The mindful MFW: A healthy, happy journey to a mortgage free life!

Thanks all for the birthday wishes, much appreciated. Everyone is always welcome to talk about eating out (and in!) here, it's one of life's greatest pleasures.

YS pork in slow cooker for a Persian style pork, apricot and tamarind stew tonight. Tamarind was v expensive in supermarket though :eek: so will buy some from one of the ethnic supermarket to have in stock.

Forgot my travelcard yesterday so £4.50 spent unnecessarily on travel :mad:. Have definitely got it this morning though. Lunch is leftovers and snacks from cupboards.

Plan to cycle home tonight, using new lights bought with vouchers. They are rechargeable too so should be cheap to run :money:.

I have been sent a £20 off £40 spend for fleabay - any suggestions on what to buy much appreciated! Have relisted my fleabay items so will definitely get £20 at end of month from that endeavour. Have also dropped the price to see if can get a sale too!

DD1 struggling to meet an important deadline for her music exchange so have emailed the organiser to ask her to intervene. Fingers crossed she gets it done as she's very stressed and exhibits extremely challenging behaviour when under pressure. Read: she made me cry before bed last night.

To do:
* claim travel expenses from last week
* walk 10k steps
* cycle home
* stick to allocated food
* check current account and update YNAB
* call BT to check phone line ok to go
* make sure Amex set up to auto deduct full amount
* put in DD1 prescription

Betterthanever wrote: »

Happy belated birthday! I hope you enjoyed tea at the Ritz! My mother took me there for my 40th....sadly it was a bit of a waste as a) I don't drink tea at all and b) I was going through the classic "divorce diet" whereby I didn't actually eat anything.


We ended up bringing a doggy bag home - not really the plan!! It was a nice thought from her, of course, just poor timing (and I don't drink tea!!).

Oh my, that sounds memorable for all the wrong reasons! We had a lunch instead of tea, I would recommend. It was a T!me 0ut deal I bought last year and was definitely good value - my MIL paid the same for afternoon tea there the other week as we paid for 3 courses and a glass of champagne (as well as the bread, amuse bouche, petit fours and the birthday cake!)

Betterthanever wrote: »

The joys of being a parent, eh!


The Persian style pork sounds fab. I often do a chicken, chickpea and apricot tagine type thing. I love that sort of cooking, slow cooked, and full of flavour. My slow cooker definitely gets a lot of use! I made a massive amount of pulled pork in it recently from a YS joint. It was amazing, if I say so myself, and we put loads of portions in the freezer - ideal with jacket potatoes!

I need to do more SC recipes so please do point me in the way of any crowd pleasers. This has turned out really well, just topped with some toasted almonds and will have with cabbage and rice when kids in bed.

Today I have:
* walked probably about 8K steps - I left my Fitbit at home so have to guess :rotfl:
* ate mostly from planned snacks - did have one additional orange, cashew and cocoa snack bar and a small bite of DD1's vegan birthday cake, so 200 extra calories or so. Not awful, but not perfect. Can I blame a major slump in energy in the office?
* cycled home from work - was a great route, had to literally force myself to do it but once on the road had more energy than I thought, and think I can get it down to 1 hr 10 ish. Am thinking of cycling in tomorrow morning I enjoyed it so much .
* claimed travel expenses :T
* updated YNAB
* received already money from friends for dinner I booked for Friday night - out for after work drinks followed by lovely 4 course dinner with cocktail, the dinner part is paid for via pocket money and I've sent them both a link for a free P&P cocktail :money:. I have a healthy £105 in my pocket money this month, so can even afford a round too.
* BT messaged to say phone now set up (bit creeped out that they may be stalking me on this diary :rotfl:)
* completed Amex auto deduction form. Now just need to post it

Carried over til tomorrow:
* DD1 prescription

I love the responses from experienced mothers who really GET what having a teenager is like. It makes up for all the 'making memories' 'collecting beautiful moments' parenting I keep hearing on social media which sometimes feels a million miles away from my actual life.

Don't think I can face cycling in today will concentrate on my steps instead.