The mindful MFW: A healthy, happy journey to a mortgage free life!

pinkypig

Hi MW, shame about Denmark but sounds like sensible decision.
Awesome September planning - makes my 'back of a fag packet' goals look a bit sad :rotfl:

Will be cheering you on:)

PP x

museumworker

Thanks Ella, Wish and PP, the planning really helps me to get to grips with our finances and curb any impulse buys! OH and I both have 'pocket money' too so we can still go for a drink or meal with friends but that is a personal rather than house spend.

I went through the budget with OH last night, I missed off petrol, we'll pay oir car parking for Oct holiday this month and he also wanted the money we are due to not be counted incase there is a delay in reimbursing. With a few more jiggles we are now overspending by £200 :eek:!

Will repost budget when internet working, we've just this morning switched to BT :j!

I will chase ch!ld benefit backpayment today, and sign up to make £10 a day challenge.

Have childcare for DS sorted Mon/Tues next week thanks to MIL. Then he's back to schokl. Paying train fare but cancelled babysitter so all evens out.

Made OP of £90.47 thanks to TCB and the small rounding up we do of the mortgage amount each month.

Mortgage balance now £95,058.66

museumworker

Child benefit claim takes up to 5 weeks so not allowed to call about it until Weds next week.

Dripping taps and toilets fixed free of charge thanks to Thames Water today! If you get a call asking to do a free home visit definitely worth agreeing to.

Realise I've been in the 95xxx's for 2 months now due to lack of overpayments. Good news is our standard mortgage payment will take us down to the 94xxx's in 4 days. Feeling very impatient BUT know that the financial changes we've made will take a little while to come to fruition. We worked out that hopefully come April we can OP / start investing between £500-£1000 per month, even with the increased pension contributions. That is if we continue to make savings and cope with the reduced income.

Can only find 7 stamps for Waterst0nes and I KNOW I had more than 10! Have even pulled the bags we had stashed under the loft out and rummaged through. These were the last odds and sods laying around before houseswap. I am now making it my September mission to sort through them and get them put away or given away.

pinkypig

Hi MW, I registered with Shopium today - thanks for the tip. I used your code and got my free cornettos and low sugar granola. They email to say my payments were being processed . Enjoy your referral vouchers!
Have a lovely weekend.

themadvix

Me too re Shopmium and collected my cornettos and some baby food for my niece (have given mum and sis my referral code so hopefully we can all benefit). It seemed very simple, so thanks for putting me onto it!

museumworker

Thanks PP and themadvix, you're very welcome. I found them to be quick payers and its such an easy app to use, definitely worth checking when you're in the shop to see if there's any freebies to add to your basket.

Had a nice afternoon out at small historic house we've not been to before. DS didn't like the house so much but everyone loved the garden, especially the 'roly roly' hill as DD2 called it! We can claim the entrance back too.

Did a shop of sandwich items for the week, milk, snacks etc. Found £25 Mr T giftcard had won last year and used that, so the £16odd didn't come off our budget plus got £1 brand guarantee and £1.70 claimed in cashback.

Went out to local new (ish) pizza place / pub with OH, whilst MIL babysat. Came about £1.60ish under our £40 budget and was lovely to have a few hours talking without interruption! We have a lot on our plates at the moment and with school about to restart was good to talk tactics to make sure kids get off to best start they can.

Today we'll take kids and MIL to another museum we can claim back, and find a playground too. Will take a packed lunch and use our travelcards rather than car, saving on petrol.

Oh - one unplanned purchase to report. DD1 really wants a Kanken backpack for her birthday Next month. Urb@n 0utfitters have a SALEONSALE discount which means they went from £75 full price to £48 reduced, so I nabbed one for her. She'll be over the moon, she's always trying to 'borrow' mine. They are really sturdy and suprisingly comfortable, I (ab)use mine daily and is still going strong. Will have to work out which pot will pay that from though as we already had an overspend :eek:!

museumworker

Had a lovely few hours at the museum, MIL loved it and there were lots of free activities for children they really got stuck into. £15 spent on entrance and we will claim that back. Took them to a nearby playground after too, had a packed lunch and snacks with us so we had plenty to keep everyone fed.

We did however have some unbudgeted spends:
Hot drinks £7.40
Haircut DD1 £18 (which she didn't even have in the end!)

Wondering if I can start making some flasks of hot drinks to keep us from spending when out. Will check cupboards and see what we have already, otherwise will use some @mazon vouchers I've earnt to pick a few up.

Needed milk, bread, jam and fruit(getting through a loaf a day at the minute!) so went via mr W and got some yellow sticker bargains, pyo offers, discount plus used Green J!nn for the first time. End result was £25 worth of shopping for £12.96 plus free coffee and newspaper . Green J!nn have already approved cashback so it seems quick and easy and we can combine with other offers/discounts. They only do Mr W and Mr S but focus on healthier products, including own brand fruit and veg. Offers last Mon-Sun so will check in again tomorrow and plan next shop around that.

Also popped into mr T to use payqw!q for a £1 pint of milk, to get the extra 100 points (worth £3 off the chunnel for our next house swap!) I need to do this 4 more weeks and OH 5 more weeks before end of Oct to get the maximum of £30 in deals off the chunnel between us both.

So total food spend in Sep is £28.96/£250, am quite confident we can meet budget. Tonight we had ys beef from freezer made into stirfry with ginger, soy and five spice and a packet of ready noodles as well as some veg near its sell by date, and it was very tasty! We could have got away with half the beef so will use one instead of two packs next time.

Need to find some recipes to use up sunflower and sesame seeds about to go out of date, plus I have 700g of chia seeds need to finish up! :rotfl:

Washload done and hung on rack :A

Kids happily splashing in the bath, looking forward to cuddles, stories and then an early night

themadvix

Wish I'd taken a flask when we went out yesterday - I resisted buying a drink, but can see why you didn't - it was cold!!

museumworker

The weather's definitely on the turn, themadvix! We also appear to have mislaid the OH's v expensive waterproof jacket :eek:.

Oh dear, I'm not in a great mood today! Drained and snappy, sorry to everyone whose path I cross.

£8.86 shop at Mr W yesterday (me) and £2.78 Mr T (OH). He used his payqu!k for his first bonus 100 points which *almost* makes up for fact he bought things I already had (and not as good value!)

Great deal on at Mr W, last day today. 1/3 off 25 Ec0ver dishwasher tablets, plus an extra 20% off if you make it one of your picks, plus £1.15 back from Green J!nn. I also get discount on top so it cost me 97p

Again, got an over £20 shop for less than half price, plus free coffee and paper, am loving PYO/Green J!nn!

Aside from that, DS term time care has come out the account and it was £20 over forecast at £270.

Remembered my packed lunch today, including snacks (unlike yesterday, but got a soup for less than £1 instead, included in groceries above).

Think I might need my free Mr W coffee today...

And will post again when in better frame of mind.

MW x

museumworker

Just a quick check in to say all ok, just busy at work and very tired this week so trying to get some early nights to help pace myself.

Have done 3 days of headspace this week so far makes such a difference, like a cold shower for my brain! And hitting 15-17k steps a day, lots of walking with listening to money podcasts.

Trying to make yoghurt in slow cooker from ys milk... But not really following a recipe properly so fingers crossed!

Need to add some mini-shops to the grocery budget but apart from that am sticking to HM lunches for me, DD1 and OH, and no unexpected spending. Even had a NSD yesterday!

Have drafted my application for flexible working and hoping to submit by the end of the week.

DS and DD1 back at school and first full days seem to have gone well, which is a good start.

£5 am@zon voucher come through for completed online survey, plus £11.72 in stamps for postal survey.

Ooh, and just remembered out for dinner tonight. Voucher paid for months ago, and my friend owes me money for hers. It's a peruvian I've heard lots of food things about so looking forward to it!

To do:
* chase ch!ld benefit
* buy greetings cards
* order cycle helmet
* pick up parcel
* log into mail survey and do training
* reply to email re: museum visits
* claim £4.85 from Green J!nn
* decline wedding invite
* print out dinner vouchers