Steps towards making the dream a reality...

gallygirl

niftythrifty33 wrote: »

Tip of the day: Don't buy Haagen Daz...unless it's half price, or unless you're hormonal, in which case it's essential (OH NO!!! I've just remembered I've got half a tub left)

:eek: Best remove the temptation PDQ. Eat it

niftythrifty33

Managed a weeks meal plan last night based on freezer stuff. Then did an online shop. Despite using all freezer stuff for main meals, it still came to over £50 for other stuff which seems loads!

I'm doing some baking today to save on cakes/biscuits etc. I might have to get cake tins with locks on as nothing lasts more than a few hours in this house :mad:

Have ordered 2 main Christmas presents and had to use some savings so will need to transfer back into that each month. Saves using a credit card but means no extra for mortgage OP's at the moment. This year has been very poor on finances, hence no savings for Christmas. I will have overtime in my new job and will go back to putting an amount away each month from January for Christmas/Insurance/birthdays etc. which is what we always used to do.

I really MUST sort out writing to old cards/loans about PPI. I know we have been missold years ago when we first started out but not sure whether the info from Experian is enough to write to them about? This time my efficient 'throw everything away' motto has not been very handy as I now need all our old paperwork!

Will get cash out for the week today and keep a not of all spending. I have just done a Next order for bedding as we're sooooo short of decent bedding but will only keep what we really need.

Rent/keep due from DS which will make the bank balance look better or I might just put it straight back into savings. I SOOOO wish I could throw it at the mortgage

Tip of the day: Use the OS menu board for meal ideas, there's absolutely loads on there

niftythrifty33

The new job is going well. Lots to learn but all good so far Plus as it's in a supermarket, I get 1st choice of YS food which over time will save us loads :j

I'm doing overtime so the hours/wage is building up. I have to make sure I get the balance right though as I still want to know what's going on at home with the 3 teens. You just can't take your eye off the ball with them at this age. I will make sure we have meals around the table more often as we find out a lot of stuff when we do this. We always do 'best and worst of your day' which has uncovered lots of things over the years that we otherside wouldn't have found out. Lately we've got into the habit of TV dinners so will have to stop this!

I expect all my extra wages will just be covering Christmas and DD & DS 2's birthdays for now. Then after Christmas I can do another budget/plan and start overpaying the mortgage again.

Meal plan going well. No extra spends on bits from the shop. I've bought some paint for doors that need doing. Plus already have some magnolia left for 2 small rooms that need doing. We have LOADS of family arriving from all over the place in December so using this as motivation to get stuff done.

I must stop these long posts as I'm sure it puts people off reading.
Off to prepare tea before I go to work.

niftythrifty33

Well the new job is keeping me very busy along with crazy family life etc. etc. I've got today off work so I've been doing my budgeting/banking.

Bank balance not great but at least in credit. Should be good by the end of the month though. No OP last month and possibly not this month either, unless I can sneak a small one in without DH noticing

My new job is in a supermarket which means I've been buying LOADS of YS stuff, all freezable :jIt's meant lots of little purchases which I've used cash for with 2 small-ish home deliveries. We've averaged around £130 p/w since beginning of Nov' but my freezer is completely full!!! So shopping for rest of Nov' should be very low. DD's birthday has just been which cost a lot after eating out too but it was lovely.

Todays jobs:
Tidy freezer & fridge
Meal plan for rest of November
Shopping list for rest of November
Arrange secret santa for massive family! :xmassmile
Normal boring housework & walk dog
Start wrapping presents & order few more bits online
Hopefully do some DIY :eek:

niftythrifty33

Just popping in to say hi!

Lot's has happened in the last few months, some good and some extremely sad

I've been catching up with diaries today and am feeling quite motivated towards saving, paying off the mortgage and reducing our spending on unnessary things, especially take-aways!!

There's a few big things we want to achieve this year. Change the car, have a family holiday, and I'd like to move house. Obviously we won't be able to do all these things but it's another good reason to be extra careful. We've been discussing getting a 0% credit card for either the car or holiday. This would be huge for us as we've avoided them for years but there's just no way of doing these things otherwise. But maybe we will just see sense and do neither?

Happy New Year all

niftythrifty33

Just made an overpayment of £200 to the mortgage :j
I've been using cash since early March as we had quite a bit in the house. I'm much more careful about spending when using cash and I've managed to keep a note of where it's all gone.

I've opened a Santander 123 acct. and everything will be complete by end of this week. I'm not expecting loads from the cashback on DD's & interest rate but it'll be more than we currently get. I'll move our saving into the new account and just use that. But, I don't like the fact that we see everything in one place when going to the cashpoint.

I can't believe that from starting this diary in Oct 2013 our mortgage has reduced so much! Think it's about 6K :T

Anyone else on here with lots of teenagers in the house draining every bit of money, mental energy and sanity out of them? Ours are 19, 17 & 13...It's not getting easier but apparently we're on the home straight:dance:

niftythrifty33

Ooohhh...managing to do my diary 2 days in a row

Will see if the new 123 acct is open today and transfer the ISA money into it. Not sure how it all works with switching?
Got to do LOADS of housework before going to work as I've been really lazy lately and in pain from trying a new exercise class. I really need to lose weight and feeling a bit more like moving now the weather's getting better.

Will try and do a meal plan today for rest of March. Also got TopCashBack to transfer but may wait til this switch is done...it's really confusing! Oh just realised I'll have to change my paypal/amazon etc.

Going to walk to town and work to save diesel. Have a good day all.

StrugglingYouth

Keep going Nifty! The small things all help to streamline and will create surplus for small overpayments where your money is worth more as it saves you interest!

People do read diary and not post. Im guilty of this myself, so I am working on changing it around!

niftythrifty33

Thanks for the reply SY.

All the bank switch stuff has happened now and I'm set up for internet banking. Going to take some getting used to after 17 years with last bank.

Only thing about new acct is that everything's all in one place, which makes it harder to tell how much we have to play with, apart from looking at my spreadsheet. I could set up a standing order to another acct for weekly spends; food; fuel etc. but then we'd lose out on interest?

I'm also wondering whether to keep saving instead of paying off the mortgage as the new acct pays 3% (-20% tax) but I'm sure our mortgage is 2.4% or less. I've heard that mortgage rates might be going up next January? Anyone got anymore info on this?

Still using cash for everything and writing it down. I've thought about using a cashback credit card but I'm sure I'd be less careful so think I'll stick to cash.

niftythrifty33

I've mentioned before that weekends are our downfall and this last one was no different! I spent £20 on absolute carp...it was a ploy to keep the kids in with us to have some family time, it worked and they thought I was amazing (for about 10 mins).

The cash only thing this month has been working well and I've got £38 left. Maybe I'll use that as OP?

Here's the boring bit but will help me when I look back at this in months to come...
Food spend ave. p/w £73 (for 5 adults) :j
Misc spend ave. p/w £90 also includes DS birthday, school dinners (occasional) & petrol. The rest is all misc. bits & pieces.
Total £163 p/w

New bank acct is all sorted and we have a healthy balance, all gaining daily interest of 3%. It'll be interesting to see how much cashback we get for DD's too.

Think I might make a meal plan for next 2 weeks. I've just got 'How to feed your family for £5 per day', it looks okish so might try a few recipes from that.