Coffee Cup's Journey to a Guilt Free Latte :)

London18

Oh coffee cup I hear you. In a previous job we all got into the habit of a coffee run at least once a day if not twice and at £2.50 per latte that rapidly mounted up. Add in a muffin or chocolate bar every now and then and it was getting ridiculous. Not to mention the extra calories meant the waistline was expanding as the wallet shrank. I had to start saying no which was quite hard, it felt a bit unsociable. In my current job we buy nice coffee and use a plunger, much cheaper and just as nice (well almost).

Good luck with your MF plans.

WishIwasstill25

Coffee & cake is also our downfall, hubby has subscribed to a coffee club though, they send him a new pack of coffee every two weeks, so that keeps the variety.
Good luck with the saving.
Wish

Coffee_Cup

Hi London & Wishful - SO glad it is not just me with an addiction so to speak!! For me it is about the social side of it. Perhaps because I am at home with three children much of the time it is nice to get out

Yesterday was a NSD purely by fluke really. Today I have to venture out and get the kids haircuts for school going back tomorrow. Hopefully I wont buy anything not needed today.

egoode

Hi Coffee Cup, thanks for dropping by my thread. I must admit I don't drink tea or coffee so don't have to worry about spending money on things like that but I do go out for dinner and drinks a lot with friends and probably should try and cut down on that type of spending a bit more.

Good luck with your MFW journey.

aliwali

I have rather over indulged in Latte's recently!! It's my little treat, but needs to be cut down. Look forward to seeing your mortgage numbers and plans, I've just started my own diary and will be looking for inspiration. I'll stop by when I can.

Coffee_Cup

Today was going to be a very low spend day. The boys needed haircuts and that was it. As usual though I derailed myself by deciding it would be nice to end the school holidays with a nice Americano & cake with the kids. £13 later we left. It gets worse though. Not to be outdone, Mr C asked the kids while on speakerphone if they wanted to go out for tea!!! Of course, they did!! Another £40!!!!! So £53 gone just like that. It was a lovely end to the holiday and by chance friends of ours and their kids came in so we all sat together and had a great evening. We didnt manage a summer holiday so I do feel it was nice to mark the end of the hols. Cant quite believe they are back to school tomorrow. And guess what I am doing tomorrow to celebrate - yep, you guessed it, coffee with the girls Oh dear, I really am addicted. Is there such a thing as CA (Caffeine Anonymous)???????????

WishIwasstill25

Tomorrow is a new day (shame it's the end of your holidays though)

I'm just wondering, but do you live close to your friends? Or do you meet up in coffee shops because it's a central location?
My wondering is maybe you could host coffee and cake at your house, then trek round friend's house weekly/fortnightly/monthly? You would still get the social side of the occasion without spending the money. A good time to start would be for the Macmillan coffee morning in September.

In the days before our friends had children we would meet up at a different person's house for tea and cake about 8pm on a Sunday night, just for a couple of hours, we'd all take it in turn to host, and it was a lovely way to finish a weekend/start the week. And it never cost a lot.

Not sure if it's your thing, but I thought it worth suggesting.

Wish

Coffee_Cup

WishIwasstill25 wrote: »

Tomorrow is a new day (shame it's the end of your holidays though)

I'm just wondering, but do you live close to your friends? Or do you meet up in coffee shops because it's a central location?
My wondering is maybe you could host coffee and cake at your house, then trek round friend's house weekly/fortnightly/monthly? You would still get the social side of the occasion without spending the money. A good time to start would be for the Macmillan coffee morning in September.

In the days before our friends had children we would meet up at a different person's house for tea and cake about 8pm on a Sunday night, just for a couple of hours, we'd all take it in turn to host, and it was a lovely way to finish a weekend/start the week. And it never cost a lot.

Not sure if it's your thing, but I thought it worth suggesting.

Wish

We are all scattered around a 6 mile radius so not so easy to rotate round and I live about a 20-30 min walk from the school nursery so doesn't leave a lot of time as the lo isn't in nursery too long in the am. I do also like getting out as I am in the house by myself a lot. There's a balance to be struck though so I will actively try to invite friends here more. Being honest, the only time I ever clean is if I am having friends round so inviting people more often will result in a cleaner house :rotfl:

Coffee_Cup

Not a good money saving week at all!! Since yesterday I have been out for coffee, out for lunch and then out for lunch again today!! Really cheap places though so probably spent no more than £15. Felt like a bad mum yesterday for the first day back, the boys were all smart in their new uniform & shoes etc and the wee one looked great but at the school gates I noticed all the other nursery children had new shoes on! I had never given it a thought and then noticed the state of her trainers. I mean REALLY noticed. They were all scuffed and even had a hole in the bottom. Bad mum not checking them before hand. Anyway, off we went shopping after school and of course all the kids trainers were £25!!! But then I noticed tucked away on the bottom shelf there were some sale ones. Managed to get a fab pair of Disney Princess ones for £12 and another pair of canvas type trainers for £7. Result! Shoes are the only thing I really have to buy her as we get hand me downs for everything else. She LOVES the princess ones. Not my choice but for £12 I wont argue

Tomorrow morning I have our mortgage appt to change our rate so I will hopefully know what our payments will be so I can work out a plan for overpaying. Been working out what we have on credit cards etc too (all interest free until late next year) so I can build it all into the plan. Been researching the RHI payments we will receive too for the Solar Thermal & Ground Source heat pump too so as of next month we get £81.60 per quarter for the thermal for the next 7 years and for the ground source we will get approx. £400 a quarter for 7 years. That second figure hasnt been confirmed yet so just a guesstimate. I was pleasantly surprised though as I hadnt expected as much. Going to try and put those payments directly into the mortgage as they come in.

Food wise I am going to try and use as much of the freezer as possible to try to reduce costs and create some space in there. Last night I made a huge batch of bolognaise from mince I had in there so that was a good start. I had best go and have a hunt and see what delights lie in there for tonight

apple_muncher

Well done on the shoe shopping success! They have us over a barrel ad regards kiddies shoes.

And I'm super impressed at your potential nearly £2000 'free' money!