Wishing on an ickle star

icklehelen

I do love this time of year.....



Not only are there all the festivities to look forward to and lots of quality time with family but I also get the chance to sort out the finances and look at new ways to maximise our pennies!

I have the max £5000 in our Club Lloyds and max £2500 in a Nationwide Flex (these are both earmarked as stooze for paying off the credit cards when the 0% is up)
I also have quite a lot in our 123 account but now this has dropped to 1.5% so just been looking at regular savers and dripfeeding from this account.

So I have a nice new shiny Nationwide Regular Saver which I've opened with £500. This will make a nice Christmas present when it matures next December

I've also updated my signature and am very pleased as we've managed an extra 40% than our target! OK it's a small target compared to some on these boards but for our circumstances this is amazing!

Kittenkirst

Well Done you on the 40% over target! I'm very much inspired by your history of overpayments; mine will be fairly small compared to others too but it all will make a difference

icklehelen

Popping in as I have just had a final shift of monies for the end of the year and have just paid another £100 off the mortgage.

Haven't had to pay a fuel dd this month due to the GB - Coop switch which helped and decided to put it straight onto the mortgage rather than offset it - a little present to the house :rotfl: (and me cos I love watching the numbers drop!)

Off to get the supplies to feed all the family coming on NYE and then to carry on with our new bed hunt.....savings this year in my 'extras' pot have exceeded £1000 so we are going to look after our backs and spend this on a bed and mattress

See you in 2017

selloptape

Thanks for sharing your targets - I've a similar OP target for 2017

Enjoy the new mattress, they're definitely worth it!

icklehelen

Happy New Year!

Made my first OP of 2017 of a whopping £6 :rotfl:

Sticking with my ickle OP to round down the mortgage to a ten after the interest is added each month - it's a little extra and it looks nicer!

Spent the last 2 days clearing lots to the tip, redecorating our bedroom and building the new ottoman bed so I'm off for a (hopefully) comfortable night.

Total spend on bed, mattress and paint is £495 so we are well within the £1000 budget.... :A

ickle

icklehelen

I've just been talking to DH and we have decided what we are going to do with the rest of last year's savings......
So £50 is set aside for a new set of house phones, some has been put in our stooze account to top it up and the final £500 is going to be an OP (but staying in our account at a higher interest rate)

That takes the OP's for 2017 to £506 which feels like a great start....we're unlikely to have any other big chunks of spare money so I am pleased to be able to do this.

icklehelen

Bought our new house phone today....had to help DH to compromise as he wanted the most expensive one....we've gone for mid range as we wanted value for money but didn't need one with lots of features as we mainly use our mobiles!
£34 spent (it's a three handset) as it was in the sale and we had a voucher
£16 into my savings account (for now)

Made chicken pie for tea with leftovers from the Sunday roast. Used up the rest of the pastry and some left over mincemeat to make one last little batch of mince pies.....

icklehelen

How is it 18th of Feb already!!!!

So January was a good month. Op'd the usual plus offset £600 in my high interest current account and added £500 to my regular saver. Won't manage that again this year!

Food spends for the month were £97.61 (budget is £150) thanks to lots of food in stores and freezer.

February isn't too bad so far and we treated ourselves to the M&S meal last weekend which only cost is £11 as I had £9 in vouchers to use up! Last of the romantics here :rotfl:

Finally received one of my Nationwide refer a friend bonuses so that has gone into the offset, just waiting on another.....
Power fix is up in March so have started the switch to another fix and £70 TCB is pending.
Also have £23 TCB confirmed from Halifax for a new CC with no transfer fee - my stooze can carry on making me money :A Going to do another for DH to carry his stooze over too.

Time to sort out my signature on here then I'll get started on DD's request of lasagne for tea......

icklehelen

Just updated MFW 2017 with my Feb total and March so far. Very happy with my progress so far.

February was a dull month and I have to admit I was pretty miserable for most of it but I've started March with a new perspective and am hoping to be much more positive from now on.

It has been helpful that March has started off well and although we have some hard work ahead of us and some big decisions to make I can safely say I feel like a huge weight has been lifted.
We will be vacating our shop premises at the end of April but the business will still be online and through wedding fairs, markets etc

February was another frugal month thanks to a freezer and cupboards full of food. Food spend for the month was £98.13. Won't be long before a trip to the butcher is in order to stock up again.

Usual weekend chores are keeping me occupied today and as the sun has appeared the washing is on the line!!

icklehelen

Another £100 added to the offset OP after payday on Friday. Sadly was hoping for more as I am due some expenses but payroll seem to have missed them and not for the first time.....not impressed!

Spring cleaning has begun here - downstairs is looking reasonable and have decluttered a few cupboards so far. Defrosted the second freezer yesterday. Stocked up at the butchers and got it all portioned up and into the clean freezer. Meal planning should be a little easier now :cool: