LJ's Mortgage free road to early retirement

LouiseJ

First grocery shop of the year so I am planning the meals for the week, quite difficult as Hubby doesnt like lots of things but I am going to try and think of meals that we will all eat.

I also need to take into account food at work. The boys and OH take a packed lunch but I have recently been guilty of buying stuff from the refectory which is expensive and usually pretty dismal.

We have a microwave in the staff room and a boiler so I am thinking perhaps homemade chilli or jacket pots that I can pre cook and just re-heat? Any other ideas would be welcome:)

Meals for the week will be:
Mon - leftover chicken made into a curry with rice(make extra rice for Tues dinner)
Tues- Sweet and sour Pork (done in slow cooker)with rice
Wed - Breaded Chicken with chips (I will have egg and SW chips)
Thurs - Plaice and chips with peas (DS2 can have indiviual pizza in freezer)
Friday - Homemade Pizza (OH can have the last pie that is in the freezer)

I will also batch cook a veg chilli to take into work.

LouiseJ

Absolutely delighted with my food bill this week. Total came to £63 which includes some toiletries (I tried the brand shiftdown challenge).

Quite a lot of our regular buys were on special and I got some fantastic whoops bargains:
6 ciabatta rolls - 10p:j
3 packs of fresh baked chocolate chip cookies 20p:D

we have each had a hot beef ciabatta roll for early dinner so might have a bowl of gravy and chips later and save the roast chicken to make another meal during the week;)

If I can stay away from the supermarket for the rest of the week I will be well within my £75 budget.

Off out for a walk in a bit to burn off the half a cookie I have just scoffed.

Pennypincher2

Dear Louise,
I really enjoy your thread, you do really well and manage your money fantastically.

I don't know how you manage to shop on £200 per month for 4 of you and in the past, it is no surprise when you have over spent cos it is almost impossible to manage on so little and feed em.

Keep up the good work cos it is you and others like you (the pioneers and ground breakers) that really inspire.

Bye PP (in training)

LouiseJ

Welcome to the tread PP2:)

I have now given myself a budget of £300 a month but would love to get it down as low as £250.

If it was only me I would quite happily live on veggies and pasta.

tootallulah

Louise I really enjoy your thread and think that you are doing brilliantly, good luck for the year ahead.

gallygirl

LouiseJ wrote: »

Cheques are written out all ready to post and I have hit a major milestone in my challenge.......

The additional borrowing account is now completely paid off:j

This leaves me with only one account to tackle for the next 2 years of the challenge. I now feel completely debt free as up to now this additional borrowing account has been a ghostly reminder of the major debt problems that we had.

Well done LJ, that must feel great :T:T:T:T:T

LouiseJ

It does Gallygirl, I can actually see the finish line in sight 24 months left until mortgage freeness:j

Plans for today include a nice drive out to a country park for a long walk and taking rubbish to the dump.

Last day before going back to work tomorrow so I am going to sqeeze as much as possible into today so I can relax in a nice bubble bath tonight knowing everything is organised.:D

LouiseJ

Back to work on full throttle! So busy and the days do fly by. This is a difficult hard slog of a term which is always a dangerous time for overspending due to tiredness, lack of time and lack of planning.

So far so good with the groceries, I did spend £11 on a tray of lager for OH and £14 today on a top up shop but everyting I bought was on the the half price deals in Mozza's and are all things that we eat regularly.

Every day OH has a packet of fridge raiders in his packed lunch for a mid morning snack which are quite expensive at £1.15 in Asda a pack they were on special at 59p in Mozza's so I have bought next weeks suppy:D

Tomorrow evenings dinner is always a dangerzone so I have precooked a roast chicken (which is a slight deviation from the meal plan) and will have some oven chips, peas and gravy with it.

Cyril

Hi,

Just wanted to pop by and say I've loved reading your thread. Its amazing how you've had the motivation to keep going as most of us start with a good idea / plan and they get sidelined so quickly at the first hurdle / Next sale

Keep up the good work.

LouiseJ

Thanks for that Cyril, pop in anytime:)

Popped into MrT's tonight as OH had decided not to go out with his pals but have a night in with a couple of bottles of Leffe lager, spend almost £20 on speciality beer a few groceries and mobile top up.

Bank account balance is £357 after drawing out £100 cash to last the week. Its definitely going to be a struggle but seeing the mortgage cheques clear today has really spurred me on:j

Going to update my signature to take account of the overpayments now they have cleared the account.:D

As of today Mortgage stands at £32745