Pay off mortgage and start having fun!

newgirly

Hi southcoast, hijack away! £560 is amazing :T

Hi vix, thanks for that I will take a look

Tired today after a 3am invasion of houseguests unable (or too broke!) to get home after a night clubbing with ds1, not noisy really just I’m light sleeper, two of them are in ds2’s bed as he’s not here with the cat asleep with them :rotfl:

Resisted a pub lunch with dh today, we went out for tea and toast in c@sta for breakfast instead. Using the cineworld cards today to see Star Wars which he’s already seen

I’m about to make a veggie chilli in the slow cooker, I’m desperate for an Indian takeaway so there needs to be something to guilt trip me into not caving in!

newgirly

Star wars was great, but the chilli was not switched on by the plug when we got home luckily I found random frozen curries and we had those instead, so takeaway disaster avoided

No update from hsb@ as to whether I have been accepted for a bank account yet, I also need to find out what date the statements will be on the new cc. I have a rough estimate of flooring costs from dad who got a quote from the branch in York (no idea why he chose York as we live in Essex!) it has come out at £988 without the skirtings or underlay we also need, If I can stick to the food and grocery budget of £10 a day until 5th feb then we should have about £1300, it will be a close call!

Stopped off to buy milk on the way home from the cinema and -confession time- went into choice next door as they had a sale on, bought a blush pink cord denim style jacket originally m&s for £5 and a t@pshop khaki denim style shirt for £3.75 , I had been after a pink casual jacket in the next sale but couldn’t get one, both items fit with the capsule wardrobe though in style and colour

Today’s plan:

Check finances , as always, just I case somebody unexpectedly pays money into the current account :rotfl:

Do a lot of ironing and strip a couple of beds

List stuff on eBay, apparently ending Sunday night is the way to go

Clean and hoover loft room

newgirly

Ironing done, and a bit of prepping for the week :

2x roast dinners (yellow stickered small bit of gammon) for dh and ds1 tomorrow

Batch cooked veggie chilli

2x tubs of pesto pasta for boys for work

3 tubs of cauliflower and chickpea balti

4 tubs of courgette and orange pepper pasta

Bag of potatoes roasted for the freezer


As it happens four of them have turned up hungry just now so the dinners might diminish a bit, I know dhs gammon dinner has already been snaffled! it’s impossible to meal plan in this house, there’s either too many people or too many dinners and nobody’s here for days, not everything is easily cooked from frozen or even very nice afterwards...

The eBaying has hit a blip temporarily, I took loads of photos early on today ready to list tonight , when I went to do it all the photos were very blurry, I’ll need to go again in daylight!

Dh defiantly accepted for the new account and apparently I’m still being reviewed. 16p opd today from top cashback, not much else to report

themadvix

Well done on resisting the takeaway, but that’s virtually a whole day’s money spent in the clothes! Or is there a different pot for that?

newgirly

There is no other pot for that, however I paid for best friends birthday present with gift vouchers so have taken it from the birthdays pot, still not ideal but they were cheap and what I was after But please feel free to keep an eye on me as I do struggle to not buy clothes

Meeting aunts, mum and dd today for coffee, will use points on c@sta card, then hopefully taking the dogs out with best friend for a long walk to burn off some Xmas excess if she’s free, a bit of mopping and a last rest before back to work tomorrow.

I’ve been reading Frugalwoods blog since yesterday, i know there’s someone on the mfw board that reads it too (can’t remember who!) it has a lot that’s not relevant to my lifestyle and is quite hardcore,but there is some useful advice in there. When I first started here there were quite a few frugal blogs I read, many of them have disappeared now - mortgage free in three was a great one.

Does anyone have any tips on good frugal blogs, Especially any uk ones? I’m also going to make more time reading mfw and old style threads and diaries, hopefully the good mse stuff will counteract the usual day to day life stuff that screams “spend money” at us all the time :rotfl:

lulabelle1

Hi Newgirly

There is a blog by The Escape Artist that might provide you with some useful/interesting reading.

I’d also recommend a few podcasts; The Minimalists and possibly even Dave Ramsay and Chris Hogan.

Those would make a good start. There’s loads more around if you find any of this interesting.

I started my journey on here around 10 years ago but I’ve only really discovered the light so to speak in the next few years when I really started to question my consumption and motivations.

Good luck, I hope some of it resonates ��

newgirly

That’s brilliant thanks lulabelle1, I shall take a look

themadvix

Fair enough about exchanging vouchers for birthday present for cash for clothes - that seems entirely reasonable.

I read Frugalwoods, among others. Thanks for the podcast recommendations Lulabelle - I'm definitely a minimalist, so will check out their podcast too.

South_coast

Not a financial blog as such, but Becoming Minimalist is a good read as it encourages buying less of everything, with the knock-on being less money spent

newgirly

Ah it must have been you I was thinking of vix

Hi southcoast, thanks I will take a look at becoming minimalist.

What a day/night. Back to work, top up shop and then rush home to meet a builder - dad has offered to get his builder (not the really dodgy one, a slightly dodgy one ) to lay the floor instead of dh, initially I said thanks but no thanks but I know it would help dh out a lot. So reluctantly (or rather ungratefully) he’s starting next week and we need to clear the room out this weekend and I think we may strip the walls too as it needs skirting boards. We also need to get a proper quote for everything needed.

Then ds1 finally let me tackle his knotted hair, he’s got very long hair he’s been wearing in a bun for the last couple of months, and it was so knotty that we had to cut it off :eek: followed by three hours of combing through conditioner and it’s a state he can go for a haircut tomorrow. What a plonker.

Finally come 10.45 ds2 gets in the main shower and it leaks through the ceiling, we don’t know why so know I am on the second out of a queue of five waiting to use my en-suite which is in our bedroom while I wait in bed, dds boyfriend walked in and saw sitting in bed and thought it was hilarious!

Some days just seem crazier than others :rotfl:

In mortgage news I’ve been refunded the missing £12 from the company that incorrectly refunded an order so I’ve overpaid that and it only took about 10 emails :cool:

I’ve cooked everything from scratch again and reheated batch cooked at the weekend meals and made healthy lunches for work :A we are getting there one step at a time