If you had £200/300 per month extra

[Dragontooth]

I'm finally going up a couple of pay grades and I'm looking forward to being able to do more than just pay bills for the first time!
Single parent of two, full time working out of the house, commute is up to an hour and a half each way per day. I'm overweight (size 16) and exhausted. Diet is terrible.
New job will make me shorter of time and so I'm looking for ways to improve my life using the extra ££.
What do you think will help most? Not all obvs!

• cleaner
• gardener (we have a huge garden which I can't keep on top off) all grass and borders
• overpay mortgage? Shorten length
• weight loss injections
• personal trainer
• meal plan boxes
• nice gym membership with pool
• add extra to savings account
• cut one day a week at work
• declutterring service (house is messy!)

Any other suggestions welcome!

Avoid gym if you're short of time. Invest that energy into meal prepping. We batch cook every meal. If I'm marinading meat, I'll marinade 12 chicken breast and portion them all, bung in freezer. Simple salads, rice dishes, and flatbread for dinner. I find it saves huge amounts of time weekly, and even a saving of 30 minutes means a quick wander or an at home workout can be done.

With winter approaching, I'd use 1st lot of money for a gardener to prep garden for winter. Then decide which you least like, housework or gardening and out source some of that.

We have a cleaner, 3 hours a fortnight, I ask her to concentrate on key rooms. Ensuite, main bedroom, lounge and kitchen and also leave the ironing for her.. its made my life so much easier and costs us 100 a month. I'd then use the remainder as mortgage over payments.
But thats because I'm boring and wanted to get mortgage free as soon as I could.

By way of food, my easy starting point would be to buy soup for lunch if you get a sit down break or have it in for tea. Consider healthy ready meals. Batch cook Jacket potatoes in the over and microwave when you get home.

In your shoes, id realistically accept that things will be hard for a bit (sorry) so book a monthly treat like a massage. Consider trainee salons if money is too tight. Social things with the kids where you'll meet other mums so you feel like you're socialising and may be able to swap childcare in future. Days out with the kids? I feel like the behave better when they are out!

Maybe a few little fancy home things like scent diffusers or candles that you can enjoy.

Basically anything that isn't adding to your plate, like the gym. Yes, it suck to feel sluggish, but if you have the childcare for that then I'd suggest relaxing in that time, not taking on something else for the to do list.

Do you have some spare space you could turn into your home gym? Even just a place to keep a mat and a few dumbbells? You could see if you stick to exercising and if you do and have the time join a gym.

I would certainly split the money and put some to the mortgage and some for savings. Are you dc capable of helping out more in the home or garden? Could they do some extra housework, cooking or gardening for pocket money?

Your diet needs some tlc. I’m vegan and do a lot in the slow cooker, curries, chilli, soup, cobblers, dahl. I would try and prep breakfast and lunch the night before and maybe something like overnight oats. You could always try something like Huel if you are really short of time.

Cleaner! We pay £30 a week for 2hrs, they do a basic clean of the whole house and change the beds. We do no cleaning at all now! Weekends are free for fun (long walks, swimming, all good exercise). It’s changed our lives!

I would spend £120 on a cleaner, £100 for your savings, £80 for child savings, and £100 on a treat a month, such as a fun day out, nice restaurant, etc.

Instead of meal boxes, use the Cherry Pick app. You chose the recipes and what supermarket you use, and it creates an online order for you. Much cheaper!

Fortnightly cleaner.

Some money into savings. You’ll feel more relaxed when you get to the point where you have a buffer.

Gym - could you sign up to one of the cheaper pay monthly ones first to see if you stick with it? You could always switch out to a swanky one once it’s a habit. I say this as someone who spent £600 on an annual membership, only to find out : weeks in that it really wasn’t workable on my schedule.

It's amazing how overpaying your mortgage can shorten the overall term though, which would surely be a decent saving in the future. There are overpayment calculators which show you how much it can shave off

Honestly OP, I’m not surprised you’re exhausted on that diet. As a PP has stated, you could switch to something more nutritious without too much effort. What do your children have for dinner? Can you eat with them?

can you get out for a walk at lunchtime to get some steps in? What’s your weekend routine like - can you involve the kids with some batch cooking (like some big pots of soup for your lunch)? Pay for school meals so you have a bit more time in the mornings?

while savings, mortgage overpayment all good, you sound frazzled and exhausted and it sounds like you need some lifestyle changes that could make an immediate impact.

1. Cleaner
2. Healthy ready meal box - Cook has a good one https://www.cookfood.net/products/Calorie-Conscious/ (you need a whole shelf free in your freezer though)
3. Gardener for the basics monthly, then you can potter about doing the fun stuff later.
4. Savings for peace of mind if you have any left over.

It doesn't sound like you have time for a gym/pool/trainer, you sound busy enough already! Unless you want it for the social side (which might be a thought) there are lots of YouTube exercise videos you can do in 20 mins here and there. You can go to the gym when the kids are a bit older, ditto overpaying on the mortgage, one step at a time.

I wouldn't pay for weight loss injections, it'll take all your extra money and you have to keep them up or you put most of the weight back on when you stop.

Good luck, and don't sweat the small stuff, it'll get better in a couple of years.

I had a pay increase recently after a long period of high stress, and I've gone for better quality food, weight loss injections, and yoga classes. This hasn't taken up all my spare cash, either, so I have a bit more in the pot for leisure activities, which has improved my quality of life in other ways. I'm feeling healthier, looking better, and enjoying daily life. Money can't buy happiness, but it can improve things quite a lot. Good luck and congrats on the new job, OP.

This.

I was going to ask - are you currently paying into a pension? Do you have any savings?

Cleaner is what will help you the most right now.

You don’t have time for gym. Weight loss injections are pointless if you don’t have time to teach yourself healthy food prep.

On the weight try making a couple small changes. Wholemeal sourdough toast with peanut butter. Healthy nut bar instead of the snickers and a bit of fruit. Tuna salad pots for lunches etc.

One off payment for a decluttering service.
You can work on your diet yourself but a meal box might help with planning meals and they make it fairly easy to track calories and nutritional content.
Then I'd invest in a cleaner and maybe an occassional gardener for bigger jobs.

I'd:

Stick to 5 days at the moment and job hunt in a year. Look at job descriptions for jobs paying 10k more and make sure you gain something on the person spec. Look to move closer.

Get a cleaner.

Get weight loss injections, and do meals the simple way - ready meals. You don't need to be a genius to only eat a couple of low cal meals a day.

Once off the course of weight loss injections, switch the money to pension and mortgage overpayment.

I'd leave it at that for now. The garden and decluttering etc would be low priority to me over health and long term security.

It's great that you have more cash, but I wouldn't go earmarking it all at once. You've done great, enjoy it a little!

My diet is
Morning; toast whilst making kids lunchboxes
Daytime: snickers bar, Diet Coke
Teatime; more toast, maybe an egg

That is not enough calories to make you overweight unless you're eating half a loaf of bread in each "sitting", it's barely enough to sustain a pigeon! You're clearly eating way more than you think you are somewhere in the day.......

Can’t you just eat what your children eat. Make 2 lots extra and take it for work the next day. I take mine in an insulated pot so I don’t need to heat or cool it. It will take the same amount of room as a snickers and coke in your bag! Porridge can be made in the microwave for breakfast, takes the same time as toast and it will keep you fuller.

@Spomb I don't feed my children, they get fed at after school or at their dads

Your children don't ever have a cooked meal at home? I might start there tbh, and eating with your children.

I don't know what your after school club does but ours isn't enough to call a meal, it's a snack-type meal to keep them going until a proper tea at home. Wraps, toast, fruit kebabs, cereal, crackers, oat bars, beans, that kind of thing. I haven't even heard of wraparound doing a full evening meal.

Congratulations on your promotion. I think in your position and spend some of the money on healthy ready meals. A local independent does them - proper home cooked meals but portioned off. I think it's about £25 for 5 and im sure there's lots of places If you were able to eat healthier without the time to prep/cook it might help you in all areas. Oh and a cleaner.

If it were me, it's struggle to find time for the gym and then it would be another thing to beat myself over the head with.

Cleaner.

I would get a cleaner every other week - that's £100 gone. Then overpay mortgage.