Living the Good Life - mortgage free and living in line with our values

themadvix

Generally yes, it’s nice, but really wasn’t sure about the apple blossom flavour… we’ll see when we come to eat it, although it might be a while - I’ll likely put it away so we can take it as an easy snack when we go out.

TallGirl

That is dead posh but also funny to think they signed off on that one. Glad you enjoyed the concert I saw Pink and Wembley with hospitality (not a box) and it was amazing so yours must have been unreal. 

Suffolk_lass

Cheery_Daff said:

Very impressed with your plum harvest! We bought 3 trees when we moved here - one died pretty quickly, the other survived but we've never had a single plum. Got apple trees nearby but clearly that's not enough to fertilise it. Will investigate. Damson is looking laden - but I've only just bottled the damson gin from 2 years ago, and there are some still in the freezer, so... 😬

You're reminding me I do need to get out and harvest some fruit though. Blackcurrants and gooseberries currently providing a feast for the birds, and it would be good to make SOME jam at least!

We used to have an opal plum hedge, but we sold the land and they removed the plum s in favour of hawthorn! Pollination can be tricky with plums, although Victorias, and several others are self-fertile, they all benefit from a pollinator to crop more heavily. I find this UK site is really good for setting out pollination groups (also for apples, and root stock information) - if you wanted to try again, it might help. We have a hedgerow tiny plum (like a Mirabelle) a Mirabelle cultivar, four damson trees and a greengage, as well as the Victoria

themadvix

Afternoon all,

Pink must have been pretty special too TG 😊 

That's a really useful website SL - thanks for sharing.

Am feeling much more human again today and have made better progress with work - although a lot of the frustrations yesterday were not caused by my lack of sleep. I will be glad when this project is put to bed (the end is very close now, but it's all the niggly bits that have to be worked out).

Aside from work, I need to visit the cat and also do my invoicing, but I'm not sure that's going to happen today. It might be a job for Sunday.

Lunch was leftover gigantes plaki and leftover tuna (both from yesterday) on couscous. Mr MV has the day off and has been getting some jobs done, although not actually the caravan, which is somewhat frustrating. (And now it's raining, so he can't really do any of it). Pub tonight, I think, so I need to get a portion of dal out of the freezer and set the IP up for rice.

Annoyingly I changed the email address on my PA account this morning and I might now need to wait 48 hours for it to update - I guess not getting to do money stuff until Sunday has its benefits.

The HP fund is looking healthier - the money for my Oasis ticket (which was transferred to Mr MV's dad) has gone in there (not sure if Mr MV has been that sensible or put it back in the 'fun fund'), as has the £103 saved for this year's boiler service. Now back to £1174.

MS things:
* Clicks and HW - £5 from one bookie transferred and added to HP
* £1.10 TCB claimed
* MM surveys done last night
* YG survey
* PA survey (cleared balance is over £40 now)

Gratitudes:
* A decent night's sleep
* It's Friday
* Cambridge work has been quiet

Have a lovely afternoon/evening all!

rtandon27

...amazing how a decent night's sleep does wonders!  - hope you had a second one last night.

I was amazed this morning how quiet it was outside - dawn corus seems to have gone into autumn silent mode - a early morning ramble in the garden tells me that blackberries and raspberries are almost at an end and apples are turning from green to red.

themadvix

Hmm. Not sure about the sleep - we had the door open, so B&W cat kept waking me up - he's a fidget and like to sleep on me, which would be fine except for the singular claw which he feels he needs to hold onto me with! I'm sure I'll survive though. 

The birds are all moulting at the moment, ready for the winter, so they're hiding, hence the quiet. 'My' blackberry patch isn't ready yet - yet everyone else's seems to be over! We've had a few while out wandering but I've not taken my pot to pick yet. I ought to try to get to a really good patch I know, near Mr MV's parents, but not sure when/if that will happen.

themadvix

Morning all,

Invoicing and money shuffles done this morning. My SE pay was less than it has been, but not by so much that I wasn't able to add anything to savings, which is excellent. HP savings now standing at £1450 and I added a little extra to my holiday fund (with a Christmas market in mind). Personal spends and food budget topped up (although I've only added £200 to the food budget - we'll have to see how we go).

I need to do a supermarket delivery as we're out of several items, but I'd like to get to an Aldi or Lidl before I go, as quite a few of the bits I need are not bits that I buy organic of/normally come in paper/card so it would be cheaper to get from one of those, if I can. Milk for the week, a small Coop spend and £15 from an online wholefood retailer have already come out of it (now £179).

On invoicing, I think I'll be back to normal income this month, although I've no idea yet as waiting for some info from main client - which there's no rush to have (he's travelling this weekend and still knee deep in the awful project I've been dealing with). 

We're off to see the King('s house) this morning - a free trip to Buckingham Palace courtesy of a friend who works there. Our tickets are for lunchtime, so we've opted for brunch this morning (hence small Coop spend - on English muffins and eggs). Not sure about dinner - we'll either go to an Amex dining place (and therefore have a free meal) or come home (we need to start on the courgette mountain). 

MIL sent BIL with a large bag of fresh basil for me yesterday, so tomorrow I need to make some pesto. I'm also going to make naans using the yoghurt I made as frankly it's not great. I also need to bake and make some jammy buns so Niece and I have stuff to take with us on Monday when we're meeting friends for a picnic.

MS things:
* VB £12 claimed
* Still waiting for email address change on PA, so have left the money there for next month - it'll be a nice addition (I'll probably claim it before then, just to be safe, but it'll stay in my business account)

* HW done

Just realised the time - got a train to catch!

rtandon27

Enjoy your visit with royalty! - It's a gorgeous building, I hope you get to walk around the gardens, my favourite part!

beanielou

Enjoy your royal visit! 

themadvix

Afternoon all,

Thanks RT and Beanie, we had an excellent day out! I think a thank you is required for our friend as our tickets were worth £65 each (we also got into the Mews and the Gallery). It was really interesting - for me, particularly the mews and the gallery, as I'd been to the palace before. The Gold State Coach is enormous - at least double the size of the other carriages they use. We had a drink and some dinner afterwards (but unlike Mr MV, who had a cocktail, I stuck to water with dinner to save a bit of money 😇).

Sunday was a quiet day - we skipped the monthly pub quiz in favour of a quiet night in after a busy day: for me, at the allotment, visiting Lidl, Wickes and Screwfix (lucky me) and in the kitchen. £22 spent in Lidl and £4 on compost at Wickes (Mr MV owes me for the excitement of my Screwfix visit). Pesto, jammy buns, bread and naan made, plus I picked 700g of blackberries in the morning, so they needed washing and freezing. And I made 6 portions of courgette and chickpea curry. The freezer is very full currently. 😬

Yesterday I had Niece for the afternoon and we met up with my school friends and their children - had a lovely (if damp) picnic and wander around a large park and it was entirely free. Niece and I came home and made pasta (her request last time we'd spent the day together after she spotted my pasta machine). Sadly she wasn't able to enjoy it as Sis had already sorted dinner, but the tagliatelle has now dried and she can collect it tomorrow. We had a delicious lasagne (and have part two for dinner tonight).

Met my 'cat/Olio' friends for breakfast this morning - new cafe and very reasonable. £2 for a cuppa (not quite Mr Cheery's standard, but I think in this day and age he might have to revise that!) and £7 for a generous portion of scrambled egg and smoked salmon on toast. Used the cash I have floating around, so have transferred £9 of personal spends to savings. Small(ish) supermarket delivery arrived this morning, £57 - so pretty much used all our food budget for the month now! 🤣 Hopefully we'll be sorted now until next month though - all fruit and veg from garden/allotment and the freezer is full. 

I am busy catching up on work (have a project to complete today - could take me a while still) and tomorrow will be a full-on Cambridge day to get caught up there. Mr MV is in the office today (and so was the car, so we missed the free electricity hour) and is away overnight tomorrow. Not sure what I'll do for dinner then, but plenty of options. While he's away I'll pop to the refill shop too - then there truly won't be anything left in the food budget.

MS things:
* 1P surveys
* HW and VB clicks
* PA surveys
* Lots of food made and baked, saving waste

Gratitudes:
* Our friend who arranged the palace tickets for us
* Lovely day out with Mr MV and BIL and SIL
* Lovely catch up with school friends yesterday - so nice to spend time with them as it can be months or even years sometimes between catch ups; the children all got on so well and another day out has been requested by all sides
* Finally caught up with cat/Olio friends - we all live close by and don't have children, but managing to catch up for breakfast more than once every few months seems to be impossible!

Have a good afternoon/evening all!