Peonie's journey to smart money management

SeriouslySeekingtoSave

Just as a quick note - Central Heating can usually be turned off in different places can't it? In my last two places I just turned off the radiators in every room but the one I was in so I'm guessing that that kept the cost of my heating down very low.

Sorry if I'm misunderstanding you and you're slapping your forehead and going 'DUH!'

Lois_E

If your insulation is really terrible, then just heating one room makes sense. It would also make sense to look into comparatively cheap ways of improving your insulation.

I read all my meters (including water) every Wednesday at bedtime. I have a section for them on my spreadsheet, and two little graphs. The first one shows usage (in kWh for the gas and leccy and 20litre "units" that I made up for the water so they would fit on the same scale as the other two). The second shows cost. I have them right next to each other, and it's really striking how the leccy one is the smallest bar on the chart for units, but the tallest bar on the chart for cost. I've checked online and realised I need to ditch & switch my utilities providers, so it'll be interesting to see how much I can save. Once I've switched, I also want to save more money by reducing our usage of utilities. Perhaps some kind of reward system for DS and DD would help them remember to switch off lights, computer, TV, etc.

OK, so now I am going to have another try at getting to sleep and see if it goes better than a couple of hours ago. This is an insane time to be awake.

Peonie

Tonight I telephoned the Halifax to find out what day of the month they calculated the interest on my ISA account. I figure the money should stay in my current account for as long as possible as the interest is calculated daily (and paid monthly) and moved to the ISA until a few days before the interest is calculated.

This would be a good idea in theory.

As I said above, I think the ISA interest will be calculated monthly but only paid annually. When I phoned the helpline the guy said 'the interest is APR so it's calculated annually'. In this scenario I should keep my savings in my current account until the end of March next year.

I do not think this information is right. I'll try to get into a branch this week to check.

Another mortgage payment has whizzed its way to the HSBC, number 3 of the official payments. My excel spreadsheet says the balance is now £152,193.50. I will update my signature when I get the official figure off DH.

I have kept my spending diary up to date for September but I don't have DH's yet.

For the first time in weeks I took a packed to [STRIKE]school[/STRIKE] work. Let's see if I can keep this up.

At the weekend I went shopping at Mr A.L.D.I for some cheap(er) fruit and veg, but ended up nipping into the shops and bought a half price coat rack. I have wanted a coat rack for :think: 8 years now. Instead of getting a traditional coat rack I went for a boot room rack that will also store hats, scalves and gloves.

And after 2 years waiting in anticipation we watched Peter Kay live last week and although we did enjoy the show it was a little bit of a let down. It was a bit of a nightmare getting there as Mr Ticketmaster conveniently did not include a start time on the tickets.

How is everyone else getting on?

SeriouslySeekingtoSave

Peonie wrote: »

As I said above, I think the ISA interest will be calculated monthly but only paid annually. When I phoned the helpline the guy said 'the interest is APR so it's calculated annually'. In this scenario I should keep my savings in my current account until the end of March next year.
QUOTE]

I don't think that could be right either.

SeriouslySeekingtoSave

Peonie wrote: »

For the first time in weeks I took a packed to [STRIKE]school[/STRIKE] work. Let's see if I can keep this up.

QUOTE]

Thanks for that btw - it reminded me last night as I was falling into bed, to run and put my quiche in the fridge ready for lunch today. I was leaving it cooling on the bench and had completely forgotten it

Peonie

I made a sandwich for work today and promptly forgot it. I was halfway to the station when I remembered. Anyway we ate it with some other food for our meal tonight so it was not wasted.

SeriouslySeekingtoSave

Peonie wrote: »

I made a sandwich for work today and promptly forgot it. I was halfway to the station when I remembered. Anyway we ate it with some other food for our meal tonight so it was not wasted.

:rotfl:That's what I do! Unless I really mess up and leave my lunch on the train. Then it's just gone

Peonie

I am happily reporting I took lunch into work yesterday and today.

We're finally moving on the home improvement front. We have a skip being delivered on Saturday, the chimney sweeper is coming next week, as is a plumber, and we've started the ball rolling to get the loft insulated.

Peonie

I have the official mortgage count from DH, and here's my updated signature:

Mortgage at its highest: July 2011 at £154,000.
Mortgage now: 1 October 2011 at £152,189.11.
Mortgage free date: originally July 2036, now June 2036.
MFW no 214: overpayment £700 plus £11,000 extra deposit, target £2,000, target achieved.
Annual ISA saving challenge: saved £315, target £5,340, achieved 6%.

Peonie

Another week of work is over.

I went into town and picked up the fruit and veg for the next week or two, and popped into the Halifax to ask how the ISA interest is calculated.

She said the interest is calculated daily on the 3.0% and as I transfer £1,000 per month into my current account I get an extra 0.2% bonus, this element is calculated yearly. The interest is paid yearly.

The skip arrived this morning and DH is currently pulling all of the old doors used to board the loft out. We've found an old wardrobe mirror door that we could hang from a wall and a drawer front that could be turned into a shelf. We'll see.

I am sewing some little felt owls for charity, one is nearly finished and I have 2 more to sew, stuff and close.