Gillybean's new MF diary- here we go again!

Gillybean

Morning!

Well, all the direct debits have gone out as of this morning, and I've just transferred the remaining cash over to a separate savings pot, which now has £232 in it.

My £2 coin pot is almost full now too, I reckon that will have a good £180-200 in it as well. Amazing how it all mounts up once you focus on it. We also have a change pot into which everything apart from £1 coins goes. We do dip into that for car parking change and stuff tho.

However today will not be cheap as we're doing the dreaded school shoe shop this morning!

newgirly

Hi gillybean, found your diary and just read it all, that's a long tea break you took half way through

Clearing that much in 5 years is amazing , especially with a young family, do you have any moneysaving tips to pass on ?

Gillybean

Hi newgirly,

I know what you mean about the break, sometimes life gets in the way!

My main tip, when I'm most successful at hanging onto my money to overpay, is keep it at the forefront of your mind. Remember what your goal is and why you're doing it. If I don't do that, it's easy to find other things to spend the money on. Its a rule that I guess can be applied overall to help rein in spending, something that I often struggle with!

Good luck with your own journey.

Gillybean

Been an expensive couple of days,

School shoes cost a flippin fortune! Then today we headed off to tescos for uniforms. I converted £20 of vouchers into £40 clothing vouchers which made a massive dint in the cost. Just a PE bag and a pair of trainers for DS1 and I'm done.

Gillybean

Morning,

well, I counted up my £2 coin jar and I've got £174 in there. Might hang on a little while longer before paying it in, I like picking it up and giving it a shake, it feels nice and full!

Kind of on hold now really. Its the end of the month, bank account is at zero, having transferred the excess over. Looking forward to a shiny new month when I can try harder to save even more!

Gillybean

So I spoke to our accountant today and it's looking good, should have accounts and tax return back this week. We purchased a new van this year, and you get a massive amount of tax relief for that. so much so in fact that our accountant hasn't claimed all we're entitled to and so we have some to carry over to next year!

All this means touch wood we should be better off and I'll have more to overpay. DH has been working so hard recently, min 12 hrs 6 sometimes 7 days a week. So to know that we'll be better off this next financial year is great. And the more I can OP the sooner he can take his foot off the throttle a bit workwise and slow down to a more normal pace.

Gillybean

And the results are in- NO tax to pay this year!!! This has never happened before, but that's what the accountants have said, so I'll take that!

So as a result our tax credits have been adjusted for 2012/13 and I've just had a rebate from that this morning. All this plus the regular OP saving means I've got the money to OP the max we're allowed to this year. Till Dec I can OP another £1200ish, so I'm going to do that and then get a head start on the OP for 2014.

Need to sit down and do some sums to work out how much more I can save in the OP per month now we know there'll be no tax bill to save for this year.

And in other good news, it's almost our 10th wedding anniversary and providing the parents agree to have our kids, we're going to Dublin for the weekend. DH proposed there, and we've not been back since so it'll be lovely to see the city again. Can't wait!

DS1 is back at school, DS2 is on a week of going in for 2 hours in the afternoon before starting properly next week and he realllly wants to go! I have to admit, it'll be nice having them both in school and not having to do 3 school runs a day.

So that's me, have a great day everyone.

Gillybean

I rang up the mortgage people yesterday to ask how much I can OP till the end of the year. £1236.30. So that's what I paid, even the 30p, lol

So now I'm trying to get ahead of myself for next year. I've got about £2500 saved already. Not all of this needs to go towards OP, there'll be other expenses such as school dinners, swimming lessons, etc, but it's good to know it's there. I'm still going to be regularly saving too.

Just waiting to collect the boys from school. Feeling a bit anxious as it's DS2s first full week and this morning he reallllly didn't want to go, sobbed all the way there, I had to drag him into the playground, one of the teaching assistants had to prize him off me! This is not like him at all, I think he's just really tired. Just kept saying he wanted to go home, I feel terrible.

Sorry for the brain dump!

Gillybean

Hi all,

So an expensive Sept- dinner money, cubs subs to pay, swimming lessons, and DS1 has a 3 day residential trip that I had to pay the deposit for. They say the cost is a 'voluntary contribution'- wonder what would happen if I said I didn't want to pay it, lol.

DS2 has settled into school really well now. It's just the walking to school he hates. I had to literally take him by the wrist and DRAG him most of the way this morning, but once he got to school he ran in happy as anything, little monster!

I can't physically pay off any more of the mortgage till Dec, but I'm still saving. The balance stands at £61.5k but with what I have saved it's more like £59. I'm in the 50's- yay!

:j:j:beer::beer:

Gillybean

Hi all,

Not been around much, the whole 2 kids at school and all the rigmaroll that goes with that has kept me busy. And financially busy too. £15 for panto trip almost £90 for swimming lessons, £35 for cubs, etc.

And now DH has decided that the house really needs a good going over, thank goodness! I've been after a few things getting done for ages, but it's been timing, money, etc. But we've decided to make a start, work from top to bottom in our own time. First up is the main bathroom, which is a good 15 years old.

Overpayments are technically on hold as we've reached our limit for the year but I'm still stashing it away. At the mo we're on target for MF in 5 years which is ace....