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

debtfreewannabe321

DS & DD were supposed to be playing a game of football today, DD pulled out last minute but DS wanted to go, we dropped him and left. He would have sulked had we stayed to watch *rolls eyes* when we went to pick him up though he was smiling and chatting to people which was nice as he can be really antisocial these days. He has seemed in an Okay mood since returning home which is good! 

Dinner went down well, I bought and toasted subway type rolls and cooked up some plant balls in some stock and water and added tomato paste with a tin of chopped tomatoes and some paprika. Thickened it all up once cooked so it was like subway type plant balls in sauce. Served it with chips and corn on the cob, clean plates all round and took less than half hour to do so I will remember this one for  a quick meal when I need it. Super cheap too, reckon each serving was only £1 much cheaper than an actual subway!

Hoping for another NSD tomorrow. 
Feeling a bit drowsy this evening so going to chill with a movie and the dog whilst DP is in the office working on something he is fixing to sell. I took a hay fever tablet earlier but it is clearly a drowsy one and I need to remember to take it before bed rather than at lunchtime in future

slm6002

Glad to hear DS is being a nice human being after being with XH for a week

debtfreewannabe321

Me too @slm6002 !!

beanielou

7 hours is a LONG time!

debtfreewannabe321

beanielou said:

7 hours is a LONG time!

Yeh you're telling me I was exhausted afterwards!

debtfreewannabe321

Morning all, well does anyone else have this crazy wind and rain today? It was battering our windows whilst we were still in bed and keeps coming and going. Trees look like they are bending in half, blue skies one minute then grey washout the next. Rain, wind, stop, start....eh?! 

I have finally got enough on my pr0l1f1c to cashout *woo*. I had a flurry of surveys coming in one after the other thankfully. Signed up for a long term one too although not sure if I will bother with it yet as it means swapping my food shop to elsewhere for them to track it and the payout isn't huge.

I am working my budget out for next month still, we are obviously going to be short of my wages- £440-500 per month. I am feeling a bit panicky about it, DP seems to think we will be OK. He had a pay rise so after tax that's probably £100 there. So £340 to find minimum....his bonus is due also this month and after tax that might be £1000-1200. His bonus is due every three months, so if I divide that up into three that is 333- 400 there.....in which case we will be ok. But if his bonus isn't as much as we hoped or his mileage is high then we will be short... It's a waiting game now for the payslips to be honest.

We used to use this bonus to splurge on big ticket items we were waiting to buy, or days out or overdrafts, and CC and DIY...so it is a new thing for us to use this in the budget divvied up every month. Last bonus was January and I used that to get our savings pots going, which was really helpful and a massive boost to our morale to see them grow so quickly. I feel a bit sad we can't do that again and have to use it for every day things instead. I am still job hunting though so we may be able to use the next one for doing this. 

So rough budget done:
Income will be made up from child benefit, maintenance, bonus divided by 3, and DP wages. I work this out to be approx £2900 minimum. 

Outgoings:
Household bills including mortgage £935
Food inc. dog food                           £520
Savings pots                                    £700
Kids expenses                                 £300
Personal                                          £200
Loan & debt                                     £150 
Entertainment                                  £50
Float                                                £45
(figures all rounded up to nearest 5 or 10 so there may be some extra)

This does not include any direct MOP. It does include emergency funds (150) clothes (50) MOP saver (300), birthdays & christmas (150), health (50). So there is the savings account for MOP but nothing going over and above that like before. If nothing else I am grateful we can do that but I would like to still aim for direct MOP per month equal or greater to the interest charged per month. We have surpassed that this month by a fair bit so if we don't manage it next month it won't be so bad. 

I intend to make the money for the direct MOP by doing surveys, selling bits online, DP selling his electrical bits he has in the garage that he's working on and any other ways I can think of like saving money on the grocery budget (total fail this month let's hope I do better next time)

skint_spice

Crazy weather here too, you have my sympathies. I got a load of washing dry yesterday morning but it has rained ever since!

I need to stick to my grocery budget too and stop being tempted by things I don’t need.

debtfreewannabe321

Ah, disaster! We have run out of bread Okay not quite a disaster but because we had SO much frozen I just assumed we still had a tonne of it when I went shopping the other day. Not so. None left. I am doing roasted chickpeas with a side of naan instead of beans on toast for lunch  
Need to pop out for bread then....I have got dinners for the next two nights out the freezer, cottage pie and tofu. Hoping one or the other is defrosted in time for dinner. I forgot to get it out first thing.
I have lots of surveys pending but I have reached my payout threshold already. I think I will leave it for a while longer and see if any more clear before requesting the money. Not much planned for today it is so cold and windy out there I am really glad I did the garden already. I think some small DIY jobs like finishing the painting and the frames I was painting and potter around the house, hoping it will dry up a bit so I can get to the shops and back without being blown away too. 

beanielou

skint_spice said:

Crazy weather here too, you have my sympathies. I got a load of washing dry yesterday morning but it has rained ever since!

I need to stick to my grocery budget too and stop being tempted by things I don’t need.

Exactly this on all points from me too. 

beanielou

If it’s any consolation I am out of milk too & food delivery is not until Wednesday.