New year plus new decade equals, new diary

charhen19

Well everything payday related has been done so now to knuckle down and not spend/use up/clear out/ebay until next payday and next round of DD's which will be 1st Feb.

TT's done for the day and I'm up to date with everything else.

charhen19

TT’s done - it’s surprising how they add up you know. My mortgage interest is added daily and since I’ve been rounding down it’s come down by almost a pound a day. Doesn’t seem like a lot but will bring down my payment terms quite a lot if I can stick to it.

The freezer at home is reducing nicely - partly helped by the fact I haven’t found any good ys items for the last few days! Today and tomorrow for lunch I have home made chicken curry found in the freezer on jacket potatoes. For dinner tonight we’ll have garlic naan bread (from the freezer) with our dinner. OH will finish the chicken soup today and then we’ll assess where we are with regards to possibly defrosting the whole thing tonight/tomorrow.

I wasn't sure how the chicken soup would turn out as we just sort of chucked bits in and hoped for the best! However OH said it was really nice and would deffo do it again - now if only we could remember what exactly we put in it?!

charhen19

Busy day at work today! £1 to EF and £3 to furniture to even things up a bit - I like to put a little more to the furniture where possible as I want it gone asap plus I have to be really committed to paying the furniture balance off. If I pay it towards my EF I know that, worst comes to the worst, I could borrow it back if needs be. Once the furniture balance has gone it's gone and then my EF can grow that bit quicker - hopefully!

charhen19

This evening I was gifted a rolled and stuffed turkey breast joint. It was bought fresh on ys (half price) and then frozen and then gifted to me by a relative. It’s gone straight into our freezer and I’ll take it out Saturday night before bed and roast it Sunday evening. So we’re now on for defrosting the freezer Sunday! It says it serves 6-8 so will do us a big dinner each on Sunday, lunches Monday, sandwiches Tuesday and OH will turn the rest into a curry in the sc and then we’ll freeze that.

Lovely to receive something that will stretch so far for us!

charhen19

Friday again - hooray!! TT's done. Should be a quiet night in tonight binge watching the last series of our latest favourite before our free trial with Now TV runs out - at least it means we won't be spending anything!

Ys pork chops for dinner, ys pizza tomorrow night after sports club and ys turkey roast sunday so should be a very low spend, if not no spend, weekend.

Must crack on with clearing out too - I'm feeling a little under the weather today with a sniffle but there's nothing actually wrong with me so I need to keep focused, can't afford to have a day off!

As I'm paid up to end of Feb into my penny a day jar and my £1 a day jar I'm going to concentrate on my Furniture balance and EF until then I think. By end Feb I'd like the furniture to be down to £122 which will be 2 thirds of the balance paid off in 11 months (24 month plan). And the EF to be up to £200 which will be 1 fifth of my target of £1000.

Sounds easy - only £34 & £12 but this has to be squeezed out of a budget which is already squeezed very tightly! To be fair the furniture DD of £15.29 will come out automatically so we're looking for £18.71 and £12 - can it be done in 36 days?!

Eyebright

Just read your diary Charhen, you're doing really well! Soon have that furniture paid for at this rate!

Good luck with making your February targets, I'm sure you will smash it!:j

charhen19

Thanks eyebright - fingers crossed!

Another cupboard was cleaned/tidied before sports club today and I caved and spent £1 on a tea to keep my hands warm whilst I was out in the cold.

Quiet night in tonight as I’m still sniffly with a banging head but hope to be “up and at ‘em” bright and early tomorrow

charhen19

Well I wasn't exactly "up and at 'em" yesterday morning - woke up with my hand banging and nose streaming so I didn't mange to achieve much.

Kept up to date with laundry and tidying and cooked a mini Christmas dinner - leftovers for lunch today. Walked into town and back to see if the fresh air helped but just left me shattered so that was about it.

I did splurge £1 on what I thought were fancy biscuits by the packaging - they weren't and there were only 5 in the pack so totally not worth it and hopefully I've learnt my lesson not to bother doing that again.

charhen19

And so onto Monday!

I've punished myself for yesterday's biscuit mistake by paying £3.71off the furniture balance. It doesn't sit well with my love for whole pounds but once the DD of £15.29 comes out on 1st it will mean I have another £15 to find by the end of Feb to achieve my interim target of 2 thirds paid off by 29.02.20.

Leftover roast for lunch today and turkey curry from the slow cooker for dinner tonight - good job I really don't mind eating the same thing/meat for days in a row! I think OH gets a bit bored so I try to vary his lunches but it doesn't bother me at all!

I'll be tackling the dreaded cupboard under the kitchen sink over the next few days - too much to sort in just one session.

TT's done and now looking for £15 towards furniture and £12 towards EF - 33 days to go! I do like an interim target rather than looking at the long road ahead all the time. Sometimes it's good to focus on something short term.

charhen19

I've just been gifted a HUGE jar of pasta sauce from someone at work who says their husband didn't realise it had chilli in it when he bought it and has refused to eat it! It will do us at least 3 dinners so 6 portions - result! I'd never turn anything down so long as I know we'll use it.

I did offer her some money for it but she refused as I've donated her some baking products recently - sharing instead of throwing away is a great mindset to get into!