Peonie's journey to smart money management

shala_moo

Hi Peonie,

Is your mum and sister's suggestion viable if Mr P's business is doing well enough by the time it comes to you making the decision to go back to work?

It would be nice for you to have the choice

Peonie

It would be nice if I could reduce my hours. We'll have to see if it's a viable option and then apply and see if it's accepted.

We got the cot - woohoo. Her emails had not being coming through. Now we need to buy a mattress for a cot bed and a Moses basket.

Peonie

Yesterday I met up with my friends for Sunday lunch and gad a great time. One gave me some of her old maternity clothes. Although she's a couple of sizes smaller than me most do fit but I'm not sure if they'll get me through to the end. Yay to generous friends.

Last night I had a good tidy of our bedroom and have put in storage clothes that no longer fit.

Today's plans are:
[STRIKE]DH to work for a few hours.
Clean the bathrooms.
Make lunch for my parents. We're giving a BBQ here and I'm making potato salad.
Wash our bedding, towels [/STRIKE]and clothes.
We did everything but wash the clothes and I took mum window shopping.

Have a great bank holiday Monday.

Peonie

Thankfully our cat pulled through her operation and she's happier because of it.

It's time to update the pots, and my signature, following April's OP and saving efforts and the redistribution of funds after over-saving for my maternity leave. Here they are:

Was: House £0/£3000, Rainy day Complete, Sunny day £80/£700, IVF £21/£923
Now: House £3794/£6000, Rainy day Complete, [STRIKE]Sunny day £0/£700[/STRIKE], IVF £2523/£2523

Was: Car up-keep £135/£135, New car £5000/£5000, Holiday £860/£1000, MFW #16 £1217/£3120
Now: Car up-keep £135/£135, New car £5000/£5000, Holiday £1000/£1000, MFW #16 £1217/£3120

The house and IVF targets have been increased to take into account over-saving in previous years.

It was great chipping away at the smaller pots as they were completed quickly and I like seeing all those nice new greens. But the house and MFW pot targets are HUGE.

This month I've OP'd £72. I only intended to round down to the next 0 - oops. But £2 is not enough - right? I wish I could OP another £200 this month but Mr P would notice and I said I would put everything into the house pot.

shala_moo

Glad to hear the cat's come through the op ok x

Peonie

I have such generous friends that I am grateful for. At the weekend we visited a friend who lives hours away so we do not see as much as we would like. I bought some clothes as a gift for her children and she gave us hundreds of pounds of baby items. We wanted to take them out for a meal to thank them but instead they made us Sunday dinner. I don't know how to thank them. It's time to update my baby list and see what essentials I still need.

And this weekend I only spent £10 on transport costs - nothing else. Not bad.

I've finally had some good news work wise. My job has been regraded and I've gone up a band. It's probably too late to receive the increase in this month's wages but I hope to get the back pay next month. It's my first increase in wages in many years so I'm happy.

Peonie

Shala, how did you knock 5.5 years off your mortgage?

Peonie

We're back from the cinema - using our orange Wed code so it was half price. Still, when did the cinema get so expensive?

Yesterday I dropped the ball and bought a meal deal for lunch - tut tut. Today was going along the same line so I bought the ingredients for a few meals instead.

At the moment I'm enjoying work and that makes life a lot better.

Next week DH has to stay away over night so we've booked him into a cheap hotel. The joys of being self-employed means he can't claim it back.

(19+2)

Peonie

This morning we went to the park and sat in the sun. It was lovely. Afterwards we went to Mr T, had I known I would have took the voucher that runs out tomorrow - grrr. We bought their own brand ice chocs and they were not nice. We'll try the Ald1 own brand ones next time.

Today's plans are to do some clothes washing to take advantage of the sun and then some decorating. Mr P is already mowing the lawns.

I kind of wish we'd gone to the national baby show as I want to learn about the different types of reusable nappies.

The cat had another trip to the vets and she's healing well.

This month our electricity and gas heating bills dropped by £50 - woohoo. Long may it continue.

icontinuetodream

Glad to hear the cat is recovering well!