I have a dream...to be a MFW

ajmoney

I think I need to readdress our/my budget. According to my spreadsheet each month I should be able to save £170 into my ISA, £50 OP and have £300ish left over. I am reluctant to put the money across to my ISA/OP until the end of the month is case it is needed but I never seem to have that money left over. I don't spend very much from my own account apart from fuel which is just twice a month so I am not sure where it is going. I am going to keep a bit of a spending diary on here to see if I can find what is draining my finances as the longer it takes to replenish my ISA the longer until I can make proper OPs.

As a longer term plan, once we both have enough in ISAs for emergencies I intend to pay what we can off the mortgage for the next 7 years reducing the term. I will then use the money for the following two years to reduce the normal monthly payment. I have just over 9 years to run on my contract with work and if I don't get a job that pays the same the mortgage would cripple us but a smaller monthly payment would be fine. I would love to be MF in 9 years but realistically it will be more like 10/11 years. My problem is I want everything, money going into savings and the mortgage.

Jobs for today

Inventories Fridge and freezer done
Meal plan Done until Friday.
Tidy/sort living room
Shopping
Ironing Have done half so far in about 30 mins
Pick up clothes
Mobile check ins
Lots of piano practice
End the day with a nice evening walk

ajmoney

We definitely seem to have a budget for everything and haven't missed anything out which means I should have £300 ish left a month and we should have £138 in our joint account. Mr AJM likes having a buffer in the joint account so I will indulge him with that but in a couple of months I intend to start moving the £138 across as a separate to our normal small OP. I am also going to go back to transferring my money to my ISA at the beginning of the month, it used to work and I have plenty of money to get me through each month. If I don't tackle this soon I won't make any of my money goals so I am off to set up my standing order now.

ajmoney

Picked up clothes for Mr AJM and paid in a cheque for him. Seeing as I was going to the bank I checked my change pot and have just banked £15 of silver which is now safely in my ISA. Didn't get any shorts as the shop doesn't have them so will mail order. A friend has just block booked us tickets to see a show so I have used the money for that instead, £25 into my current account and the extra £5 into my ISA. I will get the shorts on Friday or Saturday when I will have some money to spend again. Only managed 1 mobile check in while I was out but hoping to get some more on Friday when I am in town.

Food shopping done, will next need to go on Thursday.

Jobs for today

Inventories Still need to do cupboards
Tidy/sort living room
Ironing Have done half so far in about 30 mins
Lots of piano practice
End the day with a nice evening walk

ajmoney

We have just had an amazing dinner of balsamic minted lamb chops, minted pea puree and thai style couscous, Mr AJM has asked if I will cook all the time we then finished with raspberries, meringue and cream that all needed using up. I have not repeated a meal since I started cooking from the GF website half way through last month nor have we gone out for dinner and have only had 1 take away. I guess looking at it this way, even if the food shopping is a tad high it is still cheaper than our old style, I can then work on the budget from here. Back down to earth with a bump tomorrow...we are going to McD's for dinner as Mr AJM has his school award ceremony which I am helping at and we can't get home for dinner. We also need to eat out on Saturday but other than that we will be having more home cooked meals.

Typical and the reason I don't like putting money into my ISA until the end of the month...I got my bill for my piano lessons today. Rather than take the money back out of my ISA I am going to borrow the money from one of my savings pots and repay it over the next month or 2, I may even have most of the money left at the end of this month anyway but I don't like owing other people.

On that subject, I have had my last piano lesson before my exam today, it went quite well but I am a perfectionist so it wasn't good enough. Time will tell in 3 weeks time when I have the results.

ajmoney

We have just had Moroccan chicken wings with couscous and salad, it was lovely. Annoyingly I can't get on to the GF website this evening :mad: good job I had made a note of the recipe.

It has been quite busy at work today, so much so that I forgot I have an exam tomorrow until someone wished me luck. I will do some last minute play throughs in about and hour.

muddywhitechicken

Fingers crossed for tomorrow ajm - me not you :rotfl:

newgirly

Good luck with the exam aj

ajmoney

muddywhitechicken wrote: »

Fingers crossed for tomorrow ajm - me not you :rotfl:

newgirly wrote: »

Good luck with the exam aj

Thanks, it will be done in 3 hours :j

ajmoney

Exam done. Feeling deflated and a bit gutted as it didn't go as well as it has done but I guess that is exam pressure. At least I should have passed

ajmoney

I almost had a wobble earlier, I was in the supermarket trying to decide what to get for dinner and weekend food without a proper plan and was halfway through texting Mr AJM to ask if he would like to eat out when I remembered that it wouldn't help our MF quest so changed my text. I can tell he would rather eat in also as he didn't suggest eating out when I said I was shopping. We are having fish and HM chips, it will be the first time I have ever made my own chips.

I have been trying to work out why I am so down about my exam, apart from not playing as well as I did before I went in. I am going to sit with my books in a sec and think it through so I can move on. It might have something to do with finally not having to do anything for the first time in weeks, made even better by a text from a friend saying we have Monday off work