Pay off mortgage and start having even more fun 😁

themadvix

And that's why I said anything NG, I knew you'd take it the right way

If it's that cute, then photos here are required! 😂

Hope it's a NSD today

South_coast

Phew, glad I'm not the only one that's been wondering if I'd misunderstood the challenge, and it was meant to be how quickly the money could be spent 😅!

You know we love you, NG, and we just want you to succeed and pay off this blinking mortgage!

newgirly

😆 Thanks SC, you may be pleased to know both today and yesterday are no spend days and fingers crossed tomorrow will be too 😬

Total spend still at £630.94 but it’s a higher overspend as I’ve only just noticed it’s not a 13 week challenge form oct -Dec it’s actually 13 weeks and one day so that works out at £19.56 per day, so I’m officially £63.70 over budget now. 

Great night at dd’s yesterday at her Halloween party, they went to so much effort, the decor looked amazing, late night though and I feel like I have a hangover even though I don’t drink, I must be getting old 😱 Dh very kindly left a ton of work for me to do today too, not great timing but it’s finished now.

Time to update the mortgage figures! 

newgirly

💙💙💙💙💙💙💙MONTH 1 OF THE 33 MONTH CHALLENGE 💙💙💙💙💙💙

Start balance 1st October 2022 £61,452.11 

Balance today £60,215.41 

Reduction in month one £1,236.70

The first three months of this challenge are (oct/Nov/Dec) I’m also saving £560 per month towards our northern lights cruise next November, this covers the balance bar £23 which I need to find plus spending money. 

I’ve also managed to save this month : 

£200 for the Xmas trip to York with best friend 

£17.96 towards my Xmas girls day out so far

As I’m doing zero balance budgeting there’s no money left apart from my £1800 to live on for three months money - which I need to live on 😆 so the extra has come from eBaying, cash for clothes and topcashback. 

Target for November is :

Get the Xmas girls day out pot up to £60

Find the extra £23 for the northern lights cruise 

York Xmas trip weekend pot for dh and I of £200, we go a lot so don’t need as much! 

So Month one was on target 💚

Jessy103

Good work, NG, you got this! 🙂

newgirly

Thanks jessy, hope you are well 🙂

Third NSD in a row, finally a bit of catch up time 😬
I went to the cinema today with dh to see the Banshees of Inisherin which I loved, then home for dinner and a bit of tv so a very lazy day. I did make another slow cooker tea loaf but it was over cooked as we went to the cinema , just about edible still though. 

We are off to centreparcs this Friday so I’ve a bit to get organised as we are not eating out at all and there’s a lot of us, I’m organised for chocolate and coffee pods already which is clearly the priority 😆

newgirly

It looks to me flicking through this month that I’ve actually spent £353.27 on actual food and household cleaning etc. interesting as I’ve used up a lot of bits from the cupboard, but it’s £2.27 pp pd, many days ds1 is not here and at girlfriends flat, but also we do have extras sometimes like dd and hubby on bake-off night so it evens out. 

Shamefully we have eaten probably better than usual in a lower budget as I’ve been less lazy 🙄although saying that I’ve started having the odd ready meals nights, but the tesc@ value ones 😆 I discovered the 75p macaroni cheese is lovely with some fresh veg and mash and very easy. 

Plans for today, wrap a mountain of eBay stuff and go to post office, perhaps doing it in two goes so I don’t annoy the queue! Then do an online shop ready for centreparcs after conferring with mum as they are staying next door with ds 2 and wife, so we plan on trying to all eat together, and perhaps some packing.

The second hand joules tunic arrived and is fine but the cream cotton top I bought is fantastic, really good quality and perfect condition for £4.90! Will be buying some more bits second hand that make now, most of my clothes are cheap, sometimes they are just as good depending what it is but often they are still thinner. 

themadvix

Well done on third NSD!

 Secondhand clothes shopping saves me a fortune (especially as I won’t shop in supermarkets/primark etc for ethical reasons). I find that once I know what size I am in a particular make ( Joules, White Stuff, Fat Face are my preferred options), it’s easy to buy through EBay or Vinted). Better for the planet too.

newgirly

I think I shall too Vix, ds2 and wife buy most of their clothes second hand, ds2 has his own “style” and no shops cater for his slightly bonkers taste 😆

Vinted is where I’ve been looking mostly, eBay seems to be dearer 🤔

themadvix

Vinted has all the extra charges after the face value, which annoys me - also had a poor experience where something wasn’t as described and I ended up out of pocket for sending it back - which was all on me according to Vinted and I wasn’t very impressed. In that respect EBay is much better. That said, I do still use Vinted.