Daffy's 'patchwork dreams' diary

Cheery_Daff

cheers Pippi, it's looking good, isn't it?! :j :j :j That includes palace fund, patchwork fund, emergency fund and holiday fund - is mostly to show myself just how much I can save out of my income :T Patchwork fund is the one to keep an eye on - that's the one that doesn't get anything taken out of it, and the one that will have £10,000 in it by the end of next year

LOVELY day today :T :T :T photography competition this morning was great fun - most teams finished early and ended up in cafes Quiz over lunch was very cheery indeed Scavenger hunt was easy apart from 'fir cone' - after a while spent ambling round York looking for a fir cone, and another while sat in a park eating ice creams and *thinking* about fir cones, we came up trumps.

Our tea - unanimous winners - with....


... a dead furry mouse in an ice cream cone.... :rotfl:

Oh dear!

Long day, need to have a reassessment of organisation in this house - I've arrived home at 7.30 after being out for 12 hours and have had to eat instant mash and a boiled egg :eek: :rotfl:

(ok, so I could have cooked rice, but the only thing to go in it was mushrooms anyway...)

Mr Daffs has managed to eat EIGHT bananas since this morning :eek:

Been rather slack with flylady things recently - will have to get back on the case

Right now though? I'm blitherin worn out, and all I want is another cuppa and a lie down!

Skint_but_Optimistic

Whoo what a busy day and well done on the savings!

InaPickle

Well done on the savings but EEK to the mouse! :eek:

Furry ice-cream. Yuck!

Photos and lunch in a cafe.

Cheery_Daff

Well I'm now feeling bad for not having given the poor mouse a properly respectful burial

Went out for a walk up the hill to look for the lunar eclipse. Too cloudy sadly, couldn't see the moon at all, but the sky was a lovely orangey pink, and I had a lovely old time ambling round the fields on my own, it was so still and quiet out there! Felt all calm and lovely when I got back

Been sorting out photos from our competition today

Haven't done my internet banking though - eek!

Cheery_Daff

So......

money is just slipping through my fingers at the minute, it really is! :eek: I've been saying this for a couple of months, but I do really need to get a handle on it.

One thing I *am* doing right is paying into my savings as soon as I'm paid, before I do anything else. So each month I pay:

£400 to patchwork fund
£100 to emergency fund
£70 to holiday fund
£40 to annual car bills/repairs

(plus money for bills etc).

I allow myself £30 a week for food, and £20 a week (plus £50 a month) for treats - this £50 cash each week just slips through my fingers at the minute... The reason I haven't come unstuck yet is because I always budget for 5 weeks in a month, and some months there's only 4, and the plan was for that weeks spare money to go into the savings (sometimes it has, sometimes not).

I also budget for travelling 3 times to York each week, but most weeks only travel twice - so that extra £12 a week mostly makes it into the patchwork fund, but sometimes doesn't.

Should I be feeling bad about this?! I have absolutely no idea! I'm still saving a fair bit every month (about 41% of my income, I think) - I've never had ANY savings before so this is quite exciting!

But the actual money I live on isn't far off what I lived on when I only worked 2 days a week... so occasionally yes I do have a cuppa on the train, or buy food at work - bit of a trade off to the smaller amount of time I have now, but still.

Hmm, it's late and I don't really know what I'm rabbiting on about :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

I suppose it's just about - should I worry too much if that extra week 5 money, or my extra £12 a week train fare gets spent rather than saved???

I'm allowing myself a bit extra for food because I'm not scrimping on fruit etc at the minute - if I want grapes, or pineapple, I'm having them - this is proven to make me buy and eat less cakes But I am also occasionally being a bit idle with taking food to work (but I do it most of the time, and mostly only work 2 days in the office anyway!)

Perhaps I need to get that spending diary out again...

Going to go to sleep before head explodes trying to work out what I'm even talking about :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Triciaxx

Your budget sounds fine. I think your mindset is still that of a DFW rather than a DFM (Debt free maintainer) and the habit of watching every penny is so ingrained that it is difficult to get out of. I'd say that, so long as you are still saving at the beginning of the month and are living within your means you should relax a bit and live abundantly. You know that, if you need to, you can cut back.

BTW, I thought MrX was the only person to eat that many bananas in a day.

Cheery_Daff

Thanks tricia You're right - I am still living a DFW mindset! (and that of a person only working 2 days a week...).

I will indeed relax and live abundantly I just have to decide what that means

(and there was another half a banana gone this morning!)

So - working at home today, and meeting someone at 5pm - so need to get on the case. I am going to have a productive and fabulous day, the sun is shining into my little attic room, and I will NOT be sidetracked by the internet or anything else. Lots to do! :T :T

redsquirrel80

Morning Cheery - I think Tricia is right, you have to make an effort to get into the "don't spend!" mentality and it can be as much of an effort to move on to the "it's OK to spend a bit" one once the "don't spend!" one is no longer necessary. Hope you have a good day and Mr Daffs doesn't turn into a banana! :eek: :rotfl:

Cheery_Daff

Oooh, squizz, must email you!

EssexHebridean

If Mr Daffs is eating that many bananas in a day Daffs you'd best add toilet rolls to the shopping list!

Re your spendy thing - are you going over your budget? If so then you need to rein it in a bit - if not, then surely that's the point? If you feel you *should* (horrible word - Souk'd agree!) be saving more, and it's causing you to feel uncomfortable with yourself, then the path of least resistance by miles is to work out what figure in an average month you feel gets "frittered" (maybe the "extra week" money?) and then set up a separate savings account just for that, and an auto-transfer so it heads across first each month. Then it's there for you to dip into for "bigger stuff" if you need to, but your head tells you it's not being frittered any more? Makee Sensee?!