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Trying to do everything all at once!
Comments
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Okay, so, I've been away from MSE for a couple of days as I've been super busy. But its time for an update, so I don't fall too far off track.
Good news re leak: The leak is now fixed!We had to spend abit of the emergency fund money (around £20) for some drainage cleaner stuff, we left it over night, and Voila!! Everything is running smoothly again! Thank god. and we didn't have to spend a fortune.
Bad news re leak: The floor is ruined in the kitchen. We have vinyl flooring in the kitchen and it is damp now because of the leak. We were planning on getting the floor downstairs done with laminate flooring anyway, so it will just have to be done sooner rather than later. Its a good job we have an emergency fund now. It was sitting at £308, but because we aren't paying council tax this month or next month, it is now currently at £416 and by the end of the month will be at a total of £524, which is MORE than enough to buy the flooring we want and get it fitted. :j
ALSO.. because of the leak, our washing machine has broken. Grr. Just some rubber banding from the inside of the door has come off. We think its easily fixable, and can be put back. My OHs dad is such a good handyman, so hopefully he can do that soon.
Apart from that - its not been a spendy weekend at all! I didn't spend anything yesterday on my day out for my Aunties birthday. I also cancelled my gym membership at the beginning of February, and I thought they were going to take the last direct debit out this month, but they haven't, so that another £20.00 saved. Also, because of the snow, we haven't been food shopping. We did have a takeaway the night of the leak as all our appliances got covered in water, but we ordered from a local pizza business rather than dominoes, and went through TCB! The rest of the time we have been using what we have got in and just making do.
I did have to buy lunch for work today though - I used £5 from the food shopping budget which can be from the underspend last week - as I went away with my mum yesterday and left my bag in her car! So this morning when I went to make lunch - I didn't have anything to put it in.But that's only the second time since the 20th Feb that I've bought lunch at work, when it used to be everyday, and I actually HATE that I had to do it.
I really feel like mine and my OH attitudes have really changed. We are SO ready to be debt free!
TO - DO LIST
- Food shopping with list DONE
- Buy birthday car for Aunty and go to her house for half an hour DONE
- Pay car tax DONE
- Meal plan for the next few days DONE
- Tidy living room/bathroom/kitchen DONE ISH
- Put dry washing away NOT DONE
- Arrange to fix washing machine NOT DONE
- Go over account balances with OH for the rest of the month DONE
- Read at least three chapters of the book I'm currently reading NOT DONE
- Make dinner from stores DONE
- Prepare lunches for tomorrow DONE
- Change bed sheets DONE
- Have a nice looonngg bath DONE
Have a good Monday everyone!My CC - Feb 18 £849.69 July 18 £0.00
My OD - Feb 18 £1250.00 July 18 £1250.00
OH CC - Feb 18 £976.00 July 18 £1852.00
OH OD - Feb 18 £500.00 July 18 £0.00
TOTAL OD/CC DEBT: Feb 18 £3575.69 Mar 18 £3490.95Apr 18 £3257.78 July 18: £3102.00
OD/CC DEBT FREE DATE: DECEMBER 20180 -
Onebrokelady wrote: »This really brings home the importance of having an emergency fund,I would now always prioritise putting spare money in my emergency fund over paying off debt,a lot of the debt I have is because I;ve never had an emergency fund so anything unexpected ended up on the CC,I feel safer now I have my emergency fund
Completely agree! We are so lucky that we started saving for the EF this month! Even though it super small right now (£416), we actually feel so much safer knowing we have it there!My CC - Feb 18 £849.69 July 18 £0.00
My OD - Feb 18 £1250.00 July 18 £1250.00
OH CC - Feb 18 £976.00 July 18 £1852.00
OH OD - Feb 18 £500.00 July 18 £0.00
TOTAL OD/CC DEBT: Feb 18 £3575.69 Mar 18 £3490.95Apr 18 £3257.78 July 18: £3102.00
OD/CC DEBT FREE DATE: DECEMBER 20180 -
Fingers crossed you can get it sorted... Just remember these things happen in life and the point of emergency fund is that when they do we don't get further in debt... Frustrating but awesome you actually have that money to pay for it if needed!
Thanks JVR! Yes, we feel a lot more secure knowing we have that money there now. We are porbbaly going to have to spend it now to replace are damp kitchen floor, but I guess that is what it is there for. We will then focus on rebuilding it asap.My CC - Feb 18 £849.69 July 18 £0.00
My OD - Feb 18 £1250.00 July 18 £1250.00
OH CC - Feb 18 £976.00 July 18 £1852.00
OH OD - Feb 18 £500.00 July 18 £0.00
TOTAL OD/CC DEBT: Feb 18 £3575.69 Mar 18 £3490.95Apr 18 £3257.78 July 18: £3102.00
OD/CC DEBT FREE DATE: DECEMBER 20180 -
savingholmes wrote: »LiveLifeFull - just caught up on your diary. I always amazing me how unexpected bills come out of the woodwork when we try and get on top of our money... then I remember that we just whacked them on a credit card before and barely noticed them while now we are trying to be more careful and use cash we feel the pinch more.
It sounds like you are making great strides forward.
Your mobile phone bill on your soa seems quite high - is this something you could reduce?
Thanks SavingHolmes! I really do feel like we have finally screwed on our heads. I'm happy that I found this website now, while I'm still only 26, and I can nip this in the bud earlier on in my life!
Definitely! If we didn't have this small EF, we would have had to use the credit card, and we definitely would have, without question as it was for an emergency! :eek: Even though it was annoying that in our first month of trying to be good with our money, the money demon started laughing, we still felt quite pleased that we had that EF fund there!
Our phone bills are high! We have two iph0nes between us, and mine is up in Jan 2019, which I'll go to sim only, but my OH isn't until the end of 2019. To be fair, we are on them ALOT, including work. So we don't feel too bad about paying for a lot of usage, but when the time does come, we will change our payment plans! :AMy CC - Feb 18 £849.69 July 18 £0.00
My OD - Feb 18 £1250.00 July 18 £1250.00
OH CC - Feb 18 £976.00 July 18 £1852.00
OH OD - Feb 18 £500.00 July 18 £0.00
TOTAL OD/CC DEBT: Feb 18 £3575.69 Mar 18 £3490.95Apr 18 £3257.78 July 18: £3102.00
OD/CC DEBT FREE DATE: DECEMBER 20180 -
Morning! I'm only two weeks into this debt busting ride and I feel like I've come such a long way already.
Me and my OH have paid off debt this month, we've started an emergency fund, and we've been battling against the odds of Mothers day/birthdays/drainage leaks! I'm so proud of us
We went shopping last night for the next few days (we shop for about three/four days worth of food, as we were having too much waste when we shopped weekly) and we spent £29 in Ice!and. I usually shop at Ald! but I nip into Ice!and occasionally for the Slimming W0rld range. So we are right on track with our food budget for the month so far. :T
I have bought my own lunch to work again today - I'm am saving a fortune doing this honestly. I want to experiment with different lunches though, as I'm sick of yogurts, batches and fruit. Maybe some nice soups?
I also paid my car tax yesterday, with is £30.00 for the year - and that was all budgeted for. So that's done and dusted until next March. Andddd, we got a letter through the post saying that they are fitting Smart Metres in our area, so we are currently looking into the benefits of doing that if we decide to. Does anyone else have a smart metre? What are they exactly?
Only half way through the month and I can't wait until next pay day already so I can play with all my spread sheets I've got going on.
TO - DO List
- Make dinner from stores DONE
- Make lunch for work tomorrow DONE
- Put dry washing away NOT DONE
- Clean bathroom/living room/kitchen DONE ISH
- Sort out broken washing machine before we fall behind too much on washing NOT DONE
- Read at least SOMETHING of the book I've started NOT DONE
MEAL PLANS Tuesday - Saturday
- Slimming W0rld burgers and Veg
- Slimming W0rld Sausages and Mash with Veg
- Ham and Mushroom spicy Frittata with Side Salad
- Homemade Burger in a Bowl with Big Mac Sauce
- SpagBol/Chilli with a side of Veg
Happy Tuesday! :beer:My CC - Feb 18 £849.69 July 18 £0.00
My OD - Feb 18 £1250.00 July 18 £1250.00
OH CC - Feb 18 £976.00 July 18 £1852.00
OH OD - Feb 18 £500.00 July 18 £0.00
TOTAL OD/CC DEBT: Feb 18 £3575.69 Mar 18 £3490.95Apr 18 £3257.78 July 18: £3102.00
OD/CC DEBT FREE DATE: DECEMBER 20180 -
Quite a scary morning, my local hospital has had a major fire and the hospital has had to be evacuated. Apparently, there are no injuries though, thank god. I hope everything sorts itself out.
Me and the OH went to the cinema last night to see Red Sparrow. It was actually really good and I have a bit of a girl crush on Jennifer LawrenceWe pay £17.40 per month, as we go ALL the time, and it stops us from going other places where we would spend more money. We have earned our money back twice over on this. We spent £2.70 on a drink there, got a small, and it was all budgeted for in our "entertainment money" fund. So really happy with that. Before, we would have a got a large drink, two hotdogs or a popcorn
A bazillion pound just for the cinema :rotfl:
Took my lunch to work again today. Same old boring sandwich, fruit and yogurt. I need some nice and healthy soup recipes, filled with lots of veg. I have no idea what's nice or not, but I just have a big, fat craving for soup
Money is all accounted for in the bank, no unexpected purchases. We are being so good.
TO - DO LIST
- Keep on top of work DONE
- Tidy living room/kitchen/bathroom NOT DONE
- Put dry washing away (why cant I do this?) NOT DONE
- Read some of my book NOT DONE
- Make dinner from stores DONE
- Make lunch for tomorrow DONE
- Figure out what to do with the washing machine NOT DONE
Mid week :jMy CC - Feb 18 £849.69 July 18 £0.00
My OD - Feb 18 £1250.00 July 18 £1250.00
OH CC - Feb 18 £976.00 July 18 £1852.00
OH OD - Feb 18 £500.00 July 18 £0.00
TOTAL OD/CC DEBT: Feb 18 £3575.69 Mar 18 £3490.95Apr 18 £3257.78 July 18: £3102.00
OD/CC DEBT FREE DATE: DECEMBER 20180 -
Re your lunches..
Get a soup maker if you can afford one £50 approx but makes it so easy even my wife uses it.
She takes soup for her lunch at least 3 times a week
She takes a lot of wraps with hard boiled eggs or cheese.
I treat I make her is her Quorn sausage in a wrap..like a healthy sausage rollNo.79 save £12k in 2020. Total end May £11610
Annual target £240000 -
Re your lunches..
Get a soup maker if you can afford one £50 approx but makes it so easy even my wife uses it.
She takes soup for her lunch at least 3 times a week
She takes a lot of wraps with hard boiled eggs or cheese.
I treat I make her is her Quorndon sausage in a wrap..like a healthy sausage roll
Thanks Mnd! I'll see if I can find a cheap soup maker!My CC - Feb 18 £849.69 July 18 £0.00
My OD - Feb 18 £1250.00 July 18 £1250.00
OH CC - Feb 18 £976.00 July 18 £1852.00
OH OD - Feb 18 £500.00 July 18 £0.00
TOTAL OD/CC DEBT: Feb 18 £3575.69 Mar 18 £3490.95Apr 18 £3257.78 July 18: £3102.00
OD/CC DEBT FREE DATE: DECEMBER 20180 -
I know I definitely want to be debt free, with a substantial amount of savings before I even CONSIDER over paying the mortgage, but the over payment calculator is so addictive.
As soon as the opportunity presents itself to over pay, I will be. I know the feeling of being Debt Free will be AMAZING, so I can only imagine the feeling of being Mortgage Free.
At the moment, on my mortgage, if I over pay by only £16.00 per month, it would knock a year off our mortgage date. :j £16.00!!!! Its totally worth it!
Debt first though. Focus LiveLife.My CC - Feb 18 £849.69 July 18 £0.00
My OD - Feb 18 £1250.00 July 18 £1250.00
OH CC - Feb 18 £976.00 July 18 £1852.00
OH OD - Feb 18 £500.00 July 18 £0.00
TOTAL OD/CC DEBT: Feb 18 £3575.69 Mar 18 £3490.95Apr 18 £3257.78 July 18: £3102.00
OD/CC DEBT FREE DATE: DECEMBER 20180 -
My son takes home made soup in a flask every day. Current favourites are chicken and rice (good for using up leftover rice), chicken noodle and lentil. Basic recipe soften onion, celery and carrot (or any combination thereof) add chicken or vegetable stock (made with stock cubes is fine) and then throw in whatever you fancy (lentils, noodles, rice, broth mixture etc). Great for using up all those annoying tiny bits of left over chicken and a chilli added at the softening vegetable stage gives it a little bit of kick. Basically just experiment. It will save you a fortune rather than buying tins.Have adventures. laugh a lot and always be kind.0
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