Pay off mortgage and start having fun!

newgirly

I am sooo tired! Work went really well, although the drive home was a bit hair raising as I got to the top of the road the factory is in and the sat nav died so I had to navigate myself back from London to home :eek:
Pizza wine and white chapel tonight , plus a good catch up on diaries

newgirly

Very chilly this morning, its not go be long before we have to start thinking about putting the heating on, I am hoping to wait until maybe the start of nov. the meter has not been read for ages and even though its been a hot summer my kids have spent half their time have very long showers while I bang on the door to get them out

Anyway, as part of my " get more organised" routine I shall include reading the meter in a set date every month, I did used to do it weekly but that may be overkill!

I'm trying to weigh up the mse stuff I do (for money saving or because I enjoy it) to see what I should continue to do and what should be dropped due to having less time.

Not currently going to stick with list:


Doing surveys, never remember and don't enjoy

Meal planning more than a week in advance, confusing to keep track of

Batch cooking lots of different meals so I have a freezer full


Stick with it list:



Baking bread in bread maker everyday or two to supplement the sliced stuff the kids use for toast

Follow flyladying and a daily routine of bathroom/kitchen quick tidying

Reading diaries from lovely mfw's

Not using the tumble dryer-use the low energy heated airer

Thick fleeces on top of duvets and heating off a lot at night and when kids at school, daytime dressing gown over clothes wearing when alone

Shop at Aldi and meal plan for the week around what has taken my fancy and what's in offer that week.

Check bank accts daily and make daily op's - even if its 10p a day

Set a grocery budget and stick to it

Resist buying for pleasure and stick with buying stuff that is needed

Making packed lunches

Using orange weds for cinema trips

Shop for Xmas all year round- its money saving and you have more time to get the right gifts.

Start knitting/sewing again in the evenings, its fun and stops me drinking wine and eating chocolate :rotfl:


That's all I can think of at the moment , I think I might also set a challenge for the least quarter of the year to live off a fixed amount, I have done it in previous years end it has worked well, back later

newgirly

I've been in all day making financial plans for the rest of the year, the wages go in on the 24th of each month but working it out I have found that if I count from the 22nd sept then its exactly 100 days to the end of this year. It's always good to have a nice round figure

So I've decided to attempt a budget of £15 a day for that period for food , drink ,clothes , treats , petrol and everything else everyday we need not included in the bills.

We have lots of stuff to pay it for the rest of this year due to the building work , christmas and 2 nights away at alton towers at Halloween, plus a couple of xmas meals out , that lot is not going to be included for obvious reasons.

Starting this December we will go back to repayment extending the term from a fictional 8 years to 23 years and 9 months. This is to allow for the fact that in January we will op the 2x 0 % cc's.

The loan will be cleared in April 2017 then if the loan and cc repayments are snowballed it gives an end date of dec 2025 when I will be 50 and dh 52.

Roll on some frugal cooking , using up the freezer contents , homebaking, laundry gloop making and drink less wine challenges to see me through to the end of the year:D

MallyGirl

Sounds like a plan

[Deleted User]

Sounds great newgirly am up for some challenges pre-xmas too!

newgirly

Oh good tyo any ideas for other challenges?

newgirly

So today I have started with the £15 a day budget, I may as well get used to sticking to the same amount before the challenge starts.

So far spent: £7.14 on a drivethrough mc d's for the kids lunch as a treat, not very mse but its horrid and wet.

Ds2 has a friend over this afternoon, other than that nothing on except running dd around a bit. I've just had a look online and one of my fav Xmas shops is open in a garden centre nearby. It's a huge one that opens in August usually and has many big different themed displays so I may have to drive over and have a look :xmassmile I am planning some Xmas crafting soon so I need to get in the mood.:D

newgirly

Ds2 's friend didn't turn up today which was a bit mean, not even a text we went to to the garden centre which was fantastic but didn't buy a single bauble.

I did stop at choice n the way home (the next sort of outlet shop) and bought a massive round mirror with wooden fretwork for £10 , a few tiny chips In The varnish in places but not a problem as I was going to chalk paint it anyway. When I got home I looked it up and its still on sale for £125 :eek: its going to go on the back wall above the bed when the new room is finished.

So far we have 2x large handmade pine cupboards
2x antique pine bedside tables
1x Antique pine dressing table with heart shaped carved drawers
An original cast iron Victorian antique bed

All for free , plus the ten quid mirror, not bad so far :beer:

newgirly

I've just had a great result with s*y tv. Online they are dong a 1 month free movies channel trial if you sign up for a year I believe. So I rang them up and asked about the offer (that i didn't want to sign up for ) and they gave me 3x months free with no obligation to continue :T

Every year we have sky for 3x months mid oct onwards for all the Xmas movies etc. and it's usually £8 (half price) pm for that period so this is a big bonus. Only downside is we may have t pay for an extra month as it runs out a couple of weeks before Xmas. It's nice to have on cold Sundays when we want to chill out indoors. We already have about 20 movies on record

Today I'm doing a roast £4.99 ald* free range chicken , lots of washing and ironing, putting fresh sheets on the bed ( always best on a Sunday to have fresh sheets, not sure why!) nagging to get homework done, feeding mum and dads cats/chickens as they are all away and taking my gran out for coffee if she wants to go, as she usually sees mum on a Sunday. Hope everyone is having a good weekend

greent

Busy day, today, then - but sounds like all nice 'family' stuff

Great result on 5ky x