Diary of a home owner wannabe (my 6 year journey)

norfolkdream

Whats the difference between kids allowance and kids cost.
(they do cost you a lot )
Thats a heck of a month spend!

Lois_E

If_in_doubt,_do_sums wrote: »

Can I just say I'm really impressed with all your organised lists! I'm one of those people who write lists and include things like 'have lunch' or 'take shower' on to help me feel productive! And then transfer everything else to the next list.:p

Me too. I do get a lot more done on the days when I make lists, though. Must make one now - a lot to get done this evening.

If_in_doubt,_do_sums wrote: »

Well done pennyforthepot!!
:beer:Here's to another 6 months!

(And I totally agree about writing things down to immediately cross them off!)

I do that too. Sometimes I even start with [strike]make list[/strike]!

pennyforthepot wrote: »

I have been thinking over the weekend about how I came to the number of £250,000 that I am aiming to reach and how realistic it is for me to achieve my goal. I seem to remember I liked the number - quarter of a million more than anything else and I did the calculations based on two monthly incomes rather than just one. It was only a couple of months after I had made that decision that DH no longer had his job which has meant that for the last 16 months I have been £1000 a month worse off as he used to give me maintenance for DSS2 and also paid the utility bills and his mobile bill. Since then I have worked really hard at reducing our outgoings to match that £1000 but it has still left me with a shortfall in my monthly savings target. I am not going to change my target of £250,000 but as each month rolls by I see that I am not able to reach my monthly target.

As it stands with my current monthly income (excluding any interest earned) my monthly savings requirement is £2200 and I can only save around £1400 per month, so I am relying on future interest payments and reduced future costs to cover me for this shortfall. I am determined to get there though and once I set my mind to something I will do everything I can to achieve it.

I am going to post my monthly outgoing to keep me on track :eek:

PFTPx

You are doing the best you can in the circumstances in which you find yourself. That's all you can do. Perhaps you will be able to speed up again in the future if things improve. Perhaps getting your own place will take a little longer than you hoped. But for now, you are still on the wagon, and still making great progress, so don't beat yourself up. :T

If_in_doubt,_do_sums

pennyforthepot wrote: »

I have been thinking over the weekend about how I came to the number of £250,000 that I am aiming to reach and how realistic it is for me to achieve my goal. I seem to remember I liked the number - quarter of a million more than anything else and I did the calculations based on two monthly incomes rather than just one. It was only a couple of months after I had made that decision that DH no longer had his job which has meant that for the last 16 months I have been £1000 a month worse off as he used to give me maintenance for DSS2 and also paid the utility bills and his mobile bill. Since then I have worked really hard at reducing our outgoings to match that £1000 but it has still left me with a shortfall in my monthly savings target. I am not going to change my target of £250,000 but as each month rolls by I see that I am not able to reach my monthly target.

As it stands with my current monthly income (excluding any interest earned) my monthly savings requirement is £2200 and I can only save around £1400 per month, so I am relying on future interest payments and reduced future costs to cover me for this shortfall. I am determined to get there though and once I set my mind to something I will do everything I can to achieve it.
£11.71

PFTPx

Is it worth re-evaluating your original target? The more months you are unable to reach your savings requirement, the more demoralised you'll feel, and then you may just want to go out and splurge (I know I would!). If you set yourself a more achievable short term target for now (say, £15,000 by the end of this year), then you can have another look when you have more coming in in the future.

You've probably thought about that already, and you seem very determined, but I just thought I'd throw it out there as a suggestion!

IDS x

pennyforthepot

norfolkdream wrote: »

Whats the difference between kids allowance and kids cost.
(they do cost you a lot )
Thats a heck of a month spend!

Hi Norfolkdream - kids allowance is a more grown up word for pocket money I basically give the kids the child benefit I receive for them and in return I expect them to pay for their clothes (apart from the essentials), their own entertainment (I do supplement this on occassions or go half and half) and birthday/xmas presents, I have found 2 benefits to this. Firstly there is no pleading for money to go out or to buy something and actually it works out cheaper for me and secondly it's a great tool to help them understand budgeting, saving up for things, distinguishing between needs and wants and the benefits of earning interest on savings

Kids costs include anything to do with school and extra curicular activities - whether it is school lunches, trips, equipment, uniform and the activities they do including badminton, programming and gym. I love my kids to pieces but they are one of my biggest costs too :eek:

PFTP x

pennyforthepot

Lois_E wrote: »

You are doing the best you can in the circumstances in which you find yourself. That's all you can do. Perhaps you will be able to speed up again in the future if things improve. Perhaps getting your own place will take a little longer than you hoped. But for now, you are still on the wagon, and still making great progress, so don't beat yourself up. :T

Thanks for your support I do believe that I will achieve my goal and I suspect that it will come from my future returns on my savings/investments. Well that's my mantra anyway :rotfl:

PFTP x

pennyforthepot

If_in_doubt,_do_sums wrote: »

Is it worth re-evaluating your original target? The more months you are unable to reach your savings requirement, the more demoralised you'll feel, and then you may just want to go out and splurge (I know I would!). If you set yourself a more achievable short term target for now (say, £15,000 by the end of this year), then you can have another look when you have more coming in in the future.

You've probably thought about that already, and you seem very determined, but I just thought I'd throw it out there as a suggestion!

IDS x

Thanks so much for your support it is greatly appreciated :A

I do give myself an annual target which this year I have set at £18,000 - I think what I will do is not do the calculation that tells me how much further behind I am getting :rotfl: If I don't get there in 5 years and 7 months then I don't get there and I will still marvel at the amount I will have saved in that space of time

PFTP x

pennyforthepot

I can't believe how warm it was yesterday - I got all my washing dry and even turned the heating off during the day :money:

Talking of heating - I have been monitoring my gas consumption on a daily basis for the last few weeks and I have dropped the usage from an average of 5 or 6 units per day down to 3 to 4 units so my costs on a weekly basis have reduced from around £45 per week down to £33 per week. Still scarily high considering it hasn't even been cold this winter :eek:

DSS2 should be coming back home from hospital today - that's a relief.

TO DO LIST:

1. [STRIKE]GT&WI[/STRIKE]
2. [STRIKE]Mr T for bits for tea[/STRIKE]
3. [STRIKE]buy pressie for bessie friends bday[/STRIKE]
4. [STRIKE]cook dinner - carbonara[/STRIKE]
5. [STRIKE]DD parents evening[/STRIKE] all is good
6. [STRIKE]ring programming course to rearrange DS class as I cant take him tonight[/STRIKE]
7. [STRIKE]research on investing in high dividend shares[/STRIKE] ok Ive got all that investing malarky sussed - now show me the money :rotfl:
8. have an early night - cream crackered

Daily food budget: £13.17

PFTP x

pennyforthepot

OUTGOINGS: FEB

£178-kids allowance
£0.00-council tax
£129-mobile phones x 5
£38-internet and landline
£135-gas
£80-electric
£43-water
£192-car loan
£6.50-Red Cross d/d
£304.09-food
£40.00-fuel
£56-car maintenance
£324-kids costs
£130-entertainment
£1.00-house
£0.00-holiday
£175-birthdays
£0.00-christmas
£180-contingency
£27-miscellaneous

£2039-TOTAL

53% - savings to income ratio

A much better month this month due to a 50% reduction in kids costs, no council tax to pay and no holiday costs to pay. Unfortunately it isn't reflected in this month's savings as I pay for most things on the credit card and that will come out of next month's income.

I have been able to provide a more actual monthly cost for gas and electric and although my gas spend of £135 is over the £100 d/d I have managed to reduce it by around £50 on last month (mainly due to the mild weather and keeping a daily eye on the meter readings).

I have hit my target for savings this month of £1600 in fact 53p over, which puts me £399.47p behind for the year. Not sure I can meet next months target as it's DHs birthday, I have to pay £90 for a new screen for my laptop and have another £180 counselling bill to pay for.

Petrol was well under budget at £40/£100 and I did well on the food budget coming in at £359/£400. £15 of that is going into my Christmas food budget and I spent £5 on bits that I will only buy if I have a credit balance on my food budget (bought some descaler and plug in air freshener - I know how to party ) so I'm really pleased with that.

Overspent on my entertainment budget again this month, best friend's birthday yesterday and my shout for lunch, also spent some the weekend away for my birthday. I really need to keep an eye on it next month but with DH's birthday that could be tricky!

Shaved an hour off my housework time today - going for Olympic Gold :rotfl:

I've got a heavy weekend of taxi-ing ahead of me - expecting to be in the car from 9am to 4pm tomorrow - not a good start to my petrol budget for March :eek:

Enjoy the weekend

PFTP x

pennyforthepot

Busy weekend which meant I didn't get the chance to update my diary. Not too much to report MS-wise. I did a shop at Asda as I was over that way - not a massive shop as it was sooo busy; also put some fuel in the car as it tends to be cheaper there. I've put £40 to see how long it will last. Saying that I drove over a 100 miles at the weekend which is a third of the mileage I did in Feb so I'm expecting to have to put some more petrol in before the end of the month.

Went to the opticians this morning for an eye test (£25). I do have glasses but have never really worn them but noticed that my eyesight was deteriorating with age. My eyesight hasn't changed too much over the last 10 years but I do need to get some reading glasses but have decided to buy some from the supermarket for a couple of quid. The other pair will be a tad more expensive :eek:

Have spent the last couple of hours bulk cooking 4 kilos of mince which I have now transformed into quesadillas, chilli and bolognaise. Just need to fit it into the freezer now!

Still waiting for my laptop to come back. I can't move my savings around from my flexiaccounts as I can't remember my customer number and I also can't get onto my business account - shame :rotfl:

I have lots of things that I need to put onto my to do list this week but I need to remember what they are before I can write them on here.

Think that's about it. Oh DH is going to be on tv tomorrow. I won't share on what lets just say it's day time tv and it's to do with something we invented when going out for a walk one day

TO DO LIST:

• think what to put on my to do list

Daily food budget £6.46 (have quite a bit stocked up so hoping it will last me).

PFTP x

pennyforthepot

Got my laptop back yesterday evening - worked perfectly, opened it this morning and it doesn't work at all :mad:

TO DO LIST:

1. [STRIKE]book doctors appointment for DSS2[/STRIKE]
2. clean car
3. [STRIKE]check accounts[/STRIKE]
4. [STRIKE]GT&WI[/STRIKE]
5. [STRIKE]write a list of people I need to buy easter eggs for[/STRIKE] all bought
6. business accounts - can't do this till my pc is fixed (again)
7. sewing
8. [STRIKE]do some research on epilators - mine has died[/STRIKE]ordered
9. [STRIKE]buy pillow speakers and brown shirt for DH bday[/STRIKE] cant find the shirt he wants
10. sewing
11. [STRIKE]think of ideas for kids pressies to DH[/STRIKE]
12. [STRIKE]buy bday cards[/STRIKE]
13. look at specs to buy
14. [STRIKE]ring friend [/STRIKE]
15. [STRIKE]do business invoices[/STRIKE]
16. [STRIKE]read and action emails[/STRIKE]
17. [STRIKE]buy gardening vouchers for Mothers Day. Fed up of buying flowers that cost me a fortune[/STRIKE]
18. [STRIKE]make pancakes[/STRIKE]
19. [STRIKE]watch DH on telly [/STRIKE]
20. [STRIKE]take DS to programming course[/STRIKE]

This list is for the week not just today.

Transferred £15.02 interest from my flexiaccounts to my Santander account yesterday. Did two YouGov surveys - now up to 1000 points, only 4000 to go :eek: Need to find another survey site that gives out more surveys. Also need to do some more stuff on the nectar points site. Just lost an hour of my life to earn myself 100 nectar points - at least I got to watch film trailers - quite enjoyable actually :rotfl:

PFTP x