27th September

To Do

Post Ebay sale - Done

Wash clothes for weekend trip - Done

Pack for weekend trip - Started

Freeze food for Zeus - Done

Daily Goals

Steps 4551/8000 - that is truly pants!!

Breakfast – Baked Nectarines with Yogurt (recipe below).

Lunch – Pea, feta & summer herb frittata and Green Salad (recipe below) + jelly + 2 custard creams

Dinner – Pea, feta & summer herb frittata and Green Salad

I have been given loads of courgettes from Mum & Dad and a work colleague so have been trying various recipes, this frittata was lovely and I had most of the ingredients in the house already that needed to be used up. Nectarines from the local market, 12 for £2 – Bargin! Jelly was already in the store cupboard and the biscuits a colleague brought in.

MFi5 Savings - £5 claimed from ReceiptHog

Baked Nectarines Recipe

Ingredients

6 nectarines

10 fl oz white wine

1 ½ oz sugar

1 t-spoon cinnamon

Dash vanilla essence

Method

Preheat oven to Gas Mark 4, 350°F (180°C).

Half nectarines, remove stones. Place in a shallow baking dish.

Mix wine, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla essence and pour over nectarines.

Place in oven, uncovered, for 35-40 mins

Serve with a large spoon of yogurt.

Pea, Feta & Summer Herb Frittata Recipe

Under £40k

Wahoooo, I'm under £40k on the mortgage!!

September Goals

September Goals

• Lose at least another 2lbs

• Walk 8000 steps every day

• OP Mortgage by £285

• List 150 items on Ebay

• Paint table for Art Room

• Finish Bottle Top Art piece

Update on August Goals

Lose at least 2lbs – Did this one….just!! YAY!!

Use Vitamin C Serum daily – This I have been doing and I haven’t broken out into uncontrollable
spots, I have been using my prescribed Azeliac Cream (I do daily anyway) so that has probably
helped but I think it has made my skin look smoother and more hydrated and it feels softer. I made
the mistake of asking my OH if he’d noticed a difference in my skin and he said NO :(  I’m going to
carry on using it because I think it’s making a positive difference. HAVE A PAT ON THE BACK!

Overpay Mortgage by £285 – I managed £295.07 - SMASHED IT!

List 150 items on Ebay – I got to 105 as for some reason I had “list 100 items” in my head and was
congratulating myself. MUST TRY HARDER!

Paint table for Art Room – yeah….I have done some more coats but not finished it!! Again MUST
TRY HARDER

Knit (and knit and knit!) bunting for Pride Parade – This I have succeeded with GO ME! I was even knitting in the car & train on a work trip. :)

Also it's the end of Year 1 of MFi5v2 – £2000 OP this year and a total of £20,400 for the 6 years

August - how did that happen!

Wow, August already!! How did that happen....sure it was May last week!!

Time seems to be going incredibly quickly this year so it's time to start setting some goals so I get things done!!

August Goals:

• Lose at least 2lbs. Have been a little too indulgent with both food and alcohol recently and I don't like the results!! Need to start using MyFitnessPal and my Fitbit more.
• Use Vitamin C Serum daily. Apparently Vitamin C as an antioxidant for the skin is the only proven one to really work so I'm testing Superdrugs B.Radiant Antioxidant Boost Facial Oil to see if it sets off my Rosacea.
• OP Mortgage by £285. Still trying to get rid of the Mortgage.
• List 150 items on Ebay. Yes I'm still Ebaying. Yes I still have loads to sell. Also...see above goal.
• Paint table for Art Room. YES! I'm getting an Art Room! So excited about this one! I have painted the first coat, just need to finish it off.
• Knit (and knit and knit!) bunting for Pride Parade. It's great to be part of a community that is both creative and gets involved in various local projects finally....it's something that has been missing from my life for years now.

Think that'll do for now, lets see if writing it down here helps me to complete them.

Week 1 May 2017

Due to May Day Bank Holiday and illness this ended up as a 2 day working week :) Managed to fit in catching up with a friend. Saw Beauty and the Beast at the new Cinema De Lux- loved the film, loved the cinema even more!! Recliner seats....what more could you want!!

By Saturday I was feeling much better so we went for lovely bike ride in the afternoon after which I accidently dropped a heavy metal bin on my foot and have badly bruised/broken my big toe...BIG ouchy, air was very very blue and it's now gone all purple!

Still it didn't stop me going down our local and watching a couple of really good bands! Alcohol is a really good anaesthetic ;)

Antoine Architeuthis

Tim Madden and The Struggle

Third of the Way Through 2017

Well we're already a third of the way through 2017! It's speeding past!

My year contract of work is drawing to a close at the end of next month and I've been offered to go permanent :) Uh, yes please :) Really interesting place to work, lovely people, regular wage, possibility of training to further my career.....what more could you want?

So with the job situation sorted onto the Mortgage OP's. I'm still busy eBaying the contents of my house (did I mention I was a bit of a packrat?), mystery shopping, swagbucking and anything else I can think of to earn a few extra quid here and there to OP the mortgage :)

As part of the eBay declutter I'm going through my clothes, I have LOTS of clothes.....most of which are too small, too big, too old or I just don't like! So, anything that is saleable from the aforementioned categories is being eBayed. Anything that fits I am going to wear to work and see if I like it or not.

Out of last weeks outfits I don't like the middle one, not sure if it's the skirt or the cardi or both so will try them with different items before making a decision.

Mortgage and Wombles

My MFI5 challenge finished at the end of August and despite temping for the year I still managed to overpay by £1400 bringing the grand total of overpayments for the 5 years to £18,400!!

Now, although I didn't pay off the entire mortgage I have managed to pay off just over half of it in that time!! I am well chuffed!!

So....as I still have half left to pay I am embarking on another MFI5 challenge - let the games commence!

Oh, the decluttering is going well too with over 100 sales on Ebay so far this year....still lots to go but I have several clear rooms now :)

Wombles:

5/12/16
3 Chocs from work
2p Checkout Smart
15 coins Receipt Hog
4 Tesco Points
95 Morrison Points

6/12/16
Lollipop from work for switching off my computer :)
3 Chocs & slice caramel cake from work
1p Checkout Smart
10 coins Receipt Hog

7/12/16
4 Chocs from work
1p Checkout Smart
10 coins Receipt Hog

8/12/16
4 Chocs from work
1p Checkout Smart
10 coins Receipt Hog
Not a womble but Christmas Dinner from works canteen for £6.60 - yum

9/12/16
1 Choc from work

Weeks Wombles

Wombles:

30/11/16
5p roadkill
7 millionaire shortbread bites and a mini flapjack from work
Chicken and veg Thai curry soup and half a bottle of red wine from OH

1/12/16
4 chocolate brownie bites and 1 shortbread biscuit from work
20 coins on Receipt Hog and 1p Checkout Smart
Claimed back £11.99 for tea/coffee/milk from work
£2 Tesco voucher in post
1p roadkill
Free seminar on Marine Life Talks

2/12/16
Porridge someone gave sachets away at work
Sugar sachets from cafe
1 shortbread biscuit
Not exactly a womble but went to old works Xmas do and got 3 soft drinks and a gorgeous 3 course meal plus lovely company for the evening for £15 - bargin!

I have a house full of STUFF!

And I want to be free!

So...changes are afoot both in my headspace (I'm normally a total packrat) and in my life. What I would really, REALLY like is to live in a minimalist environment where I can feel relaxed and calm, have friends over or travel as the whim takes me. So the "stuff" has to go! Now repeat after me....eBay is my friend, eBay is my friend.

Mortgage Year 5

Well despite life's little hiccups this last year I managed to overpay £2000 for Year 4 of my mortgage :) very happy with that! That's a total of £17000 in the last 4 years!

Now for a big push for Year 5!! Plotting and a planning coming up!

I drove to London!!

Well on Thursday I did something I swore I would NEVER do......I drove to London!! OK it was Twickenham so it was the outskirts and not Central London but even so! Very proud of myself. :) As the travel was for work I got mileage allowance and they paid for lunch....win, win!! I went to my favourite coffee shop Harris & Hoole for lunch. Got home late and had cous-cous and goats cheese stuffed pepper (all from stores) for dinner so notched up a No Spend Day (NSD).

Friday a work colleague brought me in a Latte and a Cinnamon bun as a treat - the bun was so big I didn't want any lunch, I had a bag of crisps (70p from vending machine) mid afternoon instead. Picked up OH from station for the weekend. Dinner was Chicken with Goats Cheese and Tarragon, home-made potato wedges and salad as had all the ingredients except tomatoes already. Took out new £50 grocery budget for the coming week and promptly spent £37.90 of it, bought things like loo rolls (enough for the next 2 months) as well as food for the weekend/week though. I got some really good bargains too like 2 packs lychee's, reduced from £1.99 a pack to 19p!! They were lovely a juicy too.

Today we had a lovely lie-in, I made cooked breakfast and then ran into town just in time to pay in my £145 before the bank closed. I couldn't do the MS because I had stupidly forgot to print off the briefing notes when I printed off the questionnaire earlier in the week....doh!! We went to Westbury Manor Museum for an hour or so and also had tea and cake (£7.20 from remaining grocery budget), they are a small free museum, they also have changing main exhibits and currently it was bikes through the ages. This is a Spacelander... originals from the 50's are apparently worth around £27k now!!! This is a reproduction from the 80's.

OH had an afternoon nap whilst I pottered around the house catching up on jobs. Tonight's dinner will be ginger & garlic chicken in a chilli tomato sauce with rice picked from my massive pile of recipes ripped out of magazines. Hmmm, might have a nap myself now....

Over the Hump

Trying to stick to the no spends still - I had totally forgotten I had to buy my Fakefest ticket to make sure I got the earlybird discount for my next visit up to to my friends, sadly the 10% extra discount code on top of the earlybird price didn't work - still it was only £16.50, we went last year and it was really good fun. I also charged my phone at work both days and printed off my MS paperwork ready for Saturday.

Tuesday

B: Took in cereal so I could use milk from work
L: Baked beans & toasted cheese muffin (stores)
Snacks: cake left over from meeting and tea/coffee
D: Treated to chicken dinner out by OH as stayed at his :)

Wednesday - Hump Day

B: Took in cereal so I could use milk from work
L: Baked beans & toasted cheese muffin (stores)
Snacks: apple & crisps left over from meeting, jam doughnut brought in by Recruitment Agency and tea/coffee
D: homemade potato wedges & crustless broccoli quiche with goats cheese stuffed portobello mushroom (all from stores).

Back home tonight, spent the evening chilling in front of the TV. Off to Twickenham for work tomorrow, I am driving myself up for the first time.....still I get paid mileage and the journey is fairly straight forward so fingers crossed the traffic is OK!!

Working Monday

It was a beautiful sunny day today, shame I was in an air-conditioned office that seemed to want to pretend it was still winter .....wish I'd worn my tights!!

Food for the day:

B: Took in cereal so I could use milk from work but didn't eat it in the end
L: Chicken fajita kebab wrap (left over from Sat dinner)
Snacks: kitkat (from works biscuit tin) and tea/coffee
D: 3 x Turkey rashers, potato pattacakes, tomato, fried egg (all from stores)

When I got home I planted the stocks and yellow daisies Mum gave me yesterday, more flowers to make my garden look beautiful :) Off to pack an overnight bag, visiting OH tomorrow - haven't done that since Sep when Sakuma became ill - he's off the antibiotics now :)

Getting back on track

So, now I have a regular monthly wage coming in again (well at least till the end of October) it's time to get my money back on track.

First on the list is to get my £500 "buffer" back on my current account for either emergencies or overpayments on the mortgage. It looks like I will be about £200 short for normal bill payments this month (I was £500 short last month) so I can't spend on anything that's not budgeted for :(

I have already spent my £50 weekly grocery allowance this week so I have to make all meals from food already in the house.

Today:
Breakfast: 3 Turkey Rasher Sandwich
Lunch: Lidl version of Twix (provided by The Olds)
Dinner: Mashed potato pattacakes, portobello mushroom, 2 turkey rashers & fried egg

All washed down with fresh decaf coffee (sachet from hotel) and tea (the Olds/home)

I have re-listed some stuff that didn't sell on Ebay and have a mystery shop scheduled for next Sat (must find log-in and get paperwork). I have also gathered all notes in my various piggy banks (from underspent groceries/roadkill etc from the last year) and have £145 to pay in at the bank...just need to be able to get there during opening hours sometime soon....

Let the games commence!

On a rather cool note...I have a blackbird nesting on my bathroom windowsill!!

The Next Assignment

For the last 5 weeks I have been doing the most awesome assignment! I am helping with the integration of an acquisition into a company and am learning so much.....it also helps that I am staying in London all expenses paid :D

So currently I am working with a great bunch of people, learning loads, travelling and saving money ..... all of my favourite things!! Long may it last!!

Good Morning Vietnam!

It worked out incredibly well, the lovely temp job came to an end just as our holiday to Vietnam was due :)

We had an amazing time, Vietnam is a beautiful country filled with incredibly friendly people.

We started our journey in Hanoi on their Lunar New Years Eve, everyone was greeting us with "Chúc Mừng Năm Mới" and we quickly learnt to say it back. We were just on the outskirts of the Old Quarter and were treated to a spectacular firework display!

We visited Halong Bay staying overnight on an amazing junk visiting the limestone karst islands, fishing villages and Surprise Cave (Sung Sot Cave).

We had a couple of days back in Hanoi then flew to Hoi An. This was my favourite place, it was beautiful with all the lights at night.

After a few days relaxing in 33ºC temperatures (it was 3ºC in the UK) and taking in the sights we flew to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon). Our hotel was just around the corner from the night market, we ate freshly BBQ'd prawns, they were delicious! We also visited the Cu Chi Tunnels.

Next was a boat tour of the Mekong Delta visiting floating markets along the way to Can Tho.

Our last leg of the journey took us further along the Mekong for a ferry ride across the sea to Phu Quoc where we spent the last few days chillaxing by the sea and pool and eating the freshest seafood.

We were very sad to be returning home after 2 weeks in this stunning country. I so want to return one day, the country has so much more for us to see and experience.

Life after redundancy

I managed two whole, glorious months off which I spent pootling around the house (allegedly doing housework/de-cluttering) and indulging my creativity with craft projects. My area has free 4-5 week courses available to all so I signed up and completed Pottery and Digital Photography. Bliss!

Crafty Christmas recycling

Then out of the blue I landed a lovely temping job in early Dec, so nice to not be stressed at work!! It also means I can carry on with MFin5 for the time being :)

This year I’m trying to be more organised so I can get on top of the housework and then get on with the structural jobs I need to do on the house – new conservatory being the 1st job on my list. I’ve been hit with a bad cold the last couple of weeks which has put me back a bit but I am determined that this will be the year I finally get on target! On that note I have put regular tasks into my phone  calendar so it reminds me to do them!

Change of Direction

You can plan all you like but sometimes life throws a spanner in the works :(

Year 3 of “Pay off the Mortgage in 5 years” and I have paid off £3k (I had to spend £2k on a new to me car). This brings my total to £15k overpayment in 3 years. Feeling chuffed with myself I was just about to start year 4 planning/ideas when the spanner was well and truly thrown – I was made redundant :( (well technically it's still in process)

Soooo time for new plans once I know what I have to play with, in the mean time I am making the most of having some well deserved time off!! Catching up with housework, decluttering, daily walks, craft projects.....



One good thing to come of this is that Sakuma, one of our cats was taken seriously ill and very nearly died, being off allowed me the time to be with him, take him to all the vet appointments and get him the specialist help required. He's now back home recuperating, will require 3-4 months of antibiotics and a possible operation before he is fully recovered but he is recovering. We are so thankful.

Every cloud has a silver lining :)

ARTificial

Well we managed it! Back in November 2013 myself and 2 friends put on our first Community Art Show - ARTificial :)

It was hard work but sooo much fun and we raised £130 for The Scouts whose hall we borrowed. It was open for anyone to take part and we had a vintage teashop selling cakes, tea and coffee and a "making table" so people could take part and learn how to make paper flowers. The atmosphere was lovely.

MFi5 OP – Year 2

Bit late with the update but for Year 2 of my MFi5 Challenge I managed to OP by the grand total of £5,000 – that's a total of £12,000 in 2 years :) Am very, very pleased :)

Mainly achieved from wages left at the end of the month, over time, Birthday/Christmas money, MS, clicks, surveys, cash-back and a little bit of E-bay.

Plan for Year 3 – same as above but hope to add selling my handmade crafts ….. I have plans ;)

For Year 2 I made a Mortgage Tree, every leaf represents £100 over-payment. Picture's a bit rubbish quality but the light at the moment is terrible, roll on light evenings!!