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And now we go again...
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Belated happy anniversary from me too.4
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Thanks lovelies - all your congratulations are very much appreciated!
PiP - there are times, mostly after rugby matches, when if only he would fit MrEH would indeed find himself on a hot wash with white vinegar and very probably some soda crystals as well!
Tea last night used the Y/S'd salmon from A's so THAT didn't spend long in the freezer! Now I've realised I don't have a clue what to put with salad this evening - it would have been smoked mackerel had I remembered to get it out of the freezer, but alas... I could go with tuna, although that will mean we're running pretty low and a visit to FF's at some stage will be required - on the flipside that won't be out of this month's food budget now, which is handy!
A bit of CC money shuffling done this morning - although there is an amount on the A's card that I need to work out where it should come from...I suspect it's leftover spending from the Alderney trip though, so should be easy enough to manage when I get the chance to scroll back and see.
I have my first airshow of the season at the weekend - accommodation and tickets are already sorted but I will need spending money - that's budgeted from either my airshow or my fun account though, plus the dregs of my regular personal spends (Depleted after lots of buying of beer in London on Saturday!)
Had a quick whizz round the garden before leaving home this morning - greenhouse opened up and the cold frame stuff pulled out into the sun/wind/rain through the day - just need to hope that stuff doesn't get "squirrelled" while we are out now.
Good news on that front is that various seedlings are finally popping their heads up - we appear to have decent germination on the courgettes (2 types) and various salads and herbs, signs of life in the tomatoes are very welcome to see, and a single sweetcorn is peeping up too. Some of the beans meanwhile are trying to sprout out through the sides of their toilet-roll-inner "pots"...!
Noticed while we were out there that there are actual peas now forming on the...well, peas, unsurprisingly, so that's good news.
Prolific ticking along - £7.80 payable £6.62 pending but have already cashed out this month so will leave that sitting.
My car (being used for work commutes at the moment as MrEH's is still poorly) was filled with diesel last night.🎉 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 1/4/25
Balance as at 31/08/25 = £ 95,450.00. Balance as at 31/12/25 = £ 91,100.00
SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her10 -
One of our squirrels (Naughty Nutkin & Bad Sidney) obviously had a busy Autumn as random alliums & daffs came up in all sorts of odd places this Spring, including in the old lorry tyre in which we grow our mint & next to the rhubarb.
Your veg should catch up. Mine has been very slow this year.
F2026's challenges: 1) To rebuild our Emergency Fund to at least £5k.
2) To read 50 books (12/50) 3) The Re-Shrinking of Foxgloves 8.1kg/30kg
Remember....if you have to put it on a credit card, extend your overdraft or take out a loan to buy whatever it is, you probably can't afford it, as that's not your money, it's somebody else's!4 -
Oh Foxgloves you've probably just solved the mystery of the random bulbs in the Rosemary pot! No idea why that hadn't occurred to me before - I knew I hadn't put them there though! No names for our squirrels yet, but we do have a very tame Wood Pigeon lurking who has been christened Nigel for some reason.
You are right too, of course, the veg IS catching up and it seems that for some reason germination has just been slow. There are a few bits I'm still twitchy about, but we have at least "some of most things" coming through now thank goodness. I did pop the propagator lid back on the cucamelons this morning as they aren't showing any sign of doing anything and I wonder whether they need a little more warmth.
Three particular bits of good MSE news today
- Nationwide confirming the £100 fairer share payment again
- Our expenses have finally been paid - it was with quite the sigh of relief that I paid a couple of CC bits off, and transferred the balance to the "Holding account" which will then cover other expenses ahead of time down the line. (We work it that way when we have claimed mileage which of course has just been covered within our regular fill-ups of whichever car was involved)
- 2p "roadkill" found right outside the office at lunchtime
Also:
- I have transferred some of this month's surplus to the mortgage - £98,400 balance there now
- £200 sent to Premium Bonds
- Electric has been super cheap/negative pricing again through much of the day - although we've not been able to make much use of it at least the house is running for free!
- I have been to Al's at lunchtime to grab suitable food for airshow nosh tomorrow - we'll be there for much of the day and evening, so this hopefully diverts me from ending up tied to pricey on-site food merchants for one of the three days. Might even be some odds and ends left over for the following day, too!🎉 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 1/4/25
Balance as at 31/08/25 = £ 95,450.00. Balance as at 31/12/25 = £ 91,100.00
SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her9 -
I'm amazed that there is still roadkill to be found!
I don't know anyone other than my OH who still carries around paper money & metal coins!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)Original End Date - Sept 2041 New projection - Dec 2039 (reduced by 21 months)3 -
Me, me, me 🙋♀️ and LG 😁 and DH usually has a few coins and some notes 😁 Welcome to the Greying 'Fossil' Fam. 🤣rtandon27 said:I'm amazed that there is still roadkill to be found!
I don't know anyone other than my OH who still carries around paper money & metal coins!
Greying 😁Grocery spend March 2026 £200.82/£195 ☹️
Non-food spend March 2026 £57.28/£80
Bulk Fund 2026 Month 3/12 - £16.48/£114.50 (reducing balance - start £120 pa)
""Mother Nature don't draw straight lines
The broken moulds in a grand design
We look a mess but we're doing fine
We're card carrying lifelong members
Of the union of different kinds..."
"Union of the Different kinds" - R Christie & T Gilbert, Fisherman's Friends3 -
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 That really did brighten my day!Greying_Pilgrim said:
Me, me, me 🙋♀️ and LG 😁 and DH usually has a few coins and some notes 😁 Welcome to the Greying 'Fossil' Fam. 🤣rtandon27 said:I'm amazed that there is still roadkill to be found!
I don't know anyone other than my OH who still carries around paper money & metal coins!
Greying 😁
Keep those purses tightly guarded - don't want it to end up as roadkill! 😉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)Original End Date - Sept 2041 New projection - Dec 2039 (reduced by 21 months)2 -
Mr C is often paid in cash so he's always got some knocking about. I tend to use him a a cash machine - no point him putting it into the bank and me getting it straight back out again 😂3
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I always have cash in my purse. I often choose to take some of my monthly Personal Spends as cash. I like to be able to buy a Big Issue, pop a few coins in a charity tin & give the occasional homeless person the price of a cup of tea. I also do not intend to be caught out when card providers or supermarket payment systems are 'down', so I could still buy the essentials. I also like to support small indie businesses if I am in a position to be able to pay in cash. Our local butcher once told us how much it costs his business to run a card reader per month. I also see using cash as perhaps a future little bit of a rebellious act. It's not making money for financial institutions & nobody can see what I'm buying. I should add in case anyone doesn't 'know me' from my own MSE diary, that I'm not a 'tin-foil hatter' - more that if continuing to use cash is annoying big business/vested interest/banks, I will continue to do it with increased glee.
Oh, & here's an incident from when I was Christmas shopping......I went into a new shop in a city centre to purchase a gift for my nephew. I presented my credit card (which is only used for loyalty vouchers these days) & it wouldn't work because they were "having a lot of problems with cards today". I then proffered my visa debit card, which didn't work either. The staff said it was because of their internet signal which was "really poor here". So as there was a big queue building up behind me, I said, "Look, don't worry, I'll pay cash". They said, "Oh, we don't take cash". I said. "Well, you've got a problem then, haven't you? You're a new business with very unreliable internet but you don't take cash, it doesn't sound like much of a business model". At this point, some of the folk in the queue were walking out. Fortunately, my next attempt at using my visa debit card actually worked, so my neff got his present, but what a silly thing.
F
2026's challenges: 1) To rebuild our Emergency Fund to at least £5k.
2) To read 50 books (12/50) 3) The Re-Shrinking of Foxgloves 8.1kg/30kg
Remember....if you have to put it on a credit card, extend your overdraft or take out a loan to buy whatever it is, you probably can't afford it, as that's not your money, it's somebody else's!9 -
Hey lovely MSEers - happy June! That said, it was distinctly chilly here first thing, and it's rather grey outside right now, so I'm not completely certain that summer has got the memo...
MrEH is another who carries and uses cash a fair bit still - I usually have some in my pure, but very rarely use it now as I just find paying via the phone so much easier. It's an interesting one about smaller businesses too - they seem to be pretty much evenly split between those who would prefer cash because of the costs associated with taking cards, and those who very much prefer cards as THEY say that the cash-handling costs have increased so much it's painfully expensive not to be cards-only these days. Probably depends who they bank with I guess!
A very lovely weekend was had at the airshow up at Ragley Hall - it's a glorious show, masses of space, almost everywhere has a fantastic view, they have a great range of food and drink sellers and prices - while not cheap - aren't the worst. The display acts were good, my pal Andy was flying one of the Spitfires for the BBMF so it was lovely to see him flying, the Reds got in all three displays as planned and it was just generally a really nice few days with great company too. Not the cheapest - I did take some food with me, but we had a takeaway on Thursday night as by the time we'd all arrived it was too late to do much else, had breakfast in a farm shop cafe on the way to the show on Friday as it was a later start than usual, and then had a meal from an on-site seller in the evening as it was a long day. Saturday one of the group bought bacon butties for us all, and I then bought drinks back for them later - other than that and a truly delicious chocolate brownie that was it for spends at the show but we did stop at a supermarket in the evening to get food and beers for that night. Sunday another of the group bought the bacon butties and I bought drinks back again, and I used the rest of my food for the day (but did buy another tasty brownie!). Also had a stop on the way home on Sunday as I was starting to doze off so grabbed a Gr3gg5 mocha & jammy heart biscuit.
MSE Stuff:
- Start of month money shuffling done
- £100 O/P sent to the mortgage
- Some CC shuffling done, and MrEH is sending me some of his share so I can do a bit more.
- Grocery account for last month ended up well in credit which was a bonus - with being away at the start of the month I did expect that though.
- have paid just under £28 for a new hub and wifi relay for the garden office - and we now have ludicrously fast internet out there - that turns out to mean we won't need to replace the PC as MrEH can now use his laptop for work out there so that is a win!
- Food is mostly under control, I've got a sort of meal plan for this week but it's mostly in my head to be truthful! Tonight is probably going to be chicken and broccoli cheesy orzo bake I think - I keep seeing recipes for it and it sounds lush - and it's quick too!🎉 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 1/4/25
Balance as at 31/08/25 = £ 95,450.00. Balance as at 31/12/25 = £ 91,100.00
SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her8
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