One income family of four - can we get ahead even after pay cuts?

Bluegreen143

Aw thanks both of you! I’m excited to join in and you should defo have a read of the thread cos I nicked quite a few of the ideas! I think after the year we’ve all had it feels really good to set some positive intentions and goals for next year 🙂

Red and I are going to make a wee competition of the losing 21lb goal as he wants to lose about this much too. So we are going to race to lose 7lb and the winner gets a whole weekend of lie ins and to choose dinner 🙌🏼 And the same at 14lb and 21lb. He thinks he will manage to win no bother but he is constantly swigging cola and beer and barely touches fruit & veg so I’m in with a good chance I think 😆

joedenise

Have to say that men do tend to lose weight easier than women!  My DH and I eat all the same meals and for me snacks are mainly fruit; DH on the other hand eats biscuits, chocolate, drinks beer etc and he always loses more weight than me!  I'm lucky if I lose half a pound or a pound; he on the other hand loses 2 or 3lbs - so unfair!  But good luck to you losing what  you want to next year.

Bluegreen143

Bluegreen143 said:

Goals 

• lose 21lb
• 21 digital detox days
• earn £2,021 on the side 
• 21 social events (including zoom)
• 21 date nights (most likely at home)
• 21 marriage meetings 
• 21 big arts or craft projects with the kids 
• 21 fun family adventures 
• read 21 non fiction books
• read 21 fiction books
• do 21 creative projects 
• save £50x21 in E fund
• donate to food bank 21 times 

Habits 

• 21 home workouts or yoga sessions a month 
• 21 early nights a month (before 11) 
• declutter 21 things a fortnight
• 21 NSDs a month 
• wait 21 days before making impulse purchases 
• 21 hours outdoors every fortnight for the kids 
• work in the garden 21 days a month 
• do Gaelic learning 21 days a month 

A couple of wee changes to the resolutions. I’ll try to check in with these weekly on the challenge thread but will update on here too.

Bluegreen143

Well it’s the night before payday here so our financial 2021 begins tomorrow.

As a quick round up, I’ve ended this year with no credit card debt from Christmas (and we’ve paid the car insurance for the year tonight). No debt except student loan (roughly £10k) and mortgage (£115k).

Assets - £25 cash, £22 in the emergency fund and £100 between both help to save accounts. So not a lot - but no debt!

This year I paid back £1,250 to MIL too (which could have been savings - so hopefully next year we will end with some!).

If I hadn’t started this diary I suspect we’d still owe MIL and have a big pile of credit card debt to start the new year 😆

Bluegreen143

Happy new year all!

Payday was yesterday so all the budgeting for the year begins. 

Spent:

£44 on petrol 
£2 Red spent on food at the mini tesco
£73 in Lidl - £65 food, £2.50 buying two craft beers for Red (I treated him) and £5.50 on various household bits like cat litter

Aiming to have a very low spend month in Jan and put any “wants” on a 21 day impulse list to get later on.

I do have a £50 Amazon voucher but I’d like to save this towards getting a cheap/refurbished laptop as discussed earlier. 

Have squirrelled away the £150 for both help to save accounts and my lifetime ISA. All budget categories are filled for the month so whatever we get from UC can go into the emergency fund which is empty currently as I’ve used the remains that was in it towards the road tax. Aiming to save £50 21 times (eg £1,050 over the year) so hoping for at least the first £50 this month.

Other goals 
- decluttering this fortnight 2/21
- aiming for my first NSD of the month today 
- will try to do some reading and get outside with the kids 
- Red and I are weighing ourselves tomorrow morning and starting the healthy living from then!

Mealplan for today 
B - kids had weetabix & banana, when Red gets up I think we will have sausage sandwiches
L - will give the kids leftover sausages, beans, toast and salad veg
S - hummus, veg dippers, fruit 
D - beef & mushroom pie, vegetables 

joedenise

Happy New Year to you and your family.

Good luck with the healthy eating and losing weight.  I'm sure you'll be able to do it.

Baileys_Babe

@Bluegreen143 Happy New Year to you are your family.
Wishing you every success with your challenges and that you all stay healthy and safe.

mumof3.12kindebt

Happy.new year lovely 

I'm going to subscribe looking forward forward watching your journey unfold this year good luck 

Bluegreen143

Aw lovely to “see” you here @mumof3.12kindebt.

Had a really nice day today as the first of the year.

- Went out on a family walk round the river and children’s wood.
- Red set up the fire pit when we got back and we spent some time sitting out in the garden.
- Had a lovely beef & mushroom pie for dinner.

One of my goals is to try to get the kids outdoors for 21 hours a fortnight (averaging 90 minutes a day). Our walk was 90 minutes so that took care of today and then we spent a further 90 minutes in the garden... well Bambi came in sooner as she was cold, but as long as one of the kids is out I’ll count it. So that’s me at 3/21 so far this fortnight.

Other goals I’ve made progress on - had a NSD, decluttered a couple of broken Christmas decorations, read a bit of my book and did some knitting.

Tomorrow I’ll begin the healthy living challenge - we’ll weigh ourselves in the morning.

Bluegreen143

Hope everyone’s had a lovely second day of 2021. We’ve had a nice day - took down and put away all the Christmas decorations, sawed up the tree (will use longer sticks as stakes for peas in the garden and the rest dry and add to garden fires as it smells lovely). We all worked together to clean out and hoover the car - must admit I rarely do this and the footwells are always a sea of discarded kids clothing, toys, face masks and other bits and bobs. Then we went for a walk at the canal and a local marshland/nature reserve.

Goals & habits 
- Paid Monkey his pocket money so not a NSD! (He then used it along with some left from last week to pay for a paw patrol movie on Amazon Prime 😂 at least it’s not more toy clutter!)
- Finished book #1 (Troy by Stephen Fry) 
- Between 1.5-2 hours outdoors today, will call it 1.5 so that’s 4.5/21 this fortnight
- Weighed myself (starting weight 11st 3.75lb eeek!) and didn’t snack today. Red has been taking it seriously and not snacked either so I may have a tough competition 😬
- Did some knitting, hoping to finish my first of 21 creative projects shortly 

Meals 
B - kids had an omelette, toast and raw peppers but neither touched their egg, Red frugally made it into a sandwich for him instead bless him. And I had some leftover beef pie from last night as didn’t want to waste it 😂

L - tuna & sweetcorn pasta with fruit 

S - kids had very indulgent milky hot chocolates & marshmallows with a fruit/veg plate. I had jasmine tea with my fruit and veg 😭

D - made a tomatoey sausage, bean & veg stew to serve with rice