Getting shot of the mortgage sooner than 2049!

Bluegreen143

Thanks so much @MissRikkiC!!

I’ve been neglecting my diary but not spending too much… except on food. 

Did a frugal repair last night, our new car had a really gross sticky interior door handle where some of the rubber had come off. Red spent £17 on a leather handle cover to match the interior and I sewed it on last night. Apparently it would be like £80+ to get a new door handle so it saved a lot and looks lovely. 

Went out on Friday night but I drove, didn’t drink, avoided the nibbles at the party and only spent £3 on parking and £6 on a bottle of wine as a gift for the host 😇 

MissRikkiC

No problem hope it was useful. I think a saw a post on another thread where you’d had protein powder and yogurt so hopefully you enjoyed it! 

Well done on the repair job! I love that type of stuff or subbing out something you need for something that will do. It’s not always necessary but when it works it’s great! 

Bluegreen143

Mid month spending update (one week to go)

JOINT £2,151 (not including car) / £5,151 (including new car!)

Home bills 

Mortgage £510.92

Council tax £7.44

Insurances £26.79

Utilities £223.28

Transport

Car bills £145

Maintenance £200

Diesel £132

Parking/public transport £15

Groceries

Food £409.97

Treats £38.08

Cleaning/toiletries £17.65

Household misc £43.35

Fun

TV & subscriptions £40.35

Family fun/activities £60.05

Eating out/takeaways £13

Misc

Pets £3

Charity £30

Misc £80.12

Pots

Kids clothes £63.50

Gifts & celebrations £56.50

Home & garden £35

New car £3,000

ME £245.37

Bills £118.98

Clothes £29

Socialising £38.10

Hobbies & stuff £56.21

Treats & alcohol £3.08

Bluegreen143

Been very good with diet and fitness!

Got a cold today though, and was feeling a bit rough, so I sacked off the gym to have a nap after work (Red was here to look after the kids!). Stuck to meal plan though.

No major spends to report 🙂 and only spent £51 on the Tesco shop on Monday which was good for us.

Been organised with prepping meals - last night I made 2x spinach & feta frittata portions for today & tomorrow’s breakfast, 2x salmon caprese salad for lunches and cut up and marinaded two meals’ worth of fajita chicken.

Baileys_Babe

I hope you quickly recover from your cold.

Bluegreen143

Tried to do a long update the other day, lost the post and gave up in a huff 😆

Firstly, here’s APRIL’S SPENDING round up:

INCOME

£3,274.99

SPENDING - JOINT

Mortgage £510.92

Council tax £7.44

Insurances £223.28

Utilities £223.28

Car bills £145

Car maintenance £188

Diesel £132

Parking & public transport £15.70

Food £496.06

Treats £47.38

Cleaning & toiletries £22.17

Household misc £53.35

TV & subs £49.35

Family activities £60.05

Pocket money £12

Eating out £13

Pets £3

Charity £30

Misc £80.12

Kids’ clothes £63.50

Kids’ education £27

Gifts £113.50

Home & garden £35

Reconciliation £9.71

New car £3,000

TOTAL (w/o car) £2,355.32

TOTAL (w/ car) £5,355.32

SPENDING - ME

Bills £142.98

Clothes £29

Social £38.10

Hobbies £56.21

Treats £3.08

TOTAL £269.37

TOTAL SPEND (w/o car) £2,624.72

TOTAL SPEND (w/ car) £5,624.72

So if we hadn’t bought a new car, we’d have spent £650.27 (or just about 20%) less than we earned; but as we did buy a car, we spent £2,349.73 more than we earned 🤣 however, that is what savings are for, and I’m just glad we managed without using any kind of debt. 

Baileys_Babe

Well done on not taking on debt when buying the car.

Boo to losing a long post.

Bluegreen143

Thanks @Baileys_Babe 🙂

Been thinking about updates I should put on here:

▪️ have lost 5lb in the last 3 weeks, yay! Not the fastest weight loss ever, but as long as it continues in the right direction I’m happy.

▪️my phone kept freezing and crashing, including constantly crashing google maps when I was driving (led to a couple of scary situations where I was a bit lost 😅 I’m a nervous driver) so while I was hoping to eek mine out on a £10 a month SIM only contract for ages, I’ve caved and got a new one. But I got an iPhone 11 (old one was iPhone 7) for £19 upfront and £20 per month, with unlimited data/calls/texts. So I do feel it was a good deal and not too extravagant. Looking at it, I would have paid more to buy the handset upfront and keep my SIM only contract.

▪️work is VERY stressful right now and I feel absolute dread most mornings before starting. Not good. Monitoring the situation but I may need to consider a change - will wait til the conservatory is build this summer though and til we’ve rebuild our savings up.

joedenise

@Bluegreen143 a 5lb loss over 3 weeks is actually really good.  You really shouldn't try to lose more than 1-2lb a week.  If it comes off gradually you are less likely to put it back on again - so well done.  I'd definitely be happy with that sort of loss.  It's taken me since mid January to lose 7lb!  I tend to only lose about half lb a week so it's always slow going.

Well done on also not taking on debt to buy a new (to you) car using what you had in your savings.

Shame about the job being really stressful and that you're dreading work each morning - that's not good but very sensible to stick it out until you've rebuilt your savings and the conservatory is built.

Bluegreen143

Having weighed myself again this morning, I’m now at 11st 11 which is 6.5lb off in 3.5 weeks 🙂 happy with that! As @joedenise says, 1-2lb a week is great. 

I still have a long way to go as I am tiny so need to get down to 9st to be a healthy BMI. 

I have gotten in a better groove with the low carb diet which ought to reduce the food budget a bit. The first two weeks I was really just learning and bought lots of new stuff to try out different Joe Wicks recipes. I’ve settled into a routine which is more sustainable for family life than what he suggests, and should be a bit cheaper:

- lower carb breakfasts (rotating eggs, fruit & yoghurt or smoothies) except for having porridge once a week after a morning workout 

- lower carb lunches, alternating the meat-heavy Joe Wicks recipes with a nice homemade lentil/veggie soup (I think he counts pulses as carbs but I’m counting a bowl of soup as lower carb as I’d usually have tons of bread with it, so it IS lower carb for me!)

- sticking to a small portion of fruit, nuts or yoghurt for a quick afternoon snack

- generally doing a workout in the evening (5-6x a week) which allows for a “carb refuel” dinner so I can eat what the family eats (except for measuring out the carbs). You’re supposed to workout before the carb meal but if I can only get to the gym after dinner then so be it, it has to fit family life. If I’m having a lower carb dinner, I’m making sure we can eat the same thing but I can leave the carbs off and have extra veg. So I’m not doing too many expensive dinners from his book but mainly having sensible portions of our usual family food.

- so far I’ve not had any alcohol or sweet treats. I’m sure that won’t last forever but at least that aspect is saving me money!!

- I’m not using much of the protein powder because I don’t get on with the artificial taste, but am occasionally adding half a scoop to my smoothies and porridge and yoghurt to boost my protein intake, so at least it’s not getting wasted. But I may not buy more once I’ve used it all. 

Todays meals:

B - scrambled egg x2, smoked salmon, griddled broccoli and sugar snap peas 

L - creamy chicken & mushrooms with peas and rocket 

D - chicken parmigiana with buttered asparagus and peas (kids and Red had spaghetti with it).

Rest day today so no workout, but this week I went to the gym 3x and worked out at home twice so that’s pretty good 😊