The march to financial freedom

mooomin

MollyMischief wrote: »

I'm looking on ebay for a coffee table for our living room so we can have a load of candles on it, but also use it for playing board games with the children and stay in one room more.

If you don't mind what it looks like, keep an eye out for your local Gumtree. People are often getting rid of furniture very cheaply there. Freecycle is an option too.

Ali-OK

Good evening.

'Candles on the go tonight - 14' :rotfl:

We've had every candle on tonight we can find, at this rate it'll be up there with the leccy costs with buying new candles. Like your reasoning MM and kind of glad I'm single :rotfl:

Ragstoriches - good luck with hubby!

Not done any AdPoints today, too busy with work (good as all billable). I read on the 'Up Your Income' board that there seems to be less points available the longer you do it?

I see Amazon purchases no longer attract nectar points as well - I was intending to get a couple of Xmas presents through there as well. Damn.

A NSD here, but running out of mints so need to get some tomorrow - I'm a bit of an addict and have a packet in the car, a jacket pocket, handbag and kitchen windowsill. I usually buy Tic-Tacs in the local shop or a multi-pack of Smints online as they work out cheaper.

Thanks for the reminder about Gumtree, Moomin. I've never used it, but have got a brand new boxed up office chair sat under the spare bed that we need to get rid of.

Small DFW things today:

- Home at lunchtime briefly, so concocted a brunch of toast, bit of cheese, last few mushrooms, last qtr of pepper and a side of sour cream and chive. Interesting, but need to use up fridge bits as away this weekend.

- Having the radio on rather than the tv for background noise whilst working at home - seems to use less energy on the smart meter.

- Double dipping tea bags. I don't like strong tea (but I drink quite alot of it), so re-using the tea bag. Is that too disgusting? :eek:

- Checked bank account - We have Sky which has just gone up to £22.50 a month. It's less than 12 months since we upgraded our first box (from 2000) to a Sky+ one, but come Jan think I might try and get a half price sub deal if I can.

DS is history and military channel mad and doesn't do alot of activities. Modelling Club is £2 a fortnight and swimming we have a discount card for. He doesn't like clothes or shopping either so has precisely 2 pairs of bottoms and 1 top for the autumn that fit. He's very money-saving that way!

- Pork steaks out of the freezer in readiness for Somerset Pork (packet mix) tomorrow night with mash, carrots, broccoli and yorkie puds. That'll finish the broccoli up.

Think that's it for today. Tomorrow the biscuit tin will deplete at a rate of knots, as my bro will be here for the eve. I hinted at him bringing some last week, so he did but expected me to pay him back :mad:

Hope everyone has had a good day and I'll be over to catch up on all your diaries.

mooomin

Ali-OK wrote: »

Tomorrow the biscuit tin will deplete at a rate of knots, as my bro will be here for the eve. I hinted at him bringing some last week, so he did but expected me to pay him back

My friend came round for dinner tonight - I told her I would feed her if she brought pudding Would that work for your brother?

If not, there's a recipe somewhere on the boards for home-made Hob Nobs which are really tasty. It's a MSE way to do biccies

Ali-OK

Hope you had a lovely time with your friend too and a great idea with them bringing pudding.

Bro has dinner with his family before he comes here (drops his son at evening college which is 40 mins drive from their home and 5 mins from us, so it saves alot of extra time/miles for him).

Thanks for the pointer on the hob nobs recipe, if I've got time and the ingredients in the cupboard I might have a go at those tomorrow. Definitely will try them out anyway as DS loves biscuits.

Possible back up plan is some Aldi rich tea in the cupboard and some plain cooking chocolate, I might melt and dip or drizzle on - almost chocolate biscuits

ragstoricheswannabe

I second the homemade hobnobs!! They don't last long in this house. I usually have to double the recipe. (More so when dipped in chocolate)

Ali-OK

Evening all

Mad busy day so didn't have time to do anything about biscuits. Bro devoured half a pack of ginger nuts that my Mum gave me at the weekend. At least no cost involved.

MUST find the hob nob recipe and one for choc chip cookies, I can knock biscuits off the weekly shop then.

Popped into beauticians and had my eyebrows threaded to get rid of the stragglers in time for the wedding - £3 and bought 2 packs of Tic Tacs at £1.30 and a box of matches - 15p. Annoyed as went past a supermarket today and completely forgot to go in. Could have got those cheaper than the little corner shop. Total spend today £4.45p. Not too shabby.

Bagged up another 5kg of clothes that DS has outgrown tonight and he was remarkably helpful in trying on. So 3 bags ready to go and should get @ £10 from that.

Candles on the go tonight - 12. :rotfl: Another 30% energy saving bulb has blown in the dining room light as well - not even going to bother replacing that with the fitment coming out next week.

Have had to increase the number of nights the dogs are staying at the farm/kennels to 3, as they are only open until midday Sunday and we won't be back in time to get them :mad: So that's going to be a £90 bill in total (budgeted for).

Wedding outfits all sorted - DS is between boy and man size, so he is wearing his new black school trousers with a black jacket he had for another do fairly recently, white school shirt and I got him a tie for £3 in Matalan last week.

I bought a dress reduced from £99 to £29 in the summer which is fairly classic and can dress up or down. Teaming with a jacket I already have in my wardrobe. I needed new work shoes, so bought some that will get their first outing at the wedding then will do for work. They were £25.

We're car sharing for travel so there's petrol contribution to pay, but hotel and breakfasts (Travelodge) we got on a good deal months ago and already paid for. Will be on the soft drinks so hoping to keep spends down whilst we're there.

It's my month end this week, so will be paying myself my expenses and similar to being employed, I have a 'pay myself day' for the month (spreadsheet calculates tax, NI etc). Looks quite good for the month, so at the moment the plan is:

£325 to CC 1
£100 to CC 2
£144.27 standard monthly payment to loan

All are November payments as the statements don't tick over until early next month.

I'm aiming to put another £75 to CC1 during November if I can. After all the bills and spending budget allocated, the emergency fund will be up at £2051. I might round that down to £2k and put the odd to CC1.

I have 4 extra pieces of billable work (2 days during half term and 2 Saturday mornings) that I wouldn't normally get, so that will increase November's income and will mostly go into the Christmas present pot to finish that.

Weekly shop is usually a Thurs or Fri eve, but this weeks won't take place until Sunday or Monday with being away, so that will reduce the cost. I still need to meal plan for next week as well. I usually spend no more than £20 a week for the 2 of us in Aldi but I pick up some bits in Wilkos (Stardrops for most of my cleaning) and Farm Foods (toilet roll and some frozen stuff). Budget for food/cleaning is £100 a month.

That was a bit long, so I'll stop there! New post on the car saga to come!

Ali-OK

Purse clear out alert - 9p into the change bucket :j

Bottom of handbag alert - 2 x £1 coins

Coat pocket alert - a shiny 5p picked up outside of corner shop

Found a choc chip cookie recipe on the Slimming World thread and the hob nob recipe too. All good for some half term cooking with DS.

Going to bed a happy bunny!

BEAT_THE_DEBT

Hi great thread Do you sell on ebay? Childrens clothes go so well on there?x

Ali-OK

Thanks Beat the Debt. I used to sell on eBay, particularly when DS was younger but haven't done for the last few years. It always felt so complicated and time consuming I must admit. But there's a few things I will put on there for collection only - DS's drum kit (I bought from eBay) is one of those as it's just cluttering up the place and he stopped playing/lessons over a year ago now. On the one hand disappointed as he was doing well, on the other hand saved money in not needing to buy earplugs (for me and the neighbours :rotfl:)

A task for next week - I shall go round and make a list of what needs to go. You can hold me to that one I'm supposed to be painting the kitchen and utility room, as well as alot of cooking and working 2 days. It's going to be a busy week :eek:

I do like doing car boot sales and usually make £70-£100 a go - we have a few boxes building for the next one. There's a trunk sized toy box full of Lego that I think will sell well in freezer bag size chunks at £2 or £3? I'm useless at pricing and sure we under-price as table is often over half empty by time the initial swarm have been and left us with the [STRIKE]dross[/STRIKE] few lovely used items. Always find toys have sold well and so many unopened gifts.

Ali-OK

I will not buy a new handbag for the wedding..repeat after me...:D

Panicked slightly as realised I don't have a nice bag to use for the wedding. But I do have a black Radley bag from 2005 that is small and smart. So out of its dust cover it came and inside was *kerching* a 20p and half a tube of my favourite hand cream. Happy days!

End of month for work - pay myself day. Hoorah!

Looking at budget, an upward adjustment from £325 to £335 for CC1 can be made in November. Plus the £51 to round emergency fund to £2k. So have £386 out of the £400 I want to pay off. Another £10 hopefully for the clothes bags and only £4 left to find to meet that target. Better make a more challenging one :cool:

One off costs next month include MOT for my second car. Oh yes, I had better admit I have another baby. But I am thinking of selling it. I will have paid out more in MOT, tax, service and insurance than I did in petrol for it this year, so as much as I love it, love driving it and love the roof down, it's too much of a luxury and I could do with the garage to store the clutter from the house :rotfl:

The car loan isn't for this car...that's still another story to share!