Diary of a home owner wannabe (my 6 year journey)

pennyforthepot

New years eve - where has this year gone? A tough one financially and emotionally - here's hoping that next year will run a little more smoothly

On the MS front as of the 31st December my savings sit at £102,000 that's £17,000 up on last year and certainly something to celebrate.As of tomorrow my savings will be running from the 1st to the 31st so there may be a little slippage on next months totals due to the change in recording my information - not quite sure how that is going to pan out.

On the MS resolutions front I am going to carry on with the small things:

• water down the milk
• squidge the toilet rolls
• mix up my washing powder with soda crystals and cheapo stuff
• keep up with the Yougov surveys
• use cash back sites
• hide the apple juice and cereal bars!
• use all my coupons
• ebay where possible
• save up loyalty points for end of year
• cut down on some non-essentials
• make sure the washing machine is full before I use it
• meal plan
• reduce food waste as much as possible
• update my budgets daily
• carry over any food underspend and put it towards xmas food shopping
• spend more quality time with DH doing things cheaply

Quite a list but the small things add up

Have a great New Years eve everyone - I think we will be popping down the pub but nothing major this year

PFTP x

pennyforthepot

Yay! 2014 here we go:D

DH decided that he didn't want to go down the pub last night so we started the year with a healthier bank balance than expected. Nibbles and yellow sticker wine infront of the TV instead. :money:

Monthly interest on Flexiaccounts came in this morning so that's a great start of £13.40 to add to the savings today :j

Rather a broken nights sleep as DSS2 had a about 9 friends staying after a party they went to so I have been banished to the bedroom this morning to as there are bodies in every nook and cranny this morning. Mop, bucket and towel lying on the floor in the laundry room - you don't want to know what's under the towel but lets just say that Im not clearing it up:eek:

I'm aiming for a NSD today although we may go to B&Q to buy a curtain rail and some light fittings for the lounge - I have a budget of £50 for this month on decorating. DH wants to get everything done now but I shall reign him in.

Really excited at seeing my savings grow this year - I have picked up a number of MS strategies over the last year and I aim to put these all into practice from day one.

TO DO LIST:

• put the house back together
  [*[STRIKE]]ironing[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]B&Q possibly[/STRIKE] nah - too miserable out
• [STRIKE]cook sheperds pie for dinner[/STRIKE] - simmering in the slow cooker

PFTP x

pennyforthepot

How sweet is that - the teenager who threw up in my laundry room has just come back with a bunch of flowers to say he's sorry. I didn't even have to sort it out as one of the girls had already done it. How satisfying it was to see him squirm :rotfl:

Stressfree_WB

I like your ms resolutions. Great help.

pennyforthepot

Stressfree_WB wrote: »

I like your ms resolutions. Great help.

Thanks - for that I do believe that small things can make a big difference. Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves as my mother always used to say

PFTPx

pennyforthepot

Time to take the tree down and get on with the new year. Had a totally relaxing day yesterday so now I need to get back on top of things.

I reworked my monthly budget accounts the other day and this is how they now read:

£2700 - rent (funded from investment fund)
£400 - food, cleaning and toiletries
£100 - petrol
£50 - me
£25 - miscellaneous (all those little bits that crop up in the month)
£83 - birthdays
£83 - christmas
£400 - kids stuff (school, activities, travel, clothes, trips, lunches)
£500 - holiday (booked a majorly expensive holiday for 6 this yr :eek:)
£200 - annual costs (mainly car and insurances)
£1000 - d/d and standing orders (may need to add to this as I think I'm under on my gas and electric budget)
£1400 -monthly savings

I need to build up a contingency fund as there are always unexpected costs as I discovered last year - unfortunately I don't have any spare money from my budgets if I want to meet my savings goal this year. I am just going to have to reduce it as I have no room to cut any of the other budgets down. Ideally I think I should set it at £150 -£200 per month reducing my savings budget to £1250.

TO DO LIST

1. [STRIKE]take down christmas tree[/STRIKE]
2. [STRIKE]GT&WI (general tidy, washing and ironing[/STRIKE]
3. enter all the kids stuff into the new diary everyone knows what they are doing
4. admin
5. [STRIKE]make one pot pie out of all the left over meat and veg[/STRIKE]
6. clear out and re-organise the spice cupboard
7. [STRIKE]B&Q - light fittings and curtain rails[/STRIKE]

Daily food budget stands at: £7.41 for the next 30 days

that should keep me going for the day - have a good one

PFTP x

Pearla*Merle

I need to do some spice cupboard sorting too, thanks for the reminder!

Good luck with your budgets, I'm sure you'll find the extra pennies for the contingency fund somehow

pennyforthepot

Pearla*Merle wrote: »

I need to do some spice cupboard sorting too, thanks for the reminder!

Good luck with your budgets, I'm sure you'll find the extra pennies for the contingency fund somehow

Thanks Pearla*Merle - failed dismally on the spice cupboard yesterday - task for today.

By hook or by crook I will get that extra money

PFTP x

pennyforthepot

Didn't manage to complete my to do list yesterday. I'm not quite sure why as there wasn't that much to do. Will try again today.

Wasn't quite the NSD I had hoped for yesterday as we went to B&Q to pick up a curtain rail and some light fittings that we need to replace the ancient ones that look awful. I don't want to spend a massive amount of money as we only rent the house but as we hope to be here for another 5 years I couldn't bear to look at the ones that we cu
rrently have. We are going to paint the lounge and dining room too and we need a couple of bits of furniture. Hence the £50 a month budget for the house. Spent £52 on the bits yesterday so not too bad although the curtain rail needs to go back as the brackets are too big.

Daily food budget up to £7.67. Will need to get a couple of bits today for the chicken casserole.

I have another survey to complete this morning for Yougov so off to do that now and my to do list is to complete the bits I didnt do yesterday.

PFTP x

Have a good one

pennyforthepot

Quick question whilst I think about it:

Where can I buy really cheap cooking wine - at the moment I use Mr T value red wine which is about £4 for a litre. Use it quite often and it really adds to the cost of my meals.

Does anyone know if I can get cheaper loo roll than Mr T spring force which has just gone up by 26p to £2.25 for 9 rolls (we get through 30 rolls a month :eek:) I blame the men in this house coz personally I'm a 2 sheets and fold kinda gal :rotfl:

PFTP x