Getting a Grip and Saving towards the mortgage

themadvix

Think your plan makes sense - don't go hardcore until after your holiday, otherwise you'll begrudge spending the money while you're away, which would negate the enjoyment you're meant to be having!!

Love the 'magpie' phraseology - might have to magpie that myself!

Busy_Mee1

I can't believe it is September already. It is a beautiful morning here and I am keeping my fingers crossed for good weather over the next week while we are away in the cottage.

I have quite a few things to do today, but I am working from home so should be able to fit in a few jobs around calls.

I have promised to take DD to work as she is going straight out after work with her colleagues. I also need to do some shopping and get some cash, claim my expenses and pack for our week away. That is in and amongst clearing up at work so that I can go on holiday with a clear conscience

If I get time I will also do some money shuffling to gather up the monthly harvest of interest and rewards.

Anyway I had better get a wriggle on. Happy September all

wildesavings

Happy September to you too!

Hope you're having a wonderful time away.

Busy_Mee1

We are back a day early from our week away as the weather turned decided soggy. We have had a great time though, lots of great coastal walks, and lots of laughs, eating and drinking.

Rain is forcast for the next few days, so we thought we might as well come home a day early and get a few jobs done before we have to go back to work next week. It is likely to be manic now everyone is back from their holidays.

Our week away worked out fine in terms of spending and we managed to keep within our spending money budget. We had some lovely meals out and I have definitely decided that I only want to pay for food out, when the food is better than I can cook at home. The meals we had were really superb and some very fresh seafood.

Our friends very kindly treated us to a meal out as we had paid for the cottage and also left all the food and drink that they had contributed so we have a very full fridge at the moment.

In terms of the MSE stuff to report:
I managed to bag lots of reduced bread in M&S before I went away - bread rolls for 35p a pack and loaves for 50p, so we now have a freezer full of bread.

I shunned the expensive gift shops and went to the C@rd Factory in the local town to buy birthday cards for everyone who has a birthday up to Christmas. 6 birthday cards for £6.36. MSE and organised :A

I bought a nice set of Usbourne baby books reduced from £14.99 to £3. I will give these to our baby niece for her birthday in November.

I have just cashed in £61.21 from t@pcashback and still have another £80 tracking

I have a few jobs to sort out this weekend, ESTAs to apply for, an important presentation to prepare for work and the boiler insurance to source ( increased from £157 per year to £436 :eek:) I don't think so !

I want to have a nice frugal September now so that we can get the spending money for the US trip together ( as well as keeping the savings up)

I could also do to get the garden tidied up, if it ever stops raining ! Have a good day

Busy_Mee1

A nice pottery day yesterday (as in pottering not making pots :rotfl:)

I went for a run in the rain and got soaked, but quite enjoyed it strangely. I am trying to run every other day now. I got onto to scales of doom this morning and was pleased that I didn't put any weight on despite all the eating and drinking last week. I would like to lose another 5 lb before my holiday in 5 weeks time, which should be doable if I get my act together.

We had a good clean up of the house and then had a very MSE trip to Lidl to buy the weekend offers. This week it was grated cheese (£1.49 for 450g). I had to root through and find the bags with the longest dates ( 2 November) as the others were best before 16 September. Anyway five bags bought, along with 3 bottles of 2.99 wines. I did some other shopping too as I had a £5 off voucher if you spent £30. All in all a big haul for £27 in total.

Next week olive oil is on offer again at £1.49, so I will probably stock up again ( think we are down to 1 bottle) and there is also some white wine at £2.99, which we will try.

On the savings front we have been discussing a couple of things that will affect our savings totals if we go ahead. Firstly we are thinking of having a fireplace built, we ran out of money when we built the house and so just blanked off the chimney. This is likely to cost around £2k, but will give a real focal point to the room. I think being away at the cottage, which had a lovely fireplace reminded us that we want to do this.

Secondly we want to give DS a bank of Mum and Dad loan to buy a car. We have money that is earning next to nothing in interest and would rather he borrowed off us than paid interest to the bank, we have said that he can borrow the money over 2 years so that it is back in time for Mr Mees retirement. I just need to decided how to account for this on my spreadsheet :rotfl:

I want to do some emails this afternoon to try and catch up ahead of going back to work tomorrow and strangely I am actually looking forward to going back to work. I am enjoying working with the new boss and things are generally going well, despite it being really busy.

It looks like we are in for another soggy day here.

try_harder

Morning Busy Mee1 . I just dont know where the time goes but i am here at last ,i always love reading your posts you are always so upbeat and positive although sorry to hear you have had some upsets at home but hopefully things have settled down now and your daughter is so lucky to have lovely parents to support her and thats what we all do to the best of our ability .
Good to hear that you have had a wonderful time away in the cottage it all sounds lovely and even better that you had your daughter join you and your friends and now another very exciting holiday to look forward to .
On the money front you are doing so well as always and i am so pleased for you as you put such a lot of time and effort in to everything you do you are such a hard worker and the results of all your efforts are looking A mazing so keep up the great work its very satisfying thats for sure .
Loving the sound of the open fire ,we have two woodburners and they are lovely thats for sure and you definitely deserve a treat for all your hard work i am imagining it now in your beautiful house .

Have a good week at work this week its good to hear that you look forward to going and that is brilliant as you spend such a lot of time there ,long may it continue .

themadvix

Hey BusyMee, it all sounds very positive over here. I'm glad you had a good cottage holiday - it sounds lovely - walks, coast, food, drink and friends - what's not to love!

Getting the fireplace done sounds like a lovely idea and will really make your house snug for winter.

Can I ask, where did you get the Usborne books from? They sound like a really good deal! (And I have two baby nieces to buy for for Christmas).

Busy_Mee1

Hi Madvix sorry only just seen this. I got the books in WH Smiths - they had lots of books with 75% off.

Kittenkirst

Glad you had a lovely time away and well done with your frugal finds (the bread, books & cards)

themadvix

Thanks Busy - I'll check that out!