30 small steps

cookie9

One of my resolutions this year is not to delay in starting tasks once I have written my to do list for the day. This appears to be working so far although it is still early days. This morning I needed to do a load of washing, put away the clean washing from yesterday and pick one handbag to clean out and declutter. An excellent result as bedroom looking tidy after the piles of washing put away and I feel ready for the week and even better I found a purse with £33.40 in it and a birthday card which had £100 in it. A nice boost to my off-setting fund. I somehow doubt I will find as much in my other bags!

Next on my list for this morning is sorting out the recycling and packing the bags for charity in the car to be dropped off later. Decluttering is the goal!

Managed to get a reasonable deal on insurance down to £391 with same size courtesy car and European cover included.

cookie9

Getting things done is a bit easier in the morning than at the end of a hard day at work. My energy levels are pretty low and it would be easy to leave things and phone for a takeaway but I am resisting temptation. A cup of tea then onto sorting out wee man's new bank account. No takeaway so going to make mushrooms omelettes as quick and easy to do.

With regards our food bill I am going to try to do 3 weeks shopping then just order fresh vegetables, fruit and milk and household items for week 4 and eat out of the freezer/store cupboard.

Tea finished so I need to get into action.

mortgage_girl

Wow - that's a massive saving on your car insurance - well done!

Happy op-ing!

MGx

cookie9

January does feel an expensive month after our winter birthdays and Christmas. Fist OP of 2017 has however been made. Only a couple of small spends this weekend which was a nail varnish kit in B@@ts 70% off sale which is going into this years Christmas box, a thermos flask for wee man so he can have a hot lunch at school and a t-shirt for Dh as his valentine's present.

Just need to pick up 2 bottles of wine as gifts and some milk then hopefully can avoid supermarkets for the rest of the week. This is the week for eating out of the freezer/store cupboard. It would certainly help with our budget if we can pull this off. Spicy lentil soup is in the slow cooker as I type this so at least off to a good start.

Update: Curses temptation was too much for me and I caved and bought a bottle of wine for us too! Was going to make savoury rice but out voted by the boys who want pizza and garlic bread. Will pop some extra veggies on the pizza to be a bit healthier.

cookie9

Wee man quite delighted to have a hot lunch. It has been so cold recently I have been tempted to get one for myself as sandwiches just don't warm me up. Going to hold off for a bit to see if it gets warmer. On the reducing grocery bill front I have done quite well this week although a lot of comfort food planned eg baked cheese, bacon, onion and rosemary pasta, toad in the hole and spaghetti with meatballs. Don't be too impressed by my menu planning as I failed to check the use by date of the smoked salmon I bought so we are having smoked salmon and leek pasta tonight as it needs to be eaten!

Reading MMM and trying to work out how we could be Financially Independent. I really need to see if there is anywhere I am overspending as should be saving an additional £500 a month.

cookie9

The weekend at last. It has been a bit stressful this week as my child minder has not been able to work so I have had to leave work early and dash to little cookie's school to pick him up. All week I have been trying to get work done and look after him. Today I finally realised that there is no point trying to do two jobs and not doing either well so have forgotten about work and just spent the time having fun with wee man. I will catch up with work over the weekend and I seldom get the chance to spend this time with him. A pity it has taken me until now to work this out.

Going to cash in some vouchers and treat us to lunch on Sunday as it has been a hard week and it would be nice not to have to cook or do the dishes.

cookie9

February is here and already it feels less dark and gloomy. Supermum aka my mother has come down to help us with childcare so that is a massive help. Menu planning is not as good as it should be and we have had a couple of takeaways. Blaming my bad cold on this!

I have finally cashed in my premium bonds. I have been very lucky with them so don't feel too bad about this decision and will put most of the money into my regular savers accounts. I have had a lot of NSDs recently so that it pretty good. One area of expense is birthdays which has escalated dramatically since wee cookie started school. I will try to take advantage of the sales as they come along to stock up.

cookie9

A good result today with birthday presents as found some nice lego sets on sale. I have made a small additional OP just to give me a nice round number so feeling good. I have spent a bit of money on some new pans as the non stick is coming off of ours so they need replacing. At least I remember to get cashback on them.

This week's challenge will be not spending too much money when the wee man is on holiday. I have promised to take him to the new lego movie but will use meercat movies to get him in for free. Will also take snacks with us. Hopefully the weather will improve so we can go to the park. I did manage to get half price ice-skating tickets so if it is cold and wet that is another possibility.

Could do better meal planning as I have just seen that my smoked salmon needs eating by today so am now planning bagels as afternoon tea snack then pasta at night. Feeling the need for comfort food so roast chicken tomorrow.

After this week's MSE email I have applied for the Tesco account to get 3% on some of my savings. Not a massively high rate but much higher than my old ISAs!

update: Small bonus as forgot I had points on my reward card so got my haircut for half price.

mortgage_girl

Well done on your lego bargains cookie! It sounds like you've got some good mse things planned for the holiday.

I've unwittingly copied your meals - had smoked salmon bagels for lunch and pasta and sauce for tea. Simple but tasty.

Have a good week.

MGx

cookie9

. We went to the theatre this afternoon with friends and their children which was good fun and saved a little bit by bringing some snacks and drinks for the children with us. We ended up having a family trip to the cinema yesterday but I am saving my Meercat movies for tonight as having a girls trip to see 50 shades.

Good news from Tesco as made the deadline and had my application accepted for their current account. Some of my shares have gone up recently and as today was a cheap trading day I have sold them so I have some money to put in my new account. This will help my goal of offsetting my smaller mortgage.

Very busy weekend planned so need to try to get deep clean spring clean done this week but feel time is running out. Would love to sort my wardrobe out as everything is squeezed into it at the moment. Oh well back to cleaning!