Zeddy's MFW diary

twinklie

Zeddy wrote: »

I sold a DVD on amazon, although I'm not going to count this money as it was a DVD I bought yesterday to watch on NYE, so it goes against the cost to give me a cheaper rental figure of 51p!

Roll on tomorrow for some more money making/saving!

Thats an excellent idea. I like it...but I'll never part with the DVD's if I bloomin bought them. I'm such a bad moneymaker. Grrr...

Zeddy

Today has been a good day, we went over to my MIL for lunch, a good roast, but she uses way too much salt for my tastes. It's about a 45 min drive away so we needed to fill up with petrol. It pains me to see the price of fuel - we spent £56 on petrol - it will be interesting to see how long this lasts us.

We have two cars, a family size ford focus, which MrZ used during the week to go to work and takes MissZ to nursery in and we then use the car at the weekend for family trips and I have a Fiat punto which I use during the week for work and for work travelling, which I used to be able to claim back 28p a mile, but the directors have just agreed to pay 40p a mile from the new year, which will make a large difference to income.

When we move house, MrZ and MissZ will walk to nursery/work, so the Focus will only be used really at weekends or on our days off in the week, which should cut down a bit on petrol bills as I think this is the more uneconomical car (actually I think a lot of it is due to MrZ's driving, he, naturally disputes this). My journey will be about double the distance it is now, but if my car/driving is more economical and one longer journey is more economical than two shorter ones, hopefully our fuel bill will drop.****A little caveat - I know nothing about cars, so this could all be complete rubbish!****

We budget £140 a month for fuel, but I find this hard to measure, given the travel I do for work which I get reimbursed and my monthly travel from work varies greatly month by month.

I'm currently trying to decide whether to subscribe to Delicious food magazine, I had it last year on subscription as a gift, but this hasn't been renewed so I bought the magazine yesterday for £3.50. I would imagaine I would buy the magazine each month or at least 10 out of the 12 copies, so it makes sense to subscribe, I've found an offer for £28 for 12 issues, which comes with a free gift that I think I could sell on ebay for £6-7, which would make each issue less than £2.00 - in fact writing it down has convinced me - I should buy it! Off to do this now.

originalmiscellany

Enjoyed reading your posts zeddy - so many posts in such a short space of time. One thing MrsOM has done is use Tesco vouchers to buy subscriptions for family and friends - which costs us "virtual" money only, and the presents are always much appreciated...

Petrol is a shock isn't it. We filled up and spent what felt like a fortune compared to 3 weeks ago when we filled up last time. Ouch.

Hope your ebaying is a great success Zeddy.

cha97michelle

I feel you on the fuel costs. DH runs an estate car and it costs about £90 to completely fill it with diesel. It eats better than we do. I just try and cut corners elsewhere to compensate.

We can't just use my smaller car though, as we fill the boot when we go anywhere. Mine is full just putting in the buggy so we could never then fit in other stuff.

katsu

Zeddy - check if you can get it with Mr T vouchers and see how that compares. I get one of my subs that way so it is free to me

pavlovs_dog

Zeddy wrote: »

I struggle with budgets, I'm not sure I make them realistic, my problem is I always seem to live within my means and have some money left over in savings. I know that I should be able to meet the different budgets in my life, such as grocery, but struggle with it

why don't you come and join us on the GROCERY CHALLENGE? Making yourself 'answerable' to someone is often a great motivator

Zeddy wrote: »

My other issue is the debate I constantly have with myself over doing enjoyable things, versus saving. A good example is yesterday a friend asked if me and MissZ wanted to go to the zoo with her family, the zoo is about 45 minute drive, so there's the petrol and the entry was about £15 part of me thought if I didn't go we wouldn't spend any money, but the other part of me thought MissZ would love it and I would enjoy it too, so we went. I have these debates all the time, and 99% it's the same outcome, that we go. So I guess although I am a MFW, I'm afraid I'm not going to be one with fantastic figures each month.

if there's one thing I've learned from reading other MF diaries on here is that you HAVE to have balance. Yes, goals are very motivating when you hit them, but if there is no leeway in the budget for you to actually enjoy life now and again people seem to quickly fall off the wagon and end up spending way more than they'd bargained for. budget some 'fun and frolics' money into your monthly budget, and ensure you spend it enjoying time with your husband or as a family - you may be able to shave years off the mortgage quicker by not spending that money, but you'll never get the time lost back. there is SO much more to life than simply OPing the mortgage, don't ever feel guilty for investing time or funds in the people you love

gallygirl

Welcome Zeddy :j. You sound v switched on and have a sensible approach - yes, you could pay off your mortgage quicker without holidays and days out but life is for living - it's all about finding a balance that works for you. Then getting what you've decided on as cheaply as possible.

cha97michelle wrote: »

I feel you on the fuel costs. DH runs an estate car and it costs about £90 to completely fill it with diesel. It eats better than we do.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Zeddy

Thanks everyone for the suggestion of using the MrT vouchers for the subscription, unfortunatly I cashed them all in for food and attraction vouchers before Christmas, so haven't got any at the moment to use, so I have just bit the bullet and ordered the subscription and will ebay the free gift once it arrives and put that towards the cost of the subscription.

Zeddy

cha97michelle wrote: »

I feel you on the fuel costs. DH runs an estate car and it costs about £90 to completely fill it with diesel. It eats better than we do. I just try and cut corners elsewhere to compensate.

We can't just use my smaller car though, as we fill the boot when we go anywhere. Mine is full just putting in the buggy so we could never then fit in other stuff.

We have exactly the same problem with our small car. Also the car seat MissZ uses is pretty much fixed to the larger car so I wouldn't even konw where to start to move it.

People try to warn you about this before you have children, but I never really believed them when they said I'd never be able to travel light for a few years!

Zeddy

pavlovs_dog wrote: »

why don't you come and join us on the GROCERY CHALLENGE? Making yourself 'answerable' to someone is often a great motivator




if there's one thing I've learned from reading other MF diaries on here is that you HAVE to have balance. Yes, goals are very motivating when you hit them, but if there is no leeway in the budget for you to actually enjoy life now and again people seem to quickly fall off the wagon and end up spending way more than they'd bargained for. budget some 'fun and frolics' money into your monthly budget, and ensure you spend it enjoying time with your husband or as a family - you may be able to shave years off the mortgage quicker by not spending that money, but you'll never get the time lost back. there is SO much more to life than simply OPing the mortgage, don't ever feel guilty for investing time or funds in the people you love

You've convinced me, I'm off to join the Grocery challenge!

Thanks for the words of encouragement re spending and saving. At the moment we think we'll just stick with MissZ and I so love spending time with her and as a family. I went back to work full time originally as I thought I wanted/needed all the money but after 6 months I realised there was more to life and now do not work Fridays, so the day is just the two of us and I love it, it is so worth the loss in income.