Want to be a mfw but worried?

ally18

Hello all,

Well another week, very quiet at work due to leave/holidays now.

Have got the freeview now working fully, it needed a booster and another aerial lead which cost £16 altogether but pictures are great so now very happy and saving the cable costs :j

Decided to keep the water feature, its lovely and makes my garden look nice and the firepit was fab so well pleased with the expense (even though I felt guilty). Just found out I had a payment from quidco this weekend of £55 so that has gone towards the cost.

Grocery costs this month so far stand at £87/£150 so doing ok. Made a lot of biscuits, a cake and two cheesecakes at the weekend, one of which went straight in the freezer. All ingredients which were in the cupboard. The kids now have plenty to last all this week and we should only need bread and milk at the weekend so new grocery budget is doing ok at the moment.

Have set all my lettuces, radishes, spring onions, some more toms and my flowers this weekend too so fingers crossed they do well.

Sun is still shining

ally18

Figures update - one more month for car loan!

MFW No 16. M2 TARGET bal Dec 11 = £14,000.00
M2 start bal Oct 10 = £17.103.03
M2 current bal end April 11 = £16,749.35
Car Loan now 295/5100 end April 11

ally18

Hello all,

A quick update today for last month spends.

Grocery budget ended up at £132/£150 so some to carry over this month.

Going to be an expensive month because the car mot & service is due this month so fingers crossed.

GeorgieFTB

Ally

I agree with everyone else, if you can't buy a few treats every so often then what is the point in the MFW journey?

If I was you I would give yourself a budget for your garden, half anything left over from other budget areas that would be used to op? Then you have money to use for extra ops and money for treats??? Or only money from ebay/quidco whatever...

I will admit I'm jealous, I've spend 2 months doing battle with brambles... and do you know what I think they might win, they have superior fire power!!!

Gx

ally18

Hi Georgie,

Thanks for the tip, I don't know why I didn't plan on doing that as I budget for everything else but I guess this is the first year that i have actually spent so much time in the garden and taken a proper interest in it so ......... will start a money pot just for that. Then perhaps next year I won't have the guilt trip.

Though at the moment, I'm hating my garden because there's a huge tree which has decided to shed practically everything on it into my nice plants, there's green bits all over the place and when I was sunbathing at the wkend, I ended up looking like I'd been tarred and feathered but in green!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No wonder I had such a lot of pidgeons appear, must have thought their luck was in!

GeorgieFTB

ally18 wrote: »

Hi Georgie,

Thanks for the tip, I don't know why I didn't plan on doing that as I budget for everything else but I guess this is the first year that i have actually spent so much time in the garden and taken a proper interest in it so ......... will start a money pot just for that. Then perhaps next year I won't have the guilt trip.

Though at the moment, I'm hating my garden because there's a huge tree which has decided to shed practically everything on it into my nice plants, there's green bits all over the place and when I was sunbathing at the wkend, I ended up looking like I'd been tarred and feathered but in green!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No wonder I had such a lot of pidgeons appear, must have thought their luck was in!

I would feel bad for you really I do but I dream about sitting in my garden:D I had a 7ft tall 6 ft deep 10ft long 'patch' of brambles!!!

Well now everything has shed you shouldn't have the same problems:rotfl:

ally18

GeorgieFTB wrote: »

I would feel bad for you really I do but I dream about sitting in my garden:D I had a 7ft tall 6 ft deep 10ft long 'patch' of brambles!!!

Well now everything has shed you shouldn't have the same problems:rotfl:

I do feel for you with the brambles, hope you have them in hand in some way now. :eek:

Unfortunately the tree hasn't finished yet but never mind, as long as the sun keeps shining.

I am so chuffed this morning, the seeds I set long ago in March are now growing. I have actually grown my own tomato plants this year, for the first time in my whole 44 years, I have grown something from seed. (Though tbh I do only have 1 plant growing properly out of about 8) Talk about better late than never :rotfl:, its blooming hard work though, they have to be watered every day!!!!!!!! This gardening lark is quite fun

But I will be more MSE, I will be more MSE, I will be more MSE.

And something has dug up my nasturtion flower seeds and eaten them because the shells were left on the ground at the side of the pot with bits of soil littered about, I wonder what I'm feeding now?


And today I have checked my bank account after doing some messing about yesterday and ..................... NO MORE CAR LOAN :j :j :j :j:j:j:j:j:j:j

My debt has now gone after paying as much as I could over the last 5 months and I can now start and pay my first proper op to m2.

golfiematt

:jwhoopee no more car loan, well done you!:j

ally18

Morning all,

Ok, first week of May been and gone. Grocery budget so far is £57/£168 as I stocked up on some freezer bits at the weekend. I didn't spend any money last week from Monday to Thursday so managed 4 nsds but Friday was a washout. I took my mum out shopping so bought her a coffee and lunch and to top it off, myself some half price gladiator sandals so thats my allowance for the month gone really.

Saturday was a quiet day, took DD2 out to get new school shoes and she treated herself to some carry on dvds so we spent the rest of the day watching those. Had a bbq sat evening amongst the wind and bits of rain but we perservered and had burgers and hotdogs. As DD1's boyfriend was round, took advantage of him to help move the old 3 seater swing seat to a new place in the garden and other things around to make it look a bit tidier. Checked my pond out in the afternoon and now only have 2 fish left, it looks like I've fed the local heron again in the past few weeks. I'm giving up on the pond now because everytime I put fish in, they disappear so what is the point! I do have tadpoles though, 2 frogs and lots of snails still.

Sunday, we went to the local market and stocked up on half price crisps for the whole month which is for the kids lunch boxes. Spent £4.50 on 58 bags of assorted walkers which is much better than buying them from the supermarkets and £5 on 5 airwick air freshners which should last until end July. Both these costs came out of the grocery budget so pleased with that. Spent sunday afternoon re-potting my tomato plants so have 3 of them in the greenhouse and have 2 cucumbers all ready. Put some cornflowers in as well which my mum gave me and also 2 sweetcorn plants so we shall see how well they do. Going to look a bit strange though, I have put the sweetcorn plants smack bang in the middle of my flower bed as no-where else to put them.

Today, at work so another nsd. I have brought in my sarnies for lunch but I forgot to take out the fish for tea so no idea what there is to eat tonight now. Oh dear.

Total - 5 nsds so far this month.

ally18

golfiematt wrote: »

:jwhoopee no more car loan, well done you!:j

Thank you golfiematt,

I feel as if I've achieved something now that has gone.