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And now we go again...
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Our loft is blissfully empty at the moment as we have not purchased a loft ladder!
The former owners took theirs when they went which is mildly irritating as it means everything that should be stored up in the roofspace is currently stored in the second bedroom! - On the list of home improvements, but for now c'est la vie!4 YEARS 10 MONTHS DEBT FREE!!! (24 OCT 2016)(With heartfelt thanks to those who have gone before us & their indubitable generosity.)...and now I have a mortgage! (23 AUG 2021)New projection - 14 YEARS 10 MONTHS LEFT OF 20 YEARS (reduced by 15 mths)Psst...I may have started a diary!3 -
I would have thought a loft ladder was a fixture & fitting. I bet they removed the light bulbs too.
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@badmemory - should have been - they also took the spike for the cloths airer but left us a gawd awful orange settee and all the lower limbs of our cherry tree in a nice big pile.4 YEARS 10 MONTHS DEBT FREE!!! (24 OCT 2016)(With heartfelt thanks to those who have gone before us & their indubitable generosity.)...and now I have a mortgage! (23 AUG 2021)New projection - 14 YEARS 10 MONTHS LEFT OF 20 YEARS (reduced by 15 mths)Psst...I may have started a diary!4
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Sounds like the neighbours would be happy to see you
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!!!!!! RT sounds like your sellers were a right pair! Ironically ours have actually left us a spare loft ladder…no, I don’t have any idea why anyone would want such a thing either, but it’s sitting up there should we ever need it… 😆
Lovely to see everyone - Milann thank you, the bruises have gone although I still have a sore spot where my head made contact, and a scar there and where the glasses frame gouged into the bridge of my nose too, I suspect I may be stuck with both of those!Food shopping done on Friday in a grand flourish of deals, accumulated gift cards from surveys and TCB, ended up spending £29.xx in T’s and £3.42 in Al’s but as well as all the usual sort of bits that also included a good number of Christmas foody bits, and another of those ham joints, plus some new Christmas lights. The Christmas lights got added to further yesterday as well thanks to T’s half price offer, and we also bought the small real tree we wanted for the front of the house as well - the plan is that with just being outside it might stay alive for future years - we’ll see about that though! My hope is that we now have sufficient lights to do what we want out the front and indoors, and I will resist the thought of buying any more…probably… The decorations are all down from the loft, and we have made a start putting some up already, with the main lot being done later today.I need to go through the spends of the past few days and get things sorted around money shuffling, it’s basically a split between the Christmas account and the grocery pot, plus perhaps some oddments from household.“Nice December things” continue - Thursday’s was the pub after work (and a tasty salted caramel stout!), Friday’s was the pub (yes, again, but our “local” this time) after MrEH finished, and the treat of a Chinese takeaway picked up on the way back. Oh and a very delicious beer shared after we’d eaten too - an 8% stout from Harviestoun brewery up in Scotland, matured in Highland Park 16 casks - utterly gorgeous! Yesterday we went for a lovely walk at our local RSPB reserve and followed that up with posh hot chocolate when we got back - had to stop in at Lil’s for mini marshmallows mind you! Today will be the decorating I think - I love seeing the house all sparkly!Annoyingly we have to take a wander in to town a bit later, as one of my pairs of new glasses have either developed a crack, or have something stuck to them that I can’t shift - although it very much appears to be a small crack to be honest. My first thought was a scratch, but they were on my face at the time so I think I would have noticed. Either way, I’m less than impressed.The high electricity prices from last week seem to have abated thank goodness - the 4 days saw us roughly £1.50 above what we would have spent on the standard variable tariff, but that still leaves us over £3 up on the month and the prices today will see us catching some of that up.
- DW ran overnight
- WM ran overnight
- Washing is now pegged out as it’s dry, not massively cold and there is a nice breeze so with luck we’ll get at least part way dry.- MrEH plans to make the cake later so he will be planning that around the best timings later I hope!- so far today we’re at 3kWh used for 27p which is a win!Right - time for me to get myself showered and dressed I think so we can get out before too long. Must stop in at Poundland for batteries for Christmas lights too as annoyingly my rechargeable ones don’t work for many of the cheaper sets as they are very fractionally larger than standard ones in diameter and there isn’t the tolerance in the cheap battery compartments to take that difference.🎉 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 -
We're £1.62 DOWN on agile over the last month 🙄 But we don't do anything overnight, and as much as I'm trying to batch cook on weekend mornings, we do occasionally cook in the evening. I'm hoping things will work out more evenly over the year!4
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I'm £15 up vs the Nov fix or SVR. and my use for the year down 20% compared to last year despite being away less this year. I'm quite impressed that Octopus have noticed that my use is down too, the estimated annual usage on the bill has been roughly what it is for about 6 months, and what I'd guestimated it would remain rather than last years figures2
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Love sparkly inside lights!! Envious.LTotal Debt Dec 07 £59875.83 Overdrafts £2900,New Debt Figure ZERO !!!!!!:j 08/06/2013
Lucielle's Daring Debt Free Journey
DFD Before we Die!!!! Long Haul Supporter #1244 -
I received my free seeds yesterday from the gardening magazine you recommended 🙂I get knocked down but I get up again (Chumbawamba, Tubthumping)4
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It's certainly been a funny old month for Agile Cheery - I'm grateful that we can do the load shifting we do, and that at times (like last night!) we can also switch to using electric for some heating as well, as of course that helps too... By the sounds of it the prices last week have frightened a few folk to the extent that they no longer feel "safe" being on the tariff, which I can appreciate particularly for anyone not looking at the whole big picture of savings over time as well. Teaselmay I too have been impressed with the octopods ability to reassess use - we took them with us when we moved, and of course the house is a very different prospect energy wise than the flat was. Initially they landed on a sort of mash-up between our old use at the flat, and the property's historic use by our sellers - but within 6 months they'd reassessed and seemingly got things fairly accurate for us, too.
Yay SA - seeds already! Mine haven't shown yet, but there was a discrepancy over when our subscription started (which they sorted out extremely swiftly and efficiently) so that's possibly why...I think last time they came with our first issue mind you, so that may happen again.
L we are now fully sparklified inside AND out - and as I suspected we do indeed now have rather more lights than we technically need...although strangely enough we do seem to have managed to make use of them! The little tree outside has the string that are also around the front door draped around it, plus the set of combined lights and decorations that we had on the small real tree we bought last year - it may yet also get some added decorations (at the least I'd like to give it a star on the top!) but that will need to wait for a suitable time when I am at home in daylight!
I *think* I may be almost entirely there with presents now - although this just needs a final check I think. My EH's main present will arrive this week (having only got his list confirming things late LAST week!) and I also have a "main-ish" present for Mum turning up this week too, with luck. It doesn't feel as though I have a huge amount of odds and ends put aside, and there may be more bits I decide to add yet, but nothing should be unduly problematic to get, now, and I think I've dealt with anything that requires an online order (hopefully!). MrEH needs to sort the details for the Niece & Nephew's vouchers and get those arranged, I'll remind him about that later in the week although he's been better about doing that without repeated prompting the past few years!
MSE Stuff:
- Banks checked and OK
- As expected grocery spends sneaked up a bit further over the weekend, but as i said, that WAS expected...
- After the scary Agile prices of last week, waking this morning to 8kWh of use (including some heating) and a cost of 9p was rather nice!
- In turn that also means that the only gas used so far today is for hot water...
- Our bedding was washed and dried last night while prices were super low as well, which is useful.
- MrEH made the cake without needing TOO many additional ingredients he'd not previously mentioned
- MrEH also found a free delivery option for bird food and ordered the fat balls - not before time as I put the final one from the stock in the feeder yesterday morning!
- I need to go through the CC account and work out where money needs to be shuffled from - it will be some from presents, some from household, and some from personal spends I think, on top of the grocery stuff.
- While in Chavsda yesterday we spotted that they had extremely well priced Gressingham Ducks - 2kg for £7.50 - so I nabbed one of those and have somehow managed to squeeze it into the freezer... that will make a lovely roast dinner at some stage, and at that weight should have lots of leftovers as well!
Plans for this week include my work Christmas lunch on Wednesday - slightly sad these days as said before with just the two of us but it is what it is. MrEH has rugby training tomorrow as usual, I finish work for Christmas on Wednesday and we both have Thursday off, plus Friday for our friend's funeral...plan is to stay overnight nearby where we think the wake will be held (and frankly, where a lot of us would prefer the wake to be held as a P*** up in a Brewery would be precisely what our friend would have expected!) and then travel back on Saturday, probably via an RSPB reserve. Must remember to take boots and binoculars!
Food is roughly planned for the first half of the week, and absolutely must include freezer stuff for anything that is NOT yet planned! Maybe a thai style fish stew on Thursday, thinking about it, as that will make use of various fishy bits from the freezer. This evening's ragu (which, yes, came from the freezer!) will be had with the final pack of that ambient gnocchi which has now passed it's BB date.
Nice things: Yesterday was the decorating of course, and also finally finishing last year's bottle of Baileys! Today I am sporting a pair of sparkly holly leaf earrings, which are most festive!
🎉 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/her6
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