Peonie's journey to smart money management

Peonie

The car is nice. It's a bit larger and a different make so there's a bit to learn. I parked it in a car park for the first time today and I am happy to say there were no accidents.

I went to a mum to mum buying event today and bought 31 unisex baby vests, sleep suits, a winter all-in-one and a tiny pair of baby shoes, plus 2 maternity tops - all for £17. I think the next one is in 2 months - bring it on.

Lois_E

Peonie wrote: »

Lois, is there anyway I can get 2036 on the same as the rest of the mortgage info? Edited to add: did it.

Well done. :T

Peonie

OMG I think I'm going to hyperventilate. I need your help.

Today I used the statutory maternity calculator on the gov.uk website and I think I've unknowingly saved enough to cover 2 maternity leaves plus quite a bit after that left over! Which is great as i don't need to worry about sunny day saving again and I can overfill my current IVF pot.

I'm wondering if I've miscalculated. In fact I've calculated it a few different ways and they all seems to come out with different credit amounts.

I calculated - part 1:

(9 months current costs + decorating/baby stuff) - (statutory maternity pay + child benefit) = money needed from sunny day savings.

Part 2:

(Money needed from sunny day savings * 2) - total sunny day savings = credit for IVF pot.

The '*2' is for 2 lots of maternity leave. For baby 2 we would not need to decorate the same or by more baby items but I have kept the same amount of money in to cover the additional cost of already having a child.

Please help.

I want to jump for joy but don't want to tell Mr P as he'll probably want to spend it on decorating and house renovations.

icontinuetodream

I have no idea if you have miscalculated (maths is not my strong point!!:o) or not but my advice is SAY NOTHING!!!!:D:D :rotfl:And WOOHOO!!!:j:j:j:j

Yorkielass

Peonie wrote: »

We now have a new, to us, car - yay :T:T:T We pick it up on Thursday and hand over the other 2. So we'll be a 1 car family :T. We should save around £400 a year on road tax and car insurance. Plus I'll phone my insurance company tomorrow to cancel my insurance and hopefully i'll get some money back. We will have to have a second set of keys cut and isofix installed.

We finally did it. :T But I will miss my little car. It's been a good un.l

I got Mr P to agree that he over cover the majority if not all the car costs so I can consider the car up-keep pot as full. Another yay. :T

Goldiegirl wrote: »

That's something we will do, within the next year, go down to one car.


To be honest my car is now a bit of an extravagance. My office is very near where my husband works, so he gives me a lift to work. We have three days at home together, so his car is available on those days. So I only use my car two days a week, just to potter around locally, things like having my hair done, taking parcels to the post office, and going out for the odd lunch.


My car is serviced, taxed and insured up until February, so I'm keeping it for now, but early in the new year I think it'll have to go. I'll be gutted as I love that car!

We've always had one car, it takes some co-operation, sometimes pulling in favours, the odd taxi, and many occasions when I say I wish we had two cars (where we live now we can both walk/bike to work but we do volunteering in the evenings and at weekends and that's what mainly causes problems) I then think about the extra money we have because we're not paying two lots of tax, insurance, MOTs, petrol etc. So in balance definitely worth doing I think.

Peonie

Within 2 days we had out first clash of car needs. This is despite telling everyone for months 'we never use our cars at the same time is it won't be a problem'. I think we'll just need to write when we need it on the calendar.

I'm a bit peeved, we were supposed to pick up a second hand cot tonight (for £80, it's £400 new). Despite agreeing to everything the seller has not sent me his address or replied. If he's got a better offer from someone else don't you think he should at least tell me and not ignore my messages?

ICTD, I managed to stay quiet for about a day. I got the SMP figures from work and calculated it was even more than I expected and it works out at about £5500 over saved. I could not keep that a secret. So we're going to renovate the bathroom and I want to keep the rest for the IVF pot. My signature is going to be very different when I update it.

My mum and sister have started to 'suggest' I try to work part-time. Hmmm.

Peonie

I've just bagged myself 2 free tickets to the Ideal Home Show.

Also one of our cats is having an operation tomorrow . I hope she'll be ok.

newgirly

That's fantastic news Peonie! All that hard work saving has paid off :T have a great weekend and I hope the cat's op goes ok.

icontinuetodream

Fair point...that's a lot of cash!!:D

Really hope that everything is okay with the cat....pets are such a huge worry:(

Peonie

Hi NG and ICTD,

Well Mr P forgot to take the food off the cats, I did not know we had to, so we had to reschedule the operation to Tuesday. Like you say they are a worry as they are family.

I tried to make an OP last night but the bank website said my mortgage provider does not take faster payments. In the bank today they said they do so I'll have to try again tonight.

I have a cold sore (lovely) and the pharmacy said I can't take anything for it.

And finally, I'm wearing my maternity trousers for the first time.