Janey's Journey to Becoming a MFW

ljaneyr · 10 November 2014 at 10:20AM

Morning everyone :wave:

I just don't seem to be able to catch up with everyone's diaries at the moment and I'm even finding it difficult to update my own! Still, now I'm back to working part-time ( :j ) I may be able to get around to it!

MSE news

£9.50 £co cashback transferred to savings
Three items sold on fleabay yesterday making about £60 after fees etc
A load more stuff listed but all fairly low value
I'm on a toiletries use-up campaign inspired by Hbbb but nothing actually finished yet - it will take months!
Yesterday I had a general overhaul of the spreadsheets and did a bit of budget juggling to get our joint account back on track. Basically our car 'pot' still has money in it but our monthly budget was overdrawn which was stressing me out!

OH made a fantastic wood store a couple of weeks ago out of totally free wood from old pallets and felt left over from the shed roof. We only had to pay for the wood stain. Now we are lighting the fire of an evening it is just soooo easy to pop out the back door and grab a load of dry wood!

Over the weekend, not only did he re-fill the amazing wood store, but he made a shoe rack out of free wood. I really should try to get a photo of it because it's brilliant! It is like a bench (my suggestion) so you can sit on it while you put your shoes on, and has a shelf for boots and a smaller one for trainers. It also means that the ugly recycling bags and box have been banished to the airing cupboard and the whole area looks so much better :T

Right, I've got so much to do today I'd better get off the sofa and get started! I really will try to catch up with you all soon!

Janey x

ljaneyr · 11 November 2014 at 1:44PM

Morning everyone :wave:

Two posts in as many days - wow!

What's going on with the weather? The poor dogs didn't get a walk yesterday so I must take them this afternoon, hoping the rain can hold off for an hour as they don't like it much!

:money: MSE news

Sold a book on fleabay yesterday - just posted and calculated fees leaving a profit of ... -40p but...
Also sold a pair of walking boots and over estimated postage so it sort of makes up for the loss :T
It was pouring bucket loads of rain yesterday evening when we did our L1dl shop. When we got back to the car I returned an abandoned trolley and got the £1 left in it for my troubles! I guess someone couldn't be bothered to take it back it the rain, but getting a little bit more wet was definitely worth a £ in my opinion! :T

I also spent about an hour this morning (when I should have
been doing something more important and urgent) planning our
budget for next year. I was pleased to find that due to a bit of
overestimating last year, as well as a couple of spends that
have gone down (water, insurance etc) we can continue to pay
in the same amount each month despite having to pay for an
extra dog load of food, pet insurance and flea/worming
treatments :j

I'm also hoping to reduce the cost of our phone/web/TV package by haggling or simply leaving. OH's phone contract ends this month and he has agreed to keep it on a sim only contract for a year which should save more than £30 a month!

Oooh the SUN is OUT! Better take the dogs out quick :j

ljaneyr · 30 December 2014 at 1:48PM

Soooo I've been pretty rubbish at this whole diary thing for the last few months but thought I'd better do an end of year update!

Things have been mega busy all round recently and the time is really flying by. Christmas was lovely. Not the same as before but a lot better than last year!

I spent this morning snuggled up on the sofa in front of the fire with the dogs and have updated all my spreadsheets and created new and slightly simpler ones for 2015. I'm going to cut down on the number of accounts this year and keep all savings in our 123 account. I know it's less interest but I haven't got the time or motivation to chase every last 1%. Also I spent a fair bit of time this morning trying to get our savings spreadsheet to match with what is actually in the accounts!

Anyway, I am pleased to announce that we have saved about £17,000 this year! While this figure is amazing, this includes all money transferred to savings and quite a bit has already been spent (on a holiday, yearly car costs and presents budget etc). It does not unfortunately represent our current savings balance

Our emergency savings are currently at 71% of our target :j

Our renovation savings are at 24% of our target and should reach 50% by the time we get married.

Our extension plans were approved :j and we are now waiting on more architect drawings and other permissions before OH starts the ground work :T

Wedding plans are going OK, still keeping things simple but I'm sure it will cost more than we think!

I am really looking forward to the new year and hope to keep on top of things more easily with a simpler approach

Janey xx

slowlyfading · 30 December 2014 at 2:27PM

Nice to see you posting again

seems like you've done really well this year! Your savings total is great

edinburgher · 30 December 2014 at 2:54PM

That's a fantastic savings total for the year (even if it doesn't quite match the balance!)

OHs DIY sounds excellent, it's lovely to finish off a job and see a real difference. Changing flooring was one of the most rewarding for me, some of our rooms went from 'meh' to *showroom!* overnight

Sitting in front of a wood fire with a couple of dogs sounds blissful, all the best for 2015.

ljaneyr · 31 December 2014 at 12:17PM

Thanks Ed and SF

I do love the wood burner and sleepy dog combination!

I woke up this morning with a cold and feel like spending new years eve at home. We were planning to go out for a curry before going into town so I might join in for the food bit! Will have to see what OH says

Pay day for me today and I'm relieved to see that my backdated pay rise is in! It's not much per month but it has added up nicely over the last four months. I'm really looking forward to doing the money transfers tomorrow :j

We've kept some cash aside for this evening but I'm hoping to have some left over which can be added to our January savings. I also need to pay in a tax rebate cheque of about £70, plus my £2 coin stash and penny jar which will all then be transferred to the various virtual pots. Need to take OH as bodyguard and lifter of heavy coins! Early indications suggest January savings should be quite healthy as long as nothing expensive crops up :T

I'm ashamed to admit I'm still in my PJs

Hope nobody knocks at the door :rotfl:

Goldiegirl · 31 December 2014 at 4:30PM

Well done on the savings figure that you achieved !

I'm also simplifying things for 2015 - I'm just going to have 4 monthly expenditure categories - it's going to make things very simple to track

The time between Christmas and New Year is ideal for planning and relaxing, so I think you are entitled to be in your PJ's if you wish!

All the best for 2015!

ljaneyr · 1 January 2015 at 1:00PM

Happy New Year everyone :beer:

I'm feeling a bit rotten with a cold but quite happy to lounge around at home today!

I've spent an enjoyable hour moving money around into it's various virtual 'pots'. Is there any better way to start the new year? :rotfl:

Also still in PJs!

Figures so far for the month:

£200 to emergency fund. I have reassessed the minimum we would need to survive 3 months if we both lost our jobs and reduced our target to £3600. This would cover all bills, insurances, food, petrol and car running costs but not Sky etc and our pet health plan. We are now 94% of the way there! :T If/when we have a baby I will double this target to cover 6 months expenditure.
About £800 to the renovation pot. I also have a tax rebate cheque to pay in and my regular saver is due to close and the interest will be added later in the month. We are now at 29% of our target. I wonder if I can get to 30% by the end of the month?
£4.85 Tilly tidy to my ISA which is loosely called the baby/maternity leave fund. I don't have a realistic target for this yet but I'm continuing to add little and often.

I will try to do an official end of month update when I have the final figures!

Despite my cold, I'm feeling very positive about the year ahead. We have had a nice quiet Christmas with some money left over at the end which has helped to boost our January savings. We tend to hibernate a bit at this time of year and save more money than usual.

I hope everyone has a lovely day, even if you have to work

ljaneyr · 2 January 2015 at 1:41PM

Quick update (avoiding work)

Went to PO this morning to collect a parcel with a missed delivery card that the dog had shredded. Had to take the bits in a bag=much laughter from post man and other people in the que

:money: £8.31 NW interest transferred to ISA

Have a lovely day everyone

ljaneyr · 3 January 2015 at 3:05PM

Sooo I may have done some shopping online at F@t face, Wh1te Stuff and N£xt on boxing day and spent a fair bit on clothes... but in my defence I got lots of money off, I now have some better quality clothes and I bought hardly any clothes in 2014! I did a big-ish shop before our holiday in the summer and now I have updated my winter clothes in the sale which I think is quite good overall

This morning I returned all the unwanted bits this morning and paid the balance off of the credit card.

I also paid in my £2 stash which went towards the above clothing splurge, as well as a cheque for £70.70 from the IR and £38.06 from the 2014 penny jar. Just waiting for these amounts to appear on my internet banking and I can transfer the £108.06 to our savings

Other jobs also completed include:

Library books returned
Car washed at car wash where what seems like 40 guys all work on your car for about 5 minutes and it actually looks clean afterwards! This was necessary as the roads are so bad round here you could barely read my number plate :eek:
T£sco shopping collected on way home using £4 voucher and click and collect so no delivery charge :T
Dog food purchased online - no offers:(, no cashback :(but free delivery and it has been wonderful on the little darling's sensitive stomach :cool:
Didn't buy coffee in town so home for a large cuppa and decluttering of xmas biscuits :A

I did all my school prep yesterday so am enjoying the fact that I can put my feet up until back to work on Tuesday :j

Weather is a bit pants so moorland walk will be postponed again and we'll take the terrible terrier and horrendous hound to the woods instead!

Off to peruse some diaries while OH makes a cheese toastie mmmm

Janey's Journey to Becoming a MFW

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