My Quest to Beat the Bankers - A MF Mission!

MissOptimistic

Bargain outs? Should read bargainous :rotfl:

MissOptimistic

Well, the buffet for tomorrow is cancelled, OH has flu ( not sure whether its proper flu or the man version) but either way, family were bringing babies so not a good idea to spread his germs. Feel a little worried that I secretly feel pleased though that I no longer have to cater for all those people or spend loads on food and alcohol - bah humbug!

*Jellie*

Hi Miss Optimistic
Good luck with the 2013 goals

MissOptimistic

Feeling really virtuous, been in bed all day with a chesty cough and sore throat and heard mummers of DH talking about going out to fetch KFC as I was out of action. Bombed downstairs and created a meal from nothing. Home made Cornish pasties using one and a half lamb steaks left over from yesterday, cubed carrot, onion and potato from fridge, gravy, mint sauce and a packet of shortcrust pastry mix found in the cupboard. Normally the leftover lamb would have gone in the bin, but it feels good to know I've made our weekly food budget stretch another day from nothing!

*Jellie*

Hope you are feeling a bit better for the rest and well done on stretching the food.

There are a few apps you could find useful but as many cost money I'd research them first. Personally I like Spending Tracker from MH Riley ltd as it suits the way I work. If you like working to a budget then spend- budgeting or spendometer might be better.

I am starting to use MiPantry to keep track of the food we have and to create shopping lists as I meal plan (you can add the ingredients for recipes to it)

Lots of good recipe apps such as love food hate waste

I also use home routines for decluttering, flying, to do lists etc.

Hope that helps! x

MissOptimistic

Thank you jellie! That's really helpful, I will check out those apps. Just gone through gas/electric bills for the past year and worked out exactly how much we've used and then switched via quidco. It says we should save £113 per year, which remains to be seen, but £42 cashback in the process so all good!
What was interesting though was how much our usage has increased on last year. I blame my 2 x ds for this entirely, they often have 2 or 3 things on charge all night every night and often spend ages on 2 different xboxes :eek:
They had a table tennis table for Xmas though, so thinking of introducing a couple of 'Xbox free' nights per week.

skint_spice

MissOptimistic wrote: »

so thinking of introducing a couple of 'Xbox free' nights per week.

Let me know how you go with that:rotfl::rotfl:I need tips! DS is permanently plugged into something or other PS3 here though.

MissOptimistic

Thanks skint spice, managed to keep them off it all day, but just realised they disappeared from the lounge an hour ago into their respective rooms and dd says they are both on COD (in 2 different rooms!) :eek:

moneycurious

sounds like your keeping motivated all your house is feeling better!!!

MissOptimistic

Decisions, decisions!
Trying to decide whether to switch our mortgage from IO to repayment? As things stand at the moment, we will be left with a balance of approx £200k in 5 years time when our mortgage (not just deal) ends. Although we own another property (mortgaged & rented out) with the way the housing market has been of late, if we sell it in 5 years, there certainly won't be enough equity to clear our own mortgage so we will probably be forced to sell up. When we got our mortgage originally we self-certified to borrow the amount required as our income was made up of so many different pots. Again, with the lenders being more strict now, I really don't think we could remortgage in 5 years. So here's the dilemma - our lenders will increase our term to 21 years (taking me to 60 & DH to 65) if we switch to repayment, but our payment will go up to £1230. We currently pay £800 but £50 of that is an overpayment.
For me it's a no-brainier as its either do it or be homeless in 5 years, but the trouble will be getting DH on board. He's very much of the opinion that 5 years is a long way away and everything could change by then etc.
I really need to give him time & space to think it through and not put any pressure on him, hoping he agrees.
It feels like a lifeline to me though, we are halfway through changing our carpets at the minute and part of me thinks why bother, we might have to sell up in 4 years or so, but if we switch we have security (s long as we pay the mortgage very month!)