My 2020 Vision

XSpender

Hi Gillybean - the more I have on the more motivated I feel. I like to have something to work towards although I am good at the planning its the execution that sometimes doesn't always happen:rotfl:

£3.30 TT today.

There seems to be more money in our bank account than there should be. I have more money than month left as I get paid next Friday. I have double checked my budget and everything seems OK???? I hope I haven't dropped a clanger somewhere:o I even have 2 items to take back to Primarni which will add another £26 and a transfer in from my PM of £5 to add on.

I do have £80 less to pay for the blinds that are getting fitted tonight as one went half price the day after they came and measured up. Glad I waited a day before saying yes and ordering them:D

Lunch brought to work today for both of us so that is 2 days out of the 70 achieved so far. We did have a chinese takeaway yesterday which hasn't helped the food spends but we have only had 2 this month as opposed to the 4 or 5 we were having. The food spends would have a 'must try harder' on my school report:o

I really want to cut my food spends and need to find some cheaper meals. I am a recent convert BACK to meat eating and am coeliac so the normal cheapie meals like pasta cost me a lot more although rice and potatoes are OK.

XSpender

Morning:)

Started the morning with a £1.95 TT. These are really adding up and I am up to £21.24 in my little OP pot.

We have taken lunch to work every day this week but our food budget is higher than I want it to be and I still need to buy cheese before next pay day on Friday.

I have found 2 ISAs to save our money in to clear the 2nd mortgage. They are the regular saver ones recommended by :money: which I think will work for us as we can save the max in one and then add all our bits and pieces each month to the other. I can then top up to the max with DH bonuses every quarter. I think this will work. Anything over the max I will worry about later:rotfl:

Looking forward to a nice weekend at my mums and catching up with my brother and his family tomorrow. Oh and getting the laptop that my lovely step dad is giving me and being taught to take up and line 2 pairs of curtains and how to use my sewing machine by my lovely clever mum:happyhear

Have a lovely weekend MFWs

XSpender

Lovely weekend at mums. Nice catch up with my brother too and the pub lunch came in well under budget. My 3 year old ate as much from the carvery as his 15 stone dad:eek: I don't know where he puts it as there is not a picking on him.

Took up and lined one pair of curtains and have our bedroom ones left to do. Just need to find the time to do them now which means they will probably be lying around for a while :rotfl:

TT done taking my little op total to £21.75, will bring out the big guns at the end of the month when DH gets his bonus:)

I have had a rethink on the ISAs and will just get one fixed saver in my name and a mr t one in DH name this way we are not limited to £500/month in each as we want to save some bigger chunks from bonuses.

The laptop I was given needs a few more gig of memory and antivirus software so will get these next month. Ideally I would like to get office as well so I can set up some spreadsheets as it only has works on it. Might get this out of my personal spends though.

Shattered tonight, early night for me.

XSpender

Checked my pay slip online as it is pay day on Friday; £1.91 more than expected which will be TT along with the balance left in our account when I get paid;) This is the last month I get paid my secondment allowance so £150 less next month:(

DH is expecting a little more than I budgeted for his wage+bonus but I will wait and see what that is at the end of the month. Dont want to count my chickens......

Our 'money month' starts on my pay date and DH is often paid up to 10 days later and while mine is always the same his changes every month so most of the DIY purchases we are planning, the savings, clearing the CC and other stuff has to wait until the end of the month to make sure we can cover what we have planned. It's so frustrating when I want to crack on with the money shuffle this month:( I have tried moving the 'money month' to match his pay dates but it just doesnt feel right with my wage sitting in the bank:rotfl:

TT done of 39p and a big STC gone from the account to the OP pot of £2.61 which brings my little op pot to £26.41. This will be moved to the ISA when I get around to opening it:o

Not much to report on the MFW front. Lots of cheese and potato based, veggie or miss matched meals this week as I am determined not to buy any more food until pay day. Last night was cheese omlettes with wedges, tonight is tomato and cheese pasta bake and tomorrow will be burgers (with cheese on)for DH and sausages for me as there isnt enough of one or the other for us both to have the same. Thursday will be veggie chilli with cheese on and lunches are, yep you guessed it cheese sandwiches:D Only joking I have had egg today and DH has had ham but the rest of the week is looking decidely cheesy.

Wonder if I should make a cheesecake for pud?:rotfl:

XSpender

Went to the dentist this morning as a tooth I should have had some work done on at the beginning of the year had started to niggle a bit. It has deteriorated and will now need fixing asap at a cost of £400+:eek: I put the work off as the tooth wasn't causing me any discomfort and I didnt want to spend the money TBH . The cost isnt much more than they quoted me in Jan but the outcome for the tooth isnt as good:(

I was planning to put money away each month from this month to cover annual bills and this dental treatment, it has just come around quicker than I was planning. Using this, my little OP pot, the balance in my account and the balance of last months bills money means I only need £200 out of the bonus money which will please DH. It will aslo mean I can still save £1000 towards the 2nd mortgage this month.

My iphone has conked out too:( I got a reconditioned one in about March I think and it has just died, no trauma to it, it just wouldnt turn on and then when it did the screen is just blue. I will take it back to the 02 shop on Sunday and see if it is covered as I am tied into a 2 year contract:eek: Not sure what I will do if it isnt:(

There is an awful lot of unhappy faces up there.:o

Some news......DH has been talking to his boss yesterday and other colleagues recently about the company share save scheme and he wants to put some money into it which I am happy to do as I have just used my annual pay rise to open one at work. DH work one is over 5 years and he wants to put double in to this one but I think we can afford to do it.

My DH (43) has no pension provision :eek: He is also going to speak to HR today about paying AVC into his work one. I have been at him for years to do this but he has only both enjoyed and felt secure in his job recently as he has had some big promotions over the last 3 years so feels comfortable doing it now.

He is also going to ask about Childcare vouchers as our DS goes to a private nursery and we dont use them, I know, its shockingly stupid of us:eek::o As we will be using holiday clubs and wrap around school care next year as well it is still worth doing it now he is 3.

No pennies to TT, the balance can stay as it is until Thursday night when I will transfer it over to the bills account to cover the dentist bill.

Finally, DH are beginning to have 2nd thoughts about extending our house. It was going to be next year but has been pushed back until 2015 to give us time to do the bits we want to do inside and clear the 2nd mortgage. It may be when the time comes we decide not to extend but to wait a few more years, while drastically reducing the mortgage, and move.

Oops, rather long post, best get some work done now.

XSpender

No TT as nothing goes in or out of the bank until payday tomorrow.

Our cleaner didnt come yesterday so I have put her pay into the dentist pot. She doesnt get paid if she doesnt come, it must be tough being self employed like that as she has recently come back off 2 weeks holiday and didnt get paid then either and we do not need her next week as I am off on Friday.

I have also scraped up little bits here and there and now have about £260 put aside for the dentist bill so another £150 or so to find and I will have it covered. I have some coats of DS to sell on fac3book. This should raise a few bob as they are good quality 'names'. I didn't buy them they were gifts from DPIL. £60-80 for a coat for a toddler:eek:

I have some money awaiting payout status on TCB that I could really do with for the dentist. Wish they would hurry up with it. I feels like I have been waiting ages for it.

Managed to take lunch to work every day this week except yesterday however the food budget has hit £333 when I really wanted it to be £280.:mad: More work to be done there but I have a sort of plan. It may take a while to implement but it should mean that I can reduce my spend and stay there for the foreseeable future.

My meal plan for the month looks good and I have added a few new recipes in to try as well. I am really getting back into enjoying cooking. I had a blip when I went GF and then from long term veggie to meat eater but I am getting my cooking mo jo back now:D

I have done some planning around starting a GF blog as the advice I have read recommended this rather than jumping straight in. I can think of lots of ideas for posts but am stumped when it comes to a name. I will keep developing it and am sure the name will pop into my head.

I have started planning for the c word.:eek:

XSpender

Busy, busy, busy weekend. I feel like I went to sleep on Friday and its Monday already!:eek:

We did a lot of shopping on Saturday but apart from a massive stock up food shop we didn’t seem to spend much because everything we bought on Saturday went back on Sunday. We both loved a bedding set displayed in the window in BHS, even went in to have a look at it and it was very resonably priced at £44 for a knigzise duvet and 2 pillowcases but we didnt need it so left it where it was:D

We did buy some basics; DH underwear, work shirts, slippers, DS coat, DH PJs all in M&S but the kind sales assistant gave us a 20% voucher saving us £27!:T Also used another £20 of giftcards DS still had from Easter.

No TT done today as I am waiting until the debit card payments/refunds sort themselves out on the account.

Everyone is really helping us out this week. I was in the process of buying a clothes horse (I will not use the TD, I will not use the TD) and the Mr T assistant told me the same one was only £8.99 in HB so I trotted off to get that one instead. It’s huge and holds a whole wash but best of all doesn’t collapse when you pick it up and move it.:T

Then on Sunday DMIL gave us £300 for our new bathroom flooring as she had just had a big PPI claim come through. We had budgeted for this ourselves this month so that money can now go in the ISA pot. How long it will stay there I don’t know as DH is getting a quote for new windows and front door this week. Our windows especially do need replacing or repainting and DH wants to do something with what might be his 2 last bonuses this year as they are likely to up his targets next year. I would like to stick £1500 in the ISA this month towards the windows or the 2nd mortgage so still need to find a couple of hundred.

Finally, I came into work this morning to be told my secondment, which was due to end next Monday, has been extended 3 months back to its original end date meaning I will keep the secondment allowance and my diesel costs will not go up as my base site for my substantive role is another 20 miles away from home.:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j

I am up to £300 in the dentist pot and need another £150 to cover the hygienist and what not for another 6 months. I am still hoping to sell DS coats on face book over the next couple of weeks which should help towards this target. The dentist bill will need to be paid in 3 weeks.:eek:

XSpender

We did have someone coming round from Mr J Lewis to measure up and quote us for a bathroom floor on Friday but last night we went into the local carpet chain to have another look at a flooring we had seen in there a few weeks ago. They also stocked the exact flooring from J Lewis at half the price and they then had a sale on it too!!:eek: Needless to say J Lewis has been cancelled and we have chosen a different one at the local place which is coming in at a good price for DMIL, much less than she wanted to spend on us.

On top of the dentist and DH now being really excited about getting some new windows and needing to find the deposit for them, I have to pay for the flight to Spain for my friends big birthday weekend away on Friday! The weekend/short break is in May.

I am squeezing our budget and think that the windows and door are dooable out of this and next months pay if we are tight as ducks bottoms. This will mean little put away for the 2nd mortgage or Christmas though. The window company do 0% so I am considering putting a max of £1000 on this if we can get it approved. We have a poor credit rating due to our old, settled IVA but DH did recently get a CC for the same amount which we have been using to boost his credit rating. This is clear as well so could be used as a last resort but again would be paid off over 2 months. Don't really want to fill it up as we will have just cleared it this month and the rate is sky high.

DH is so enthused about getting the windows he has even offered to give up his personal spending money:eek: I may imply that things are very tight and we may need to get rid of some of the [STRIKE]junk[/STRIKE] treasures we have been meaning to sell for sometime to afford the windows to see if this will spur him into action;)

I also need to book and pay the deposit on our spring break with my Mum as she is getting twitchy that we have changed our minds and don't want to go away with them. Bless, I just havent got around to it yet but will definately do it this week.

A couple of small TT of 69p and 55p to the dentist pot today but not much happening as I am aiming for my 3rd NSD this week.

Meal planning has gone off track a bit as we have not had the time on an evening to spend much time cooking because of all the house stuff we have been sorting out but we have been eating our way through the mountain of food I bought at the weekend. I even used up a pouch of puy lentils for DH last night that I have had for about a year, he loved them too.:)

XSpender

Just done a bit of a tidy up of my signature and changed my target to the amount needed to SIF the secured and carry out the bits that need doing on the house, including the windows. I was going to put the jobs list in my sigy but it wouldnt fit so naughty 2nd post in 20 minutes:o

The bits that need doing are:

Bathroom - flooring
Landing and stairs - paint, rehang pictures, paint all woodwork and doors
Bedroom - fitted wardrobes, bedside cabinets, paint, carpet, bedside lamps
DS Bedroom - rug, picture of him and a digger blown up on canvas, [STRIKE]wooden blind[/STRIKE]
Kitchen - WM, FF, DW all built in, sockets replaced, paint, replace patio doors (2015?)
Living Room - replaster ceilling, paint
Outside - paint garage door to match new front door, windows, new door, [STRIKE]tidy up drive [/STRIKE]
Pink - this year
Green - 2014 priorities
Orange - by the end of 2014 or if they conk out

The stairs are half painted, DS blind is getting fitted tomorrow, the bathroom flooring will be fitted next week and the plan is to get the windows and doors fitted within the next few weeks. We are planning a weekend at home this weekend doing stuff in the house so the landing and stairs will be finished and the drive will get weeded and raked too. I might even do some ironing!:eek:

XSpender

Ordered the bathroom flooring yesterday, it worked out about £50 cheaper than they gave us a rough quote for so pleased with that. Told DMIL how much it costs and she still wanted to gift us the full amount she offered so the rest has been put towards the windows/door if we get them/depending on tomorrow's quote.

DS blind was put up yesterday and looks great. I do wish DH had decided he wanted the windows this year before we had the blinds fitted though as they will all have to come down and we will have to put them up again ourselves and I am worried we make a mess of it.

DH spent some of his personal spends on a flutter yesterday but gave me the winnings so these have been added to the entertainment pot.:D

As our cleaner couldn't come last week DH has arranged for her to do some extra hours ironing for us this week which hasnt cost us any more than what we had budgeted for the month but will clear our backlog. DH is the main ironer in our house so I am hoping he will keep on top of it now as I hate a pile of laundry. Not as much as I hate ironing though;)

Looking forward to DH payday on Monday as it is a bonus month and I can do some shuffling and tweak our budget. We never know exactly what his bottom line is until it gets paid in. We know the gross figure but he has a funny tax code and mileage to come off so I can only guesstimate it when our money month starts.