Peonie's journey to smart money management

moneycurious

Peonie, as someone talking from having alot of gyni probs ( i have had more men root up there in the last 12 months "investigating"!!) , it sounds like you are tireda nd abit run down, a good old hot water bottle , ibrofen and a rest may be what you need!!
We finished our house in july, and we felt exhausted , and penniless, but getting back into the saving mood - and its amazing how quick the pounds add up if you look after the pennies. We want out "emergency fud" abit higher than it currently is , just incase we want a new car, extention or ......... a baby! wnat to get saving hard , and hopefully we will get nough pennies together to then start doing regular op's.
i dont know how you keep doing the op's , mine wont let me do it on the internet, so its a big faff doing little ones over the phone or in the bank - but i admire you for it!!
Have a great weekend xx

Peonie

Hi moneycurious, good name.

I've had a lot of prodding as well. Mine was a few years ago and they told me I should try a chemical menopause to give my body a break. No thank you. Finding 12 hour ibupofen was a life changer. It cuts down on the number of times I have to go through the medication wearing off and kicking back in again. It really improved my quality of life.

Each of us are saving for different things. Mr P pays the mortgage but I'm topping it up by overpaying to the nearest hundred. Any money left in Mr P's account and the joint account goes towards the house renovations and what is left in my account goes towards the maternity/baby fund.

I'm jealous you have finished your renovations. Good luck saving, they are all the things we want too, although it may be a few years before we get some of them.

I want to OP more than I am now but have to remind myself to stick with the plan. Having internet payments does make it easier. It's crazy all banks do not have that facility. Us OPers must still be in the minority for them not to make it easy.

I hope you get your pennies together quickly. Do you have a diary? I'll come over and say hi. And good luck with the gyno stuff; I hope they find a solution for you.

Peonie

This week I paid for my professional membership. Luckily work do pay for 1 professional membership a year so I will get it back. The organisation is being a bit slow emailing me the receipt so I may miss this months payroll.

The last time I bought diesel for the car was in July and now I need to fill or top up again. Why does everything come at once?

Yesterday I bought loads of 'sale' tins. My arms were aching trying to carry them all to the station. Plus I'm having friends over tonight so I bought a lot of food for them. Where possible I did buy the supermarket own branded food to bring the cost down.

Packed lunches 4.5/5

The cavity wall insulation man came round. We can get it done. I'll give them a ring on Monday to book the installation date.

moneycurious

Morning! Yep I have had the chemical meopause - and it worked half the time of the 6 months, and then failed miserably, another laporoscopy later ( hence why i have been off for 3 weeks), and they are still none the wiser! grr.
I know exactly how you are feeling.... i tend to find when i get fed up i spend the pennies..... not good.

I have a diary - called Newbie, on this forum.
I like you have got people over tonight, and after sleeping in late, i am starting to think - why!!??!! quick tidy and then prep, and should be somewhere near!!

Have fun tonight xx

Peonie

Peonie wrote: »

This week I paid for my professional membership. Luckily work do pay for 1 professional membership a year so I will get it back. The organisation is being a bit slow emailing me the receipt so I may miss this months payroll. Missed this months payroll so will pay to wait for Decembers pay to get it back and they have still not sent me the receipt.

The last time I bought diesel for the car was in July and now I need to fill or top up again. Why does everything come at once? I topped up by £15.

Yesterday I bought loads of 'sale' tins. My arms were aching trying to carry them all to the station. Plus I'm having friends over tonight so I bought a lot of food for them. Where possible I did buy the supermarket own branded food to bring the cost down.

Packed lunches 4.5/5

The cavity wall insulation man came round. We can get it done. I'll give them a ring on Monday to book the installation date. Hmmm, they have not phoned to arrange installation and I can't find the paperwork. That's what happens when you tidy up.

moneycurious wrote: »

Morning! Yep I have had the chemical meopause - and it worked half the time of the 6 months, and then failed miserably, another laporoscopy later ( hence why i have been off for 3 weeks), and they are still none the wiser! grr.
I know exactly how you are feeling.... i tend to find when i get fed up i spend the pennies..... not good. I think knowing what's wrong makes a big difference. They have identified my condition.

I have a diary - called Newbie, on this forum.
I like you have got people over tonight, and after sleeping in late, i am starting to think - why!!??!! quick tidy and then prep, and should be somewhere near!! I have subscribed to your diary so will be over again.

Have fun tonight xx

On Saturday I hit Aldi first thing, borrowed some placemats from my sister then spent the next 5 hours cleaning. But it was worth it. The place was so tidy. I and guests had a great time. But now they are saying I need to host a BBQ next year. Noooooo. I'm not a natural hostess.

Peonie

Well, Mr P found the insulation paperwork, I phoned them and they have still not received the paperwork from their man so the installation date can't be arranged. I'll give it another week and will try again.

I have picked up some great bargains in Mr Ts. I paid £1.50 on tea and coffee from the clearance section when it should have cost £5.70. Result. Plus I cleared them out of fajita kits, the price had dropped by £1.62 each, so I grabbed 4. Usually I only take what I need but I don't want to pay full price when it goes back up again.

Mr P had a bad day in work again. Just knowing we have enough money to tide us over for a few months should he quit seemed to take the stress off a bit.

Packed lunches 4/5.

And I have to make £15, from my account, last the rest of the month.

Peonie

I've been paid woohoo. I've moved cash between the current accounts to make sure they are in the upper interest tier.

I've also been playing around with the standing orders. For funds that are moved to satisfy account requirements I have reduced the amount of time the money is away from interest paying accounts. More interest = reaching our financial goals sooner.

This month was quite hard. I have had less than £5 left in the budget to spend. It's a friend's big birthday so rather than going shopping I'm going to dip into my present bag. The present was originally for a friend's, now, ex-girlfriend.

I said at the beginning of this diary that I did not want to wish away the months. But I'm really looking forward to next month when the budget starts again and when I have some spare money.

Our plumber has done bits and bobs for us over the last year and has not once asked for payment. Today he finished and I think we will receive a bill soon. Mr plumber, if you could forget to send the bill for a few months that would be great. Thanks.

At work there will be redundancies. In this phase I will be fine. There will be more. I'm not going worry about what I don't know or can't control. If I am offered redundancy I will worry about it then.

Last week packed lunches: 5/5. This week: 2/5.

gallygirl

Peonie wrote: »

Our plumber has done bits and bobs for us over the last year and has not once asked for payment. Today he finished and I think we will receive a bill soon. Mr plumber, if you could forget to send the bill for a few months that would be great. Thanks.

I have a workman like that. Great at the time but :eek: when it arrives. The trick is to keep finding more jobs . Harder to do with a plumber, my 'man' does everything except gas so that's helpful

At work there will be redundancies. In this phase I will be fine. There will be more. I'm not going worry about what I don't know or can't control. If I am offered redundancy I will worry about it then.

I so agree. We have enough to worry about that is in our control without adding to it with stuff we can't control. All you can do is is do a good job and learn new skills if you get a chance.The OP's will lessen the worry if you do get made redundant at some stage.

Happy payday to you :T.

Mortgage_Reduction_Novice

Peonie wrote: »

This month was quite hard. I have had less than £5 left in the budget to spend...

...I said at the beginning of this diary that I did not want to wish away the months. But I'm really looking forward to next month when the budget starts again and when I have some spare money.

Also in the same situation... buying Christmas presents early (plus remortgage arrangement fees, and a couple of other bits) has meant paying for them a month early. But everything will right itself without dipping into savings if I don't use the joint account till 1st Dec! And I think Jaunary with the long gap between Dec and Jan pay will also be easier than previous years!

shala_moo

Peonie wrote: »

I
At work there will be redundancies. In this phase I will be fine. There will be more. I'm not going worry about what I don't know or can't control. If I am offered redundancy I will worry about it then.

Sorry to hear this, we're going through the same thing at work at the moment. I spent most of the night awake worrying about it but i figured I can't keep doing this otherwise i'll make myself ill..

All we can do is make sure we have enough savings/provisions for the worst case scenario and then what will be will be

xx