Small Steps To A Bigger, Brighter Future

BookWorm

Hi Muffintops :hello:

I'm a newbie to the site and the whole MFW concept but I'm enjoying reading people stories, hints and tips. I'm subscribing to your diary to share the journey with you. I wish you the best of luck with it!

Cheers
BW

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Good luck MT, you seem extremely organised so it will be great to follow your journey

Tilly x

MuffinTops

BookWorm wrote: »

Hi Muffintops :hello:

I'm a newbie to the site and the whole MFW concept but I'm enjoying reading people stories, hints and tips. I'm subscribing to your diary to share the journey with you. I wish you the best of luck with it!

Cheers
BW

Thanks BookWorm,
Do you have a diary set up? If so I'll pop along and have a read and subscribe too. The more motivation the better, and I do love getting comments on my updates.

MuffinTops

Thanks Tilly,

I do feel so much better when I'm organised which encourages my positivity.

I've actually been a lurker on your diary for a while so maybe it's time I piped up and said hello to you too as I love reading your updates.

MuffinTops

My good plans from the weekend went a little awry, but I have managed to stay focussed.

I suffered from a migraine on Sunday which went into Monday too. There was no normal migraine trigger so I'm thinking it's either to do with a bit of a detox, or a sinus issue I've been feeling recently.

The weekend overall was great though. Lots of healthy food (and the most unhealthy but amazing chocolate dessert - both nights!!!!) We also put lots of the world to rights and generally had a good girly catch up.

While away I had a text from a friend of mine who suddenly disappeared as his girlfriend didn't like our friendship. He wanted to get back to the friendship we had, and even stated that he'd bring up the subject of our friendship with his girlfriend at some point to see if she'd now "allow" it!!!! To cut a long story short I got a chance to say the goodbye I needed to as I no longer trust his friendship. I was very kind and amicable, but very insistent too when he just refused to accept that our friendship finished when he just dropped me so harshly. The funny thing was, literally 2 hours before he sent that text I'd mentioned how much I missed him to my friend! Isn't it funny how things work out?

So I didn't get a chance to go through the recipes Sunday, but I have found and printed more off this week to help me set up a meal plan. I'll get the meal plan sorted tomorrow evening.

My small challenge this week has been to drink lots more water. At least 1.5 litres a day. So far I've only managed around 1 litre each day so need to put more effort into that. But am happy with the progress too.

Next week will be to maintain the intake of water, but also to start on and keep tweaking the meal plans until I find something that really works for me and enhances my energy levels. I want to add lots more fruit and salad as well as keeping it easy for bringing in lunch. In theory I feel I know a lot. In practice I'm an amateur!!!!!

I had a look at boot sale locations too, but they're winding down now. There are 2 good ones I've found and the Saturday one has just finished. So, I'll need to be a little more ruthless with clutter clearing as it's looking likely that I'll only have one more boot sale this year. Then they start again next April. Something will have to be looking pretty good if I'm going to hold onto it for another 5 or 6 months!!! Ebay will be doing well out of me over the next few months I hope.

I've had 5 NSD's this month so that money has been put into my sealed pot ready for counting out next month! That's really exciting although I've still not put a solid earmark on that money yet.

Financially there's lots of organising going on. But I've gone on enough now so I'll put everything in my next update.

MuffinTops

So the financial organising is:

Thanks to another diary I lurk in I have now opened an IF account with little pots. These will help me save towards the yearly payments like car tax and home insurance where I can also save lots more by paying for a whole year upfront rather than monthly. It will mean that for the first year I could potentially be putting aside 2 lots for the 1 item, but if I plan my finances well I can maybe have a healthy start in each pot.

Next year I have decided not to enter the sealed pot challenge. It's been fantastic for me this year, and I very highly recommend it to anyone who needs to save, but I want every spare penny to go into high interest savings accounts to offset my mortgage.

Money made online selling clutter will be a mortgage op. When I look at an item that I feel sentimental towards it will be easier to sell it with the "the value of this is better coming off my mortgage than sitting in a drawer" mindset. I'll keep £100 in this account for emergency use.

Coupons and vouchers awarded from survey sites will go towards gifts for others for birthdays and Christmas etc. I've also decided to try and get as many amazon vouchers as I can from now until Christmas so that I can put that part of my Christmas budget on giving my jars an initial boost.

My daily budget of £10 should remain mine whether used or not.
That will allow me to save for little extras without feeling guilty or deprived. To encourage me not to mindlessly spend I will join each month's NSD challenge and pledge at least 10 days of NSD's. All it takes not to spend mindlessly is a little organisation and forethought.

So:
Any and all vouchers = Christmas and Birthday gifts*
Loyalty points and coupons = Christmas and Birthday gifts*
Selling of clutter = Mortgage OP or offset account
Any other method of income = Mortgage OP or offset account
Anything spare in any IF jars = Mortgage OP or offset account
Daily Budget = Mine, all mine

* If I manage to get a large amount of vouchers, points and/or coupons then I'll allow myself a nice treat with what's spare.

Ooh, that feels good all written down!

MuffinTops

I managed to get a lot done last night so I think maybe my organisation energy is up again.

I've seen that it's free listing on ebay this weekend, so I think I will use this opportunity to have a blitz indoors. I won't list everything for this weekend, just over 99p thing. But I'll get everything else put on a schedule so that I can get some things shifted next week.

I also managed a few surveys last night and some swagbucks. My poll app should pay soon too as I'm now on $9.90 with a poll just in.

It's dreary out there at the moment but it's Friday so I don't care!

ammonite

Good luck MuffinTops, just found your diary and wanted to wish you well

MuffinTops

Thank you ammonite. I really appreciate the comments on here.

Knitting_Nora

MuffinTops wrote: »

So the financial organising is:

So:
Any and all vouchers = Christmas and Birthday gifts*
Loyalty points and coupons = Christmas and Birthday gifts*
Selling of clutter = Mortgage OP or offset account
Any other method of income = Mortgage OP or offset account
Anything spare in any IF jars = Mortgage OP or offset account
Daily Budget = Mine, all mine

* If I manage to get a large amount of vouchers, points and/or coupons then I'll allow myself a nice treat with what's spare.

Ooh, that feels good all written down!

See, this is why I love your diaries - that's all so clear, and a great plan. I'll be pinching the relevant bits (no mortgage), thankyouverymuch! :rotfl:

Nora.x