Our attempt at being MF!!

CathT

Thanks Ella, yesterday was just like a normal day with additional food. Much less pressure! Hope you had a lovely Christmas.

£1.25 overpaid this morning from current account Cashback. Although they have lots of offers, I don't utilise many of them so it's nice to have some benefits st least.

I am actually getting tired of eating rubbish and want to get back to routine. Think I'll go to the gym tomorrow and get my head back in the zone.

Today is a work day for me which will help with knowing what day of the week it is. Have a 3 day weekend after this. Working NYE but then off NYD. I'm not a huge new year fan (often in bed early) so this works for me.

Did some rough calculations yesterday. If every year we can knock 2 months off the mortgage (about £1100 in overpayments) our end date is November 2026. If we can stretch to 3 months a year this brings it down to March 2026 which isn't very far away at all. I'd be 43 and dh 49. Maybe that should be our goal as we'll both still be in our 40's.

CathT

Well I'm clearly not tired enough if eating rubbish as it has continued. Am just eating biscuits mindlessly now which is ridiculous when I know how important good nutrition is.

Dh's payslip online and I've decided to spilt any extras between holiday/savings/mortgage/fun spends. Sent £90 to holiday, £90 to mortgage plus the extra few pounds and pennies to round it down. Got a few entries now to update on spreadsheet which should bring the 'knock a month off' figure down quite nicely.

Day off tomorrow and the plan is to declutter and re-organise the house. Hopefully I will get more done than just taking Christmas cards down!

apple_muncher

You could also cut up the cards to make next year's tags...


I was given a lot of gf goodies for cmas, and it is hard to not eat them. Am currently in bham with dd, so no goodies beyond 85% choc with me - apart from dd's dolly mixtures which she is guarding jealously! I'm trying to ensure I move more - not that it counteracts the gluttony, but it might mean I do slightly less of it...! Good luck!

CathT

I think I may need to put a couple of hundred miles between me and treats!

Only popping in quickly as supposed to be decluttering. I've taken down the cards and some decs and am now debating swapping some furniture around but that's never a good idea when dh is in work. I have astonishingly weak upper body strength and usually get myself and a piece of furniture stick somewhere. I am hoping the piece I want to move will 'slide' down the stairs! Will measure up and go from there.

Got a bag of decs to under the bed in spare room (it's a built in high bed so got to maximise our storage space) as there's less risk of spiders making a home in the bag than in the shed. I've also got lots of crafty bits i don't want to get damaged.

Y0ugov money not in yet, says up to 30 days but was much quicker last time. Overpaid 70p this morning and put £90 in savings from dh extra pay. I will need to go back to check out spends for December but they were really low, helped out by my mum buying most of the Christmas food and us not venturing far so fuel spends low too. Don't anticipate a huge amount of spends before end of the month (possibly just alcohol!) so will be ready to set ourselves a challenge for January. Any leftovers will be part of the holiday fund so if that isn't motivation to batch cook/ask ourselves 'do we need that' etc I don't know what else is.

Right, back to tidying/measuring/avoiding biscuits (although I had 3 before popping on here!)

CathT

Not a lot happening here. Feeling lethargic due to too much sitting around and poor food choices.

Have decluttered some more items to my mum's new house so everywhere looking better. All decs down except the christmas tree in the lounge and safely put away.

Dh did a top up shop today spending £13.54. We still leftovers to eat and being treated to a roast dinner tomorrow. Will eat from the freezer as much as possible. We have about 15 chicken breasts we had for free so will get incentive to avoid having 15 home made curries. Am thinking stir fry/fajitas etc.

Nothing to overpay at the moment but have done some financial admin. Moved some savings from a 3% to a 5% account, worked out my student loan should be cleared by March 2027 (potentially earlier payrise permitting). As soon as that's gone that money will be diverted to mortgage number two! Put the childrens' leftover Christmas money into their building society account. Not much in there as they have ISA's but there was no point them spending it for the sake of it.

Dd has a joint birthday party to go to tomorrow so may take ds to the gym for an hour to get us both out of the house. I've never had such a lazy Christmas period but I will be all systems go in the next few weeks when we can reclaim a bedroom and a room downstairs. Children want to change bedrooms so I'm hoping dh and I can have the new extension!

CathT

Today has brought more energy but also more spends!

Dh took dd to a party (with £20 in birthday cards) and I gave £10 to another collection a friend was organising. Popped to h0me b@rgains as wanted to clean the carpet using a tip I'd seen on a Fb group. 'H1nching' is a step too far me but there's some good tips on there. So complete with detergent/conditioner mix and a scrubbing brush I've have cleaned the lounge carpet. Marks have gone and the pile has come back so was worth doing. Bought some cleaners for dishwasher and washing machine too so they have had a deep clean. Also hoovered and z0flora'd my car so that will smell lovely for at least a few days.

Am in limbo now in terms or rearranging furniture until we can completely reclaim the two rooms. I have an idea of what I want to do but no space to do it. Will have to squeeze the jobs into a weekend in the next couple of weeks.

I've definitely peaked too early as shattered now. Have tried to offset the Christmas cake I had with a coffee with a satsuma and a litre of water.

apple_muncher

Was it a whole cake...?:D

A_Frayed_Knot

I could do with a tip for cleaning my hall & stairs carpet, and if you know of a quick way to defrost my freezer, that could be the best news I have heard all day.

You sound like you are steaming through the choirs, while most are just a list in my head atm, just need to find the remedies first then onwards . . .

CathT

It was another large piece of a very large cake so it's possible I've eaten the equivalent of a small Christmas cake this week!! I've taken it to my mums along with two mince pies and an unopened Yule log. I refused to bring any of it back gone again! Had a lovely few hours at my mums new house, she made us a dinner with variety of desserts and it was good to spend time with my brother and sister.

Working tomorrow then going to a friends for a few hours to see the new year in early then home for an early night as dh needs to work New Year's Day. He's not had a break really over Christmas and although I've always known he's a good 'un I've noticed it even more this Christmas.

So we will enter 2019 with no real financial plans made but will set some goals/targets in my new diary. Have bought 2 lucky dips for the eur0millions so our plans may change after Tuesday! If only it was that easy.

CathT

Have you had much time off AFK? I seem to remember you working most of the bank holidays as I read through your diary.

No freezer tips, am assuming/hoping ours is self-defrosting???