Getting shot of the mortgage sooner than 2049!

Bluegreen143

@KajiKita - the % of our (net) income we didn’t spend this month (it says current, because the month isn’t finished yet, so it will change!)

In January we spent 28% less than we earned, in Feb it was 13% due to a big car repair bill. I was wanting this month to come even or better than Jan but will have to try again next month 😅

It includes money sent to things like our help to save accounts, money added to the emergency fund and money leftover for our short term pots for holidays, gifts etc. 

KajiKita

Ah, okay, thank you for explaining 😊

KK

Baileys_Babe

When the day has gone to hell in a handcart we try to swerve takeaways by having a couple of meals we can get on the table in 15 minutes with very little effort. The popular option at the moment is pasta, pesto, cubed and pan fried halloumi with either pan fried halved cherry tomatoes or sun dried tomatoes from a jar. Not only is this quick to make, but the pasta, pesto & sundried tomatoes can all sit in the cupboard until needed, the halloumi sits in the fridge and they all have a long shelf life.

Could you and Red come up with a couple of ideas for your family for suitable quick meals? Then buy the ingredients ready for the inevitable.

Bluegreen143

Thanks @Baileys_Babe

Had lunch provided at a work meeting yesterday and there was lots leftover so I took home 8 sandwich triangles, 2 bags of crisps, 2 huge slices of cake and 2 cans of fizzy drinks. 

Instead of the planned chicken kebabs, Red and I had the leftover sandwiches for dinner with the last of the leftover soup from Monday’s dinner (was so tasty, had cannellini beans, bacon, carrot, onion, potato, celery and leek and I blended it about 1/3 so it thickened but still had loads of texture). 

Made pesto pasta for the kids and a platter with watermelon, carrot sticks, cocktail sausages, the end of the hummus, breadsticks, olives, some cheese etc for everyone to pick at too. The only name I can think of for the meal is “things which would have been wasted otherwise” 😂 but it was very nice, and we finished up with the cake slices I’d brought home, which were big enough to feed the four of us. 

More spending…!

Red has ordered a bunch of wood for performing surgery on the outhouse. It is needed, and much cheaper than replacing the outhouse, but I do wish he’d waited til after payday so my figures for this month didn’t look so dire 😂

He’s desperate to get it fixed, it’s his outhouse - it’s both his workshop and has a pool table, dartboard etc for the rare occasions he hosts a guy’s night. And tbf I have no desire for it to fall down, and the cracks in it are big ones. 

My stepdad is luckily a civil engineer and expert on concrete so is helping him out and helped him identify where damp is getting in to the foundations, and this has caused the cracks so I believe their approach is in both drying out the ground and using wood and metal beams to provide extra support. This in itself is saving us so much as before asking my stepdad he got a quote from an engineer and it was going to be £750 just to come look at it!

Bluegreen143

Finished up yesterday for a week off (well, 11 days counting both weekend). Hooray! 

Was off with Bambi today and haven’t stopped. Today I:

- did the school run 
- took Bambi to Lidl for a very small top up shop
- cleaned the kitchen
- cleaned out the fridge 
- tidied downstairs and took all the homeless items languishing on the stairs up 😂
- hoovered downstairs 
- cleaned the wee downstairs toilet
- baked a lemon drizzle cake
- made two small jars of lemon curd
- went to the charity shop with Red & Bambi briefly to pick up plates 
- read to Bambi
- made lunch for Bambi & I
- picked up Monkey at 2.30 as school was finishing early
- took kids to playpark for 45 minutes and knitted while they played
- finished sewing the bodice/sleeves of the maxi dress I’m making myself 

All tired out now! Red is doing dinner thankfully - hot dogs & corn on the cobs on the barbecue 🙌🏼 

Bluegreen143

MARCH ROUND UP

INCOME - £4,069.81

SPENDING - £3,485.91

SAVINGS - £583.90

SAVINGS RATE - 14.34%

TOTAL BILLS: £1,128.63

Mortgage: £528.86

Car loan: £160

Council tax: £159

Energy: £134.29

Breakdown cover: £63.25 (for the year)

Life insurance: £29.26

Internet: £28.19

Nursery fund: £25.80

TOTAL JOINT DISCRETIONARY: £1,439.11

Groceries: £498.68

Home & garden: £339.34

Petrol & parking: £164.44

Fun/eating out: £149.63

Kids misc: £73

Household supplies: £91.33

Kids - activities: £39

Kids - clothes: £37.04

TV & music: £30.23

Gifts: £19.24

TOTAL SPENDING ALLOWANCE: £918.17

Red’s spending: £446

Me - social: £244.85 (My friend owes me £114 for the hen party so hoping to get that back soon - so really only spent £130.85)

Me - hobbies: £102.27

Me - bills/subscriptions: £44.56

Me - other: £42.49

Me - clothes: £38

CURRENT SAVINGS TOTALS:

Emergency fund: £3,403.36

Help to save: £2,800

Short term pots: £2,323.43

• Holidays £615
• Christmas/kids birthdays £300
• Wood burner £725.43
• Kids £683

Bluegreen143

Having some lovely time off just now!

At the weekend we went to visit my friend who’s recently moved to the countryside. Beautiful rural property on the edge of a lovely village, with huge gardens… not that I’m jealous or anything 😜

The kids had a ball running about her huge house and garden. 

Monkey always asks us why we can’t live in the countryside, bless him! He’s so outdoorsy, it’s very cute. 

My friend’s fiancé was concerned and asking if Monkey was bored because he left Bambi watching a movie and went off to explore by himself… firstly even if he was bored, I don’t believe that’s a problem or that it’s my job to solve that problem for him 😂 but I’m finding at the moment that screens just aren’t holding his attention as much (which is more than fine of course!). He often chooses not to watch TV in their allocated before-dinner slot and helps us make dinner instead bless him. Not always, I should say he’s watching TV right now 😂 but he definitely has other things he’d often rather be doing. 

We got back on Sunday and it’s been lovely not to have to get up and rush off on the school run this week. We’ve managed to go on a nice walk both days so far and I’ve got plenty of bits and bobs done - housework, cooking, sewing, knitting and gardening. Got two washings hung on the line too which is good.

The maxi dress I’m sewing is coming along really well and I’m almost finished! The bodice and skirt are both done, I just need to sew them together and create a channel for the waist elastic, then hem the bottom of the dress.

I did order some underwear from M&S - two bras and a long slip. I need the slip for wearing with the dress I’m making, because the fabric is lighter and I don’t want it to be see-through! And I don’t have a white bra to wear with it, I ordered a new black bra too as mine is ancient (I end up wearing sports bras most of the time as only have that one ancient proper bra!!!). I used the discount site my work provide so it cost £37.40 instead of £40 for the lot.

Projected big spends this month are:

- Home & garden - Red is fixing our outhouse which is now essential so it doesn’t fall down…

- Hen party - I’m off to a hen party this month, I’ve paid the accommodation but will have meals, spa etc to pay

- Holiday - We need to pay the rest of the accommodation for our May holiday this month (the accommodation for our July holiday is paid for which is good!). We may need to buy some camping stuff for our camping trip too (we are borrowing the tent etc but might not have everything we need). 

Eeek! Shaping up to be a costly month… will try to be really good with groceries and any other discretionary spends this month. 

However I will likely buy some fabric because I want to make myself some nightdresses - I have the pattern already. I’ll also need shoes to wear to the wedding, I think, unless I wear converse with the dress (which I often do, and it’s not a very formal wedding, but I maybe should get a pair of smarter shoes…).

Spending this month so far

£70.92 Petrol

£22.91 Eating out
Fast food when on our road trip

£20.24 TV & music 
Netflix & TV license

£264.84 Home & garden
Wood, breeze blocks etc for fixing our outhouse

£528.86 Mortgage

£51.99 Home & garden
Some kind of apparently essential tool

£160 Car loan 

£95.98 Tesco
£35 Household / £60.98 Groceries

£45.29 Tesco
£22 My spends (wine) / £23.29 stuff for Easter egg hunt 

£28.19 Internet

£37.40 My spends
Underwear

£5.89 Household
Foot pumice thing

£29.26 Life insurance 

£3 Tooth fairy money 😂 (two teeth at once!)

£35 Kids pocket money 
I’m giving it monthly now, as I forget weekly and never have change! 

Starlight_at_Sea

Your diaries always so inspiring! Do you have a 'Library of Things' nearby? We have a recently established one, and it's got loads of camping stuff that can be booked out x

Bluegreen143

Ooooh I haven’t heard of that! I’ll have a look 🙂

I have spent quite a lot on clothes already this month 🙈🙈🙈😨

In my defence I buy clothes fairly rarely, so I genuinely end up scraping by with little in my wardrobe - I’m not one of these people who has a huge collection, it’s like a bare bones capsule wardrobe, so whenever anything wears out I end up needing to replace it pretty quickly. 

I’m also a bit fed up of looking a giant slob all the time. I absolutely don’t mind wearing joggers/gym leggings and baggy T-shirts and trainers to go on walks or do gardening but I’ve definitely slid into wearing slobby stuff most of the time. I prefer wearing dresses but hardly have any so that doesn’t help either!

So I’ve done a big Matalan order which was £95 (it would have been much more but I got a 20% off code then paid through my work discount site to get another 4.5% off. I got:

- two dresses
- two pairs petite leggings (I like to wear leggings under dresses but I’m fed up of all my leggings wrinkling at the ankle as I’m short)
- 10 pairs trainer socks
- sweatshirt & trainers (for walks/garden now it’s getting too hot to always wear boots & my coat)
- nice shortie PJ set as there’s a pyjama party one night of the hen do I’m going on, and none of my PJs are fit to be seen in public 🙈
- also got Monkey 5x short sleeved T-shirts and a pair of joggers

This was about £27 on Monkey’s stuff and £68 on my stuff.

I’ve also ordered:

- 3 pairs of anti chafing cycling short things for wearing under skirts in the summer (£21)
- a second hand pair of strappy fancy sandals from eBay to wear to the wedding (£11)

And I mentioned already but I spent £40 on 2x bras and a slip (to wear under my maxi dress I’m making) this week too.

So £140 on clothes 🙈😨 BUT I do really, really need to stop wearing things that are falling apart and also I’ve gone years without investing in basics like bras and anti chafing shorts so that I actually feel comfortable in the clothes I’m wearing.

This should do me for a while though I will see if I have any gaps to fill next month too. 

QueenJess

I can almost hear you justifying the clothes spend to yourself. It’s not tons in the big scheme of things and you need clothes. You are allowed to clothe yourself and also use decent clothes to feel good about yourself! I bet you spend more on the kids clothes. Stop feeling guilty about it 😊