MissCreative's journey to financial freedom!

MissCreative

So...this plan got shot to pieces!
I blame the very comfy sofa and a long day at work :rotfl:

Strike-throughs are are completed.

MissCreative wrote: »

Tonight's to dos - most likely not in order:

• Wash up and wipe surfaces in kitchen (will do today)
• Pop a colour wash on and hang it up on the airer (will do today)
• Put clothes currently on airer away in the wardrobe (will do today)
• [STRIKE]Give the living room a tidy[/STRIKE]
• Gather forms of ID to open Nationwide account (will do today)
• Charge Fitbit (not doing anymore)
• Charge Kindle (will do today)
• [STRIKE]Browse Goodreads for a new book[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]Skype family[/STRIKE]

And I'm taking a [STRIKE] day of annual leave tomorrow[/STRIKE] (actually taking a half day now), just because :cool:
Tomorrow's plan - most likely in order:

• [STRIKE]Go swimming at the gym[/STRIKE]
• Open FlexDirect account at Nationwide
• Return library books (next weekend)
• Have free tea and cake at John Lewis (don't have time now!)
• Payday! Buy small socks for Summer shoes
• Bake something for DH's parents
• Pack for weekend at DH's parent's

Will have lunch at home - Heck chicken sausages with some green beans, peas and sweetcorn - then off to town to open a Nationwide account, get baking ingredients, and buy small socks.

I'll go through August's budget with DH tonight as it's payday today, and will post it on here tonight or tomorrow

MissCreative

I've been playing with a spread sheet I created from Financialbliss's guide here:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=14965035&postcount=534
And if everything goes according to plan (aka budgeted overpayments of £800 in September, £1050 in October, £1000 in November and £500 in December) we still need to find another £206 to make it to £139,999.99 by December 31st.
I'll have to see each month what changes budget-wise and if I can eek out anything to put towards the mortgage, but it looks like we may need to earn extra money.

I'm planning to sell a few things on Gumtree so that may make, say, £30-£40, and I'm thinking since I don't budget in our friend's money for cooking him meals, I could pop that straight on the mortgage, which would be on average £20 a month.
So, even though that leaves me about £66 down, I have 5 months to figure out how to earn that.

(I should probably mention here that DH and I split everything joint evenly - mortgage payments and overpayments, bills, food shopping etc - so if I want some of his money to do an overpayment, I have to put in an equal amount, and vice versa. So since he'll be earning more than me from September, and I basically zero budget myself, if I earn extra money from surveys, say £20, I could ask him for £20 too and we'll put £40 on the mortgage)

Saying that though, I would like to find a way to earn extra income, maybe from photography projects or other ways, as my hobbies are basically just reading, working out and cooking so I have lots of spare time :rotfl:

PennyJar

Hi MC,

Are you on OnePoll? It's going good so far got £10 this week (would anticipate £40 cash back by Dec) maybe this could help you?

If you want I could refer you - they give me 50p for a referral (max 10 referrals) and it's a million % better than swagbucks I've found - much more straightforward and hardly any rejections. If you fancy it private message me your email and you'll be on your way to £40.

PennyJar

MissCreative

Not on OnePoll but will have a look, thanks PennyJar I'll let you know if I deceide to join up.

Had a lovely weekend at the in law's - bit too much food and drink though!
Getting back on the wagon this week with swimming before work this morning and arm and core day at the gym tomorrow.

Having a stressful day at work today
I'll pop my monthly budget up here now, and my weekly shopping on here this evening

MissCreative

Income:
Me: £1,311.05
DH: £1220.77
Rental income: £470

Joint Expenditure:
General:
Mortgage payment: £780
Bills (council tax, water, internet etc): £249.80
Food shopping: £100
Fuel: £50
Other:
Car repairs: £1157 (£1277 total - £120 from July will go towards it)

We split everything joint evenly, so this leaves me with £260.15 and DH with £169.87.

I won't put DH's personal budget on here, but he will be at £0 at the end of the month with the Audi Festival he's going to, his mobile bill, buying a birthday present, getting a haircut and a few pizza nights with friends.

My personal budget:
TV licence: £145.50 (DH will pay me back half next month)
Mobile: £16
Eating/drinking out: £10
General activities: £5
Books: £5
Girl's weekend: £50 (whilst the guys are away at the Audi Festival!)
New jeans: £30
New socks: £7.50
Weekend with my sister and her boyfriend: £15
Birthday present: £10

And as you can see, that will take me to -£33.85, but this will be covered by not spending all of last month's income. Plus, I'll actually be getting my £20 from Prolific this week! :T

So no mortgage overpayments this month, though I may pop any money our friend pays us to cook for him on the mortgage, which could be about £20.

zcrat41

Miss Creative that is an amazing food budget. How on earth do you eat for a month for £100?!

MissCreative

I usually allow £150 a month, though we don't generally reach that. Because we've got a lot of money going out to the car repairs and TV licence this month I'm trying to budget £100 - we'll see how that goes! :rotfl:
A lot of our food stretches over more than one week, so one week may be £30, whereas the next will be £15 and use bits from the previous week.

I'm the kind of person who will eat whatever's around, so I wouldn't mind having an omlette and broccoli for dinner, or some vegetables with rice - whatever's lying around. DH wouldn't do that if he was on his own, but if I whip something together he'll eat it haha.
We have a large pizza from Asda about once a week with the friend who's living with us - so that's only £3.50 between all of us.
DH also gets free fruit at work to snack on so we make savings there.
We tend to eat the same thing for lunch during the week - DH switches between tuna sandwiches, a jacket potato or cheese and salami bagels, and at the moment I'm liking chicken sausages, roasted sweet potatoes and broccoli, green beans and brussel sprouts. I'll meal prep that on a Sunday or Monday.
DH is also a marmite on toast person at breakfast, so that helps
Oh and we make bread in our bread machine most weeks.

I'll be posting what I pick up from Asda later, along with a meal plan, so check back for that if you want to see what meals I actually have planned and how I use up all the ingredients

MissCreative

OK, here's the shopping DH and I just bought at Asda:

1 onion,
1 carrot,
Head of cauliflower,
5 sweet potatoes,
2 normal potatoes,
Vintage cheddar,
Heck chicken sausages,
Green pesto,
Orange juice,
Tortillas,
White basmati rice,
Curry sauce,
Cereal,
Wholemeal bread,
Ice,
Chicken slices,
Soy milk,
3 2L bottles of sparkling water,
2 6-packs of crisps
3 tins of tuna
1 tin of pineapple.

This all cost £22.52, and our friend is going to pay us for 2 meals at £2.50 each so that brings it down to £17.52.
Items that will last more than one week should be the pesto, crisps, cereal and cheese. And we have some store cupboard items and other bits and bobs like spices, baked beans, eggs, protein powder etc.
We're going to use a couple of things from last week, like the BBQ pork I slow cooked last week then froze, a spaghetti sauce from the freezer, and broccoli in the fridge.
Also, we got some grilled steak from DH's parents yesterday.

Here's the meal plan I currently have:

Tuesday: toast/protein ice cream (see below) -- tuna sandwich and crisps/leftover roasted veg pasta -- steak and veg curry with rice.
Wednesday: toast/protein ice cream -- jacket potato with beans and cheese/sausages, sweet potato, broccoli and frozen veg -- BBQ pork quesadillas with rice and cheese.
Thursday: toast/protein ice cream -- jacket potato with beans and cheese/sausages, sweet potato, broccoli and frozen veg -- pizza night (will need to buy pizza for £3.50).
Friday: toast/protein ice cream -- tuna sandwich and crisps/sausages, sweet potato, broccoli and frozen veg -- BBQ pork and pineapple fried rice.
Saturday: toast/protein ice cream -- not sure! maybe omelettes? -- spaghetti bolognese.
Sunday: toast/protein ice cream -- Maybe omelettes again? -- we shall see what's leftover...

DH snacks on free fruit at work, and I usually grab whatever's around - tuna with pesto, chicken slices with English mustard, crisps, or even bread with nutella if all else fails :rotfl:

Oh and since I know I'll get asked, the protein ice cream is milk, xanthan gum, protein powder and ice, all blended up, and it's creates ice cream I sometimes add frozen blueberries, frozen mango, spirulina and other healthy bits and bobs.

Hope that's all clear! :j

PennyJar

Hi MC,

I shared my shopping list with you earlier - well I thought I did, its gone somewhere into the MSE ether oops! Lol

But things I had this week included:

Gammon shanks with chips and beans (M&S)
Chicken & Ricotta (M&S)
Red Thai Fish Curry (Aldi jar) batch cooked with yellow pepper, sweet corn and frozen salmon fillet with coriander rice
Pasta veg melt garlic bread & salad (M&S) £1.10 pp was lovely
Chilli (batch cooked) (Aldi jar)

Can't remember if I missed anything...but had some good steals with my yellow stickers

PennyJar

MissCreative

Oh no! Hope that doesn't happen with any more of your posts!
Sounds lovely - especially the Thai red curry with salmon.
There wasn't much reduced yesterday so couldn't nab any bargins there, but there's always next week! :rotfl:

Had vanilla protein ice cream with frozen blueberries and spirulina after the gym this morning - best breakfast ever! :T
Also tried a new 'cookie' cereal on top as my usual Cocoa Alpha Bites weren't on offer. Wasn't bad, but I like my usual one more so will keep a look out for when it's on offer again
Snacks today are half a tin of tuna with a little green pesto and a few bits of steak with english mustard.

Car goes in for repairs today - hoping the quoted price doesn't increase!