Taking it slowly, but doing it well.

wishingthemortgaheaway · 22 March 2018 at 11:11PM

Long long day as usual when I'm travelling and not a nsd (despite the fact Work picked up the tab for lunch) I bought breakfast at the train station. Only £3 and I enjoyed it. So I'm not going to complain about that. I took drinks and snacks for the rest of the day though. I did have a bit of a 'I'm going to buy lunch, it's not going to be a nsd, I might as well buy breakfast' moment. But I'm not going to dwell on it further.

I got lots of lovely compliments from my boss, which is a real change from the end of my teaching days and she accepts the fact I can't do my job on the hours I've got, so she's going to get the trustees to approve an extra chunk of time. It may take a while to wind its way through the system, but I'll get it eventually.

Other than that, taxi spends are expenses, so reclaimable. And nothing else spent.
Signed the form for my work credit card. Only a £500 limit, but I can cope with that.
2 days of the 1p a day challenge and still got £21 in my purse of the cash I had this morning. So that should be enough for whatever we decide to do with Mum and dad tomorrow.

Oh, it looks like all the stuff for my bank account switch, new credit card and isa card have come through. Must sort that tomorrow (although it won't actually switch until the start of April.)

Wish

mse March Goals

1) Mop Pot
Target 1: next brick on the countdown house
£50.97/£50.97 :j :j
Target 2: monthly interest payment
£13.52/£13.52 :j :j
Target 3: mfw March target
£145.51/£145.51 :j :j
Target 4: new 2018 target (to catch up on January's low payment)
£7.34/£7.34 :j :j
Extra.....£797.15
Total: £1014.49 :j :j :j

2) Emergency fund growth
£250/£150 :j. (Due to a bit of 'wamming' this is now 'full' at £2k) :j

3) nsds
13/16

4) 1p a day challenge
31/31 :j I'm up to around day 145 of this challenge. But that's because I've done some of the most expensive days from the end of the year in Feb.

5) save the £2 coins (update monthly)

6) get in size 14 jeans (update monthly)

wishingthemortgaheaway · 23 March 2018 at 8:41PM

A lovely lovely nsd (for me today) despite the fact we asked Mum and dad to come over for some wrap around child care help they wanted to take Pickle and I out for a lovely day. We went to a free museum on the bus - they used their passes, I used an e-ticket left on the bus company app from where I prepaid for several a while ago.
Museum free Mum& dad paid for mid morning coffee and lunch. Pickle fell asleep in the pushchair on the way home and slept until we woke him at 3. It was a challenge to wake him.
Then we (Mum, Pickle and me) made apple crumble to go with tea tonight and a bread pudding to use up the stale sourdough and wholemeal bread. No idea if it will Work or not (never having made Bread pudding with those breads before) but, I 'shopped from Home' for the ingredients and, if it works, I'll have more lovely cake for the freezer.

Not sure what's happening tomorrow, I've got a meeting at lunchtime (boo to it being on a Saturday, but couldn't be helped this week) which rather limits options.

So, nsd status currently wobblingat a 50% chance for tomorrow.

Mum and dad heading off, so I'll need to blitz the house and do lots of washing.

I'm still very tired after yesterday but, in other mse/mfw news:

I've signed the transfer form for my isa, the debit card for my new current account has arrived, letter from the occupational pension scheme saying I've successfully enrolled, payslip from work confirming that I'm enrolled in the pension(they've taken the money from me) so now I'm much more certain about what my monthly Pay will actually be (now tax isn't taken but pension is)

I've not done a '1p a day challenge' day yet as the iPad needs charging, but I may do later. I just want to go to bed.

Hope everyone else is having more fun than me on this Friday night.

Wish

mse March Goals

1) Mop Pot
Target 1: next brick on the countdown house
£50.97/£50.97 :j :j
Target 2: monthly interest payment
£13.52/£13.52 :j :j
Target 3: mfw March target
£145.51/£145.51 :j :j
Target 4: new 2018 target (to catch up on January's low payment)
£7.34/£7.34 :j :j
Extra.....£797.15
Total: £1014.49 :j :j :j

2) Emergency fund growth
£250/£150 :j. (Due to a bit of 'wamming' this is now 'full' at £2k) :j

3) nsds
14/16

4) 1p a day challenge
31/31 :j I'm up to around day 145 of this challenge. But that's because I've done some of the most expensive days from the end of the year in Feb.

5) save the £2 coins (update monthly)

6) get in size 14 jeans (update monthly)

wishingthemortgaheaway · 24 March 2018 at 9:07PM

Not a nsd today as hubby used the grocery budget to buy some essential groceries - milk (I'm going to have to start watering this down!!, or, another thread I've read today suggested using powdered milk in cooking - I may give that a go, Yorkshire puddings, custard and white sauce is knocking my predictions out. )
We also needed tissues, poor, poorly Pickle and his snotty nose and granulated sugar - hubby didn't tell me he was running low -it's only used in his coffee.
So shopping plus tilly tidy means £3 left in the grocery pot for the week, and hubby is home for most of the week 'squeak squeak' everyone.

My new rewards credit card has arrived with a £5k limit, I was only expecting £500 I've set up the online account, so can start earning some reward points really soon. (Although not too soon as I don't actually like spending Money)

I've done 4days of the 1p a day challenge (as I didn't get any done yesterday)

I've fed the sourdough starter to prevent emergency bread buying as the week goes on.

Also, sorted out the downstairs freezer (under counter size but chest style) it now contains: the freezer packs for the cool bag, a few bread rolls and Cake, masses and masses of cake! Upstairs freezer has plenty of meat, hopefully enough to keep us going into April, some freezer meals (but I've run out of takeaway/Tupperware pots due to the amount of cake in the freezer) and LOADS of soup.

Mount washmore is being dealt with (thank you to whoever I've stolen that from) tidying, sorting and filing needs doing. And knitting needs rescuing. We had a bit of a disaster yesterday. A 'gone completely wrong neckband' to sort out.

I hope everyone is having a lovely evening.

Wish

mse March Goals

1) Mop Pot
Target 1: next brick on the countdown house
£50.97/£50.97 :j :j
Target 2: monthly interest payment
£13.52/£13.52 :j :j
Target 3: mfw March target
£145.51/£145.51 :j :j
Target 4: new 2018 target (to catch up on January's low payment)
£7.34/£7.34 :j :j
Extra.....£797.15
Total: £1014.49 :j :j :j

2) Emergency fund growth
£250/£150 :j. (Due to a bit of 'wamming' this is now 'full' at £2k) :j

3) nsds
14/16

4) 1p a day challenge
35/31 :j I'm up to around day 145 of this challenge. But that's because I've done some of the most expensive days from the end of the year in Feb.

5) save the £2 coins (update monthly)

6) get in size 14 jeans (update monthly)

wishingthemortgaheaway · 25 March 2018 at 9:41PM

I've finally sat down for the day (feels more like an hour later than earlier) I do have to keep getting up as I've got some sourdough loaves on the go.

Today has been church, prepping dinner, messy church and then a crazy evening of trying to be super woman (and very nearly succeeding if I do say so myself. )

Not a nsd - needed bread and milk (hence the mass bread baking session tonight for the rest of the week) I paid cash though, so no effect on the bank balance.

2 days of the 1p a day challenge done and associated tilly tidies completed.

All washing done and some was line dried today. Had to do an 'extra' load today (stuff that didn't make a full load) as the cat decided to vom a hair ball in the washing basket)

Yesterday evening I started stripping the wallpaper from our bedroom. Hubby having a bit of a fit- he hates diy, hence why we've lived here for 13 years and we've still not decorated/finished the house. It all came off really easily, just a couple of stubborn bits to steam off.

Need to get our plasterer in to advise what plaster work we need doing. - this will affect my off set mortgage pot, but I don't care, it will make the equity in the house more, which kind of has the same effect.

Hubby has a day off tomorrow, so, rather than going out, I suggested we had a gardening day, get some planting done and the yards tidied up. Hubby also has to accept the ts&cs of the mortgage fix, he's just tried now, but the website won't let you do it after 9pm on a Sunday grrrrrr.

Hubby has also put april's housekeeping in the joint account, I've entered it into ynab, but now need to do the money shuffles, so the money is in the right account.

Can't remember whether I've told you all this or not but....

Broadband/tv deal comes to an end, have resigned on the same ts&cs, just need to do the line rental saver tomorrow. (Shame the discount isn't as good as it used to be)
I'm out of contract on my mobile, so I've gone sim only, more data, less money. When it all settles down, the savings from this is going to be added to the car maintenance/ eventual replacement pot.

I also need to spend some time on the ynab desk top this week adding my new accounts (have changed the PIN numbers on the cards today so I'll actually remember them) and I need to add a sinking fund for my amaz0n prime as I've realised I don't have one. Oops. It will be fine. I'm good at juggling the budget.

I think that's all from my ramblings tonight. Need to fold the doughs and rest them once more (I think) then it's bed time before baking them in the morning.

Happy week everyone.
Wish

mse March Goals

1) Mop Pot
Target 1: next brick on the countdown house
£50.97/£50.97 :j :j
Target 2: monthly interest payment
£13.52/£13.52 :j :j
Target 3: mfw March target
£145.51/£145.51 :j :j
Target 4: new 2018 target (to catch up on January's low payment)
£7.34/£7.34 :j :j
Extra.....£797.15
Total: £1014.49 :j :j :j

2) Emergency fund growth
£250/£150 :j. (Due to a bit of 'wamming' this is now 'full' at £2k) :j

3) nsds
14/16

4) 1p a day challenge
37/31 :j I'm up to around day 145 of this challenge. But that's because I've done some of the most expensive days from the end of the year in Feb.

5) save the £2 coins (update monthly)

6) get in size 14 jeans (update monthly)

wishingthemortgaheaway · 26 March 2018 at 10:02PM

The weather today has been lovely. The three of us tidied out the back and front yards, I cleaned the bbq while hubby and pickle played kickabout. Then we went to the garden centre where we let Pickle choose a plant (pink primrose I think) oh picked up some bedding plants, compost and grit and we came home. Plants are all planted out, so it's all looking a bit more spring like. I've removed the play pen from the back yard, it was a life saver last summer when everything went in Pickle's mouth, but he won't be caged anymore. I have put it on a local fb group for £10, no nibbles yet, so will try the boot sale app.

I had to fill my car up today £53 I was hoping I wouldn't need to fill it up this month, but I've got an hour's drive to some training tomorrow. I'm going to let the surplus roll over into next month though as I have a week away with work so will need to fuel up a couple of times. I'm fully expecting to go over budget next month, but I will be reimbursed by about £250 after the Work trip.

2 white place and a sourdough completed today. The white is lovely, but didnt rise as well as I'd hoped. Also make a
Banana loaf from some 'past it nanas' I hat banana loaf, so hubby and Pickle has better eat it.

Grocery pot emptied thanks to a
Quick trip to mr A's - run out of my naughty caffineated drink - not essential, but nice to have. Picked up an egg for hubby and some bits to make Easter Krispie cakes for Pickle's
Childminder friend's.

This Is going to sound ridiculous but.. the £1 eggs in mr A were huge and more than I wanted to give as a little Easter pressie, they looked too much (ok, really not making sense!) I would have been happy paying £1 per child, but it just seemed over the top. Hence the Krispie cakes. It's a good job I've got the chocolate it or it may have cost me more than buying them each a £1 egg.

Actually sat on my bum during Pickle's nap time today. Had a bit of a play with YNAB. but other than that, couldn't think what to do. Obviously, once he woke up, I remembered my environs to do list.

Right, I'm waffling. Night all.
Wish

mse March Goals

1) Mop Pot
Target 1: next brick on the countdown house
£50.97/£50.97 :j :j
Target 2: monthly interest payment
£13.52/£13.52 :j :j
Target 3: mfw March target
£145.51/£145.51 :j :j
Target 4: new 2018 target (to catch up on January's low payment)
£7.34/£7.34 :j :j
Extra.....£797.15
Total: £1014.49 :j :j :j

2) Emergency fund growth
£250/£150 :j. (Due to a bit of 'wamming' this is now 'full' at £2k) :j

3) nsds
14/16

4) 1p a day challenge
38/31 :j I'm up to around day 145 of this challenge. But that's because I've done some of the most expensive days from the end of the year in Feb.

5) save the £2 coins (update monthly)

6) get in size 14 jeans (update monthly)

pinkypig · 27 March 2018 at 9:25PM

Hiya Wish :wave: I've been a bit rubbish at keeping up with the diaries recently. Glad to see you're having a good month than:D

wishingthemortgaheaway · 27 March 2018 at 9:34PM

What a difference in the weather today, rainy & miserable. So pleased we spent some time in our outside spaces yesterday and the plants/seeds have got a good watering today.

Training course this morning, housewife tasks this afternoon and, actually I'm feeling pretty on top of most things, so I need to start listing some bigger jobs to do (famous last words, I bet I'll be snowed under now!)
Homemade pizza for tea, I halved the dough recipe and there was still far too much, I will freeze the rest in portions, but the freezers are becoming overstocked again already.
This all means- a nsd, only one away from my target now.
I had to laugh picking Pickle up from the Childminder's today, two of the children have given him an Easter gift, 1 is one of the eggs I was ummimg and ahhing about and the other is a tray of
Krispie cakes, using the same 'Easter cake toppers' as I had bought to make as gifts for them. As Pickle is really not well and should not be baking for others at the moment, I will pop to Asda tomorrow to pick up the eggs I didn't buy yesterday. The cake toppers and Rice Krispies
Will get used, but this is easier.

Full work day in the home office tomorrow - unless Pickle is too poorly
To go to the Childminder's if he is, it will be answering emails & phone calls whilst the goggle Box keeps the small one entertained. I won't be very productive
And will end up working double the time to make up for what I've missed, but it can't be helped and, one of the reasons I went do this job, is the flexibility it has if Pickle is poorly.

Still limping through to the end of the month - 4days of the 1p a day challenge done - I wanted some nice round numbers on my budget, so, as well as doing today's amount, I picked some random days, So my offset pot is a nice round amount.

I think my aim for April will be to get the 13step offset mop pot back up to the level it was prior to me making the £950 overpayment on the mortgage. At the moment that's £554 to go but, there is £140 from the April budget to go in, I'll get at least £60 in Work expenses at the end of the month, my April wages and any supply work, so I don't think it's going to be a huge challenge (although supply may be thin on the ground due to Easter hold and my week away for work)
Currently (taking out the £5 I will spend on Easter eggs for the childminding friends) there will be another £45 to add to the 13step plan at the end of the month (if I don't spend anything else)
Hope all are Well

Wish.

mse March Goals

1) Mop Pot
Target 1: next brick on the countdown house
£50.97/£50.97 :j :j
Target 2: monthly interest payment
£13.52/£13.52 :j :j
Target 3: mfw March target
£145.51/£145.51 :j :j
Target 4: new 2018 target (to catch up on January's low payment)
£7.34/£7.34 :j :j
Extra.....£797.15
Total: £1014.49 :j :j :j

2) Emergency fund growth
£250/£150 :j. (Due to a bit of 'wamming' this is now 'full' at £2k) :j

3) nsds
15/16

4) 1p a day challenge
42/31 :j

5) save the £2 coins (update monthly)

6) get in size 14 jeans (update monthly)

wishingthemortgaheaway · 28 March 2018 at 7:28PM

Pickle has a chest infection and excema. Antibiotics for the chest, cream & bath stuff for the excema - thank you nhs.
This means he hasn't been to the Childminder's today, the sum total of my work has been filing the rubbish/irrelevant stuff in my email inbox, short phone conversation with the boss & sending 3 emails. Will have to make the time up tomorrow.

Financially it's a 'technical' nsd. Transferred some money to oh to cover the taxi for Work last week that came out of the business account. And a cpa for a sling hire. Neither of these count as spends in my nsd 'rules' so... I've hit target. Woop Woop.

Work credit card has arrived at the office, so that will be sent to me in a few days (I think the office will hang onto it until Tuesday now)

2 days of the 1p a day challenge done, tilly tidies done

Squeak squeak in Wish world at the moment. 3 days of the month to go and I'm feeling poor, which is actually ridiculous because my wages have been paid, savings are looking good and I've paid over £1k off the mortgage this month. I am not poor. As always, I'm wishing my life away - can't wait for Saturday night when I can do my monthly round up.

Also... the paper version of the mortgage re-fix came through to day. It says we have 138 payments left to pay -

I don't think so:

82 payments to go if I stick to my pay £400 capital off a month plan.
75 payments to go if I count the money currently sitting in the '13 step plan.
But:
28 months to go if I stick to THE plan. (I'm currently about 3 months ahead in this plan, but I don't think I'll be able to keep the payments/savings up to that level)

Oh to be mortgage free.....
Wish.

mse March Goals

1) Mop Pot
Target 1: next brick on the countdown house
£50.97/£50.97 :j :j
Target 2: monthly interest payment
£13.52/£13.52 :j :j
Target 3: mfw March target
£145.51/£145.51 :j :j
Target 4: new 2018 target (to catch up on January's low payment)
£7.34/£7.34 :j :j
Extra.....£797.15
Total: £1014.49 :j :j :j

2) Emergency fund growth
£250/£150 :j. (Due to a bit of 'wamming' this is now 'full' at £2k) :j

3) nsds
16/16 :j

4) 1p a day challenge
44/31 :j

5) save the £2 coins (update monthly)

6) get in size 14 jeans (update monthly)

wishingthemortgaheaway · 29 March 2018 at 6:22PM

Today has most definitely not been a nsd. The everyday spends pots have been wiped out and I've even had to wam some from the fuel pot which I was hoping to save to meet next month's increased fuel spends due to work trips. I will get about £40 of what I've spent out back as they are church expenses, I really must hand the receipts in this weekend. So, when I get those, I'll put £10 in the fuel pot to top that back up and the £30 into step 3 of 'the plan' for us, I topped up on small child otc medications, some more takeaway tubs for batch cooking as I've completely run out, a new head for the mop and a treat breakfast a small I was out and about for hours this morning. Can I do 2 nsd s for the rest of the month? I have got about £8 in my purse so, the challenge is on! Most of the reason why I'm short I the household pots isn't I've been very generous with my 1p a day challenges, doing more than 1 day most days, maybe I need to rein it in earlier I need the month? It doesn't really matter as money ends up in the same place eventually, but I like the competitive game element. Mixing it up a bit keeps a long journey interesting.

I'm out for a meeting tonight, just been invited round to a friend's who does home brew for a brewing session on Saturday, then church friday & Sunday, means just Monday to fill, I assume it will be a nt place or somewhere for Pickle to feed the ducks.

I could almost do the monthly spending round ups tonight's, but I won't because that would breaking the rules.
Happy Easter everyone
Wish.

mse March Goals

1) Mop Pot
Target 1: next brick on the countdown house
£50.97/£50.97 :j :j
Target 2: monthly interest payment
£13.52/£13.52 :j :j
Target 3: mfw March target
£145.51/£145.51 :j :j
Target 4: new 2018 target (to catch up on January's low payment)
£7.34/£7.34 :j :j
Extra.....£797.15
Total: £1014.49 :j :j :j

2) Emergency fund growth
£250/£150 :j. (Due to a bit of 'wamming' this is now 'full' at £2k) :j

3) nsds
16/16 :j

4) 1p a day challenge
44/31 :j

5) save the £2 coins (update monthly)

6) get in size 14 jeans (update monthly)

wishingthemortgaheaway · 30 March 2018 at 8:11PM

Evening all, today has not been a nsd. In fact, I've decided to start April today (just naughtily post dating my ynab entries). We'd run out of tinned tomatoes for tea, I could have gone to Ald1 and bought a couple of tins of toms with the change in my purse, but I thought 'this is ridiculous, the money is in the bank, and, you'll only have to go again this weekend. So I've meal planned for the next two weeks (not actually hard as hubby is away for two weeks from Tuesday, so Pickle and I will eat freezer meals) hubby also announced that he needs a 'food parcel' for this gig as the onsite catering is shocking (he says the battered fish is more like battered seagull wings) I've spent £23.50 on groceries for us. £7.08 for hubby's food parcel. Got £10 out of the bank for a collection at church on Sunday, the money for the cleaner for the month and, due to an error in calculations, and extra £10 that will keep me going for cafes for a while. I don't care it's still on 30th March, in finance terms, it's now April! I will try hard to have a nsd tomorrow though.
Wish.

mse March Goals

1) Mop Pot
Target 1: next brick on the countdown house
£50.97/£50.97 :j :j
Target 2: monthly interest payment
£13.52/£13.52 :j :j
Target 3: mfw March target
£145.51/£145.51 :j :j
Target 4: new 2018 target (to catch up on January's low payment)
£7.34/£7.34 :j :j
Extra.....£797.15
Total: £1014.49 :j :j :j

2) Emergency fund growth
£250/£150 :j. (Due to a bit of 'wamming' this is now 'full' at £2k) :j

3) nsds
16/16 :j

4) 1p a day challenge
44/31 :j

5) save the £2 coins (update monthly) non this month

6) get in size 14 jeans (update monthly) yeah right!!!

Taking it slowly, but doing it well.

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