Our attempt at being MF!!

newgirly

Hi cath, I'm not sure what you are oping each month but maybe aim to knock off the 20 months as a minimum?

Have a great half term week

CathT

Good idea, thanks newgirly. That would take us until February 2027 ( I think). New fix ends March 2024 and our balance would be 34k so we have a lot of work to do! Did send another 50p tilly tidy earlier as payments debited the current account.



Payday for dh tomorrow, he's had a 6% payrise and some overtime so have sent £300 to the t3sco card. Haven't left ourselves a huge amount in the current account (£127.50 - thinking of siphoning off the £27.50 for another OP) but apart from some potential entertainment spends for the rest of half term we've no expenses planned. Small top up shop today so could add bonus vouchers onto n3ctar card. Just bought yellow sticker items, yoghurts for myself and the children and a yummy feta and beetroot sandwich (69p) for tomorrows lunch, am sure it will still be delicious a day past its sell by date! Have added 2700 points onto Mr S card today with more to be added which will be used for Christmas shopping. Thinking ahead to next month, I will have a payrise and some back pay and dh has a 5 week pay month.





Right, time for a herbal tea and a couple of chapters of my book before bed. Working again tomorrow and want to go to the gym straight from work so don't want too late a night. Gym bag lives in my boot so I have no excuses. Can feel yesterday's workout in my legs today so it was definitely worth increasing my weights.


October spends

Supermarket £255.95
Fuel £148.19
Total £404.14/500

CathT

Another busy day but have 5 wonderful days off to look forward to now. Have quite a few jobs to do so have made a note in my phone rather than have them swimming round my head now, with me unable to recall them tomorrow.

Went to the gym after work, was so tempted not to as legs feel tired from Sunday but went and just did upper body. Increased my weights for bicep curls and lat pull down so pleased with that. Then headed to Mr S so could add on another 700 bonus points, for some reason it gave me 710? Spent £5.68 on crumpets (great macros), rescues turkey rashers and cooked chicken. Also got two small loaves for 25p which will do lunches for a few days so have just put them in the feeezer. Freezer looking pretty packed so may do a mini inventory and meal plan tomorrow. This will help keep food costs down until next payday.

So, apart from work, gym, supermarket, preparing and eating a delicious dinner (combination of garlic and herb chicken, salad mix, tomatoes, sweet potato, hummus and sweet chilli sauce) I don't feel like I've achieved much today. Did also watch bake off but that's it!

Sent the £25 overpayment I was debating. Will update spreadsheet tomorrow and try and set some mini goals/targets.

October spends
Supermarket £261.63
Fuel £148.19

CathT

Just edited a typo on my post nd saw my comment about the list on my phone. I'd forgotten I'd done this, there is no hope :rotfl:


N@tionwide account is up and running so have also opened a 5% saver and transferred some funds from a 3% saver held elsewhere. Sent a couple of tilly tidies and also the difference in our energy direct debit which was another £12.80 sent to the mortgage. Our energy use is climbing so from the money I get each month from mum I am going to send some to b*gas to try and avoid any direct debit hikes further down the line.


Will need to pop to Mr S again over the next dew days to add on our remaining 500 point vouchers but will keep these top up shops to yellow sticker items and absolute essentials where possible. Have got some chicken out of the freezer to make a curry for dinner. We usually have bags and bags of frozen peas due to the c0-0p deals but i could only find dregs to go with my dinner last night so we have surprisingly run those stocks down!


Off to a NT property to meet a friend this morning which I am looking forward to. Will keep spends to an absolute minimum preferably zero as will take snacks. I might even take a flask of coffee as indulged in a hot chocolate last time which was tasteless.


Right, off to be productive for a bit and see what I wrote on that list :rotfl:

apple_muncher

I had a hot choc out somewhere quite recently, and was disappointed with its taste. Certainly not a 'treat' or a 'luxury'; more a 'rather expensive watery drink that I would rather make at home'!

Hope you had a good day out.

CathT

Disappointing isn't it apple. Didn't end up spending anything which was great. Children had a fab time and it was great to get out in what what a lovely autumn day. Small Mr S shop of £1.10 on bananas so I could use my 500 point voucher.

Pumpkins carved and one just hollowed out to use as a vase. Seen the idea on bookface and it looks quite effective. Shame I chose a wobbly pumpkin that doesn't have a flat bottom! Still looks seasonally good though. Will make a squash soup over next few days to use up the scooped out pumpkin. Need to look through the freezer tomorrow to do some meal planning as didn't really get anything done off my list today. Did have a fab time meeting up with a friend though.

Plan for tomorrow is ring doctors, go to gym with both children and remove all Halloween type items from the house. We don't have much but there are bits dotted around.

I'm trying to find the balance between using my extra days off productively and having some well earned relaxing time!

October spends

Supermarket £262.73
Fuel £148.19
Total £410.92/500

CathT

Well I never made it to the gym yesterday due to a headache and low blood sugar (think it's hormonal) but it meant I ate loads. I tracked it all though, my mfp was on fire yesterday! ds is being referred to ENT so hopefully the waiting time won't be too long. I think I will get an initial letter with an idea.


Spent £1.50 in Mr S to kick off the monthly spends, was on fizzy pop (for me) and some chocolate for a homeless man who sits there. I've bought him things a few times, know his name and from what I've read about him on our town social media group he has really fallen on hard times. Scary to think that many of us are only a few paychecks away from a similar situation. Also gave him £1.


£4.20 overpayment yesterday from tcb. Have played around with spreadsheet a little and if we can secure a rate of 2.5% after this next secured fix ends in 2024 then we would have an end date of May 2028. Paying off another £20.04 also knocks off another month but as I am already looking ahead to November paydates I am not rushing to pay it! Have booked some tickets to see a very famous comedian we have seen before in our home town so those tickets were £68.



Am planning some frugal food spends to take the edge off and get us a bit closer to payday (currently 3 weeks :rotfl:. There may be some interesting meal combinations coming up this week!


160 points on y0ugov last few days so am up to £38.95 on there. Currently out of any other money making ideas so it's all about damage limitation! We currently have an available daily spend of £13.61 so am planning a lot of NSD's to improve that daily amount.


Anyone else have any November challenges???




November spends



Supermarket £16.46
Fuel

apple_muncher

Cath - have a look at the NST November challenge by mothernerd. It may give you some ideas.

greent

CathT wrote: »

Am planning some frugal food spends to take the edge off and get us a bit closer to payday (currently 3 weeks :rotfl:. There may be some interesting meal combinations coming up this week!

Are the rest of your household ok with 'interesting' meals? My OH won't entertain such a thing - but as he is away 2 nights and often late back for another I eat them myself. DS1 was also good for eating up random things - and DD great at little bits n pieces which are hanging around. DS2 & DS3 are both rubbish at eating out of their normal ranges!

I'm aiming to keep spends low this month (exc Xmas spends) most of our half term break went on 0% CC and whilst I have the money in an account to pay it off, I'd like to keep as much in there as possible I shall be raiding the freezer and the back of the cupboards to use things up - a tin of kidney beans which has been hanging around made Jack Monroe's burgers today (with grated carrot frozen last year! ) and (OH is asleep and just wants cereal when he wakes up) my dinner was a cheese omelette with garlic-y mushrooms and new potatoes fried off in frylight and a wee bit of garlic butter. The potatoes were in the bottom of the fridge and the best before date on the bag was in July…….:o:o

CathT

I'll have a look for that, thanks Apple. I always like to read yours too so will pop over.

It's mostly me greent that eats the odd stuff. Rest of family are happy with repetitive meals so veg curry might feature a little. Dh did buy wine last night but assures me that came out of his personal spends.

Small food shop yesterday to add on final 500 points voucher, will now have £100 worth of vouchers to spend at the double up event.

Found £2 in each of the hally reward accounts. Think they'll be used for a switch in the not too distant future! Overpaid the £4, checked mortgage balance and corrected spreadsheet as fd balance was in my favour. Another overpayment of £3.53 will knock a month off. I could do this now but I've set myself a challenge for average daily spends! Yesterday we had an average of £13.61 daily spends remaining and after the food shop and a new day our new average is £14.09.

Went to view a house with my lovely mum yesterday. Looked great in RM but didn't meet mums standards. I kindly suggested she up her budget as wanted a lot for her money. It's strange how just a little extra in the budget can bring you up into completely different housing stock. Found a couple of contenders but there's no rush.

Plan for the weekend is gym (not been since Tuesday) so hoping to do a full workout and the same tomorrow which isn't ideal due to rest times. On track to lose another 1lb this week even though I've stopped the 'fat loss' stage! Never mind, I'll just enjoy losing fat on extra calories!