Our Mortgage Free Journey

suse*

Just thought I'd say hi as we are both at about the same amount left. it is only me in my house so I can't overpay as quite as much as you two but hopefully we can spur each other on a bit.

that is a better looking soa than mine as well. I think I still have some tweaking to do there.

MissWillow

suse* wrote: »

Just thought I'd say hi as we are both at about the same amount left. it is only me in my house so I can't overpay as quite as much as you two but hopefully we can spur each other on a bit.

that is a better looking soa than mine as well. I think I still have some tweaking to do there.

Hello suze :-)

Do you have a diary on here too?

I would say there are still things we can cut back on but you have to live your life well at the same time! Don't think I would cope without a takeaway every now and then!!

suse*

HI,

Yes I just started one but I can't post links yet cause I'm new.

I know what you mean about takeaway that is why I am aiming for nearly 10 years instead of 5 as I think if it isn't realistic it is going to be too hard to do.

So good luck to the both of us

MissWillow

Hi everyone,

I think we will be able to come close to our target of £1200 this month. We can overpay by 10% this year without being penalised so that means we have £2400 in total to overpay by the end of December. Although This week is turning out to be rather expensive. We went to the fireworks and a curry on Saturday which cost £57 and it is our anniversary today so we are going out for dinner in my favourite rather expensive restaurant. Am still confident that we can reach close to this months op. OH gets paid on Friday so we will probably make our op at the weekend. I am selling an item on eBay too so that should bumb up the op. We made the homemade soup at the weekend and have portions for 2 days for both of us in the freezer. We also made a vegetarian dish last night ( trying to cut down on the cost of meat), it was a mushroom and spinich pie. It was tasty, but definately lacked some meat...lol...
We still spent £50 on groceries at the weekend despite cutting down on the meat and making the soup instead of buying it,but we did buy two soup containers at 2.25 each as well as some toiletries so I am hoping this coming weeks shop will be better.

I hope everyone is having a good week. I always love hearing about money saving/making tips so please feel free to share:)

MissWillow

Also on a complete aside... I wonder how long the newbie alert lasts for....

Mrs_Rachel_Trelfa

Congratulations on your anniversary think the newbie thing stays for about a month or so

MissWillow

Mrs_Rachel_Trelfa wrote: »

Congratulations on your anniversary think the newbie thing stays for about a month or so

Hi Rachel, thanks for the post and the congratulations! This forum is an excellent way to stay motivated!!

Mrs_Rachel_Trelfa

They have motivated me and I am due to start my diary soon (complete on my house on the 18th sooo exciting) just hope I can do as good as everyone on here. Your SOA makes interesting reading. The £224 a month for food seems quite high (in my humble opinion). What sorts of things do you like/ge?

MissWillow

Mrs_Rachel_Trelfa wrote: »

They have motivated me and I am due to start my diary soon (complete on my house on the 18th sooo exciting) just hope I can do as good as everyone on here. Your SOA makes interesting reading. The £224 a month for food seems quite high (in my humble opinion). What sorts of things do you like/ge?

Hi Rachel, thanks for the post. It's £224 (grocery plus takeaways) a month between two. In the grocery shop we normally spend about £50 a week which normally includes any kitchen products/bathroom products that we need. We are trying to cut this down by making home made soups for lunches but not having much success yet. We often spend about £7-£10 on meats, we buy a fair bit of fresh veg and some fruit, along with curry sauces, lasagne sauces, a couple of pizzas and some other stuff and it just always seems to hit the £50 mark. We do our shop at Mr. T so perhaps we need to start looking elsewhere.

Any suggestions or tips would be most appreciated. How much do you spend on your food and to feed how many?

Mrs_Rachel_Trelfa

Just me and the hubby we officially budget £100 per month but only spend a max of 80 with the other 20 going to buy home grown meat off my mum. Out of that 80, some months I have managed 55 for the 2 of us. I go shopping close to closing time/ late evening to get the reduced stuff. For example last night I got a lettuce for 3p, bag of little oranges type thing 16p, fresh organic chickrn £2.73, couple of loafs of bread for 13p each among other things. The right day of the week at the right time and its a gold mine and you can save a fortune. Most stuff will go in the freezer anyway so doesn't matter that its best before that day and how someone can tell me that an Orange is going to go off on this particular day is beyond me.the rest of my shopping is smart price stuff. That shop should last me a couple of weeks if not the end of the month and I will just need to get milk when I run out. Spaghetti bolognese sauces I make myself with a tub of passata which works out so much cheaper than a sauce and much healthier ans tastier. What about taking sandwiches for lunch if the soup isn't working? Do you own a slow cooker? I love mine - you can buy cheaper cuts of meat stick it in with a load of veg. Even the ones that have seen better days and when you come home at night there is a tasty hot meal waiting for you. Hope this helps.