Wishing on an ickle star

icklehelen

March was another good month money wise - have kept in budget and managed to find a further £50 to add to the offset savings.

April has quite a few birthdays but these are planned into the 'annual spends' I pay into each month.

We are now on the countdown to moving out of the shop unit and not having to pay out the overheads that come with it. Just need to get on with more spring cleaning and more getting more organised at home for the move!

icklehelen

So got my work expenses this month but part of my salary is missing :mad:.....getting paid is not going well this year!

On the brighter side I have received another £100 bonus from Nationwide refer a friend

Have updated the MFiT-T4 challenge and my balance (mortgage less offset savings) is £48365. Definitely reducing at a slower pace than I would prefer but better than nothing at all!

icklehelen

Just made a small OP which takes my mortgage balance to very round £50,000. :cool:

Had to post with such a lovely round number

icklehelen

Popping by to update as it's been a while!

Although things have been difficult we've been keeping to our frugal ways so OPs and extra savings have been made and I am happy to report that we have already hit our 2017 OP target!

I've updated my signature and posted on MFiT-T4. Have yet to post on MFW2017 as I want to think about a new target for the rest of the year.

We have managed to have a few nice family days and a holiday over the last few months but it has also made me realise how much more we could be doing so I want to plan in lots of activities over the holidays especially once the burden of our shop premises is gone.

As things are going to change with the business I need to really sit down and plan our new budgets and targets to keep the balance right for us.....

I have a list of jobs to try and fit into today (well before 3.15pm when school's out for summer!) so money sorting will be at the bottom of that list for now.

ickle

icklehelen

After lots of thought and spending far too long staring at my spreadsheets I have upped my target for this year's OPs to £5500.

Have to say that this will be a push but thanks to DH and his efforts of putting some of our unwanted items on online selling sites we've had an excellent few weeks so I'm giving us a challenge :T

All of this thought process has made me realise that some money was not earning enough where it was so I have just transferred £1000 of it into the mortgage, the rest is staying there as it is due to be mopped into my regular saver over the next few months.

Time to update my signature and MFW2017

icklehelen

Well a few weeks ago I upped my OP target to challenge myself ....... and I've already done it! :rotfl::j

A mixture of a money sort out and finally getting the correct salary (and the back payments) has helped me reach it. I've updated MFiT-T4 and am pleased at how we are getting on - in fact we are going to hit that target early too.

I'm now torn between upping the target again or just seeing what else I can throw at it by the end of the year............

I do need to do some extra saving as we've got a wedding in January and travel, accommodation etc are not going to be as 'cheap' as we had hoped! And that is the first of 3 next year (although the other two are local so hopefully not as expensive!)

icklehelen

Just been reading back through my diary for 2017 – I haven’t updated much but it helps to look back and reflect on what has happened and what we’ve achieved!!

The decision to move out of our shop premises was a tough one but it has lifted a weight from our shoulders. Running the business from home in the run up to Christmas was …interesting … a little stressful at times but we survived!

I’ve spent quite some time in the last few days checking and rechecking my spreadsheets as I can’t quite believe how much we’ve overpaid and saved this year. We’ve already set aside money for our 2018 holidays too! :beer:

I’m so glad we’ve managed this as there is talk of restructuring at work so the beginning of 2018 may be a little rocky depending on what happens. The emergency fund is enough to cover us for at least 3 months and if I am made redundant that would cover us for a further 3 months and I would hope to have a new job well within that time.

For the past few years I have been saving little bits here and there – interest from various accounts, tcb, etc which we then use to do some work on the house. We’ve had a new fence, decking, last year was our bedroom and this year we will be redecorating the kitchen and dining room. The whole space needs a fresh coat of paint but we also need to do something with the ceiling in the dining room (an extension) which seems to be showing signs of damp. DH wants to remove the ceiling and put a velux window in the roof – I’m not so sure. It’s already a cold space so opening it up further doesn’t make any sense to me.

As we have an uncertain start to the year we have decided that other than the necessary kitchen DIY and planned holiday (that we’ve been saving for) we’re not making any other major plans. Instead my New Year’s resolutions are about making time for myself and the simple things – like catching up with old friends and making memories with my family. I’d also like to commit to updating this diary more often but that would fail immediately! :rotfl:

So on here in 2018 - signature has been updated, still updating on MFiT, I've joined MFW2018 with a conservative £2500 OP target with the hope of upping it later in the year.

ickle

icklehelen

So far January has been sensible on the money side... as normal it is a month for eating up whats in the freezer and stores.

Paid all of our Christmas money in and had some TCB to claim so have put that into the mortgage offset savings - £300 which is a good start to the year.

I've been updating the challenges I am on and thanks to last year's overpaying I have already hit our MFiT-T4 target!! :j

Time to get on with my weekend - taking lasagne round to friends tonight as they moved house yesterday and I need to get a present sorted as DD has a birthday party tomorrow and my stash of presents has not been replenished for some time!

icklehelen

Just popped in to update for January on MFW 2018 - a massive £554.55 altogether which I'm pleased with although it would've looked better if I had found an extra £1!! :rotfl:

Present stash replenished thanks to Geoffrey's toy shop having some rather nice items in their sale!

I've applied for an amazing job so keeping everything crossed - much better pay, better benefits and a shorter commute....probably up against hundreds of other applicants but I'm hoping for the best! It looks like the restructuring process at my current job will begin in February so another reason to be looking for something more secure.

Jobs for February include shopping around for a new Fibre deal as our fix at £5 is up in March and new power deal as that fix is up in March too....

icklehelen

First OP of February made - the one to round the interest to a round number so a whole £9.03

Not really an MSE post but have had an awful end to the week ....found out today a friend has died. So many emotions to deal with and not able to talk about it in the 'real world' until family and friends have all been informed! Have had a large G&T - something he would have approved of!

I'm writing off February now as next week the restructure at work begins ......

At least I can say thanks to these boards and you wonderful like minded, motivating people I am in a reasonable position money wise for whatever comes my way!