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

CathT

Hi Stacey, if I was half as organised as you I'd be making fab progress!

I wanted to use cash as when you 'switch' everything you're not so conscious of what you are spending. I think I have around £90 but out of this need £50 for gardener (I'm not usually so extravagant!) and we will need very small top up shop. Unfortunately found a hole in DD school shoes so we may be off to Clarkes tomorrow aswell. I'm hoping to avoid putting petrol in the cars until my payday!

I_want_a_baby

Hi All!

CathT - good luck on your cash only challenge - even if it goes over I am sure it will make you spend much less than if you were still using a debit card.

So another update:

£7.62 spent in Lidl - new purse balance £23.18.

£0.88 was for biscuits for me so I trf'd this online from my spends to pending savings.

New total £116.48 + £17.30 cash tin = £133.78.
£133.78/£319.61 (£185.83 to go for this months ambitious target!)

Managed to get some things onto ebay - to be honest I don't think any of these things will sell. Maybe £1 or £2 if anything but worth ago. We are putting an outdoor slide etc on tomorrow so that should fetch more hopefuly.

No plans for spending tomorrow. So all good there.

Had some bad news about someone's health (don't want to say too much so sorry I am vague), hoping update to come will be more positive. This situation may result in some spends in the coming days but obviously much more important than the mortgage! Any thoughts/prayers gratefully received .

Speak soon,

Stacey x

icklehelen

Hi Stacey!

Thanks for the heads up on the FLW - DH hadn't told me!! :mad: Will try and get some bits on tonight and tomorrow!

My thoughts are with you and your family

ickle

CathT

Thinking of you and your family.

I_want_a_baby

Glad I gave you the heads up Ickle & thanks to both you and CathT for the comments x

Keeping the info vague as people in the real world don't know yet. News was as bad as expected really I think. They are still going to treat it but more as a method of delay rather than cure. Not direct family but a relative of an extremely close friend.

Had our in laws round for a takeaway - they paid and it was delicious. Watched BGT and had a lovely evening chatting and laughing.

Had half an hour of downtime before they came so managed to do a PC survey for £3 luncheon vouchers and 3 OR surveys at 50p each. so that was £4.50 earned in half an hour .

Ebay Update - this will be laughable i'm sure!!
Ending Saturday - 9 Items / 0 Watchers / £0 Bids.

Off to have a browse around the forum - I like reading the MFW & DFW boards to keep me focused.

Stacey x

I_want_a_baby

Ebay Update
Ending Saturday - 9 Items / 0 Watchers / £0 Bids.
Ending Sunday - 4 Items / 21 Watchers / £0 Bids.

£4.56 spent in Lidl - new purse balance £18.62.

Set myself some simple living goals on my blog to keep me focused over the next week and it should have an extra bonus point of saving me money. Things including using reusable nappies, meal planning and making some homemade craft gifts.

Hoping the Halifax login info will arrive this week - fingers crossed.

Off to work now.

Stacey x

icklehelen

If you're thinking of reusable nappies - real nappy week starts tomorrow - there are loads of giveaways and discount codes flying around to help you out!!

ickle

I_want_a_baby

Morning all,

Worked last night, managed to speak to the boss as he was in and told him how I wasn't coping with the late nights and i REALLY want to stay working for them but I am finding it really difficult getting only 4 hours sleep! He was great about it and liked my suggestion about coming in early so we have agreed I can come in anywhen between 7 and 8 and if there are still a few orders to be done at the end of shift we can leave them for the full time staff member to do. This is such fantastic news as it means not only do I know I can continue doing the job as I will be getting to bed at a more reasonable hour but also that I may earn a little extra than first predicted by working an extra 30mins - 1 hour each night. He did say that they had got busier but hadn't realised the time we were finishing. I am very grateful for them being flexible as this means 'long may my MFW dreams continue'!

Checked the banks. Nothing has been spent and that means no OP's :eek:. Never have I wished a direct debit or card payment would come out so much lol, it seems ages since there was any change in our bank balance. MFW does strange things to you lol. It does show however how much more we are sticking to our budget this month, in fact we are sticking to it much more than the last few months.

Anyway I couldn't let a day go by with no progress so I took £1 out of the cash purse and put it in the cash tin.

New purse balance £17.62 (to last 7 days)

New total £116.48 + £18.30 cash tin = £134.78.
£134.78/£319.61 (£184.83 to go for this months ambitious target!)

Ebay update -
Ending Saturday - 9 Items / 0 Watchers / £0 Bids.
Ending Sunday - 4 Items / 33 Watchers / £0 Bids.

Been tracking our energy usage since mid march.
For the 2 weeks to 28/03 we were using 44.20 KWH of gas a day.
I used the manual heating to change the temp at various points throughout the day and at 10/04 we were using 30.94 KWH of gas a day.
Then on the 10/04 I finally dug out the heating manual and programmed the heating in for the week - a little bit lower than we currently had it.
These last 5 days we have averaged 15.47 KWH of gas a day. Hope to turn the heating off on 1st May.

Electric at 28/03 was 11.29 KWH
At 10/04 was 9.00 KWH/Day
and today 15/04 was 8.00 KWH/Day

Very please with our efforts!

Thanks for the info icklehen - I didn't know it was real nappy week - what a good week to start. I spent over £200 (I did get about £20 rebate if I remember from the wilts wildlife trust) buying reusable nappies with my son and used them from 6 months until potty training. My daughter is 15 months and I still haven't used them with her! So I am going to dig them out today and start using them - better late than never!

Feel lovely and organised already, off to go a stock cupboard list & meal plan. Need to get fruit & veg tonight but want a list of what I *need* to avoid wastage.

Happy Monday everyone, hope you are all well.

Stacey x

I_want_a_baby

NSD today so purse still at £17.62.

Ebay update -
Ending Saturday - 9 Items / 2 Watchers / £0 Bids.
Ending Sunday - 4 Items / 42 Watchers / £0 Bids.

Received £10 sainsburys voucher in the post from VO .
No Halifax login info yet..I'm very impatient.

Working again tonight - going to aim to get there at 7.15pm. Should have more in the pay packet than expected this month as almost every shift has been longer than the normal 4 hours. Be interesting to see the amount.

Tea from the meal plan, chicken and mushroom curry with rice and a few chips.

Stacey x

southerndave

Just skim read through your diary and very impressed with your progress and dedication. Have subscribed!