think about doing risotto with seafood but it is going to be added to the meal plan now.
I want to get the freezers fully audited as we are both in agreement that if we can work to get freezer 2 emptied ahead of going off on holiday it would make sense to do so - I'd always prefer to do that if possible as otherwise you just know that s0d's law means if it's going to go wrong it'll do so the day we leave home...! If we can get the audit done then I can put together a meal plan that will work for the next few weeks too - and I want to make the best use I can of "cook once, eat twice" too as that's such a time saver. I'm going to make a start on putting together a list of potential meals I think then I can fit those in to various days as will work best.
Banks checked and OK - Main money stuff has happened today and I should hopefully be paid later too so I can then do my joint account transfer. We discussed the potential plan with increasing my pension contributions and agreed that was a plan so I have contacted our payroll lady today to ask how to go about it - I'll make the extra payment monthly this month then hopefully it will be automatic after that. we've also agreed that the S&S ISA thing needs a bit more research at the moment so that is on a future to do list. FD have taken my regular saver payment today - that is now at £1800 so building nicely - both our Pr1nc1p@lity ones have been paid out today too. Also just spotted that the interest has been paid on my Sant-and-er monthly saver so I assume I can take that out fairly soon now - it's still showing the same interest rate at the moment though so presumably I need to wait until that shows as dropped. I'm watching @t0m with interest at the moment too to see if they are going to increase interest rates - if not I may shift my personal savings back to M@rcus.
Plans for this week are to continue ploughing on with voluntary role stuff - we actually agreed chatting about it this morning that for the first time ever we feel as though we've got things a bit under control at this stage - usually by this point it's at the "oh my god we can't possibly get this done and hit all the deadlines" but this year despite our deadlines being earlier it does actually feel achievable - partly I think because we do have a far better grasp of what we're doing now. I've got a meeting in London on Friday in connection with it as well - but that will also involve catching up with pals and some beers afterwards so all good there! I could theoretically claim my travel expenses, but probably won't as long as MrEH can drop me for the tube in the morning and collect me from there again in the evening. If I have to use the train then I will claim though as that's a lot pricier. I've got my GP appointment to talk about HRT tomorrow and will use that as a chance to get to the gym near home tomorrow evening I think - that will be my only gym visit this week. Then the weekend is the Coronation of course - if the weather looks like holding out then we'll head into London on Saturday to find a big screen to watch on - but if not then it will be TV at home as much as we'd like to head up there neither of us are bothered enough to sit in the pouring rain! we also need to start to focus on some holiday prep stuff as well. Sunday I have my first airshow of the season - hurrah! First proper test of the new camera as well!
Ooh - forgot to say I ended up with just under £25 from Prolific last month so that has been transferred to my "Gym Neutral Account".🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00 Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
Balance as at 31/08/24 = £105,400.00 Balance as at 31/12/24 = £102,500.00
£100k barrier broken 1/4/25SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her8 -
EssexHebridean said:
I've got a meeting in London on Friday in connection with it as well - but that will also involve catching up with pals and some beers afterwards so all good there! I could theoretically claim my travel expenses, but probably won't as long as MrEH can drop me for the tube in the morning and collect me from there again in the evening. If I have to use the train then I will claim though as that's a lot pricier.Fashion on a ration 2025 0/66 coupons spent
79.5 coupons rolled over 4/75.5 coupons spent - using for secondhand purchases
One income, home educating family4 -
We do claim most stuff - but part of my reason for going on Friday is indeed the social aspect, and ultimately as a good (and sadly no longer with us) friend once said "you expect your hobbies to cost you money here and there!". We are also very upfront about claiming most things, and never tell anyone else in the organisation when we are not claiming as we too are conscious that there shouldn't be any element of shame or stigma for those who do need to claim everything - that's an extremely important point I'd agree. The organisation is very good indeed about expenses generally - our accommodation claim for the event itself later in the year will total over £1000 and will be paid without a quibble, and we do get an awful lot of enjoyment out of what we do as well, so I'm comfortable with an odd sub-£10 amount on a bit of travel here and there! (It probably should be noted that the event in question is entirely run by volunteers from start to finish - me not claiming this isn't lining the pockets of some corporate entitly further along the line!)
In other news, I have been paid - and have done the transfer of the money across to the joint account and also transferred the bike repair money to the credit card too - I can do the rest of my money shuffling later on.
🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00 Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
Balance as at 31/08/24 = £105,400.00 Balance as at 31/12/24 = £102,500.00
£100k barrier broken 1/4/25SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her5 -
it sounds as if you have a lovely weekend to look forward to.
January spends - £587.584 -
At the FB no one was able to claim expenses.
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Lou~ Debt free Wanabe No 55 DF 03/14.**Credit card debt free 30/06/10~** MFW. Finally mortgage free O2/ 2021****
"A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of" Jane Austen in Mansfield Park.
***Fall down seven times,stand up eight*** ~~Japanese proverb. ***Keep plodding*** Out of debt, out of danger. ***Be the difference.***
One debt remaining. Home improvement loan.4 -
That seems harsh Beanie. People shouldn't be out of pocket for helping others. I suppose it would be hard to sort out though as I presume no cash passes through….it's acting as a middle man between donations and food parcels.
January spends - £587.585 -
That does make it difficult for some people who are more than willing and able but can not take on any more costs
It is a pity the FB couldn't secure funding to cover expenses
Fashion on a ration 2025 0/66 coupons spent
79.5 coupons rolled over 4/75.5 coupons spent - using for secondhand purchases
One income, home educating family6 -
Hey all - happy Tue…Wednesday! 😁 (OOh - just realised we now have the full emoji set to use again - I may have to go and tart up my signature again!)
Money shuffling completed last night, and I have also just done a quick tot up against stuff still to leave the account this month and I will be aiming for a nice juicy surplus to be able to reallocate at the end of the month. Looking at the various pots everything is looking healthy enough - I've started topping back up my personal pots that I raided of their surplus to put the money towards the laptop/camera.
The Octopods are being slow with a bill this month - not sure why. I've checked that the readings are showing and they definitely are so there's no reason for it not to have been produced yet, and the DD went on schedule although is still showing pending on the account. Ho hum - it'll turn up, I'm sure! All the payments I would expect to have left the bank at this stage have gone, the next "lump" of stuff to go out will be the 15th when the council stuff (CT, Service Charge and garage rent) go out, but there are oddments of payments to regular savers etc ahead of that plus broadband, a charity donation or two, and of course travel spends. We'll be back to putting food spending on the CC now as that makes it easier to manage - hopefully N@t1onw1de will do their cashback offer again at some stage though as we have done decently from it.
Just checked the c0-0p app and there are a couple of offers there that we might use this week - the 50p off Marmite is an obvious one as their price for that is in line with T's so that's a good saving. I'll have a look at what the best bet from the rest is too I think, and we'll need to think when we can get in there as there was a house we wanted to go and scope out the area of on Friday morning so we won't be in the right direction.
I'll need to work out when we can do the weekly shop this week assuming we will be busy on Saturday, and I'm out on Sunday - although I could send MrEH to do it with a list and some strict instructions! I went to cancel the 0ddbox subscription last weekend and got offered a "don't stay - here is a discount" option so we've reinstated a box delivery for this week as it works out at under £15 including the delivery cost and contents looked decent: 1.2kg Potatoes,
700g Onions, 400g Purple Sprouting Broccoli, 1 Cucumber, 800g Peppers, 2 (bunches) Spring Onions, 250g Mushrooms*, 800g Courgettes, 150g Salad Leaves*. I've opted out of the onions so we'll get a substitution in place of those - and I need to remember not to put mushrooms or salad stuff on my list. The peppers will be handy if they turn up, and I can always use a courgette or several easily enough.We have another viewing tomorrow evening - and one of the earlier ones is now showing some proper interest - there is an offer on the table which is still a little low but she is at least in the right ballpark now - currently being complicated by the old agents continuing to be * insert word here which would get me banned if I used it * though. Sigh. They've turned into a right pain which is annoying - and we're going to have to sort out that issue before we can move forwards. We do now have 4 houses on our "would go and look at" list once ours does finally go under offer though - and another possibility to consider allowing for a recent price drop. I'm finally feeling like we might be getting somewhere - we'll see - fingers crossed again please! 🤞
Last night's curry was delicious - and we've got the black bean soup this evening which I'm looking forward to although my gut feeling is that I will like it more than MrEH will… I've got the last of a loaf of cheese bread out of the freezer to go with it - if it looks like not enough later then I'll grab a pitta to split between us to add to it. Still planning on thai inspired fish stew for tea tomorrow night - that will use the last pepper, the last of the mushrooms and one of the remaining sticks of fresh lemongrass. It's also reasonably quick to do on a night when we won't be home that early.
And that,I think, is about my roundup for today!
🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00 Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
Balance as at 31/08/24 = £105,400.00 Balance as at 31/12/24 = £102,500.00
£100k barrier broken 1/4/25SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her7 -
Good luck with the viewing. I'll keep everything crossed for you. Think this is getting to the time of year now where people think more seriously about moving. I'm sure it won't be long now.
Making the debt go down and savings go up
LBM 2015 - debt £57K / Now £28,744....its going down
Mortgage Free December 9th 2024! 18mths ahead of schedule. Since 2022 we paid over £15K in OPs.Challenges
EF #68 £500/£3000
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Fiver Friday '25 #10 £15
Studies/surveys July £72.46
Decluttering items 754
Books read 12
Jigsaws done 8
My debt free diary...https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6396218/we-will-get-this-debt-d£own-the-savings-up4 -
Pleased to hear viewing activity is progressing. Fingers firmly crossed that somebody makes a decent offer.
It's not like the Octopods to be late. The only time that happened with us was when our smart meter had stopped communicating with them. Hope you hear from them soon, as it's such a useful part of monitoring our energy costs.
2025's challenges: 1) To fill our 10 Savings Pots to their healthiest level ever
2) To read 100 books (36/100) 3) The Shrinking of Foxgloves 5.9kg/30kg
"Life can only be understood backwards but it must be lived forwards" (Soren Kirkegaard 1813-55)4
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