A blissful home - mortgage_girl's MF diary

mortgage_girl

...Ooh and I managed to pick up some bargain gifts for my gf this weekend - a £6.00 S@nctuary Sp@ gift set from the 70% B00ts sale and a M@rtina C0le book box set from Smiths for just £2.00 - bargain!

MGx

mortgage_girl

Morning all!

Well January seemed to fly by, I just don't know where the time goes. I mostly managed to stay within budget for the month and seemed to have curbed the pre Christmas spending splurge, I've closed a couple of CC's that I really don't use and have updated my accounts.

I have started to switch to the H*BC Advance account with a view to switching one of my current accounts over but they seem to be taking ages to actually open the account. It may just be me being impatient though as I've not opened up an account for a very long time.

My new fitbit has arrived and I absolutely love it. I went for the charge 2 in the end and it's a huge improvement on the original charge hr and much more comfortable to wear too. I also bought a new running watch from the Am@zon daily deals. It was reduced by 75% and has an inbuilt heartrate tracker which means no more heartrate strap wearing for me. I used vouchers to pay for it and just had to add £25 which I'm hoping to offset through selling my old running watch - hmmm...there's a bit of an extreme frugal theme going on this year! :rotfl:.

In other extreme frugalling news, I popped into M&S last weekend and managed to get £45.00 worth of clothes for the princely sum of £4.00. I had a £30 voucher which I'd received for taking out their credit card, took advantage of some 3 for 2 offers and had a till receipt that gave me £5.00 off a £35.00 spend. :money:They were all things that I wanted and been planning to buy too, so it wasn't an impulse spend.

Right, I hear the kettle calling. Have a lovely Saturday.

MGx

cookie9

Well done on all your bargains MG!

mortgage_girl

Thanks cookie.

MGx

BookWorm

Just wanted to pop by and say hello Are you on h/t this week?

I totally get what you mean about time whizzing past. This year sure seems to be flying :eek:

x

mortgage_girl

Hi BW :hello: it's so lovely to see you. :grouphug::D No we don't break up until Friday, however I've been fighting the lurgey since last Wednesday and it's completely wiped me out this weekend so I don't think I'll be going in tomorrow. I'm hoping that aother day of rest will see me fit for Tuesday.

In not so extreme frugalling news, this is the first week that I've written a meal plan in a long time and we've actually stuck to it so that's a minor victory (and something that I intend to keep going). :T I've also managed to sell another couple of bits on eb@y so that's another £30 profit. I don't think I mentioned my 'grand offsetting plan' in my last post (I think I was too preoccupied with my fitbit - oops) but I'm taking my gf away to Italy for her birthday, as it's a significant one, and I'm trying to offset the cost by selling my unwanted 'treasures', completing surveys etc. It's helping to keep me motivated and is making me reduce the amount of clutter I have...this decluttering seems to go on forever! So my goal is to make about £260 a month, I'm currently at £109 so we'll see how it goes.

I also watched a film yesterday called 'Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things' which has really inspired me to get rid of my excess stuff once and for all...although it's also made me want to buy a few books about minimalism which kind of defeats the object! :rotfl: I am going to reduce the amount of 'stuff' I have - I need to shift this lurgey first though and get some of my energy back.

Hope you're having a chilled Sunday.

MGx

BookWorm

Sorry to hear you have been poorly. Sending you 'well vibes' and hope you are on the mend soon. On the positive side, at least you should be well for h/t

The trip to Italy sounds lovely. Does the gf know or is it a surprise? The offsetting sounds like it's going well - great idea - good luck with the rest of it

x

mortgage_girl

Thank you BW. I feel better than I did yesterday so things are heading in the right direction. I just need some time to rest and build my strength back up as this is the second bout of illness I've had this year. :eek: I don't usually get ill so I think I'm a bit run down.

Yes she knows all about it as we went to the travel agents together so that she could choose it. I'm not a seasoned traveller so I wouldn't have had a clue.

MGx

mortgage_girl

Half term is finally here :beer: I'm feeling quite organised and have written myself a to-do list and have already ticked 6 things off. It's been busy so far as my gf has caught the lurgey so has been in bed for two days and I've been trying to get the house jobs done as well as playing nurse. Thankfully she's on the mend now.

I've started decluttering (does it ever end?) and have been really trying to focus on what I actually need and what I don't. I've gone through my things in the bedroom and pared them down into recycle, donate and eb@y piles and I've gathered a stash of 'must use up' items together. I've also done a bit of schoolwork and tidied the pots of weeds that were lurking on the decking.

It's been lovely to have a bit of sunshine today, it really does lift the mood... the chucks must have felt the same way too as I got my first egg of the year today, she was very proud and clucked away in the doorway of the coop announcing it to the world.

I've been a bit of a bargain hunter today as mus!c magp!e have a bogof offer on their books with free postage so I managed to get 10 books for under £15 and cash back through tcb - bargainous! I'm not a book hoarder anymore (unless it's really special) so they'll be passed on once I've read them.

I've withdrawn another £30 from eb@y this week and have had some cash back / bt refunds hit my account so that's another £50 to the savings pot. I've also got another £10 of am@zon vouchers on the way so I'm at £160 of my £260 target for the month. I'm hoping to get lots listed on eb@y this week so hopefully I'll get there.

Hope everyone's enjoyed the sun today.

MGx

BookWorm

Hello MG

I agree that is was lovely to see some sun/have the milder weather last week. Really felt very spring like didn't it? My daffs have started to come up in the garden and it's really quite a cheery sight.

Hope you have had a good half term break and that your GF feels better too.

BW x