Peonie's journey to smart money management

gallygirl

Ooooooohhhhhh, feel like I'm missing out on something as I don't have a start and end other than the financial year. I get paid on 26th, so in theory anything left on 25th can go to savings, in practice I'm running a small OD at the mo (it literally costs pence so not too excited about it).

On a day to day basis do you all know what's the balance on your account? I never have a clue as I work to what the balance will be on 25th, that tells me how much I can spend. People I work with will say 'I've got xxxx, minus y and z so I can spend ssssss' but invariably forget about a, b & c yet to come out. I find concentrating on 25th's balance is much easier.

Isn't money and what we do with it interesting

Hurdler

Peonie wrote: »

Thanks for answering my questions. You've told me some things I'll mull over.

I had a quick look at the feasibility of having an uber spreadsheet - the one thing I forgot to mention is that I also have filofax personal finance sheets (I started with them pre-PC) and what I do is type in the balances from my other accounts into cells in a spreadsheet. I could be clever and work it all out from one sheet - but that will take time I don't have

I think while I still have PCs that can install the final version of Money - I'll continue to use it and muddle on the way I have!

right - I forgot to move the bin to the gate thinking the bin men wouldn't be here until tomorrow.... and they have just been [/facepalm].
Off to go grocery shopping.

Peonie

Ok, I've made a decision; my financial will be the calendar month. I'm already wishing January away, something I said I would not do, so I can move some money into the ISA at the end of the month.

It's been interesting to find out that some of you pay all your bills in a short period; I definitely see there is an advantage to doing this. I don't intend to phone all the companies and move the pay date but when we do change companies for whatever bill and we have a choice of date I will try to get it moved to the beginning of the month. I must tell Mr P about this decision.

I will continue to use my uber spreadsheet but am please to say I have deleted 5 columns my account tab; I may have added more in another tab to now collect this data but it now makes my account easier to deal with.

Plus, I love that the CC columns are now empty making it a little bit less complicated. It's also been interesting to read how some of you use CCs for food purchases etc for the points or the cash back and not only when buying big ticket items. I'm not quite ready to do this, as I'd need to make quite a big mental shift, but I'll let you know when I am.

gallygirl wrote: »

Isn't money and what we do with it interesting

It certainly is.

gallygirl wrote: »

On a day to day basis do you all know what's the balance on your account? I never have a clue as I work to what the balance will be on 25th, that tells me how much I can spend. People I work with will say 'I've got xxxx, minus y and z so I can spend ssssss' but invariably forget about a, b & c yet to come out. I find concentrating on 25th's balance is much easier.

I think I do know how much I have left throughout the month; especially as my bank texts me the balance each week. The problem is the sales; I try to take advantage of when a shop is having a sale for house products, e.g. tiles, and I knowingly go over budget. The other area is food shopping; if we are in the supermarket we do stock-up on a lot of items especially if they are on offer so we don't know what the price will be at the till and thus we overspend.

Peonie

Pure and simple this month's goal is to stay in the black.

In this last few months we have knowingly gone in the red a few too many times. Hopefully by only moving money into savings at the end of the month we should do better.

We were doing OK in December until we went shopping for the Christmas day meal. We spent £26 alone on fruit and desert ingredients and so overspent the joint account by £1.11 and my own account by £219.26 which is not too bad considering I paid off the CC bill.

I have joined the £12k in 2012 challenge; although I'm only challenging myself to save £4,000.

Mr P checked the mortgage and it's still not been changed. Why can't banks take money or update online statements on a weekend or bank holiday... I will officially update my signature when we have the new mortgage total.

Peonie

We had a lovely Christmas and New Year; we spent it with family and friends.

Mr P's brother visited and fortunately, I'm trying to think positively, we only had 2 meals out; which is an improvement over his previous visits. Another day we had friends visit and normally we would go to the pub for something to eat but we made them dinner as I figure its probably cheaper for us to pay and do everything than go out.

We had a few walks; admittedly one of the walks was around the sales but I did pick up a very good dress and pair of trousers for work. When I say very good I'm trying to prepare you for the sale cost - £65 for the dress and £44.10 for the trousers. I managed to get an extra £5 knocked off the trousers sale cost by saying they do not sit right and will need to be sewed. The clothes have been purchased using my Christmas money.

I have a little bit of sewing to do before going back to work tomorrow. A few seams are coming apart on a few items - shoddy sewing that's what I say.

OH reminded me this morning that he wanted a pair of slippers for Christmas even though he repeatedly said before Christmas he did not want any presents only cash!!! So I'll hit the sales this week and see what I can find. Who knows, I might pick up another pair for next year.

Our downstairs lights stopped working; at the moment we're using Christmas lights and lamps to light everywhere. OH is speaking to his electrician relatives to find out what the problem could be.

I thought my car would need some hospital time after it would not start. Thankfully it had pity on me and my MFW/saving dreams and decided to start the day after. We have decided Mr P will take my car to work once a week to make sure it keeps ticking over OK.

I tried to order a door and kept getting the 'please hold, a sales person will answer your call soon' message. I phoned a few times and must have spent 25 minutes waiting to speak to someone; I then went on their website and saw the sales people were not working - grrrr. Anyway I've written to them and I'll see what they say.

Until next time.
Peonie.

Peonie

I forgot to say; over the years I've bought or collected a few fancy boxes and sacks for Christmas. Throughout the year they contain Christmas decorations and at Christmas we fill them with presents for family so we no-longer need wrapping paper. My mum wanted to keep her box but I wrestled it off her and it went back under the tree so the base did not look bare.

beth111

Hi Peonie, Just come accross your diary and read it from the start. You are doing a great job and very inspirational.

I think the ikea website is now calling me

Beth x

Peonie

Hi Beth, thanks for saying hi and reading my diary from the start! I enjoy reading the MFW diaries; they make me want to overpay even when I can't prioritise area that at the moment. I keep thinking maybe I can just overpay £10... or £15... or £125... but then I have to snap myself out of it.

I hope you had fun on the Ikea website; did you find anything nice?

Peonie

Last night I made a pact with Mr P; I'd sew the rip in his trousers if he looked at the potential payment from selling our unwanted books on Amazon. The rip has been sewn and he said the majority of our books are being sold for 1p and we'd lose money on the P&P. We'll probably send these books to the charity shop or I might try a car boot sale...

The seams of 2 tops are re-sewn and the length of my new trousers were changed twice.

Peonie

At the end of December another £300 flew into my saver account bringing the total to £10,075 and achieving 84% of my £12,000 rainy day target.

On the mortgage front £370 has been taken off the capital making the balance now £151,071. My signature is:

Rainy day fund: £10,075/£12,000; achieved 84%.
12k in 2012 challenge no. 168: £0/£4000; achieved 0%.
Mortgage now: January 2012 at £151,071; end date June 2036.
Mortgage at its highest: July 2011 at £154,000; end date July 2036.