SmlSave's extremely small steps to reducing the mortgage

SmlSave

As I've just eaten my cheese sandwich lunch with a fruit salad I thought of another Small Saving Aim.....

Small Saving Aim 2 (Lunch) – it sounds so simple to make lunch every day. Saves roughly £5p/d, £40p/w, £160p/m, £1920p/yr! Yet it feels impossible to get the motivation sometimes to actually make a sandwich, lazy or what? I’ve actually been quite good for the past couple of weeks but now DH has increased his order (one sandwich is just not enough apparently, see the belly expanding….:p)

I am going to try noodles as suggested and as a quick lunch when I'm too lazy to make one. I'm very fussy with my lunch if its not nice I'll go and buy myself a £4 prawn and mango rice salad or sushi. No plain cheese sandwiches for me, thank you very much, but I will have a cheese and salad sandwich with extra mayo :rotfl: and don't forget my side salad, crisps and possibly a biscuit (oh look, I've just put on 3lb:rotfl:)

Better go back to doing some work.....

SmlSave

Lovely day again to walk into work, by half way I didn’t really need my coat but it’s better to have it just in case. So that’s SSA1 done and SSA2 is in the fridge being a ham and coleslaw sandwich.

I've thought of another Small Saving Aim....... 3 (Meal Planning) – there be a two week plan hanging in my kitchen using stuff I already have in the house. :T DH is surprisingly quite happy with having a meal plan as at glance he can see what he’s going to be eating. He is extra surprised by the fact that we actually have enough food in the house to feed us dinner for two weeks as according to him – if the fridge is empty there’s nothing to eat!

I’m trying to include in the meals new recipes from my many cook books. So far I’ve cooked bacon soup, vegetable stew and seared salmon with cucumber salad, very nice and easy. Tonight I’m making pizza naan and chips. The final idea is that once I’ve tried most of the recipes in the books I can then get rid of the actual cook book and just have my own recipe store.

I spent £19 on meat at the butchers last week which filled up a freezer drawer. Some steak and kidney in there as I’m going to try and make my first kidney pudding – wish me luck!

On money spending note I’m off at lunchtime today to get DS all signed in at nursery. Just one day a week to start with as the Nan’s are still happy looking after him the other two. It’s exciting thinking that he’ll have a day a week to play with others his own age.

SmlSave

Have been naughty today and bought lunch Was very nice though and to top it off I'm going to the pub tonight for a couple of drinks...hic, hic.

Had a go at grouting yesterday night but apparently didn't smooth it properly so DH wasn't impressed. I was just chuffed that I actually tried, esp at 8pm!

SmlSave

Have just been playing with mortgage figures and have worked out that if we manage to pay £5750 off our mortgage in the next two years we should be at 75% and able to get (hopefully) a better mortgage deal when this fix ends.

With our normal monthly payments we should pay off circa £4000 in two years anyway so only need to pay off an extra £1750 to get to that 75%.

That’s an overpayment of £73 a month, £19 a week, £2.60 a day - I can do this!!!!!

And I’ve worked this all out with a slight hangover too……..

newgirly

That sounds very doable , best of luck

SmlSave

Thanks NG, broken down to daily it seems like an easy challenge *fingers crossed*

Had a productive morning and have changed my ISA from earning 0.5% to 2% which is a little money earned. There’s enough in there to class as our emergency fund being roughly 3months wages. I see it as a temptation to use it to pay as an overpayment and DH would like to spend it on DIY but we’ve agreed it’s our emergency fund and we have to keep our grubby mitts off it.

Also changed a savings account from 0.1% to 1.5% so the little bit in there works for me.

I managed only to buy some milk yesterday which is a good thing as I’ve already spent £140 of my £200 monthly budget! There’s an evening out today, couple of lunch dates and a hair appointment to go to so my last £60 will disappear extremely quickly. I might suggest a couple of play dates at my house or the library for the next couple of weeks to keep within budget.

I’m quite proud that I walked into work today as the car was available and I actually had to drop DS off and then drive to home again to walk to work when it would have been much easier to park in town. I’m glad I didn’t though as that’s £3 saved. DS has been a star this week and been an angle (apparently) for the in-laws who have been looking after him. It didn’t faze him a tot being with them all week instead of a couple of days, I can only hope that he’s as good for my Mum next week.

Working 2 solid weeks has resulted in a very healthy pay packet and I’ve put £500 into the savings account where it will stay for a little while as I talk DH round to overpaying. He fully understands and now even agrees with me that we need to overpay but in his mind the DIY comes first atm. We might even need to compromise…….I will let you know how our little talk goes.

SmlSave

Yay :dance:

I ended up emailing DH about the oping my extra cash and he is happy for me to do so! :kisses3:

£200 shall be op'd to nasty mortgage next week :A

I'm sooo chuffed :beer:

newgirly

Nice big op there smlsave well done :beer:

Alchemilla

Courgette wrote: »

Hi Sml :wave:

Weirdly I was just thinking about you yesterday. Glad to hear the move went well, and WOW to a nearly 2 year old!

Glad you picked up Alchemilla's name change hint. Why she changed her name and drop that hint every time I'll never know :rotfl::cool:

Attention seeking. *STICKS out tongue*

I_want_a_baby

Well done on that OP - fab work!