The 2 Year Freedom Plan & 2015 Beat The Budget Challenge

I_want_a_baby

A quiet day today, one of those days that I feel like progress has stalled (so impatient!). So listing the little things I've done:

Two loads of washing, washed and on airer.
Made jelly for daughters party.
Organised tea.
Emptied dishwasher, cleaned filter, wiped around all seals and put on a cycle with dishwasher cleaner I had already.
Cleaned small bathroom.
Listed 4 items for sale - one has sold, as long as goes ok will get £20 on Sunday!
Mum in law phoned round to get prices to fill oil tank and now we know the best place, need to get the tank up on blocks this weekend and then we will fill it up.
Checked banks barely anything to update as so few transactions (clearly a good thing!).
Caught up on a few threads on the forum.
Cleaned the fronts of the kitchen cupboards.

Tonight I'll be preparing food for tomorrow using things we have already for daughters birthday.
Counting down the days until payday now!

IWAB x

I_want_a_baby

Possibly one of the most frugal birthdays for my little girl :-)

Presents were bought before Christmas.
Had a root around and found some streamers and balloons.
Made a homemade banner with felt tips and a big bit of paper.
Had two friends round to play in the day.
Made party food with things I had in - only bought some wot sits and jam tarts.
In evening went to mums, sang happy birthday and had a gorgeous chocolate cake decorated with frozen characters and blue icing - bartered for three pairs of jeans.
In evening daughters special tea was make your own pizzas (her choice) all ingredients had here, we ate the birthday cake for pudding.
Today her chosen treat was soft play.
Found two vouchers online so paid £3 for the adults to get in and do kids played free.
My sister bought a jug of juice and I paid £1.60 for two packets of crisps.
We resisted the lure of lunch and instead bought hotdog buns at the supermarket and had hotdogs at home and ate more cake for pudding!

We have had the most fantastic time and it has cost so little.

Will check banks this pm as should be able to transfer the savings from the birthday budget to our savings targets :-).

Will update later x

I_want_a_baby

Banks have been checked and spreadsheet updated:


£20.00 received from selling a pair of curtains
£15.60 leftover from cash drawn for daughters softplay trip
£3.53 leftover from daughters birthday budget in bank
£5.32 topcashback received
£20.00 fuel budget left
£18.70 wage received.


£83.15 transferred to emergency savings!!


Emergency fund saved is now £238.15/£700
5 x £100 savings is now £410/£500
Debt savings are now £545.69/£6662.40


Total saved £1193.84 which is 15.18%


I have decided to keep the frugal focus by doing a little challenge for feb.


I have £3.60 left in my food purse and £55.60 in cash in an envelope which is part of next months food money. I would like to see how long I can make this last. I am hoping to use any coupons I have plus any loyalty points along with the money above. My aim is to make this stretch until valentines day so for the end of this month plus two weeks. Lets see how well I do!


Feb Focus - £59.20 budget + vouchers/loyalty points

I am very much looking forward to payday on Friday when savings will hopefully increase further.

IWAB x

roomontheend

You are doing so well. I managed to pay a extra £300 off one of the credit cards this month.

DebtFree2012

Subscribing Loving the enthusiasm. I have the same end date as you of Dec 16 so shall join you in your quest. We would like to move to our dream home once my debt is gone so have something to work towards

I_want_a_baby

Morning all,

Well yesterday was payday - hurray!

After assigning the right amounts to each budget, including the regular £300 payment to debt and the £183 council tax payment to debt also as a free month.

Totals now are:

Emergency fund £295/£700
5 x £100 savings £410/£500
Debt savings £1028.95/£6662.40.

Total saved is £1733.95/£7862.40 which is 22.05%!

Haven't been food shopping yet but need to go today, I will stick to the list and see how low I can do the shop for, although there are quite a few necessities on the list!

As well as my feb focus to save as much of the food budget as possible, I have decided to set a rather ambitious savings target too!

I would love by the end of feb to increase savings to 25% of target, which means I need to find another £231.65!

Plans this weekend are to spend only on food shop, buy only healthy items that are on the list. Catch up with someone housework and do some more garden tidying!

Thank you for all your comments!
Roomontheend you've done fab paying that much off - well done!
Debt free2012 good luck with your debt paying mission!

I certain that if I stay focused I will be able to meet my targets, staying positive and saving the pennies!

IWAB x

roomontheend

Hope you and yours and keeping well.

I_want_a_baby

Just a little update from me...

I had a healthy little baby just over two weeks ago :-)

We will soon be back into a routine when school restarts tomorrow. I haven't transferred any savings this month as I'm still tweaking our new budget to cover expenses for our new addition.

I will update soon with our new totals

IWAB x

tryingtodobetter

Congratulations to you all.x.x.

Muser1

Fantastic news!