misscousinitt's MF Diary

misscousinitt

Thanks for the encouragement Froggy - much appreciated.

Now, I'm pretty sure that I put 50p in the penguin either yesterday or the day before?????

So going to say £46/£50. Should be able to reach the target this month easily so that will be £25 in the pot, but not banking on it just yet.

Anyway, as I've got DH on board now and have a regular contribution of £20 per month from him, we will start off the April Virtual Pot with that:

TOTAL: £20 DH regular contribution.

Have upped the target for 2011 to £1200 now and the overall target while we are on fixed rate is to get the mortgage sub £15k (fixed rate ends in Jul 2012).

Second month of the diary already...quite impressed with myself that I have managed to keep it going.

Its not all roses though - got the car insurance renewal yesterday and its gone up £300!!!!!! (£636). Did a quick check on comparison sites and managed to get £491 as the cheapest so far (and should get £32 cashback via quidco).

However, could save myself another 70 quid if the insurance company pull their finger out and settle my claim (was hit by hit and run driver 3 weeks ago and had to claim for the damage). If I can say its all sorted, done and dusted, the premium goes down by £70.

misscousinitt

April already, really don't know where the time is going.

Don't really have anything to add to the pot just yet as haven't finished my big shop for the month yet - still got to a few things from Waitrose and some meat from the butchers - but will know better this weekend what my potential savings on the grocery bill will be this month. Spent approx £101/£260 so far.

Got a buffet coming up in a couple of weeks, so will get my expenses back for business cards and car door magnets I bought (approx £27) and will of course have some income from it. I will put some of this towards the OP, but not sure how much yet, possibly about £20 (working on my 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 philosophy fun, morgage & saves); until we buy the stuff, we are never quite sure how much we will actually make.

Car insurance is my task for next week - got to catch up on housework this week as the last two weekends have just been manic with fundraisers and mothers day!

misscousinitt

Subway were nice enough to give me a 50p piece in my change today, so thats £46.50/£50 in the penguin later.

Been looking at the mealplan and shopping list for this month and have made some rough calculations. By my reckoning!!!! after finishing what I call the big shop (Mr W and butchers) I should have about £72 left (if I am taking my budget to be £200 and not £260) - this is £24 per week till pay day, so I'm sure that I can come in under that.

Therefore, I'm going to add another £60 to my virtual April OP Pot as this is definate savings on the groceries:

So, April Pot total so far is:

£20 DH contribution
£60 Definate grocery savings

TOTAL £80.00

Really hoping I can get up to the £150 mark again this month, with buffet earnings, re-paid expenses and penguin pot, this should be possible - fingers crossed.

misscousinitt

As I discovered that DH had put a new bulb under the stairs (an energy saving one) it got me to thinking about how we can reduce our energy consumption.

With the new deal we are going to be on shortly with M&S, if you cut your energy consumption by 10% in one year not only do you save 10% on your bills, but you get additional M&S Vouchers (which are always welcome).

DH is terrible for leaving lights on - not sure what I can do about that.

We only have 3 'old style' light bulbs left in the house - 1 in the bathroom and 2 small candle bulbs in the dining room which are the wall lights and are already on a dimmer switch.

TV is switched off at night - broadband is sometimes left on as DH will tat about on the laptop after I have done to bed - thinking about putting that on a timer so it gets switched off at 1am or something????

We are getting rid of our PC as we both have laptops now, so that should save a bit - especially as DH has a habit of leaving it on!!!

Was thinking about using the SC to make soup and stock during the day while I'm at work instead of boiling on the gas hob?

These are just a few things I have thought of, if anyone else has any ideas let me know....

misscousinitt

Just bumping the diary up after being absent for a few days. Going to update properly tomorrow.

I think I saved roughly £5-6 on groceries this week, but figures are at work and we have no internet at work at the moment.

katsu

You can get dimmable bulbs that are eco ones - I have them in my 2 dimmer switches.

misscousinitt

Finally back on the internet at work again!!!!! after over a week!

Looks like I'm heading towards a £130 OP this month - will update later.

misscousinitt

Thanks katsu for the tip, will keep my eye open for them.

Quick update.

Reached £50 target for Penguin Pot - so thats £25 toward OP this month.

Made some money from the buffet did last weekend and got my expenses back so thats another £40.

Total £145.00 OP for April - I'm sure I will be able to save £5 on the groceries this week, even though we need a few bits, so that will be my £150 after all.

misscousinitt

Phew!! Just been catching up with a few diaries quickly no I'm back at work and on-line!

Definately got £150 for this months OP which I will be taking into the Halifax next week - just got to pay my Buffet Earnings and Penguin Pot into the bank tomorrow.

It was such a nice break for Easter - although went out for a meal and went out on Bank Holiday Monday daytime, didn't spend a fortune - probabaly because DH paid!!!!

Spent my 'Cheese Voucher' I had for Christmas off my cousin yesterday - such nice cheese and pate - it virtually paid for our lunch yesterday, just bought crusty bread - it was really nice.

First 50p back in Penguin Pot today. Total £0.50/£50.

Froggy-G

Great progress, well done!! Nice to see these OP's mounting up month after month!!

Keep going, you'll have this mortgage paid off in no time!!

Froggy