Peonie's journey to smart money management

originalmiscellany

Sounds like lots of great savings going on there. Lots of small things make a big difference in the big scheme of things - that's the key feature isn't it...
I too am thinking what I can save on, but for the cost of a subsidised lunch at £1.50 I don't think I'd get "good value" in making my lunch every day. We too have cut down our take aways, to a lazy meal once a week - usually a Friday. We like the Tesco Curry deals, something like £7 for a nice curry, naan, rice etc. Just the job and easily cheaper than a curry take away.

You've inspired me, I'll see what I can do to save a few more pence now.

Well done Peonie!

Zeddy

Re the credit card - I think it sounds like a good idea, but then that's what we're doing. We're moving on Thursday and I've just taken a new CC to do a balance transfer of of Dec/Jan purchases so that frees up some extra cash. Moving always costs more than you think it will, and if you have 13m to pay off, breaking it down over 13m isn't much to save each month.

mummalove

Hi Peonie and welcome :wave: I am also a newbie on here too.

I love this particular forum as everyone is so friendly and offers so much support and ideas. It just motivates me reading what others are up to and doing to cut back and make OPs etc.

Hope you house move go smoothly, sounds like you have a fantastic action plan in so many different departments and once you get started you just can't stop

Wishing you all the best.

Peonie

Re the credit card - I think it sounds like a good idea, but then that's what we're doing. We're moving on Thursday and I've just taken a new CC to do a balance transfer of of Dec/Jan purchases so that frees up some extra cash.

Zeddy, it's good to hear someone else is doing the same by stoozing. I hope your house move went well.

the cost of a subsidised lunch at £1.50 I don't think I'd get "good value" in making my lunch every day.

OM, that's really cheap. The subsidised lunches at my work are quite big cost around £2.60 and that's cheap. I hope taking lunch to work will have another positive effect, for the first time in years I am actually hungry when I get home and I hope a smaller lunch will help me to lose some weight.

I like the fact you've listed sustainability as a word for improving, not a concept of "I'll save 20k a month from my 2k wages" but through sensible saving and hard work.

Thanks OM, I wrote sustainably to remind myself to live life and not to get obsessed with paying off the mortgage, I don't want to wish the next 20 years of my life away by only focussing on the next payday.

Hope you house move go smoothly, sounds like you have a fantastic action plan in so many different departments and once you get started you just can't stop

Thanks mummalove, we have a long way to go and from reading this forum I learnt a lot already.

katsu

I love your name Peonie, it made me picture a beautiful pale pink flower, wish mine was as pretty

Nectar is good - if you shop on Amazon you can earn nectar points if you go to the nectar website, then search for earn points online and click the amazon link.

Top cashback and quidco are also good ideas for free cash.

Do you have breakdown cover? If you do, check out martin's tabs and look at Autoaid or Autonational. I really rate Autoaid - £37 for DH and I for an insurance pay and reclaim version of nearly £200 equivalent AA/RAC cover.

Surveys are also a nice way to earn vouchers and thus free cash for gifts etc. I got a lovely gift for our house by earning around £70 of vouchers last year which I put towards an expensive shoe rack.

Lots of great tips here, you will enjoy picking things to try as part of your steps.

I agree with your long term approach - we have a long MFW journey but are taking it steadily. My approach to OPing is the Mr T slogan "every little helps".

Peonie

Thanks for the Amazon Nectar tip Katsu, the DH frequently uses Amazon and I'll check out the breakdown cover. Our biggest hurdle will be remembering to go through Nectar, Quidco and TopCashBack before purchasing.

Here's our update:

This week I went though the cupboards and checked what cleaning products we have and what toiletries I have, with the aim of using up the partially used bottles and not buying what we already have, so there's less to take with us when we move.

Well, we're not too bad, I thought it would be worse. We have 4 bottles of bleach, 2 nearly finished bottles of disinfectant, I have 2 part used bottles of conditioner and a ridiculous amount of shower gel and body moisturiser from presents.

First things first, use up the bottles with the least in them and if we don't get through the disinfectant before moving they will be poured into the same bottle. When we finish the hand soap I will pour the cheapest shower gel into the bottle. I will not buy any more conditioner, shower gel, body moisturiser or bleach until what I have is used up.

And finally, even though I desperately want to overpay our mortgage, we have decided to pay into our pay into our rainy day pot first. How much do you suggest we save? I thought we would aim for a rainy day pot with 6 months of our take home wages.
I have considered saving 10% of our wages (excluding pensions) each month, does anyone do this? I do like adding a little into many pots (10% into saving, 10% OP etc) but I should add, after reading the MSE website saving 10% no matter what would not be good money management, do you agree?

Thanks,
P.

Peonie

Today we went shopping to get the OH some new clothes, while he bought a couple of jumpers and t-shirts I treated myself to 2 pairs of thermal leggings. Oh yes, it's all rock and roll. If they keep me warm then I'll be happy.

Tonight I very nearly succumbed to a take-away but I pleased to say we resisted and managed to cobble a nice meal together even though we had 'nothing' in.

To keep me motivated I am logging the savings we make and I am pleased to write we have saved £608 :j from November to the present by:

Taking my lunch to work and eating breakfast at home - £20 a month.

Changing our TV license payment from quarterly to monthy - £5 a year (I think).

Finding all the foreign currency laying around the house and changed the notes to £££ - £130.

Selling CDs and DVDs we no longer listen to or watch - £130

Shopping around for an Energy Performance Certificate surveyor - saved £25 by not going through the estate agent.

Buying a dress off Ebay for a wedding this spring - saved £96.

Saving £92 in other sales and £31 from not eating out.

And I am only logging new money saving activities. :j

Peonie

The last 2 months have flown by.

The OH and I have sold our house and moved out 3 weeks ago. It seems like a long time ago now.

Back in early February we found out the bank's survey for the house we wanted was not positive. The survey document said full retention of the mortgage was required, i.e. do not loan on this property. To cut a long story short, the Bank of China are being REALLY picky on the houses they will loan on and as the surveyor did not know how much it would cost to put a particular problem right the Bank of China will not give us a mortgage on that particular property.

Thank goodness we had a homebuyers survey or we would have given up on that house when we saw the bank's survey. We have since approached another bank to start the process again but it means we have to pay for yet another survey.

This put us in the tricky position of delaying the sale of our house or moving in with family. In the current market we decided to move in with family rather than potentially losing our buyer.

So here we are.

Peonie

On the money saving front everything is a bit haywire because of the house move.

Before we sold the house we were concerned we would not save enough money to pay the moving fees and I hoped we could stooze the fees. Who knew the lawyers would take their fees and the estate agents directly from our deposit.

I am trying my hand at stoozing, I think it's going to take a while to get used to not paying off the balance every month.

Not buying another house immediately has meant I have been able to use my maximum ISA allowance in the last financial year. I am looking to change my ISA provider as I am getting a pitiful 2.65% with Lloyds TSB.

We have finally used PayCashBack, and on top of the money we got back the site also had a money off voucher so we saved £28 off an electrical appliance.

newgirly

Sorry to hear about the problems you have had with the house, I hope it all works out for you.