LBM in 2003.. What have I been doing since??!

jwil

Hope you had a nice early night and relaxing evening.

That's weird about the direct debit, hope you manage to get it sorted.

brizzledfw

Hi guys

No word on the direct debit yet..but will pursue that..

So far the plan is:

- cut down eating meat to 3 main meals a week, fish x2 and pulses/ beans x 2.. Healthier and cheaper. Will do a new meal planner
- aim for £400 in total for food, groceries, alcohol each month. Make a big move on making the allotment properly productive and doing more booze for free/ lower cost. HM beer works well..OH likes it a lot.. just need to get into the wine production now!!:rotfl:
- DD1 to take sandwiches to school which she would prefer but she has to make them the night before!!
- rigidly stick to the £95 for family fun. Treat it as a separate budget by putting amount in an envelope on 1st of every month. As an incentive for all of us we will put any extra money we can generate eg. from eBay into this budget. For example we are looking at another festival this year..we should pay for those tickets out of that cash rather than the general slush fund ( aka the usual OD!!)
- newspapers..have cancelled about £16 pm worth with immediate effect..feels good and don't think we will miss it. That's on top of the cancellation last week so on track.
- hairdresser is coming to my house next time..shhh it's a secret..have been with her for 10 years so would be a wrench to leave..but let's see how that goes.
- tomorrow I will order some spare CLs and then suspend my subscription until end of March. Needto look after my eyes but feels like its worth the risk. I can go back to the opticians in April.
- longer term, I will keep on making PADs and ensuring that all new purchases on the CCs ( which are also at 0%) are cleared every month so basically it all decreases. Then when the interest free period is up I will pay off CCs in full (rather than even switching to another deal) from my mortgage OP pot. That way I benefit from lower interest on my mortgage now and the discipline of adding to the mortgage continues as I am so keen to pay it off earlier than the 13 years remaining. Am hardly star of the show on the MFIT-2 challenge but I am keeping on trucking..it was the additional borrowing for our beloved camper van in 2010 that did it..but am not regretting that..it's wonderful and we love it.

Any excess ( first time for everything !!) ie. savings each month from the new more frugal Brizzle budget!! will be 'scraped' across will be put against the CCs and towards any unexpected household expenses..

Thanks for all the ideas, just to say..

PHI is the long term sickness cover in case we couldn't work again. Cant rely on the state!! Needed I think but maybe could look at the price of it.

The £105 is for savings for the girls..into their baby bond accounts etc. Seems a lot but want to start them off with a lump sum when they leave home, want to study etc. May well be worth suspending..so will look into that and see if I can.

£156 pm is indeed dance, music, swimming...it all adds up. No tutoring thank the lord..although guess that might come but at moment they are relying on me and OH for help :rotfl:

More refinements later...it's baby steps now!! And still haven't discussed it all with OH...so feel I am hiding some of this. He knows we are spending too much but none of the detail..:(

Have a great weekend everyone x

brizzledfw

PS that Co@p card was actually 15.9%... Thank goodness have ditched that one."

Also the paper logs don't burn that well!..pity really. Am not sure why. They seemed dry enough. Think we will keep on going but need some advice..maybe it's like seasoning wood and you should leave them for months to dry rather than days or weeks!!

B

debtfreewannabe321

You've got some good plans in place there look forward to seeing how you get on

PinotGrigio41

Well done brizzled, looks like you have been really busy making loads of plans these last few days ! Good for you !

Good luck with trying to get DD1 to make her own sandwiches, I am still battling with the "empty and clean out your own lunch box when you come home !"mission. Thats a feat in itself. Currently failing miserably at the make your own sarnies task !! Watch this space though !!

Hope your weekend has gone well x

katsu

On the life cover - work out how much you need, and how much is provided by work - so if you have 4x salary at work, how much is that? Does it clear the mortgage? How much more would you want? Then take out top-up amount only, or cancel if you get enough from work.

jwil

Sounds like some good plans there brizzle!

What camper van do you have? We've got an old T2 VW Bay - love it.

satchmo1

Hi Briz

Have you investigated the cost of buying your lenses online? It can be quite a bit cheaper, and of course it's convenient to get them delivered (either to home or to work).

Re charitable donations, and I have to declare my interest/bias as I'm employed by a charity, but you have more options than a straight cancellation. 1) a donations holiday. 2) a reduction in donations. 3) a mix of 1 and 2. 4) a mix of 2 and volunteering/campaigning. Many charities are struggling to survive, and would prefer to know they had some certainty for now.

Savings for mortgage overpayment would be best directed to clearing the cc's asap (definitely aiming to clear those at 0% before they revert to interest-bearing. Once cc's are cleared, the savings for mortgage overpayment can possibly be even greater.

How old are you DD's? Perhaps part of the pocket money can be task related, such as vacuuming?

Hope some of that helps. Well done on the progress to date

Hugs, Satchmo x

brizzledfw

Hi guys

It's an Adria which is based on a Fiat base..sleeps 4 which is an unusual combination without being coach built. It's also pretty winterised so it's for all year round. Love it . Love it!!
:j
I can look into online buying of lenses but given my prescription know when I last looked they were more pricey than I have now. Yes PM is linked to chores already..with mixed results ;)but they do understand they have to help more. This week for example they have both been magic about helping out which has been great.

Maybe I am not explaining myself clearly..it does happen!!..:o But I think as I can get OPs back from my mortgage at any time that I am best building that pot up alongside the regular PADs and then raiding it to pay the CCs off at the end of their 0% period? Am I missing something? As I see it that way I gain an interest saving on my mortgage but know I won't lose out as any remaining balance ( note that optimism!!:rotfl:) will be paid off too.

I will try and keep up the charitable donations. I want to tbh. But the point about there are lots of ways to support ( I think it was DNMS? And yourself Satchmo) and that say buying clothes in a CS is supporting them had rather missed me ( partly as in the main the charities we support eg. MSF don't have retail outlets...) and I think it will make me think more about support in a wider sense.

Thanks everyone for dropping in and supporting me. It was a big step to post the SoA and you have been nothing but wonderful. Great ideas too!! Thanks SO much xx

Brizzle

brizzledfw

PS Thanks Katsu..yes I will check that too. I know we are 'over insured' in sense that all these policies combined with cover through our respective employers would amount to more than just the outstanding mortgage.. partly so as to give the remaining parent some options re work etc whilst the family adapts ( sounds bleak I know but as you know you have to think about these things). Having said that I could probably drop at least 1 of the policies and so free up a bit. Will look into it.

Thanks for popping by