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

wishingthemortgaheaway

I'm tired reading your list. Sleep well.

museumworker

wishingthemortgaheaway wrote: »

I'm tired reading your list. Sleep well.

Thanks wish! I’ve been wildly [STRIKE]unrealistic[/STRIKE] ambitious about my time again I feel :rotfl:.

Food shop done, Turkish and Mr L, came in at a hefty £110 :eek:. I think when I do it with OH and kids the list is heavily embellished, much easier to stick to plan on my own. But the kids really enjoy it - DS selecting own olive at the Turkish and DD2 getting veg at the supermarket. I would love for this shop to last two weeks, although we are entertaining v hungry house guests next weekend so that might not be possible . We also bought three LED strip lights for the kitchen, two of our three under counter lights had gone. At £30 for all three they were an unplanned spend but we now can avoid using the expensive overhead lights in the evening and they are 85% cheaper to run than our previous strip lights. Is lovely having soft lights in the kitchen again, although one still needs fixing to the cupboard as the fitting was botched and we need a cheap part to change it. Need to add a house maintenance budget for the year as we have quite a few plans.

The pink paint tester is on the wall too, the OH is not sure so we need to try another colour. Will ask on a local group to see if anyone has any spare to test, if not its another £4.50 to spend :mad: but as we lived with last colours for 10 years makes sense to get it right at the beginning.

DD2 fell asleep in the car so no shoe fitting, came back and watched The Little Mermaid together instead which was really nice.

Should also confess to buying an egg cooker for £10 , came from pocket money and planning to take it to work so can have something to eat even if forget to bring a packed lunch. Will be trialling it later on - making a picnic to take to Kew Gardens! Its a lovely place to visit in the winter, the kids love it, and we get in free with our work passes :j. It’s also free to park outside on a Sunday so only a few quid in petrol.

We’ve decided to see the new year in with a takeaway - I can eat quite a lot of things on my diet, and will use the money from a relly to pay for it. We literally never eat takeaway so this will be a real treat :j. Does mean my plans to get early nights are out the window - midnight last night and probably the same again tonight . Ah well, hopefully will make up for it Monday and Tuesday.

Diet is going well - a few lb off the scale already and more importantly my blood sugar is so much better, not getting ravenous or the shakes like I did before. Think I’ve found my new way of eating! I had carb flu yesterday but hoping to crash through it today and according to the book should feel FABULOUS! :rotfl: Just in time to start cycling to work - my travelcard runs out today :eek:. Giving myself a budget of £100 a month, and whatever I don’t spend will go into home improvements fund :j.

Back to reading my library book for half an hour, before getting DD2 dressed and starting the packed lunch.

Apologies for the long blether I should be back later with an end of year summary but if I’m not HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all :beer:.

MW x

museumworker

Grab a cuppa - this might take a while! :rotfl:

2017 has been a year of highs - and lows. It was the year that stretch turned to snap - and the main victim was my health . I reached a very dark place very quickly - although in hindsight I’d been ignoring the warning signs for quite sometime. However, with support from my OH and medication, I’m ending the year feeling much better and increasingly more resilient. I took the time to think about my needs and how I can make sure they are met.

Health
* See above
* I started practicing mindfulness again, if inconsistently
* I cycled to work and back for the first time!
* I started putting myself first - which was very uncomfortable to begin with, but now I am beginning to realise is imperative to my wellbeing
* I was feeling a bit down about this but now I realise I’ve dealt with a huge health challenge and made adjustments to avoid a recurrence. It had to be big and bad as I wasn’t listening to the small and subtle signs. I really feel the changes I’ve made are a great basis for long term health.

Work
* I got an excellent annual review, along with a small bonus
* I got onto a national personal development scheme, and have almost completed the programme
* I learnt more about myself and my values/strengths
* I managed to go to work albeit on reduced hours throughout my illness
* I successfully negotiated a move to three days a week
* I was given a major project with numerous challenges and a limited timescale and am making a success of it
* I really enjoy my job and am sure it’s the right place for me

Family
* DD1 was finally diagnosed with a hidden disability which has severe impact on her behaviour. I was surprised by how devastated I was. The upside is she now has medication which she finds helpful. I still have much to learn about this condition, but am beginning to understand her better
* DD1 had an amazing music exchange and got into a Saturday music conservatoire.
* After major difficulties in reception (the threat of exclusion hung over us for most of that year), DS settled in really well to Yr 1 and is really enjoying learning to read and write. He was also referred for assessment
* DD2 settled into her new nursery really well. It’s round the corner from home and has eliminated the stress of commuting with a non-compliant threenager

Extended family and friends
* I had to withdraw a little from life whilst I recovered. I learnt seeing a friend at least once a week is important to me but I can only really manage one evening out a week without the tiredness dragging me down

House
* We enjoyed our new garden for the first full year and beefed up the border
* I finished three KonMari categories - clothes, papers and books :j
* Had the badly fitted kitchen door and window replaced finally - for free by the original contractors :j! Our whole house is so much warmer now, we can really feel the difference this winter.

Holidays
* We enjoyed three foreign holidays - to Belgium, Sweden and Morocco. We also had four weekend breaks in the UK, and I had a solo holiday to Malaga. These were amazing and - at times - stressful. It was in Malaga I realised I wasn’t just exhausted, I was burned out. But we loved our relaxing break to Sweden and Morocco was an incredible experience. And we didn’t go into debt for our travels

Money (the bit you’ve been waiting for!)
* The turnaround in our finances has been one of the biggest successes of the year. We began the year with the motto that had seen us through 2016... “just chuck money at it”. That was totally necessary last year with a new full time job and two still at nursery but was ultimately unsustainable. We were overspending, eating into our savings buffer and wasting money left right and centre. Now our money motto is “make sure you enter it into YNAB” :rotfl: Let’s see what we’re saying by the end of next year, eh?

* We OPed just shy of £10k - until we realised we couldn’t afford it and were actually eating up our savings by doing so
* I discovered Financial Independence and listened to hundreds of hours of podcasts about it. I now know wayyy too much about the Roth IRA conversion ladder :rotfl: but more seriously, it has majorly changed the way I approach our finances. I now view overpaying the mortgage as just one way of reaching financial independence. I realised the biggest gain to be made on our finances was to make sure OH wasn’t paying almost half of part of his salary in tax and NI.
* As a result we have massively increased OH’s pension contributions from 2% to 44%, meaning all his take home pay is within the 20% tax bracket.
* We also won’t need to repay our ch!ld benefit in this tax year, saving nearly £2.3k a year
* Reducing outgoings: By changing broadband and energy suppliers, losing the rarely used gym membership, reducing our holiday costs and other tweaks - many mentioned below - we will now save hundreds a month on our outgoings. I can’t find my workings out with the exact figure but with further tweaks I think it works out £750pm a month!
* We can also accommodate the extra £187pm of DD1s music conservatoire fees
* We’ve saved up £1530 for OH’s travelcard
* We’ve saved up £2K for OH’s tax bill for last tax year
* We’ve spent nearly £4K on holidays (:o) but that has covered a lot for a family of five (see above) and all been paid for.
* Grocery highlights: Shopm!um, Check0utSmart, combining Mr W PY0 discount with offers and discount , meal planning, cookery course for £1 family meals. Getting closer to a £350 a month budget which might sound huge to some but is around £100-170 cheaper a month than what we were spending, and we’re eating a lot better
* Charity shopping: found time to do this again with reduced hours, and have a whole new work wardrobe that fits for an average of £4 a dress.
* Comping: only a few wins but worth around £400 and all much appreciated
* Deals: kept a closer eye on H0tUKDeals and made numerous savings - on Christmas presents, kids trainers, clothes, groceries. On one toy alone I saved £32, so whilst I can’t tot up the amount it will be hundreds.
* NUS card: became a student :rotfl: and have already saved more than the cost via my Amaz0n Prime discount alone.
* Extra earnings: I can recall about £250 worth off the top of my head, but there may be more I haven’t thought of. I’ve been focusing more on getting my house in order rather than overstretching for extra monies, but hopefully will be able to develop this further in 2018.
* Best money bit: starting this diary and having all the support from you wonderful people. Thanks everyone who reads, likes and posts, I really appreciate it. Knowing I have to be accountable and find interesting money things to post about really keeps me focused!

Happy new year everyone - may 2018 be happy, healthy and wealthy for us all!

VintageHistorian

That sounds like an exhausting year MW! I hope 2018 is a little more relaxed, and you and the MW family have a lovely year!

newgirly

Fabulous round up mw, all the best for 2018

themadvix

Great review MW, here's hoping 2018 is less exhausting!

wishingthemortgaheaway

Wow what a year MW.
I need to find somewhere in my bullet journal to record similar things. (Could do a spreadsheet, but loving the bulet journal too much)

museumworker

Thanks all! It was a hell of a year - but with lots of highlights and lessons learnt. And now I have a whole new one to play with! Still mulling over plans for 2018; I keep coming up with quite big resolutions, then having a stern word with myself about the dangers of over-committing.

A good first day to the year. Kids taken to great playground and cycling spot 15 minute drive from home. Packed lunch taken so free day out. We wrapped up warm and managed a couple of hours, kids loved it.

I butchered a lovely £16 leg of lamb yesterday, I stupidly didn’t read the recipe through and whilst the photo of ingredients showed a whole bit of lamb, the text said to cube it. Had I realised that I would have bought much cheaper cubed lamb, and would have saved about £5-6 :mad:. It was tasty but lesson learnt to read the Jamie 5 ingredients book a bit more closely before writing the shopping list (which surely defeats the point of a quick and easy cookbook, but hey ho). I did roast the bones too and make a lamb broth, so at least that’s not wasted.

Registered DD2 for school and filled out paperwork for family course around DD1s condition. Just need to scan and attach proof of address and DOB to the former and make sure OH speaks to the latter.

Planning to track my savings daily as motivation.

Savings: 20p off a jar of pickled onions in the local shop, needed for a recipe. Nothing spent on a day out as went somewhere freee and no food or hot drinks bought as took our own (£2.50, price of hot drink). Total: £2.70

A no unplanned spendings day!

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

Very best wishes for 2018 and I hope it is calm and peaceful, but of course with lots of fun!

pinkypig

Happy New Year MW

I loved reading your 2017 round up, you've achieved so much in tricky circumstances. What a great way of celebrating success and highlighting next steps. I'm going to have a go too!

All the very best to you and yours. I hope 2018 brings you happiness and a reduced mortgage :beer: xx