A little home to call my own

JAMIEDODGER

A Frayed Knot - Nice to know that someone thinks my plan is not complete lunacy:D Glad to see you are not far from the end of your journey :beer:

Greying - Thanks for the links:) Much appreciated! I will have a [STRIKE]look[/STRIKE] binge later:D

Looks like the contract isn't going to go ahead, which is a shame, however not worried as there are plenty of other hours going:T

Felt like a very long day today, currently sitting with my feet up and a nice cuppa, contemplating cooking dinner shortly - chicken and ham pie:) Will probably spend the evening working on the meal plan and shopping list for the coming week and a bit of Netflix!

The end of the month goes so slowly when all you want to do is update the spreadsheets :rotfl:

JAMIEDODGER

Dinner was yum and used up all leftovers from yesterdays roast:) Curry is planned for tomorrow and I am halfway through working out the meal plan for the coming week :T

Purse has stayed shut today as had no need to spend any money so thats another NSD for me :j May have to buy some crisps for lunchboxes tomorrow, but I will see what I can dig out of the cupboards first, I may have half a bag of tortilla chips somewhere :rotfl:

An early night is planned as I had been up since 4.30am this morning (not unusual for me tbh) and I struggle to make it past 8.30pm on a school night:D

A few financial updates tomorrow and perhaps another Tilly Tidy will be in order:T

JD x

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Jamiedodger, lovely to see you Tilly tidying - it really helps :T

Best wishes, Tilly

JAMIEDODGER

Tilly - yes I think it does help:) You don't notice all those little amounts going out but they really add up over time!:T

I tidied 11p this morning:D

Finalised menu plan for the week ahead and have written the shopping list for thursday. It's not looking too bad atm, so should be a reasonably low spend. After all the effort put in during this month to spend as little as possible on food, I know I have come in under budget, but will declare tomorrow as I think I may have to pick a few bits up after work tonight to see us through until the big shop on Thursday, apparently we are nearly out of milk :eek: I like a store cupboard challenge in January as a very frugal month sets the pace for the whole year ahead:) It helps a lot when you pack your own lunch to take to work everyday:T

Looking ahead to February, it is a short month so should come under budget again for food, but I have three birthdays this month (one is the dog so just a new squeaky for her:)) No trips planned during Feb, although the BF is taking me out for Valentines day dinner :beer:

I may get the new tires sorted for the van if it looks like spends are quite low, but it's not urgent, would be nice to balance it with the higher spends I know are coming in March and April (Mot, servicing, and 3 kids birthdays :eek:)

As far as the house fund goes, I would really like to be able to push my £625 target up to £650 hopefully from ebay and Tilly Tidies, but we shall see:)

I have a week off over half term, but nothing much planned as yet. The dog needs a grooming which is already booked. I have mentioned to the kids about doing something, but the look of horror on their faces at having to disconnect from wifi may put paid to that idea :rotfl: So I guess the dog and I will be taking lots of walks instead I won't be complaining about the lack of spending :j

Today I shall be mainly working and sleeping:D

JD x

beanielou

:wave: I think I remember you from ages ago JAMIEDODGER.
Hope life is treating you well.
IF I remember rightly from your DFW diary I am sure you will succeeed in your pans

JAMIEDODGER

Beanielou - :wave: Yes I used to be on DFW a really long time ago. Haven't been very active on the forums for the last few years but hopefully now I have a plan I have a reason to stay:)

Last day of January (finally) and the totals are in :j

My total savings for January are : £1603.62 This is much more than I expected but mainly due to a combination of my store cupboard challenge and coming way under budget for January's groceries, 'brown bagging' it every single workday, plus sheer blunt refusal to open my purse for anything that wasn't absolutely needed :T

With regards to the groceries: My budget is £450 per month 1-31st. This is for basically five adults. It only includes food and nothing else. January's total spend was £386.92 This means I have come £63.08 underbudget for the month:j

Other expenses for the month (not including normal bills) were: £24.85 on personal spends (my favourite shampoo and vaping liquid to last the next few months), £14 on printer ink, £10 on an electrician friend to fix a socket in DD bedroom, £0.59 on gifts (a card), and £74.89 on annual home contents insurance (got £20 cashback to come too:)) and £1.49 on household supplies (some plastic hangers).

All in all a fab month, which I shall try to repeat again in Feb:D

Total savings for house fund now stands at a grand total of £1240.17 :T:j:D This is exactly 2.48% of the total needed:)

Finally ordered the Tesco delivery to come on Thursday (I now have the day off but have a 12hr shift booked in for Friday).

List now looks like this:

Complete pension transfer form
Plan stuff to do during half term (have a week off) - in progress
[STRIKE]Menu plan for thurs - weds using up as much as I can from cupboards[/STRIKE]
Order keyboard for DD
Fill in holiday form for work (thurs)
Find some stuff to ebay

As long as it gets done by Sunday night I'm all good:D

Last day at current contract today and now looking forward to my day off tomorrow:)

JD x

Ps. Forgot to say 2p Tilly Tidied this morning:D

Indebted2U

Well done Jamiedodger on the budget busting, you've given me real inspiration to see what else we can save on. :j

Oh and thank you also for the info on the IF ISA a couple of days ago. I've been looking into that too, is it the crowd2fund one you're looking at? I've no experience of crowdfunding but have enjoyed researching it over the last few days. The returns look impressive although of course the risk looks higher?

JAMIEDODGER

Indebted - Thanks very much. I find tracking every single penny, and having a budget keeps me in check. If I haven't money in the budget for something, it doesn't get bought.

The P2P platform that I use is called Funding Circle. They are not making their ISA's available to new customers yet, but I am hoping to have mine open before the new tax year starts. I have been very happy with the service since I started using it, but nothing is without risk and the interest rate more than makes up for the level of risk in my opinion:) HTH.

Unicorn_cottage

Hey Jamiedodger

I love your determination! Am looking forward to hearing your successes. I am yet to embark on this mission but I will do soon hopefully tomorrow but I am feeling a bit scared about sending the money over!

Wondering about your £50k total for buying a house and the areas it will be in. I know you mention Wales but any other areas you are considering? What do you want from an area etc?

JAMIEDODGER

Hey Unicorn Cottage (love the username:))

Not 100% sure of areas yet (a long way to go before I have to make a decision) however, I am thinking around Lancashire way, perhaps slightly further north than that or maybe south wales. When you start looking at properties it seems there are quite a few areas where there is potential to purchase cheaply!

I would like somewhere that has a good community, decent transport links, plenty going on, somewhere with a decent park or two for dog walking etc and an hour or so drive from good camping spots as it is something I love to do:D I wouldn't want to live in a city though :eek:

Other than that, I am open to suggestions:) I have lived on the south coast all my life and am a ten min walk from the beach, but I am really a country girl at heart:D

What is your aim? Purchase with mortgage, or save and buy cash?

JD x