Earthgirl gets back on track!

earthgirl

Hi Everyone,

I class this board as my ‘home’ on MSE and really love reading your diaries and posts. I think my diary will be a bit of an essay for a while until I get back on track again - I’m so mad with myself!

I have really fallen by the way side lately! I currently overpay £500 per month – thanks to MSE and my OS ways this is no challenge for me and I have started to become lax with my discipline as regards spending.

What I need to do is log my progress so that I celebrate when I am doing well and have to publicly admit when I’m not! I also want to raise my OP target to £1000 per month – this will be a challenge and some months I might not make it – but better to do that then leave money sat in bank accounts or worse spending it on frivolities!

Part of the problem is my OH is not as committed as me, so lately when I have been buying things we don’t perhaps need – he has been quite happy about it – even encouraging!

My priorities in life are always making sure our marriage is strong and happy , and looking after our health – after all there is no point having 0 mortgage without my OH and our health!

But after this my next priority is paying off the mortgage – hopefully in 5 years, so that I can take a change of career and we will at some point hopefully move to Scotland. If we do pay off in 5 years I will have had my student loans paid off via the teachers student loan repayment scheme, and we will be completely debt free.

I am terrible at maths and can just about use a mortgage overpayment calculator, so the five years is approximate but good enough for me! Our current mortgage is part repayment part interest only – with the interest only endowment still on track last time it was checked. We also have savings (requirement of OH) and should be able to use this as a lump sum to pay off at some point.

So how am I going to do it? Here are my ideas!

Income

This is the big issue for me I’m not paid that much and my OH is self employed. After paying £500 into savings account I currently have approximately £200 disposable income from my pay every month, so that’s to go straight into the OP.

I also tutor and earn about £250 p/m from that – this is definitely an area I could improve on by promoting my website more.

I also work in the clothes section of a supermarket although most of my wages go into a sharesave program so I will get that back as a lump sum in 18 months (circa £3500 I think). I don’t earn very much from this job but it all helps and I get a 10% discount card for grocery shopping.

The extra £550 to make up the 1K I will take out of our joint account when OH has paid in. Any shortfall if tutoring is quiet will also have to come from the joint account so its important to be as frugal as possible with it! I also need to commit to working 8-10 hours a week on promoting the website of my OH’s business – it will make the difference in our MF quest.

Also, I need to keep my current job (teaching) for the 5 years if possible as it is the easiest way for me to reach my MF goal and without it I would not be able to overpay. The quite flexible hours means I can tutor and do other work in the holidays. To keep my job in the face of falling roll numbers I need to make myself indispensable at work – running new courses etc, follow all the procedures to the letter and keep myself looking like I’m doing well and ahead of the game! (easier said than done!!)

Expenditure

I have an allotment and so all our veg comes from there – it costs me £40 / year. I have spent a lot on equipment for the first year – but no more spending on this I don’t need to buy anything now and there is always birthdays and Christmas if I need to ask for anything!

Other than that the only thing I need to do it stick to my £100 p/m shopping budget – maybe even reduce it to £80 if I can! To do this I need to cut back on wine! (again easier said than done!) use more veg, and bulk out meat.

I have talked myself out of an expensive gym membership and need to cut down on my phone usage – I have ordered an asda PAYG sim and want to only send 5 txts per day.


Christmas presents all bought in January – but need to set aside £50 to do the same this January. Sounds really cheap but I only buy for 10 adults and its amazing what you can get in the January sales!

I am also going to go through Martins ‘overhaul your finances’ every few months to check there’s nothing I am missing.

Sorry if this is boring to everyone else but as you can see by the size of the post I needed to get it all sorted out hate feeling disorganised!

Good luck to everyone else and any comments are always welcome!:beer:

earthgirl

No time like the present so today I am going to:

-Go through 'overhaul your finances' DONE
-Do two tutorings later - still got one to plan. DONE
-Go for a walk - free exercise DONE
-Do 2 hrs promotion work on OHs business - DONE 1 HR
-Cook loads of veg for tea with a 10p whoops meal DONE
-only have one v.small glass of wine. DONE
-only send 5 texts. OOPS NOT DONE!

Have a great day everyone!

SmlSave

Hello :T and good luck with your diary.

I may join you in a glass of wine later :beer:

earthgirl

I can't edit my posts for some reason but I did OK yesterday - I managed a NSD and got most things done! I cant seem to stop texting though and I dont want to take a contract phone or worse try a stressfull cash back deal so I am determined to cut down! I feel rude when people text and I dont text back, so I am going to switch off my phone on an evening I think!

I only did 1 hr business promotion (my least favourite job!) so need to do 7 hours at the weekend - Oh Joy!

Today I'm going to
-get organised for next week at school DONE
-get tutoring organised for next week DONE
-Do 5 hr shift in supermarket DONE
-get as many 10p bargains for food shopping as I can DONE
- Only send 5 texts (if I write this enough I will eventually do it!) DONE YAY!!

At the weekend I plan to do my 7 hrs promotion work on Sat and a 5 hr shift in Supermarket.

What weekend I hear you ask? But I will do some exercise and relax on Sunday!

Have a good day everybody!!

setmefree2

Good Luck earthgirl :T:T:T:T I look forward to reading your updates:D

earthgirl

Thanks I look forward to yours SMF2!

earthgirl

Morning all,

Oh dear just about made morning! Had a bit of a disaster last night - drove hoe from work only to find I'd 'lost' one shopping bag :eek: - nowhere to be seen!

After a bit of shouting at OH accusing him of hiding it (why?) I went into a bit of a huff and my OH kindly accompanied me back to the supermarket where I work and hey presto the bag was in the carpark next to where I parked. (Even though I'd rang the store and they couldnt see it - wonder if they really looked?:mad: )

The contents of the bag only amounted to £2.70 - and I feel very stupid! And even stupider for going back for it - 20 mile round trip - probably wasn't worth it! Moral of the story is don't rush around like an idiot all the time! That the downside of working so many jobs I guess!

Anyway have been terrible so far today which is why its great to have a diary to tell myself off on!!

Today I've made green tomato chutney - any other ideas for green tomatos? still got the same amount left again! And havent really done anything else !

SO now I must do a bit of promotion work before my supermarket shift, having a nsd - taking HM soup to work and will have a whoopsie meal later.

So other than that, got another 3 hours promotion work after shift, and then clean up and fall into bed!

Have a good (productive!) day everyone!

shirlgirl2004

Oh dear very annoying about the shopping! It's the sort of thing I'd do:o . It sounds like you're doing really well :T

StuartGMC

Earthgirl

I think we can all say that you'll never do it again now you've experienced it. Whilst you note the value was less than the petrol, you would also have gained benefit from actually finding it and therefore "closing" out any random thoughts on theft etc which would perhaps have arisen. Good to see it hadn't been taken by anyone else!

earthgirl

StuartGMC wrote: »

Earthgirl

I think we can all say that you'll never do it again now you've experienced it. Good to see it hadn't been taken by anyone else

Thanks - some people always see a positive side to annoying things - wish I could be like that!! My OH said people would have looked in the bag and thrown it back down 'cause it was all ooops stickered things! Who knows?!

I am enjoying the sunshine today - how can anyone be sad on a day like today? I have been for a bike ride, got my veg from the allotment and tidied up the garden - anything to be outside really!! Come to read this board for a rest!:D

I've sorted through the potatos and apples I have stored to get rid of any suspect looking ones, and think I will make apple pie later on seen as the oven will be on!

Not sure where I read it but after I've cooked the roast and the apple pie I will switch off the cooker and open the oven door and let the heat out of the kitchen through the house - not sure how much it will actually heat the house but trying everything to delay putting the heating on for another month!

Got a few more hours of promotion work today and an hour promoting my tutoring website.

With money from tutoring (doing about 5hrs per week at the moment) and the overtime from working my summer hols in the supermarket, I've made an overpayment of £760 so far in October!

I need to take £240 out the the money OH gives me for food and bills to make up to £1000. I should be able to do this so looking forward to succeeding in my first month of my MFi5 challenge but want to get the money to nationwide before I celebrate!

Enjoy the sunshine everyone!

SmlSave

Not sure where I read it but after I've cooked the roast and the apple pie I will switch off the cooker and open the oven door and let the heat out of the kitchen through the house - not sure how much it will actually heat the house but trying everything to delay putting the heating on for another month!

I do the open oven door thing too! It seems to take the chill off the kitchen and hallway - every little helps. I'm determined not to put the heating on till November at least... I will do :j star jumps to keep warm:D

Congrats on the OP's and hope you had a lovely weekend