Staying on track to be MF and ready to support my daughter at 18

ElmoR · 3 January 2019 at 10:47AM

Now you mention it frayed knot, I have seen other people ask only for a cup of hot water at the work cafes.

Work place drinks are one of my weaknesses - sometimes colleagues invite you for a coffee and then they are diving into the cakes too. I seem to be able to resist the cakes but not the coffees. It's a hard habit to kick. I do like peppermint tea though, so I could take a box of those into work next week...

Thanks for your tips and encouragement!

Cheery_Daff · 3 January 2019 at 7:07PM

Welcome ElmoR, and thanks for popping over to my thread and being nice

Excellent goals to aim for, and it sounds like you are well on the way! :j :j We have a tea kitty at work - pay 20p for a cuppa and whoever is going past the shop tops up the teabags as and when needed :j But that requires access to a kettle which it sounds like you don't have...

Can you nip outside for a walk at lunchtime rather than sitting in the common room? Would any of your colleagues be willing to join you either walking or sitting somewhere else? I bet if you added up what you spent on drinks over the year and told them they might want to save it too!

Good luck with your journey :j

pinknsparkly · 3 January 2019 at 7:23PM

I was going to suggest the same thing as Cheery Daff - eat at your desk and then go for a walk in your lunchtime (or take your lunch with you and find somewhere to eat it)! Bonus points: you'll be burning calories instead of eating them!!

A_Frayed_Knot · 3 January 2019 at 10:22PM

ElmoR wrote: »

Now you mention it frayed knot, I have seen other people ask only for a cup of hot water at the work cafes.

Work place drinks are one of my weaknesses - sometimes colleagues invite you for a coffee and then they are diving into the cakes too. I seem to be able to resist the cakes but not the coffees. It's a hard habit to kick. I do like peppermint tea though, so I could take a box of those into work next week...

Thanks for your tips and encouragement!

Excellent news, even just trying it for a week, and every time you have a peppermint tea instead of a coffee, would be nice to put the money you would have spent on a coffee into a jar, then end of the week, How much will you be o/p

I take in my own biscuits too, a double

kit k@t, a few digestives, or even a bit of cake, just something to munch on, as they say, a drinks too wet without one (biscuit) :rotfl:kerching, kerching:)

[Deleted User] · 4 January 2019 at 10:17AM

Hi ElmoR

Im also in a position where I need to save for my daughter when she turns 18 (she turned 16 last week - where have the years gone!). I have some saved in her CTF but would like to put more in, hence the need to get rid of the mortgage asap!

With regard work drinks and food, we also have a "coffee break culture" personally I just take a bottle of water with me (that I refill from the tap) and tell people I don't do hot drinks which always gets a "ooh aren't you good" type response lol if only they knew!

ElmoR · 4 January 2019 at 10:47AM

Hi Pinknsparkly

Eating at my desk seems a bit sad but is likely going to be the best option, followed by a lunch time walk afterwards. I start back at work next week...will report back on how it goes with trying out the new routine...:j could tie it in with a daily 10000 steps goal maybe.

[Deleted User], hi too!

Sounds like you are one year ahead of us, my daughter is just coming up to 15. Life seems to be so much harder now for young people, I worry for them. We did the CTF scheme too and am just considering transferring it into a junior ISA (there are some 3%+ interest rates available) to protect it from possible stock market drops over the next few years?!

There is a very strong work coffee culture at my workplace. One of the big chains has a franchise there with 5 outlets dotted around, lots of marketing images everywhere too. No kettles allowed in your office (health and safety):eek:.

A frayed knot - I do confess to having emergency chocolate in my desk drawer:)

And thanks again Cheery Daff

ElmoR · 7 January 2019 at 6:14PM

First update of the new year, still not sure if I'm subscribing to threads etc correctly or not?!

Today was the first work place spend challenge and passed with flying colours. Took my own rice lunch in plus snacks. I also had some coffee bags that had been a gift to use instead of buying from the cafe. A NSD at work, possibly a first. 4 more days to go...

I want to try really hard to keep it up for the month, which seems to be a very long one...I was down slightly on the O/P that I aimed to make and want to try to make it up by being careful over the next few weeks...

Put my fitness tracker back on too - I took it off in August when I felt a bit down and couldn't be bothered with it. Will aim to get 10K steps a day. A lunch time walk has helped bump it over 8k.

Some of the threads on here are infectious, I swear.

Mojisola · 7 January 2019 at 6:22PM

ElmoR wrote: »

For me, loans etc have always been the 'never never' and I would not have gone to university if it involved loans or fees

I don't want my daughter to feel weighed down by those debts should she decide to go to uni.

I want to be able to help her.

Have you read Martin's stuff on student loans? Your daughter would benefit far more from having savings to put towards a house deposit and such-like than having her uni costs paid by you.

Cheery_Daff · 7 January 2019 at 8:37PM

Well done on your first NSD at work! :j :j :j Most excellent

I agree with Mojisola - do go and have a read of Martin's stuff about student loans. I know it *feels* like a burden, and it's better not to have loans at all in general - student loans are quite different. They take a percentage of your salary over a certain amount before you even get taxed. I only paid mine off last year (I'm 38 now) but didn't pay anything til I earned over £21,000, and then only 9% of anything I earned over that. Negligible amounts until I started earning much more, at which point I didn't really notice it too much anyway. Nice to have it now I've paid it off mind you!

Anyway, well done on getting your fitness tracker sorted again!

As for subscribing to threads - have you subscribed to your own? There should be a list of the ones you subscribe to on your user control panel - they'll pop up when there's a new post. What makes you think you haven't subscribed?

ElmoR · 7 January 2019 at 9:15PM

Thanks Moji and Cheery for your replies.

I do indeed understand how the uni loans work and it only being worthwhile paying the tuition fees if you expect to do a degree that earns big time once you graduate, like medicine for example.
I'd like to help her with living costs, getting a foot on the property market ladder, that kind of thing.
Do you know, I didn't subscribe to my own thread! Duh. Not really a technical whizz at online stuff. It took me weeks to work out some of the common abbreviations used too! And now I can't find the cool cartoon emojis either, arrgghhhhhhhh.

Staying on track to be MF and ready to support my daughter at 18

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