Buying a little piece of Middle England; Manifesting my way to mortgage free.

debtfreewannabe321

Morning all, well DP is very happy with his new wardrobe. He does look very smart I did actually start my search on v1nted (we'd already scoured CS) and it was more the time pressure....he got the job just last week and realised quickly he needed new bits for THIS week *insert rolley eyes* so we had no time to be ordering online. It is done now though and he wears his clothes to death so at least we will get the wear out of it all...unlike me who gets bored of stuff or decides it's not my style any more I am much better being a CS buyer so I don't feel guilty when I dispose of stuff quickly (back to CS lol). I would say 3/4 of my wardrobe are CS and DP is probably more like 1/5 - sometimes I get really lucky and find just the right size shirt or pair of trousers but he is tall and slim and they don't tend to come in very often round here. 

DP has disposed of all bits that aren't suitable any more. I will rifle through and see what is good for selling on again even if just for a few quid.

The kids are off to their dad's house this weekend hopefully (sorry kids but I would like to clean the house and have it stay clean for more than five minutes, love you really). This will mean a cheap week for food too next week which would be great timing. 

I have helped a friend re-write her CV this morning and put a cover note on it tailored to the job. She's hoping to get a job in the same place I have my new one (college) that would be great if we worked on the same campus. I don't have many friends round here yet  

I didn't sleep well last night, am feeling really tired today. The house is a tip and I just have no motivation. The hot flashes I get all night are really really **** irritating (would love to insert a stronger word in there but feel prob not appropriate for this forum ) We have dinner in for today, I don't have much more in the way of dinners that I have planned but I am betting I can make some dinners from what we have and stretch the food a little longer. DP is away for at least one dinner this week, so just me and the kids....I think I may shop every day/ every other day rather than one big weekly shop. I have money in the food budget that was not allowed to be spent over the weekend (hence why it all went on CC) if we have any money left in the budget at the end of the month (unlikely but hopeful) then I will sweep it across to the CC. 

We are just sorting out all DP pension, benefits, shares etc that he wants to opt in on at the moment. Unsure what to do but I think if I am working we should probably max out the shares as they are matched by employer. And they usually remain steady. I'm good with a budget not so good with stocks, shares, pensions and savings .....and neither is DP. Right might be back in a bit to update dreaded CC totals and what's left of other other budgets. 

debtfreewannabe321

Okay I had a fly round the house, bin bag in hand, washing basket in the hallway next to the door of whichever room I was in, tray on top. All bins emptied, plates and glasses all collected back from all rooms, dirty washing chucked downstairs, bathrooms cleaned and a quick tidy around. Couldn't hoover as DP is on teams calls all day but the house looks a little better now. Can't believe I neglected it quite so badly...mind you I only did this last week...this is how much clutter, rubbish and clothes accumulates from kids rooms mainly- an entire wash basket full, 4 small bins full to the top, 3 plates, 1 bowl, 2 glasses and 3 mugs.
AND I swear I ask them to empty these things themselves, you know considering they are teens now and fully capable.

One wash is hanging outside already, I have a lot of ironing to do but may as well wait for all the shirts to go through and do it all at once. I hate ironing so will stick a movie on whilst I do it   

I bought milk (soya) from Mr L the other day and it is absolutely disgusting. I need to go to the shops and buy some more that is unsweetened. 

I have gone through all DP share options and pension and also healthcare/dental etc. I have told him what I think we should opt in to and what to not bother with. He needs dental work desperately and actually cancelled work due to be done because we knew he was applying for this job. So we will opt in to the salary sacrifice for the highest one we can as the work was needed for a broken crown and something else. I think this was around £36p/m for 80% of £2000 worth of work. He needs to make sure he can claim on it sooner rather than later though. The shares I think we should max out and class this as savings so we may not be putting more money into an EF going forward once we hit £3k but we will be saving via this, shares are matched by employer up to a certain rate too. Pension I think DP will opt for 5% contribution because employer will pay in 7.5%. 
DP is as aware as I am that I have no pension to speak of really so he is wanting to max out some of these benefits for me rather than him (his current pension pot I believe is pretty healthy) so I have something as we get older, so I think he was thinking the shares could be the pension pot for myself.

As a side note, when DS1 was here he was talking to me about stocks and savings and suggested when my ISA matures that I use some of it in shares, he said he will talk us through how to do it properly (I need to be shown I have already read pages and threads and websites on this and still not really understanding it). 

I spoke about another stream of income before and it is something that I am quite passionate about and am going to try and speak to my friend this week about it. It would mean moving DP out of the spare room as we will need it- it is for a cause that I hold close to my heart but I want more info first. It's not something I want to jump into without knowing more. But anyway, going forward I would love for DP & I to up our income because quite frankly I am sick of paying for the mortgage and car already and cannot imagine doing this for another 20 years. One way or another I will pay the debts off quickly (cc & car) and pay down that mortgage!!

Back to today though, I need that milk and some bread so will pop to shops and grab a couple of bits to see us through the next few days. 

Watty1

Just caught up and wanted to say congratulations on the new job x

beanielou

Have you thought about fostering? 

debtfreewannabe321

beanielou said:

Have you thought about fostering? 

yes I want more info though....respite as well as full time. My friend works for a fostering company and has been trying to talk me around for years. I have never had the space till now, it is something my friend & I hold close to us because of our own childhoods (we've known each other 30+ years) she is now in social work and I am thinking about this... Just a thought at the mo but she is talking me around on the benefits (helping individuals as well as obviously cash benefits). I have some relevant experience having previously worked for a charity with people /children in need and I absolutely loved the job satisfaction it gave in helping others. I am quite frankly fed up of working low paid jobs where I am not using any of my skillset, where I am looked down upon and I just absolutely hate being. So I am giving it some serious thought this time...

Thanks @Watty1  

debtfreewannabe321

Two bags of shopping at Mr T and nearly £30 spent 🤦🏻‍♀️howwwww??? 

Food budget is dwindling fast so need to get clever with what we have left. 
I only bought milk (oat and soya), carrots,.onions, potatoes and bananas, frozen veg and frozen fruit and some bread, hummus and falafel, tofu and clothes conditioner today. How on earth did it come to that much? I allowed DD a YS treat for her and DS which was £1.20 ...food prices are just crazy. 

The budget is definitely going up as of next month I can't even be bothered to try and feed my family nutritional meals on £500 a month any more it's not fun trying to keep to budget it is stressful. 

Really liking the separate bank though for the food budget as I don't accidentally spend anything out of it. I either purposely borrow from it or avoid it! So that's one plus 😊 to balance this moaning lol 😆

HotDog2020

I was thinking the same about food, I made a stew at the weekend thinking I would have saved money, however each meal came to £5.15, this includes the entire plate of food, potato with mozzarella, beef stew portion and lentils and carrots and celery and stock pots. It is super expensive right now, not good times.

debtfreewannabe321

It's a joke isn't it. My son & DP eat a big portion (probably two small portions each) and DD & I will eat a decent sized portion so I guess I should be working my food budget to 6 people to be more realistic

debtfreewannabe321

Morning all

So DP has managed to get his laptop bag expensed so we will get £50 back for that not sure how long it takes though. But that's £50 less to find for the CC. He's gone out today in some of his new 'uniform' and is looking very confident and smiley.

The house is empty aside from FLD snoring next to me. Peace for 5 minutes before getting on with the day.

I will try and find enough dinners to see us through to Friday, this might be a tall request that I can't fulfill but I will try as that way I will have money left in the food budget.

I returned a top to the CS yesterday that didn't fit. And took 2 huge bags to them as well of our old stuff. I decided against selling any of it, nothing was particularly valuable or worth it, I have a kind of unwritten rule that if something will take me a month or two to sell and is only worth a few quid to just let it go. Nowhere would take the pictures I have for charity though - I tried 3 different shops! Unsure what to do with those now. They're still in the boot....

I might try and have a look at the YNAB today and see what came out this month for bills so I can better finance next month with bits of pay coming in here and there from old and new jobs. 

I have lots of little jobs around the house to do today and have woken up with lots of energy after an ok night sleep so will crack on with them in a bit. Not much else to report here aside from a NSD....I definitely do not need anything today after yesterday's shop & I ordered my face cream I needed from pocket money last night too so that is done as well (used my £5 off voucher I had) I did it yesterday so today could be a NSD.

Watty1

Interesting no where would take the pictures.  Our local village charity shop sells them for £2 to £3 each and has a high turnover as mostly people buy them for the frames or to craft with.    Although thinking about it the village charity shop has a high turn over of just above everything because it sells stuff very cheap and has an electrician on hand to Certify stuff and the local clock repairer replaces all the batteries in the watches before they sell them.

I worked out it was cheaper to buy a new watch in the charity shop than a new battery   Sorry off topic.