I have a dream...to be a MFW

gallygirl

ajmoney wrote: »

We have already got a leg of lamb out of the freezer for tomorrow.

I have pork mince to make into meatballs - fancy a swap .

ajmoney

We definately need to get a hold on food spending but we are pretty much there for the rest of the month. Here is our meal plan

Today Roast leg of lamb, roast pots, roast parsnips, broccoli and yorkshire puds
Monday Stir fry chicken
Tuesday Lamb gravy and veg (if any left) or freezer bolognese with pasta
Wednesday Bolognese with pasta (if not eaten Tues) or sea bass with potatoes and veg
Thursday Eat out
Friday Home tapas
Saturday Out at a friends
Sunday Roast duck

All our lunches are made and in the freezer for this week. In future I plan to make all the rolls for the month early on and buy as much of the other stuff as I can and then we can work on bringing the rest of the cost down.

Our food bill was large today but we needed to buy some cleaning stuff and got some good offers too.

Will see if we can sit down and sort our money while watching the grand prix today.

ajmoney

Spent the afternoon researching life insurance, mortgage protection insurance and mortgage assurance and have now purchased the one we actually need, decreasing term mortgage assurance. I feel I have done quite well, £22.97 a month (DH is a lot older and I have a job that most insurance companies don't like) which was cheaper on a joint policy, £100 cashback through quidco and 1000 nectar points. That £100 will be going on the mortgage when it comes through.

My next job is to look at our landline, broadband and tv. Our year of line rental with BT has run out so I need to see who we are best going with. We still have 6 months to go with BT but the line rental is very expensive now so checking the price and then will see if any new saving may be better if we pay any get out clause that BT may have.

Once I have done this we will be on the cheapest/best deals for everything and I can sit down and work out what we have spare.

ajmoney

Just used one of those online chat things with Sky to try and get a good deal with them as a new customer but they just started with the most expensive package and gradually took things off to make it cheaper, absolutely no way of bringing them down. They perked up a little when I mentioned a cashback website but I did point out that it would only make this year cheaper and next year I would still be faced with the same dilemma so told them I wasn't interested. Now I am stuck, DH would love Sky but I really don't care much for television so we need to work out what we want and try and work something out. Can anyone offer which they would choose? Unfortunately we can only choose between BT and Sky.

I have some small storage drawers to sort through and DH has got an extra lesson on now so may sort them and see if I can find some other things to sell.

ajmoney

I have found 3 phones and online can get between £3.74 and £7.85 for all of them. I am going to take them into a shop in town when I am in on Thursday and see what they would give and then make my decision.

I have also found a shop over the water that deals in second hand jewellery so I am going to give them a call to check and then try and go over on Friday to sell my two rings.

I am going to ask DH to get the box of books out with me later and I am going to see about starting to sell those too.

ajmoney

A QUESTION ON SOA's

I am finally sitting down and trying to work these out but my question is...DH and I have an account for all our household bills etc and transfer the correct amount of money each month for these, the rest of our income is ours to do as we wish. I am unsure how to completely do our SOA as we have combined but also separate monetary affairs so do I include our individual bills or are we easier doing a separate SOA each?

ajmoney

I know holidays are important to us and I wouldn't change them but we have spent £6578 over the last year on them :eek: £274 a month each and we currently only put £100 aside each, maybe we need to address this

ajmoney

I have decided I don't like SOAs, when I add in the holiday monthly amount it leaves me with £632 a month and I haven't worked out costs for groceries, clothing, fuel, presents, beauty stuff or entertainment. I can see I would need to make that all come in under £400 a month to ensure I can pay my mortgage off in 10 years. I kind of knew we would need to address some spending areas but we live for our holidays and I would rather it wasn't that. Luckily that is just my SOA but I am a bit depressed about the whole situation now.

I think the first area to address is entertainment and groceries and have a look at how much fuel I have paid for this month and try and cut these down first...our holidays are sacred

ajmoney

ajmoney wrote: »

Today Roast leg of lamb, roast pots, roast parsnips, broccoli and yorkshire puds
Monday Stir fry chicken
Tuesday Lamb gravy and veg (if any left) or freezer bolognese with pasta
Wednesday Bolognese with pasta (if not eaten Tues) or sea bass with potatoes and veg
Thursday Eat out
Friday Home tapas
Saturday Out at a friends
Sunday Roast duck

Still got some lamb left so that will be dinner on Tuesday :j

HelenDaveKids

ajmoney wrote: »

I have decided I don't like SOAs, when I add in the holiday monthly amount it leaves me with £632 a month and I haven't worked out costs for groceries, clothing, fuel, presents, beauty stuff or entertainment. I can see I would need to make that all come in under £400 a month to ensure I can pay my mortgage off in 10 years. I kind of knew we would need to address some spending areas but we live for our holidays and I would rather it wasn't that. Luckily that is just my SOA but I am a bit depressed about the whole situation now.

I think the first area to address is entertainment and groceries and have a look at how much fuel I have paid for this month and try and cut these down first...our holidays are sacred

I agree completely AJ, we love our holidays and MFW has to balanced against enjoying life and not making compromises that are too large as I suspect in the long run we'd all fall off the wagon:beer:
We compromise on hols by self catering (which we prefer anyway) and by taking breakfast and dinner stuff with us, but always eating out at night. Always taking suncream etc with us (which I buy when its cheap) and making sure get a good deal on the holiday itself. With trips out, like alton towers, Im afraid its always a pack up and we never buy tat to come home with, that you just know will be discarded anyway.

We always save left over currency ready for the next one as this "boosts" the funds. The kids each save their spare cash to, in little bags and compete to whose got the most left over.