Our attempt at being MF!!

CathT

£50 y0ugov money has arrived and sent straight to the mortgage. It's a bit of a slog earning it but makes for a good OP.

Living frugally day to day at the moment and food stores lasting well.

Best wake the children, they are either still exhausted from holiday or finally good sleepers!

CathT

Life is busy at the moment and struggling a bit with time management after getting used to switching off on holiday! Diet is terrible and no exercise has been done!

However, we have booked another holiday :j we are going back to Spain in September. The budget says we can afford it so why not!

Expensive weekend as DD needed new football boots as had outgrown hers (ds can have hers as he is quickly catching up with her) £42 spent! We need to spend another £14 at football today and it definitely adds up. Piano fees also due this week. I now understand why myself and siblings didn't get the opportunity to do anything outside of school!

Hoping the sun makes an appearance later, I'm feeling rather overwhelmed and sunshine always seems to help.

newgirly

Hi cath, glad you had a good holiday, plus another booked as well :T We all need a bit of a splurge sometimes and you are doing the right thing. My lot now don't want to go away with us when I finally feel ready to ease off the mortgage more and have more fun, typical!

CathT

All about timing isn't it NG. I know we only have a few more years of the type of holiday we are enjoying as a family.

Payday is approaching so done a bit of a money shuffle to release spare funds. Another £120 paid off the holiday, I am tracking on a page in my A5 diary, not very technical or sophisticated but it works for us. Hopefully I can find some more payments before payday.

CathT

Morning, got 50 points on y0ugov yesterday, food spends remain low and ee are scraping through the last few days until payday. I think I'm going to withdraw the £1400 in our s&s ISA to go towards the holiday as our other option is to suspend our £300 monthly mortgage overpayment which I would prefer not to do. Will run it by dh before I do it but I don't see him disagreeing!

Have started a squat and plank exercise challenge, I'm only on day 2 but 55 squats and a 20 second plank already completed. Diet is healthy but only managing 2 litres of water and I aim for 3 litres daily, will rectify that from today

Countdown to the weekend is on, have a 3 day weekend to look forward to and weather forecast is great so going to make he most of it. Planters in the garden are bursting with colour and sweet peas are growing well, I need to support them better though so will tackler that tomorrow. Thankfully the lawn has grown back well from the builders digging half of it up so all in all the garden looking good and ready to be enjoyed.

Happy Friday everyone :j

CathT

Lost a post earlier :mad: so trying again now.

Not that much to report, payday for both of us this week so hopefully be able to pay a chunk off the holiday and set a frugal budget. We do have a night out with friends planned this month but childcare will be the biggest expense at £8 an hour :eek::eek: it's a good job we don't go out very often!

Weather continues to be glorious here and I've spent most of the weekend outside. Have tried to get jobs done early in the day before it gets too hot. Am sure it is hotter for you further South! Mowed the lawns this weekend but today managed to break the lawnmower! We have a big problem with stones in the lawn I just can't seem to get rid of following the build, however the lawnmower broke when I was doing near the driveway edging! I have a track record for breaking things on father's day :rotfl:

Have just taken the children to a local park expecting it to be busy but it was really quiet and they had a fab time playing. Quick walk with them on their scooters was enough before hey got too hot and needed to come home for an ice cream.

On the to do list today is tackle childcare for the summer holidays, one of my least favourite jobs!

newgirly

We just drove by our local park and it was empty, I think it's just too hot , outside temperature was reading at 44 half an hour ago :eek:

CathT

newgirly wrote: »

We just drove by our local park and it was empty, I think it's just too hot , outside temperature was reading at 44 half an hour ago :eek:

It's been hot enough here newgirly, the heat down south must be unbearable. It's been a bit cooler here today but I didnt mind as I was in work! Payday for dh and there were errors again. It was quickly resolved but as he clocks in and out I don't understand the errors! Paid another £120 off the holiday, good to see the balance coming down have sold some isa funds to pay a big chunk off. We never had plans for that money and I think it's worthwhile.

We've also made a decision to have a cleaner and she's starting next month, I'm really looking forward to a shiny and sparkling house. We both work full-time and dh is busy extra-curricular stuff and our days just disappear.

50p on youg0v, small but consistent steps

CathT

Well doesn't the weather make a difference! Last weekend was spent at barbecues, water parks and paddling pools and generally enjoying the hot weather. Today we have been to the zoo and I wore jumper, coat and my boots!

S&S ISA money is on the way to the current account, we have both been paid and plan to live within our means! We have an expensive weekend next week as have a night out and childcare to pay for. We've also organised childcare for over the Summer, still have two days to sort but main cost is £253 for both children so not too bad and I'm just relieved it's sorted!

I managed to break our lawnmower last weekend so still have that to sort out but am tempted to get someone to mow the lawn for us! It's not been right since the building work and I'm undoing all the good work when I cut it! Buds are appearing on the sweet peas and we have 4 courgette flowers so last weekends sunshine has definitely helped.

Not feeling too great at the moment and some self care is needed so am going to curl up on the sofa with a book, a nap is also a possibility!

No wine for us this weekend and we actually hada nicer evening as we didn't fall asleep amdn managed to watch a film so think we will mostly continue with that. Wine also doesn't fit my macros and fitness is a priority for me, that reminds me I've not drunk any water yet today. I am so much better with the routine of work!

CathT

Been awake since 3:30am so it's going to be a long day! My sleep patterns aren't very good at the moment and I'm exhausted before 9pm each evening. Even dh is staying awake longer than me and he's up ridiculously early for work each day.

ISA money paid off the credit card so most of holiday is paid off before we need to pay the rest of the deposit for our 2018 holiday.

150 points on youg0v last two days, still a long way to go but worth it when I reach payout!

Sweet peas are starting to bloom in the garden so am looking forward to being able to pick them and have them in the house.

Keeping day to day spending low and not spending huge amounts on food so that's helping us to strike the balance.