The march to financial freedom

Ali-OK

Skinnylatte wrote: »

just catching up with your diary. Super well done on the overpayments, when you break it all down like that it really shows how every £1 makes a difference.

I made a boo-boo on the reduced combined capital/interest payment, as it's down to £1,014.76 and not £1,019.09. Even better! :j It's a typical elephant - break it into bitesize chunks with mini-goals and it's much more palatable

beanielou wrote: »

Hope you enjoyed Paddington.
Ds could buy his own new schoolbag?

We did Beanie, it was such a lovely film - very aww and oooh and funny too. Happy to go and see it again with DS thankfully :rotfl:

Good point on his schoolbag, though I owe him this month's pocket money and haven't attempted a repair on it yet, so will do that first.

I've done the food shop tonight, that's come in at £43.73 with £14 of it for food/drink for ex's family here this Sunday, my family big lunch the following week and a couple of bits for over Christmas.

It's becoming a bit of a habit to spend this amount in the last month, but then both freezers are full at the moment and I've got most of the ingredients to make more batches of chilli, spag bol and cottage pies, joints of pork and lamb, a duck and braising steak, so the cost *should* reduce as we get closer to Christmas and I've only got 4 for lunch on Christmas Day and leftover turkey to make curry and pies with. I'll pop into T3sco in town on Christmas Eve afternoon like last year as they had tons of YS meat like beef brisket which can top the freezer back up and see us into January.

The DIYers are back next week as well, so I've cake making to do, dinners to provide and DS is going through a very hungry spell - whole granary loaf gone in 3 days :eek:

In the meantime, it's an early night (I hope!) and client facing billable days ahead of me.

in_need_of_direction

Stock up on toilet roll too. That granary bread can be quite high fibre.

Ali-OK

:rotfl: Luckily I bought a 40 pack in C0stco the other week for £9 I think, looks like I could be back there sooner rather than later :rotfl:

Ali-OK

Evening Diary,

Busy day with work and managed a NSD. Inbetween work stuff, been organising the DIYers (or more like them organising me :rotfl:) with what they'll be doing and when next week.

Trying to get prepared for people here on Sunday too but not making much progress as yet, including the Christmas tree still not up. Going to have to do alot on Saturday to be ready at this rate as am late at work tomorrow, plus need to get a birthday card and pop £10 in for his friend's birthday and give him some money for the cinema/pizza trip on Saturday. That'll be £50 gone with his £20 pocket money as well. :eek:

Have fiddled with my budget sheet to decide how much I put in the Regular Saver (4%) this month, think I will stick with £400 as I have the past couple of months and the current account will still have just over £5k in it to get the full 4% on that too. Will adjust things in January if I need to.

Financials then:
- bank account checked
- freepostcodelottery checked
- Nectar - need to start December searches
- Nectar card value - still £43.67
- Inbox Pounds - £2.48
- Qmee still 34p
- P!necone £3 now in PP - will move that to current account

Another week almost gone so I'll look to do a TT to my other savings pot after I've paid my expenses back tomorrow. I also need to book an eyebrow thread at £3 as they're looking like hedges again :rotfl:

It's really cold this evening so I've been keeping warm by tidying up, hand washing up and generally doing stuff and keeping going. Time for a cuppa though and DS to bed shortly - along with my heat pad as he seems to have pulled a muscle in his bum cheek!

millionaire_in_training

aww poor DS's bum that'll be ouchy.

I am feeling rather envious of your savings there

Ali-OK

millionaire_in_training wrote: »

aww poor DS's bum that'll be ouchy.

I am feeling rather envious of your savings there

DS's bum is better today apparently due to alot of walking around school.

The savings look healthy at the moment, but there's a few big spends to come out from it next year (artificial grass and holiday spending money). It's great to have that much at the moment and having the office has seen my income rise quite alot, which reminds me the lovely people at the HMRC will soon be sending the January tax bill, but that's all kept separately in the business account. I think they send it early December so it doesn't get spent on Christmas :rotfl: as the July one always arrives about 2 weeks before, not 6. Most odd.

* * *

Thank goodness it is Friday night, I am ready to hit bed as so tired. Got home from work @ 7pm, a quick pizza for dinner, washing on, kitchen has had a quick whizz clean over, towels changed and now I've sat down I don't think I'll be getting back up again anytime soon :rotfl:.

There's an opportunity to do some billable work on a project I'm involved in tomorrow - I could do that whilst DS is at the cinema. Anything to get out of the housework and prep for Sunday :rotfl:.

Apart from checking the bank account (still no maintenance money for DS), I've not done anything on the financials. There is another P!necone Research survey in to do for £3, so will get that done tonight.

Lots to do tomorrow, so early night and crack on in the morning.

I've booked my eyebrow thread for late Tuesday and moved DS's appointment to end of January to make way for work. Really pleased with expected income especially as a short month, but the extra Saturday work last week, this week and also a full day on the 21st makes it up to 4 weeks. 2 weeks and 2 days to go :j

I've done a TT of £6.44 to the savings pot, taking that one to £46.86.

That's all the news here - I'm sending myself to sleep writing it, so goodness knows what it's doing to anyone reading :rotfl::rotfl:

Happy weekend all

Ali-OK

Evening Diary,

I've been a poorly soul today, left side problems and just feeling unwell with it all, but had to carry on in readiness for tomorrow, so I did. Billable work done, Christmas tree finally up, housework done (as much as I need to do anyway ) and batch chilli for dinner tonight.

Got DS to the cinema on time, however there was a power cut just as I'd arrived back to collect him, which resulted in them getting free tickets, but missing the last 30 mins of the film. DS not too fussed as he'd already read the book and knows the ending, so he's going to use that for either Imitation Game or Paddington, saving me the cost of one of the tickets when we go :T He also only spent £7 of the £20 I gave him (cinema ticket and pizza lunch courtesy of the birthday boy's family). I need to get the change back

Financials:
- bank account checked - CC statement should show up Monday and I've budgeted £260 to go to that when it does
- freepostcodelottery checked
- Nectar - nada done/looked at today
- Inbox Pounds - a smidgeon increase to £2.51
- Qmee - still 34p
- P!necone Research - next survey done, another £3 to add to the £3 from last week :T

Tomorrow it's all about hosting guests and cooking lunch, so a busy day on the cards. Just got the table left to lay and have enough spare crackers and napkins from last year to use, so will set all that out in the morning.

I have cheated with the washing this weekend and used the tumble dryer for speed so I could get it all put away quickly. The floors have been steam mopped (best thing ever that is for speed and dryness).

I did the elec and gas readings too - gas has gone much higher than this time last year for the week, I suspect I was in full on miser mode then and am being a little too generous perhaps now. Will have to re-assess how far down I turn it when I am not here during the day.

Having another early night and hoping I feel better tomorrow.

Hope everyone has had a good day.

beanielou

I do wish that you would try to slow down just a wee bit.

in_need_of_direction

I'm not sure our Ali knows how.

beanielou

No nor am I to be honest.
I live in hope though.