ATB'S Frugal Foray to Freedom

atypicalblonde

Buy it now eBay sale today of £9.50, so I rounded up and OPd £10:D

Usual mortgage payment goes out tomorrow which will knock around £370 off the balance, I'm looking forward to recalculating our daily interest and seeing how much it has dropped by

I have spent a lot of time today cooking, planning meals and generally getting the fridge, freezer & cupboards in order. As February is a short month, I am setting myself a challenge of limiting food spends to £60. This is eminently doable, and I will be keeping track in my notebook of our spends to ensure we stick to budget!

atypicalblonde

no food spends to report
£999 OP made
NSD today
it's the weekend
all my eBay items have bids

Post edited to add:

Money shuffle done & accounts assessed for the month, and another £700 has been sent off to banish the mortgage

NS weekend ahead, I'm working one day & DH working the next so we will be like ships passing in the night. Meals have been planned, as have packed lunches, so no spending required.

atypicalblonde

Gosh this board is busy at the moment, it's lovely to see

Crazy busy day working yesterday, and DH is working today. I was on my feet for 12 hours yesterday so an easier day on the cards today. We will walk the dog, do some baking, make a Sunday dinner and then flop in front of a film I expect!

Mortgage online banking is being irritatingly slow to catch up with the payments I have made, so hopefully tomorrow everything will be up straight and we will know exactly what our balance is.

eBay items end this evening and I have bids of almost £42 so far have earmarked a few more bits to list tonight if I can be bothered!

Only £5.50 spent on food so far this month, and all meals are planned for the next week.

atypicalblonde

Afternoon all,

eBay items made a fab £65,which I will OP tomorrow :j I do have more to list, just need to galvanise myself to do so.

DH worked this morning, but since coming home he has taken over cooking Sunday dinner (slow roasted pork :drool:) and is now making butterfly buns with the children. I'm on the sofa in my PJs with the woodburner roaring

I have applied for a part time job doing some GCSE invigilating work at a local school; it would be ideal as it fits in with the school day and no requirement to work school hols. The money would come in handy for the OP pot, so fingers crossed.

Both DH and DD need to renew their passports, so I must crack on with that before the prices go up in March. If we can keep to the £60 food budget for Feb, the money we save can pay for the passports :money:

Oooh DH has just asked if I want him to make HM Yorkshire puds too - yes please!

greent

atypicalblonde wrote: »

Afternoon all,

eBay items made a fab £65,which I will OP tomorrow :j I do have more to list, just need to galvanise myself to do so.

DH worked this morning, but since coming home he has taken over cooking Sunday dinner (slow roasted pork :drool:) and is now making butterfly buns with the children. I'm on the sofa in my PJs with the woodburner roaring

I have applied for a part time job doing some GCSE invigilating work at a local school; it would be ideal as it fits in with the school day and no requirement to work school hols. The money would come in handy for the OP pot, so fingers crossed.

Both DH and DD need to renew their passports, so I must crack on with that before the prices go up in March. If we can keep to the £60 food budget for Feb, the money we save can pay for the passports :money:

Oooh DH has just asked if I want him to make HM Yorkshire puds too - yes please!

PJs/ woodburner/ DH cooking - sounds a perfect Sunday!

I invigilate at 2 schools - it works around the kids quite nicely. I also find there's a decent amount of work all (school) year round (although most obv in May/ June) with internal exams/ mocks/ maths challenges/ Y7 SATs/ other Y7 stuff - and 1 Sat morning a year (for a decent amount of money) to invigilate the 11+/ grammar school entry test I try and put all of the money into some sort of pot (was OP pot, then Florida Fund, then kitchen fund), rather than absorb it into everyday spending - it makes a difference then

xx

themadvix

I'd agree with Greent - I used to invigilate and one way and another there were only a couple of months with nothing happening. However, that was at a sixth form college, so the bank of casual staff (i.e. invigilators) got to do a wide variety of things - my favourite was collecting in the art coursework But good money, more or less year round. One thing to bear in mind is that you *have* to have your phone switched off in the exam room - this became a problem for me because of client needs, but just thought you might need to consider it in case of problems with the children (I'm sure it can be worked around, mind you!).

greent

themadvix wrote: »

I'd agree with Greent - I used to invigilate and one way and another there were only a couple of months with nothing happening. However, that was at a sixth form college, so the bank of casual staff (i.e. invigilators) got to do a wide variety of things - my favourite was collecting in the art coursework But good money, more or less year round. One thing to bear in mind is that you *have* to have your phone switched off in the exam room - this became a problem for me because of client needs, but just thought you might need to consider it in case of problems with the children (I'm sure it can be worked around, mind you!).

We can't have our phones with us in the exam room at either school I work at. However, I just give the children's schools a list of when I'm working/ where and the main contact no for one school/ the exams office for the other - haven't been contacted at all yet (phew!) - fingers crossed for going forward!

atypicalblonde

I have an interview :j

Jessy103

Good luck with the interview!

atypicalblonde

HAPPY 3 YEAR DIARY ANNIVERSARY TO ME :beer::beer::j

So then, what's changed? Well the mortgage balance obviously :rotfl:

Start balance three years ago today - £171,064.64. Balance today - £109,990. So that's a reduction of £61,074.64 in three years :T

This is great, we are very pleased with how we have done but there is still a long way to go. Our target of being MF in October 2020 is still very much the goal - rough plans below.

What else has changed? When I started my MF diary, I was in the grips of chronic PND. Nobody knew, and only now through an excellent counsellor am I able to realise just how much I was trying to put on a brave face, when all I wanted to do was run away. The MF journey gives me great focus, and has definitely helped me in many emotional ways.

So the balance targets are as follows:

- £105k by end of March 2018
- £90k by end of December 2018
- early part of 2019 - sell business premises and use approx £30k of equity to reduce mortgage. Assuming this works out, combined with usual regular OPing, target of £45k by June 2019
- £30k by end of 2019
- MF by October 2020

Obviously sale of business premises is a huge factor in achieving MF goal. Usual sources of OPs will continue to be used - eBay, grocery challenges, dividends from DH business. If I'm successful with the invigilator role all earnings from that would be OPd too.

Thanks to everyone who reads along, let's all keep on keeping on