MFW newbie....

[Deleted User]

Mornin all
thought Id update to keep myself motivated
managed to do a big stock up of food last week so should last us till at least xmas and balance out the budget for food shops - have deiniftley learnt the art of where to go for what rather than just sticking to one supermarket for everything! might try making a couple of loaves of bread as well so we dont have to do much pre-xmas food shopping..dont mind making them by hand but the breadmaker is still beyond me- though I know some people swear by it!
not too much snow here (not enough for a snowman anyway! ) but has made the roads a bit icy and not going out unless I have to
savings looking good- have almost 2 months wages now for an emergency fund of kinds! which I reckon should be enough for now ... plus we have set a joint account up to save for bigger house/emergencies in this one
on the mrtyo brain washing front ! something has obviously made an impact as he has been adding and budgeting like anything and is now OPing his mortgage! :rotfl:
I feel so much happier now that we are more secure financially and know that even if something big happened again we would manage it , it is lovely knowing we can live within our means and also , if we needed to we could pretty much survive on one salary ...need to not get carried away and overstretch with whenever we next buy (I made a big mistake with this buying my first place to the point that the day after being paid there was almost nothing left in my a/c for food, spending or petrol!)
had a not very MSE haircut this week but it is lovley! plus I got some freebies with it and a voucher off the next visit so feel it was worth the money!
quiet weekend, friends bday tomorrow so need to get a bottle for that but one of us will drive so no other expenses really
xmas mostly sorted and wrapped now so just trying to enjoy the run up to it ....
gonna have a play with finances when I next get paid to think about plans for next yr to think how much we can OP/save having taken out my spending money and transfered everything else into savings this month seems to have worked well - if its sitting in my current account I think I can spend it!
hope evryone is ok in this snow and have a great weekend
tyo

Radish72

Well done on the [STRIKE]brain washing[/STRIKE] discussions with MR TYO about him also O/P his mortgage. It will all help when you want the bigger house. :rotfl:

Think it took me about 12 months with BF to encourgage him to O/P, and now he does at least all his overtime money each month plus a bit extra. Think this year he has knocked off £6K of the total.

CathT

Very well done on truly converting Mr TYO, i would like to think my DH does stuff like that when I'm not looking but I very much doubt it!

It's quite exciting thinking about targets for 2011 isn't it?

[Deleted User]

Thanks guys
Radish- yep something seems to have worked! your OH seems to be doing great with 6K off in a year! fingers crossed for bigger houses and sales on yours for 2011 eh?!

Cath - you never know whatll happen and whatll rub off so dont give up on the brainwashing ....:rotfl: I think he may now be more obsessed with me on finances at the mo!

cheap weekend, friends party tonite but am full of cold (still not shifting after a week and a half now!) so not sure how late itll be! then probably a relaxing day tomorrow, may pop into town to meet a friend but other than that vegging I think. need to do a food shop at some point but trying to wait till mid month (so another week) so I can start my next months budget! so the next week could be an interesting combination of meals methinks!

[Deleted User]

Some pre-xmas clubcard vouchers recieved today so nice surprise - will have a look at the rewards or possibly use them in store as we have spent a bit more this month on food shops!
also got my voucher for amazon ....so looking forward to spending that on a little something for me! (in fact I may have a look at the de-clutter book people were talking about- any recommendations?)
got about £25 left to last till xmas and 3 xmas lunches to go to (gonna need to stretch the money for this one! :rotfl: ) and need to budget on the food shop this month- although we have massively stocked cupboards so it may well come in under the £100!
Keeping a spending diary has been illuminating ... much of it goes on "silly" little things like sweets, cans of drinks, makeup cold and flu medicines! or parking! Also a lot of it this month has gone on extra top ups to shopping so need to re-evaluate next month when everything is all back on track!

Done well with the freebies lately - lots of little sample bottles of shampoo, perfume etc am fairly well stocked now for next year I think! I am constantly amazed what you can get for free!

End of Jan give me a clear sense of what I have over each month and start the OPing properly! I like the 2011 challenges mine are definitely around savings and improving my health and fitness!!!

no more other MF news but figured rambling along to myself everyday is helpful! :rotfl:

Radish72

Here's to 2011 then :j

I am thinking 2011 should be more along the lines of Health & Happiness to, as 2009 and this year seem to have been all about decorating, reducing spends, OP mortgage as much as possible, moving (erm that hasn't happened :rotfl:)

I need to lose weight, exercise, and find new thing to do or try at weekends that make me happy

So I will enjoy your ramblings

[Deleted User]

Glad you are happy to listen to my ramblings Radish- I wont wait to be asked twice! :rotfl:

I need to start exercising too , and just generally being more healthy -now Im on my way to 30 I cant treat my body like I did when I was a teenager and expect it to like it!

suffering a bit this weekend with flu which meant cancelling 2 lots of plans to see friends which Im dissapointed about , have been feeling pretty rough.. I know its the time of year for it but feeling a bit miserable nonetheless - not helped by guilt as it seems Ive passed on my germs to mrtyo -poor man! tho he was well enough to go and buy us some lemsip and me a few trashy girly magazines earlier- sure thatll help!! :rotfl:

so no MF activity other than saving money from not going out of the house - just need to be better by Monday!!

twinklie

Get well soon wishes coming your way honeypie!

tootallulah

Hope that you feel better soon, have a good quiet time recovering so as to be ready for a wild Christmas!

museumworker

Get well soon! And trashy mags are a well known cure for the common cold