Attempting to pay off our mortgage for a bigger house! :)

greent

Hello glitterjunkie - I agree that it's all about balance. As long as you're still OPing, then I personally don't see anything wrong in the odd spend - otherwise it's like being on a diet and denying yourself any treats - the all or nothing approach only works for very few!

glitterjunkie

Hi greent, thanks for your post I was starting to worry that ALL spending was frowned upon on this part of the board, we can OP £400 a month while still having the odd few treats so im pretty happy with that...we could probably OP £600 a month if we were really strict but we would be miserable! Your signature is amazing, really shows what can be done in just a few years!

Well today has been a NSD and we have had lunch at my mums and tea at the in-laws,which was lovely! Ive come to bed with my notebook and plan to spend the next half hour doing meal planning to try and use up what's left in the cupboards and make the best possible use of January's grocery money. Ive also signed up to the Make £10 a day challenge on DFW, I used to do this every month a few years ago and ALWAYS made my £10, but that was when I was a student and had free time to do mystery shopping, surveys etc... its going to be alot harder working full time, but I will see how I do!

Muser1

Read fortunes or lulas diaries and you will know spending is definitely not frowned upon! It's all about being clever and using your money to your own advantage.x

greent

Hi glitterjunkie - as Muser1 above says, some people get a good balance. There are some who are extremely frugal and achieve their goals quickly - but lots who strike a balance between maintaining a fun life and OPing - for most of us it's quite a long journey, so we need that balance. Fortune Smiles diary is titled 'Two Pennies' - and (from memory, so please forgive me if you read this, FS, and I have it wrong!) is from an old Chinese(?) proverb that if you only have 2 pennies left you should spend one on a loaf of bread and one on some lilies - I love that sentiment!

You may find OPing becomes so addictive that you want to increase it from £400/ mth to £500/ mth - or £450. Or not - it doesn't matter. What matters most is the fact you see the sense in OPing in the first place!

We OP, but (for example) also pay for our eldest 2 children to have a school trip abroad each year (relevant to their studies, in the main), child no 3 goes to Beavers but will also have Drama lessons when he goes to Cubs later in the year (currently drama and beavers are on the same evening). DD has drama and musical theatre lessons. We also try for at least two breaks away each year as a family - although these haven't been abroad for the last few years (but we're planning to go to Portugal this year) We could sacrifice such things and achieve our MF goal earlier, but we look at it as creating memories for our children - they'll have those forever x

glitterjunkie

Hi muser and greent thankyou for your comments! I haven't done much in the way of reading other people's diaries yet as I'm still working my way through all Martin's money makeover guides after a couple of years away from this site, but I am going to start reading a couple of diaries a day once ive got through those, as you're all so inspiring! Lovely that we can help each other out in this journey! Muser that makes me feel better thankyou!

Greent I love that sentiment too! and completely agree with wanting to create memories for the children, yours sound like they do some lovely things your £300 budget looks interesting, will be on the lookout to try and learn some tips on sticking to a grocery budget from you! My DS is only just 1 so he can't remember much yet but I don't want him to miss out on anything as a result of OP'ing. We are hoping to book at least one holiday this year too

glitterjunkie

Well a fairly quiet few days here, back at work after the Christmas break so that usually helps me to have more NSD's. Yesterday I spent £15 at Aldi on groceries, could not believe that I got sone potato wedges for 59p that I usually pay £2 for in asda! Also £12 spent in debenhams on 2 lovely mother's day pressies for my mum and MIL - got them a big shopper bag each filled with shortbread, teabags, jam marmalade etc, 70% off so £6 each instead of £20! Chuffed with that as they will really like them. Oh and ordered 3 FCUK giftsets for my brothers next Christmas from Boots, £2.40 each reduced from £8 added in some baby wipes for DS to make it up to the free delivery total, they were on 342 and we need to buy some anyway this month. So I have spent £50-odd this weekend but definitely feel ive got good bargains and made the best use of the money! Im going to try and buy lots of Christmas pressies in the sales throughout this year.

Made £12 selling something on a local selling site - putting all this money in a moneybox ready to bank and OP when it's full. I don't honestly have much left in the house to sell since all we have bought the past year has been baby stuff, which is all going in the loft for baby no. 2 ... going to have to have a good clear out of old DVD'S and kitchen appliances etc I think.

Got my online banking password through from Barclays and very happy to find I can view my mortgage balance online! First regular monthly OP is due to go out on 15th jan, and I also plan to OP any little extra bits I make throughout the month such as ebay money, birthday money etc.

Also did some more batch cooking yesterday so the freezer is full of meals fir DS and individual portions for me and OH when he's working shifts. I have worked out the cost-per-meal of some of the things we regularly make for tea and shocked to find some things like spag bol / lasagne work out about £7 a meal for the 2 of us, due to using ready made sauces and posh garlic bread lol. This is 1 area we really do need to crack down on, I know I could make my own spag bol sauce for miles cheaper , so need to look at some of the recipe threads on here I think. Our grocery spending has been ridiculous the last year or so due to going for convenience foods (understandable with a new baby but hes not a new baby anymore so we need to stop being so lazy!)

pavlovs_dog

glitterjunkie wrote: »

I have worked out the cost-per-meal of some of the things we regularly make for tea and shocked to find some things like spag bol / lasagne work out about £7 a meal for the 2 of us, due to using ready made sauces and posh garlic bread lol. This is 1 area we really do need to crack down on, I know I could make my own spag bol sauce for miles cheaper , so need to look at some of the recipe threads on here I think. Our grocery spending has been ridiculous the last year or so due to going for convenience foods (understandable with a new baby but hes not a new baby anymore so we need to stop being so lazy!)

baby steps... could you switch down a brand in the first instance, and then look to eventually make your own? In the case of spag bol, do you add anything to bulk out the mince? Eg finely diced celery and courgette and a grated carrot will all add bulk (and extra nutrients) without adding a lot of cost or dramatically altering the taste

Muser1

We have got our grocery budget down from £80 ish to £50 ish Inc nappies, toiletries and cleaning stuff. We use a butcher (haggle!) And also we batch cook base dishes (see Tillys diary for tips). We split meat into meal portions freeze then defrost in the morning and heat up the base sauce and add the meat. The batch cooking is a pain but it makes dinner times so easy in the week. X

greent

glitterjunkie wrote: »

Greent I love that sentiment too! and completely agree with wanting to create memories for the children, yours sound like they do some lovely things your £300 budget looks interesting, will be on the lookout to try and learn some tips on sticking to a grocery budget from you! My DS is only just 1 so he can't remember much yet but I don't want him to miss out on anything as a result of OP'ing. We are hoping to book at least one holiday this year too

glitterjunkie wrote: »

Also £12 spent in debenhams on 2 lovely mother's day pressies for my mum and MIL - got them a big shopper bag each filled with shortbread, teabags, jam marmalade etc, 70% off so £6 each instead of £20! Chuffed with that as they will really like them. Oh and ordered 3 FCUK giftsets for my brothers next Christmas from Boots, £2.40 each reduced from £8 added in some baby wipes for DS to make it up to the free delivery total, they were on 342 and we need to buy some anyway this month. So I have spent £50-odd this weekend but definitely feel ive got good bargains and made the best use of the money! Im going to try and buy lots of Christmas pressies in the sales throughout this year.


Also did some more batch cooking yesterday so the freezer is full of meals fir DS and individual portions for me and OH when he's working shifts. I have worked out the cost-per-meal of some of the things we regularly make for tea and shocked to find some things like spag bol / lasagne work out about £7 a meal for the 2 of us, due to using ready made sauces and posh garlic bread lol. This is 1 area we really do need to crack down on, I know I could make my own spag bol sauce for miles cheaper , so need to look at some of the recipe threads on here I think. Our grocery spending has been ridiculous the last year or so due to going for convenience foods (understandable with a new baby but hes not a new baby anymore so we need to stop being so lazy!)

Fantastic stuff re bargain present buying!:T:T




My £300 budget is only for January to force me to use things up - we have full cupboards and freezers and are a bit skint post Xmas so it should be a win-win situation:beer:. I'm also keeping a full spending diary for as long as I can be bothered to (usually max a month!:rotfl:) I'm not a massive batch cook-er, nor do I meal plan - but I do make most things from scratch and use up leftovers and odds and ends as lunches, rarely wasting food. I don't bulk out things with oats and lentils as DH hates it (have tried.... DS1 wasn't keen, either - and he eats anything, usually) I do, however, shove grated carrot and grated courgette in both Bolognese and chilli. Most of the meat in our freezer is bought yellow stickered, although not at the really low prices some get it for, as I go shopping in the morning mainly, so usually get first-time reductions only. I buy British pig produce, free range chicken and eggs, and red tractor steak mince, usually Scottish or irish - a combination of ethical and taste grounds. usually my bill is far more than £300.......:o

MK55

Hey Glitter, I am down to 102K on my mortgage, we have been here less than a year but have overpaid £450 P/M. One thing we switched too in september was ALDI, we have a laugh every time we go in. We haven't spent more than £100 yet, it's only me and my partner but some months we would spend £200 in tesco mostly £135ish and the quality of Aldi is 100% better than tesco. It's crazy you have to try it.