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

pennyforthepot

Wow - blue skies and not a drop of rain in sight:j

Busy day today catching up after a very relaxing weekend.

Daily food budget £12.88

Read the meters this morning - have been trying to do it on a weekly basis since the beginning of the year so I can keep an eye on it. Its amazing how much the lower the electricity usage is when the kids are away for the weekend !! £68 in debt to gas and £15 in credit to electricity - not bad considering I wasnt set up to pay the first months dd so I hoping that over the year I will be in credit by a decent amount (although helped by the mild weather we have had so far).

TO DO LIST:

1. [STRIKE]GT&WI[/STRIKE]
2. [STRIKE]Trip to Mr T[/STRIKE]
3. [STRIKE]Rearrange DDs optitions appointment[/STRIKE]
4. [STRIKE]buy new light bulb and hooks[/STRIKE]
5. [STRIKE]sewing[/STRIKE]
6. [STRIKE]expenses[/STRIKE]
7. [STRIKE]chase up subscription cancelation[/STRIKE]
8. [STRIKE]clean top oven[/STRIKE] did 15 minutes for today
9. [STRIKE]Declutter personal filing cabinet[/STRIKE] not too big a job as I do it on a regular basis. Am going to slowly digitalise it and keep what I can scanned on the pc
10. order dress for DD online for disco (she's paying) not in stock - she will need to pick something else

Enjoy the sunshine

PFTPx

pennyforthepot

So much for the sunshine - didn't last long

Daily food budget £13.41

£10 of petrol bought today which should last me till the end of the month which means I have £40 to carry over for next month :j

Have gone over my £100 spend by £7 this week which is not too bad.

Met up with my ex MIL for a coffee this morning. She lives in Spain but was over for a visit. Its so lovely to see her she is a truly wonderful person and a very dear friend.

I'm doing really well with my de-cluttering. I have pared my wardrobe down (excluding underwear) to around 60 items (it sounds a lot but if you think it includes coats, jackets, trousers, shorts, skirts,tops, dresses and jumpers I'm fairly proud) - I would like to get it down to 50 but I need to wait until after the summer to see what I wear. My filing cabinet is now stream-lined and my kitchen cupboards are free from those bits that 'I might just use one day'. My emails are now few and far between having unsubscribed to everything I don't want to receive, my phone and Ipad are virtually app free and in general I am feeling very unburdened and a lot lighter.

TO DO LIST:

1. [STRIKE]GT&WI[/STRIKE]
2. [STRIKE][STRIKE]sew bag[/STRIKE][/STRIKE]
3. [STRIKE]order tracksuit bottoms for DS[/STRIKE]
4. [STRIKE]order pens for DD[/STRIKE]
5. [STRIKE]15 minute oven clean[/STRIKE]
6. [STRIKE]15 minute declutter of recipe books and magasines[/STRIKE]
7. [STRIKE]15 minute business filing[/STRIKE]
8. [STRIKE]Take DS to programming course[/STRIKE]
9. [STRIKE]peruse Mr W and pick up my free cuppa[/STRIKE] large bag of sprouts 39p:rotfl:

PFTP x

shala_moo

pennyforthepot wrote: »

My filing cabinet is now stream-lined and my kitchen cupboards are free from those bits that 'I might just use one day'. My emails are now few and far between having unsubscribed to everything I don't want to receive, my phone and Ipad are virtually app free and in general I am feeling very unburdened and a lot lighter.

Enjoying your diary!

I did an electronic declutter the other week, it's nice to see you feel happier for it!

At one point, I was coming home to 40 emails a day to read :(now it's just 5, it gives you so much spare time and less stress and temptation to buy rubbish!

:eek: on the kitchen cupboards though, what about if one day you need an electronic spinning fork or an egg separator?

Pearla*Merle

pennyforthepot wrote: »

I've been really engaging in the life more simple and the ways of minimalism over the past week. Both my digital life and my physical life are becoming a lot simpler. I am slowly going through all the drawers and cupboards in the house and removing things that are no longer needed and will never be needed. It is liberating yet quite a difficult process to go through on an emotional basis. It's not just about getting rid of stuff but also about leading a more simple life in relation to commitments and filling your time with things that you really want to do but never feel you have time and also about giving your time, knowledge or skills to those in need.

Just wanted to give this a little :T You've managed to distil my own thoughts on this process quite succinctly

I'm in awe of your reduced wardrobe, I dread to think how many items of clothing I own. I'm too big for them all which hinders me somewhat when I try to get rid of them ("but won't I be beautiful in it when I'm half the size?!")

pennyforthepot

shala_moo wrote: »

Enjoying your diary!

I did an electronic declutter the other week, it's nice to see you feel happier for it!

At one point, I was coming home to 40 emails a day to read :(now it's just 5, it gives you so much spare time and less stress and temptation to buy rubbish!

:eek: on the kitchen cupboards though, what about if one day you need an electronic spinning fork or an egg separator?

Thanks Shutala-moo, I was a little hesitant about getting rid of the nutmeg grater

PFTp x

pennyforthepot

Pearla*Merle wrote: »

Just wanted to give this a little :T You've managed to distil my own thoughts on this process quite succinctly

I'm in awe of your reduced wardrobe, I dread to think how many items of clothing I own. I'm too big for them all which hinders me somewhat when I try to get rid of them ("but won't I be beautiful in it when I'm half the size?!")

Aww thanks Pearla*Merle - I just need to spread the joy to DH now :eek:

Clothes are tricky - Attachment to clothes is a tricky one but I must say choosing what to wear in the morning has become a lot easier :rotfl:

PFTP x

pennyforthepot

Well my one big task for today was to clean the jeep to get it ready to sell - the rain has put a stop to that one

DH is feeling down at the moment - not a lot of work and finding it hard to focus on what he does have. I have encouraged him to go for a long walk to clear his mind and enable him to focus on the task at hand then go for a coffee and try and write the piece he has to in the cafe away from the distractions of his computer - he seriously needs to digitally declutter - constant tweets and browsing are impairing his ability to concentrate on the job at hand.

Picked up some cheap sprouts from Waitrose last night and also bought some chicken thigh fillets to use in a stir fry which are significantly cheaper than chicken breast.

Daily food budget 13.79

Cancelled my Amex essentials insurance which I just wont make the most of so that will save me £10 a month.

DD will no longer need to go to her dad's on the train on a wednesday so that will save me £2 a week every little counts

TO DO LIST:

1. [STRIKE]WI&GT[/STRIKE]
2. [STRIKE]Mr T - bits for tea[/STRIKE]
3. [STRIKE]purchase new light bulb as last one is melting the lamp[/STRIKE]
4. [STRIKE]recipe books to charity shop[/STRIKE]
5. [STRIKE]empty work filing cabinet and move files to main desk cabinet[/STRIKE]
6. [STRIKE]cancel My Essentials insurance[/STRIKE]
7. [STRIKE]sew hole in tights[/STRIKE]
8. [STRIKE]15 minute oven clean[/STRIKE]
9. [STRIKE][STRIKE]15 busiiness filing[/STRIKE][/STRIKE]
10. [STRIKE]sort out coat hangers for charity shop[/STRIKE]
11. [STRIKE]find a box for kitchen stuff that I have decluttered but want to keep for when DSS2 goes to uni[/STRIKE]
12. [STRIKE]take kids to their dads[/STRIKE]

pennyforthepot

At last the end of January - wow! what a long month this has been. I am glad to see the back of it - particularly the weather.

Spent 3 hours cleaning the jeep yesterday and that was just the outside. It still needs a really good clean and vacuum inside and a wax and polish outside before its ready to sell.

Housework finished in record time today - house is spic and span, 3 loads of washing done and all in 5 hours. So for me it is now time for the weekend.

Right monthly review of my spending and savings. I just scraped over the £1000 by 2p :rotfl: so my total is now up to £103,000 - slow and steady as they say. Having forecasted my February spend it looks like again I will be lucky to make more than £1000 as the credit card took a heavy beating this month.

On the positive side I underspent by £33 on my food budget and by £39 on my petrol budget - these will be carried over rather than added to my savings - this will be done at the end of the year (£15/month of food savings will be going to my christmas food.

On the negative side the kids cost me a fortune this month - school lunches, programming course fees, badminton fees, gym fees and walking gear - that came in at just under £700. Also had to pay out nearly £600 towards the holiday deposit. Counselling fees and birthday pressies were the other big costs. So my total spend for this month excluding direct debits (utilities, phones, broadband, car loan and allowances) and my rent came to a whopping £2041.77 of which £1200 is on my credit card to be paid of next month :eek:

I'm going to take the money I allow myself out tomorrow so once its gone its gone (£70 doesn't stretch far but hey ho).

Earned £36 in interest in January - I'm hardly going to able to live off that in 5 years time:(

Time to sit down with a cuppa, a good book before the kids get home in half an hour.

Have a fantastic weekend everyone

PFTP x

pennyforthepot

Blue skies :j

Quick post today as I'm busy relaxing

£16.62 interest on flexiaccounts in today.

£25 spent on petrol

£28 spent on food.

Daily food budget stands at £8.71 with just a couple of packs of mince left in the freezer :eek: Thank goodness its a 28 day month.

Washing done, food shopping done for today, kids taxied to where they need to be so I'm going to relax for a couple of hours before I batch cook 2 kilos of spag bol

PFTP x

pennyforthepot

DH listed the car on Autotrader yesterday - not sure if we will get a sale from it but at least we are heading in the right direction. If not we will take it to We Buy Any Car.com - I just want rid of it now.

Daily food budget is at £8.54 and the chicken is ready for roasting

Not much else to report on the MS front.

Decluttering is going well and I am feeling much more relaxed in my environment.

I've been reading Robert Kiyosaki's - Rich Dad's Retire Young Retire Rich book that I've had for a while. The other day DS asked what I was reading and when I told him his reply was - 'well you missed the boat there then didn't you' :rotfl: My response was that I was doing the research for him!

That's all for today - I have Sunday lunch to prepare for 8 and another book to escape into called Stuffocation - another great read for all those wannabe minimalists out there.

PFTP x