Finally concentrating on becoming MF

hoglet121

Ooooh well Friday morning here so the end of the week is in sight...

Cat bowls were suspiciously empty again this morning but I guess the neighbour's cat is just eating the dried up bits that ours have left so I shouldn't get too grumpy about it.

Forgot I needed to get petrol on my way into work and forced by self to go back into the house and get a voucher. Only 4 cents off but better than nothing. For 2 years I've been getting the train into work as I believed it was cheaper, but I recently switched to driving as the train is very very slow. It was taking me an hour and a half door to door to commute 30 km each way. Petrol is costing me only slightly more than the monthly train ticket so I'm pleased about that - yes I know there is the wear and tear on the vehicle but it's a 20 year old heap that just refuses to die so I might as well use it. What I am getting is more time at home in the evening, and that is worth a lot to me. I'm just pleased it's not as much of an expense as I thought it might be.

Managed to resist a Friday morning bacon sarnie (they call them sammies here) in the work cafe, and that had become a bit of a Friday treat so glad I resisted. Cheapo coffee only for me. We do normally have an office lunch out on a friday - the rule is that wherever we go it must have a lunch menu for 5 pounds. We normally get a beer too, but we have a lot of beer left over from Christmas in the work fridge so I'll suggest we get our lunch to take away and come back and have a free beer. So yesterday's left over dinner will be my Saturday breakfast now...

Need to pay the electricity bill (no gas to my house so no gas bill yay! no heating in the winter boooo!) today as we get a discount for payment by this coming Monday. The banks here are a bit slow to transfer money, as it all gets processed overnight, so need to make sure I pay it today to ensure we get the discount.

Errr was very very lazy last night, no stuff put up for sale... Was thinking on my way into work tho of new things to add to the pile so will dig that all out and get listing. I haven't played badminton in *ahem* 15 years, so probably time for someone else to get some use out of the stuff and me to get some cash. Also, with dodgy knees it's probably unlikely the squash stuff will get used again.... one of the racquets is DH's tho and he has proven himself to be a bit of a hoarder. He's forever saying 'yeah might do' when I ask if he'll actually use XYZ again... might have to ferret it away without him noticing. Can anyone explain why we have 3 tennis racquets between 2 of us??!! All for the chop methinks! We have a little gym that we've set up in our garage - we have a cross trainer and some weights that we bought from car boot sales, ebay and amazon, and we would like to expand it slightly to include some boxing stuff - either a bag or focus pads. I'll put it to him that the sale of the old sports stuff can go towards the boxing stuff (and hopefully might even bring in a little bit extra) and he might be more willing to relinquish. He makes very good use of our little gym, I've been so lazy lately, and for a little outlay it has saved us an absolute fortune in gym memberships. The other problem we have is a lack of space, so for new stuff we need to make room buy selling old things, as well as needing to raise some cash. I'll let you know how we get on....

We've been invited out to a festival by some friends on Sunday, but if we go we really do need to just take spendies in cash or I can easily get carried away. Not entirely sure whether we're going to go yet... I would love to get some painting done on the house as we already have the paint so it's a no-spend activity. Nothing complicated, just painting the woodwork in the house from rather-grubby-cream to fresh-white. I also need to paint the inside of the cupboards in the kitchen after painting the outsides last year... the insides are still a strange light green whilst the outsides are lovely white. Painting the kitchen last year was such a big job that I couldn't face doing the insides too, kept saying I'd do it next weekend.... Annnnnnnnd a year later, still not done. *slaps wrist*

Right, best pay that electricity bill instead of writing about paying it...

hoglet121

Have decided to transfer money that I would have spent on temptations straight into the savings pot (to put into mortgage at renewal) every time I resist something. As you may have figured out already, mostly it's food that I give into! I am quite a foodie and cook from scratch every night, we only eat out for birthdays and our anniversary, but somehow a tasty little cake that someone else has made and wants to charge me twice as much as it would cost to bake a whole batch is just so tempting...! Aaargh learn some self control girl! So this morning I have transferred the $5.90 (almost 3 pounds) that I would have spent on the bacon sandwich into the savings acct, and that little transfer has taken the total over the next hundred dollar mark, hurray! I love little successes like that, seeing the hundred figure tip over to the next one makes me fell like I've saved another $100 not $5.90...

Thistlewhistle

Hi Hoglet,

Lovely to see a brand new diary - well done for getting going. Look forward to following your progress.

T;)

Ps Weird to think you're in Friday while we're still in Thursday!!

hoglet121

Hi Thistlewhistle :-)

Thank so much for dropping by, I'm hoping that knowing that people are following our progress will help spur us on.

Have to say I love Friday evening when my UK friends still have another day to do at work, but come Sunday evening I'm jealous of them having 'another' day!

hoglet121

My pay (monthly) goes in tomorrow - I've been naughty in the past and not kept track of the rats and mice part of my pay. This month I'm putting it all into savings, not just the whole 000s part (dont get too excited - it's dollars not pounds!), with the priviso that the rats and mice part can be used if DH needs petrol this week. keeping the extra in the current account just meant that it got spent on junk and not kept track of.

Also in a bid to save money I resisted the temptation to buy ICC Cricket World Cup tickets the day they came on sale even tho they had reasonably priced tickets for the semi final in NZ. PreviouslyI'd have just taken the money out of savings. We'll probably get tickets inthe end but for a cheaper group match instead.

Also I told my friend I wouldnt go to festival with her- really do need to curb the spending at the moment. Will give me a chance to do some photo editing of the pics I took of her family last week tho so she shouldnt be too upset.

DH has reminded me his car needs a service soon grrrrrrrrr. Just when i thought we'd be back to big saving in a few weeks...

Put all the 'change' in the current account across to savings too. Feels good be getting on top of this again

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Morning (evening ), sounds like you're really concentrating on needs not wants :money:

If you're moving your 'change' over to savings you've joined the Tilly Tidy club

How about opening a different savings vehicle and save up for these big events, car maintenance, annual insurances etc. No idea whether it will help you but it works for some of us.

Best wishes, Tilly

hoglet121

Hi Tilly!

Oooh I feel so good I get to join the Tilly Tidy club, hooray!! I'd seen other people mention it it wasn't entirely sure what it was. I used to do it when we were saving for the house deposit, and I estimate I saved an extra £20 a month doing it. Not huge but it definitely all helps.

I will investigate the options for additional savings accounts - we have an everyday current account and an online savings account with our bank in nz so need to check your what else they offer. I have a note on my phone of when each dd is coming out every month and that let's me plan how to move money about each week. Usually what I do is take DH's pay every week, subtract the weekly shop and weekly dds and work out what of the left over we need (like for the stupid key I have to get cut tomorrow) and put the rest in savings. I'm concentrating on actually doing all that now rather than just intending to :-)

Yep trying to focus on needs rather than wants, but mindful that the odd treat will keep us sane! This is a long term goal after all.... I enjoyed my lunch out today so much more because I'd had no cafe munchies all week, so I will keep focused on the occasional rather than daily treat.

Thank you for stopping by again, lovely to have your input :-)

hoglet121

Morning all,

A beautiful sunny morning here, but summer is slowly starting to fade away... The cats have woken me up early but they're not demanding food, makes me wonder how many 'gifts' they've left for me downstairs. One has come to snuggle up with us under the duvet - I've never sen a cat like it...

I joined NZ's value opinions yesterday - I was with the in the uk before we moved but I found that I often wasn't eligible for surveys so we'll have to see how I get on.

Here's to a frugal weekend!

welsh_mummy

Hopefully the cats didn't leave you anything nasty lol, we are planning on getting a cat and not keen of the idea of presents - yuck! Tried explaining to my 7 year old that cats do this and he kept asking why as thinks it's gross.

Cold wet and windy here so enjoy the sunshine while it last. Have a great weekend too xx

hoglet121

Hi Welsh Mummy!

Amazingly there were not gifts this morning! I guess we get one about every 2 weeks or so. It is a bit gross but they are much happier being able to come and go as they please. I just get rid of the 'item' with a dust pan and brush, tho after 3 attempts I still haven't got all te blood out of the carpet from the mouse they butchered all over the living room carpet last week. Why they couldn't do it in the kitchen on the Lino I don't know! But we love them dearly and couldn't imagine life without them - we must be nuts!

Hope the weather picks up for you soon :-) I got a bit of world one in the garden this morning and ate my one and only passion fruit from the vine. It was delicious! Lots more tomatoes gathered on so will be doing some more preserving later on....