SmlSave MFW diary - where to start?

SmlSave

My Halifax 7% Regular Saver finishes in September and should have a respectable £2,000 in it, which will then be put in my ISA. This means that there should only be £3,000 left to reach an op of £5,000.

Oops, this didn’t quite work out as planned. £600 of said saver went towards paying off the rest of my loan. The remaining amount went towards the wedding as I didn’t want to take the funds out of the ISA (which I guess still means I technically have the savings)

The ISA’s will, taking into account the £2,000 to be put in September, allow us to put in £5,200 which would be wonderful if we could. OH has been steadily been putting in £300-£500 a month into our savings account so £3,000 by January is a feasible amount. It’s possible that, with OH saving £500 a month, we could potentially save the full ISA allowance of £5,200. However I believe this to be unlikely as ‘something’ always turns up!

There’s £3,600 in DH’s ISA from where we didn’t spend it on the wedding. :T

I hope everyone enjoyed their bank holiday We went out everynight :beer: and all together spent a grand total of £53, which I don't think is too bad. We had an indian takeaway, friends house party and peope round for DH's B-day party.

The party was great fun as we did stone grilling which our friends haven't done before. As usual we bought too much food and our lunches are sorted for this week. :rolleyes:

I did have some really good luck on Friday when I went for a walk and found three plum trees, nut trees and a good patch of blackberries

I've opened up a NatWest 5% Reg Saver at £25 a month which is for Xmas next year :xmassmile

The evil cc people charged me £35 interest :eek: I'm going to query it today as I hadn't had a statement, I thought I had to pay it by the 22/09.

StuartGMC

SmlSave wrote: »

I did have some really good luck on Friday when I went for a walk and found three plum trees, nut trees and a good patch of blackberries

Should I ask who's garden you were in? (Seriously well done on that, you of course now have them for years to come).

I've opened up a NatWest 5% Reg Saver at £25 a month which is for Xmas next year :xmassmile

That's a good idea for budgeting.

The evil cc people charged me £35 interest :eek: I'm going to query it today as I hadn't had a statement, I thought I had to pay it by the 22/09.

Can you access the account online? My due date is always very close to 12 of each month for the payment with the next bill generated on 18th. If you missed a payment in July or August remember they will charge you interest on purchases from the time their made on future bills until cleared (caught me out in August last year when I missed a payment for the first time in some 20yrs!). Hope you resolve it.

setmefree2

SmlSave wrote: »

The evil cc people charged me £35 interest :eek: I'm going to query it today as I hadn't had a statement, I thought I had to pay it by the 22/09.

Awww man that

SmlSave

Gosh its been busy here! Work has suddenly gone crazy.

Can you access the account online? My due date is always very close to 12 of each month for the payment with the next bill generated on 18th. If you missed a payment in July or August remember they will charge you interest on purchases from the time their made on future bills until cleared

I had a look online Stu, but it doesn't seem clear to me. I'll ring them this week to check ... i promise.

I did get round to ringing ING to get a new PIN sent to me so that I can check my balance. Apparently my AER is 1.97% so I'm going to empty and close the account as I should be able to get 3% at Egg.

Awww man that

Totally agree

I've opended up another Regular saver with Lloyds this time for £50 a month. The reason I have two is one for the joint and one for me.

I'm absolutley knackered, I promise I'll in tomorrow with another update, just want to say hi to everyone and I have been reading your diary's but I'm too tired to think of anything interesting to say

SmlSave

Hi, well I'm in a better mood today and have been much more healthy than yesterday:rolleyes:

DH has decided to put me on his private medical at work (£35:eek:) and so I'm removing critical illness from the life insurance. Should mean that we save over £130 a year on the insurance although we're technically paying £180 extra for the private medical, but I'm not going to think of it like that as the £35 won't factor in my spreadsheets as it comes straight out of DH's wage.

Buildings/contents insurance is looking good at £50 cheaper and while I can't get cashback on that I should be able to with the life insurance.

Update 3 of the action plan

The Wedding is budgeted to cost £6,000 and thanks to family members and OH’s savings we currently have these funds in an instant access ISA (£3,600), current account (£878.50) and we’ve already spent £1,521.51.

Done very near the budget (too scared to actually add it all up) and just have the cc to check and clear.

The Windows average quote last year was £3,000 for 4 windows and French doors. It’s scary how much water our borrowed dehumidifier takes from our rooms. In one hand we can and have survived with the damp for two years but in the other its not very nice, will add value to the house and needs to be done eventually.

I’m tempted to save and get the two front windows replaced this year as the bedroom window is truly the worse one for damp/condensation. If we guessimate that the two front windows will cost £1,000 and our savings look amazing in September (we have say £4,500) I will really want to get them done.

Well we don't have £4,500 in savings and therefore its another winter to look forward to with damp single glazing, at lease we have the dehumidifier and a friend close by who doesn't mind us using her tumble dryer

The Living on £5,000 a Year challenge is going well with our grocery budget being our biggest saving. These savings are going towards DIY in general as we hope to have the garden finished this year and to start decorating the study and bedroom.

The £5,000 budget is going well The garden is all but finished and I just need some more evergreen plants to give all year interest. Thanks to great friends we have several garden vouchers to spend (wedding gifts) so this will help greatly.

We've also been gifted bedroom furniture :j (got to choose) and the study hopefully doesn't need too much doing to it. So any money saved will go towards a new carpet and of course OPing

Save the Change All change under 50p in my purse (and OH’s wallet when I get my hands on it) goes in the whisky bottle which has been mentioned before. There’s currently over £25 in there which will go into my OP fund.

Just put another £18 in last week:D

A new tin has been bought in which all £2 coins are going in, one which can only be opened with a tin opener. I’m debating whether, once it’s full, to use it to OP, DIY or let our hair down with the money. I guess I’ll decide on the day we open it.

We're still filling this up and while its getting heavy there's no way of telling when it'll be full

Update all done! :beer: See you later......

SmlSave

I think my updates have scared people away......:doh:

Don't worry.....it should be safe now.....all updates finished

I finally contacted the cc and the £35 interest is completely my fault I didn't pay off my July bill in full :mad: :doh::doh::doh::mad:

The front garden's looking good with the addition of some new plants (£50 voucher and of course I spent £30 more on 'extra's:rolleyes:) My courgette's are still growing and the tomatoes are ripening slowly

We bought our year's cinema passes last night (£162each) and are going to see District 9 tonight. I'm hopeing its as good as I've heard.

Just £489 to find now to clear the cc and we can then work on getting our savings back up.

Also I just have to mention that DH is not acting himself ... he now gets home, tidies up and does a job i.e. fixes the toilet, cleans the firepit etc. He's decided that the more things he gets done during the week, the less he has to do on the weekend. I have to say that I'm liking this new productive husband but at the same time I'm missing my 'downtime' after work. Do you think I'm crazy?

Tesco_points_addict

Also I just have to mention that DH is not acting himself ... he now gets home, tidies up and does a job i.e. fixes the toilet, cleans the firepit etc. He's decided that the more things he gets done during the week, the less he has to do on the weekend. I have to say that I'm liking this new productive husband but at the same time I'm missing my 'downtime' after work. Do you think I'm crazy?

Well theres just no pleasing some people:rotfl:. Seriously I can see where you are coming from but I too would prefer to have the time free on the weekend. Can you not come to a compromise and ensure you are both sat down to eat at say 19:30, have your tea then and thats it for the rest of the evening?

TPAx

SmlSave

NOoooooooooooooooooo...............I just lost my post

Here's a version of what I was going ot say.....

Hi TPA

We do eat at 19:45 - that's when DH gets home from work! He then wants to go running and be productive until about 11pm which is when I go to bed. He then stays up to veg for a couple of hours.

Have you managed to get your tax form done online?

We should have enough in the accounts to clear the cc bill

I have more money in my isa than I though (£281.54)

I've eaten far too much this week and don't think i'll lose anything on sat

Ta Da!

StuartGMC

SmlSave
Just caught up after being away on business since last Friday; you have been busy.

Interesting comment about the after work stuff; before DD came along we did likewise but we insisted that we would eat meals together as a family which meant bringing the meal time forward and then it led to less "stuff" afterwards.... but at least now it is very rare for me to bring work home evenings or weekends.

Optimisticpair

SmlSave wrote: »

I think my updates have scared people away......:doh:

Nah anything but. Sorry I don't chip in as much as I'd like to since getting back online but I have been reading

SmlSave wrote: »

the cc and the £35 interest is completely my fault I didn't pay off my July bill in full :mad: :doh::doh::doh::mad:

What a bummer. Really do have to keep a close eye on everything don't we. We are both just so busy that the remaining bit on his cc has to go to make things quicker and easier to keep my beady eye on. I have tried to reduce the amount of work we need to pay for being done to our garden.

SmlSave wrote: »

The front garden's looking good with the addition of some new plants (£50 voucher and of course I spent £30 more on 'extra's:rolleyes:) My courgette's are still growing and the tomatoes are ripening slowly

Ours needs a whole makeover for growing some fruit and veg, relocating the rotary airer and creating a perfumed sitting area.

SmlSave wrote: »

We bought our year's cinema passes last night (£162each) and are going to see District 9 tonight. I'm hopeing its as good as I've heard.

Enjoy!

SmlSave wrote: »

Just £489 to find now to clear the cc and we can then work on getting our savings back up.

I'll have to dip into savings to clear the cc and the garden. A couple of weeks and the picture should look a bit different.

SmlSave wrote: »

I'm missing my 'downtime' after work. Do you think I'm crazy?

Think you just enjoy your after work downtime