Cherry takes the reins

NSD and no run again... been feeling down most of the day but given the season that's par for the course and will pass. I did finish the book I bought the other day and it was okay enough for me to think I might get another from that author, but not today so I keep my NSD!

DS kindly posted my 3bay sellings and the postage comes from the profit (and also not out of the account that has my earnings ) so I'm not counting that as a spend either. One person is yet to pay.

We have made what looks to me like a big step forward today- though it makes almost no material difference. DH (he of no online banking access) looked at the bank statements and mortgage statement with me and has not only come on board with moving money out of current and into savings, but also looked at the mortgage and said something about 'We could pay that off in a few years!'

I pointed out that we actually are getting near the home stretch already but showed him the printouts I have with the last year's overpayments and he can see it's going down. He liked the idea that paying it off not only would save us interest but would mean we had £300 a month to put towards anything else!

Regarding the current account, he saw something I hadn't - if there were any identity fraud using our debit cards, any money in there is vulnerable so putting it elsewhere with instant access is prudent.

He also liked my idea of creaming off whatever's left of his income when a new month's pay comes in, and sending it into savings (as mine goes to the mortgage). We have an emergency fund but not equal to six months of our combined income, so we want to work towards that. I think it may be possible by somewhere between the end o this year and March of next - but that depends on lots of things, not least whether our jobs remain the same. There's no certainty of that so we should save and spend accordingly.

A really nice day . Rather a woozy morning after yesterday, when I spent most of the day feeling below par then perked up in the evening and was late to sleep. However, an interesting and unusual morning at church - long story short, we should be looking at what we give as well as what we keep.

It's too long and complicated a story for here but what excellent timing: yesterday DH actually looked at what we have and made a couple of decisions that didn't mean it sits in the current account doing nowt or being spent. Today, we have an added option to the generally accepted pay off debts / save / spend wisely, (and interestingly it's one I've seen talked about in books on finance) - give away, don't hold too tightly. There have been a number of times when I've experienced how 'not holding too tightly' seems to open the way to receiving, but that's a faith story which I'll sum up as 'if you give to God or just let go of things, your hands are open and can hold new things that come into your life'.

Now I know not everyone reading will agree with me, but that's what I've experienced. I also know that I'm simplifying a lot, but if you aren't happy with it coming from a faith POV, you see the same in books like 'Rich Dad Poor Dad'.

So, that was the morning, then in the afternoon we all went out for ice cream (FiL's treat). It was the sort of temperature outside where you eat your ice cream indoors and have a coffee too, but we had a lovely time. I've put a fiver in DS's bank account to cover petrol, and bought a stocking filler for DD because I saw her looking admiringly at it in a gift shop. Might as well get an early start!

Spends:
Petrol 5.00
Gift 4.15

MS stuff:
(Yesterday) 3 meals of Colombian black bean stew into freezer for work meals
(Yesterday) big batch of rice pudding for DS to use up the YS milk
(Sadly today when he went to finish it we realised we hadn't cooled it properly and it nicely fits all the conditions for breeding bacillus cereus and as he doesn't want food poisoning we've had to ditch the remainder. Lesson learned: freeze surplus milk don't try to be too clever).
(Yesterday) ground elder for the pigities - and melon pips and rind - they loved those!
(Today) decided on sandwiches for work tomorrow as there is a lot of ham to use up this week.
Bought gift when I saw it rather than waiting for Christmas stress and Christmas prices.
Coffee and ice cream from DFiL
Mega dandelions for the pigities, but maybe that was too much of a good thing as they've turned their noses up at them.
Found some leaflets with £2 off for an attraction my friends and I are hoping to go to.

Update for yesterday (9th).

Spends:
Medical/vitamins 12.65
garden 1.00
toiletries 12.15
Housekeeping 26.21

MS stuff:
Went to the trouble of going to Customer Services when there were only 2 items left that I usually buy on a 'buy 2 get 3rd free' - so I have a voucher for a freebie when stock comes in. Saved £3.75.
Wilk0s selling off bulbs which were half price... bought 2 and the till reduced them further to 50p so I've saved £1.50 a pack, £3 total. What's more, I planted them as soon as I got in so they won't go to waste.
Bought giant pack of loo rolls as they work out cheaper in the long run even though it dents the budget for now (by £8).
Favourite coffee sachets on offer again and I'm nearly out of them... bought 2 at £1.50 each.

On the minus side I must have misread a label because an item that I thought was £1.35 turned out to be £2.70 .

NSD (5th one this month ) though no run, in fact a mere 6,199 steps to date as I've spent the day either on training or at work and it wasn't the most active shift.

Came home at 20 to 10 to find my email to DH hadn't got to him so he hadn't looked at changing our energy provider - and the MSE deal ran out at 10. Cue frantic dash to type in as much info as I could into the form to join the energy saving club, then into the thing that searches for the best deal. I admit we picked the one the computer said looked like the best deal because I literally had 3 minutes left at that stage - and by the time everything was transferred to them, the computer clock actually said 1 minute past ten, so even now I don't know for sure that we have the best deal, or even whether we qualified for the en masse negotiating power of MSE.

Mad, but at least it's done and we have a cheaper tariff - by £27 a month! Even if that's not the optimum, it's a lot better than the joys of the one we are leaving, which is now one of the more expensive providers.

The new people want a monthly meter reading from us but that should be okay.

We also realised we are still on Economy rates though we changed our heating a couple of years ago so we don't use much night-time electricity. I had a brief look for more information on that but didn't find what I was looking for: I think there may be a charge to change in addition to a new meter. I did find the costs for a new meter and that's a lot...

A couple more items have sold on 3bay so after the crazy dash to change energy supplier, I parcelled things up ready to post tomorrow. I discovered the late payer had done me a favour as I'd accidentally set aside the wrong item for her - the more expensive version of the thing she'd actually bought! Mistake corrected before posting so now all I have to do is get a buyer for the costlier one.

So, MS stuff:
Swapped fuel providers saving in excess of £324 a year :j (actually will be a bigger saving as the older ones are due another price hike soon, though being on a fixed tariff is an unknown: costs may go down at our end as DD is planning to leave home soon but if we end up underpaying because of fuel getting more expensive, we will end up with heavier bills later).
Turned a couple of pieces of unloved clutter into pennies.

Still so much I could do and haven't (that dreaded insurance, some thank you cards to send, set up a better savings account...) but tonight I need sleep, if I can only slow my brain down.

Oh, and the dual fuel is now in my name so I can hopefully keep tabs on the bills . My own fault that I didn't learn how to switch providers before: DH has been very good about sorting all that out in the past (and maybe he should have done it this evening: he types faster than I do!) but he seems to sign up for online this that and the other then lose the login details so we never know quite what's going on. He is now talking about reviewing our Broadband provider, though, which sounds timely.