£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 65: Day 1

Morning! Back home, and what a glorious bank holiday weekend it is. I hadn't realised how much I had missed the sun until it came back. Although need to find sun hats, shorts and sun cream for everyone - I'm sure we have them all packed up from last summer.

Nothing wildly exciting to report on the financial front. I think we spent fairly sensibly on the weekend - I spent £15 on food to take to a party and to our hosts, DH spent a tenner in the pub with the DH of my friend, but nothing else so far. We might pop to the beach for ice cream later if our food shop comes in under budget. On that subject, I am enjoying our fortnightly big menu plan/shopping events - not because it's saving us any money (it isn't), but because every other week I only need to do (or get DH to do) a tiny little fruit/veg/milk/bread type shop, which is so nice as it isn't such a massive chunk out of a day or evening, and with a schedule like ours that's really nice.

No further progress on the extension - design is all on hold until we get a definitive answer regarding a sewer behind our house. We need permission to build over it, and we're not sure what they're going to say about access points etc. So going through a slooooowwww process with the water company.

A nice long bank holiday to do list:
1. Check menu plan for the week and write shopping list.
2. Food shopping (might delegate to DH).
3. Plan work this week.
4. Clear emails.
5. Contract work.
6. Unpack and tidy away from the weekend.
7. Laundry x1,000,000
8. Find summer gear.
9. Make something for packed lunches this week.
10. Family meeting.
11. Make something to use up any leftover veg.

Mini goals:
- £15.95/30 May rounding down pot.
- £2,384.98/£5,000 2018 debt repayment goal.
- £28.37 daily earning goal.

Suffolk_lass

I know what you mean about the sun. I finally got DH to put up the rotary line (he has to do this after the last time we replaced the line as it is too tight for me) and at last, I got the sheets and towels out to dry in the fresh air. I slept so well last night in fresh sheets. Only just up in the last half hour and sitting here with a coffee. I love Bank Holiday Mondays, sitting around doing none of the things on my list for an hour, because I can!

Have a good one and enjoy the beach

Treadingonplaymobil

List progress...

A nice long bank holiday to do list:
1. Check menu plan for the week and write shopping list.
2. Food shopping (might delegate to DH).
3. Plan work this week.
4. Clear emails.
5. Contract work. Almost done.
6. Unpack and tidy away from the weekend.
7. Laundry x1,000,000
8. Find summer gear.
9. Make something for packed lunches this week.
10. Family meeting.
11. Make something to use up any leftover veg.
12. Make soup for the beach - we're going for dinner!

Mini goals:
- £15.95/30 May rounding down pot.
- £2,384.98/£5,000 2018 debt repayment goal.
- £28.37 daily earning goal.

Treadingonplaymobil

Also, I never did a May list! Here it is...

Home/Family
1. DH finish front fence
2. Re-paint bathroom tiles (hopefully only another year to limp through! They have already been painted once but are a bit gross again).
3. Buy a trailer for camping - keep checking ebay
4. Book another of the summer camping trips.
5. Check through the camping gear (maybe during an overnight away at the end of the month, where it doesn't matter if something isn't quite perfect) to see whether we need any new gear this year.
6. Try to unsubscribe from some of our junk mail - it seems to be increasing and is such a waste of resources.
7. Get a bit more ahead with packed lunch cooking - feel like I've slightly lost impetus with this.

Me
1. Plan, and stick to, a slower morning routine.
2. Include a full daily yoga practice in that morning routine.
3. Try to do a decent bit of walking/outside time every day.
4. Lose another kg (currently 70kg on the nose).
5. Keep up with a decent daily skincare routine - I am terrible for not cleansing my face properly in the evening and not actually using all the lovely lotions and potions loitering in my bathroom cabinet.
6. Buy some clothes once I hit 69kg.

Work
1. 10% growth on my main social media platform (311).
2. A new blog post on my website
3. Get ahead with contract work - at least one week ahead by the end of the month.
4. Focus on my key aim - of developing some passive income that allows me to move away from my current (not hugely enjoyable) main income source.

MSE
1. £30 minimum overpayment from rounding down YNAB pots.
2. List wooden marble run on ebay/gumtree.
3. Keep up with the daily earning goal to try to make some headway in the extension savings.
4. Get past the halfway mark (£2.5k) towards my debt repayment goal for the year.

wishingthemortgaheaway

TOPM. It could be that your junk email is increasing because everyone is asking you to opt in for GDPR purposes, you could ignore it until after 25th May and see how much stops then.

Plain_Jane

Hi TOPM been subscribed to your thread quite a while now but never posted. I just wanted to say you!!!8217;re amazing. Don!!!8217;t know how you fit it all in especially the cooking! I!!!8217;ve got a Barclaycard with a similar balance as you can see from my signature. I!!!8217;ve resolved to pay £300 per month so just over the minimum - feels like it!!!8217;s going to take forever with the other debts too.

Treadingonplaymobil

Glorious afternoon at the beach, just what the doctor ordered. We tried a new beach (there are so many near here) and it was a total pain to drive to - almost an hour because of the lanes, despite being not too many miles as the crow flies - but it was absolutely beautiful once we got there. Took soup in a thermos, bread and butter and some flapjacks for pudding, so didn't spend anything. We were talking about what we'd do with our £1m premium bonds win (because obviously we're going to win now I have £800 in premium bonds :rotfl: ) and I said I'd keep our house but buy a little flat or cottage with a sea view, that we could have as a holiday let but use ourselves too. I do so love being by the sea, but I'm so settled where we live now, and I'd hate to live so far away from transport networks full time. DH was down with that, so it's good to know we've got a plan for when we make our million .

During family meeting when we got back I told the DC there was £20 left in the family kitty from last week, and said I was putting £10 in the summer holiday pot, but asked what they wanted to do with the other £10 (I suggested extension savings or ipad savings, as we are saving towards a replacement for our ancient and temperamental 2nd generation ipad, but said they could choose any budget category to put it in), and they both said they wanted it to go into the extension savings pot, which I was quite impressed with. They are really enjoying seeing the number increase each week at family meeting - we write it down on a piece of A3 paper along with the chores to do list for the week and the amount left in the family kitty.

A busy week this week - contract work tomorrow, then working away Wed and Thu, which won't be hugely well paid but will be really enjoyable as it's with clients I get on with very well, then clients again on Saturday. Have already been paid for Saturday's work, but will be paid for Wed/Thu at the end of the month, which is always nice as it feels like free money when I get paid .

A nice long bank holiday to do list:
1. Check menu plan for the week and write shopping list.
2. Food shopping (might delegate to DH).
3. Plan work this week.
4. Clear emails.
5. Contract work.
6. Unpack and tidy away from the weekend.
7. Laundry x1,000,000
8. Find summer gear. Done, but not sorted yet.
9. Make something for packed lunches this week. Made a quiche base but got distracted and didn't do the filling! One for tomorrow.
10. Family meeting.
11. Make something to use up any leftover veg.
12. Make soup for the beach - we're going for dinner! Rather cunningly made veg soup with the aforementioned leftover veg.

Mini goals:
- £15.95/30 May rounding down pot.
- £2,384.98/£5,000 2018 debt repayment goal.
- £28.37 daily earning goal.

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 65: Day 2

Morning! One last moderately warm day today before the weather gives up again, according to the forecast. How can it be 10 degrees colder tomorrow than it was yesterday?! Ridiculous. Never mind, at least we enjoyed it while it lasted. Need to knuckle down today and get some work done, as well as some house stuff. Feeling quite energetic so hopefully won't struggle to get things done. My mum is coming later, so at least someone will clear the ironing. :T

The rounding down pot has been going great guns this month after a ton of teeny little rounding downs in both our joint and my business account. Another £3.09 sent to the Barclaycard this morning.

Three things to do today (I have more if I get these done!):
1. Pack order for smaller business.
2. Contract work for next week.
3. Quiche filling.

Mini goals:
- £19.04/30 May rounding down pot.
- £2,388.07/£5,000 2018 debt repayment goal.
- £28.21 daily earning goal.

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 65: Day 3

Another mild morning - so nice to finally genuinely not need the heating on in the morning. We had it on until so late this year. Spent a lovely afternoon in the garden in the sunshine yesterday, although the forecast is a bit bleurgh for today.

Going away for work this morning and won't be back until late tomorrow. It always throws the week totally when I do this, and the house ends up a little less pristine than I would like (understatement). Can't complain as the money, while not exciting, is a good solid bit of extra income at the end of the month.

Feeling really down about my weight this morning - I feel so blobby in my summer clothes. Really need to focus on it a bit and make proper time for a full yoga practice, as that always helps me make better food choices for the rest of the day - am going to go and practice as soon as I finish this post. My weight has been such a victim of this debt free journey - months of trying to cut the food budget meant less nice fruit and veg and no lovely big healthy salads in the summer, and it just crept on, for both DH and me. We are both struggling to lose it.

Little else to report. I have a client enquiry that I need to respond to before I go - client work has definitely started slowing down for summer, as it always does. I will probably only see 1-3 clients a month from now until September, which is frustrating but does allow me time to work on my own website and try to increase traffic to it. I do at least have my minimum work expenses plus salary for all of June, July and August covered, and about 20% of September's (that will be filled up at the end of the month, if not before, to keep me at three months' buffer). I need to focus on how much more positive the situation is than last year or the year before, rather than feeling annoyed that I am not making my millions.

Yesterday's list:
1. Pack order for smaller business.
2. Contract work for next week..
3. Quiche filling Didn't do this, but did freeze the base, and made oatcakes and rice crispie cakes for school cake sale.

Three things to do today
1. Make packed lunch to take with me to work today.
2. Pack for 2 days away (not that I'm doing everything last minute or anything...).
3. Make granola for the DCs breakfast either today or tomorrow (depending on whether it's made before they are up!).

Mini goals:
- £21.47/30 May rounding down pot.
- £2,388.07/£5,000 2018 debt repayment goal.
- £28.27 daily earning goal.

JoJoC

That rounding down pot is looking so healthy considering it's only 9th May! Wonder what your end of month figure will be this month?

Even looking at it as £30 p/m, that'll be an extra £360 over the course of the year and you'd have never said that you'd have that flexibility in your budget to achieve that sum. It's impressive!

Hope you managed to enjoy your yoga this morning - I'm heading to my yoga class at 8pm tonight. I've been neglecting it of late.