ZC's Aim for a little independence

zcrat41

Hello all.

Well I've used the mini chopper to make a mahoosive pot of bolognese which I'll turn into a lasagne on Saturday. It will be good for hiding veg in things as it chops it up so much smaller than I do.

£92 on a Tesco delivery today. Enough food for a week and also to make an extra lasagne & fish pie for the freezer which I don't think is too bad.

Parents evening tonight at school today. Then as we've got a babysitter dh and I are going out for a meal as it's our anniversary on the 25th. Not sure if dh will treat us or not!

Have a good day all

zcrat41

Morning all.

Dh didn't bring his wallet so it came out of the Joint account. All within budget though. Lovely meal and Dd doing really well at school so that's all good.

Few spends yesterday - ice cream for the kids at sports day and a few drinks for us whilst watching the cricket. Is there anything nicer than watching your kids play cricket on a sunny summers evening with a G&t in hand?!

Busy day today. Ds has his graduation for nursery this morning then we'll be silaging and bale carting all weekend. Should be a lovely day!

Have a good weekend all

zcrat41

Hello all.
Busy weekend making hay whilst the sun shone! The good thing about that is yesterday was a NSD.
Today has been good - I've made 2 massive fish pies. One to eat and one to keep in the freezer. Also successfully made a batch of redcurrant muffins. Remembering the sugar this time!

I had a builder look at my guttering problem. His advice is a bit of flat roof needs patching but he won't know if the whole thing needs replacing till he starts sorting it out. If that's all then he can make good what's there. If the roof needs replacing then the whole fascia needs replacing. Nothing too scary so far through - fingers crossed for the electrical test this week!

So I'm thinking at the moment rather than overpaying the mortgage I want to build up a 5k emergency fund.
Current sit - £2732.19 saved up.
So my goal is to save another £2267.81.

I reckon I can put away £203.44 per month. At that rate it will take me another 11 months to hit my target.

So, lets see if I can get there any quicker!

jwil

Good luck

zcrat41

Thanks jwil.

NSD for me here today. Had an omelette and chips for tea with a salad looking a bit sad that needed eating up. Trying to stretch what's in the fridge till we go away on Saturday in our caravan!! Woo hoo wales here we come!!

Made another 24 red currant muffins tonight. Now just need to not eat them all! Need to pick the last of the redcurrants tomorrow. Any other suggestions of what I could do with them??

zcrat41

Hello all. 34 degrees and sunny at home yesterday - we arrive in wales and it's 17 and cloudy! Oh well!

Good day at the office yesterday. Got a £500 bonus on the promise that I pay it off my mortgage. So I rang up Friday night and made the payment. Looking forwards to seeing what impact that has on the interest! It should save me £432 over the life of the mortgage and reduce my date by 2 months!! Chuffed with that.

Still on target for my savings too. Will have to keep a rein on the spending this holiday. It can be easy to let it creep up.

Have a good weekend all.

becky170

That's great news about the bonus! Hope you have a fantastic holiday.

zcrat41

Thanks Becky.

Having a great holiday. It's not that warm so we've been doing bike rides, castles etc. It's a balmy 18 today so we're going to risk the beach.

Have done really well on the holiday budget. Lots of picnics and easy teas in the caravan. Will need one top up shop today. Have a good day all.

zcrat41

Well risking the beach worked. It was GLORIOUS. I needed some convincing to get into this caravan malarkey but by goodness, a day on the beach like yesterday you don't need to go abroad. I'm a convert.

I thought I'd find it not a holiday with no rest from cooking. At Home I cook a lot from scratch and here we've been doing easy meals like sausages in a bun or quiche and pre made salad so it doesn't feel so much like work.

The nice thing is with farming when the bad years come (which they will, no doubt about that) the caravan is bought. So apart from pitch fees we can do a holiday as cheap as you like.

Off for a walk in Snowdonia today. Hoping for a cream tea somewhere! There's also a lovely pub next to the site so going to have one last meal out.

Have a good day all.

zcrat41

Morning all.

Well, we're back from our AMAZING holiday. North Wales seems so unspoilt compared to places like Cornwall. We loved it and will definitely go back we think.

So back to reality today (and a mountain of washing - 3 loads down already!) I like a good plan in life to keep me focused. I also often find that after harvest and school hols life goes to pot a bit. So here's my plan. We have 8 weeks of holiday. I will:

1) Lose 8 pounds. Ambitious over harvest but it can be done.
2) Run 5k twice a week.
3) Fill in MFP every single day - good or bad
3) TOMM (the organised Mum Method) every weekday.
4) Do 30 mins of gardening 3 times a week.
5) Stick to YNAB!
Save at least £203.44 towards my 5k saving fund.

If I can do all those things I think I can feel quite in control by September. So today will b washing, list writing, washing, tidying up, washing, cleaning the caravan, washing, church, washing, kids cricket match, washing and getting sorted for the week! Menu today is salad for lunch plus lamb kebabs with pitta and salad for tea.

Moneywise I'm wanting to get on YNAB this morning and do a big post holiday reconciliation but annoyingly Tesco bank are down for maintenance. I'm pretty sure that this month's £203.44 is already tucked away and saved nicely so that's good. I'm hoping I can squirrel a few more pounds via ebay or being super good with the joint account.

Have a lovely weekend all.