Peonie's journey to smart money management

Peonie

Every January I like to include a financial summary of the year gone to remind myself where we have been and how much we have achieved. Even if it's not all about being a MFW-er.

In 2013, we:

• Reduced the mortgage from £146,800 to £141,200.
• Saved £4,119, of which £3,416 went into the sunny day fund.
• Paid £13,076:
  • Paid £4,690 capital off the mortgage, plus overpaid the mortgage by £910 and paid £3,596 in interest.
  • Paid £652 off the bed frame and mattress. Only 14 more monthly payments to go at 0% interest.
  • Spent £3,228 on the house.
    

• By the end of 2013, we owe the world £143,960.

And in those 12 months my signature changed, in December 2012 my signature was:

Rainy day fund: £12,000/£12,000, achieved 100%.
12k in 2012 challenge no. 168: £5,820/£4,000, achieved 149%.
Mortgage now: December 2012, at £146,800, end date May 2036.
Mortgage at its highest: July 2011, at £154,000, end date July 2036.

A year later, in December 2013 it was:

Sunny day fund (12k in 2013) no. 114: £3,416/£3,416, achieved 100%. :T
MFiT3 no. 86: Reduce mortgage from £146,800 to £125,000.
Mortgage now: December 2013, at £141,200, end date March 2036.
Mortgage at its highest: July 2011, at £154,000, end date July 2036.

Now 2013 is behind us it's time to overhaul my signature, remove the sunny day target and bring in the new challenges and targets for 2014.

shala_moo

Hi Peonie,

Well done on meeting you sunny day fund target and reducing the mortgage.

Sorry to hear your bad news, big hugs.. look after your family member, but remember to look after yourself too.:grouphug:

Peonie

Hello SM :wave: and thanks. I'm trying to think positively that they will get through this but I'm still scared.

I need to give this treatment the best shot I have so I've made changes to my diet and tried to alternative therapies. I have to travel but the alternative therapist is a lot cheaper than the ones near-by and I can use the travel card I have for work so travel to and from there is essentially free. It's only time that I'm losing but I'm using the time to read. Unfortunately I'm still getting stressed.

Mr P is busy with work.

I'll post our financial goals for the year in a moment. Which, actually, Mr P has not seen yet...

Peonie

OK, I’ve been doing some financial planning. I’ve scrapped all virtual pots, balances of current accounts, saving accounts, the lot and started from scratch.

I’ve scrapped some of the old financial spreadsheets and made a new one for the various saving pots. The first draft was complicated with all the accounts listed so that was scrapped in favour of one where the money is flexible.

The average monthly outgoings for January was put aside. I won’t go into how much we have in the pots already but these are the pots for 2014 and what I think we need:

• House improvements – £3,000 needed
• Rainy day (fully full, done and dusted but need to maintain the balance)
• Sunny day - £700 needed (yep I’ve already done this one but now I’ve taken on more of the household financial responsibility I need to make up the shortfall)
• Sunny day treatment - £923 needed (I estimate we need this amount above what we already have to have a third go)
• Car up-keep - £540 needed (to cover the MOT, repairs and road tax for my car for the year. Each month £45 goes into the pot to cover these costs)
• New car - £3,000 needed (we need this on top of what we think our cars are worth)
• Holiday - £1,000 needed (to cover the remaining accommodation cost and holiday activities)
• Mortgage overpayments - £3,120 target (this will be a mixture between actual payments and money into the virtual pot)

That’s A LOT of money. And I’m not sure we can scrape it all together. Mr P wrote off my little debt to him. But he’s not agreed to help with any of the above as he has the credit card bill to pay off. As I’m getting overwhelmed, and as I know I can’t meet the £12,183 target alone, I need to prioritise and break down the targets into smaller chunks. The priorities are:

• • Holiday - it’s number 1 it’s a smaller amount than the mortgage overpayment target and this target will be achieved quicker
  • Mortgage overpayments – to celebrate every month that’s knocked off through actual payments
  • Car up-keep – as said this is topped up monthly but I might as well include it as it’s adding to the total

In all reality, the order of priority will probably change as our circumstances change and as the virtual pots as supposed to be flexible.

So, what do you think? Are my priorities wrong?

newgirly

So sorry to hear your bad news Peonie, I don't know what to say really except take care and hopefully your mind will be put at rest a little when treatment options are clearer, not knowing is the worst kind of torture.

Your 2014 plan looks good, and it sounds like prioritising the holiday is not a bad idea, a chance to de stress

Peonie

Thanks Newgirly. I got strong and then found out what treatment they will have to go through and broke down again. It's going to be hard for them and the treatment is going to take a long time - maybe even a year. They are young, this is not supposed to happen.

Elsewhere in the family a baby has been born. I bought their present in the Christmas sales. I'll probably drop it off at their parents so I don't have to pay for postage.

In fact, I've bought a lot of presents for the coming year in the sales and nothing for me. Actually, that's not true. I replaced the perfume gift set I had bought for myself but instead gave as a present rather than buying the same at a higher price. Oh, and I did buy a wall planner. For presents I have bought bath sets, a chalk board, eye shadow sets, male fragrance gift set, candles and some baby clothes. It meant in December I went waaaaay over budget but 2014 will be cheaper.

It's taken years but I have finally transferred the £2.29 credited in my credit card account - out of it.

BlueMoo

Good luck for your sunny day - glad to hear the injections are doing well.

Your aims for 2014 sound great, and you did very well in 2013! Anything is possible!

Peonie

Thanks BlueMoo, I'm having a couple of minor side effects. Work are being really good giving me time off for the hospital appointments.

Today was a NSD.

In financial news, I paid £108.37 off at the beginning of the month and another £4.44 last night. The £4.44 is from the credit card re-credit and the 1st month of interest from Nat.Wide.

Peonie

Hi, I hope everyone had a good weekend.

We had a take-a-way on Friday night - oops. Yesterday we had a lovely walk on the beach with family and today I ordered/paid for 1 set of sofa arm covers to cover the messed ones we have - they are cheaper than a new sofa :T On the way home I nipped into L1di and determined to only pick up essentials grabbed a basket and only spent £12 on fruit/veg, cereal, milk and a chicken for tonight's roast.

We nearly went to a cafe for breakfast today. I saved £20 by cooking it myself. We had beans, left over bacon from Christmas and poached egg.

I'm trying to eat a lot of eggs and chicken at the moment as it's supposed to help my eggs - or so I heard. But I'm getting really sick of eggs and I'm trying to stay off bread. Can you suggest any alternatives to poached, boiled, scrambled or an omlette? I need to eat something different.

Tomorrow I need to pick up decaff tea bags. Other than that it should be a NSD.

Mr P was procrastinating getting a 0% interest CC, to pay off the computers, so I've transferred him the money to stop the future monthly charges. He plans to pay the rainy day pot back in the next 2 months.

gallygirl

Peonie wrote: »

I'm trying to eat a lot of eggs and chicken at the moment as it's supposed to help my eggs - or so I heard. But I'm getting really sick of eggs and I'm trying to stay off bread. Can you suggest any alternatives to poached, boiled, scrambled or an omlette? I need to eat something different.

Try Slimming World 'quiche'. More like a frittata really as no pastry. The recipe is for a large one but I make small ones in muffin tins, that way you can add different veg to small batches. Much nicer than they sound . I add spices and herbs and maybe a little chopped chilli.

http://www.slimmingworld.com/recipes/colourful-vegetable-quiche.aspx