The march to financial freedom

beanielou

Measure inside leg of old ones & add on the extra needed?

Ali-OK

beanielou wrote: »

Measure inside leg of old ones & add on the extra needed?

Brilliant idea - thank you :T Why didn't I think of that?!

Rollercoaster_Rach

Teenage boys! Great idea about the shopping!

RRx

Ali-OK

Quite a good day here. Work went well, now got some booked into May and April is coming along nicely.

Electrician friend didn't make it today - possibly now Friday. DS needs money for Sport Relief at school, aside from that don't think I've spent anything ad-hoc since last Friday.

Great local radio debate and phone-in this morning asking were middle class shoppers now to be seen in Ald! and L!dl after the 3% profits drop in 10 weeks at Sburys were announced and an article in one of the newspapers about Mums in Maidstone defecting to the 'discounted' stores. It was a resounding yes - no surprise to us on here - but so funny with a couple of posh sounding people saying it was full of the great unwashed and various other incorrect assumptions. I think food shopping has moved on alot from the much marketed 'shopping experience' to best value for money.

DB here this evening and we sat and talked pensions, retirement and mortgages! How boring are we getting or is this true to form middle-aged stuff :rotfl:

Financials:
- bank account checked
- freepostcodelottery checked
- Nectar adpoints - up to 38
- Nectar Canvass, Search and Card value - all same as yesterday
- Inbox Pounds - up a little at £2.65
- Qmee - another 10p

A new survey done for P!necone Research too which adds another £3 to the pot, however also had an email about them paying in points and not cashing out until £10, but not sure that affects me.

That's it for today and time to hit bed. Need to catch up on others diaries too and get motivated again, as it's more a plod than a march to debt freedom at the moment.

Ali-OK

I know my posts are pretty repetitive and tonight it came in useful! I was about to post my update, read through my last one and realised I hadn't opened adpoints or the search...so did those along with the phone going alot tonight - friends and family catching up.

Quite alot to report today, so where to start!

Work - very good day. Went to post some business stuff though and thankfully realised before it was too late that the sealed, stamped and labelled envelopes were without their contents :eek: Managed to re-use all the envelopes (if a bit rough looking afterwards :rotfl:). Brain fog well and truly down today

Good news on P!necone, they credit points and I can cash those out, so £3 to Paypal is on it's way :T

Old gas supplier has got the reading from new company and bill has been sorted. Fair play to the lovely chap who promised to phone back this week and update - correct reading as well, so a very smooth transition and I budgeted £40 to settle the bill, when the actual cost is £31.59. Very good considering highest quarter for usage and I'd already had £100 refund around Christmas. So £8.41 spare there.

New council tax bill for the year arrived today too. With no change to the borough, but a reduction to our little town and an increase to the Police and Fire, it's cost neutral. So no increase for next year :T Reading the leaflet with it, first paragraph is about it being paid over 10 months or 12 if you choose. I'll stick with the 12, otherwise cost would go up to £145.90 p/m. :eek: April's payment is lower by £1.06 so a little extra there next month.

Other financials:
- bank account checked
- freepostcodelottery checked
- Nectar adpoints - found more and up to 47. Very slow site tonight though
- Nectar Search - 100 reached and done for another month
- Nectar Canvass - not had chance to be on there today
- Nectar card - value still £44.03
- Inbox Pounds - Yay! Tasks working and a survey done - up to £3.24.
- Qmee - nothing today but cashed out the 15p sitting there

As Friday rolls around again, my motivation and health have improved today, thank goodness. Trying to stick to 7 glasses of water is harder work than debt busting

And as if I haven't got enough spreadsheets running, I've added a new one for the mortgage. Thanks to someone on the MFW for posting that and it's given me a good indication that if I continue as I am with what I'm paying, I could be mortgage free 2 yrs and 2 months early. That would be fab. Gotta kill the CC debt of course, but think I can do both

Hope everyone has had a good day

millionaire_in_training

Hi Ali. Exciting stuff with getting new car. I'm looking at your shopping budget and you do amazingly well. Food is a huge spend in my house and I would love to cut it down a bit but I really struggle. I rarely spend money unnecessarily except for on food. We all love eating unfortunately and we all love sweet stuff. Thankfully the kids work it off but I don't :eek:. So my challenge next month will be to really try and cut down my grocery spends x

Ali-OK

New car is fab - getting 50-60mpg depending on type of journey - this is from a 1.0L petrol engine! Amazing how the engine development has come on. I've even cleaned off bird pooh off the patinwork as soon as I've seen it, now that's a first :rotfl:

No secret to the food shopping - we don't eat much :rotfl: We like sweet stuff and crisps too, so tend to buy 1 pack of biscuits and a 6 pack of crisps each week but once it's gone that's it until the next week. DS has a bar of Ald! choc at 30p and a choc dessert at 35p. I had been getting bread YS in Morries at 19p for a few weeks, similarly with cheese and grating up and freezing (DS packed lunches).

Been lucky this month and received large bag of onions from a friend's Dads allotment and 12 eggs from another friend with chickens. I'm much better at buying just what we need and nothing else, plus luckily don't tend to pop to a shop inbetween the weekly ones - am getting extra milk and freezing which has saved a bit more money on corner shop prices.

I picked up alot of YS meat last month and we're still working our way through that. The extra half chest freezer really helps for that.

On toiletres, DS rarely washes so that's a saving, but does tend to use alot of toothpaste and I bulk buy washing liquid and Flash when it's on offer.

I'm still annoyed I'm spending more than £15 a week and envious of your couponing!

Rollercoaster_Rach

Ali you are one of the most disciplined people I 'know' ! I get so many tips from you. I am learning to keep grocery spends to a minimum (something I never did AT ALL before my new MSE life....long live MARTIN!!!) Think I will go get some yellow sticker meat tonight for next week. Great idea. xxxx
RR x

millionaire_in_training

Aww I am just rubbish with shopping budget. So difficult with a moany 19yr old and a moany 16 yr old. Right I am going to get mega tough with them and just buy what I need this week as I am into overdraft now which is peeing me off :eek:. I have a half chest freezer as well so need to start getting more savvy.

Brilliant fuel economy on car

Ali-OK

Go for it MiT! DS used to whinge when the treats had run out, but has got used to it now and if he wants more choc or something, he has to buy it out of his own money.

I do pile his dinner plate with veg or pasta or rice (he eats a bigger portion than me), so we use less of the expensive ingredients for the meal. That makes for more portions when I batch cook.

Rach - the Old Style Board is invaluable for lots of tips - I've got a bag of soda crystals that I'm yet to work out what to use for . Took me ages to work out what 'YS' was though :rotfl: and then to find them in our local supermarkets and the timings. Bit of trial and error and still is really.

There's nothing better than being self-employed to instil discipline - not knowing what I will earn/be able to pay myself can be pretty scary (and I remember the early days of earning next to nothing for the first few months with no government benefits either), but at the same time food budget is one of those things I can fully control, where as council tax for example, we can't.

The biggest shift was moving to shop at Ald! due to the savings and having less choice of items. Took a while to get used to it, but am a total convert now. Meal plan and freezer inventories have made the most difference though - I don't go shopping without having consulted those first and decided what we will eat for the next week. DS helps decide that to keep him happy/quiet We also eat what I'd call fairly plain foods - so sausages and mash and veg or toad in the hole with mash and veg - old fashioned, unspiced (some might say flavourless but I'd disagree) foods. But then I also bulk out bolognaise and chilli with peppers and stuff, so think we have a fairly varied and balanced menu most of the time.

YS meat is great for lasting us 3 days for meals - not sure how possible that is with 2 kids though. But an Ald! gammon joint at £3 sorts half the week's main meals for us.

Daily update to follow...