Plan B to being mortgage free

BravingSaving

@ruby_eskimo it is and I would never have considered it - we've got much better with regards to DH's lunch he's taken it from home for the last month or so. Who'd have thought it just takes a little bit of planning/making sure you have food in to take?! 

ruby_eskimo

@BravingSaving don't even get me started.  He likes to have a bottle of flavoured water each day which he gets from the Tesco Express near his office.  I've bought him the same from our supermarket but its not the same apparently so went and bought it from Tesco for him and he didn't drink it With his food for lunch he just likes to grab something different each day depending on how he's feeling so as long as it comes out of his "fun" money, I'm not going to complain too much.  Saying all that though, he's eaten the same cheese or corned beef sandwiches for lunch every day since March so I have no idea what's going on

BravingSaving

     DH is only happy to take lunches because it saves him so much time - I think its a habit isn't it when you get use to being able to have whatever you fancy you just do it but when you've to make it yourself its suddenly too much effort and requires too many ingredients at home. When we did the end of year accounts the other year we'd spent so much on just feeding ourselves but letting the business pay for it it was sobering. We've said we'll have either a monthly lunch out or a treat on a Friday so we're still getting something but have more to spend on either fun stuff/clearing the mortgage/topping up pensions. Finding the balance seems to be the hardest bit

BravingSaving

A fairly quiet week, the food budget went over last week but only by £9 and considering how much the kids are eating at the moment it could have been much higher! And overall we're still under budget.

Opened an NS&I direct saver account as DH received some unexpected money and while we decide what to do with it we thought its best to tuck it away and get what interest we can on it. 

Had a decent weight loss this week1.7kg which makes up for last week only another 16.7kg to go! 

I'm counting down the days till the end of the month when I can request a refund for a spa break that didn't happen £200 to come back so that will nicely boost my savings until I'm able to go. 

The CC balance doesn't seem to be shifting -need to stop buying things! All three kids got good reports so we said they could get a treat - DD1 picked something within the £30 budget but then I realised we need the glue and tools for her to be able to do it so that's pushed it up. Fortunately, DS is cheap and we'll still be under on the whole thing. DS2 is getting frustrated because she can't find anything she wants! A proper first world problem! 

ruby_eskimo

Sounds like some very positive things happening last week; well done on the weight loss and managing to stick to the budgets overall.

BravingSaving

Thank you @ruby_eskimo! 
I've just been checking payment dates for all the DD's etc and found that the account fee I thought was £3 is actually £2 - another £12 a year in a savings pot! 

ruby_eskimo

I love it when you make little quick wins like that, every little bit helps.

BravingSaving

It does that £12 could be the difference getting into the next 1,000 down on the mortgage or not  

BravingSaving

Just updated the shopping budget for the end of the month  - it came in at £468.97/£500.00 which isn't too bad seen as though all meals for all five of us are coming out of it. Unfortunately that money saved has had to go straight towards the CC (boo!)  but at least it was there to go towards it.
I haven't shuffled any money about yet as the bulk of the bills go on the 1st so I'm waiting for that - and in honestly, I just can't be bothered right now not feeling 100% and the less thinking I have to do the better! 

BravingSaving

We had a big decision making kind of weekend. As we've missed every holiday we were meant to have this year we thought we should look at getting a caravan somewhere reasonably close so we can away at the drop of a hat and know the local area etc. We haven't bought anything yet or even decided which part of the country we should focus on. But, to do something like this without feeling we should have spent it elsewhere we took the money (which originally was all going to go to paying a chunk off the mortgage when we re-mortgaged next year) created our EF, paid back a 0% interest loan to my parents and decided to round the mortgage down to a straight £95,000.00. So although the savings have taken a big hit (other than the EF) I feel really happy that we've made a good dint in the mortgage! This months payment went through at the same time so its already below £95,000 - why can't it be like that every month! 

Our main focus at the moment is trying to achieve a balance between saving/investing in pensions/finding our dream home and having a life we enjoy - hence looking at caravans. 

This months food shopping is already on the high side but the cupboards and freezers are well stocked so hopefully we can get back on track throughout the rest of the month. This week I need to look at filling cheap meals that 5 people will all enjoy (that may be asking for too much though!) 

My weight loss is going ok up to 4kg/8.8lbs now in five weeks - I was hoping for 0.5kg/1lb a week so I'm ahead of where I wanted to be and I'm coping, there has been cake and ice cream - just not as much as before!