Future Proofing my life: Deposit saving then MFW journey in under 13 years

WelshmansDaughter

Your local college sounds great. Mine is quite pricey 

LadyWithAPlan

WelshmansDaughter said:

Your local college sounds great. Mine is quite pricey 

i have found one (with 4 campus)  where it tutors from 16yrs up so does free adult learning up to level 2... It covers lots of areas so these courses are all free.



Grocery budget this month is £180 plus bulk £30 (so oils, protein shakes, bulk buying)

Last month I spent £200.02 plus £4 bulk on grocery exc household items such as toilet paper. Just me. Plus £23.19 sweets/crisps/junk
 The slow carb eating I am loving it.. 
However it means I can only buy YS  fresh veg/proteins etc as opposed to YS GF sausages. YS GF bread etc, as always the healthier the eating the more expensive it is. I am eating down the YS  higher carb stuff in freezer such as GF meatballs on my cheat day ..

So I may need to switch up to £200 per month moving forward but we will see.

Oct so far  £47.58 spent - freezer is full of proteins (often YS) and am upping my frozen veg amounts as opposed to fresh. My freezer is not huge 
any suggestions on bulk tin bean buys?

can anyone recommend a standalone water filter?
Also I am buying a lot of still water for my new Smeg coffee machine and kettle.  I dont like the brita Maxtra jug (have one and it doesnt work for me) I can see there are countertop water filter  .. some v expensive - anyone got one and loved it?
I am planning to move in the next year or so so pointless getting a water filter fitted unless if there is an easy to attach/unattach  tap?

CRYPTO WATCH Currently £97.45  (cost £102.10)
It is volatile (+/- £6 in 4 days so +/-5% approx)   and I am now getting 2p per week in rewards (aka interest) thats paid back in coins..
edit an hour later its £99.06 .... so yep volatile on such a small amount
It is my learning fund though  - a v small % of my NAV

Moments in time to celebrate
My Van SIPP finally over £54k!!
My Van balance with ISA & SIPP finally over £80k (£80,546.44) 

Vinted sale £3 
This was something that has been in my wardrobe at my parents forever (there are 11 more items on vinted) - if they dont go by Xmas I will donate to charity

WINS £8
I won £8 from that comp last night, money already in
I also received over £100 in travel expenses from that dining experience ..

MY TT Cash Isa  Balance now ...  £866.87
86p interest paid and just moved £143 over - this partially the comp wins and other monies .. inc raiding some little pots to round up
This is to hold the extra monthly hse deposit savings over my £250 regular Cov saver.

savingholmes

Glad the course is helping already.

South_coast

Have you thought of dried beans? More faff, but miles cheaper (and doesn't fill up your recycling as quickly!)

KajiKita

I use this one. Saves loads of plastic and you can carry on using your Br1ta jug as the base cartridge that you buy to start is compatible. 

KK

SandyShores

Thanks for sharing the Phox water filter bags Kajikta.  I just checked them out - DD has the Brita Kettle so they might suit her.  I didn't realise there were different types of water filter jugs, the Phox one at John Lewis looks good and Lakeland does a stainless one.  I was trying to work out whether it might be easier to buy the large 5 litre bottles of water for about £1.50 but creating plastic waste would put me off, and then there's the storage and actually getting it up stairs if you're in a flat.  Brita seem to do one for under the sink LadywithaPlan 12 months for around £100 doesn't seem too bad, I might investigate that for DD.

WelshmansDaughter

What happened to your tap water? 

SandyShores

WelshmansDaughter said:

What happened to your tap water? 

Not sure about LadyWithAPlan's water, but DD's has a lot of scale and tea/coffee just doesn't taste as nice.  It also scales up your stuff so you have to descale regularly. To be honest she isn't worried about drinking the water itself, its just how it affects the hot drinks.  I may look into the undersink one but would worry about tapping into the plumbing so may not

LadyWithAPlan

Thanks all

SandyShores said:

WelshmansDaughter said:

What happened to your tap water? 

Not sure about LadyWithAPlan's water, but DD's has a lot of scale and tea/coffee just doesn't taste as nice.  It also scales up your stuff so you have to descale regularly. To be honest she isn't worried about drinking the water itself, its just how it affects the hot drinks.  I may look into the undersink one but would worry about tapping into the plumbing so may not

Its probably not too difficult to plumb in but I am in a rental so dont want to mess with their antique plumbing. I live in London and the tap water definitely does not taste as good as the tap water at my family's in the countryside. Plus  as Sandyshores says the limescale is terrible and it affects the drinks,

Plus I now have a smeg kettle and SMEG coffee maker and the levels of limescale here are a nightmare so I use bottled water in those to minimise damage/cleaning

I was thinking more of a stand alone filter machine on the countertop.  I have seen some eg AQUA Optima, Santevia
I dont actually like my brita jug - though may try the KK filters to see if that changes my mind.
I carry 2 x 5 L water home - lickily shop only 5 mins walk away and we have a lift ....


tx @savingholmes

I have just googled for a fellow MSE-er on the slow carb way I am eating and there are loads great recipes of people want to try here.

https://tim.blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/the-slow-carb-cookbook.pdf

KajiKita

To be fair, I have always found the London water to be absolutely rank …. I can really taste the difference when I go up to visit relatives. It’s kind of flat and hard on the tongue at the same time. 

Hope the filters help … 🤞 At least it’s not a big investment to trial them. 

KK