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And now we go again...
Comments
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Excellent news about the local, enjoy 🍻https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6466032/an-in-between-phase/p1
'self-blame can be as egotistical as self-praise... any work worth doing is greater than we are... we must not overrate our importance to it, either for good or ill' Margaret Kennedy Lucy Carmichael5 -
Unfortunately it’s freezing cold and peeing down with rain PiP so we have decided on beers at home this evening instead! It is lovely to have a pub that close in the guide though - we were the ones who requested it was added to the shortlist for the surveys too so delighted it got selected!We got out for our usual Friday morning walk - it was sleety and rainy and even a bit snowy at one stage, and we did get a bit soggy, but it was nice and refreshing and good to get some steps in! Glad we went when we did too as it’s been raining to one degree or another for the rest of the day.
MSE Stuff:
- I’ve been blogging about my grocery challenge as it is the best way I know aside from posting here of staying accountable, so this week’s post went up this morning.
- free exercise as above - and there will be a bit more of in the shape of my Yoga later too.
- porridge for breakfast, tasty and cheap!- a quick rummage in the freezer found a pack each of beef and venison mince - the beef is set aside to turn into burgers for this evening, and…
- the venison is now a cottage pie base with heaps of veg, plus red lentils and a tin of black beans chucked in too. Two double portions made, one already topped with mash, the other will need a small amount more made to finish it off. Plan is to have them on Sunday and Monday.
- meal plan written up to the end of next week, and shopping list made up from that
- the main weekly shop done at Al’s - and bargains offered themselves up too - tubs of pate for 7p, a couple of packs of lebkuchen rounds for 29p, a tub of chipotle chilli salt flakes for 49p, and some little gingerbread man baking sprinkles for 29p as well - those will look so cute decorating mince pies or cupcakes next Christmas! In spite of buying those and getting most of the other essentials for the week, I spent just £7.46 which I was delighted with!- I prepped and cooked the week’s mushrooms again as that has worked really well
- I got a load of washing done on the cheaper electric overnight - that has been hung on the airer upstairs and the dehumidifier was running for a few hours earlier to speed up the drying. I will pop another load through overnight tonight, and that should be able to go on the airer tomorrow morning.
- forgot to mention we had a win last weekend when we spotted that the local orange DIY place now has a plant pot recycling area - picked up a stack of fairly sturdy good sized plastic ones and popped a pound in the charity box as a thank you. Not absolutely sure that is the intention of it but it seems to me to be far more sensible to reuse them than recycle!
We are off into London tomorrow evening to meet our pals who are down from a Scotland for the weekend - I must get our train tickets sorted this evening. Beer and food (pizza!) will be paid from personal spends
right - MrEH has finished work and is peering at the jigsaw so as think I will give him a hand there for a few minutes, then get that yoga dine!🎉 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/her6 -
Definitely sounds the right way about to get more life out of the pots
Hope you have a lovely time with your Scottish friends, they'll think this dire London weather is positively balmy!https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6466032/an-in-between-phase/p1
'self-blame can be as egotistical as self-praise... any work worth doing is greater than we are... we must not overrate our importance to it, either for good or ill' Margaret Kennedy Lucy Carmichael5 -
Oob, I'll have to check our orange place - although I think I probably need to get rid of some more than I need any more 😬😂4
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OOOOOO I was thinking about venison the other day, and was going to post somewhere on here to ask about it. I have arthritis which flairs up when I eat beef (worse with mince, I can sometimes get away with a good quality steak, possibly worsened by the fat). I saw somewhere local to me selling venison mince. I really miss chilli, bolognese, and lasagne. I was wondering what it would be like with venison. I know it's a bit more expensive but it would be worth it if I could eat things I love without being in pain, and it wouldn't be often.
Do you use it the same way you would beef mince?
I've eaten a lot of venison before (I lived in NZ, it was free) but I don't think I every used venison mince.Debts 04/01/25 02/01/26
Natwest2 £6,509.97 £5,500
NatWest CC £7,612.74 £6,605
Lloyds CC £6,112.60 £4,450
1st Direct CC £176.03 £39.26
CC total £20,411.34 £16,594.26
TSB OD £500 £0
1st Direct OD £600 £0
Car loan £4,000 £4,000
1st Direct Loan £10,684.44 £7.880
Total £36,195.78 £28,474.26
EF £701.52
HF £3.047 -
I use the venison mince exactly the same Rhy - and if anything you possibly can get away with using less of it than you would beef mince as it has a more distinct flavour…I was going to type “stronger” there but that makes it sound overly “gamey” and that’s not it… As long as the venison is sourced as part of routine and necessary culling it’s environmentally better than beef too I believe, we’ve decided to have a chat with our meat lady at the farmers market about how theirs is sourced with a view to making more use of it going forwards. It tends to be leaner than beef mince too - not something I am much concerned with but some people might feel it needs added fat in the cooking.An early post from me today while at gather my thoughts. In spite of the time I already have a few
MSE Things…
- the WM ran overnight again - paying 16.xxp/kWh for the electric suits me far better than higher prices for running it later in the day, and we are fortunate that the noise from it (such as it is - the new one is VERY quiet) doesn’t travel.- once MrEH surfaces I will get yesterdays load off the airer and transfer the new lot onto it and will probably pop the dehumidifier on for a few hours again too.
- we identified three eggs that needed using so I’m going to do scrambled eggs this morning - won’t be a huge portion each but will be tasty regardless and means those eggs get used up. The bread is huge slices too so a single slice each with the egg will be fine.- I have pulled the last two portions of the cauli, broccoli & Stilton soup out of the freezer for lunchtime. We both really enjoyed it, and it’s definitely one I’d do again to divert the remainder of those veg away from the compost bin!
- today’s free exercise will be my yoga which I plan to do after posting this, and the walk to/from the station later
Hopefully we are going to get a charity shop run done later - there are various things to be taken, some oddments from Mum’s loft that we ended up with while we reviewed if we could use them, a stack of books that either Mum had already read or that aren’t her thing, and a duvet set that a mum no longer uses and offered to us, but the colours are really right for us. While dropping those off we will pop into F@rmf00ds as they have the washing liquid I use at an excellent price- of course the aim will be to pick up just that, but I will have MrEH with me so let’s see how that works!🎉 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 -
Brilliant! Thank you!
I have homegrown tomato sauce in the freezer and plenty of cheese in the fridge so I think I'll try a lasagna first. I'm excited!Debts 04/01/25 02/01/26
Natwest2 £6,509.97 £5,500
NatWest CC £7,612.74 £6,605
Lloyds CC £6,112.60 £4,450
1st Direct CC £176.03 £39.26
CC total £20,411.34 £16,594.26
TSB OD £500 £0
1st Direct OD £600 £0
Car loan £4,000 £4,000
1st Direct Loan £10,684.44 £7.880
Total £36,195.78 £28,474.26
EF £701.52
HF £3.046 -
It would make a brilliant lasagne - no question. It goes really well with pulses too - so you can stretch it in exactly the same way we do with standard beef mince! (My cottage pie base had a tin of black beans thrown in, although I was contemplating going with a tin of lentils).🎉 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/her7 -
We have downstairs lights! Honestly - it felt like such a joy when I got home this evening and the lights in the hallway came on as I opened the door! Turns out that our old outside light was the cause of the problem - it failed months ago and we had been intending to get it replaced. In spite of the fact that the light itself was working though, it seems that the dusk-to-dawn sensor was still working and demanding power at the appropriate moment - so when Luke sorted out the first issue by disconnecting the faulty kitchen PIR, all was well until dusk fell, and then the second issue with the outside light tripped everything again! Anyway, all sorted now, and Luke is back on Friday to get our other little niggly jobs ticked off too.MSE Stuff:
- got the well priced washing liquid in !!!!!! and fair play to MrEH he spotted a reduced to clear section I’d. ever seen before - and nabbed a couple of 6-packs of crisps for 67p each, and a couple of sachets of flavoured microwaveable rice for 34p each. Worth having.- nipped back to Al’s for ‘nana’s and yogurts and found 29p jars of their posh mincemeat so two of those are now stashed in the cupboard ready for next Christmas.
- the last of the 5p Christmas sprouts were shredded and cooked off with some finely chopped bacon and the second half of the pack of chestnuts from Christmas Day - some eaten yesterday with the balance giving two more portions in the freezer.- we’ve managed to a load of washing each night over the weekend using the cheapest of the electricity and combining either using the dehumidifier to ensure stuff dried reasonably fast.We did get the planned pile of stuff to the charity shop - and inevitably came out again having found some books to buy! That included two Lee Childs we didn’t already have, so they weren’t getting left behind! The star of the show for our purchases this trip though was the most gorgeous little tea-light holder - only 50p, look!
🎉 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/her12 -
Very Pretty! and you are keeping the cycle going with several out to equate to what you brought in - keeps things in check ✔️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)7
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