Daffy's 'patchwork dreams' diary

Cheery_Daff

Well it got me the afternoon off work at least!

Parkrun done and dusted - hoping we were slightly faster than last week's 42 minutes :rotfl: :rotfl: Glorious day out there though!

Cheery_Daff

Right.

FINALLY got round to this month's internet banking, can't believe it took me so long! :eek: Done now though - and look at that signature! :T :T

Although it's just dawned on me that there's only 3 paydays left this year :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: I'm looking at my totals...

total savings 4788.40 + (570 x 3) = (er, hang on :rotfl:) = £6498.40 (which leaves me £1651.60 short of my aim :eek:)

Admittedly that was an entirely made up aim :rotfl: :rotfl: based on putting away £400 patchwork fund + £100 emergency fund +£70 holiday fund every month which I've been doing - although I now see that only adds up to £6840, so I think I added a bit extra on to be optimistic :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Anyway, if I carry on the way I have been doing, the patchwork fund will end up at £3334 by the end of the year, not too bad going! :T :T :T And the emergency fund currently stands at £607 - also pretty good, especially since I've had to dip into it a couple of times for new car tyres :mad:

I was throwing all spare into the patchwork life fund earlier in the year, then instead invented a 'patchwork development' pot which pays for flute lessons, conferences etc, stuff which adds towards the patchwork life but isn't part of the overall giant savings plan. I throw leftover train money etc in there, rather than in the patchwork life fund, but I haven't been counting that as part of the overall total.

So, question is, with 3 paydays left, do I want to set myself the challenge of getting as close to that £8150 as possible??? That means, er £550 extra a month :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: Er, possibly not :rotfl: :rotfl: Although I guess if we count October too, since we're not at the end of the month yet, that's only £412 a month... :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Still, I might not make it entirely, but I can make a point of getting a little bit closer than I am! :T :T :T Fingers crossed hey??

(good job I didn't buy these this morning - but it was a pretty close call I tell you and I still haven't ruled it out! :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: Remember that absolutely ancient barclaycard (I think) advert? These most certainly count as 'buy me, they whispered' shoes :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:)

Karmacat

Those shoes are great!

Cheery, tho, I'm totally confused by your figures, so I can't comment - *will* say that you understand it, and its really a question of how far you're into the black/savings zone - so its all good. The more the better, as a general rule gives you more options later
I think you've done brilliantly - when you go from PhD penury to a good salary, its kind of easy to splash out on big stuff - you've earmarked the big stuff for savings, and you're reaping the results now

Cheery_Daff

Sorry KC, it's quite possible that I've got my figures all wrong! :rotfl: :rotfl: Each month I save:

£400 into patchwork life fund (running total in signature - have added odd bits of extra in here too)
£100 into emergency fund
£70 into holidays fund.

I'm counting everything I save into all of these pots in the grand total in my signature. I'm not taking stuff out that I spend, if it's spent on what it's meant to be spent on (ie holidays etc), because that £8150 figure was just an aim to see how much I could save on my wages (this is about 40% or something I think, can't work out right now! :rotfl:)

£570 x 12 = £6840 so I was wondering why I thought I'd try to save £8150 - seems a bit of an odd figure :rotfl: :rotfl: I'm sure I wrote the reason down somewhere

I think one month I didn't manage to save the full amount, and it's quite possible that I haven't added it up right , so in order to get to the £6840 (that's £570x12), I will need to save The normal £570 each of the next 3 months, plus an extra £342 - which I'm pretty sure I can wrangle out of spare train fare money over 3 months :T :T :T

Clear as mud, right?? :rotfl: :rotfl: I *think* I know what I'm talking about, must read back over old notebooks to see why I ended up with £8150! :rotfl: :rotfl:

missymoo81

Hey lovely, long time no post, hope you're ok, can't say I really understand your money plans! But it all looks like its going in the right direction. well done you.

Karmacat

Aha! Okay, thank you!

So, the extra £342 isn't you trying to get to the £8150, more probably you trying to make up for something you borrowed from one of your funds? That makes sense (it does, honest!).

I wonder if the £8150 also took account of the van? Hmmm.... there are multiple options .... I erased some, seems a tad intrusive.... my word, we end up knowing a lot about the outside of other people's lives!

Anyway, yes, its clear, thanks! And I hope you're having a lovely weekend

Cheery_Daff

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: at you trying to make sense of my money plans KC :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: Valiant effort

Anyway, I found this that I'd written somewhere else on April Fool's Day which may help to clarify things....

I'd like to know how much I can save over the year altogether! As of yesterday my Palace Fund hit £1000! So I'm not putting anything else into that now - it's going into the longer term Patchwork Life Fund instead

Here's the plan:

Each month I'll put -

£70 into holiday fund
£100 into emergency fund
£400 into patchwork life fund

By the end of December, added to what I have already, the funds should stand like this:

£938 holiday fund
£1200 emergency fund
£1000 palace fund
£3600 patchwork life fund

Total saved: £6738

However, that's not a nice round number, so I'd like to get up to £8000 The extra will go to the patchwork life fund, making that a total of £4862. Which also isn't a nice round number either - I'd like to get that fund to £5000.

So.... that's how (in a roundabout way) I've arrived at my target for the year of £8150! Which means saving around £150 extra a month, on top of the £570 a month I already save - eek! We'll see how that pans out - this is mean to be a challenge after all!

You see - I just *knew* I'd have a reason for that mad number I arrived at! :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Anyway, Yorkshire Wind Orchestra concert last night was cheery And my mother is viiting today, I've got just over an hour to make the place presentable :eek: best get a move on!

Karmacat

:j:j:j to finding out reasoning, and to mother visiting!

Quick, I can hear her! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, should also point out that I won't actually *have* £938 in my holidays fund by the end of the year, as I've spent rather a lot of that on visiting Pippi, weekends away, visiting other friends etc. But the point wasn't to have £8150 in my possession by the end of the year, the point was to have *saved* it for those purposes out of my normal wages. If I'd have poached it out of the fund for another reason (which I haven't) then I would have taken it off the total. However, if I've spent it on what it was intended for, then it stays in the total.

Patchwork life fund doesn't get spent at all though until at least January 2012 - when it will be up to £10,000 and if I do end up with another job straight away, then a substantial part of that may be spent on a posh new flute

Cheery_Daff

Can't hear her yet KC, she's got to come all the way over from the other side of the country and will only just be reaching Manchester