Ladies & Gentlemen, please fasten your seatbelts ...

hypno06

I bought the annual passes with some of my vouchers this year and it was well worth it - with my others I have been buying restaraunt vouchers and have thoroughly enjoyed eating out as I wouldn't have done so before

benbenandme

It was partly your summer trip that persuaded me to go for the passes Hypno

The Asda delivery arrived just after 5, a couple of substitutions that went back and also when I went through the sheet they had charged me £5 for delivery even though the confirmation email clearly shows £2. The delivery driver couldn't do anything about it so I have to call them tomorrow :mad: This is what annoys me about online deliveries, why should I have to call them and chase up their mistakes? :cool:

The clubcard stuff has brightened my mood today though, it feels nice to be treating ourselves I've been thinking about the money I had put away towards the holiday and I think I will use it as a surplus fund, each month I will chuck in anything thats left over from my budget, and hopefully that way I will have some money put aside for any unexpected events. I thik realistically for now the overpayments on the mortgage are going to have to stop. I really hope I find some way of changing this though, maybe I can make the odd payments here and there along the way

benbenandme

Moo2moo, thank you soooo much for the Buses dvd, postie brought it today and it looks fab Ds is gonna absolutely love it :j :j

Today was a normal day at school, nothing major to report. Spends today = £1 on a bagel and £5.45 on stamps for chrsitmas cards and some tortilla wraps.

Lazy night and hopefully an early one tonight, tomorrow night is ds swimming, wednesday is ds school play, thursday possibly a work night out, friday I'm looking after dad for the night as Mums going out.

benbenandme

Ds has his school poay tomorrow and wednesday, tonight he has spent about 3 hours practising his songs Bless him, he's sooo excited

I've spent the time listening and grinning but also completing all the surveys from my inbox I managed a £4 one from p*cone, and several others which have got me that little bit nearer to payout on some others

In bed now, cold but trying to warm up, and hoping to get to the land of nod fairly early tonight.

benbenandme

£9.65 profit from the last ongoing matched bet :beer: Another quick update time to keep me on track;

Food: £90 / £200
Petrol: £15 / £60
Other: £36 / £152

The food one isn't looking too great, especially as I struggled to find anything for tea tonight I ordered lots of nibbley bits, and lots of non-food stuff, but not much for meals However, ds is having hot dinners at school on wednesday and friday, will be having tea at mums on thursday and then going to his dads at the weekend, so I don't need to worry too much.

The 'other' column is looking healthy and I like the idea of keep adding to my available total for that column I do need to pay the other £10 of my work xmas meal this week too though.

benbenandme

Evening all, just off out to ds swimming lesson, but have redeemed £3 into paypal from a survey site tonight Today has been a nsd so far too.

Food: £90 / £200
Petrol: £15 / £60
Other: £36 / £155

benbenandme

So tonight I have been thinking through next years plans. Clearly it looks as though it isn't going to go to my original plan, HOWEVER .... I've decided to see this as a positive thing, and rather than be down that I won't be able to stay on track in 2011 I want to try to view it as a good thing. Let me try to explain ...

Each year I set myself goals financially to help towards my ultimate goal of being mortgage free by 40. However, as this has beens cuppered by events this year I want it to feel as though the pressure of that has been lifted this time, and instead I want to see it that I have expectations mortgage wise this year (2011). My financial goal for the year is not to get into any debt. Beyond that, if I can overpay something into the mortgage then that would be brilliant. Ideally I'd still love to reach my original target for the year of getting the mortgage down to £22k. Realistically theres not a cat in hells chance of that happening :cool: So ... with just the normal mortgage payments it should reduce from approx £32,500 at the start of the year to roughly just under £30k. I would like to aim to get it down to £27-£28k by the end of the year, at least that way I would feel I'm still attempting to keep up as much as I can, but also its an achievable goal and I won't need to give up before I've begun

Next year is going to be incredibly tight, but in some ways like Hypno I know I do better with this when the pressure is on more So all surveys must be attempted, more mystery shops need to be grabbed, more comps must be entered, more freebies need to be signed up for, matched bets need to keep ticking along nicely and nothing else needs to throw a spanner in the works Come on 2011, I'm ready for ya

hypno06

Bring it on girlfriend

lellybun

That sounds like a fabby plan Benben.

I like the idea of the relaxed, yet still determined manner!

Not putting so much pressure on yourself to achieve unrealistic goals - now the goal posts have changed - I am sure will mean you will still have a successful year and will do brilliantly with your new targets!

Heres to 2011!

Lelly

Smart_Mart

Good call BB....:T

As someone who constantly fails to reach targets that he sets too high for himself, I have found it easier (and more positive generally) to set more achievable targets and thus give myself more chance to reach them.

If I set targets too high and fail to reach them, I lose faith in myself and slip back into my old ways quickly meaning that everything else in life starts to crumble too. What you are doing is, in effect, breaking it down into bite size chunks that are manageable, I wish you both well...:D:beer: