Peonie's journey to smart money management

Peonie

Thanks everyone. Your comments and hugs have meant a lot.

shala_moo

Sorry to hear your news Peonie.. xx

Peonie

Since our recent family changes I have been thinking about what I should do financially in the short term. Here's my current intentions and questions.

My ISA currently pays 3%. It dropped from 3% with a 0.2% bonus mid-June. For an instant access ISA is this a good rate? Would you change? I have not credited the ISA since March so I could transfer the same amount or open a new one. As I have not made a decision any ISA bound savings are currently sat in a current account with a lower interest rate. Not good.

I was going to use the monthly saver funds, £3,700 on maturity in October, for maternity funds. But now I'll use £2,000 of it to reach our rainy day target.

In the hope I do get pregnant again I will continue to save to cover the costs of a future maternity leave for 6-9 months. And the excess funds from the monthly saver, £1,700, will also go towards this.

As it's a bit sad to keep the maternity line in my signature I'm going to remove it. So here's my signature from early June and before I make the changes listed above:

Maternity savings: £2,804/£?,000 achieved ??%.
Rainy day fund: £10,000/£12,000 achieved 83%.
12k in 2012 challenge no. 168: £2,160/£4,000 achieved 54%.
Mortgage now: June 2012 at £149,178, end date June 2036.
Mortgage at its highest: July 2011 at £154,000, end date July 2036.

newgirly

Hi peonie, hope you are well.

Not sure about the isa rate, but I opened a nationwide one a couple of months ago that was 4.25% (only for flexacct customers) and it was a good 1 % higher than most at the time, I think there is a best buy savings section on the main site.

Peonie

I've been on the ISA thread and the Halifax have dropped their ISA rates. I need to see if they have dropped mine. But I have been eyeing the Santander Direct, cash, ISA (Issue 9) at 3.3% because of the rate and as it allows transfers out at any time without penalties.

Sandstone

Hi Peonie,
I've folllowed your blog for a while now, and just wanted to give you some support following the news. Hope you're doing well.

Peonie

Shala and Sandstone thanks for your messages. Sandstone, don't be a stranger, say hello again soon.

Newgirly, I've had another look at the accounts available at the moment and for what I want and have opted for the Santander account. But your interest rate is great.

I phone Halifax today and my ISA interest rate dropped to 0.5% after a year. :eek: I really should have known they would drop the rate right down and not to 3%. But at the time I did have other things on my mind. Oh well. They did ask if I wanted to increase the interest rate, or something like that, but I was so surprised at the current rate I got off the phone as quickly as possible without saying yes!

So I'm moving the account to Santander. The paperwork should arrive in the next few days. Let's hope their interest rate does not drop as well.

Peonie

Sooo, I kinda went and bought £190 worth of tickets for the paraolympics. And I'm really looking forward to it. We're going to the athletics, swimming and the rowing. They should be good.

We went to a birthday party last night. I bought a new dress to wear, I looked frumpy in it so wore something else, which means I can now take it back. Wahoo. But I am going to keep the half price belt.

In May or June we bought a toilet from the big orange DIY shop. Mr P managed to toilet fix the problem by spending £2 on a new tool. So we took the toilet back and did not have to pay a plumber to fit it. All's well. But then we saw a BBQ. We have wanted a fancy BBQ since 2003 and never bought one as it was frivolous when we had other things that we needed to spend our money on. Anyway, we bought one for £80, it's a lot cheaper than the ones I used to want at £250.

I can't believe I nearly forgot this one. We've bought a new mattress and bed frame. We felt slightly justified in buying one as our bed was on its last legs when it was gifted to us by my parents in 2003 and the shop had a really good sale. I was concerned about buying it when we had so much else to buy but we'll pay it off monthly and the interest is 0%.

newgirly

Naughty naughty!

Seriously though, don't feel guilty about a bit of a splurge, especially on a lovely new dress, you deserve a treat.

Peonie

newgirly wrote: »

Naughty naughty!

Seriously though, don't feel guilty about a bit of a splurge, especially on a lovely new dress, you deserve a treat.

Oh no, you had to pick out the cheapest thing I bought and the only thing I'm taking back to the shops. Ha ha.