And now we go again...

lucielle

All sounds very busy. Love a freebie hoping to do a shop at Lidl’s this week as we’re off to the mainland. 

L

Sun_Addict

Sorry to hear about the dire work situation. I hope you get the outcome you want. We spend a lot of time at work and it’s not fair that madam is making things tough for you. 

Could you still pick up the freebie from L and drop it in the food bank donation box? A family with kiddies will probably find the cans of pop useful. I don’t buy pop for us but pick up the free cans to have a selection in for when the GKs visit. 

teaselMay

I think you definitely need to put some distance between you and Madam don't you.

My poor pear tree, which was a resuscitation bargain a couple of years ago is suddenly covered in buds, more than it's ever had, in the bucket I dug it up into. I think it moved 4 times last year for various reasons. It's definitely survival of the fittest in my garden. I hope it likes the Derbyshire air!

EssexHebridean

Hey all - hope everyone’s full of the joys of spring? Glorious to have some warmer temperatures and sunshine isn’t it! 

The big news here is that we have broken through the £100k barrier on the mortgage! It may yet pop briefly back over it again if the interest appears before the monthly payment lands, but to all intents and purposes, we’re there.  A celebratory takeaway will be being had next weekend, we think.

In other news I have been stalking B@ckm@rket’s prices for a few weeks for the phone I wanted, and earlier in the week there was a deal on the model I wanted, in fact with more storage than I was expecting - 256gb rather than 128. I hit buy on that, and it turned up today. Aside from the fact that they and I have somewhat differing ideas of what “flawless” means, I’m happy enough with it, and I’m already enjoying a rather better camera than I have ever had on a phone before. The cost is being covered between the money our pal is going to be paying me for the camera and lens he’s buying from me, with the balance coming from my tech replacement pot. 

Main shop done in Lil’s this morning, using a few plus card offers and a coupon for £5 off a £40 spend - I decided that was best made use of by doing a decent stock up shop so we are now well replenished for flour, pasta, tinned stuff and all the other essentials of life. I also discovered their jarred chickpeas in their Spanish week selection - nearly twice the size of tinned, and available on a 2 for £1.50 offer. I also made use of 25% off halloumi so we have plenty of that, too. I got there a bit earlier than I sometimes do, and was rewarded with a choice of several green boxes - ended up with I reckon the best one we’ve had - a huge cauli, lots of baby potatoes,  a large sweet potato, masses of carrots, a full net of clementines, three apples, three pears, a small bunch of black grapes, lots of cherries, a heap of sliced mushrooms (those were a surprise!) 2 limes and a load of green beans. Oh, and a single salad tomato!  The baby pots were going a bit green so I’ve peeled and added those to a tray of veg for roasting - that went in to the oven earlier when electric was cheap. I did the mushrooms at the same time. The cauli will probably turn into a batch cooked Callie pasta cheese bake over the weekend, I think. 

I was going to tell you about the rest of my day but you know what, I’m sitting here yawning my head off, so I think I’ll head to bed and try and post again tomorrow - sweet dreams, all! 

Moorviews

Congratulations on your success with the mortgage 🎉 Your dedication with all the numbers has literally paid off in a substantial way!

It’s great that you got the phone at the price you wanted. Patiently waiting and keeping an eye on sales, discounts and prices is one thing we can do to help ourselves with the COL crisis. I am gradually refreshing my somewhat ancient selection of clothes like this. It is a very different approach to grabbing things impulsively in the Sales just because they are cheap. Good work in L’s too. I really like those jars of chick peas too although I mostly cook my own, they are nice to have in the cupboard. 

I am very happy to see Spring is here at last. It seems to have taken its time this year!

PennysIntoPounds

Fab OP achievement 👏 

lucielle

Brilliant over payments!  Enjoy the takeaway 
L

jwil

Congrats on the mortgage!

Blackcats

Fabulous progress on the mortgage.  You are a great example of how continued focus and effort really does make a difference.

Sun_Addict

Well done on getting below £100k 🥳

I’ve just bought a refurbished phone from Am@zon and really pleased with it so far. I also went for 256mb. 

I always buy those jars of chickpeas when they’re on offer. Worth keeping an eye on as they often go on to BOGOF when they’ve stopped being flavour of the week.