The 'Save 12k in 2013' Thread!

[Deleted User]

Hi folks, another small amount put away in my CU account so new total is £2646. Going to take some time later today to review my monthly outgoings and redo my monthly budget.

Keep saving everyone. Every little helps:D

cydney65

What a couple of weeks we've had. Dad has had his chemo stopped as it was making him ill and to be frank it wasn't doing anything. Then he had a fall and ended up back in hospital. He's now become very confused and unhappy, so the doctors have liaised with social services and some at home care has been arranged. Basically they are just trying to make him comfortable now, so the emphasis is on quality of the life he has left rather than the quantity. I'm pleased that this is what is happening now as he was in a lot of pain with the chemo.

So while that was going on we had some wonderful news...we're going to be grannies :j Our youngest and her hubby are expecting the end of January. They have been trying for three years and were put on the waiting list for IVF and now it has happened naturally. She's craving cheese funnily enough :rotfl: so we have donated our last chunks to her.

Of course, this has put a whole new spin on our money plans...with the arrival of the baby, I shall possibly look at setting up some sort of extra savings account or I may go a bit further and start up a pensions plan for them-not sure, I need to explore this further. We also need to look at our wills.

I realised that I would like to be able to have some money for when I retire. I only have two small works pensions from former employers, so I was thinking of opening up a SIPP and transferring them into this, using my woefully naive newbie knowledge of investments to sort out some sort of funds. I have also opened up a S&S ISA and have bought my first tracker fund. I'm going for passive investing, with a time scale of 15-20yrs. Funnily enough, I'm not a gambler but while looking into this I realised that I am quite an adventurous investor, at least initially (up to 85% of the tracker is in equities), but I may become less adventurous as I near retirement.

I have also delved into the world of shares outside of an ISA, although I will probably transfer them to my ISA wrapper when I feel at bit more au fait with this whole investing business!

Can't believe that in the short space of time since becoming debt free, I have saved nearly £3000 and have started investing! Mad

Hope everyone is ok. It's lovely to hear everyone's updates.

Wentthedaywell?

Ah Cydney, sad news and glad news. It makes you appreciate the important things in life, and money isn't the top of the list by a long chalk. I hope your dad is comfortable, and things go as well as they can. Lovely news about being a gran though! It makes you appreciate the circle of life. Will your dad get to see his great-grandchild, do you think?

Well done on getting into S&S ISA. I keep meaning to do this, but I just want to go in the bank, hand my money over and forget it, but it all seems so complicated. I'm also hoping to retire early in 4 or 5 years, so it's probably too late now anyway (another excuse!).

girlatplay

Congratulations cydney, lovely news. Sorry to hear about dad though. I hope he is comfortable and can relax at home as best he can. (((hugs)))

nat21luv

Congratulations Cydney, excellent news. Very sorry to hear about your Dad though, hope he is comfortable and keeps strong, long enough to see his great grandchild

I don't know about everyone else but I find this time of year becomes a juggling act. Kids just breaking up for school, more money is needed to entertain them(although still as frugal as possible) new uniform/stationary, saving for car insurance/mot/tax, realisation that Xmas is creeping up. I buy a lot of Xmas gifts in the early sales, a particular favourite being the Sainsburys half price toy sale in October.

First things first though, £300 needs to be made and put into my First Direct Regular Saver within the next 2 weeks, then a few hundred needed to book a hotel for me hols.

Twiggy_34

cydney65 wrote: »

What a couple of weeks we've had. Dad has had his chemo stopped as it was making him ill and to be frank it wasn't doing anything. Then he had a fall and ended up back in hospital. He's now become very confused and unhappy, so the doctors have liaised with social services and some at home care has been arranged. Basically they are just trying to make him comfortable now, so the emphasis is on quality of the life he has left rather than the quantity. I'm pleased that this is what is happening now as he was in a lot of pain with the chemo.

So while that was going on we had some wonderful news...we're going to be grannies :j Our youngest and her hubby are expecting the end of January. They have been trying for three years and were put on the waiting list for IVF and now it has happened naturally. She's craving cheese funnily enough :rotfl: so we have donated our last chunks to her.

Hi Cydney, I've read your previous posts about this but haven't commented directly before. I'm sorry to hear that chemo has been ceased and wasn't working anyway, but am pleased everyone has reacted to the decision in a positive way. My dad passed away last year and technically it was the chemo that took him as he developed pneumonia after just his second course of chemo. I think if we'd all known the impact it would have and how much less time it would give him, we might all have advised against it, ultimately the outcome wouldn't have changed only the time it took to get there and, personally, I think his quality of life would have suffered dramatically even if the chemo had proved successful.

Wonderful news about the new arrival for January though, congratulations & I'm pleased you've found an good way to use up those cheese stocks... they say everything happens for a reason!

dramarama

Hi Cydney,
Wow what wonderful news about becoming grandparents...the cheese cravings made me chuckle.
So sorry to hear about your Dad, I hope that he is comfortable as he can be.
Best wishes : )

cydney65

Oh bless you for offering your support.

Dad went home from hospital today. He's happy to be going home but very confused still-he rang me this afternoon thinking I was my brother-in-law!

I'm so sorry to hear about your dad Twiggy. It's so difficult when someone you love falls ill. We're just going to go with the flow so to speak.

WTDW, when I decided to invest in a S&S ISA, I read everything I could find on the interweb for weeks on end...a lot of it was a bit carp, some was very informative. The best thing I did was read Tim Hale's book 'Smarter Investing'. You can get it from Amazon and fleabay and I think there's a new edition out soon. I also read 'Monkey with a Pin' which is a free E-book http://monkeywithapin.com/

The best advice I can give is to read as much as you can in order to feel confident in your investment choices; I'm quite happy so far but I'm still reading and learning and expect to make mistakes. Also beware of the endless offers for 'investments which will make you 20% interest in three months for only £199.99' :rotfl:

I've just realised that I shall probably reach my savings goal next month...hmmm may have to set a new one of £4,500 will give it thought.

CydneyX

amr547

I have put in a request to the LA to get a water meter and change the electric meter to billed usage rather than PAYG, so we can get dual fuel. hoping it will reduce our monthly utilities bill! we currently pay £173 a month for gas, water electric. we're only two people so i think being unmetered for water is silly

[Deleted User]

Sorry to hear about your dad cydney and glad to her that you have had some good news too about the new baby on the way. Well done on your savings it sounds like you are getting things well organised.