Time to get my house in order!

Grogged

You've made great progress of your mortgage and by being CC free.
More importantly though is the positive impact it's had on both your lives.
That is the base your building from, one of positivity and happiness.
ATB, G

MovingForwards

What a change and being DF is a weight off your shoulders, congratulations!
Enjoy your weekend.

Thick_n_Thin

Thanks both.
Had a bit of a leisurely day yesterday until I decided to move the bed to hoover underneath, this meant OH had to come and take the headboard off for me and then we decided to move the chest of drawers and when we moved them back into place the bottom 2 drawers wouldn’t slot back into place, the bottom plinth had unslotted itself in transit and had to be screwed back together, I’ve never been more sorry I started a job, meant to take 10mins ended up taking 2 hours! 

Full English breakfast today which should keep us going till tea. I’ve decided to forgo the Easter Sunday roast and I’m making chilli ribs, rice, fries and saled.  Need to get into the garden today I think and get the beds cut back and the pots refreshed, really need to get the power washer out soon and give everything a good clean and the decking could do with staining again.

MovingForwards

How frustrating for you. Enjoy the garden, lovely weather for it.

Thick_n_Thin

Didn’t get into the garden  yesterday went for a nice walk instead then a nice dinner and a film. Received a nice bottle of pink gin from my mum and dad in place of an Easter egg. It was a no spend day as well. Spent an hour or so re-reading an old diary of mine on debt free diaries from 2018-2020 and I am aghast at my spending habits, going round and round in circles building my overdraft up, paying it off only to build it up again. My day to day money management was shockingly bad and it’s only now that I can see it. I think lockdown and my change of circumstances has 100% contributed to me being able to manage my money now, we earn aprox £1k less a month now but we have been able to cut unnecessary expenses in line with this. I think my job at the time was a big factor in my unhappiness which was leading me to miss manage my finances. Onwards and upwards. 

Today will be a typical bank holiday... rest and relaxation and food.... not planning on spending any money so another bonus! 

MovingForwards

All it needed was a change to see where things needed to be altered, that's happened and now you can focus on the new you. 

Enjoy your gin!

Thick_n_Thin

So this week has flew by, not used to having bank holidays off as an extra, in my past life they have always been a working day so has been lovely this week just working 4 days then having my weekend off. Pretty uneventful money wise, no spend days pretty much every day whilst in work as I’m not surrounded by temptation and also I have to take lunch with me as there’s not much else on offer which is good for my purse, need to be a bit more inventive though as salad every day is a bit monotonous now. I’m going to spend some time today putting together a proper meal plan for the next 7 days and I think I’ll try and introduce some new evening meals from my pinch of nom cookery book. Will plan out our next month’s budget as well as pay day is next week. 

MovingForwards

Things like falafel pita and salad, soup, fruit salad, a rice based meal etc work well for lunches, it's during winter I find lunches are awkward. A lot depends on break size and facilities, if there's a microwave even taking leftovers works.

I'm sure you will plan some varied meals.

Thick_n_Thin

So almost another month has flown by since my last update, another £200 overpayment to the mortgage last month so when my usual monthly payment is taken today and the account balance updates we will be in the 52’s. Not long now until we are in the 40’s. I’m still in control of my day to day spending and I’m building up my little pots again for things like car insurance/ utilities ect. I think it helps now that my gas/electricity is paid monthly and is averaging around £100 per month so rather than saving this money monthly and having temptation there to dip into it’s already gone when the bill is paid. Grocery shopping continues to be my main challenge and a constant struggle to keep within the budget I set myself but I will continue to focus on this each week.

Thick_n_Thin

What is going on with this weather??? Last week I got all the garden furniture back out and in place,  yesterday it was all packed away again. Woke up at 5.30am to the sound of very heavy rain and hail and now everywhere is covered in a thin veil of white sleet!! 

Plans for today, heading to work shortly so apart from some bus fare will be a no spend day. I need to reconcile my bank account with my budget later as a few dd’s have come out. Ebay has had a little flurry of activity over the last few days with 3 things that have been listed for ages finally selling, nothing major but has bought in around £15 after fees and postage so I’ve moved this to one of my savings pots.  Next payday I’m thinking of starting another saving pot for bits and bobs. There are a few things for the house that I want to buy and normally stuff that I would just get whilst I’m out and about but it would end up pushing me into overdraft territory so I really need a miscellaneous category. I want to buy the following,
a new set of pans 
a heated clothes drier
a new set of bathroom towels 
a slow cooker 
a new duvet 
a new set of bedding.
there are also 2 bedrooms that are in urgent need of re-decorating so I may need to reduce the mortgage overpayment next month to account for this as well.