The ups, downs, and occasional sideways bits of trying to be mortgage free

Monthly recap:

Good things

I drastically cut back on spending in cafes. I'm a terror for suggesting 'afternoon tea' to the DDs as part of a day out or to soften the tedium of running errands with me. Now they're both back at school that was going to go down anyway, but I was still doing it too often. Once a week is my new rule, a single coffee and cake only.
Ditto spending on lunches. I said this upthread, but my habit was to justify things I bought in the supermarket as being cheaper than 'eating out' and therefore just 'part of the groceries' but really I was popping in to pick up a green juice, a pie, some biscuits and maybe a bag of cashews or trail mix, and before I knew it that was $15 which is more than I'd spend on a nice filled roll and a coffee! I cut this out entirely this month, go me.
Managed lots of cheap weekends. When you're budgeting you really notice the lack of options to entertain the kids without spending money, don't you? There's only so many 'nature walks' and 'let's play in the garden' you can do. But we've not been shopping-for-shopping's-sake all month.
Got hold of the budget. This is the biggest thing by FAR.

Bad things/Goals

I think we can do far better on groceries still, and I also need to re train the DDs a bit. This morning I got complaints that we were out of cornflakes (5 other breakfast options to choose from, mind), that the wraps I'd bought were wholemeal not white, and that one of them had gone off both ham and cheese so it was salami or nothing. Oh and yesterday DD2 didn't even touch her wrap, which I'd made with the last of the salami because see above, because "I looked at it and it looked green and that was gross". The green was lettuce.
Anyway. I'm trying out Ald!, and if I can save enough from the grocery budget over the next two months I'll do a bulk buy meat order from the local butcher.
This month I'm aiming for $1000 on groceries: I usually manage $1200 if I'm a bit careful, so this feels like a stretch.
Expand the repertoire of low cost family activities.
Start running 3 times a week again. This has nothing to do with money saving, but there we go.

I've been playing around with whatsthecost, and if I want this mortgage gone by my 50th birthday (completely arbitrary date, but it's as good as any) I need to overpay by $1200/month, paying $2200 in total.

I can't do that on my current budget without making life very miserable for the whole family for eleven years!

However, my budget doesn't take into account the fact that all the costs involved with running my Mum's unit are tax deductible, so both DH and I get a decent tax return at the end of the year. If that's the same amount as last year it'll be $8K. It's not as good as paying monthly, but it should mean [back of an envelope calculations] that instead of overpaying $14,400 over the year, I only have to find - let's call it $7K because I'm rounding up to allow for the extra interest. So that's about $600/month.

I think I can do that. I'm also still building up my business: at the moment I pay $2K from my business account into the home account every month, but once my income levels out, I will increase that to $2.5K, and hopefully in a year or two $3K. I always earn more than the $2K (plus tax) but I'm keeping some aside so I can reinvest in getting higher paid work: otherwise I end up on a treadmill of being too busy with low paid jobs to find anything better.

Okay! Look at me and my concrete goals! Let's slash $600/month off the budget!

Thing Already Done: DH cancelled his life insurance, we're just waiting for the confirmation that the policy's ended, so that's $71 gone.
Thing Being Attempted: I'm trying to get the grocery budget down by $200/month.
Next Target: Mobile phones and internet, we have to look into bundling and see if we can reduce. Together, they currently cost a huge $220/month. Stay tuned!
Other Next Target: Build up business to the point where I'm throwing $2.5K into the budget monthly.

NSD yesterday :T but it won't be one today: I'm meeting a friend for lunch who lives interstate and I only see 2 or 3 times a year at most. I also bought a secondhand Gorman skirt for $65 on an online resale group: I'm experimenting this year with buying secondhand versions of good, expensive brands, instead of spending the same money on something new but cheap, in the hopes that it'll stay in good condition for longer and end up better value. And DD2 has decided she wants to try tap instead of ballet, so I've had to source her some secondhand shoes: if they fit they'll be $15 and I'm pretty sure I can sell them on again. The rest of the costume is the same so no extra costs involved. And I forced DH to go to the osteo this evening by making him an appointment and presenting it as a fait accompli, because I'm sick of him complaining about his aches and pains and doing nothing about it. He has scoliosis, which leaves him vulnerable to muscle strains and other problems, and there always seems to be something giving him pain.

Lets hope that's it for spending. This month was on track to be slightly easier than last month UNTIL: I was feeling super organised the other day and set up some direct debits to come out quarterly on a repeat basis. Except that I messed it up and so two lots of quarterly council rates came out on the same day: almost $1000 :eek::eek::eek:

I did toy with ringing the council and asking for a refund, but I decided to try and get through the month anyway and hopefully enjoy having a six month break from that particular cost! It means my entire discretionary fund is gone for this month, and I've not added to the savings pots. I'll make it up next month.

(Lucky I didn't schedule two years' worth of DDs on the same day! Can you imagine?)

Vegetarian lasagne for this evening is all made up and wrapped in foil waiting to go into the oven. This forum is so full of well organised women who keep their homes clean and their dinners made that it inspires me to try harder. We'll see how long this lasts, but the family is definitely benefiting from my attempts at the moment!