ATB's £171k quest begins.... NOW!

Watty1

Hope today improved and all back to what passes for normal

QB_Wolf

atypicalblonde wrote: »

I really need a night on the sofa relaxing with DH, but in reality I will be working tonight after the littlies are in bed. All of the above hasn't been helped by the fact I had around 6 hours sleep all weekend due to DD having terrible nightmares, poor lamb.

Our 2 yr old keeps having them about Badgers, that she thinks are coming to get her, Beatrix Potter has a lot to answer for!!

atypicalblonde

Good Morning friends,


I can't tell you how cheering it is to log on to such lovely messages from my fellow MFWers'. Things have settled down here, everything that can be fixed has now been fixed and the other yucky things are still rumbling away.


DD hasn't had a nightmare for a few days so we are all a little more well rested thank goodness. Because the focus has been on sorting out the crappiness of the past week I have no idea what money we have, what has been going in or out, other than to say we have very little. Earnings for the past week have been nil due to said crappiness absorbing all time.


I am hopeful that by Tuesday I will have a clearer idea of just where we are with the finances, and be back with a *plan*. In the meantime, lets keep on keeping on gang xx

MummyEm

Nice to see you back ATB.

Being there for you children sometimes has to be put before MFWness and I think most people would agree that it is more important! There's only so much you can do/think about when your focus is with your children. Don't worry about losing track for a bit, you'll soon make up the ground so don't let that be a worry too.

atypicalblonde

Good Morning friends,

I'm back and all is as sorted as it will ever be. I hope you are all well this sunny Friday morning. The past few days have thrown into sharp focus something that has been in my mind for a while. My grandparents are nearly 80, and I can see a time in the not too distant future when they need more hands on help. DH and I have discussed the option of them living with us when the time comes, and are both in agreement to that.

If I am being totally honest I think it was that niggle that kickstarted the MF journey. When we reach our MFin5 target, we will most likely have to move to somewhere with space for my grandparents. This has been discussed with them before loosely, and they would contribute to the cost of a property that accommodates their needs as well as ours. My grandma has just had an operation and seeing the toll the anaesthetic took on her and the post-op pain she is in really really throws everything into sharp focus. Lets get this thing paid off ASAP so them living with us becomes a real option.

So, back to my favourite things, targets The next target is to get to £155k by 1.7.15. I have just made a £90 OP and when I get paid on Monday (not sure how much that will be yet, I will know later today when I tot up everything) that will be thrown as an OP too.

On a separate note, did anyone watch the programme on BBC2 on Tuesday night about waste? Very interesting viewing, at times uncomfortable I thought - what a wasteful society we live in. It is certainly something that I am going to pay more mind to going forwards - reduce, reuse, recycle.

Enough of my waffling, have good days all xx

MummyEm

Yes the waste programme was really interesting. I'm not particularly surprised by how much people waste, but I do find it a huge shame. I don't know how people can possibly justify being so lazy as to not recycle when they have a whole empty wheelie bin they could use right next to the general waste bin!
We do live in such a wasteful, throw away society, I just hope that this re-balances over the coming years.

I find that we (personally) are really good at recycling everything that we can. Plus we keep stuff that can't be recycled on doorstep (metals, foils etc) and get those to the recycling center ourselves every now and then. I struggle to get the amount that we use down though. When I have time I go to butchers & greengrocers which results in much less packaging but often have to buy from supermarket when we have busiers weeks, which means more packaging to recycle/bin.

Bulk buying must help too (the refill box of washing up liquid should help!) plus the soapnuts should cut down on a lot of packaging. I guess the focus currently is on actively thinking about reducing that we are using as opposed to it being a lot cheaper/more convenient to buy with less packaging. Only a move to legislate/regulate waste further in that direction will really change the attitude of our society on the whole. Just a sad shame really that most people aren't willing to care more for the finite resources that our planet has to offer.

MummyEm

Sorry, got so wrapped up talking about waste, completely forgot to mention your target!

£155k by 1/7 sounds awesome! I will be here cheering you on :j

Luckyinlife

good luck with your next target :] amazing work

atypicalblonde

My biggest packaging issue is the soft packaging that can't be recycled. Whilst I do my best to go to the grocers, I do lean heavily on getting my shopping delivered from Ocado each week. Which means our apples, bananas, cucumber etc come with yet more (unnecessary) packaging wrapped round them when they're not bought loose. Anyhow, it will be interesting viewing next week to see how people make use of others waste items via freecycle etc. My grandad was a scrap metal merchant and all of our first bikes were out of a skip!

Have lovely weekends all xx

atypicalblonde

Good Morning friends,

Did we all have a lovely BH weekend? Ours was really lovely, a family event on Sunday and then we went to the seaside yesterday! The sun shone for us, the children absolutely loved it and were really good. You can't beat the good old British seaside fun - 2p machines, fish&chips, the fairground and of course a cheeky beer outside a pub :):)

I was up early today before everyone - it doesn't happen often but when it does I really make the most of it - dinner is cooking already so we have an easy evening, the WM is doing its thing and I've done the banking.

Mortgage balance as at today's date is: £159,544.27. This bothers me - we still have suuuch a long way to go. I think I am itching to get to the magic £155k mark, then everything after that can be stashed in a savings account and I can see the money add up, looking forward all the while to making that big OP in January

So, the plan to get to £155k by 1st July still remains although I hope I can do it sooner my earnings for the past week have been markedly better than I expected them to be, so I have just OPd £999 (the most I can make via online banking)

Happy Tuesdays all xx