PaddyPaws peruses the possibility...

PaddyPaws

Thank you Lois_E and Tilly. I'll take a look at the lunch thread as that should be a relatively painless saving. And I think some goals are definitely what I need.

I played around with my spreadsheet last night and worked out that to meet my MFiT-T3 target I need to OP an additional £60/month between Feb 2013 and Nov 2015. So that will be my first aim

I love the ac tidyups that you do Tilly, but our budget on our main account doesn't have a lot of leeway on it. If I start taking even pennies out on a regular basis it could get messy. BUT I can apply the same principle to "rounding" on our outstanding mortgage balance each month after we've paid the mortgage and the interest has been added.

I'll pop back after work and put some "proper" goals up (with numbers and dates and stuff)

Thanks for your support
PP

PaddyPaws

Back from work so thought I'd do this whilst dinner is cooking (chicken and chorizo tray bake - smells delicious)

So my goals:

1. OP my mortgage by £140/month from Feb 2013 to Nov 2015 to meet my MFiT-T3 goal. This OP is my usual OP of £80 PLUS £60. Think I need to update my MFW 2013 target.
2. Find the extra £60 to OP by:
3. • NOT buying lunch 3 days per week at work

   • making Tilly ac tidyup type payments (but PP flavour)
   • anything else I can think of to make a few pennies/pounds
   • keep reading other diaries for ideas
   • get back on the grocery challenge on OS
4. Review how we allocate my pay for extra hours (I might even discuss this with Mr PP )
5. Next mortgage stats goals:

• daily interest under £3 should be Feb, so aiming for under £2.75
• capital owing under £60k should be Feb, so aiming for under £55k. ATM (without £60 OPs) this would be Dec so be good to see if I can bring that forward
• MF date, currently Jan 2022, aiming for Dec 2021 (as it sounds like a year sooner :rotfl:)

There is a bit of a risk to this though as we have an off-set mortgage and the savings for Mr PPs new(to him) car are in the off-set account. Once we get his car our interest will go up by about £15/month, so 50p/day:( or should that be :eek:

Timer just gone off, dinner is ready, catch you all later
PP

PaddyPaws

Update

I've updated my target for MFW 2013 to £2k to help me meet my MFiT target, just need to find an extra £60/month now.

I checked the finances yesterday and we'd underspent on groceries by 62p so I've paid it to the mortgage:j Then I reveiwed the savings and was about to pay a couple of hundred to the mortgage. I thought I'd best discuss with Mr PP as am trying to encourage him to get involved (rather than just agreeing with what I'm doing so long as he doesn't have to do without). Ended up with splitting the money between the house savings and the holiday pot, only managed to get £22 odd for the mortgage:(

I shouldn't complain really, the savings are off set against the mortgage anyway (I just like seeing the actual mortgage reduce)

So that's goals 1 and 2 updated. Off to look at 3-5 next

catch you later
PP

PaddyPaws

PaddyPaws wrote: »

1. • NOT buying lunch 3 days per week at work Starting tomorrow, need to find a flask and sort out some hm soup from the freezer

   • making Tilly ac tidyup type payments (but PP flavour) 62p underspend from grocery spend OP'd yesterday
   • anything else I can think of to make a few pennies/pounds working on this
   • keep reading other diaries for ideas
   • get back on the grocery challenge on OS have set my budget and worked out how it will work for me, will post more later. Still to register on the challenge
2. Review how we allocate my pay for extra hours (I might even discuss this with Mr PP ) Discussed with Mr PP, extra will be split between house/holiday/new car but odd £ and pennies will go to the mortgage (so a bit of a compromise there)
3. Next mortgage stats goals:

• daily interest under £3 should be Feb, so aiming for under £2.75 at the moment this will be Sept13
• capital owing under £60k should be Feb, so aiming for under £55k. ATM (without £60 OPs) this would be Dec so be good to see if I can bring that forward If I OP the extra £60/month this should come forward to Nov
• MF date, currently Jan 2022, aiming for Dec 2021 (as it sounds like a year sooner :rotfl:) If I OP the extra £60/month through to Nov 15 our MFdate is Sept 21

Wow, I've sorted more than I realised. Looking at a MF date of Sept 21 has me thinking. I'd ideally like to be MF by Nov 19 as that's my 55th birthday (well, I'd have liked to be MF by 50 but it's not going to happen:rotfl:)

Guess I'd better work out how I could do that. I think this will be under the how to make a few more pennies/pounds heading. I may have to get over my aversion to the idea of selling on ebay:cool:

catch you later
PP

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Morning, you're making great progress. It's surprising how the daily focus keeps us moving along.

Best wishes Tilly

PaddyPaws

Thanks Tilly

Just going to pop over to your thread to look at your meal planning to see if I can pinch any ideas

PP

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Depends if you like cold bashing garlic soup :rotfl:

Tilly x

PaddyPaws

I saw that, think I'll wait till we've both got colds. Don't think I'd be very popular if I take it to work for lunch

PP

PaddyPaws

I've been meal planning for quite a while now but usually plan and shop every week. To try and reduce the costs (and my time) further I'd decided to try and shop every week and a half (so mid week then at a weekend).

I was due to go shopping on Wednesday BUT inspired by Tilly I'm going to try for fortnightly (so next weekend) to start with and then work up to longer. I also need to find some new recipes as I think we're getting a bit stuck in a rut.

My menu week goes from Saturday to Friday so this week we're having:

Saturday: HM fish pie - Jamie Oliver recipe (very easy, no need to poach the fish first or make a sauce). Made 2, one is now in the freezer and on the meal plan in about 3 weeks time
Sunday: Pork (out of the freezer from when I cooked a shoulder of pork a few weeks ago) with roasted new pots in their skins and some veg out the freezer
Monday: chilli bean wraps - nice quick and easy tea for after work (must remember to get the mixed beans and tortilla wraps out of the freezer)
Tuesday: HM beef curry and rice - just need to take the curry out of the freezer (Tues is one of my " need a quick and easy tea" nights)
Wednesday: cuban chicken and rice, no black beans in the freezer so need to prep them Tues night.
Thursday: HM sausage casserole - hmm might not be such a good idea as, from this week, Thurs becomes my other night for "quick and easy"
Friday: Junk food friday but we had fish and chips from the chippy last week on wednesday so tuna pasta bake tonight as it was a straight swap

catch you later
PP

pavlovs_dog

after drifting in and out I've joined the Jan GC challenge properly this time. With a few small tweaks to how we used to do things we seem to have found a system that works for both of us. We've stuck to it for 2 weeks and have made good savings. If I can find the time and energy to plan properly, it is one area of our budget where we have scope to make substantial savings to free up cash.

Tracking every penny spent on food is an eye opener and is making us think much more about using things up to avoid waste. I'd like to build up to Tilly's system of monthly meal planning. So far it looks like we'll reach the end of the Jan grocery challenge managing 4/4 with sticking to the meal planning. The next step is to see if we can make the transition to fortnightly planning.