I have a dream...to be a MFW

ajmoney

I had a lovely few hours with my folks yesterday, it was nice to have some company.

I have made a rough meal plan for the next week today, trying to clear the freezer so Mr AJM can fill it with more relevant stuff for him when I go away again. I need to double check it and then make my shopping list for later today. I think it will be hard to stop Mr AJM wanting to eat out but I am hoping to keep a better hold on our joint account money until I go away. The good news is I still have the same amount of money in my purse and although I needed to take some money out of my account to boost the joint one I am hoping to keep it above £50 by the end of the month. It will give me a nice buffer ready for the different things I need to save up for next month.

ajmoney

After talking to my mum yesterday it seems I may need to consider my pension before making a will so I am trying to do some research before I go to any appointments so I have an idea what to expect. Can anyone point me in the direction of somewhere I can read up on pensions and retirement and what I need to do/consider but that says it in a simple and easy to understand language?

ajmoney

I have been paid this morning but I am going to wait until the 1st to do my money shuffle. I am looking forward to finally saving something again next month and getting a grip on what I am doing again. I am feeling a bit lost at the moment due to living and working away so I am hoping that if I keep money (and exercise) as my focus then it might help. I am interested to see what I can personally live on each month so that when I move home I can continue on the same track.

I have almost work out 2-3 weeks worth of lunches so I don't get so bored with what I am eating when I go back in 10 days, I am hoping it will make it easier to budget for my food/know what I am spending. I may be able to set myself a mini spending challenge for October then!

I am also looking for a new fitness challenge to keep me going between September and December. I don't think my work gym are running one but I liked the focus of the 500 mile challenge one in the summer. I am contemplating a swimming based one as I want to work on my crawl. One of the personal trainers at my gym is offering a set of swimming coaching lessons to help improve strokes so I am going to find out how much these are and see if I can afford it. If not then they run adult swimming lessons and they might be cheaper. I am sure a couple of sessions will be all I need to get me on track. I am also planning on building my running up a bit but don't really plan on pushing this too much, I am happy to enjoy running and stay injury free.

ajmoney

Found my gym session really hard this morning. I am not eating as cleanly while I am at home so that might have something to do with it although I was trying to push myself. I will have to see how much I ache tomorrow now!

I feel I could still be doing more to make my money work for me, either in savings or with the mortgage. I am sure if I/we were to make some sacrifices we could easily do more but at this moment in time I don't think Mr AJM is in a place to want to even consider this. I am going to try and do some research and sums to see what my options are but maybe I should just work towards my retirement fund instead...or I need to earn more money somehow?!

ajmoney

If I don't want to change my lifestyle but want more options with my money then I think I need to earn it. Assuming the cadet work is still going ahead this will go some way to helping but I can't always rely on it due to work commitments and travelling home sometimes. I need to find out from my colleague if we just work on Friday evenings or if it is Tuesday's too. I think the only other way I can boost my income for now is to advertise to teach privately. I am going to sort out an advert and see how I do, especially with the start of a new academic year but it may take a while to build this up. Once I have completed my repair course in October I may also be able to pay to do instrument repairs once I have got a little bit of experience. This will probably be just friends instruments for now though.

I mainly want to earn money towards my personal training sessions, this morning's session at the gym has shown me that even if I don't do these all the time I definitely need/want to keep these up. I won't earn enough money to cover these but it may be fun to try. Alternatively I could earn money towards my food for the month as this should be easier to cover. I am going to set myself a budget of £200 for food for September, even though I don't think it will be nearly this much, especially as I will be home for 10 days of it, I will be able to use this to set a budget for October though.

Once I get back to living at home my challenge is going to be to earn money to spend as cash with a view to not spending anything not budgetted from my wages so I can save it all.

ajmoney

An enjoyable but long weekend with the youth band, we don't feel like we are used to the best of our ability but at least we are making a difference...however small.

The weekend caused me to spend some of my money, charity donations to some enthusiastic entrepreneurs and some hot drinks plus a lazy take away treat on Saturday night! I end the month with £5.11 in my purse and £76.10 in my current account so I am starting September on a high. I am re-starting my spending diary from tomorrow and am also going to keep all my food shopping receipts when I get back to work so I know how much to budget in the future and also to work out how much each meal is costing and my daily spends to see if I can cut the costs anywhere.

I have been food shopping this morning and think we have enough food until the weekend with maybe only a top up of milk needed. I need to try and keep a tight rein on our money as we need a fair amount later in the month. The less we spend now the less I will need to transfer over if/when we become short. This isn't normally an issue as I don't normally get to spend so much time with Mr AJM

I have one week to make the most of surroundings, not sure how I am going to use all this time yet but I am intending to have a sort out of some of the cupboards as I am sure there are things that have been there a year that I haven't touched so surely they can go?

I am going to catch up on here first though!

ajmoney

I have done the money shuffle, updated all my spreadsheets and my signatures on here. My S&S ISA is looking very sorry for itself, if I am basing my journey to mortgage freedom on this then I have a long way to go or I need some financial stability in the markets!

I ended the month with less money in my account as I forgot that my car needed topping up with fuel. All my top ups for September are coming from a different account so at least that is one less this my wages will be used for. My spending diary is starting in earnest today, hopefully with no entries! Tomorrow may be the first, however I am planning some window shopping and then a walk around a local loch with my camera so I am going to get organised and take my lunch and a flask of tea with me.

I have double checked the end date of my energy tariff already this morning but think that our company already have a better one we can be on. so I am going to ring them later to see what they can do. I have also already done the surveys that have been emailed to me so will check the rest later in the day.

I am going to go to the gym in a bit and then go through my cupboards and drawers to see what can be charity shopped and do one of the spare wardrobes also.

I hope everyone else's September is starting well.

Luckyinlife

Doing so well aj great job :]

why is the isa looking sorry for it self do you have much invested ?

ajmoney

Luckyinlife wrote: »

why is the isa looking sorry for it self do you have much invested?

4 months ago I had £31.9k in my S&S ISA, today I have £29.3 and have paid £400 in during that time! Good job I am fully aware of investing this way, I just wish the stock markets would sort themselves out. On the plus side, I set up my first S&S ISA up 2 months after 9/11, my mum set hers up 2 months before and I started seriously (for me) about the time the recession hit so I could be a lot worse off.I imagine those managing to fill their ISAs off each year won't be happy either. I might get an appointment to make sure I am still sending the money to relevant funds although one of the funds is a recovery one so I know that should be ok.

Just been to the gym, really couldn't be bothered for the first time in a very long time although got talking to a lovely woman and we shared our favourite exercises at the moment and then helped each other to try them out. Only a week until I get back to my own gym and my PT sessions, I think they might hurt :eek:

ajmoney

Quite tired and can't really be bothered to sort my cupboards out so watching tv. I have got to the daily goal on SB for the first time ever and have checked my surveys email account and completed anything else that has been emailed since this morning.

I have been thinking of things I want to get done over the next 5 days before I travel south back for work.

Finally finish off work project (just need to annotate what I have used for info)
Pack to go back
Clean car inside and out
Sort my cupboards and drawers
Sort vacuum stored stuff in spare room
Keep on top of spending diary
Plan lunches and make shopping list for next week

Hour and a half until Mr AJM comes by to pick me up for a meeting with my old boss to get some PR projects running up here before coming back for dinner and chilling out. Maybe in that time I can find some enthusiasm to do something from my list!