Peonie's journey to smart money management

Peonie

The auction just ended and I did not get the dress. It went for £37 + £5 postage. I'll keep searching.

Eeek, we went to the shops & spent £30 on stuff for the garden including a new watering can, lawn seed, flower seeds and £40 in Mr Ts. This month we've spent a lot on food but it still does not seem like we have any more food in the house.

I figured I might as well try to grow some flowers as I'll probably buy them from the garden center and spend ££s. I have nothing to lose other than a few £ right? Plus I spent more time in the garden sowing seeds and onions.

I must have added another 5km onto my total today.

Shala, that's why we don't buy biscuits. I tend not to snack so it's not like I need to eat anything. Good luck with the exercise and your healthy alternative snack sounds good.

Peonie

It's the last day of the month and I did some exercise cramming. I achieved 179km out of 168km. :j:j:j Tomorrow is a new month and a new target of 168km starts.

Today I checked Mr Ts for bargains and only managed to pick up a loaf for 29p; everything else was unhealthy so I left it for someone else.

I hope everyone is well.

P.

Peonie

Overall things have not been too bad; I:

• Remembered to use my n4ectar card.
• Picked up a few bargains at Mr Ts, including sausages and chicken schnitzel.
• Took a packed lunch practically every day since January. :T
• Shopped the attic this morning for bits for the house.
• Have flower seedlings. :T

Today we were going to go out for the day but I was not feeling well so our mini tour is postponed until tomorrow. But we did spend the time productively. Mr P was teaching me to use a computer program which I hope will help us to bring in more money. The project will need a bit of money investment to start with.

In April I managed to save £595 into the sunny day fund and only £815 left left to find. April's amount would have been higher had I not paid £96 off the CC. The rest must be paid off by the CC 10th. Sooo, I aim to reach my sunny day target next month. I can't wait.

On the 1st I paid £106.51 off the mortgage. I love how excited I got and I intend to keep up with these slightly higher payments. This payment took the mortgage down to £144,500. We're close to having paid £10k off. Next month we'll do it.

At this point I'm not sure if I should announce we have knocked another month off or not. If you calculate by the balance divided by the number of months we've knocked 2.2 months off by overpaying. But if you calculate it by taking away the overpayment by the current capital payment then we've knocked off 3 months.

This is now my signature:
Sunny day fund (12k in 2013) no. 114: £2,601/£3,416, achieved 77%.
MFiT3 no. 86: Reduce mortgage from £146,800 to £125,000.
Mortgage now:May 2013, at £144,500, end date April/May 2036.
Mortgage at its highest: July 2011, at £154,000, end date July 2036.

That's all folks!

Peonie

We had a lovely weekend. Took packed lunches and walked for miles on the beach and in the countryside. It was good for the soul. We came back home and looked at houses on Rightmove! We took advantage of the warm weather and had a BBQ.

On the money front I've paid off my CC bill before the payment date so no nasty charges. Today I bought some sell by cakes. They're in the freezer ready for guests.

We moved some wild strawberry plants but they are wilting. I don't know it they will survive. And something ate 3 out of 4 of my tomato plants. But my onions are finally sprouting.

newgirly

Hi Peonie, £144,500 already well done (wish I was still in the £140ks ) glad you had a good day at the beach, just being nosey but is the sunny day fund for something fun and frivolous ?

Peonie

Hi NG, it's the rebrand of what was my baby fund, that then became known as maternity fund (or was it the other way round!) but finally became my sunny day fund. Essentially something to look forward to as opposed to my rainy day fund. You're not been nosey. I ask questions like that all the time.

You should separate your mortgage and loan totals. Then you'll be back in the 140s again.

I was on a work field trip today and learned some interesting stuff. I need to claim my travel and food costs back.

Peonie

Well I got weighed today. In the 10 weeks since my last weigh-in I've lost 4lbs. That's ridiculous. Some people do that in 1 week.

shala_moo

Peonie wrote: »

Well I got weighed today. In the 10 weeks since my last weigh-in I've lost 4lbs. That's ridiculous. Some people do that in 1 week.

Don't knock it, it's taking me 4 months to lose 5lbs!

If you haven't much to lose then it won't come off quickly.. but it is coming off and that's always good!

newgirly

Hi Peonie, Shala moo is right and I think it's more likely to stay off if its been a slow progress than a quick one . ( at least that's what I'm telling myself ):rotfl:

Peonie

shala_moo wrote: »

Don't knock it, it's taking me 4 months to lose 5lbs!

If you haven't much to lose then it won't come off quickly.. but it is coming off and that's always good!

newgirly wrote: »

Hi Peonie, Shala moo is right and I think it's more likely to stay off if its been a slow progress than a quick one . ( at least that's what I'm telling myself ):rotfl:

OK. We'll celebrate any number weight that goes down or stays the same. At least it's not going up. I'm going to start doing some exercise classes again. Any idea what distance I should note? The cycling is going well and my legs are slimmer and more toned but I really need to work on my arms and middle area.

The weekend was relatively cheap. We saw friends and Mr P went to the cinema while I stayed in. Today I filled the freezer with sell-by food and tonight we ate the rest of the roast chicken.

Thanks for reading.