My 2020 Vision

Pearla*Merle

XSpender wrote: »

I have also been spending some time reading blogs about simplyfying my life. I feel we have started this process over the last couple of years but I want to take the next 6 months to decide what I want out of life and what I want my life to look like. I have this great opportunity and dont want to waste it by diving into a job that I dont enjoy or wont give me what I need when the difference to me working or not working is a drop of about £200 in our disposable income.

Can't agree with this more, life is for living! (And you've given some roundabout advice to me as well, I seriously need to work out what my priorities are!)

Have you got any favourite finds on the blog front? Simple living logs are my new obsession Greent mentioned some fabulous ones on tootoo's diary the other day

XSpender

P*M I have been reading, Becoming Minamilist and the simple year and frugal girl. They are all American and can be a bit Christian for my taste but I just ignore those bits;)

Thanks for the heads up regarding the list on totoo's diary, I will pop over for a look.

The head of my department asked me if I wanted a job doing what I do now with an outsourcer as well as my redundancy money today. I said no as I am not happy doing what I am doing now or I wouldn't have asked for redundancy and would have stayed as I am. I did wobble a bit but I have to go with my gut

Went to aldee and sains on the way home from work. Spent just over £20 and this should keep up fed for the next week.

I haven't been busy in the kitchen as planned and will run out if sweet treats for me tomorrow:eek: DH is sorted with choc bits from aldee.

gallygirl

XSpender wrote: »

The head of my department asked me if I wanted a job doing what I do now with an outsourcer as well as my redundancy money today. I said no as I am not happy doing what I am doing now or I wouldn't have asked for redundancy and would have stayed as I am. I did wobble a bit but I have to go with my gut

Ooooohhhhh, how brave _pale_. Well done :T.

XSpender

Thanks gallygirl. I am sure I will keep wobbling one way or the other until I leave in about 4 months:rotfl:

I have seen a couple of jobs to apply for but as I won't get time for interviews etc until the last month of my secondment I think I should hold off for a bit. Ideally my secondment will last a bit longer and I will have a great job lined up for September.;)

I have decided that I am going to save like billyo until I am made redundant and then bank my payout. We can afford to pay mortgage #2 so I will just keep plugging away at it and will reconsider settling it when I have a new job but definately by the end of this year:D

We are having a real low spend January, DH thinks we are eating better but wants to increase our personal spends back up to their former level next month. I want to keep our spending low for the next 5 months so I think this will be a bit of a compromise so he does not feel deprived. I will just need to keep costs/spends down in other areas.

I also need to look at selling some of DH equipment/baby stuff and raise some money with limited time. I signed up for the make £10/day challenge and haven't made a penny!:o

XSpender

Not much going on here as I am trying hard not to spend any money:)

I have made the big decision to change my city centre hairdresser for a local one and cut the cost by 50%. :j I am a bit fussy about my hair so this is a brave move. I do get sick of paying so much for it and can think of better things to do with the money (save and pay off mortgage #2/have a cushion when made redundant) than spend it on my head. It’s not like I have a wild social life and need to look fabulous all the time.

It looks like I will be able to put £400 in the savings account next Tuesday night as I get paid the following day. I can’t wait to make the transfer as it is the biggest deposit I have made in a long time. Next month I am aiming for £650:D

I am off to the gym tonight, but late on as I am meeting a friend. I hope I can stay awake until then. I would usually be thinking about curling up with my kindle at that time.:o

XSpender

We received our mortgage statement last night and the overpayment balance is different to the balance shown on my online banking. I thought that we had roughly £1000 in our OP pot but the online banking said we only had £700 and odd. The statement says £967.18 which matches the balance I thought we had and with the overall balance so I am going with this figure.

I have crunched some numbers and taking off the capital reduction, the planned savings and OP to the mortgage my balance on mortgage #2 will be in the £10,000s:j

I may get another month of salary and if I do and can keep to my savings targets and other budgets as well as sell some stuff the mortgage #2 balance will be just under £5k when I leave work. :j This is the target I am going to set myself to be at by 21st June 2014.

My CC statement came and unfortunately that wasn’t £200 better than I thought.:o I know I will be tempted to overpay on this over the next few months but must be strong and overpay to mortgage #2. Little amounts of overpayments/rounding down are allowed on the CC though.:) I am rounding down to be under £1300 this month.

The gym class was good last night, harder than I expected and I have booked in for twice next week. As I will have limited free time when my secondment starts I am trying to squeeze classes in now.

No spending planned for the weekend, just need to keep DH out of a supermarket as my teeny tiny food budget has about £4 left in it.

Tasks for the weekend are:

Bit of baking and batch cooking:)
Bit of washing and a little bit of tidying:)
Walking, reading and eating the baking I have done and the curry DH will make
Not spending:)
Lots of chillaxing:D

Thistlewhistle

Hi XSpender,

Reading your diary with interest as I'm aiming for 2021 mortgage free too.
Something always crops up though to chuck a big spanner in the works, but this year I'm focused.

Good luck with your plans.

Thistle

XSpender

Morning All

We had a lovely relaxed weekend as DH was at work Saturday but seemed to get loads done. All washing and ironing is up to date, DH deep cleaned the bathroom, and I made soup, baked with DS and had a good tidy.

We had planned another walk but it rained constantly on Sunday so we knocked it on the head.:(

We do seem to have spent money on food on Friday and Saturday and have gone over my daft small budget but after I have bought fruit, dog food and lunch bits today we won’t have spent much over £200 which is amazing for me and we still have a fair bit on the cupboards and freezer. I am planning to spend the same next month too, batch cook so we have a stock of meals for when I start my new job and use up cupboard stocks. I will need some meat next month; I only bought 1 pack of chicken breasts and 60 sausages this month;)

Pay day on Wed and we still have a fair sum in the bank. That never happens. :j I can’t wait to pay it in to the ISA to go towards mortgage #2. It will be less than I had planned as DH bought an item at the weekend to replace something he couldn’t fix. He did get a reconditioned one in the sale though so £50 instead of £150 + new.

I have made granola, buns and a vat of soup in the slow cooker this weekend. The lemons were past it so couldn’t make Tilly’s lemon rice pudding so made an apple and mincemeat crumble instead. Yummy with basics custard.

I have been looking at houses in a slightly different area to where we were planning to move to in a few years. It is semi rural which would suit us and next to what was our preferred area. The problem with our preferred area is that I don’t like the houses; they are all on top of each other in big maze like estates :rotfl: The houses in the other location are just what I want and cheaper. I did some number crunching and if we continue to save when mortgage #2 is paid off, chucking it all at the mortgage I think we could move in 2017. I showed DH the type of house we could get and that we could move in2017 and he nearly fell off his chair. Hopefully this will motivate him to save too.:);)

XSpender

I get paid tomorrow and can’t believe how much money I have left to bung in the ISA to pay of mortgage #2::j

£35 purse
£120 ISA
£325 current account
£7 52 week challenge
£12 just claimed from TCB

We never have any money left at the end of the month so I am ecstatic! Truth be told DH got his bonus on Christmas Eve so we had more money this month than usual but we haven’t spent it which is a first.:D

DH said he was excited at the thought that we could have our dream house in 2 years this morning and would be willing to keep costs down if this is likely to happen.

I have been following the Janus Illusion over on the DFW board and we have really reined in our spending this month. DH has had his ‘pocket money’ and not kept asking for extra bits.:D

My car has half a tank of diesel which should almost last the month and we have plenty of food in. I need to do a small ish shop at aldee tonight as I didn’t go yesterday as wanted to preserve a NSD and we may need a couple of bits for the meal DH will cook on Saturday when he decides what he is making. No doubt he will want a few beers too. I am running my food budget until the end of this week and will run it 4 weekly this year. I have spent £173 so far since 30th Dec and will probably spend not much more than £220 by the end of the week. DH thinks we can get it much lower than this. This figure includes 2 kebabs and 2 dine in for £10.:o

I requested £12.08 from TCB in ama2on vouchers today. I normally get cash but I want to buy DH a birthday present that I have seen on ama2on so that extra 57p will come in handy.:rotfl:

I have a couple of targets to hit before the 23rd Feb:

• Have £1000 saved in the ISA – this will require budgeting and selling some items as well as transferring money from our pay
• Lunch to work everyday
• 15 NSDs
• Stick to budget for DH birthday
• £30 in the 52 week challenge jar
• £200 food budget
• Book hair appointment at cheaper hairdressers
• Exercise twice a week

Wish me luck:D

XSpender

Pay day today and I have OP £155 to mortgage #1 and paid £473.68 into the ISA towards mortgage #2. :jThe overpayments for mortgage #1 will go towards #2; I am just hiding it away to stop me spending it.

I really want £1000 in the ISA before next payday so I need to find £405.33 before 21st Feb :eek: which may be a little ambitious. I should be able to save a further £250-300 from our salaries if we can stick to our budgets but will need to sell some items to hit the target as there isn’t much wriggle room this month as it is DH birthday in early Feb.

£32 spent in Aldeee last night so my food spends are at £206 with 5 days to go. DH fancies making Thai green curry on Saturday night which will require a few ingredients like fish sauce and curry paste and I will need to get GF stock cubes from Mr S so I am not expecting a huge spend this weekend (fingers crossed). DH is at work on Saturday morning and we are visiting mum on Sunday which should keep us out of the shops.