Taking it slowly, but doing it well.

wishingthemortgaheaway

Evening all,

As it's been so miserable today, Pickle and I haven't left the house, so it's a nsd.
Maybe I should just become a hermit and never go out so I don't need to spend??
I am going out tomorrow though, so don't worry.

Today I have: made and eaten Yorkshire Pie with Pickle and apple crumble and custard, meal planned the next few days to be minimal in terms of shopping requirements.

Put the fruit into soak for the Christmas cake (which I will do tomorrow or Monday)
Played with Pickle with his train set most of the day. & watched far too much tv.

But that tv watching g has included 'eat well for less' I love it in a totally voyeristic, 'I'm nothing like them' sort of way. I often can't believe what I'm watching, but do like the recipes you can pick up, some great ideas.
My main criticism though is they tend to get the products from a range of supermarkets. I don't work (at the moment) and even I find two supermarkets, with the help of the my supermarket app is the most I can manage. I wil sometimes visit a 3rd if there is a really good offer on something I want,
Most of the families spend as much in a week as I do in a month. It's eye opening. I would like to see the team tackle a family like many here on mse. That would really be an achievement.

I've also made some big strides in the tidying and de cluttering process. Kitchen is done, dining room is getting there. I just need people to buy the things I've put up for sale.

I did a money shuffle last night. I've filled up the mop pot with the money earmarked for the dbs. So target achieved £500 capital reduction this month. Woop woop. Anything else will now go into the rainy day fund.
I will need to pay £13 for the update service, but that can come from next month's budget now.

Things are looking good (at the moment, wait until the 10th of next month and see what I say then...)

I just need Pickle to go to sleep so I can do my evening jobs then prepare for not having an extra hour in bed tomorrow.

Have a good evening.

Update on day 28

MSE OCTOBER GOALS

Mop pot target 1) £72.38/£72.38✅
Mop pot target 2) £47.76/£47.76✅(I get to colour in another brick on my house now)
Mop pot target 3) £100/£100 ✅

Money for new sling: £40/£110


Survey/tasks/cashback: £33.62/£50 no change
£20 - shop along
£4.90 - Shopmium
£3.72- Qmee
£5. - Swagbucks

NSDs: 10/12 -

Wish

Silence101

I agree with the massive amounts spent on eat well for less. There was another program, (was it shop well for less?), which I felt was as infuriating too, because they both use fairly extreme, in my opinion, cases. They even tell you in the program "the average family of 4 spends x a week" but then chose a family who spends 5 times that. I always thought the advice of going one brand down useful, except that when we struggled financially we were already buying basics, so there wasn't much savings there. If they used an family who spent closer to the average they would probably help a lot more people.
I remember seeing a program with Jamie Oliver. The couple had lots of food waste and instead of showing them how to use the expensive stuff, like meat, in a more frugal way, he showed them how to freeze the herbs in oil. I mean, yes, it does save some of the waste but it wasn't the biggest issue the couple had, in my opinion.
I've had to stop watching those types of programs as I get too frustrated!

michelle09

The food sounds great.

I'm with you on the supermarkets. We use Asda most of the time, but have an Iceland a few minutes away on foot so I know what is cheaper of those two, but I really don't have time (or the petrol) to be travelling between supermarkets for the overall best deals. Might check out the program though, see if anything does stick.

pinkypig

Hiya Wish, hope you've had a good weekend. When do you start your new job?
Xx

wishingthemortgaheaway

Thankyou all for dropping by and commenting. I've watched 'shop well for less too' but I think it's stretching the franchise too much.

Pinky - I start work on the 8th November with a trip to the head office three hours away. Travel expenses will be paid though.

I didn't post yesterday as I was soooo tired after I'd led Sunday school, done the food shop (disaster, poorly planned& I didn't stick to the list, therefore over the 'my supermarket' estimate. And then friends round for food and gin in the evening.

Today has been a nsd, but also a disaster. My oven's died (whilst making the Christmas cake & my bake off final showstopper.) the thermostat or something must have gone as everything is burned to a cinder. So new oven needed. I've actually got £210 in a 'appliance repair' category, there's the emergency fund (£1200) and the ns&i investments, so I may!!! Get a new kitchen out of it too. We'll see.

If tomorrow is a nsd, I'll hit my target for the month, we'll see. It's childminder and nursery visits day tomorrow.

Update on day 30

MSE OCTOBER GOALS

Mop pot target 1) £72.38/£72.38✅
Mop pot target 2) £47.76/£47.76✅(I get to colour in another brick on my house now)
Mop pot target 3) £100/£100 ✅

Money for new sling: £40/£110


Survey/tasks/cashback: £35.02/£50 no change
£20 - shop along
£6.30 - Shopmium
£3.72- Qmee
£5. - Swagbucks

NSDs: 11/12 -

Wish

pinkypig

That's a b***er about your oven, your poor cakes:(
Well done you for having money put by for such events.
The 8th of November - how exciting :)

PP xx

wishingthemortgaheaway

Evening all. I'll do my 'today update' now and my monthly round up later.

But today has been a nsd - so I've hit my target. We have bought a new oven, but under my nsd rules, it doesn't count.
And I'll still have a nice, shiny new oven by the end of next week.

We've also been to visit childcare settings today. I think we've found one, just need to check her start/finish times as my brain is now mush.

It's bake off final night and we're hosting, but my showstopper got binned as it was in the oven when the oven died.
Never mind.

October is over, bring on November.

Update on day 31

MSE OCTOBER GOALS

Mop pot target 1) £72.38/£72.38✅
Mop pot target 2) £47.76/£47.76✅(I get to colour in another brick on my house now)
Mop pot target 3) £100/£100 ✅

Money for new sling: £40/£110


Survey/tasks/cashback: £35.02/£50 no change
£20 - shop along
£6.30 - Shopmium
£3.72- Qmee
£5. - Swagbucks

NSDs: 12/12 ✅

Wish

wishingthemortgaheaway

So, here we have October's round up.

MSE OCTOBER GOALS

Reduce mortgage capital by £475 (I think this is a mop pot of around £250)✅
(Details below)

Raise £110 for a new baby carrier ❌
Will carry this forward to November.

Cash out £50 from survey sites, mystery shopping and cash back etc ❌
I lost motivation here as PA doesn't like me anymore.

12 no spend days. ✅
Snuck in day 12 on the 31st of the month.


Earnings from surveys, mystery shopping, cash back & sales
Vouchers: £0
Cash: £35.02
Total: £35.02

The mortgage situation
Opening balance: £35,945.65
Interest added: £72.38
Standard payment: £297.89
Mop pot: £220.14
Closing Balance: £35,500
Difference £445.65

Savings pots
Emergency Fund: £1251.67 +£76.67
Annual Clean Fund: £70 -£50 we've paid for our cleaner to deep clean the house friends are moving into (private arrangement) that has been left in a right state- this is their house warming gift
Wool Fund: £19 -£18.00 (bought some needles & cases from a friend)

Household Expenses
Groceries: £194.45/£250
Household Goods: £60.58/£100
Spending Money: £102.28/£100
Restaurants: £61.09/£100
Stuff I'll forget: £20.00/£100
Fuel: £167/70

Generally I'm quite pleased with how October has gone. Really pleased with the reduction in grocery spends, hopefully I can keep it at the £200 level going forward. Spending money is slightly over, I want to look at that this month. Fuel is the massive overspend but I filled my car up before it was loaned to my friend, then I filled Huuby's car up for my 3 hour interview drive, London trip and running around this week. I'm hoping November will be a lot less. I have got the trip to the office for my new job but that should be a claimable expense so I'll work out the actual fuel cost and then put the wear & tear element of the expenses in a new YNAB pot to build up a buffer for hotels and train tickets that I will need to book in the coming months.


MSE NOVEMBER GOALS

Reduce mortgage capital by £500
I'll break this down properly when the interest has been added tomorrow, but the Mop pot will need to be around £275.

Sling fund to reach £110
(£40 already in the pot)

Make £30 from surveys, cashback etc
Reduced as I didn't hit October's target and I start work this month.

13 NSDs - increase of 1 from October as I hit my target.


I've been reading on a few diaries today which mentioned the 50% compulsory spends
30% discretionary spends
20% saving for the future.

I've had a look at this briefly and, for the bills we pay monthly it's 25% on compulsory things, if we add in what I save for annual bills, it comes to around 40%.
Our discretionary spending is bit higher, but all is ok.

newgirly

Congratulations on the new job

wishingthemortgaheaway

Morning all,

Thank you Newgirly, it's all starting to get real now.