Beating Lifestyle Inflation and Staying Mortgage Free!

beanielou

Happy anniversary. 

earthgirl2

Thank you! 

Still slowly getting better, and I've spent lots of rest time researching how to get better as well, so feel like I know what I'm doing a bit more now. Still fatigued so taking everything in small steps. 

Today I've cooked 7 olio apples up and will use for porridge over the next few weeks. A bunch of brown bananas made 2 banana loaves, Made olio veg soup and roasted the rest of the veg in the fridge for later. Also doing a "stay and cuddle" cat sit so £40 earned. 

I'm keeping an eye on money, and will just focus on reducing what goes out and maximise what comes in, until I can sit down and do some more money shuffling and sums. 

earthgirl2

I'm hoping to catch up on diaries at cat sitting at the weekend, but I have been making good progress. 

A new one for us, DH has agreed to trial going down to one car when my lease deal is up in early November. We don't need 2 cars and this will save us a lot of money and will be so much better for the environment, as we will all focus on using the one car less. 

I imagine this will save us an about £500 a month so is definitely worth it. The only thing I am not sure of is my olio collections. I can do them in DH car or MIL car but will cost more in petrol. 

Food spending continues to be low even though it's the summer hols and there's two hungry teenagers. Under £100 so far for august. Helped by olio and foraging, a little by the food from the garden. 

I have passed back some costs to DH that are definitely "his costs" and now my regular Bills and pots for kids/pocket money/ schol lunches £200 month 😱/presents/spotify/kids clothes/misc all add up to £1838 per month. This includes food budget of £300/month (which we never spend, normally £240).

If things are 0 I have passed this cost to DH.

	actual (Monthly)
Building ins	20
travel and phone ins	19
council tax	210
electricity	135
tv license	0
kids mobile phone	15
life insurance	21
cat insurance	8.3
food/ household	300
wine/beer	0
petrol	80
school meals	200
pet vet visits	5
dentist	3
kids haircuts	30
back to school pot	20
christmas pot	170
birthdays pot	100
household maint pot	0
school trips	0
misc. pals birthdays etc	20
sky tv	0

kids pocket money/ snacks/travel to school	110
football	30
football pools	20
meals out	0
spotify	18
netflix	0
DS2 gym	25
DS1 gym	17.5
kids clothing pot	30
holidays savings	0
football camps/holiday fun	0

My costs

car payment		225
phone		7

Total £1838
Which means I can now save the remainder of my salary approx £1300 and add to it with extra income to save for the retirement that I'm chasing down in 5 years! So if I can save £600 per month from extras I can achieve that goal. 

It doesn't allow money for somethings I don't buy
haircuts and colours 
clothes and shoes (have so much given to me by my sisters in law)
going out (normally mystery shop, wild swim, fire on the beach, hiking, camping etc so it costs nothing)

But it also doesn't include money for holidays, which I do go on and the children love. My dad has been giving both my brother and I money as gifts (due to inheritance tax he's trying to do this each year) so I can use this money and any big windfalls (? 😜) and set a budget and go by the budget. 

It's a new era for me. Instead of me paying for everything for everybody, there's a budget, a use for each £1, and I'm really happy about this. 

DS 1 has a broken foot so couldn't do his couple of summer jobs 😢 but DS2, age 12 has been out hustling 😜 and knows he does weeding for relatives instead of asking me for cash! 

pennywisepoundstupid

That would be a fantastic saving by going down to 1 car, any chance you could cycle to olio collections or would they be too far?

TallGirl

Sounds like a really solid plan glad it is all coming together and exciting to have a 5 year plan. Not that long really. 

earthgirl2

It would be at 16 mile round trip for Olio cycling, its certainly possible.

South_coast

Even if you ended up having to ditch Olio, the extra cost of groceries wouldn't be £500/month, so you'd still be better off. What's the plan for when the boys are older and want to borrow the car, though? 

On another note, I had no idea the football pools still existed 😀!

earthgirl2

Football pools are via my son's football club it's a money raiser for them but you have to pay really.  

My plan puts aside £40k for each child for uni, car, house deposit etc. I'm sure I'll need more but I'm also keen for them to think about saving for these things too! 

apple_muncher

How are you doing health-wise now? x

earthgirl2

Hi apple, pretty well thanks! New drugs suit me quite well, I'm staying relaxed most of the time and if nothing changes I'm happy with this. 

Finally got a neurologist appointment on Monday 🙌 

Hope you and yours are well.