We had a great conversation last week about mortgages, PMIs and car payments in the Savears group! I love chatting with y’all so much- we all have similar goals but we take such different paths to achieve them.
I am giving my mortgage company a call. It’s possible that due to payments already made and the rising property values that we can dump our mortgage protection payments early! If that’s the case, I’ll owe it to the Savears who helped me realize to explore that option, so please keep your fingers crossed for me! Hopefully even if it isn’t quite enough on it’s own, I’ll be able to make up the difference with a loan from our savings account. Then I’ll pay it back from the mortgage payment difference and after that we’ll just start paying directly to principal.
I’m turning my eyes towards Valentine’s Day. Full disclosure: I don’t care for the holiday, personally. My husband and I never really celebrate, but since kiddo came along and got old enough to understand that it’s a “thing”, I try to do a little something for her. Enter the current situation: She won’t be able to exchange little cards and bits of candy with friends at school. I plan on letting her draw a card for her best friend and dropping it off no-contact style (thankfully she lives the next road over!), but I want to do something over the top for her. It’s become a bit of a theme, this past year. Can’t do our regular fun things? Do something completely out of left field and super over the top!
We’re still drowning in Halloween and Christmas candy, so rather than a box of chocolates my plan is an English tea party! You can do them at Disney, you know- well you could, and hopefully they will be available again in the near future.
I’m scouring the internet for some easy, English baking recipes. I plan to make a Victoria Sponge Cake and some tea “biscuits”. I also want to make some crustless finger sandwiches, though instead of doing cucumber or egg salad, we’ll do small PB&J, and cheese sandwiches. I am looking for a good scone recipe and will make some clotted cream too (since I am struggling finding it for sale!) This should be fun, because I’ve never had real scones, clotted cream or pretty much anything I plan to make beyond the sandwiches, haha. I also bought some tea that I think will be “child friendly”, though I’m not opposed to letting her sip apple juice from a tea cup. Now I just have to convince my husband to climb up into the attic storage area and dig out my fancy two tier serving display and my nice cake display. We’re going all out y’all, and it’ll be a special lunch for us all- not to mention it will be a lot cheaper than the Cheshire Afternoon Tea that runs $5o at the Grand Floridian!
I think this will be a fun, special tea party and a unique way for us to celebrate beyond the traditional candy. Plus we’ll get to enjoy the yummy food for a while!
I have been struggling to earn this week. As promised, the earning opportunities have been on the downward slide. I’m so happy I built up such a good chunk already, because the rest of January is going to be slim unless something miraculous happens. Hopefully the craft sales will pick up in the next week! Mercari sales have slowed down (this money was from sales last week- Mercari can be a bit slow to actually pay out!), so no help there right now either. We’ll figure it out though! When your other hustles aren’t working out, try something new for a minute!
Goal: $5500
January 18th- January 24th
$23.41- Credit Card Rewards
$21.17- Mercari
$5- Crowdtap
$4- Kids Panel
Total earned this week: $53.58
Fund Total from last post: $4623.71
Current Fund Total: $4677.29
Still Needed: $822.71
I’m averaging $114.08 a week!
Bella says
I always have good luck with the baking recipes on the King Arthur Baking website. I know they have a scone recipe! I also had to chuckle about tea parties because my grandmother used to give us Coca-Cola in the tiny teacups, and then we would *stir in a sugar cube*! I think apple juice is a much better choice! Or, try some chamomile tea with honey stirred in for a new taste that might also be helpful when a sore scratchy throat makes an appearance.
Jenni says
Use that leftover candy to make a candy lei or a candy wreath. Both a fun kid centered valentine project.