A stay at home mummy who wants to be a mfw - Yes I can and Yes I will!

shirlgirl2004

I am reading too but I have fallen by the wayside in my MFW life. I am trying but certainly not in a position to give advice.:(

Good luck and keep going, I do enjoy your updates.

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Hi Stacey, it's worth growing potatoes in some bags or pots. 2 or 3 seed potatoes per container will result in a pot full of edible goodies. I didn't read how old your children are but I know mine lived harvesting them.

Chervil grows ok in shade and is a lovely herb with fish. Plus if you have a shady site, can you go uphill to grab the sun, using hanging baskets perhaps? If you grow veg and for the fruit/root then you will need more sun if its for the leaves or stems they can tolerate shade. I've kept to this rule for years and it's helped me to use different areas of my garden, increasing my growing space.

Brilliant attitude to money and good luck with your plans. I love menu planning and keeping our food bill low, yet with interesting recipes, it is certainly challenging

Best wishes Tilly

I_want_a_baby

Hi Shirlgirl2004 - sorry I didn't include your name , thanks for your comment, you don't need to give advice to join in! You should post on here to stay motivated , I certainly don't give advice and have a few splurges here and there too but am still heading in the right direction.

Thanks Tilly! I feel a bit like I have had a MFW celebrity post on my diary now lol as your diary is so inspiring! Thanks for the tips, I didn't think about hanging baskets and I can put a couple on our brick shed as that gets sun at the top! Also thanks for the advice about which veggies to put in the shade. We have just been into the garden and decided we will put one L shaped bed for veggies in about 1.5m long each edge, we will have a bed in the full shade which we will put shade tolerant plants in for nature/to pretty up the garden. Then we will grow a pretty climbing plant up the side of the shed but have a couple of hanging baskets with maybe cherry toms in.

I did find out last night that my new job has an added bonus. I pack fruit & vegetable into boxes for 4 hours a night and after being there for 2 weeks I have been told I can have a staff account and take anything on account for cost+1% :T.

So for a trial to see if it would be cheaper I took: a cucumber, 6 bananas, 6 apples, a lemon, 4 kiwi fruit, an iceburg lettuce, 200g mushrooms, a large courgette, 3 tomatos, a large orange pepper and 1.5kg of potatos and the cost was less than £6!
So now I am on a mission to find some great veggie recipes or recipes with lots of veggies in and less meat to maximise our savings!:j(Any recipes or links to some good ones would be very appreciated!).

Made easter biscuits yesterday - did a double batch and put half of the dough in the freezer for quick homemade biscuits another day. Really getting into the focus of making homemade and doing a double batch of EVERYTHING now not just hot meals. Saves time, money and makes us eat healthier!

Did get my first wages yesterday - 2 weeks worth as started mid month. After deducting the bills there was £22.96 left which I immediately sent to the ISA . Split as follows:
£5 house move fees - new balance £520
£15.96 Mortgage OP - new balance £1444.59
£2 Family fun - new balance £107

Off food shopping now, going to venture further afield to the new sainsburys so will try my hardest to stick to the list but hubby and kids are coming so may come back a little (Might set a mental target of no more than £5 of things that are wants!!).

:easter: everyone and hope you all have a lovely (yet MFW) long weekend.

Stacey x

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Crikey Stacey,I wouldn't put me on any pedestals, I'm just a nutter who had a LBM and has learnt masses from the people who post. We have a lot of time to make up, so it's a family journey for the Tilly household

Enjoy your garden, I'm loving the fact that the sun has come out now, although it is freezing.

Best wishes Tilly

CathT

That's a great buy on the fruit and veg. Am sure there will be recipes on the old style thread? I was going to try and grow courgettes thinking they would be easy but then couldn't think of many recipes to use them up.

Hope you have a lovely weekend.

I_want_a_baby

Thanks Tilly & Cath!

Tilly I think you would be suprised at the amount paid off of mortgages due to your TillyTidy's - I am sure collectively the figure is huge!

CathT I posted a thread on the oldstyle forum andthey did give some good advice. Re courgettes I mainly use them as part of veg & meat kebabs on the barbie, sliced with italian meat on top of puff pastry with a herby tomato sauce for little pies to go with salad and also as part of a vegetable curry.

Very quick update from me as I am just heading out of the door!

Have done the banks and now feel comfortable to trf the £50 buffer out of the elec/gas account and into the 'waiting to go into the ISA account'. Hubby had 4 days off work sick last week so we need to cover his drop in wages at the end of the month. I will be keeping all potential OPs in a 'pending' account where I can access it immediately to sort out the wages at end of month and then if there is anything left I can save that.

So on that basis I sorted out our banks, got back in control and worked out how much cash I need to withdraw this month.
I allocated this weeks cash from money I had already got out and also counted that the change tin has £3.95 in it.

Off out now, speak soon!

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Hi, I couldn't remember who had posted about courgettes, so thanks for bringing it up.

I was looking in Jamie Oliver's Happy Days with the naked Chef and there's a recipe for courgette bread - maybe something different to try out in the summer

Best wishes Tilly x

I_want_a_baby

Hmm Courgette bread - it sounds like it could be a bit like marmite - love it or hate it!?? Will have to try that when we get a crop though so I can make my mind up -thanks Tilly x

So little update from me:

• Quick shop in Lidl last night for milk £1 for 4 pints x 2, two loaves of white hovis as we really needed bread £1 a loaf, musli - almost the same as the one we buy in sainsburys and £1.35 instead of £1.99 for the same size bag and some yoghurts.
• Worked last night - 4.75 hours.
• Got given three loaves of (very soft) wholemeal hovis bread :rotfl: for free :money: as they were going out of date today. Put in freezer.
• Came home with some lovely fresh fruit and potatoes - put on staff account - cost price.
• This morning looked into our bank accounts and the possibility of switching provider. I think we are going to stay where we are for now. We are not in a position to lock our money away which rules us out of most of the best accounts. I have instead transferred 4 little savings accounts into our vantage account to make sure we benefit as much as we can from the 3% interest rate on that. Those 4 accounts were paying 0.01%. Another esaver account with a little more money in (but we need instant access to so cannot put into our currently locked 3.6% ISA) has a respectable rate of 1.6% so I am happy where that is. It will also give us the advantage of being able to move the funds should rates start to rise or an amazing offer come out.
• Excited to see my switching cashback in tcb has been paid by scottish power so requested the £42.87 by BACS.
• Did a meal plan for the week to use up lots of supplies we have currently.

And financially -
4.20 Interest received in vantage acc
0.83 save the change hubbys acc
1.51 save the change vantage acc
0.08 interest old savings acc
1.34 interest old savings acc
7.96 Total
50.00 already in the waiting to be saved account
57.96 total

Thats all for now I think, off to potter around the house, get organised and play with the littlies - or at least thats the plan!

Stacey

I_want_a_baby

Hello All!

Todays update:

• Had a NSD both Weds & Thurs.
• Got my invoice for 4 very large clementines, 8 bananas, 6 apples and 2kg of potatos from work - £3.28 .
• Worked Thurs night - took another load of fruit & veg home - not sure what cost yet but sure to be good.
• Ordered 2kg beef mince, 8 chicken breasts, 8 rashers of bacon & 6 slices of wiltshire ham from the very well regarded local butchers (at trade price as sister works in office there) cost £22.08 - then added 6 extra special beef burgers - which my sister said she would pay for.
• Sister coming round for tea tonight - we are having burgers :rotfl:.
• Met dad in town and helped him get a few bits he needed - DS enjoyed riding around on his lap in his wheelchair!
• Spent 28p in Wilkos on a dishwash brush, £5 in iceland on a block of cheese and bought a 4pt of milk and some sweets in M&S with a gift voucher. Also spent £1.30 parking.
• Son had been being naughty which meant that I decided to postpone the trip to the cafe - very MSE :money:.
• Got cash out for the month £10 a week fritter, £20 a week food (bulk bought meat separately above and fruit & veg coming off of my wages) and £20 for month takeaways/treats.

Realised as I am becoming more committed to our goal of reducing the mortgage as much as we can in 5 years, my thinking is changing.

Our cheap plastic bath safety mat had black mould on it - I said to hubby we should throw it away and buy a new one, yet thought about spending the money and took the time to scrub it with bleach instead (already had) and although it is still a bit grey in places it is so much better.

Need a couple of pairs of trousers and was thinking at how I would like to spend about £40 a pair (£80 total) so I could get good quality, then I thought I wonder if I could get both pairs for £40 if I went somewhere like new look and then I thought again that I could probably get both pairs for £10 if I stumbled on some in a charity shop! So that is my mission to check out the charity shops and see if I can find some before the end of the month, if not I will head to new look.

Had some very grubby cushion covers with what looked like coffee on and tomato sauce (my house is actually very clean lol these are two isolated areas!), would normally think that covers are so cheap and you wouldn't get those stains out of cream covers so may as well look out for some cheap replacements. Instead I sprayed them with stain remover, put them on a good wash with vanish type powder and they are much better - not as good as new but certainly the stains have pretty much gone!

Had a quick look at the spreadsheet and not a lot I can save but did manage:
3.00 takeaway left in acc
2.92 meat budget underspend.
5.92 transferred to savings pending

12.70 food budget underspend this week put into cash tin (new balance £16.65)

So previous savings pending balance was £57.96
plus money transferred £5.92
total savings pending balance (in bank) £65.83
total cash savings £16.65
total savings ready to OP/put in ISA £82.48

I have a secret target of 319.61 as this is our monthly interest. This target is more than a little unachiveable as I am excluding the £351.96 we have already saved this month :rotfl:.

But amazing things have happened when I have tried to save a stupidly high amount so let the battle commence!!

More updates to follow but for now.....IT's FRIDAY!!

Stacey x

icklehelen

Hi :wave:

Well done on all the extra money saving - things may not be perfect but you know they are clean and every time you look at them its a little reminder of the dream!!

Good luck on the trouser hunt!!

ickle