Spend Nowt, Buy Nowt, Owe Nowt

Hiddenidenity

Not an adult I know but we bought a humidifier for youngest for something else, but the difference in her breathing/eyes and throat in a morning is amazing!

XSpender

Just lost a massive post

XSpender

I have been feeling under the weather since yesterday evening so when I lost my big post this morning I went off and sulked

I woke up without a headache or rhinitis this morning and wonder if missing my usual 9pm decaff tea with milk, the antihistamine I had at 7pm or both helped. Or it might have been that my body was focussing its efforts on tummy pain to worry about head pain

Most unimpressed with the government shifting my retirement age back a year. :mad: DH, who is 5 months older than me will still get his at 67. For a couple whose retirement savings are pitiful it is one more thing to worry about.

DH has spent a tenner on a kebab last night (eugghhh) and lunch today as I was having a small lie in, as DS was at grandparents last night, and didn't get up and make his lunch.

I have used up some leftovers for my lunch and tried a new banana and coconut pancake recipe for brunch which was lovely.

I have attempted, unsuccessfully, to make some real changes to my diet over the last year or two and can never seem to sustain the changes. I am going to try a different approach and instead of changing all areas of my diet in one go and then falling off the wagon as soon as I have a stressful day or am away with work, I am going to focus on one or two changes each month before I attempt to make another change. I am hoping this will, over time, improve my energy levels and reduce or eliminate some of the minor health problems I have.

From now until the end of August I am going to:

Eat a healthy, grain and refined sugar free breakfast every day (I find this the easiest meal to get right when I take the time to eat it)
Drink a minimum of 1l of plain water every day
Eliminate crisps and other processed savoury snacks from my diet

DH wants to lose some weight and we eat crisps on a weekend mainly out of habit so I am just not going to buy any this week. The embarrassing thing is that this will probably knock about £7-8 off our shopping bill

I have added some categories to YNAB to split some of the bigger savings pots into smaller ones to give more achievable targets. I cant keep my sticky mitts of these pots and they keep being emptied to cover our monthly spending.

Plans for the rest of the week:

1) Pay for gym membership
2) Book DS sports camp for 2 days
3) Go for a run
4) Go to gym
5) Meal plan, check under budget, food shop
6) Boxes and cases in loft
7) Deep clean office
8) Make some grain free bread
9) Make some salt and vinegar almonds
10) Take DS swimming

It looks like the tent wont be getting an airing this week as the weather forecast is for rain for the next 10 days :eek:

XSpender

I feel like a new woman today and am definitely on the mend I might actually get some proper work done today

I made grain free pancakes yesterday so achieved my healthy breakfast goal but not the other 2.:o Currently eating porridge with blueberries so that's a tick for today too.

I had herbal tea last night instead of rooibos with milk and awoke with only a little congestion and no headache.

The gym has been paid for and DH is planning to go either Friday or Saturday (or both). I am going to book some classes for next week.

I MUST book DS sports club today or it goes up a £1/day. Hope there is spaces left! We have agreed he will go Friday for the next 2 days.

I am booking a kids and parents version of a Tough Mudder style obstacle race for the days between LEGOLAND and camping on our 2 week break. DH and I were talking about flying off on holiday today and agreed that although getting on a plane is exciting and you are full of anticipation of time in the sun we actually don't really enjoy beach/pool/resort holidays :rotfl: Should save us a fortune over the next few years

Family have agreed on Enchiladas for Saturday's family dinner (one of my favourites) which I only need to buy wraps and salad for if I can find passatta . I am going to try my best to come in under £50 for food this week.

XSpender

Some proper work has been done.

Supported a work colleague who was having a wobble.

DS sports camp booked/awaiting confirmation.

Made chocolate grain free granola and grain free rolls.

Made pizza for lunch using a toasted pitta and some bits from the fridge.

Found a big tub of veggie chilli that still hasn't defrosted so that's tomorrows tea sorted.

Chicken kiev, chips and peas for tea from the freezer (I'm trying to use up all the foods future me won't buy again).

Watched DS on his trampoline.

Achieved my healthy breakfast, no crisps targets and on my way to achieving my water target.

Sent contact form off scouts page to local group as no response to email.

I haven't spent any money.

YNAB updated with new CC balances and it isn't pretty.

Calculated what is needed to clear the parentals loan and BNPL by the end of the year. It may just be achievable and DH says it will certainly give us something to aim for.

XSpender

I can't believe DS has finished another year at school, it only seems 5 minutes since he started this year! He has had a great year and done really well

Sports camp has been confirmed so that will be £14 to add in to the budget. £7 for 5 hours childcare on each of the days, with DS being able to be active and run around, is a bargain

Spoke to my DM this morning and as DH is out a week on Saturday and Saturday night DS and I will go to Mum and Sep Dad's for a visit. I don't see enough of them as we live over an hour away and they have a more active social calendar than a couple of teenagers!

Food shop has been done across Aldi and Asda this morning and I am under budget £65 left until 3rd August which is doable. It would have been £80 but we succumbed to a takeaway which I promptly threw up 20 minutes after I ate it. Serves me right!

The weather is messing with my ability to dry the washing as, although breezy, we have been having showers on and off since yesterday and it is set to continue all weekend.

I DO NOT WANT TO USE THE TUMBLE DRYER :mad:

XSpender

Skinty McSkintFace today with a week to go until payday

The emergency fund has been used to pay for the annual gym membership and a new vacuum cleaner. The EF is there to cover items like the vacuum but not the gym.

Swerved buying a new bed yesterday. We need one but I can't justify adding to our debt at this time.

We have had some wins; the vaccum was half price, my birthday gift was half price in the sale (it was what I wanted it just happened to be half price ) and my other birthday gift we found in the 2nd hand shop (GOT on blue ray series 1-6) for £70 less than new on line It's not my birthday until next week and we are well under budget for it so may get a GF cake too

Another win was buying DH his beer for the weekend at Aldi on Friday as it has kept us out of a supermarket all weekend and neither of us has eaten any crisps. We did pop into M&S yesterday as we exchanged some trousers for DH and I wanted a bottle of GF pilsner but they didn't have any so no money was spent

The new vacuum is so powerful it lifts the carpet and is difficult to move along the floor. It will take some time to get used to and it is a cylinder rather than an upright but it makes the carpets look like they have been shampooed. Shows how ineffective my dyson was.

Oher spends this weekend were £10 on fast food, a large exercise book for DS to create a scrapbook of his summer holidays, bags for the vacuum and a bag of arrowroot to make grain free crackers.

Yesterday it rained heavily all day so DH and I did all the washing, dried it in the tumble dryer and between us ironed and put away all but one baskets worth which I will do when I get off here. Sod's law it's beautiful here this morning and I have just hung out the three towels that were in the washer with my childhood soft today that, after living in the garage at our old house for many years, needed freshening up before packing away in the loft again.

A couple of days ago I calculated that if I cut back our budget further (even when we are struggling to stick to it now ), used my H2 bonus, and somehow found another £500, we could pay off the loan to DH Mum & Dad 3 months 9 months early. I think I am kidding myself that we can do this.:( I have cut back significantly this year already but since DH changed his role at the end of the year and took on a failing department he has not earned a bonus and his travel costs have risen which effectively means we are down approximately £6000 this half year. He may start to earn bonus again later in the year as he has turned the performance of the department around but I can't take it into consideration when calculating our debt pay off.

We have a big, reasonably high rate mortgage that will need to be renewed when our fixed term ends next June. We had about £1500 debt when we took it out and I am concerned that we will struggle to get a decent rate with DH drop in income and an increase in debt.

It doesn't make for a very interesting diary but I believe we have some very basic tasks to achieve:

1) Reduce our debt each month, even if it is only by the minimum payments required
2) No spending on the CCs
3) Clear the BNPL (£300 balance) by December
4) Replace the EF (aiming for £300 by the end of the year, £500 stretch target)
5) Extra money to go towards completing work started in house (not new work), EF and savings pots including Christmas 2017 and a 2018 camping holiday in France
6) Complete the redecoration of hall, stairs and landing and painting of soffits

The only caveat to this is the flooring in the hall, landing and stairs and a new divan bed and mattress for us will probably go on credit. The draft through the hall floor boards is fierce and it's July, I hate to think what it would be like in November :eek:

The ultimate goal is for the amount of debt we owe on 31st December will be lower than the amount we owed on 4th May.

Plans for today:

* Finish the ironing when DH goes to the gym
* Change our bedding
* Vacuum the rest of the house
* Dust everywhere
* Make GF treats and crackers
* Make a chicken dinner and homemade roast potatoes
* Make a pudding using up some older apples to have with ice cream (crumble? Eve's pudding?)
* Long walk with the dog
* Sit in the garden and watch DS on his trampoline
* Start DS scrapbook
* Book a class for Tuesday and possibly Friday at the gym
* Haircut for DH and DS

muddywhitechicken

XSpender wrote: »

The new vacuum is so powerful it lifts the carpet and is difficult to move along the floor. It will take some time to get used to and it is a cylinder rather than an upright but it makes the carpets look like they have been shampooed. Shows how ineffective my dyson was.

Ditto - we've just replaced an upright Dyson with a cylinder Miele and the difference is amazing :T I :heart2: my new vacuum cleaner!

XSpender

MWC - Ours is a Miele too! DH says it is the Audi of the vacuum world :rotfl:

XSpender

First class at the gym tonight for 3 months :eek:

Found £3 at the weekend, £1 in a trolley and the other £2 lying about so I have put them in the piggy bank.

Another £70 to find by Monday for 6 weeks swimming lessons for DS. 2 of which he will miss as we are on holiday but I either take the hit or have to go back on the waiting list and do not want to lose the place after having to pull him out of lessons due to the cow of a teacher at the last place.

DS has been taken to a climbing wall today by DFIL as a surprise so will be buzzing when I speak to him later.

DH has found a job to apply for which he is perfect for and the salary is about double what he is getting now! I can't begin to imagine what that income would do to our DFD. OK, I can because I worked it out We would clear everything in under 2 years even saving for a holiday and continuing with the refurb. DH has never had a CV or a proper interview so even if he doesn't get it the practice will be great and his CV will be done. He knows he needs to start thinking about a new job as he is wasted where he is and also needs to increase his income at least back up to what it was.

I still have £55 left in the food budget which is a miracle. I might even come in on budget for just about the first time ever:)

I still haven't heard anything from the Scouts which is a little annoying as I am sure DS will love it if I can get him in.

DH and I cleared the laundry and ironing at the weekend which has tidied about 3 rooms. Just have DS room to tidy, the bathroom to clean and a little dusting to do and we are on top of the housework again (until the weekend ).

Lunch calls......