Pay off mortgage and start having fun!

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Evening NewGirly, glad to hear your cat has come home. Worse than kids :)

Tilly

QB_Wolf

Glad the cat turned up!

newgirly

gallygirl wrote: »

Glad puss is back

How's your onepoll going - I only claimed at Xmas and I'm on £7.95 already :T

Hi GG, I'm at £6.85 but I started at about £3.50 from ages ago, I don't think the questions like me much

newgirly

Surveys: 10p sat , 10p sunday, £0 today
Ops: 10p sat ,67p sunday, £2.28 today.

I've over spent on the grocery budget now current total £193.86, so a big fail for one of my 3 january challenges. The other two were to make an op every day even if its 10p and keep a spending diary which I have done (its virtually all cc spending now) except for about £10 cash this month so I'm just tracking the new stoozing cc spending.

This morning I made a batch of lemon laundry gloop, tonight its dinner from the freezer and I have got my final bill sorted for gas elec- not quite as bad as I thought, £381 extra instead of the £460 they said previously.

I think I should now make it a habit to read the meters every week and input them to save having any more big shocks. Need to think of a few good challenges for feb as well, something different I've not done before

newgirly

I have been very naughty and bought an iPad :eek: I know I should'nt have but my laptop has died and dh has been lending me a work one which he is constantly telling me off for mistreating :rotfl:

In my defence I bought the ipad2 and shopped around, so it was £296 for the 16gb as opposed to the £399for the new 16gb. Still need to work out a repayment plan which does not involve using any op savings, but it is on a 0% cc until the end of the year.

Yesterday's op was 67p and one survey of 10p, I have not checked today's yet so will pop back later.

CathT

So glad your cat was found, must have been such a worry. That's a good price for the Ipad, we bought a second hand one just before Christmas. I hardly switch the laptop on these days!

newgirly

I have spent the day juggling the finances Rang npower about when the big final bill has to be paid by and they very kindly offered to let me pay it over 12 months I may as well do that as its interest free, so a bit more breathing space.

The car had its mot today, I forgot how stressful it is, as we have had new cars for the last few years, its the first one we have had on this car (its a vauxhall zafira) and the only problems were 2x new front tyres, so £153 all in which was pretty good. Our last car that needed an mot was also a 7 seater but was a galaxy and its last mot before it went to car heaven was £1800, so i feel we have been fairly lucky really.

Only a few days before feb's budget starts , I need to come up with a few good challenges for next month and have no inspiration at the moment. I need to catch up on soooo many diaries I have been very lax lately sorry

newgirly

Yesterday and today no surveys
Yesterday 10p op, today £7.90 op.

Today the plan is to go through the freezers and cupboards and do a basic meal plan for the month, its quite daunting as the kids as going through a very fussy phase and dd is happy to not eat sometimes
we have a big log cabin in the garden so although we have a fairly small kitchen and lack of general storage space I could store some stuff in there and do a bit of bulk buying for the month.

Back later, wish me luck !

never_too_old

My DD isnt fussy but doesnt always eat.I have found it so much easier since i have written down whats in the freezer.My budget for groceries was £280 for jan so far i have spent £160 so im going to come in well under budget and i put this down to knowing what i have and not wasting so much food.

newgirly

Hi nto, it was your white board that gave me the idea I've just had a good rummage around and its mainly full of odds and ends. I've written it all down and will do a months meal plans but maybe repeat it after 2 weeks. Already batch cooked 4 big portions of spag bol for dh and the same for ds2 (who might try it with blended hidden onion and celery ) Will do 4 lots of sausage casserole's when the freezer reject sausages have defrosted.

I think I might try and cook fresh for the kids every night as they don't eat most freezer friendly meals with sauce/gravy etc. but have a big supply of homemade ready meals for us which means we can also eat what we like as dh eats meat and I don't.

Luckily my parents have 4 chickens that lay really well, and they don't eat hardly any eggs, so at the moment I'm getting at least 12 a week which helps too.