I have a dream...to be a MFW

Moneyfordreams

wow that's an amazing distance... must have taken a while

ajmoney

Moneyfordreams wrote: »

wow that's an amazing distance... must have taken a while

2 hours 10 minutes, I ate a lot when I finished! :rotfl:

ajmoney

I was only away for 2 nights this week but I dread to think how many hours of work I did while I was there. When I get back after my Easter leave I definitely need to reassess my work-life balance as my current system is not sustainable. I am hoping it was just a case of me setting unrealistic deadlines so I could clear my in tray before being off for 2 weeks.

My energy levels finally seem to be back to normal, the 2 week break should get me rested, especially as we are off on a cruise next week. Apart from our 2 weeks at Christmas each year we were trying to work out the last time we were together for the whole of my leave. We think it was nearly 5 years ago when we got married and went on our honeymoon :eek:

It seems I am still not completely out of the woods health wise but the doctors have put in a hospital referral for further tests so hopefully I will get some answers soon. We did a bit of research last night and the treatment is medication or surgery, I am hoping it is the former as I have never had surgery and don't fancy the time away from exercise, I will just have to wait and see what they say.

I didn't get as far as doing and calculations regarding the mortgage last week but will see what I can do over the next few days.

ajmoney

Happy Easter everyone.

We went to our local church this morning, it was a lovely service and I feel ready to go with the rest of my day now.

I am going to try and do some sorting in our living room around not doing much. We have some piles of "stuff" that we appear to not notice anymore so I figure I can get rid of some it of it without Mr AJM noticing. He is a terrible hoarder and if he sees any of it he will find a reason why we should keep it...it has been there almost as long as we have and we moved in during August 2011 :eek:

We are going on holiday on Wednesday and have a few things planned over the next couple of days, it is great spending time with Mr AJM.

juliejim

Hi AJ

Sounds like it's all going well. Enjoy your hols.

Jue

ajmoney

OMG when did my life get so busy!

We had a lovely holiday which seems like ages ago now.

Worked with our youth band at their annual camp with the teenagers being their normal annoying selves at bedtime.

I have been back at work for 8 days and am sure I have never worked so hard in my life. This week was always going to be a busy one as I have set myself some tough deadlines but the idea is that it will make my life easier in the long run. I have got so much done today that I have surprised myself and am looking forward to (hopefully) Thursday when I can get in my car to go home and give myself Friday off before spending the weekend with Mr AJM. My band are a great bunch of people that I am hoping will be able to help me with some of my tougher jobs to ease the work load but we shall see.

I am currently taking some time out in the cafe as wifi access isn't available where I live now. I normally do the MSE thing by sitting outside to use it so I don't have to buy a drink but couldn't find where I had saved the password. The tea and cake was enjoyable too :rotfl:

I am going for a trial swimming lesson tomorrow so see if I want to use the pool/instructor. I am pretty much self-taught so am looking forward to seeing my swimming improve.

ajmoney

Hi gang,

Still crazy busy but enjoying a quiet weekend where I am finding time to do the money shuffle and look to see where I am money wise.

May is the first month where I am going to try and stick to my weekly target of £70 and save what hasn't been spent at the end of each week rather than at the end of the month. It will be interesting to see how this works and then I am going to try and challenge the amounts in the coming months.

I will try and catch up on diaries over the next couple of days, it feels like I have been away for ages.

ajmoney

Managed to secure a £3 reduction in our $ky bill today, not very much but the bill was due to go up by £16 in July so I have effectively saved us £19 a month. They have given us a deal on our line rental and tv and we have 31 days to decline the offer so I will try and work on the other 2 with them over the next month to see if I can reduce it further still. This is the most we have ever paid for their services and it really is quite a lot of money. We use the services a lot so I don't particularly want to cancel.

ajmoney

Renewed my car insurane today ready for the end of the month as I am really busy. As usual I followed Martin's tips and managed to save £89 on my renewal price bringing the cost in at the same price as last year. When I called to tell the old company not to auto-renew they didn't even try to persuade me to stay and when I told them the price I had got it for their response was "that is quite a saving"...erm yes that is why I am not staying with you. Ironic that their slogan is every little helps...hence moving companies. Cashback websites mean I will get £15 back too

Money wise things are going really well this month. I already have money put aside for June ready to max out my RS account. I think I will have to start putting money into my ISA as I am doing well enough that I am saving more than £500 a month at the moment. I'm sure it won't stay this way but we are trying to be sensible with all our spending at the moment so apart from 1 or 2 take aways a month we are eating at home all the time. I had to raid my ISA last month so if I can replace that money over the next few monhs I will be happy.

ajmoney

I am going to set myself a mini-mortgage goal and see if I get our larger mortgage balance as close to £100k if not reach it by the end of the year. I think we will need to find £1.2k to get under it which may not be feasible but I am hoping if I make the suggestion to Mr AJM and we try a short term challenge together that it might change his perspective on a slightly more frugal way of living/spending. The good thing is that this would only be for 7 months so it might not be so tough for him. I would like to be nearing MF on this mortgage in 6 years so the more we can do now the better. I have today and tomorrow off work so I am going to see what calculations I can do to put this to him in the hope I can sell my idea.

We are already trying to keep our costs down this month and I am going to help this along the way by seeing what we need to use up in the cupboards and try and meal plan around those before shopping for the extra bits later.