Beating Lifestyle Inflation and Staying Mortgage Free!

earthgirl2

I can't find my old thread, and it wasn't really mine anyway as I had to change my username recently! My not very catchy title says it all I will be writing about how I keep our money and lifestyle on track. I'm rubbish at budgeting and we became mortgage free on our little house, and then later again on our forever house, by working hard, and spending very little. 

I'd like to continue to do this to make sure that we don't squander our spare cash, and we use it for things we really want to do - such as fairly eco-friendly travel when it is allowed, making memories and being happy and healthy. I have to balance this with bringing up my two boys to be hardworking, respectful and kind tweens and teens (a work in progress obviously!!), keeping my marriage strong and generally trying to be a good employee/friend/relative and citizen of the planet

Here is my monthly budget, not very detailed, I have a more detailed one in my paper planner. My budget is odd as my OH covers certain expenses which are not shown here (oil heating, wood, property maintenance, car maintenance and payment for our vehicles, all of his personal expenses and leisure activities). My budget covers everything else and is paid for with my earnings. For years we have back and forthed about OH contributing more, getting a job rather than working for himself. It is something we discuss regularly.

	MONTHLY SPEND
Home	£1,229.17
Insurance	£30.08
Eats, Drinks	£446.40
Transport & Travel	£100.83
Debt Repayments	£0.00
Savings & Investments	£200.00
Family	£136.67
Fun & Frolics	£70.67
Health & Beauty	£71.00
Clothes	£6.67
Education & Courses	£0.00
Big One Offs	£291.67
Odds & Sods	£50.00
	£2,633.15

Home is high because we still have our mortgage payments and keep the money in savings to pay it off. When our new deal ends we will make a decision about paying it off. Clothes is low because we have a brilliant source of hand me down clothing - me as well. Anything else we need we get at Christmas/birthdays.

 I earn about £2200 per month from my teaching position. I earn about £270 per month after tax from tutoring and get basic child benefit. I had made the stupid mistake of counting all my tutoring money as my own but I've just paid a big tax bill so I now know not to count it all. I'm ok about this - I have learnt my lesson!
So I don't break even! Never mind saving for things that I want to do like travel!

earthgirl2

So soon it will be time to wish everyone happy new year! I'm excited for 2021
I've been reading a lot for CPD and for personal development, and I enjoyed 'atomic habits'. Based on some of these ideas, I've decided on a couple of habits. rather than resolutions, to foster this year!
I have a little square on the calendar for these 3 habits, so I get to cross off every day! My rule is never miss twice, so even if I only do it 50% of the time, I'll still be making great progress!

Habit 1 - Morning routine - never miss it twice!
This includes working out, drinking water, doing surveys, working on ohs business, reading with one child who doesn't like to read at night.

Habit 2 - Food and drink
No alcohol, reduced sugar, cooking from scratch. I personally need to do this for health reasons. I'm not really overweight but a combination of medical things made me quite ill a few moths ago so those culprits exacerbate things and need to go!  hope to grow my own again this year and have a lot more veggie meals. I hope this will bring our food budget down too. As a by product of this, I'm going to regift a lot of sugar and make my own sweets and things as presents.

Habit 3 - Evening routine
Sorting post, all taking vitamins, drinking water, doing an activity with the kids -'connecting' with them really. Get ready for the next day, which saves me money as I am not rushing about or paying for more school lunches than I need. I am going to give up my swimming membership (currently paused) when it is light and I can play with the children outside - or swim in the sea! This was a lockdown purchase to keep the kids swimming but giving it up will save me £50/month.

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary 

Karmacat

Happy new diary I can understand starting one.  

Those habits are big!  There's a lot in each one - but I especially like the thing about crosses on the calendar, excellent trick  

Happy New Year, Earthie  

TallGirl

Happy New Year and happy new diary. Those goals look great but the budget I think a chat with OH might be in order why are you still working for him? That's a great amount you make using your tutoring skills well done. Swimming in the sea sounds ace if a little cold. 

earthgirl2

I work for him because to outsource this will cost so much. I've been doing this part of the business for 15 years and know it inside out, I've been asked to consult on it for other companies - and business gateway- quite a few times so it's a skill I'd like to keep! It only take me 20-30 mins per day and would cost hundreds per month to outsource.
The chat we have been having is about him working in a steady job and contributing more, but we go round in circles as we then have to pay for the expenses he covers from the new job's salary... it's just not as easy to predict how much his business will earn.

earthgirl2

So a really productive day, all 3 of my new habits done as well as:
- tutoring organised for tomorrow when the kids are busy 3.5 hours
- made stock from veg peelings in slow cooker
-nice walk on the beach - got some flat stones to use as soap dishes
- planned out meals for the next 9 days from what we have, with a tiny shopping list.

So I've had a big look through our cupboards and freezer.  I will send a big box to the food bank (tinned fruit, veg and custard mainly!).I have to feed the student, so I can't just randomly mish mash things together. I've planned out what we could eat from what we have, and this will use up a lot of the processed food and sauces we have. I'll use the next 2 weeks to plan out what we are going to eat going forward - and more excitingly.. what I am going to plant from seed

apple_muncher

Happy new year, earthie!

I thought your title acronym was going to read BLISS, but it became BLISMF, which isn't quite as catchy!!!

earthgirl2

Happy new year!!
Apple, you are great! I could change it to ' beating lifestyle inflation and Staying Sane'? Much better!!

earthgirl2

So making some good headway with my habits, and also my money saving and making.
My habits are the boring bit, working out etc. but it's good that they are getting done, and not costing me a penny.
I have been doing lots of investigation into food, more specifically ingredients, and it's a real eye opener! The addictive qualities of sugar are amazing! And it is in literally everything. I am looking forward to using up the food I have and donating some. I have started to plan out new meals to introduce as well when the student leaves. I am on holiday from all work today and tomorrow.

Money making
It's going ok with the student, he is here until the 12th.
I started with a new client on Saturday.

Money Saving
I'm trying to source everything I want for free if I can!
DS2 wants warm socks, so I've asked my mum to knit some whilst in isolation. If not, I've seen that they can be made out of old fleece blankets/jumpers.
I want a butter dish with a lid, so I am asking around for one of those too. Until I find one, a tupperware will do.
I was going to buy some books for homeschooling, but I will use what I have and the blog I set up for the kids to give them the work when I am not here. It's so much easier to plonk a book on the table though!
I've researched the cats food and found that we can cut down the pouches and up the dry food - she was getting a little chubby!

OH and I are hoping that by this time next year, things will be very different and travel will be an option, so we really want to make 2021 a better year for us money wise, so that we can use it well and travel knowing that we worked for it! We might go on a few camping trips this year if it's allowed, so I'll look for a couple of UK places to go.

beanielou

I have a tupperware butter dish!!