New Mission, New Diary

MoneyMission2015

Our mortgage fixed rate deal is coming to an end next month so I have applied for it to be transferred to a better deal with our provider (Santander). Our current fixed rate is 3.49%, but if we leave it to go on to the Standard Variable rate it will increase to 4.74%!


So I used Santanders online transfer system and they have offered a deal for a 2 year fixed rate of 1.99%. This will save us £118.93 based on what we currently pay, so from June I will have this extra money to put towards debt repayments. I was thinking about keeping the mortgage repayments the same, so overpaying every month, but I just want to get my debts repaid as quickly as possible. The good thing is all of my debt is on 0%, so mortgage overpayments would make sense, but my thinking is that I can clear my debt this year then once they are all paid off I will have loads more money to overpay the mortgage.


I've just got to wait for the paperwork to arrive, sign it and send it back.

MoneyMission2015

1. Make and take my lunch to work at least 2 days per week. 3/74 - Done 3 times this week :j


2. Declutter 2016 items from my home - our house is in desperate need of this, we are bursting at the seams! I am going to try and focus on one room at a time, otherwise I have found in the past I have tried to do too much at once and got overwhelmed with it all. 0/216 - Not started yet but had a big tidy up the other day so that my weekend will be free to do some decluttering/listing on ebay.

3. Make £500 in 2016 - I've lowered this because I am only going to be making this through surveys and cashback, so I think £2016 is probably too much for my circumstances. However, if I do make any money elsewhere I will add it to this pot anyway and hopefully exceed the £500 target. £0/£500 - Have done some surveys but not cashed anything out yet. Will update the total when I get my first payout.


4. Lose at least 1st in weight and get fitter. - I walked my daughter to school the other day and walked home, then walked to pick her up again. I don't usually get to do this because I have to go straight to work after the school run, but I enjoyed it a lot so am planning to just go for more walks on the weekends and after work now anyway. Not weighed myself though so don't know if I have lost any weight.

5. Sealed Pot Challenge. At the end of each week I shall empty all of my loose change into a sealed pot and not open until the end of the year - will do every Friday. I have changed this to 37 weeks because that's how many weeks are left this year. Currently 0/37 weeks - Will do tomorrow.

6. NSD Challenge - I am going to aim for at least 15 no spend days each month. This should tie in quite nicely with my taking lunch to work, because the majority of my daily spending seems to be on getting lunch at work. I do my grocery shopping weekly online. I haven't spent anything today and am going straight home, so I can write today down as my first NSD this month (obviously this month will have to be less than 15 as we don't have enough days left). 4/15 - Had 3 this week :T

7. £200 Amazon Pot - Get £200 in Amazon vouchers by Christmas this year. I am hoping to gain these using Swagbucks, GiftHulk and Superpoints and any other ways I come across. - I already have £70.79 in my account from cashback and surveys earned over the last few months. Balance £70.79/£200 - Nothing cashed out yet so nothing to update.

8. Eat smaller portions of food and freeze leftovers. The portions I eat are currently way too big! - Have been doing this.

9. Store Cupboard Challenge - Use only store cupboard items for at least one meal every week for the next year. - Not done this yet this week but have loads of food in so shouldn't need to get anything in for the weekend meals.

10. Keep grocery bill down to an average of less than £75 per week for the whole of the year. There are 4 of us so although some weeks I can keep this as low as £45 per week, I know that to get a good selection of fruit and veg I need a slightly higher budget. £0/£2775 - I had a food shop delivered yesterday, will have to check how much I spent but I know it was more than £75 Will have to average it out by spending less next week.

11. Fly lady challenge. Don't know too much about this, but have heard people talk about it quite often. I will however make a conscious effort to get a bit of cleaning/tidying done each day, rather than leave it all until the weekend. - Had a big clean and tidy on Wednesday.

12. Organised Christmas - I'm not crafty or creative, so I'm not going to pretend to be able to have a handmade Christmas. I will however be organised again, as last year was my first year of being organised and it was so much better. I felt happier about the gifts I'd bought people, I saved loads of money on stuff and I felt more relaxed in December. - Nothing to report here.

13. Save / pay off £16k in 2016. Balance currently £2046/£16000 - Will update at the end of the month for this because the £16k is a mixture of paying debts and what I want to save. I have £2k saved so far (emergency fund) but need to update how much debt I've paid this month.

14. Home improvements - I have a few little projects that I'd like to get done this year. Ensuite & daughters bedroom are top of the list. - Nothing done here yet either, this will be a long term goal rather than a weekly update.

15. Bake more - I love baking and have lots of ingredients and cookbooks, but hardly ever bake anything. Part of this is because I sometimes just don't have the motivation, part of this is because when I do feel like baking I talk myself out of it because if I make a cake I will eat it, which isn't so good for the waistline. However, if I am cutting portions anyway, I can treat myself to a slice of cake occasionally. Plus it's a nice activity I can do with my daughter. - Made some cakes on Wednesday but will make more on the weekend as a treat.

16. Phone my parents at least once every week - I am guilty of just sending a text to say hi and ask how they are, so I definitely need to improve this. 0/37 - Plan to do this tonight

MoneyMission2015

I took a gas and electric meter reading the other day and looks like there will be a big adjustment on the next bill. They have been estimating since I last submitted a meter reading which was over a year ago!! So I submitted the new readings and also did some rough calculations based on the figures on previous bills and it look like although I will owe around £150 on electricity, I am due a credit back of about £600 on gas!! I think I will ask them to pay it back to me and will have a thorough review of our electricity usage, because we have solar panels so I'm surprised our meter reading is higher than the estimate, so we're obviously over using massively.


I was annoyed with myself this week. I am going out this weekend and felt like I didn't have anything to wear, so I ordered some new clothes online. I was disappointed in myself that I have gone and spent money that I shouldn't have spent, but was also hoping that something I'd ordered would be suitable for my night out. They have arrived in the last few days and they all look awful so I am sending everything back. I suppose that's good because I will get a refund of the money spent, but I'm disappointed now that nothing looked good. In the end I ransacked my wardrobe and have 2 options lined up so will see how I feel on the night.


It has really kicked me up the @rse though in regards to my diet etc. I have always been lucky that I can eat almost whatever I want and not put on a lot of weight, but I think that luck is starting to wear off now. I am the heaviest I've ever been and need to really get some of this weight shifted for our summer holiday and also to feel better in myself. It's a vicious cycle, I felt annoyed yesterday that the clothes didn't look good on me, they fitted me fine but just didn't look right because of my current shape, so I felt disappointed so wanted to eat! Seriously not the way to go. However I was pleased with myself because in the end I gave myself a good talking to and made a vegetable soup :j I've now got enough soup for tonight and tomorrow as well, so that's a start. I will have a chicken salad for lunch and then I can have the soup for my dinner. Luckily I only ever drink water as I don't like hot drinks, so at least I don't have to wean myself off tea/coffee etc!


Anyway, enough feeling sorry for myself. I'm going to go through my list to update shortly.

MoneyMission2015

1. Make and take my lunch to work at least 2 days per week. 5/74 - Done 1 day this week, but also had a day off this week so had lunch at home so I'm counting that as 2 days so far:j


2. Declutter 2016 items from my home - our house is in desperate need of this, we are bursting at the seams! I am going to try and focus on one room at a time, otherwise I have found in the past I have tried to do too much at once and got overwhelmed with it all. 0/216 - Started ironing some of the clothes that I have taken out of my daughters wardrobe so I can list them on facebook etc. Not got rid of anything yet though so not counting these items until they're gone.

3. Make £500 in 2016 - I've lowered this because I am only going to be making this through surveys and cashback, so I think £2016 is probably too much for my circumstances. However, if I do make any money elsewhere I will add it to this pot anyway and hopefully exceed the £500 target. £0/£500 - Nothing yet.


4. Lose at least 1st in weight and get fitter. - I did some walking again this week but need to start running again. I have weighed myself now and really shocked at how much I weigh, I can see in the mirror and by my clothes that I've put on weight but I didn't realise just how much. Need to get my @rse in gear with this.

5. Sealed Pot Challenge. At the end of each week I shall empty all of my loose change into a sealed pot and not open until the end of the year - will do every Friday. I have changed this to 37 weeks because that's how many weeks are left this year. Currently 0/37 weeks - Didn't do last week so will throw it all in a pot this weekend.

6. NSD Challenge - I am going to aim for at least 15 no spend days each month. This should tie in quite nicely with my taking lunch to work, because the majority of my daily spending seems to be on getting lunch at work. I do my grocery shopping weekly online. I haven't spent anything today and am going straight home, so I can write today down as my first NSD this month (obviously this month will have to be less than 15 as we don't have enough days left). 6/15 - Had 2 this week :T

7. £200 Amazon Pot - Get £200 in Amazon vouchers by Christmas this year. I am hoping to gain these using Swagbucks, GiftHulk and Superpoints and any other ways I come across. - I already have £70.79 in my account from cashback and surveys earned over the last few months. Balance £70.79/£200 - Nothing cashed out yet so nothing to update.

8. Eat smaller portions of food and freeze leftovers. The portions I eat are currently way too big! - Have been doing this.

9. Store Cupboard Challenge - Use only store cupboard items for at least one meal every week for the next year. - Did this twice this week.

10. Keep grocery bill down to an average of less than £75 per week for the whole of the year. There are 4 of us so although some weeks I can keep this as low as £45 per week, I know that to get a good selection of fruit and veg I need a slightly higher budget. £0/£2775 - Ordered groceries again this week but still higher than £75. Part of this was because I have stocked up on some things because they were on offer, so hopefully this will average out properly over the next few weeks.

11. Fly lady challenge. Don't know too much about this, but have heard people talk about it quite often. I will however make a conscious effort to get a bit of cleaning/tidying done each day, rather than leave it all until the weekend. - Had a bit of a housework day on Tuesday, but still got some cleaning to do this weekend.

12. Organised Christmas - I'm not crafty or creative, so I'm not going to pretend to be able to have a handmade Christmas. I will however be organised again, as last year was my first year of being organised and it was so much better. I felt happier about the gifts I'd bought people, I saved loads of money on stuff and I felt more relaxed in December. - Nothing to report here.

13. Save / pay off £16k in 2016. Balance currently £2046/£16000 - Will update at the end of the month for this because the £16k is a mixture of paying debts and what I want to save. I have £2k saved so far (emergency fund) but need to update how much debt I've paid this month.

14. Home improvements - I have a few little projects that I'd like to get done this year. Ensuite & daughters bedroom are top of the list. - Nothing done here yet either, this will be a long term goal rather than a weekly update.

15. Bake more - I love baking and have lots of ingredients and cookbooks, but hardly ever bake anything. Part of this is because I sometimes just don't have the motivation, part of this is because when I do feel like baking I talk myself out of it because if I make a cake I will eat it, which isn't so good for the waistline. However, if I am cutting portions anyway, I can treat myself to a slice of cake occasionally. Plus it's a nice activity I can do with my daughter. - Made some cakes on Tuesday .

16. Phone my parents at least once every week - I am guilty of just sending a text to say hi and ask how they are, so I definitely need to improve this. 1/37 - Did this on Tuesday.

MoneyMission2015

I've not got a lot to update really. I was paid last week so have allocated everything in YNAB, just waiting now for some DD's to go out and then I will make payments towards some of the debts over the next few weeks.


The gas & electric company haven't generated a new bill yet, they won't generate anything until May 11th so I will have to wait and see how the figures come out after that has gone through.


Our new mortgage payment doesn't start until July. I'm a bit annoyed with myself because I knew a few months ago that the rate was coming to an end in May, but I held off on arranging a new deal because we were considering looking at other mortgage companies but then we both got really busy and just couldn't get the time to have an appointment with the mortgage advisor. So by the time I arranged the new deal we were close to the end of our deal, so it means that the June mortgage payment will be on the SVR before our fixed rate comes into effect in July. Our current rate is 3.49%, the SVR is 4.49% but our fixed rate is 1.49%, so a massive difference!!


I really need to get stuck into meal planning. We have a fridge, freezer and kitchen cupboards full of stuff but never seem to know what we want to eat and never really know what's on offer. Some of the stuff in the fridge I know is starting to look a bit off and I had to throw some food out yesterday, which I hate doing because I feel it's such a waste. We are getting better though, last night we had leftovers from Monday and I saved some for my lunch today and we also took something out of the freezer to have for tea tonight. I need to do a proper stocktake of our kitchen and start coming up with some menus for the next few weeks. Thing is, I've been ordering groceries every week and now it's got to the stage where we actually don't need anything at all but I still went online and started putting stuff in my basket, then suddenly it hit me that I was ordering stuff we already had, so I emptied the basket and closed it all down. I need to get out of the habit of weekly shopping.

MoneyMission2015

I'm getting really fed up with the gas & electric company now. I submitted a reading and logged back on the other day to see if a new bill had been generated. They've not generated a new bill yet but have said my monthly payment is going UP by £20 per month and to top it off I checked and it says they have rejected my gas reading because it's not in line with what they were expecting. Well I went through all the readings and it turns out they have the wrong meter reading from when we first joined them. I know I provided the correct one because we had a bit of a mess around when it was being moved over, so I must have given the meter reading around 100 times :rotfl:Plus our old supplier has the correct reading so it's obviously an error on the new suppliers side. I've emailed them but not heard anything so I am going to have to ring them :mad:


On a good note, the mortgage company have written to say our new deal has been completed and it will take effect from our June payment. That's a relief because I thought I had left it too late so was expecting a higher payment in June before the new amount started in July, but now it means we're saving over £100 per month on our mortgage. I keep swaying between using all of that to pay towards debts or to save it then make overpayments on the mortgage. Because all of our debts are actually on 0% it makes sense to overpay the mortgage to save on interest, but part of me wants to really get the debts reducing quickly so I think I might do half and half, then as the debts start dropping off I will split the spare money between the remaining debts and the mortgage


I didn't do a grocery shop this week :jI actually listened to myself after my previous post and didn't order a grocery shop. We didn't need anything apart from bread, eggs and some fresh fruit so I quickly nipped in to the supermarket on my way home from work. I find that's the best time for me to do it because I know I haven't got time to wander around the store because I have to get home to pick my daughter up from the childminder, so I went straight in with my list, picked up what I needed and got out of there. We still have loads in the freezer so I just need to make sure I take stuff out to defrost when I need to.


I'll update my 16 to do's shortly.

MoneyMission2015

1. Make and take my lunch to work at least 2 days per week. 9/74 - Did this a few times in the last few weeks.

2. Declutter 2016 items from my home - our house is in desperate need of this, we are bursting at the seams! I am going to try and focus on one room at a time otherwise I have found in the past I have tried to do too much at once and got overwhelmed with it all. 0/216 - Still not done this at all!!

3. Make £500 in 2016 - I've lowered this because I am only going to be making this through surveys and cashback, so I think £2016 is probably too much for my circumstances. However, if I do make any money elsewhere I will add it to this pot anyway and hopefully exceed the £500 target. £29.21/£500 - I had a payout from Checkoutsmart for £29.21. I've also been doing some surveys and got some pending cashback, but I wont add these to the total until they're physically in my account or the vouchers have been claimed.

4. Lose at least 1st in weight and get fitter. - :rotfl:. My eating habits are terrible at the moment. I have been walking more though but too scared to weigh myself again since my initial weigh in. I'll update again when I know I've lost some weight.


5. Sealed Pot Challenge. At the end of each week I shall empty all of my loose change into a sealed pot and not open until the end of the year - will do every Friday. I have changed this to 37 weeks because that's how many weeks are left this year. Currently 0/37 weeks - I haven't done this at all yet, the change is just sitting in my purse. I haven't spent any of my change though so technically I have kept the change since my challenge started, so when I eventually put it in the sealed pot I will update it for the whole period, then I'll remember to do it every week.

6. NSD Challenge - I am going to aim for at least 15 no spend days each month. This should tie in quite nicely with my taking lunch to work, because the majority of my daily spending seems to be on getting lunch at work. I do my grocery shopping weekly online. I haven't spent anything today and am going straight home, so I can write today down as my first NSD this month (obviously this month will have to be less than 15 as we don't have enough days left). 11/15 - I've done really well with this. I will see how I get on this week now.

7. £200 Amazon Pot - Get £200 in Amazon vouchers by Christmas this year. I am hoping to gain these using Swagbucks, GiftHulk and Superpoints and any other ways I come across. - I already have £70.79 in my account from cashback and surveys earned over the last few months. Balance £81.24/£200 - A small amount added due to a refund from something that didn't arrive.

8. Eat smaller portions of food and freeze leftovers. The portions I eat are currently way too big! - Have been doing this but then letting myself down because I've been snacking on crisps and biscuits.

9. Store Cupboard Challenge - Use only store cupboard items for at least one meal every week for the next year. - Did this twice again last week.

10. Keep grocery bill down to an average of less than £75 per week for the whole of the year. There are 4 of us so although some weeks I can keep this as low as £45 per week, I know that to get a good selection of fruit and veg I need a slightly higher budget. £0/£2775 - I need to work out how much I've spent since the challenge. I know I was spending too much in the first few weeks I started the challenge but then last week I didn't spend anything apart from a few ££'s for the bread etc.

11. Fly lady challenge. Don't know too much about this, but have heard people talk about it quite often. I will however make a conscious effort to get a bit of cleaning/tidying done each day, rather than leave it all until the weekend. - Just trying to keep on top with the day to day stuff at the moment.

12. Organised Christmas - I'm not crafty or creative, so I'm not going to pretend to be able to have a handmade Christmas. I will however be organised again, as last year was my first year of being organised and it was so much better. I felt happier about the gifts I'd bought people, I saved loads of money on stuff and I felt more relaxed in December. - Nothing to report here.

13. Save / pay off £16k in 2016. Balance currently £2046/£16000 - Will update at the end of the month for this because the £16k is a mixture of paying debts and what I want to save. I have £2k saved so far (emergency fund) but need to update how much debt I've paid this month.

14. Home improvements - I have a few little projects that I'd like to get done this year. Ensuite & daughters bedroom are top of the list. - Nothing done here yet either, this will be a long term goal rather than a weekly update.

15. Bake more - I love baking and have lots of ingredients and cookbooks, but hardly ever bake anything. Part of this is because I sometimes just don't have the motivation, part of this is because when I do feel like baking I talk myself out of it because if I make a cake I will eat it, which isn't so good for the waistline. However, if I am cutting portions anyway, I can treat myself to a slice of cake occasionally. Plus it's a nice activity I can do with my daughter. - Not done any recently..

16. Phone my parents at least once every week - I am guilty of just sending a text to say hi and ask how they are, so I definitely need to improve this. 3/37 - Did this last week and also saw them over the weekend

MoneyMission2015

It's been a while since I've updated! I am still around regularly though, usually just reading other diaries for inspiration and ideas and occasionally commenting. Hopefully some of my comments help other people out the way I've had lots of help from here just from reading the advice that others have given to everybody on here


So not loads to update. The debts are still being paid and reducing as much as I can afford. I have been making overpayments, even though the debts are on 0%. I just want the debt gone, I hate knowing it's there and can't wait to finally be debt free.


Our new mortgage deal has started so our June payment was over £100 lower than previous. I'm still allocating the higher amount to our mortgage category on YNAB though because my plan is I will build up a buffer and then use it to pay a chunk off the debt or off the mortgage.


I've built up quite a lot of Amazon vouchers recently which is great. I've got just over £160 which will go towards Christmas presents. I've also got other vouchers that are a mixture of vouchers I've earned through surveys and cashback and also some vouchers that I had given to me as gifts, which can also be used for Christmas but I've also just used most of the New Look vouchers I had to get a few things for our holiday next month.


Savings are still being boosted each month. It's nice to see that amount going up while still paying the debts off. I know I could use the savings to pay off a big chunk of the debt but then I'd have no emergency buffer and would just end up spending on the credit cards instead. The savings are for Christmas, birthdays, haircuts etc. It's nice to know I've got it covered if we need to get a new hoover or something.


I haven't done any baking. It's catch 22 - I enjoy baking and want to start having homemade treats in the house but then I remember I'm also trying to lose weight so don't end up baking. I will leave it for now and maybe start baking again when we are back from our holiday. It would be nice to have a slice of cake to bring to work with me every now and then. I don't buy cakes from the supermarket because I find them too expensive and also I don't think they even taste very nice.