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

debtfreewannabe321

pennywisepoundstupid said:

Glad you have got your start date for your new job, nothing worse than being in limbo.
Terrible behaviour from your last job and i hope you get the money you are owed soon. xx

Nothing today from old job other than thanks for the hours leave it with me- so we'll see. I have redos threat ready to copy and paste though 😁😆

debtfreewannabe321

My friend and I went for tea and cake near the castle and had a great time catching up. Can't believe it's been a decade or so since we'd last seen each other! One comment she said made me smile the most- 'I thought you and your DH wouldn't last forever...not because I realised what he was like behind closed doors but because you always came across as intelligent and had something interesting to say and he was ummmmm well I'll just say a bit immature....yeh I'll leave it at that' 🤣 haha that made me smile. And her hubby who worked with my ex had also agreed (we used to all live on the same patch and have dinners/ BBQs and drinks together a lot so we all knew each other well enough). I think I'll keep this friend 😁 I was worried she was team ex and just poaching for info at one point but I genuinely don't think she was now. 
She ended up paying when I went to the loo at the end probably because I was gone so long. I found a lost little girl and had to show her where the loos were and then waited for her (hope her parent didn't think me a weirdo but the loos are a long way round & I didn't want her getting lost again) she was chatting all the way back with me and said thank you 😁❤️
So didn't pay for that and promised to get next time. I spent on postage and some peppers for dinner though but less than a tenner. 
Have a bolognaise cooking now which smells yummy. I will feed DP then he's off up north for meetings till Friday. Won't know what to do with myself for two nights/ days on my own! 

redofromstart

I have messaged you. 

KajiKita

Your DP is a keeper 😊

Did you have a nice time with your friend? 

KK 

debtfreewannabe321

KajiKita said:

Your DP is a keeper 😊

Did you have a nice time with your friend? 

KK 

He certainly is 💕🥰
And yes was so weird having not seen her in all that time! I have greying hair and wrinkles starting and she was the same...so weird and all our children are either grown up or have hit teens and it is amazing how much you change in ten years! But we still had lots to talk about so that was good and she only lives about 10 mins drive from us now too. 

debtfreewannabe321

Well I went on the laptop to update YNAB as we should start getting payslips and pay soon so I need to know where to prioritise things but a survey pinged on my email. Two hours later and I was getting eye strain from non stop surveys. It's so bizarre as I haven't had a single one for over a month now from pr01ific and yet this evening they were non stop. I've £11 pending and £6 cleared. (Or thereabouts) I will wait to see what clears by the end of the week. I managed to cash out £5 from life points too this evening after a lull on that too all month?! I think I'll use survey money for either savings or mop. I'd really like to get started on those again as I don't feel like the EF will ever be done. I think it will always be a work in progress as although my target is £3k....I ideally eventually want to get it to six months worth of outgoings. So need to find MOP from somewhere as well. That's the plan anyway ...
DP is nearly at his destination up in t'north just past Newcastle. He's getting a flight up to Scotland tomorrow from somewhere up there after a meeting. He was so keen to start his job and he's already exhausted 🙈 I'm hoping it slows down after this initial spat of meetings because I'm not sure he can sustain for much longer before crashing. 

Made a nice bolognaise mix with lentils and mushrooms earlier. Ate two portions have possibly another 5-6 single portions in the freezer now. Feeling quite virtuous today for having done so many surveys and limited my spends in the shops (literally picked up peppers and closed my eyes all the way to the till) and made so many portions of dinner to freeze. Feel like I need a gold MSE sticker 😁🌟

debtfreewannabe321

Morning all, I was chasing bin men down the street in my pjs at 8.30. I wonder how long it will take for me to remember what days the bins go out .... anyway back in the nice warm house and I have done half a dozen surveys already this morning. Odd how I get none offered then they're non stop. I'll make the most of them though whilst they keep coming. I've £13.80 ready to cash out but there is £8.20 pending so I will see if they turn to ready to cash out today before taking anything. 

No payslips yet 🧐 literally tapping fingers waiting *must practice patience*

It's cold and wet outside again, I am debating gardening because I am running out of time to get these plants in the ground before frosts but I am also debating not bothering my hip is still hurting, and I can't even think how I hurt it unless it was from just being sat on the cold pathway awkwardly for so long digging and pulling up stones. 

Anywho it is just me at home today, this is very strange for me. Even when the kids go away and DP is at work I usually have the dog for company. So I'm unsure what to do with just myself. DP Isn't home until tomorrow evening! 

I am going to do my round up today as we start getting paid tomorrow. I am still trying to push back our month starting on the 1st but it hasn't really happened yet. We do have money still sat in our accounts (not much- deffo YNAB poor atm), but I don't think it is enough money to see us through a whole week.....hmmm I may go and see just how much I could pull together because *if* it is enough we could still try and set this challenge, as it would help with the broken payments coming in over the next month. 

Right okay MONEY...

I have leftover (and what I am willing to spend)
Bills account money- £105.25
Child Benefit (due on Monday) £42.55

This is enough money to buy food & any small things we need...........so I am thinking perhaps we could do this. The fridge and freezer are pretty full. Just me today and tomorrow. Not sure when the kids are home but I know it is after the weekend now so yep I think this is game face on 🤨
 
DEBT

I have also decided what I am doing about the debt. 
I will sweep all possible money to the CC this month. AND then use EF to cover disparity between the two so it will drop again to below £3k...just as we hit that magical number .
After this I will start saving the child maintenance, any survey money, any money from sales etc into the cah00t I have which is sat empty right now (this was my solicitors / EA fees account which we emptied). Once the CC is gone I will snowball all extra towards the carpet loan. Once that one is paid off we want to save to pay the car down early as the interest is astronomical. 
I will put money from the budget towards the EF each month as I usually do so that will build back up. But the Debt is a priority right now for me. I hate having it there it puts me back in the mental space I was 10 years ago with lots of debt. 

With this plan i intend to have the CC, carpet loan both paid off by Feb at the latest. Then I will snowball those payments for the most part into savings for the car. Disclaimer, this is the plan, but plans are always subject to change around these parts dependent on my mood and feelings of priority at any given time. 

SPENDING this month...

Clothes £868.13 🤐 (yes too much)
FLD £545.21
Groceries £385.53 (this is because it's only tracked from 1st to 24th, we have spent more in this 'payrun' although I think we may still be around budget of £500 but that is because....)
Dining out £122.90 (was high).
Home stuff £116.06 (RUG and a couple of other bits I needed for kitchen)
Entertainment £66.48 (tickets for events in the future)
Home maintenance £31.93 (paint and couple of other bits from t00l station)
Toiletries £172.13 (yikes!! Face creams and cleanser, new electric toothbrush, and I think there must be supplements in this this does seem to high! I will check this properly hmm yes it is too much! DP had categorised something wrong. So let me fix that...)
Toiletries £92.90 (still high but not as high as I first thought )
Unbudgeted spends £1622.30
Budgeted spends £606.84
Total spends £2229.14

Next month I have decided to budget slightly differently. Aside from trying to get to that (elusive) start date of spending money only from the 1st....I am going to budget for my dining out, entertainment, pocket money all weekly. I have already been doing our grocery spends weekly and it has worked way better. If I overspend on one week I just budget slightly less the next week. I can then play it by ear as to what we have on any given week. If this doesn't work I will try another way but I want to give it a go I think it might make us feel we have more money to play with rather than keeping it all separate. I will see what is left after paying everything and that will be our 'weekly spends' to divvy up as we see fit on eating out, pocket money, entertainment etc ....We'll see...

AND...............

 *repeat after me* Today will be a NSD!

KajiKita

Set a reminder on your phone for Wednesday evening for the bins? 
It sounds like your hip needs a) a rest,  b) Mr DP to help on the next dry weekend and c) you to pace yourself in the garden! 😉
Seeing your game face and standing with it! 👏💪😊
You’ve had a tough month spending wise. Hopefully it will calm down a bit now, as after all the two biggest costs in there were either infrequent or a one off …
Yes, today will be an NSD! 😉😊

KK

debtfreewannabe321

KajiKita said:

Set a reminder on your phone for Wednesday evening for the bins? 
It sounds like your hip needs a) a rest,  b) Mr DP to help on the next dry weekend and c) you to pace yourself in the garden! 😉
Seeing your game face and standing with it! 👏💪😊
You’ve had a tough month spending wise. Hopefully it will calm down a bit now, as after all the two biggest costs in there were either infrequent or a one off …
Yes, today will be an NSD! 😉😊

KK

I had an alarm set for this morning at 8am I need to change that now....!.... to the evening before lol. 
*today will be a nsd* still mantra-ing it! 

debtfreewannabe321

Done! I have set a reminder for brown, green and black bins THE NIGHT BEFORE they are due not on the day of

I've got a movie on, cup of tea and toast and I am still in my PJs! Unheard of for me at this time. much needed!