Reality Check...

reality_check

I might regret this, but it's done now anyway....

I like to round everything down....So paid £200 to Barclays as £14,500 sounds like a nicer number! 22.3% reduction since I started in January.

Loan - £6,000
Virgin - £2,800
Santander - £2,000
Barclays Part 1: £600.00
Barclays Part 2: £3,100

Worst case I can use Barclays for Petrol, but I am saving a week of petrol when I am off work, saving a week of dog walking money, planning on saving 2 weeks worth of food shopping because using what I have in soooo fingers crossed!!

reality_check

Final point....

If anyone has a Barclay card you can have free access to Experian! I know you can get free ones but thought I would mention incase it is of benefit to anyone xxx

note3

Wow that's fabulous that you made it to pay day without using a credit card! Well done

I also think the stuff you're doing with your nieces/nephews is more special and quality time than what you would have done. You'll interact with them more whilst spending less...win win

Maybe now you've paid off that 200 you could aim to sell some bits in case you need that money for something else?

milasavesmoney

I like to round off numbers too, RC. Keeps things tidy in my mind.

Just paid off my larger CC balance. Feels great! Two more months and I will be out of CC debt.

My car will be paid for in October and then we will started putting that same amount on our DD3's car to pay it off earlier. She's got 4.99% interest and we want to help her get out from under her car payment sooner. She lives in Pennsylvania and just got this car last Nov. Her old car was 12 yrs old, high miles and was starting to need work, so she sold it and used that for a down payment. We will never feel the difference if I just shift the payment over.

DH just came in and started with fresh chopped garden tomatoes, cottage cheese and garlic salt. Now he's eating leftover stew. I need to think of what's for dinner tomorrow... I'm thinking something with pasta. I have a nice lemon artichoke pesto type sauce in the fridge what would go welll with pasta. And then maybe chicken added?? Or on the side?? What do you guys think?

Still have the grand hounds until next weekend. We will take them home to DD3.

We have finally rented the vacant mobile home we have had empty of three months. Our checking account will certainly feel more cheerful now that it has this money in it every month. She is a single woman who works as a cardio tech at the local hospital...no pets, non smoker. I hope she turns out to be ok.

Have a great Sunday all.

Smodlet

She sounds like the tenant from heaven on paper... time will tell. Why does she need to live in a mobile home (though I'm sure yours is very nice) if she works at a hospital? Maybe she is a moneysaver, too.

milasavesmoney

Smod, it's a 3bdrm/2bath, with a fenced yard in a mobile home park. https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C9BKJA_enUS675US675&hl=en-US&ei=ksKLV_nVM8Oy-QGAsK_ADA&q=single+wide+exterior+mobile+home+photo+gallery&oq=single+wide+exterior+mobile+home+photo+gallery&gs_l=mobile-gws-serp.3...99516.104700.0.106846.10.10.0.0.0.0.170.1151.0j9.9.0....0...1c..64.mobile-gws-serp..1.4.497...35i39j30i10.rJHsKawBzg4#imgrc=zspgNxkiXkrolM%3A

Something like this. We bought it nearly new for my daughter when she was at uni because the payments were cheaper than paying for room and board at University of NM. Plus it was tax deductible. We had it moved here and have been renting it since she graduated. It's in a very quiet mobile home park. We have never had problems renting until our potash mines layed off 400 jobs. Also, the oil fields took a big drop in employment because the price per barrell has dropped so low so drilling new oil wells has stopped.

reality_check

Thanks!

I will get round to selling something Note, even just list it! and then hope someone wants it is the hard part!

Mila go you, not long until that credit card is gone! I want to be in the position you will be in to help kids out when they need it. I would like to give DD and DS a lump sum in the future towards their first property, it is so hard to get on the property ladder these days, which gives me plenty time to save lol :eek:

Today the weather wasn't great and the kids wanted to bake....not my strong point!! However, we made cupcakes and they came out the oven and looked like ones you get in the fancy cupcake shops. They were the perfect size, golden in colour, soft and bouncy to touch, cut if open and the sponge was light and fluffy...basically just imagine what the perfect cupcake looks like and you've got what these were like, until......... Tasted it and it was like SALT!! I couldn't believe it but turns out I used 1 tablespoon and not teaspoon of baking powder lol :rotfl: so we ended up icing some digestives with jam in the middle and putting sweets on top. Exactly why I do NOT attempt baking!

However I made a lovely roast dinner! Used the pork chops I had in the freezer, I am not normally a pork fan but they were lovely. I thought it would be me DS and DD for dinner but then found out DD bf was coming and DS had someone round helping him fix a bike and I offered him dinner which of course he accepted!! So, 4 pork chops with 5 people and 3 of them eat for 1 and a half people so basically I was feeding 6.5 mouths...old me would have rushed out to the shops...new me....made the chops, put a few sausages in the oven, made a mountain of mash, some roast potatoes, made massive yorkshire puddings and loads of peas and broccoli from the freezer and roasted a load of carrots all served with onion gravy - it was lovely!! DS friend said it was better than his mums Christmas dinner :rotfl: so must have been good!

The roast potatoes were an experiment, I bought a big tin of tinned potatoes for 15p in Lidl and just roasted in the oven with oil and rosemary, they did taste a bit like frozen potatoes but with gravy on top and everything else I barley noticed much of a difference and for 15p!!! you can complain can you. Will def be doing them again, less hassle and perfect for days like today to make food go that little bit further.

Food budgeting is my focus this month. So many things you can't control, I must pay my mortgage, I need to pay council tax etc but food is one of the factors that I am in control of and I am going to do my best not to waste, use up what I have and s-t-r-e-t-c-h meals out by bulking them out!

Apart from that today I have been so lazy! Washed all the windows and mirrors is as productive as I've been. I don't mean to be a bad influence on anyone, but if you're considering buying a Karcher window cleaner...do it! One of the best things I have ever bought!

What an exciting post this is...tinned potatoes and tips on washing the windows, but this is the reality of my exciting life! :rotfl:

Smodlet

milasavesmoney wrote: »

Smod, it's a 3bdrm/2bath, with a fenced yard in a mobile home park. https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C9BKJA_enUS675US675&hl=en-US&ei=ksKLV_nVM8Oy-QGAsK_ADA&q=single+wide+exterior+mobile+home+photo+gallery&oq=single+wide+exterior+mobile+home+photo+gallery&gs_l=mobile-gws-serp.3...99516.104700.0.106846.10.10.0.0.0.0.170.1151.0j9.9.0....0...1c..64.mobile-gws-serp..1.4.497...35i39j30i10.rJHsKawBzg4#imgrc=zspgNxkiXkrolM%3A

Something like this. We bought it nearly new for my daughter when she was at uni because the payments were cheaper than paying for room and board at University of NM. Plus it was tax deductible. We had it moved here and have been renting it since she graduated. It's in a very quiet mobile home park. We have never had problems renting until our potash mines layed off 400 jobs. Also, the oil fields took a big drop in employment because the price per barrell has dropped so low so drilling new oil wells has stopped.

!!!! me! You could fit two of my house in some of those! One is made of brick, it looks like! Wouldn't fancy trying to tow that.

I thought potash was actual ash. I didn't know you have to mine it. I know nothing.

reality_check

I really under estimated motor homes until I saw a woman in my works...I honestly thought she was just going to a caravan that you tow on the back of the car, but they are nothing like that! The size of most houses, if not bigger!!

Another Monday morning here again...Apart from petrol and dog walking which are all budgeted spends I am aiming for a ZERO spend Monday-Friday. Really need to get petrol today since I somehow managed to get to work on fumes, no time for petrol this morning and I'm a risk taker!

xxx

Smodlet

It's Monday morning here, too.

Hope you have an enjoyable, spend-free week. No Nando's for you, RC!