Peonie's journey to smart money management

Peonie

happilass wrote: »

Hi Peonie,
just de-lurking to say that I have read your thread from begining to end, last night and this afternoon, and it is great. You are an inspiration and your postings are so interesting. Thanks for the posts and good luck with the mortgage free journey and your other aims.
Happi

Hi Happi,

Thank you for your lovely message. I can't believe you've read my diary from the beginning to end. Reading everyone's diaries really keeps me motivated. I love it when people respond to my posts so please write again. If you have a diary send me the link and I will click on over.

Peonie.

Peonie

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice wrote: »

Hi Peonie... with any luck you have different plants to us. It seems the more I hack away at them (any time of year) the more they grow back!

I hope so, but I don't think the ivy or the brambles will ever go away.

The green bin has been emptied so I no longer have an excuse not to tackle the garden. Again.

newgirly wrote: »

Hi peonie, just because I have set a high target doesn't mean I will manage it Our target does not include money for anything except basic living and food, so chances are we will not hit it anyway :rotfl:

Ooooo, do you have a 'realistic' target?

I know targets are what you are supposed to aim for but I really, really hate not hitting them, it actually makes me stressed. Surpassing a target on the other hand makes me happy. If you look at my signature you'll see I have surpassed my 12k in 12 target but I won't be upping it.

Peonie

Well, I had friends over on Monday night. Yesterday I made paper Halloween decorations from my arts and crafts stash. Parents won't trick or treat houses unless there's some Halloween decorations up.

In my pantry clean up I found a box of sweets given to us as a present. I'm going to split them into bags and give them away on Halloween.

Today I bought Mr P a token present for his birthday this week, bought an Xmas gift for my SIL and have been planning presents for my nieces. Now I just need to buy then.

I have updated my SOA.

And, for your reading pleasure I calculated the cost of my lunch. Drum roll please, my soup and a sandwich cost £1.15. If I ate like that every week day I will save £7.35 a week in comparison to when I used to buy lunch in the works canteen.

Peonie

Right, I've signed up to MFiT-T3. I'm aiming to reduce the mortgage from £146,800 to£125,000.

Hmmm, I probably should have spoke to Mr P about this first. Oh well.

Peonie

Our visitors are here. I took the croissants and pan au chocolate out the freezer yesterday but everyone wanted bacon butties this morning. Guess what I'll be having for breakfast all this week.

I made Mr P a chocolate, cream and raspberry cake for his birthday. It was lovely... I named it continental drift cake. As half of it did just that, drifted away from the rest of it. There's still loads left to eat. I think he enjoyed his birthday. Even if it did mean driving around said guests. We went for a lovely meal to celebrate.

I bought some Xmas presents. L$go are giving double points this month. We have always used Quidc$ but signed up to TCB as there's no fee. We have £7 tracked so far. Does anyone know how often they pay?

newgirly

Hi Peonie, glad you OH's birthday went well, just popping in to answer MRN's question a few posts back about targets, this years was £10k and we will probably hit more like 7k due to overspending

The mfi3 challenge target is 45k ish, but a more relistic figure may be 10-12k per year? I really don't know!

Hurdler

Peonie wrote: »

Our visitors are here. I took the croissants and pan au chocolate out the freezer yesterday but everyone wanted bacon butties this morning. Guess what I'll be having for breakfast all this week.

I made Mr P a chocolate, cream and raspberry cake for his birthday. It was lovely... I named it continental drift cake. As half of it did just that, drifted away from the rest of it. There's still loads left to eat. I think he enjoyed his birthday. Even if it did mean driving around said guests. We went for a lovely meal to celebrate.

I bought some Xmas presents. L$go are giving double points this month. We have always used Quidc$ but signed up to TCB as there's no fee. We have £7 tracked so far. Does anyone know how often they pay?

Hi Peonie
I changed from Quidc0 to TCB as well to avoid the fee (and was having LOADS of tracking issues)... they pay out OK... I'd say vendors take about the same time to cough up... but they also seem to give teensie amounts more that Q so that sealed the deal for me.

Peonie

newgirly wrote: »

The mfi3 challenge target is 45k ish, but a more relistic figure may be 10-12k per year? I really don't know!

That's still a great amount to aim for. I am aware we need to continue to invest in the house for a few years. Then again, it never ends.

Hi Hurdler, I noticed they pay a little but extra as well. That's why we signed up. More money and no fee

I have received an email from Nectar saying I can now do AdPoints. I may have to wait until the guests have left before I can start.

Peonie

I've been paid. Wohoo.

Money gets automatically paid between accounts so I have nothing new to report there.

Only a few more days and my FD saver matures. :T

Plus, Adpoints was really easy, I collected the weeks points in no time. Went out for a walk and a meal again with guests. They paid. I wish I could say the food was good.

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

Peonie wrote: »

I've been paid. Wohoo.

Awww I have to wait till a week on Wednesday for mine!!!

I was just thinking about your automatic payments. I wish there was an account tidying function (a bit like direct debit/standing order). I'd set mine to clear anything over £200 from joint account to the mortgage and anything over £250 from my current account into my ISA the last working day of the month. Halifax if you're listening?!?!