ICTD's amble to the end.....

icontinuetodream

Its time for me to start a new diary to chart the final part of my MFW journey

The title of this diary reflects the change in pace that I am taking in my quest - when I first started the process, I went at it full on and have kept it at that whenever possible over the past couple of years (for my old diary: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3531263 )

I am very pleased to have achieved what I have - now that the mortgage is at a level which no longer frightens me, I am happy to knock it down a couple of levels and concentrate on having more balance in my life.

I still want to get rid of the mortgage as quickly as I can, but now I want to start living again - I no longer need to pare everything down to the bare minimum, I can steadily chip away at the balance while enjoying things such as an impromptu lunch with friends or a boat trip on a weekend.

My work/life balance has also change so I can enjoy spending more time looking after myself and my home and will be able to utilise the more frugal ways of living.

It's been a year of change and I am looking forward to being more settled over the next twelve months - this diary will chart not only the difference I make to my mortgage, but also the differences that I make to my day to day existence.

Today, I am going to do a general house clean, a general me clean, walk the dogs and plant some broad beans. Then I am going to get onto the wii fit to get my weight, bmi and decide on some personal health targets. Tomorrow, I will be sorting my new budgets, setting new financial targets, doing a meal plan and shopping list and deciding my job list for the week ahead.

Today, my mortgage stands at £29510

Tomorrow, I will post my targets for this time next year; op's, health, environment....

It's very exciting!! :j

icontinuetodream

I decided to do my budgets and targets today and sort the house tomorrow!!;)

So, more about my new MFW plans....

I will not hit my MFiT-T3 target but that's okay - I should be pretty close I am not going to worry about it, but I will try to get myself as close as possible to it.

My MFW target for 2015 will be £17400

I intend to put £1450 towards my mortgage every month until May 2015 when I will be able to increase this to £1610. This includes my usual mortgage payment plus the overpayment. It's going to stretch me, but it will not cripple me....a much better way to do it! If I can improve this at any time, that's fine, but it is a good target to start with.

To that end - the first £650 came out this morning (leaving me with the balance I have posted) and I have put an additional £150 to the mortgage this afternoon :T

If I can keep to the new plan, I have 20 months left on my mortgage. Budget wise, I have increased my personal spending money and I have built in a category for gifts/birthdays etc which will hopefully prevent any additional spending on the credit card (which is now clear!!;)) and will mean I am better prepared for the steady progress I am aiming for.

Goldiegirl

Good luck with the next stage.

to sounds like you'll have a good balance between the continued reduction of your mortgage and having some fun

icontinuetodream

Thanks Goldie

I am really enjoying my weekend - it is not as productive as I had intended, but I am simply relaxing and allowing myself to get into full holiday mode....I am currently on annual leave and intend to make the most of every moment

I have lots of things I want to do during the forthcoming week - I am going to spend tomorrow with a friend; I may go out to lunch with her and have a potter around the town, she has a few more demijohns for me so I will be picking them up too! I normally come back with all sorts of jams and chutneys when I visit, so that may well be the case tomorrow - it will all help towards my mission to minimise my grocery bill this month.:D

In many ways, now that my income has dropped, it is even more important to get the most out of every penny I spend. I am still determined to hit the mortgage as hard as I can afford to and I feel that I am in a really good position with all this additional time on my hands to make the most of what we have

One of the first jobs is to get in total control of my grocery spending - I know that we eat very poorly now due to being bone idle. It's really not good enough and I want to improve our diet while ensuring that we don't blow the budget.

I am going to increase the amount of vegan/vegetarian meals that we eat and have a soup day weekly.

As far as shopping is concerned, I have set myself a budget and joined the grocery challenge. What I really want to achieve is a minimal spend for this first month. I will be watching our expenditure like a hawk and using up everything that we have in the house and/or buying only what will use up stuff that we already have in the house. I am not going to do more than a weeks planning at a time

For now, I have roasted sweet potato and parsnip in the fridge at the moment - I will use most of that in a soup for tonight along with some homemade bread.

I have a mass of pasta flour in my cupboards - I am going to spend Tuesday next week making loads of pasta and dehydrating it for future use. I will make tri-colour pasta as I have spinach in the freezer and dehydrated beetroot, I will make some ravioli and tortellini; I will stuff some with mozzarella, basil and tomatoes ( I have masses of basil growing, tomatoes in the greenhouse and two balls of mozzarella in the fridge!) and others with the remaining sweet potato.

I have some dried beans in my cupboard still - I will cook them and freeze them this week and I will make at least five of the seven main meals this week entirely from stocks that I already have in. I am looking forward to really getting back to grips with the food in the house - it was always one of my greatest pleasures, but recently I have become very apathetic about eating (despite being able to eat shed loads of sweets, crisps and chocolate!!:o)

I still haven't completed the food inventory or the menu plan but I will get round to it at some point today....just need to peel myself off the sofa first!! Once the inventory is sorted - the weeks meals will be planned. I have a feeling this could be an interesting month for food!! :rotfl:

icontinuetodream

Well, I have sorted the food inventory and come to the conclusion that I can go vegan from tomorrow!! Hurrah!!:D

I have a side of salmon and a few lemon sole fillets in the freezer - the salmon we will have tonight and the lemon sole can be consumed by my dh on one Saturday that we have soup -probably the Moroccan lemon & potato one.

With that in mind, I have actually meal planned to the beginning of next year!! (if you are interested, its here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3571159 )

It will use up a great deal of my stocks and will focus me on healthy eating for the next couple of months.....

I went to see my friend yesterday - I have come back with a couple of chutneys and lots of demi-johns More wine will be going on in the next week!

I am having a bit of a lazy morning at the moment, I have decided that I needed to get things sorted with the food inventory before I set upon the house - plus, I want to make sure that I actually feel that I am getting a holiday!! :eek: I am going to get myself a drink, walk the puppies and then sort the house - tomorrow will be a really lazy 'me' day....I'm looking forward to it already!!

icontinuetodream

House is all sorted and I am enjoying a lovely lazy day today :DThe weather is absolutely poo at the moment - even the dogs don't want to leave the house!! I am going to put a dvd on in a minute and perhaps have a little snooze!!

I've spent a long time over the past few days thinking about my new lifestyle - being part time, not looking for anything else job wise, concentrating my life on my home and self rather than my career is a monumental shift for me. Even when I first got the part-time position initially, I wanted it to be full-time. When that happened, I became so absorbed in my job, that I forgot about the things that are really important to me

Having that freedom back and the ability to reassess how I am living is a real gift - one which has taken a bit of getting used to if I'm honest. I am finally appreciating the fact that I have an excellent opportunity to really incorporate the frugal lifestyle into my day to day existence. I have so much more time on my hands, all of the equipment I need to do things I want to do and the motivation to do it.

I think that the next twelve months will be a big turn-around for me and I am looking forward to getting as much as possible off the mortgage while enjoying more financial freedom than I have over the past twelve months :T It's a lovely place to be....

Anyhoo, I am going to put on my dvd, enjoy the rest of my drink and my afternoon, sort dinner, have a shower then spend the rest of the evening relaxing with my puppies and dh....I love my life!! :D

icontinuetodream

Happy Saturday!!

I am loving the weekend feeling!! Even though I am on leave at the moment, it is still really nice just to have a few days with dh when there are no 'jobs' to do - just slobbing together, watching dvd's, taking the puppies out, having a leisurely breakfast and perhaps a trip to the pub at lunchtime Whatever we choose to do, it's going to be whatever suits us....yay!! :T

However, he is still snoozing on his lie in, so I am making plans for the future!!

As I am currently on leave, it has been an ideal opportunity to start thinking about what I want for next year and how I will put that into action. The title of this post pretty much covers it - I want to spend much more time producing my own food and utilising the seasonal produce I have available to me to its best advantage.

I love this time of year as I start planning what I want to grow in the spring and summer to come.....this year taught me some valuable lessons - don't grow butternut squash near anything (particularly the lettuce!); tie up the tomatoes so that they don't collapse under the weight of the fruit; plant many more broad beans (there just isn't enough space in the garden for the amount I actually want!) and tie them properly; don't have anything that needs picking too close to the globe artichokes - the leaves are spikier than they look!! - and finally, don't attempt to grow squash in anything other than the ground.

The butternut squash were a success this year, but they took over the entire plot. I got twelve very good squash from the plant but need to be able to contain them in the future. I think that I will ask my son to build me some type of cold frame for them for next year.

I also want to plant some fruit canes next year - I am looking at doing raspberries and redcurrants.

I would like to become mainly self-sufficient with many of my condiments and alcoholic beverages. I have a list of things that I want to make next year from what I grow; jams, jellies, sauces, wines, cordials, chutneys, pickles, veg stock, dehydrated tomatoes, courgettes, beetroot, beans, onions, garlic, carrots etc.

I already chop my herbs and put them in jars with oils, I make a lot of citrus oils, I dehydrate veg and fruit, I make mint sauce, wine, elderberry cordial, damson gin, chilli jam etc. Basically, I skirt around the edges but haven't really gotten into the whole 'make it yourself' in a big way.....this is the time that this changes and I will be making everything that is on my list over the next twelve months. I will only make stuff that I will genuinely use though - no more doing stuff just because it is available and then never using it!!

I am going to do some garden stuff this week coming - I really need to get some weeding done and start some seeds off; I wanted to get the house sorted first, which is now complete, so I just need to wait for a bit of decent weather. It is a big job unfortunately, but I will do it in bits and now that the weather has turned, the regrowth should slow down enough for me to be able to clear it all eventually!! And then my cunning plan can begin.....!! :rotfl:

Other things.....well, not much to report on the op front - I haven't made any further payments but I have requested a refund from my energy supplier which I will put to the mortgage when it comes through. We have stuck to the meal plan for the week and I haven't cooked for the five thousand so it will have been a lot cheaper than previous weeks.

I do need to get the shopping receipts from dh though and balance the grocery budget - I know that we have had to get laundry stuff and several other bits and pieces over the week but because I haven't been there, I have no idea on exactly what has been spent or bought!! Oh well, I can sort it later and then make sure that if he has strayed from the path, I can rectify it next week!

Have a fab weekend!!

shala_moo

Hi ICTD,

Just caught up with the new diary - I lurked on your old one for a long time so thought it was time to say Hi :wave:

Your plans for the year coming sound great, good luck with meeting your OP targets!

icontinuetodream

Thanks Shala - nice to see you!!

Well, things have just changed dramatically again!! (serves me right for thinking that I would have a stabilising twelve months ahead of me!! :rotfl:)

I decided last night to quit my job - an event has occurred which, as a matter of principle, I cannot accept. So, I quit.

I have a month's notice to work, but I am on leave this week, so I will only have twelve working days (now that I am part time) left to do before it's all over. I can't say that I am worried financially; despite it not being easy, I know that we will manage until I get myself something else sorted out.

What it does mean, is that I need to really put the effort in to continue on the MF path - everything is going to need a total re-think and I know that I will have to count every penny going forward.

Grocery budget - food plans will have to be entirely dependent upon what I can get hold of cheap and what is available at any given point. I will stick to a vegan menu where possible as it will probably work out cheaper anyway but I will not be sticking rigidly to anything so that I have the flexibility to make savings where I can.

Household budgets - I have pared most things down to the bare minimum already; however, there is always room for improvement and I will trawl the boards for ideas.

All in all, regardless of how tight things may get, I will be a lot happier and you can't put a price on that!

shala_moo

Well done for sticking by your principles :T and being in the position where you can..

You don't have a quiet working life do you :rotfl:

Goldiegirl

I've just been catching up on your diary, and was nodding in agreement with everything you were saying. At this time of the year, it's natural time to review the year and plan the next year.

I'm hoping to do more in the garden next year, and we've also learnt from what we did last year.

As a part time worker myself, I've found that I've had much more time to focus on home, and I enjoy this, much better than being consumed by work.

Then I read your had resigned completely! Good for you to stick to your guns, and it's good to be in a position where you can make a stand on your principles.

I've just counted up my days left at work - it's 11 for me, but I think I'm going to be entitled to another day off, so it might be 10.

It's all very exciting :j