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

beanielou

Is the sticky cauliflower easy to make? 

debtfreewannabe321

beanielou said:

Is the sticky cauliflower easy to make? 

The first few times I made it I would say no but I have all the ingredients now and make it quite often so I can easily throw it together these days, and substitute if I need to. once you've measured out all the ingredients I think it is quite easy to do, time consuming part is waiting for the cauliflower to bake. It's in my faves as it's one of DP's faves....Asian Cauliflower {Sticky Sesame Cauliflower} - The Big Man's World ®
I've tried a few recipes and this was the easiest one I have found that we like. We serve with sesame seeds and chopped spring onions on rice x

debtfreewannabe321

I cashed out £5 survey money and it should go to the SBF but I wanted to check and make sure I am paying the right mortgage account when sending payments over every month for OPs ...so I sent it straight to there instead. I will make sure it lands properly (probably tomorrow now) before declaring the OP. Once I have the shortcut set up to send money across successfully I can send the monthly OP over to it too  

redofromstart

Thank you for sharing that recipe. I really like the sound of it. GF flour needed but I have everything else

like you I think I can cope with small amounts of wheat and regret it. 

debtfreewannabe321

redofromstart said:

Thank you for sharing that recipe. I really like the sound of it. GF flour needed but I have everything else

like you I think I can cope with small amounts of wheat and regret it. 

I also need the GF flour! I was using normal flour before. 

debtfreewannabe321

Morning all, today's plans are to spend an hour in the garden weeding. Then have a quick dust around the house...it's looking slightly neglected in areas 🙈. I need to see what I have for dinner and pop to the shops if I need to... we're running low on most things now but I'm hoping I can pull one more dinner together. However- great news we did make it to the end of the month without touching next months money - even though it's been in our accounts for a week! Woop!

I'm due my pay and maintenance tomorrow. DP is due his expenses to be paid on Monday. So we will have some more money to budget with there. I've set up a monthly OP of £60 from my account every month now that I've tested the OP payment to the small account 😃 (it arrived this morning). I would love to up that to £100 but baby steps at the moment. My EF matures tomorrow too so will report back with whether I've hit that elusive £3k target!

I am going to sit down and do a paper budget this morning. I use a paper budget to show me where I'm usually messing up YNAB 🙄 I've unlinked my main account from there now as that was very slow to reconcile and then wasn't linking things I had put in manually with the bank....if I hadn't have paid for the year already I'm not sure I'd still be using it. 

Need to make a shopping list today too as will definitely need to go shopping tomorrow for food. 
Might decorate the house - well the porch- for trick or treaters as we did buy some sweets in. DD usually does it but isn't interested this year. 🙁 They're growing up.... DS was never bothered but DD used to love decorating for every holiday. Nevermind I will do it and get the pumpkin out that she carved (she at least did that as I'm allergic to pumpkin so hated doing them when kids were younger). 
Right ... I'm off to get dressed. I have some fab Halloween leggings that need pulling out from last year 😁😁😁🎃🎃🎃

debtfreewannabe321

Window cleaner I think is going to be sacked before he's even started. Another no show. I will use the cash I took out for him as grocery money. I have run out of washing up liquid and also a couple of other bits that now escape my mind. I can make a dhal as I have lentils and potatoes, I will also get a pepper and onions from the shop to go with it. 

I have done my budget (on paper) and worked out bills, debt, savings, wants. The whole purpose of moving was to create a better work life balance for all of us so I have allocated more cash to savings (future proofing us), and wants categories (now fun) without guilt! We had an exceptionally good pay month considering I was thinking it would be under our usual! It was actually a couple of grand OVER. So with that in mind this may change next month when it all evens out again. 
So for now bills/needs is at 44% of this month's income (including £150 to get a DIY project started 👏, and the very large car insurance pay off of £430+).

The debt is at 32% because we are paying off the entire CC (some of this is work expense though and we have received circa £400 to pay that off).

The savings is at only 8% because I used the SBF (snowball fund) to immediately pay off the car insurance that was costing us 11.9% -so that payment could be put in savings and/or debt/ bills...I put it in bills as that is where it was coming from every month. Included in savings is my MOP too.

Wants is at 14% which isn't as high as it apparently should be on the needs/wants/savings calculator but I don't mind as this is actually the highest we have ever had it. I have included in this section tickets I am buying for concerts in the future that I pay via klarna 0% pay in three thing.

I still have £100 leftover but I think DP has committed some of that so I left it as spare. I think he deserves it this month  
I will do money shuffles in a little while so everything is in the right place for tomorrow when the first lot of bills come out. 
We are off out tomorrow evening for a tribute band show, should be really fun and tickets are paid for so I am looking forward to that. I will feed kids before I go and I might try and get a last minute online shopping delivery slot this evening for tomorrow so I haven't got to go out and get it. 

Watty1

Just catching up. I'm saving the cauliflower dish for when the cupboards run down as  it looks really good!   Also I used to have a 4 week rolling menu plan and it really did work.  When I've finally cleared the cupboards I will get back to that.

debtfreewannabe321

Just been to Mr T and got a few extra sweets for T or T later on, some fruit, some washing up liquid and some milk & bread as we were out - and we had the bonus £20 back into October's budget thanks to window cleaner no shows (i've messaged and told him to not bother now). I spent £19.51 and had the rudest man serving me, I usually let it go as someone having a bad day but honestly he scanned every item and dropped it on the packing side as if in disgust of it all. What is wrong with some people. He did the same to my change and my receipt I've sent a WA to Mr T to complain - I am not happy. I always seem to attract the rude people too. He didn't respond to my hello- fine whatever, nor my question as to whether the clubC had gone through, he didn't look at me at all in fact 😵‍💫😯 

Anyway I am back. I will try and do some money shuffles in a bit but I need DP attention and this entire last month his attention has been on work, even when not in work. He's keen to impress I know but sometimes I need his input and it's hard to pin him down atm. I will probably just get his phone and do it myself actually that will be easiest. Some interest has been paid onto my YBS, it didn't look like enough to me though perhaps I worked it out wrong as to what I thought it *should* be? It is 6% supposedly but I didn't see that much on there. I will wait until tomorrow as it did say it fully matures 1st Nov but I think it has already gone on? And only £33.66? on £1500? Does that seem right? My maths isn't the best maybe I worked it out wrong. 

I emailed new job but heard nothing back yet as to where, when, what is happening. Feeling like they have perhaps forgotten about me? Will wait to see what HR says.

Right I am going to do some raking in the garden, DD is decorating the house better late than never. DP is on yet another teams call (he doesn't even get more than 10 minutes for lunch these days either). DS is probably still sleeping  

LadyWithAPlan

debtfreewannabe321 said:

I suspect you are just a bit sensitised atm - hopefully it will calm down as your gut heals … 🤞

Me too...I actually spoke to DP earlier about this and am getting a little fed up with my choice of foods getting smaller, I am debating getting some chickens again in the new year for the garden, we had them before and they were such fun characters I might add eggs back into my diet if I have my own chickens....also am tempted to look into keeping a bee hive 🤔

Hugs for FLD’s return … Are you planning on scattering him somewhere or will you plant him in the garden? ❤️

I am thinking perhaps putting some in the garden but will have to decide where yet and under what  

@suffolk_lass knows loads about beekeeping, I think there is a thread on here about it as well

So sorry re FLD

On the YNAB, recurring transactions you can set as 'repeat' so each month you can see them coming up even if the amount might vary slightly so you dont need to add each month. (i can dm you screenshots if you need but basically either do shift T  when ior in the more section of an expense you can set as 'make repeating' on the basis you need.)

On irregular spending I manually immediately add all transactions into all my accounts  anyway as it makes you see the spending and move any overspend from another category immediately. So then slow bank updates dont worry me as I already added all in. I often just stand in the shop entrance and quickly add my spend into ynab. Also helps with big shopping and xmas as it halts the massive overspend when you see your category funds go down between each shop.

YNAB is as much as about clarity, reflection, self-education  and feeling in control  as its  about budgeting and I have not found another way of budgeting that really pushes that YNAB poor feeling in the same way. I always would cheat on my paper budgets but YNAB wont let me  
I would email the support team where things dont add up as I do think ynab worth the sometimes difficult first few months.,