I'm going to do a diary too :)

gerbiljo

rightio!

£27 this week on shopping so we over spent by a tenner!! We have spent loads extra this month tho it has been softened as both hubby and I have had birthday money hehe. Next months plan will be to do £120 for 4 weeks...we shall see fingers crossed as sneaking all the extra goes towards the foundations for our extension!

Hubby got £50 extra in his pay also haha, might let him have that!!

Slight work situation alteration, I am lucky enough to get petrol paid for, I used to just get it all paid for and now I get an allowance which tbh is exactly representative with what I spend, therefore I have calculated that now trying to save on the cost of petrol is beneficial! So the aircon went off today (haha), no more speedy driving and I'll be watching the pump prices like everyone else!! So thanks to Martin for those money saving tips I saw the other night

No more overpayments for me this month, I'm spent out! Unless quidco pay out, yawn I've emailed them today so fingers crossed!!

Horray for payday on friday, should be getting to the 93-something this month, hurry on July when we hit the 80's

gerbiljo

child benefit paid in so £80 into mortgage account, putting this into the May totals now, yay

gerbiljo

Early pay day, but one day! £2240 paid off today which is a bit extra to normal making us £700 ahead of target (which is for our foundations). Our total debt now is under the £140k mark wow so excited. Looking forward to mortgage payment coming out now so can see how much have reduced daily interest:j

setmefree2

well done on all your progress :j

gerbiljo

Thank you! you are making amazing progress your self

£34 on food shop this week as got a few extras

gerbiljo

Well mortgage payment again today. Total interest this month £113.41 so £3.78 daily (reduction of 11p a day haha). I got extra money this month so that has been put on also and rounded up the payment to make a nice number, so now £93k. This is actually £1k ahead of target yay (for foundations).

Messed up the shopping list this weekend so will have to go out again which is not good but cant be helped, I cant be without tbags haha, I will just have to be controlled!

Our total debt next month will be lower than my original mortgage, its these little milstones that keep us going, I seem to be able to create a milestone every month even if its something silly.

Hoping if do well on the shopping I might be able to squeeze a bit more on the mortgage but that my big payment for now and that might be the last one til next payday.

Signature updated!

ambitiouscat

Gerbiljo, you're doing so well. I'm amazed that you are managing to spend so little on food - this is where I really need to cut back and so am following the GC. Any top tips on how you're spending so little on food?
Keep up the good work!
AC

gerbiljo

Wel we have done a food rota, so we generally have 7 differnet meals a week in the evening. We tend to have pasta bakes twice a week, which I make in batches of usually 3 and freeze the others. I'd say one of them batches might cost about £2 depending what we put in it. We dont eat lots of meat and hubby is more keen on it than me so sometimes he might just have it. We have a tortilla night and roast and chinese one night. We have chickens so I have egg on toast for lunch or cheese on toast or similar and I make quiche from the eggs too and make the pastry and freeze (which will do several meals) it so the quiche can be made fresh that night. We still have smelly stuff from xmas so not buying and toiletries and chocolate from easter we are trying to make last. We buy loads of the value stuff and vary depending on the offers. Also just trying to not deviate from the list! Saying that some other people on here smash our budget to pieces but its time as wel and I dont have the time to cook everything from scratch. We are growing lots of veg this year and some of our frozen veg from last year lasted months.

It all helps, I used to manage to spend about £100 a week so now I aim for about £25 but usually its around £30. For us this was the biggest area we made a saving in our lifestyle though we have decided to cut back more would be too much grief for the reward!

good luck

gerbiljo

£33 shop this week on food so we need to cut down on the next two to be on target

gerbiljo

Think it is important to post the good and the bad on here so when i look back i get a true reflection of the sacrifice : achievement ratio!

Bad week both hubby and myself are finding work hard. In my case I have had a very bad week, I don't seem to be as quick as I used to be and my hours at work have increased. So far this week I am managing less than an hour a week with my little girl who cried when I left for work yesterday and was asleep when I popped home for the hour gap I got in my split shift so I didnt see her at all. I saw a little girl yesterday with her mum and I hope at 18 months old her memories will not be of me not being around. I feel torn about ploughing on so that in 3 years time I can be there and not need to worry about working and just leaving and struggling for money.

In hubbys case he is needing my support more and I am just not around, which I feel bad about as we are very close couple. He seems better when we start projects to keep his mind busy so I may have to sacrifce some money to allow some of the building projects to start in the meantime as I think it makes u feel good to achieve.

Apart from that, no extra payments, definately think iv saved a bit on the petrol and sounds like the quidco money will be through at the end of the month. Got some annual leave next week, well needed! I shall be looking to some other diarys to spur me on from being so grumpy and sorry for myself!