Peonie's journey to smart money management

Peonie

The meal plan for the next week is sorted but I need to go to the shops to pick up some missing ingredients so I might as well shop for the following week at the same time, I really do not enjoy shopping.

The leather sofa was in desperate need of conditioning, I think that's what it is called, we've never done it before even though the sofa nearly 5 years old - oops. Anyway, it's now done.

A load of building materials have been delivered for the garage/cloak room/utility works; we're a step closer to getting the works done.

shala_moo

Hi Peonie,

Peonie wrote: »

I don't have a plan yet; we have been known to throw the chicken in a pan with left over gravy, heat it up, spoon the chicken out and into a soft roll with stuffing; throw some chips on the plate. It's not healthy but it's messy and good. We do the same with roast beef and gravy.

I love this for tea.. just make sure you have enough napkins :rotfl: sometimes we have this with roasties and extra gravy to dip them in.. mmmmm

Peonie wrote: »

The leather sofa was in desperate need of conditioning, I think that's what it is called, we've never done it before even though the sofa nearly 5 years old - oops. Anyway, it's now done.

I used to do this on our old sofa, I was amazed how nice the sofa looked after it had dried. I know my friend doesn't do hers and its cracked all over so i must remember to do ours in the summer.

Great to see your NSD's and taking your lunch into work..

Quick question - did you have a reason for picking £12k for your rainy day savings? Does this cover bills for a certain time period?

Peonie

shala_moo wrote: »

Quick question - did you have a reason for picking £12k for your rainy day savings? Does this cover bills for a certain time period?

Hi Shala,

Yes we did have a reason for the amount; it's based on our essential bills and food costs over 6 months; then I rounded it up to £12k. So if we are ever both out of work we will have 6 months grace but the amount does not include non-essentials like clothes.

P.

shala_moo

Great.. thanks Peonie..

I think i need to sit and work out our essentials and make sure i'm covering it with my savings.. an afternoon with the spreadsheets for me.. :T

Peonie

The majority of our bills are the same each month so I added up the bills for 1 month times 6 to come up with the number; it really did not take long to work out. Some people save 3 months but I'm comfortable with 6. At one point I aimed to save 6 months of wages :eek:

We're getting closer to the ISA target; I have transferred another £200 into the account today; making the total saved in January £700. Which quite frankly is bloomin' marvelous.

I have set myself an interim target; to reach £10,000 in the ISA account by the end of this financial year. If I reach this target I will also technically reach the rainy day target.

Bring it on.

Peonie

A quick update from me; on Saturday I spent £79 on food from the supermeercat plus £7.50 at the greengrocers. On Sunday I had a cooking day; roasted a chicken which made 3 evening meals and 2 sandwiches. Plus cooked mince and made chilli sauce and cottage pie; making the meat portion for an extra 5.5 meals. All have gone in the freezer which is now full. I am really getting into this batch cooking and in the last few weeks food has not been wasted.

Tomorrow we're having chilli and rice or baked potato.

So far this week I've had 2 NSDs but MrP did order a present on my behalf and a scalf; both will be paid from his paypal account. Today I spent £2.10 on soup and coffees; I hope to do better tomorrow.

On Monday night I may have dropped the end of my computer power cable into a drink. I unplugged it straight away and let it dry; luckily it still works.

Mr P tried to start my car this morning; the battery is flat again so it must need a new one.

Things to do:
Gloss paint 2 windows.
Make Valentines day and Christening card (or buy).
Oil kitchen worktops
CEX CDs

Peonie

Got home 30 mins ago after going to a work network thing and I bought a couple of drinks which came in just shy of £5.. OH had dinner waiting for me; we had chilli on nachos - yummy. Lunch consisted of a sandwich, cuppa-a-soup and a scone. The first 2 I made or had in but the scone cost 52p.

Now I'm settling in for the night in front of the TV and catching up on diaries.

Peonie

The February mortgage payment has hit the bank; that means my signature can officially be updated. Only 2 more payments and we will go sub 150k.

Rainy day fund: £10,780/£12,000; achieved 89%.
12k in 2012 challenge no. 168: £705/£4,000; achieved 17.6%.
Mortgage now: February 2012 at £150,700; end date June 2036.
Mortgage at its highest: July 2011 at £154,000; end date July 2036.

Peonie

Hello, I may have disappeared the last few weeks but I have not been far away. The last two weeks I have had colds; the first week I was also very busy, which I will get to later as I need to confess some mega spending, and this week I finally caught up with everyone's diaries but then was too tired to write my own.

It's looking like I will write this post over multiple boxes or I may never press submit and it will be another week before I confess my spending sins.

Lois_E

Hi Peonie

Nice to hear from you. Hope you're all better from your colds now.

What is this mega spending that you need to confess? Come on, you know you'll feel better when you've got the confession over with. I hope you've got something really nice, or had a great experience, or done some good for someone, or something else worthwhile, with your money.