Getting shot of the mortgage sooner than 2049!

themadvix

Oh that's awful - definitely keep at it. We've had proper refunds from Deliveroo when our food turned up cold and wrong before now. I would also tell them it was stone cold too - that's totally unacceptable too.

(Another only very occasional make-up user here)

Bluegreen143

So it’s been escalated to a team leader who’s advised me the decision to offer credit is “correct and in line with their policies” and “bear in mind if I contact them further no further action will be taken”. How’s that for excellent customer service?! 

Well, boycotting Justeat won’t be hard as I have many frugal goals for next year including not getting takeaways 😂 but if we do get one, I’ll be calling our local one myself, the food is good there and you get it quickly as they are so close (or can easily walk round to collect). 

In less good news, the fan issue with the car is something up with the computer bit (can you tell I don’t know cars?!) and it needs sent off to a specialist so we won’t have the car for 7-10 days and it’ll probably be pricey 😭

That’s what the emergency fund is for eh?! We have £2,200 in easy access and £2,400 in help to save (which we won’t touch).

I do think my goal of getting to 6 months is cursed as every time we get to £2k we end up having to use it 😂😭

Bluegreen143

Goals for 2023

I’ve been inspired reading about FIRE again. While I don’t think we’ll be able to fully retire early, I’d like to get us to a position where we can both work part time or take a pay cut to do something we enjoy. 

I don’t see frugality as a donning the hair shirt, deny what you want situation. What resonates more for me is the concept of joyful frugality, finding the sweet spot of choosing activities that are both inexpensive and meaningful, choosing happily to step off the consumer carousel and focus on what really matters. And so I’ve set my goals with the idea of joyful frugality in mind. 

My big financial goal for 2023

Build a £7,200 easy-access emergency fund (while continuing to pay £100 a month into help to save - eventually the fund will be £12k in total). 

How I think I’ll achieve this

Using the above-mentioned joyful frugality framework, I hope we spend most of our time: 

• At home doing necessary projects, cooking and chores as a family - not seeing them as chores but as a fun opportunity to be together, be resourceful and learn useful skills
• At home playing with the kids or doing crafts or reading
• Going out on cheap outdoor adventures 
• If it’s rainy, using the free local museums, library and swimming pool for cheap family fun 
• Using our National Trust membership which my mum got us for Christmas!
• Having friends over, going to theirs, cheaply going to the pub 
• Not skimping on having our two booked holidays (which will be reasonably frugal as we aren’t going abroad and won’t eat out much) 😉 

Initial focus for money saving will be:

1. Groceries - this has been a struggle all year but tbh I really haven’t tried too hard and have been too busy making excuses! We waste sooooo much and this needs to change.

2. Gym membership - it’s a great gym but I cancelled today. At £1,000 per year (yes I was paying £80 a month to go to the gym twice a week 🙈) it’s too expensive. It feels more “me” and living our values to build exercise organically into my life by walking/cycling more, doing some free workouts at home and I also hereby commit to helping Red MUCH more frequently with all the heavy work in the garden and at home. This is how he stays in shape and it works for him. This will also free up a lot of energy for home projects as I was finding the early mornings extremely tiring.

3. Buying “stuff” for myself or the house - I’m starting a 30 day list for anything that’s not an essential consumable which I’ll keep tabs on here. I have £100 in Amazon vouchers I got at Christmas which I’d like to keep to use as needed through the year for my own personal treats (but I will be attempting to buy everything second hand first!). I will allow myself to have one knitting or sewing project on the go at a time which I may buy supplies for, but won’t buy more til that project is done. 

Oh, another facet is not buying “stuff” which doesn’t support the life we want to lead. For example I’ve been coveting an iPad and was going to save for one this year, but why? I want us to spend our time outdoors, doing projects and reading books, not on screens. Several hundred £ saved right there.

4. Takeaways, cafes, convenience food (basically paying for any eating out that’s not for a big celebration). Self explanatory really! 

Non monetary goals for the year are:

• Do 1,000 hours outdoors challenge again with a target of 650 hours (it does kind of fit in with the frugal goals!)

• Read 52 books 

• Have a date with Red once a month - I think we will aim for a couple of dinners out to be fair and a couple of nights in the pub but we will also be creative at looking for frugal date ideas!

KajiKita

I like that list 😊 I will probably rob the spirit of it! Especially the idea of joyful frugality 😊

I gave up my yoga lessons when I realised how much that addd up to a year. Like you I am focusing on being active in my life (walking at lunchtimes, gardening - we have a big garden and weeding is free! 😉) and I also have set of hand weights by the kettle in the kitchen. Every time I am waiting for the kettle to boil I do a few bicep curls, shoulder presses, squats onto the chair there etc. It’s surprising how the effect of doing those few efforts every day make a big difference to how I feel. 

KK

Bluegreen143

Today’s income

£100 given to me by my papa as a Christmas present 🥰

Today’s spending

£31.44 JustEat
As discussed earlier 😡 

Frugal wins

1. Found some mince and onions (already fried off) in the freezer, along with a bag of pinto beans. Made a family portion of chilli and bunged back in the freezer (I know this isn’t recommended, but I have done similar before).

2. Had turkey & chickpea curry from the freezer for dinner, made with leftover Christmas turkey. Delicious! And the kids both ate it all 🥰

Arkers

Just popping in Blue-green, I chopped in my gym membership and I now use les mills on demand. I get a discount via my bank so it's very reasonable. However they normally have a 30 day free trial, might be worth a go to see if you like it.

Arkers x

Bluegreen143

Thanks for the frugal exercise tips @arkers and @kajikita 🙂

As the car is still in the garage, I let Red pick up the shopping on the way home and of course he spent £48.19 😨 I’ve recharged £6 to him as being his spends. Tbh much more of it was questionable but I didn’t want to argue as I recollected the spirit of joyful frugality mid-flow while I was nagging him about it and had to almost clamp my mouth shut 😂 

Spending today

£42.19 Tesco (this is with £6 taken off which Red is reimbursing)

£14.11 Groceries | £5.83 Household | £22.25 on alcohol for friends coming tonight (an agreed expense) 

Frugal wins

Eh, we’ve stayed at home today so our whole day is a frugal win right??! 😂 some housework, some jigsaw puzzles, then 30 mins out the front with the children’s new bikes in a short break from the rain! 

Cheery_Daff

Staying at home is definitely a frugal win! 😁

Bluegreen143

Had a lovely dinner - chicken shawarma kebabs. I’d made this the other week but doubled up and froze the rest of the chicken in the marinade (uncooked). 

We have friends coming over tonight, but alas one couple has cancelled. We’ll still have fun with the other paid! Though Red is disappointed as has learned his friend is driving over and won’t be partaking in whisky with him. 

He’s a bit sorry for himself anyway today as he’s struggled with working between Christmas and New Year and learned today he gets the English bank holidays so doesn’t have Tuesday off 😨 (in Scotland we get the 2nd Jan as a bank holiday, as well as the 1st - I’m off for it). AND normally his work is super quiet over the festive season but he’s had a full workload this year.

The reason he’s not off is somewhat his own fault. Basically when he took unpaid leave in the summer he did in fact get paid for it. I advised him to flag it (I flagged to my company they had paid me) and he didn’t. Unfortunately his company noticed last month (though they are only taking one week off?! Unsure why or is he in fact had been deducted for the other week at the time). While we had originally budgeted for the time to be unpaid, Red didn’t feel happy taking a big deduction from pay so close to Christmas/birthday season, so he let them take the rest of his annual leave instead - the days he’d been saving for Christmas. 

It’s such a shame as the reason we did the unpaid leave thing this summer was to maximise time off with the kids and I think it’s slightly soured it for him as it’s messed up his Christmas 🙈 

Even worse, Tuesday 2nd Jan falls into his new holiday year so he COULD have taken it off, he just failed to realise he wasn’t already off and he needs to give six weeks notice 🙈 the holiday system at his work is awful, there’s no automated system or spreadsheet or list of bank holidays, you just send a teams message with what you want off to the HR woman. Then you have no idea how many days you have left… he doesn’t even know how many days he gets to start with 🤷‍♀️ 

I’m going to sit him down after Christmas and try to plot out the whole year’s annual leave and unpaid leave with him, and get him to request a list of bank hols & how many days off he’s entitled to. 

Hoping he cheers up a bit now he’s off for three days and I’m sure his friend and wife coming over tonight will help. 

KajiKita

I can understand his frustration! Good luck with helping him with it. Presumably his contract states what his annual leave allowance is? 

Our holiday system is Byzantine in its complexity and it seems to take weeks to get anyone set up on it (took 3 months after starting before I got my own login!), so for my team I have a combined team spreadsheet (so people can see upfront who has booked what (I have to be careful that critical functions are covered), ahead of asking me, I log it in my calendar and we use the business system. It’s a bit OTT, but since we started this I have had no further issues with holiday clashes, or people saying they have booked time they haven’t etc and the business has a clear view of who will be in with specific skills for a customer facing role we have. 

KK