A Journey of Many Pounds Starts With a Single Penny

LadyGnome · 3 May 2016 at 1:18PM

May Monthly Goals

Holiday Fund to £1200 - £1220.63/£1200

Reconcile Children's savings pot once bill received for music lessons - provisionally done as bills still not received

Investigate the safe custody item my bank says it is holding for me - appointment first week of June

Sort out change of address for shares

Decide what to do with Spanish Bank account

Move £500 to regular Saver (max per month) - Done

Update Signature with OP target - Done

LadyGnome · 3 May 2016 at 1:25PM

Bring food to work
Tuesday - Done
Wednesday - Done
Thursday - Done
Friday - Done

Walk from station to work
Once - Wednesday

Financial
Move £500 to Reg Saver - Done
Update Signature with OP target - Done
Move car tax surplus+ interest
Update Holiday fund figures
Make appointment to check safe custody item

AlexLK · 3 May 2016 at 10:39PM

All sounds good.

What instruments do your children play?

LadyGnome · 4 May 2016 at 9:29AM

Hello Alex
The oldest (12 y.o.) plays the flute after starting on the recorder when he was young (recorder = easy to play and hard to break:D). He also sings in the school choir and plays in the school orchestra.

I started the youngest (now 8) on the recorder but he hasn't really got on well with it and I think he didn't like the teacher's style. However, it does mean he can read music so it was worth it. We are debating what instrument to try next, he is keen to try the guitar but I am wondering if an orchestral instrument would be better. In the meantime, he really loved learning all the songs for the school musical (Joseph) and was wandering around the place singing, so we have decided to start singing lessons. I don't think he has an exceptional voice but he seems to get a lot of pleasure out of singing and that is what matters at his age.

LadyGnome · 4 May 2016 at 10:08AM

Interest received on holding account so I've used some of it to round the car tax surplus up to £12 pounds and paid £4 to each pot.

I've won the Euromillions (well £5.20 :rotfl:) so when that comes through I will round it up with a bit more of the interest and pay another £2 to each pot.

Sadly ERNIE didn't pick my Premium Bonds this month (not that I have a results checker app on my phone or anything:o)

I was trying to work out why this month it feels like money is particularly tight. I think the main reason is that £100 of my salary gets loaded on a cashback payment card and I use that for some of my general [STRIKE] frittering[/STRIKE] day to day expenses. However, I have decided to give in to the Gnomeboys request for an Xbox so have been saving most of the money on the card. Current balance is £157.79 so next payday it should be close to the cost of an XBox (I will top up a bit if needed but hopefully there will be some special offers around). If I use the card to buy it from Argos I will get 5% cashback and I was thinking of going through Quidc0 or TCB as well. However, I am feeling a bit squeezed at the moment and will be until my June payday when the balance on the card will be mine (all mine...)
So 51 days to the end of the Xbox squeeze

LadyGnome · 5 May 2016 at 9:50AM

Bought a few small bits and pieces yesterday to top up the food I am taking to work. 8 small kitkats in Tesc0 for £1 and some popcorn. One kitkat a day should keep me away from the vending machines in work. I've hidden them in the kitchen from the Gnomeboys as they won't last very long if they find them. I'll let them have one each on the weekend; if I am feeling nice.:D

50 days to the end of the Xbox squeeze

LadyGnome · 5 May 2016 at 9:53AM

p.s. I might have added a page on my spreadsheet counting down to the end of the XBox financial squeeze

(with bricks to colour in):o:o

LadyGnome · 5 May 2016 at 11:28AM

I've just spend a huge amount (£156):eek: on tickets to an event in Nov that the Gnomeboys will love.

I have an events budget pot but hadn't budgetted for this. However, there was another event that I was thinking of buying tickets for in July that I've decided to skip so that will cover some of the cost as the money for that is in the pot. I may need to repurpose some other funds too.

I know that buying the tickets was the right thing as it is something the boys will really love so they won't mind missing out on something else.

:idea:Update - Looking at my spreadsheet I've identified about £130 I can allocate to the tickets:idea:

LadyGnome · 6 May 2016 at 9:30AM

The Gnomeboys are very excited about the tickets which are for

wwe live:o. It is very popular with their school friends as well so I think there will a bit of chat about it today in the playground.

My £5.20 Euromillions win credited. I rounded it up to £6 and sent £2 to each pot.

I've managed to bring my food to work every day this week :T
49 days to the end of the Xbox squeeze

edinburgher · 6 May 2016 at 9:36AM

LadyGnome wrote: »

8 small kitkats in Tesc0 for £1 and some popcorn. One kitkat a day should keep me away from the vending machines in work. I've hidden them in the kitchen from the Gnomeboys as they won't last very long if they find them. I'll let them have one each on the weekend; if I am feeling nice.:D

I am one of 5 (4 boys), my mum never had much luck hiding her biscuits :rotfl:

A Journey of Many Pounds Starts With a Single Penny

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