My 2020 Vision

muddywhitechicken

Well done on the steps So sorry to hear about your dad

XSpender

Thanks MWC.


It's a grey and miserable outside today. We are all up and dressed after taking DH to work this morning. He was on a works do last night so left his car at work and didn't want to risk driving mine.


Money wise we have too much month left. DH has had a lot of £ for different social events, we have overspent on food (again) and have booked DS birthday party. We did pay in to the ISA and an OP as planned but nothing to the holiday.


I have read several people mention Dave Ramsey in the past and saw Alchimellia mention it on her thread recently so I decided to read the book out of curiosity. and when I finished it I read it again :rotfl:What I liked about it was the order of tackling different financial goals. At the moment I flap about DH having no pension, our bit of debt, saving for a new house etc.


I now have a new plan


1) Pay off holiday from DH bonus - April
2) Clear DH card in full using savings - April
3) Clear my CC - July
4) Save for and then clear secured loan -September
5) Repay other account - September
6) Big emergency fund - December
7) OP mortgage to increase equity for deposit for new house by 2017/18
8) When in new house, max retirement savings from 2017/18


If we are to achieve 1 and 2 this month we will need to watch every penny. DH has agreed to do a budget with me for this month which I am hoping will give us a better chance of sticking to it!


We've started by cancelling the cleaner, we didn't feel we were getting value for money, and I have started to use Mr T deliveries for our weekly shop so I can stick to my new budget of £70/week.

XSpender

Yesterday turned into a warm, sunny but windy day.


Achieved quite a bit:

• Cleaned kitchen
• Cleaned living room
• 4 loads of washing - 2 dried on line:)
• DH cleaned bathroom
• DH cleaned upstairs windows
• Changed bedding on both beds
• Sorted and put away a big basket of underwear and stuff that doesn't need ironing
• Walked the dog
• Walked 17,000+ steps
• Defrosted a pack of GF puff pastry and will make in to an apple tart using a few going soft apples and brown sugar

I fell asleep on the bed with DS at 8 last night, came back downstairs at 9 and fell asleep straight away on the sofa Finally made it to my own bed at midnight.


Spent £13 in M&S on a dine in for £10, a bottle of pop for DH and a tub of ice cream. Only went in for a GF chocolate pudding and ice cream for desert but the pudding was in the dine in deal. The ice cream and desert alone would have cost £5.60 and it is rare that I can get 3 GF items on the dine in deal. We had the gammon last night and will have the potatoes tonight.


This week's food budget is now at £81 against a budget of £70. Won't need any wine for about 3 weeks as had one in the fridge, bought 2 in the weekly shop and got one in the dine in deal. I had about a third of a small glass before I conked out last night.


Plans for today:

• 3 loads of washing
• Ironing (DH)
• Dust and vac bedrooms
• Bit of a sort out in DS room needed
• Make apple tart
• Dog walk
• 20,000 steps
• Make a loaf of GF bread in bread maker

But first another cup of tea:)

XSpender

XSpender wrote: »

Plans for today:

• 3 loads of washing - done 2
• Ironing (DH) - nope
• Dust and vac bedrooms - done
• Bit of a sort out in DS room needed - done
• Make apple tart - nope
• Dog walk - done
• 20,000 steps - got to 12k+ and needed to charge fitbit :mad:
• Make a loaf of GF bread in bread maker:)

Weather has been all over the place today. Went for a walk along the coast but torrential rain so went for chips instead.:o


House is looking better than it ever did when the cleaner came.


2 long driving days next week and then a couple of days WFH, determined to go swimming twice and have a lovely weekend planned with lots of walks and family time

XSpender

It looks like I won't get a swim this week as I have to pick DS up from school tomorrow as DMIL is taking their dog to be PTS:(


We have kept our spending low last week and haven't spent any money on anything but bills since pay day yesterday which is rare for us:o


We still haven't had the budget chat but will tie DH to a chair on Friday.;)


WFH tomorrow so will do a bit of washing and run the vacuum around.

XSpender

DH and I ended up shopping most of yesterday. Most of the spends were on new clothes for DS after we tried on 2 pairs of jeans and 3 jumpers yesterday and nothing fitted! He isn't 5 until next month and everything new has had to be bought in a 6. He is all long legs and long arms and a skinny middle and has shot up since Christmas. None of his Christmas gift clothes fit him:(


We are planning to sort out his wardrobe today and work out what fits and everything else will be packed up to go to the CS. We still need to buy the wardrobes to match the rest of the furniture but haven't planned to do that this month!


We also took the opportunity to buy DS birthday gifts when we were together and DS was at DMIL, we even got a card and just need wrapping paper. I'm really pleased with what we got and only went a bit over budget.


Food spends are over budget after buying cakes rather than making them for our visitors this weekend and snapping up some YS GF bits in M&S.


I also got 2 dresses, sunglasses and a beach bag for our hols but I have a separate budget set aside for holiday clothes. Some of the money spent on DS will come out of this pot too as we got him some swimwear and shorts.


Need to get on with the rest of the house work this morning and put some washing on.

Alchemilla

Thanks for the mention. There is a lot of good in Dave Ramsay's approach.

Sorry to hear about your Pa and the doggle.

intrigued to hear about you tying your DH to a chair...

XSpender

XSpender wrote: »

I now have a new plan


1) Pay off holiday from DH bonus - April - DONE :j
2) Clear DH card in full using savings - April - ALL BUT £500 :j
3) Clear my CC - July
4) Save for and then clear secured loan -September
5) Repay other account - September
6) Big emergency fund - December
7) OP mortgage to increase equity for deposit for new house by 2017/18
8) When in new house, max retirement savings from 2017/18

I haven't tied DH to a chair yet but we have had some conversations and seem to be on the same page. DH does get a bit scared when we talk about pensions, he can't visualise that far ahead. He doesn't want to end up like his parents with not a great income, working at 68 and a small mortgage on a not very nice home.


We paid off the holiday with DH bonus and I have emptied the ISA to clear DH CC. It was a little higher than I though as there were some tickets on there. I have left £500 which will be cleared next month along with almost half of my CC balance. We don't have a huge amount of money left but paying that off first worked otherwise we would be this far in the month with not enough left to pay it off. I will do the same next month and pay the money to the CC first.


We are attending a small wedding next month. DS and I have outfits but I am not sure what DH will wear, I hope we don't have to buy him anything. I have bought the gift with 20% off and free P&P so just need a card and wrapping paper.


I have been eating rubbish the last couple of weeks and have put 2lb back on :mad: I feel tired and run down so this needs to change.


No plans today, it is raining heavily and I need to pack and leave for work at 4pm as I have an early meeting down south tomorrow

XSpender

Long time no post. Work has been as daft as usual and home has been a bit strained these last few weeks.


Last month we paid our holiday off in full with DH bonus, used the ISA balance to almost clear DH CC and paid our usual payment to the loan. Almost £2k paid off debt although my CC balance went up.


This month we will clear DH CC, pay the overspend off my card and the usual payment to the loan. We are still on target to clear both CC by the end of July and the loan before the end of the year.


We have a wedding to attend and a few social events to cover as well as DS birthday party to pay for this month. Next month we have a weekend away to pay for, we wont spend much when we are there but the accommodation will need to be paid for. We are also getting our grubby walls painted next month too!


I am making an OP of about £5/month at the minute as I am focussed on paying the debt off by the end of the year and then rebuilding the savings first.


Plans for the bank holiday weekend

• Stuff to dry cleaners - done
• Washing and ironing - one load left to do and DH has done 1/2 the ironing
• Clean upstairs
• Clean downstairs
• Change all bedding
• Food shopping - done
• Catch up on some work emails/reports
• 2 big bags of clothes to charity shop - done
• Buy shoes for DS to wear to wedding - done

Nothing exciting on that list when it is a holiday but I am out tonight and DH is out Sunday and we are such wusses we will take all weekend to recover!

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Enjoy the long weekend.

Best wishes Tilly x