Plan B to being mortgage free

ruby_eskimo

Congrats, I love a bit of a money shuffle!

BravingSaving

Me to! My first £1 is going to my LISA today - I think I should be getting some kind of commission I've got my DH and best friend to sign up for them as well   I logged onto swagbucks for the first time this year and had enough points to get £5 for paypal so that arrived today and got tucked away - I'm determined to make all the extra/saved money count this year moving it straightaway is the way forward. 

Today will not be a NSD as I'm going to the big Swedish furniture shop to get some bits that we've needed for a while - once there bought I can forget about them though and the house will be a bit tidier so it has to be done. I've added them to a shopping basket online so I'm prepared for how much it should cost - this is not normally the case and my heart always sinks when I see the figure 

ruby_eskimo

I think Moneybox were doing a £5 reward if you recommended people to open a LISA with them, not sure if they still have it anymore though otherwise you'd be rolling in it  

We're also planning a trip to the big swedish shop on Friday night, best of luck!

BravingSaving

I've just checked and can't see anything if only I'd pulled my finger out at the beginning of lock down - oh well, can't change it now better now than never! 

You too - there's so much temptation there!! 

try_harder

ruby_eskimo ..I think that is definitely one of the reasons ,everything seems to have skyrocketed compared to around three months ago

BravingSaving

Another mortgage payment has gone! The balance now is £102,437.95 Next month we should drop into the £101,000 this makes me so happy 

Food shopping is going well £144.29 out of £200 for the weeks in this month so far. The difference has paid for DD2's trip in October so it almost feels free

Had my first weigh in this morning and I've lost 2kg's (4lbs if you're like me and don't have a clue about kgs)

DH and I have treat ourselves a little this week to a gadget each so now I need to check the CC  we didn't have anythings for our birthdays or Christmas last year so I don't feel bad but I hate having any balance on the CC 

We won £3 on thunderball so I'll tuck that away to earn poor interest somewhere

All in all a pretty good week  

BravingSaving

The shopping budget has gone from being absolutely fine this week to just enough! The kids have been raiding the fruit bowl so this weeks shopping top included lots of new fruit (I feel bad for whinging about that  ). DD1 has decided she no longer wants to eat meat which isn't a problem but working our way through what she likes and doesn't like is pushing the food budget up.

The account I put the money in to save for yearly expenses (car insurances/haircuts etc) has gone from £300 to £60  Hopefully we can claw some money back in next weeks food shopping. 

I made the mistake of weighing in mid week and appear to gained back half of what I lost - still managing to stick to my daily calories though and have managed some exercise so I will persevere and hope its dropped by the weekend when its actually time to weigh in. 

longway2go

Your so close to being under 100k, keep going. 

BravingSaving

Thank you @longway2go I'm looking forward to seeing it drop below 100  

The food budget is out the window already this week - £98.31/£100 and we've still to do the mid week top up shop. On the other hand the freezer and cupboards are bulging so it should just be a milk and bread top up. I was having a moan and DH pointed out we've gone from feeding the 5 of us 2 meals a day at home 5 days a week, to 3 meals a day x 5 all week plus snacks so to be anywhere near the budget isn't that bad. We're all well fed so maxing the budget out really isn't that bad. I just wanted to be able to side some money and the food budget is the only place with any wriggle room. 

The weekend weigh in resulted in a maintain quite disappointed as I've stuck to my calories everyday. Fingers crossed for a better result this weekend. 

I've just cashed in a £25  voucher from my CC so I can buy some new bedsheets #rockandroll! but I'm pleased there essentially free 

I'm determined to get the house clean this week as well and hoping that'll help get my heart rate up and count towards some exercise on my new snazzy tracker 

ruby_eskimo

That's a very good point that your DH made regarding the food budget: ours hasn't been hit too hard by the WFH just that DH's lunch come out of the main budget now where as before he was buying his own lunch on the way to work each day.