ATB'S Frugal Foray to Freedom

atypicalblonde

Rushing around to get to the party, but wanted to post my "plan numbers" quickly.

£4,000 capital reduction from normal monthly payments
£16,000 from dividends out of DH company. This is in line with previous years, save for this past 12 months which has been shocking for reasons beyond our control. 2017 already looking good though. I ought to clarify that whilst this looks a lot he pays himself much less than minimum wage so the dividends top it up to a better salary.
£1,000 Christmas and birthday money
£6,000 – savings from household budget each month
£3,000 – extra income made by me

It really doesn't look that scary.... does it?

Happy new year all xx

atypicalblonde

Happy new year all :j

I went to bed at 4am so today basically involves a lot of sofa and tv time!

Have lovely days all x

Jessy103

Happy New Year ATB! Glad you enjoyed your party you dirty stop out! Lol! I went to bed at 1 and I think it'll take me a week to recover!

Good luck with your new targets!
x

atypicalblonde

Got loads done today, really pleased. Made some soup as well as a chilli, and nipped to M&S for milk and bread. Local retail park was utterly heaving (apart from M&S Food which was quiet) - people queuing to get into the big blue and yellow shop at 3pm! Madness. All laundry up to date too.

Got loads of greetings cards in M&S reduced to 37p! So most birthdays, weddings and other occasions are covered for this year :j

Looking forward to looking at the financials tomorrow - everything will be back to normal now all the bank holidays are done. I also need to look in my jewellery box as I'm sure I have some more gold I could sell.

Have lovely evenings all xx

NorthernMonkey1

Rather than staycationing, have you considered flying to wherever easyjet and ryanair are going for cheap. Mrs NM and I are going to Warsaw for 4 days, as the flights are £32 return each, and we can get a hotel (4*) for £40 a night.

atypicalblonde

Hi NM1, we are restricted by school holidays when the prices are sky high so cheap breaks are fairly limited. Plus, TBH, our children are still so small (4 and 2) that whether we are on a beach in Filey or abroad they really don't care!

I seem to have an awful lot to do tomorrow so I've just made a list

atypicalblonde

Until I get an answer from the Bank as to how much we can OP this year, I have been squirrelling money into my everyday saver ready to OP. So far we have £1,600 there, which isn't bad to say it's only 3rd January!

Dug out some gold last night which I will get valued tomorrow. Other than that, it's a case of not spending anything this week to enable us to save as much of our household budget as possible x

atypicalblonde

Kids happily eating dinner, and I have a HM ready meal from the freezer ready to have tonight.

I totally forgot I am visiting the dentist tomorrow, which will be around £60-ish for check up and seeing the hygienist. Save for that, I won't be spending a bean this week. We have plenty fresh things in, and I have some spare milk which I will stash in the garage freezer :money: I'll be MF in no time at this rate :rotfl:

Watty1

Where do you get your gold valued. I have a couple of items. Was thinking of having one "made" into something else. But I am wondering if I should sell instead? Not particularly sentimental so ?

atypicalblonde

Watty1 wrote: »

Where do you get your gold valued. I have a couple of items. Was thinking of having one "made" into something else. But I am wondering if I should sell instead? Not particularly sentimental so ?

Hi Watty, we just use a local, family run jewellers rather than one of the bigger "we buy gold" establishments you see on the high street. They give a fair price, and I would rather give my business to them.