My 2020 Vision

Pearla*Merle

I sympathise with the inlaws upset, XSpender. I lived with the same thing happening with my parents/grandparents, and now I've got something similar going on with my own MIL, urgh. Christmas is the worst for it as well

Sounds like a good idea to get rid of the loan, everything feels more manageable when you don't have large repayments due every month

XSpender

Over indulged at Mr XS Christmas party so yesterday was a bit of a write off. _pale_ We did manage to swap presents with DBIL and DSIL and go see their new house.:)

I am at work today, although hoping to leave early, and we are out for lunch at 12 tomorrow which does not leave me much time to get my still very long list done.:eek:

Some of the admin bits I can leave until between Xmas and NY when I am in work but very quiet.

The bare minimum I need to do list for today/tomorrow is:

Fresh food shop – carrots, broccoli, milk, grapes and celery
Build DS ride on toy
DH to wrap all my presents
Clean sofa
Wash, dry and iron clothes needed for next 4 days and hide everything else;)
Tidy and vaccum
Pay CC x 2
Decorate Mum’s cake - glazed fruit and ribbon
Make mince pies
Make lemon and ginger cheesecake
Cook gammon joint
Iron Christmas tablecloths x 2
Ring Mum and remind her to bring her bedding
Check we have an airbed to sleep on
Post neighbours cards and

I ordered a couple of things for Christmas from Emma Br1dg3water that still havent arrived so I am a bit cheesed off as I need them for Christmas Day:(

XSpender

All jobs on my list done and my parcel finally arrived:T

I am now trying to get DS to sleep so I can have a sneaky sherry and chill out in my new Christmas Jim jams.

Have a lovely Christmas everyone x

XSpender

We had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends and have been spoilt with some lovely gifts.

DH is really on board with our 5 week frugal plan and I have joined a couple of challenges to keep me focussed over on the up your income and DFW boards as well as the MFW 2014 challenge.

I will find out in the next couple of weeks if I am to be made redundant in the summer so our goal is to clear mortgage no 2 before that date. We will need to save/make £10,000 to do this.:eek:

My plans for January are to save £500 from what’s left of DH bonus by setting a really low budget for this month. My budget for 30.12 to 31.1 is:

£130 food – we have 2 stuffed freezers, lots of meat, milk, bread and frozen veg, lots of dog food, baked beans and toiletries and GF bits:)
£100 – Diesel
£50 – personal spends (£25 each)
£56 – cleaner
£40 – parking when walking, swimming etc as we are starting an exercise regime
£3 – charity donation
£3 - contingency in case I forget my lunch;)

My plan is the same as NSK Janus Illusion on DFW but I have tweaked a couple of the criteria to include:

Exercise x 2/week minimum - I am looking at the Couch to 5k plan as I used to run a lot but a back injury stopped me and I miss it. We are also fell walking again (went yesterday, going again NYD) which is my first love:smileyhea

Take lunch to work the 24 days I am at work

Eat breakfast at home or take to work the 24 days I am at work

Dry January – this will be a toughie for DH especially as we have so much booze in we could open our own branch of Odbins!:eek:

Make £5/day – this is my own toughie as I find it difficult to motivate myself to sell items but I do have some expenses, vouchers and TCB earnings that should help this month. I want to achieve this every month this year to help clear mortgage #2.

I am also starting the 52 week money challenge as I really need to teach myself how to save and put money away and this starts off as £1 in week 1, £2 in week 2 and so on until the end of the year.:)

I have set up a load of SOs to pay savings/ops to the mortgage, the ISA, DS savings account and to an annual bills account. These payments will begin 22nd Jan when I next get paid.:)

I am at work today with nothing to do as this department ceases to exist tomorrow so I am off to have a cuppa and catch up on the threads before I do a bit more plotting and planning for next year.:D

XSpender

I did my first food shop in over a week yesterday, just £22 on fruit, veg, fish fingers and a couple of bits to pad out the buffet we are having tonight. There is only me and DH to feed so I am using up some frozen party food and cheese and crisps we didn’t get through at Christmas. I have also used up a load of eggs on tea last night and lunch today and there is enough egg mayo for my packed lunch tomorrow.

I am really looking forward to our walk in the lakes on NYD. It will only be a 6 mile low level walk as we need to get our fitness levels back up but just been in the fells gives me such a great feeling that lasts a couple of days.:D

I took the cash out last night for this month’s budget and split it into envelopes for diesel, fun, food, the cleaner and gave DH and me our personal spends. He was not very happy as he already owes someone £10 from work so he won’t have much left at all. I will probably have to find that tenner from my budget somewhere (diesel probably) to keep the peace.:(

I have a lot to do today as DH was late in last night so tea was late and DS took some settling back to sleep. Actually it was probably because we sat and watched Rock of Ages when I should have been cleaning up.:o

I will finish at 3 today and be back home for 20 past and I need to:

• Dry walking clothes for tomorrow
• Clean walking boots, find boot bag
• Sort out clothes for tomorrow
• Start pack lunches for tomorrow
• Sterilise both flasks
• Un load and re load dishwasher
• 1 x load of washing
• Tidy up kitchen and living room
• Tidy some of DS toys into his room
• Defrost chicken for NYD slow cooker casserole
• Check if party bits should have been defrosted this morning
• Print off DSD am@zon voucher for his birthday, paid for before Christmas
• Take cash out to pay DMIL and for windows
• Print off a couple of alternative walks for tomorrow so we have a choice depending on weather

Not much happening on the MFW front today except I have brought my breakfast and lunch to work and I am not planning on spending any money other than on bills. We will need to pay for parking tomorrow but that should be it.

I am back at work Thursday in my substantive role at a branch that is 20 minutes further away than my current one. We really need to get back in a routine in a morning as this has slipped over the last few weeks and I am always running late. My secondment starts at the end of Jan so I will have a job until at least the end of July.:)

Phew, that was a bit of a mammoth post!

XSpender

DH has just checked the weather forecast and the walk in the lakes tomorrow is cancelled:( We are instead going to walk along the local river. The walk is flat but longer than we had planned to do in the lakes so we will take the dog and keep the pace up. If we get soaked it's 15 minutes from home not 2 hours.

Pearla*Merle

What a shame about your walk being cancelled I was looking forward to hearing all about it(!) My plan for this year is to hit the hills as well - found a nice little rain jacket in the sales so no excuses now

You sound super organised, well done :j I'd wish you luck but I don't think you'll need it

XSpender

Hi Pearla don't worry there will be lots more walking stories to bore you with this year:rotfl: Thanks for your words of encouragement I really need to nail it this year with redundancy on the horizon.

I am in the north east. Where in the north are you based?

For the first time ever I was in bed asleep at midnight on NYE:eek: even the year I had flu my friend rang me to wish me a happy new year and woke me up.:rotfl:

DH and I were falling asleep on the sofa so hit the sack about 10.15pm. I think we are getting old:o. Neither of us were in the mood for drinking, the party bits we had were really salty so we were glugging pints of water instead.

I have worked out I have spent less than £60 since Christmas Eve and this includes £30 on diesel and the weekly shop! If only every week could be so cheap:)

Off to make my 3rd cup of tea of the morning, have some breakfast and then off for our walk about 10.

Enjoy your day everyone and I hope your hangovers are not too bad. Smug? Me? :rotfl:

nattypants

You have put me right in the mood for a cup of tea xspender - fancy making me one before you go?

Happy New Year, and enjoy your walk

muddywhitechicken

Happy New Year XSpender - hope you have a lovely day