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And now we go again...
Comments
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Oh heck Amber - that would indeed be a nightmare! In fact, on that note, I would say that I probably don't need to hear too many stories of this nature...please!🎉 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
Balance as at 31/08/25 = £ 95,450.00
£100k barrier broken 1/4/25SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her4 -
New jacket arrived and is fine - if anything cosier than the one it replaces I think, so that is a keeper. The hoodie I ordered alongside it is also lovely - it was advertised as soft and it really is, that will be a lovely winter layer, I think. I am a bit cross with myself though as I realised too late that I had a 20% off voucher I could have used - very annoying, although I may yet make use of it to order myself some new walking shoes - that one is still under consideration.
in highly positive MSE type news, my TeeSBee account switching payment has turned up - astonished that it was so fast, but not complaining. I've shuffled that straight across to the mortgage. I should also be fine for hitting the relevant number of debit card transactions to get some of the ongoing cashback as well so will need to keep an eye out for that landing as well. Also on the financial front the S&S ISA has bounced back from it's dip last week - although almost certainly just in time to be annihilated by the budget - we'll see though! I need to remember that I haven't yet transferred any funds there this month either - although having remembered this we are now both more of a mind to wait until around the budget and buy then.
I had a quick mental review of where things are this month so far - having agreed that the idea of NOvember (Redo, I think?) was a good one, the question is whether I will at all be in the spirit of it!
- Last Friday was spendy - no question, but it was also very enjoyable, and I did make savings both by opting for more budget friendly food choices and by choosing to travel by bus over the tube.
- The food budget is once again being stretched - and I plan to do a further review of the freezer tomorrow so we can see just how much impact we can have on getting that cleared this side of christmas. 6 weeks - so quite a lot of meals - and the majority of them need to be from stocks we already have! Time for some more planning I think!
- Plans to be out with a pal this weekend have fallen through, so we're now planning a very home-based weekend instead. As a result of this we *might* buy the paint for the front room - although if we do, that will likely be making use of a £9 off voucher I have from the orange DIY people.
- We do have a trip to the north planned for next week for a friend's funeral - with already-booked overnight stays each side as there will be beer involved at the wake and while we could have driven up on the day, frankly neither of us wanted the stress around that.
I may yet make a planned big spend later in the month - in the shape of replacing my iPad. I'm keeping an eye on prices generally, but also intend to wait and see if anyone does anything spectacular for black friday. The money is stashed ready though.🎉 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
Balance as at 31/08/25 = £ 95,450.00
£100k barrier broken 1/4/25SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her7 -
We recently picked up a bargain in the Apple reconditioned store if that’s any use.DFW (08/08) £64,346.53 Gone (02/19)
MFW (08/08) £118k Gone (09/23)4 -
I was debating about buying reconditioned - but wasn't massively impressed with the phone I got from B@ckmarket so that rather put me off. The quality directly from Appl3 ought to be better though so could be worth a look - thanks for the tip!
(Just looked and they currently have no 2024 1pad minis available, so back to the drawing board!)🎉 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
Balance as at 31/08/25 = £ 95,450.00
£100k barrier broken 1/4/25SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her3 -
I was also underwhelmed by B@ckmarket. The seller sent me a new phone (wahoo)! It was a new phone for the Indian market and could only be activated with an Indian SIM card 🤣2
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Oh my - that's worse than my experience!edinburgher said:I was also underwhelmed by B@ckmarket. The seller sent me a new phone (wahoo)! It was a new phone for the Indian market and could only be activated with an Indian SIM card 🤣
My issue was that their definition of an excellent product with no discernable markings, and mine were rather different - I received a phone with more scratches than my previous 4 year old one had!🎉 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
Balance as at 31/08/25 = £ 95,450.00
£100k barrier broken 1/4/25SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her5 -
Well, we had what felt lie a very productive weekend indeed!
I opted to do the main shop on Friday - and kept it reasonably low, although additional spending happened at the Farmer's Market on Saturday in the shape of sausages, some haslet for lunchtime rolls, and a sourdough loaf. A couple of small purchases since - yesterday because MrEH needed bananas and I bought a pack of reduced price ham while I was there, and today because I needed to buy something to justify use of the car park - a couple of packs of the mini lime & coriander poppadoms (59p a pack and they make SUCH a good addition to a curry fakeaway!) and also pounced on a reduced seeded sourdough.
Nipped into the orange DIY place on Friday for a couple of paint samples - both looked DREADFUL on the wall, and we subsequently went back on Saturday with the question I should have asked the paint mixing chap all along - and yes, it turns out that they CAN match to Valsp@r US colours, and it just so happens that there is one of those that is pretty much a direct match for the F&B colour I really wanted... Got the sample, slapped it on the wall, agreed it was spot on, and returned on Sunday for a big tin of it plus a smaller tin of satinwood for the woodwork. Used a coupon for that too - so cost £60 instead of £69. Lesson learned there was that if there is a colour you really want, just try and get a sample of that in the first place - I could have saved the £4.80 spent on the first two samples that way.
Sunday early evening was spent stripping wallpaper and rubbing down the windowsill... See, I SAID that tearing a panel of paper off to apply paint samples is a good way of driving a project forwards, didn't I!
I'd selected the 12-1700 Saturday slot for the uSwitch free electric so did a batch cook as well as a load of washing and cooking our lunch - MrEH made rolls for the week, too. Still calculating at the moment but that should be over £1 coming back there, and we'd have needed to do that stuff anyway. Batch cook has given us three double and one single portion of venison, mushroom and lentil ragu all of which are stashed in the freezer.
Progress is definitely being made on freezer space now - and I've actually been able to start moving things across from freezer 1. I'm going to do some more populating of the meal plan this evening, and then will do another batch cook at the weekend probably turning some diced venison into a curry, I think. Sunday's lunch made a big dent in the space in freezer 2 as it used two ice cream tub sized containers which had been lurking - roasted med style veg and turkey stock - as well as some random bits of chicken.
The rest of this week will be a bit of an odd one as we have our friend's funeral up North on Thursday - we're traveling part way tomorrow night, and returning on Friday. Both hotel rooms already booked but there will be money spent on beers with pals while there, and we'll need to grab something for tea tomorrow as well. Breakfasts will likely be T0by C@rvery on Thursday (there is one next door to the hotel, and MrEH has a 25% off voucher) and then M's cafe on Friday as again, there is one next to the hotel.
Other spendiness:
- a P.Inn booked for a friend's birthday weekend in York next year - that weighs in at £142 but includes free breakfast so actually a pretty decent bargain, accommodation in York is never exactly cheap.
- £16.99 spent on a photo frame - one of those which will take multiple different pics. Something that's been on the list to buy for ages, and I just needed to get my head around "good enough" rather than "it's got to be perfect".
- I have started putting together a photo book using pics from my phone - we do one of these occasionally and this will cover 2020 - 2024. I've got a 50% off code to use, which will help. I'll also order some prints for the new frame at the same time.🎉 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
Balance as at 31/08/25 = £ 95,450.00
£100k barrier broken 1/4/25SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her9 -
Ooh, I need to do one of those this year too - I did the first 10 years of our relationship, and meant to do one after 15 years, but now it's been 20 and I still haven't done it 🙈 where did you get your voucher from?4
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If you go to one of the big paint places, they can mix colours from pretty much any of the paint designers (including discontinued) in your preferred brand of paint. I have a lot of F&B colours (and Little Green) and not a speck of their actual paint.4
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I think there is one on the Phot0b0x site at the moment - 50% off when you spend above a certain amount!Cheery_Daff said:Ooh, I need to do one of those this year too - I did the first 10 years of our relationship, and meant to do one after 15 years, but now it's been 20 and I still haven't done it 🙈 where did you get your voucher from?
The large orange place won't do it now though - apparently F&B took issue with them...greenbee said:If you go to one of the big paint places, they can mix colours from pretty much any of the paint designers (including discontinued) in your preferred brand of paint. I have a lot of F&B colours (and Little Green) and not a speck of their actual paint.
We particularly wanted to use them because of the £9 off coupon. The colour we ended up with is so close as to be pretty much indistinguishable though, and Valspar is decent enough paint, so we're happy enough! I believe 8rewers will still mix to whoever's colours you want - in case anyone else is looking! 🎉 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
Balance as at 31/08/25 = £ 95,450.00
£100k barrier broken 1/4/25SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her5
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