The Plan

MotiMoo

Hi Littlemiss, coming back to a comment on my diary was a nice surprise! I have laid out my monthly and annual expenditure below:

Mortgage - £675 (I overpay by about double)
Electric - 83/month
Life Insurance - 11.33/month
Car payment - 275.85/month
Council Tax - 95/month
Cineworld - 15.90/month
Account fee - 2/month
Contents Insurance - 41.07/year
Buildings Insurance - 115.22/year
Car Insurance - I will have to go look this up after work but I pay it in a lump sum and I think it was around the £250 mark.
Christmas - £400/year
Gifts - £100/year
Clothes/shoes - I haven't bought any in about a year
I don't have internet, home phone or a tv and my mobile phone is paid for by my employer.

I take £60 out each Monday and this money buys all of my food shopping for the week for myself, the cat and when he is home my bf. I also buy petrol, toiletries and anything for the house from this.

So adding up my monthly expenditure and the £60 per week that comes to £1398.88. This should leave me £600 per month to save. My electric DD is supposed to be going up to £93 a month but because i am moving mortgages the amount I pay to that will be drasctically reduced.

When I know my new mortgage and electric payments I will repost about this.

Thanks Littlemiss, it was nice to meet you

peterorl

Ohhhh £600 each month, nice.

littlemiss_pretty

Thank you for that Motimoo :)I put £600 in my savings every month too. I am saving up for a house deposit so fingers crossed. I used to be very bad with savings and used to spend all my money on clothes, shoes and handbags. But I have been very good since January last year.
Reading how everyone else is doing does give me ideas where I can save more money.
It is very nice meeting you too Motimoo

MotiMoo

I guess I should do a diary update since I am DAYS behind schedule!

Friday - This ended up being a bit of a splurge day . I bought a snack and a sandwich from the van in the morning as I didn't take in anything for lunch and the thought of a pancake was too much. In the evening I had a friend come over to stay so I bought some nice food in for dinner. In total I spent £10. I'm going to have to keep on top of Fridays as one of my ways to 'wind down' is eat. Perhaps I should make Fridays a more active evening.

Saturday - The morning was spent chatting with my friend and doing bits and bobs of housework at the same time. After lunch I dropped my friend off at her place and I went to pick up OH from the airport. We went to Tesco together and he got his oat milk for the week and also a whole bunch of Quorn chicken peices as they are half price right now. We then stopped by the Co-op as they had some nice fish cakes half price as well as Linda McCartney sausages. He paid for all of that so it isn't coming out of my budget for the week. After putting away all of the groceries we headed out to the cinema, stopping in M&S on the way just for a looksee. We managed to get sandwiches for 30p, so that was dinner sorted .

Sunday - I had a nice long lie in which was great! OH came round for lunch and we went grocery shopping after. We went to both Aldi and Lidl and got the weeks shopping for under £20, and that was including some alcohol that OH wanted. He had never shopped at either place before and was really surprised at the savings, perhaps another MSE convert? We went to the cinema after the shops and stopped in at M&S again just in case there were any more cheap sandwiches, and score! Dinner for 60p again :j:money:

Monday - My bathroom furniture was meant to arrive today and OH sat at mine all day watching Dexter only for nothing to show :mad:. Today would have been a no spend day but I had to buy bread because I forgot to buy some yesterday. I took lunch with me to work and for dinner OH and I had Turkey (finally used up all the food from my freezer) with mashed potato and roasted carrots, parsnip and leek. I walked round to my friend's house and we finished levelling up one of my other characters for a game we are going to play on Wednesday. I love free dorky entertainment

MotiMoo

Tuesday was an easy NSD for me as I sat at home waiting for the rest of my bathroom to be delivered. My living room now looks like a warehouse.

I had leftovers from the night before for lunch and for dinner I made fried rice (we have too much brown rice sitting in the larder) and the last of the fish cakes from the Co-op.

My plumber was supposed to come round with the electrician to go over everything that needs to be done before installing my bathroom but the electrician had double booked himself so it has been postponed for another evening.

I got an email from Santander saying they had received my letter about the mortgage exit fee. Let's see what happens.

GreenNinja

Hi Motimoo,

I agree with you its so difficult not to spend on anything, I have some months which are better than others!
I am saving like you but to pay the last £5,000 owing on my mortgage, also with Santander.
I was going to mention, when are your buildings and contents insurance due? I have just taken out a new policy this month from legal and general, they are offering £100 back in M&S vouchers if you take out a policy with them. I did this with them a year or two back. You have to wait 3 months after you've started the policy for the vouchers, but still worth doing. Think I paid £144 for the year but will get the £100 back, my current insurer was offering renewal for £136, so well worth swapping insurer.
I tried quorn chicken pieces for the first time the other day, they really are brilliant! much cheaper than chicken (I will only buy the happy chicken meat on principal) and when I put them in fajitas or spicy pasta etc you wouldn't even know the difference between that and chicken! :j

MotiMoo

Hi Greenninja,

Wow just £5000 left on your mortgage! That's impressive, I think that once I am in my forever home I will aim to pay off my mortgage as soon as I possibly can.

I only took out the insurance a few months ago, it should be another 8-9 months till I need to renew, but that deal you mentioned sounds excellent! I think the next time I go to renew I will check the cashback websites as well as the comparison websites.

Quorn chicken is amazing! I love the stuff, as well as quorn mince. In dishes with a sauce of flavouring I always use quorn as I am perfectly happy with the texture and you are getting some low fat protein. The only time I use actual meat is if the meal is based on it, like steak (which I get from an organic farm next to my work) or roast chicken (I'm hoping to source some local organic free range chicken from a farm shop a little bit aways from me).

Nice to meet you Greenninja!

MotiMoo

Diary Update!

Wednesday was a big fail on the NSD front! I bought another pancake from the van I forgot my lunch again so bought a baked potato and I was gaming with the wild bunch so I took along doritos and a bottle of dr pepper . I think it was just over £5 for the day. Too many frowny faces! On a plus point I made stir fry for dinner, garlic, onion, mushrooms, sweet pepper and spring greens. It was epic.

Thursday wasn't as bad but it wasn't an NSD, I bought a chocolate bar from the vending machine at work . I only had a couple of hours in the office today so I was home a little earlier. I had to get in touch with the place where I got my bathroom furniture because one of the cabinets was made badly. I emailed pictures and I am having another cabinet sent out, probably coming Monday. Other than that OH and I stayed in, had stir fry for dinner and watched the last two episodes of The Wire season 2

MotiMoo

Work was a big struggle today, things are starting to pile up a little but I can't seem to get myself out of snail pace! I need a kick up the bum!

After work I had planned on having a relaxing evening at home on my todd, perhaps a hair treatment or a face mask. OH was going out with his friends, which would mean he wouldn't be home till 3-4am and hungover on Saturday. His work scuppered all of that though as he was called to work over the weekend. The sweetheart that he is, cancelled his evening to spend time with me instead as I now won't see him over the weekend.

It does mean that it ended up not being an NSD for me as we went to the cinema and I naughtily bought some reduced christmas choccies in Aldi (49p for a lindt reigndeer! :money:). I was saved from spending any more by the slushie machine in the cinema not working.

We went to see the Railway Man, it was quite harrowing. The 2nd world war in the far east is something I have only recently come to know much about, there is a lot they don't teach you in standard grade history!

GreenNinja

That film you went to see sounds very interesting! Will have to check it out.

And yes only £5000 left to go, its only a little house and bought it 7 years ago after my divorce, been slowly plugging away at it since then, hopefully will get it paid by 16th October this year, so will come under the 8 year mark.