Making the future happen - museumworker's MFW diary Pt 2

museumworker

Confirming July's OP of £1376.85 PLUS £7.09 from TCB.

Current mortgage balance: £95,979.89 :j :j

Worked out we need to OP £1600 a month on average to pay off mortgage in next 4 years :think:. Definitely need to reassess our finances over the summer to see if we can squeeze out an extra few quid.

museumworker

Spent £5 on lunch yesterday as travelling and then when I arrived at the meeting they had put on a huge buffet!

OH and I tackled the paperwork mountain in our bedroom last night. Literally filled a wheely bin with recycling AND we've not even finished yet!! Sent OH to nursery with bag of spare clothes for them that DD has outgrown. He grumbled, but at least its gone.

DS has a school fete today, I raided our drinks stash and although there were very slim pickings, managed to find a couple of bottles for the tombola (mulled wine in July anyone? :rotfl:)

Today I need to buy biscuits and coffee for a meeting (I WILL claim back) and lunch, although will take the last dregs of my salad stuff from the fridge to the site I'm working at this afternoon so won't have to spend too much.

Tonight I want to put all the charity books in the car so OH can drop them off tomorrow, and put the last bits of recycling in the bin.

Time to text cleaner to ask her NOT to go in our bedroom :eek:!

museumworker

Aargh - think I left the refreshments receipt in a slightly yoghurt filled bag!

It's at a different site so will email Monday to see if anyone has it. Can't claim without it.

On upside I took my (meagre) spare food from work fridge for lunch, plus there were leftover sandwiches from an event I didn't even know about, so had free lunch

Finished sorting books yesterday, sent 7 bag loads (maybe 100-120?) to charity today, and have about 70 to trade in. OH going to bring one more free box from work as courier won't pick up boxes over a certain weight and the current two boxes are HEFTY!

Had a Thames water visit, they do free leak checks and advice now we are on a meter. Gave us free shower timers, new aerated shower heads, our toilet now has a half flush mode, and they are going to come back and fix our drippy sinks and toilets FOR FREE! Although it looks like our water bills will rise about £90 pa with the meter, at least these changes will ensure we are not wasting water and only paying for what we use. :money:

Planned our afternoon round a trip to the Olympic fountains for the kids, only to find out after paying for parking that they were switched off an hour earlier than scheduled! :mad: DS was v upset - and then when he found out OH had lost his swimsuit, he was inconsolable. OH took him to buy a new one, which seeing as the last one was too small and free, was probably overdue anyway.

Not an entirely wasted trip though as at Westfield returned things for DD worth £42 to her personal account and unwanted Clark$ shoes for a £145 refund to the house account.

Tried localish cobblers for first time, £7 for boots reheel compared to £21 last time I had them done near work, or £16 with Timp$ons. Had three pairs to do, so massive savings there! :T

£8.10 in parking, £10 in ice creams, £2 on baguettes, £9 boots reheel deposit + the swimsuit.

Had dinner from food stores, and lunch at home too. Also hung two loads of washing on the line - have been using dryer for last two summers due to full on nature of kids (and old line being taken down!) OH bought new line and pegs this week so determined to not use drier until the autumn. Wonder how much that will save us per load?

museumworker

And then I come downstairs and find OH has put the next load through the dryer - including two of my dresses which shrink, so now I need to steam them. Honestly! And we spoke only yesterday about not using it.

Just finished MvM diary, love his dedication and enthusiasm! I need to catch up with my favourite old diaries, but any new faves people can recommend?

Quick porridge breakfast then taking kids to birthday party, so free lunch (although mine will probably want to eat before the party!) Present already bought, just need to wrap and pick up card.

Hoping to finish KMing the paperwork tonight in our room, there is still loads left so wish me luck!

It is less than a month til our next house swap so in an ideal world would love to have finished the komono category by then!

museumworker

Party was lovely and 4 of us had a free lunch. Dinner was a sausage casserole using some freezer foods, OH is hoping we can get through the week on a £35 spend which would be A.MAZ.ING!

Made massive progress with the paperwork, hoping to finish tonight.

Have revisited our internet, is currently £42 pm including line rental for high speed line, thanks to V!rg!n raising prices by stealth :mad:. We can get it down to £34 inc. set up costs with BT plus £125 Visa card + £50 cash back. Also looking to move my mobile to them, 3x amount of data, but £5 cheaper a month AND a £75 Amazon card. Of course, V!rg!n then offered to send us a new faster hub for free and reduce payments to £34 for 100mbps but I'm still tempted to move.

Will save £8pm for internet + £5pm for mobile + £250 worth of free cash/vouchers = £404 in a year. No brainer, right?

£2 spent on lunch today, and started reading Mr Money Moustache's blog. Only 5 years to catch up on, but a very interesting approach to finance and creating a passive income to pay for early retirement. Definitely food for thought as we've focused on being mortgage free but not necessarily thought of other tools to allow us to be financially independent.

On another note, those who fail to plan, plan to... put the dryer on when they're rushing out the house in the morning. I know. Just off to hang out another washload in penance.

museumworker

Paperwork is soooo close to completion, just have three folders to go through tonight and WE ARE DONE! Can't wait to post an after picture on my KM app (oh, the free joy!)

OH has taken all the shredding to work today, so can start taking all the 'work files' there from tomorrow too. MSE because having our house sorted means we can house swap and save ££££s on holidays.

Looked up airport parking costs online, at one moment we were about to have to go by public transport as it was £180!! :eek: But after a lot of looking around, have found a v reputable company to do meet and greet for £88 plus 8% cash back. Will book that this evening. OH is so relieved as the idea of 2.5 hours by public transport with three kids, a buggy, 3 bags and 5 carry one was making him panic!

Today hoping to make my own healthy, cheapish lunch and to tackle some of the laundry in the 'delicates' bag, which hasn't been touched for forever and a woolly jumper. Oh, and finish that paperwork!

museumworker

Logged into Onep0ll for first time in three years and delighted to find a balance of £22.15. Bonus of not being on for so long was lots of new lifestyle surveys to complete, earning an extra £1.70:j There were even more surveys to do but these mysteriously disappeared!

£9 spent at supermarket for healthy salad lunches and snacks for 3 days, and 15 days worth of breakfast. I got into a habit of using ready sachets of porridge but instead bought bag of basic oats to nuke instead, literally 1/5 of the price! My main meal is now at work so I need something substantial and nutritional, I don't think I can go much cheaper than this.

Bought coffees and cake for colleague, £4.48 from personal spend.

On a down note just found out meds I'm on have caused 7 kg weight gain in as many weeks Doctor thinks need to stay on them for 9 months. Clothes are starting not to fit and am at upper end of healthy BMI so as part of MSE / general wellbeing drive need to stop weight gain at very least. Need v strict eating and exercise plan. This morning have done 7 mins of tummy exercise.

shangaijimmy

As a recent holidaying family of 3 kids, 1 buggy, 2 suitcases and 5 carry on bags also i can confirm that meet and greet is fantastic!! I'd rather not go at all if public transport was the only option...(ever so dramatic...)

museumworker

shangaijimmy wrote: »

As a recent holidaying family of 3 kids, 1 buggy, 2 suitcases and 5 carry on bags also i can confirm that meet and greet is fantastic!! I'd rather not go at all if public transport was the only option...(ever so dramatic...)

:rotfl: I'll tell OH that you said that, he'll be really pleased to have some support! Hope you had a lovely holiday.

museumworker

Disaster with the porridge today, had to chuck out first attempt and try again! Need to take cup measure to work to get proportions right.

The surveys mysteriously reappeared on 1poll and I have earnt another £1

I also did something I have not been doing enough of the last few years - logged onto our current account and had a good look at our balance. I've been burying my head in the sand the last three years or so, so feels great to know exactly what our current balance is. I settled some nursery debts of about £400, then decided to make an OP to reflect my bonus (or most of it at least) of £399 :j (plus a 33p TT :rotfl:)

This leaves us with £420 to get through the month, including 2 weeks of groceries, DDs birthday, teachers gifts, and hosting an exchange student. That's completely do-able, right? I do feel a bit panicky about it if I'm honest.

I plan to check balance daily (and chuck in the odd TT, of course!)

I also cancelled the gym DD now the last payment has gone - that's £83pm saved - and found a rather random DD for the lotto for £18pm I completely forgot I'd set up in one of my mad moments so that's cancelled too.

What with the phone savings, the last week we've saved £110pm :cool:

Trying to see the weight gain in a more positive light, I can use this time to get into some good habits so when I come off the meds the weight will fall off. Porridge for breakfast, stuck to pre-planned snacks, salad for lunch and dinner tonight. Did 7 minute stomach toning exercise this morning and walked briskly for 45 minutes. Need to step up exercise but it was a good day overall so will take this one