Oh, hello weekends away :)

Whilst we are still trying to save. I truely believe in living life whilst you can - you cannot take it with you. It is all about balance. So I have been very fortunate to have had some nice non camping weekends away! Fret not, one was super cheap. The other, eh, not so much.

One away with the girls and one away with Mr Mars to watch a race! I don’t get out often, so I take pictures of my hotel rooms…and food…sorry. But I'm not sorry.

Hotel room with the girls – was very nice and SUPER cheap! And we had a free BBQ on the Saturday night! I got the fold out bed cause I was last to sign up but I turned out I was better than the bedrooms (which I got the next night as one of the girls left a night early):

My bedroom...

The bathroom was rather nice, but this picture does not quite capture it...

Other bedrooms...

Hotel room with Mr Mars – double the price and not as nice, but was very comfortable bed and great little kitchen with it!

Brekkie the Sunday am with the girls. This is how every Sunday should begin...

Funny sign... ;-)

Glamorising my suitcase, not quite Louis Vuitton, but my pink scarf is ehhh cheap? :-)

Win Tomorrow - The Tale of The Forgotten Lunch Box

I’m following the Win Tomorrow program.

It’s not actually a program, just a thing where you prepare and get ready for the next day in order to have a successful day. I.e. pack lunches, exercise clothes etc. etc. It’s meant for weight loss but I also use it to try and built some organisation into my life. Less clutter and more organisation are my 2015 goals.

PDF: http://www.noexcusesworkout.com/oldsite/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Win-Tommorrow-Check-List-PDF-Version.pdf

So last night, having been to the shops and I had already went my run at lunch time meant I had the ENTIRE evening to “win tomorrow”. After dinner with Mr Mars,  I cook some buckwheat and cajun mixed beans, add it to a nice spinach salad. Get my running clothes ready, get my evening clothes for a dinner with the girls ready (my mate is moving away) and get my work clothes ready. 8.30pm is the target to have it all ready so I can sit down and watch the super cheesy teenage movie called Pitch Perfect (think Glee, but a movie).

My bag won’t close but I meet my target. So feet up and I watch my movie with a cuppa and a bit of raspberry sponge cake and all is right in the world. Tomorrow, I have won.

As I drive to work today all seems to have went seamlessly to plan, until I think of my beautiful lunch. Still sitting in the fridge. My Cajun bean concoction. WHAT A WASTE. Waste of my time AND my money. 

Here is what it looked like:

Tomorrow - 1 

Veronica Mars - 0

Afternoon delights

A cheeky little afternoon tea at my work today! We tend to have afternoon tea 3-4 times a week. Any excuse. Someone's 30th, 40th, 50th, 60th, Baby, Anniversary, Birthday, New Dog...you get the idea. We have them. A lot. But hey, it's free food, so I ain't complaining.

So I thought I'd start picturing my treats from said Afternoon Teas. 1, 2, 3...Yehhhhhhh! Pictures of food, but this isn't a food blog, is it?!?! I don't know what it is, but what it isn't, is a food blog. Still following? Which is just as well as I'll be taking pictures of other people's cooking. Not mine.

Today I snaffled a gingerbread man and a gluten free chocolate chip cookie. For the record, I could taste no difference between the gluten free cookie and a normal cookie, it's all cookie to me.

We also did a shop, I lay my food out so then I can allocate it a home, I also took this opportunity to take a picture of some more food. Quite a few treats for us this week. Not sure why, just more carp than normal managed to sneak into the trolly.

An lastly, my dinner. Falafel and some salad. Yum.

Man, this is really starting to seem like a food blog...

Day trip and some pocket money

Sorry I tried to get back into my blogging again, I’m just so bad at it! Really trying to be more organised. I feel organisation is the key. Get organised, save the world and all that.

This week Mr Mars and I have…

Been at the rugby! Sorry no picture. It is our new date night - ohh how things have changed!

Went on a day trip! Mr Mars and went to Akoroa for the day. I lovely French themed town. We were super frugal and shared a fish and chips and coke! Just as well as it was HUGE!!! Total cost $11.50 (£5.75). We MUST try and do this more often as we ALWAYS have food leftover and it is just such a waste of food and money! The coke cost more than the chips or the fish – but it is the small things, guys!

We have still been saving for a house deposit and still working our “Pocket Money”. Don’t believe we even have a 10% deposit never mind a 20% deposit, but getting there. Must buy fewer bottles of coke!

Trying NOT to buy stuff with my pocket money, I have far too much stuff. Buying stuff can also mask underlying issues, like, not feeling comfortable with some weight gain (current issue). Anyway, I HAVE made a couple of purchases. It's stuff - I'm sorry. But full disclosure here! Pocket money purchases:

This hat. Tried to act like a cowgirl - Failed.

This super cool, totally in love with, necklace:

Check it out it’s made with the inside of a watch – did you hear me? THE INSIDE OF A WATCH. How unique, cool and random is that?

That's all folks! 

Keep swimming little fishes:

Anniversary time!

So like members of a family who have had a fight and are now going to pretend we haven’t…I am going to slip back into my blog posting without explaining my absence or giving an apology…

No DIY in this post, I have some very first attempts at DIY cardmaking for you to laugh at look at but I will save them for another post and keep this one for le anniversary.

Incase you had not guessed, Mr Mars and I recently celebrated our Anniversary! Being the SUPER romantic couple we are we did NOTHING! Only kidding, we went camping, and to the cricket. Yes, camping and cricket! Camping involved a 5 hour solid hike and over 3,000ft of climbing added in. It was actually really good fun and in the most amazing settings. Cricket involved 5 hours of solid drinking and in glorious sunshine. 

Cricket...

Hiking view from the bottom...

Weather was brilliant and as you can see both were amazing with the added bonus of a bouquet of flowers, a book and some fancy tea (I told you we are super romantic), it was just a lush day!

Close up...

We also got some super cool Scottish coasters, with a card to match off Mr Mars parents:

Nicely wrapped as well...

I thought I had a picture of my book and tea, but I don't so I will leave that up to your imagination :)

xoxo

I return and I'm debt free!!!

I'm debt free!!!

I feel that justifies my delayed return to posting. Sorry! If you are going to keep a blog, you need to do blog posts, it's not hard Veronica!!! #MUSTTRYHARDER

Where have I been?
Mr Mars and I sold everything and upped and travelled across America. We then finished the trip with a flight to New Zealand where we currently reside in a pokey wee flat. GOD I MISS THE LODGE HOUSE. I often think of it, but this is super cosy so that makes me feel better.

Debt Free
Well, onto the big news. Mr Mars and I used the last of our savings and a tax refund to clear our remaining credit card. Tah-dah! We are Debt Free. We were getting bad at organising the funds/debt back in the UK so had to focus on getting it cleared. Went into our overdraft twice because of it. So annoying...

You would think I would feel this huge sense of relief but I feel nothing. It is weird. I think it is because I have been in debt for as long as I can remember and I was debt free once before and I racked it all up again, so I just don't quite believe it.

I/We have had different scales of debt. I refer to them as my "crazy debt days". University was an overdraft and a small credit card and student loans. I should have saw the signs then, others would go for coffee but bring in their own sandwiches etc as they had a balance. I would try to do it all, buy my lunch, and coffee and go on the nights out. On a students wage. There was no beans on toast in my student days. Only Mastercard.

This continued to employment, where again, I had no balance. I wanted it. I got it. From a coffee and pastry every morning to a £150 jacket. NO was never an option with Mastercard.

I had a job but threat of redundancy was and has always been there. In 2010 people were let go in my team twice within one year and there was redundancies every year since. Every. Year. It was not a nice time, especially when you realise that if you are made redundant, you have zero savings and very large amount of debt (approx 16k). A week or two of no salary and the Veronica Mars house of debt would have came tumbling down like a giant game of Jenga.

I was close to the land of Debt Free in 2011 but thinking I was nearly clear and in control meant I slipped back to my old ways and bought some new clothes and started eating out loads and wracked up another 4k of debt. Just like that. Before I knew it, another 4k of debt. Mr Mars then proposed to me and we started to get our life into order, continue to clear the debt, but pay for a wedding and honeymoon without adding to the debt.

We had been struggling with some accommodation and moved into a lovely house that cost much more each month in rent but it gave us the biggest sense of relief. You should be able to relax in your own home and that is not something we could do in our previous flats. I called it The Lodge House :) The flog and chaos lifted and with an upcoming wedding and honeymoon Mr Mars and I started getting our life into order.

Fast forward to the present day. As we start a new chapter in our life, I have a new financial focus of getting enough savings as a deposit on a home when we return to the UK. 

I badly want a home to truly call my own but I am happy to wait until Mr Mars and I have a good solid deposit and a forever home. I've moved enough and I've travelled a lot. I'm coming to the point where I am ready to settle down. My sisters ring tone for me is the Littlest Hobo theme tune.... 

That's all folks!

xoxo

The perks of a travelling business man...off to the windy city!

Mr Mars works away. A lot.

Not for long periods of time, but he literally can fly to London for a day and then fly home that same night. Not fun for him. No different for me. I just put his dinner in the microwave as usual and sometimes he comes home with some unused toiletries or an instyle magazine (he snaffles from the lounges - don't worry they are free, business class perk, he is not stealing).

He works all over the UK and the major perk of this has been large amounts of frequent flyer miles and a humongous spend in one year (I think it was £20k) when meant he then qualified for a companion flight.

What does all of this get you? A Business class flight to Chicago for the cost of the taxes only. I don't think you understand me.... we only paid for the taxes. For a business class flight to Chicago!!! Cost of these flights was £5,827!!! Taxes were still cost a lot, mind you...

Having travelled either Ryan Air or Easy Jet for the best part of my adult life I have no idea what Business Class entails.... I imagine champagne and unicorns. You get champagne, but I think they keep the unicorns for first class.

Thankfully the world wide web has lots of blogs by rich people who like to tell us about the things that us mere morsels will (usually) never get the chance to enjoy. I like this website, it is full of REAL pictures. God I love pictures.

The Luxury Travel Expert:

http://theluxurytravelexpert.com/2014/06/11/flight-review-british-airways-business-class-boeing-747-400-lhr-sfo/

So here is what it looks like I am in for. Excited, ME, Nooooo. This guy says the meal is a disappointment, I am still in awe of the fact that you GET A PLATE THAT IS NOT MADE OF TIN OR PLASTIC. Are you kidding me? Real cutlery? This guy should try economy and he'll see what a disappointment really is...

I'm also struggling with how I will manage to not ransack the FREE shops in the lounge or on board and store everything like a squirrel for when we reach Chicago.

Only take 5 bars of chocolate Mrs Mars... act like you fly business class all the time.... take the other 8 bars out of your bag...take them out...okay grab some peanuts...quickly...COME ON, DO IT...no-one is looking...

I will, of course, be taking pictures of everything. Even down to the toilet. I plan to use them to reminise about the time I flew Business Class with BA when I am shackled up on my next Ryan Air flight trying to hide my handbag so they do not charge me for two carry on and then counting how many euros I have left to see if I can afford a can of cola. All whilst sweating in my extra jacket as my suitcase was over 10kg.

There are OF COURSE catches to these flights see below (here is my understanding of them):

1) They are only available on certain flights and there is only 1 allowance per day. So everyone in the UK with a companion flight is fighting to get in first for these flights
2) Once you qualify it is only valid for one year
3) Only valid for a single flight (no stop offs or returns)
4) Only valid for a flight leaving the UK; and
5) You have to reach the £20k spend within one year
6) You only get this once
7) The big one - you can only use the companion flight to places you have enough air miles to cover. So you can't top up with cash and fly to anywhere in the world.

xoxo