Peonie's journey to smart money management

Peonie

Yep, mother nature definitely caused the damage. But who is going to pay for a new one? Us I imagine. The cats will love it; easy access in and out the front.

I've ventured into the garage and that was cold enough. No way I'm going out.

I've finished painting and have found one of the cats have did some painting of their own - on one of our dining room chairs. Great.

Peonie

2 friends had their babies. I bought their presents in the January sales, found 2 cards in the card drawer - 1 without the envelope but sent it anyway, packaged them as nicely as I could with things I had, reused 2 boxes and posted them 2nd class. I have no idea when they will get them.

My ISA interest was paid at the beginning of the month; which I did not expect. Today £300 zoomed over to the monthly saver.

The blanket of snow has gone, we are lucky, but we continue to get snow showers.

I finished a free book yesterday and have a free short read lined up next. I just need to find it. Free books = no library late fees. Yay.

Food & house wise, even though we are cooking at home and going to the cheaper shops we're still spending a lot. This month's supermarket shop total is expected to reach £150.

I ran out of my lovely shampoo and conditioner that makes my hair look healthy and shine. As it was not on sale I bought the cheaper ones.

My P temporarily fixed the fence panel and the squeaking landing floor boards. He's a star.

Peonie

I'm flicking through my new magazine and it's not good. Thank goodness it was only £6 and the gift outweighed the cost. I never intended to but I won't be renewing that subscription.

Another hour and a half in the garden and a bit more gardening done. :T

Parattiver

That's quite a plan and a story. Good luck with your mortgage

Peonie

Hi Parattiver, thanks for stopping by and wishing me luck. Are you focussing on your mortgage?

Well, I've updated my signature and it is now:
Sunny day fund (12k in 2013) no. 114: £2,036/£3,416, achieved 60%.
MFiT3 no. 86: Reduce mortgage from £146,800 to £125,000.
Mortgage now:April 2013, at £145,000, end date May 2036.
Mortgage at its highest: July 2011, at £154,000, end date July 2036.

In March I managed to save £510. Taking me to 60% of my annual savings target; excluding this month's ISA interest.

The last few months I've rounded up the mortgage capital payment to the next hundred. This month I overpayed £117.42 to pay £500 off the capital. Meaning we've £145,000 left to pay. :beer: As I've paid extra off the mortgage this month I'll reach my savings target a month later than originally planned; in June rather than May.

I hope everyone had a good Easter weekend. We spent time with family, took 6 car loads of rubble and garden waste to the tip. Saving approximately £120 on skip fees. I also made 2 portions of soup, 2 portions of spag bol and 8 portions of meat and potato pie filling. It's all in the freezer ready for busy days.

Thanks for reading.

Oops, I forgot to say not only did I hit my March exercise target in kms but I surpassed it and did it in miles as well.

shala_moo

Peonie wrote: »

Oops, I forgot to say not only did I hit my March exercise target in kms but I surpassed it and did it in miles as well.

You're putting me to shame.. go on tell me how many kms your monthly target is and i'll try and match you this month, obviously only if it's single figures :rotfl:

p.s. are km's more than miles?

Peonie

shala_moo wrote: »

You're putting me to shame.. go on tell me how many kms your monthly target is and i'll try and match you this month, obviously only if it's single figures :rotfl:

p.s. are km's more than miles?

You are on. And no single figures; it's 168kms a month.

1 mile = 1.60934 km

I aim to do 168kms a month and in 12 months that's 2,013kms. On an exercise bike it was very easy to do. When I achieved that target I decided to aim for 168miles and I managed to go 13 miles over.

I include any exercise above what's normal. That means I don't include walks to and from the station. I also give a nominal distance to other activities to give me an incentive to do them.

You never know; you might catch the bug and join me for the rest of the year.

shala_moo

Ohh what have I agreed too:eek: so roughly 3.5-4 miles a day..

I might make myself a pretty chart to monitor my progress, or is that just more procrastination:rotfl:

Right, I've a few days to catch up on from this month so I'd better get cracking tomorrow!

x

Peonie

I had to get my head in the right place that I wanted to do it. I started on an easy resistance level and built up. I now tend to do 15 miles at a time. Did I read you have an elliptical training machine? You will probably work hard on that machine than I do on the exercise bike. Do you have a smartphone? I use the 'map my walk' app to log the exercise distance.

I have 2 pretty tables, 1 in kms and 1 in miles, And stacked bar chart in kms that shows the cumulative distance over the months.

shala_moo

Love the fact that we're excited for the spreadsheets we can make!

I only have a treadmill at the moment, we'll have a crosstrainer in the near future hopefully. It takes me about an hour to do 3.5-4 miles as I walk/jog using the Couch 2 5k app.

Here's to us having healthy bikini bodies once the sun arrives maybe next year for me

xx