The Road to Financial Security

Pushkin

All day I have been itching to update my spreadsheets to show the reduction in mortgage & increase in savings :j but busy with work!

I did a Tilly Tidy and accidentally transferred £53 instead of £5.30 so mutli tasking wasn't working out too well.

I absolutely hate taking money out of savings accounts so will be interesting to see if I manage to leave it there :rotfl:

Will be back later after I've updated all my figures...

Habibiboo

:wave:

Hi Pushkin ... well, you're certainly doing well, seems like everything's in hand so I hope the figures match all this effort you're putting in (for your sake).

A few things I noticed in my catch up ...

* £££ spent on cold medicines. I always buy these in £land. In our town this is literally seconds from the nearest pharmacy where they sell things like Beech@ms for about £3 a pack. I don't know how they can justify it when £land is just a few doors away and you can get 3 packs for that money! Similarly, Superdregs do a very good own-brand decongestant tablet which is much cheaper than branded types and just as effective. It's often on half price or a BOGOF too, so I tend to stock up then.
* Ha! Well done to you for spotting the scam site for the EHIC. I learned a hard lesson earlier in the year when I fell foul of a scam HMRC one whilst trying to send in my tax return. I applaud your vigilance! :T
* I'm also glad we're moving into slow cooker season, nothing like coming home to a cooked dinner!
* You have my sympathy with gas / electric providers, am currently trying to get my credit balance back from Skittish Power since my swap in June, but can't ever get through to them!
* I too enjoyed the free trial of YNAB - the 34 days is just about long enough, especially if you do a couple of their webinars as well. However, I've been too tight to cough up for the paid one since my trial ran out, so sticking with my spreadsheets!

Good luck in your October quests. x

Pushkin

Hi Habiboo (sorry I can't see a wave symbol )

Thanks for the drug tips (that could be misread!) I had no idea that £land sold medicines, to be honest I don't go shopping that often, I very rarely buy medicine - I'm a bit of a believer in just 'getting on with it' and think if you down tablets/medicine your body builds up immunity and you need more next time to take any effect - just my hard/heartless view - thats what DH thinks.

I will defo bear that in mind though - although we did stock up on paracetamol tablets when we were in C0stco last weekend.

I'm still not getting much out of ynab - I think I need to sit at the desk and go through it properly, do some of the tutorials at the weekend - based on current view I won't be buying it either!

Pushkin

Right financial figures updates:

Thought I'd post these on 1st of every month and (hopefully) it will help motivate me when I look back on it:

So as per 1 October 2014

Item MORTGAGE
01-Sep-14 £118,716
01-Oct-14 £117,406
Difference -£1,310

SAVINGS (CASH)
01-Sep-14 £9,262
01-Oct-14 £9,562
Difference £300

DOG FUND
01-Sep-14 £2,214
01-Oct-14 £2,364
Difference £150

SLUSH FUND
01-Sep-14 £2,251
01-Oct-14 £2,415
Difference £164

MONEY MAKING
01-Sep-14 £116
01-Oct-14 £141
Difference £25

Verdict:

Mortgage assumption is that we are paying £100 interest per month - I won't know for sure til we get annual statement in Dec but am hoping it is less as I think I'm being conservative.

Savings doesn't include S&S ISA/PEP which is running at c £8,800

Selling/Money making - £25 in one month - don't think I'll be giving up my day job any time soon off the back of that :rotfl:

Slush Fund - ticking along nicely, but have some big expenses coming up including Christmas!!!

Dog Fund - not sure about a target on that, so if in doubt I'll just leave it ticking along.

Immediate Goals

Car fund saving will kick off next month and will go into my Cash ISA (need to pay mahoosive cc bill this month so diverting that there)

Hoping to buy as many Crimbo presents as possible from my current account and not dip into slush fund too much

Aiming to do another month of surveys (yawn) and then cash in what I have and maybe call it a day - I work full time and kind of feel life is too short to sit answering questions about whether a butter brand makes me feel adventurous or not - whether I'll follow that through or not remains to be seen - I do like earning money even if its only pennies at a time!

Pushkin

Lots whizzing through my head this morning, I am still not getting on with YNAB it all seems to be geared around encouraging people to start budgeting. I have been budgeting for years so I get the value of it - it's more the organisation of it I need help with.

I think I might try and revamp my spreadsheets & split things out a bit more - I like a building block approach. Or I might just look for something free on the internet I can use.

The capital sum we have for our house improvements is sitting in a bonus account and the interest rate drops if I make a withdrawal in any given month. Having done that in Sept I have seen the interest £ drop a LOT! So I have withdrawn enough (I hope) to cover October with the aim of not withdrawing anything more. Trouble is this money is now sitting in my slush fund account. All this juggling does my head in sometimes! So I need to keep very close track of it.

Am finding so many of these diaries inspirational at the moment and do still keep kicking myself for not being more switched on years ago!

Sadly I have a full days' work before I can try and organise my spreadsheets in a better way.

Pushkin

Not feeling in the best of moods today, not helped by having eaten badly today - healthy mind = healthy body huh.

Day did start off well with a bid on something I have posted on eB@y, 2 items last week didn't sell so were automatically re-listed. It's a decent amount too so should be cushioned against underestimation of any postage costs better than last time The other item has 3 watchers, auction doesn't finish til Sunday so hopefully they will both go.

Had a rubbish day at work and don't have much planned this weekend so need to make the effort to productive and not just end up lazing around eating too much :eek:

Pushkin

Took the dog for a swim since it was raining anyway - so she's happy.

House Activities
If it stops raining we need to do some measuring in the garden, we are thinking about buying a garden office so need to start the research.
Also need to get another quote sorted to replace the fencing - we've had one which was a lot higher than I thought so need to compare
Insulation - had BG round this week to check this out and turns out there is Zero insulation in the kitchen (it's a single story extension) and pretty shabby insulation in the lounge extension - can you see a theme here :mad:

Anyway good news is we can get the walls insulated for free :T
Bad news is it will mean lots of drilling on internal walls in both rooms so we'll have to redecorate. We were going to do the hall anyway and the lounge walls are starting to look tired so we've decided to go ahead.

I think it will help with the heating bills - still staggered that anyone would get an extension and not get it insulated but I guess it was done 20+ years ago and we have been delinquent in checking it til now.
So hopefully more heating bill reductions in a few months!

FINANCES

I've just opened up a NISA in DH's name (well he has opened it but I'll manage it :cool:) we'll put £15k in there - this is part of the lump sum we have for our house improvements. It is currently sitting in a bonus account getting poultry interest (was going to be used for the house move so was only going to be around short term). So need to get that sorted - will get better interest for a few months.

Want to google free budget/money making apps - have all but given up on ynab but would like to improve my spreadsheets.

MONEY MAKING IDEAS
CD selling - I sold about 100 in the summer and need to kick it off agin - trouble is I still haven't worked out itunes on my new macbook - if I can't do it myself I'll go back to apple for another tutor session.
eB@y selling - need to have a good think/look at what else I can sell - got a beautiful leather jacket DH bought for me years ago that I haven't been able to fit into for about 10 yrs so might try listing that.
Also wondering about trying to sell some books on @m@zon - I have so many that storing them is a struggle.

I feel better for having written that as I can see things are progressing. Sometimes I just feel like a hamster in a wheel going round and round so it's good to focus my mind on plans and see what has been achieved.

Pushkin

Feeling more positive today, have caught up on the washing & DH is being very busy and doing lots of jobs round the house. DS is upstairs doing his homework so although not doing anything exiting today am feeling things are a little more organised. :j

Both items I had listed on eB@y have sold - one for £1.10 more than the reserve and one for the reserve. So will have some more money to transfer across to my 'money making/selling' account later this month.

I also have some cash back due from TCB but I can't work out how to withdraw it. It is showing as 'outstanding' but when I click on payouts the total showing is £0.00. I am assuming it is still pending but it doesn't seem to be very clear. I'll give it another couple of weeks before starting to chase up. I was like a dog with a bone over the £0.63 I couldn't get on my supermarket - this amount is over £6 so I definitely won't let that one go :rotfl:

In other money saving news, bought a gammon joint this week and used the (new) slow cooker to make ham yesterday, just used the recipe in the booklet that came with the machine so it was only cooked in water but it tastes amazing. No more expensive Christmas Hams for us now we know how to do this :T

Jobs for rest of the day:
Activate the new NISA account (for DH)
More washing (perpetual )
Hoovering
More refinement of financial spreadsheets (have given up on ynab and am tweaking an excel template I found for my own use)

Rock & Roll here :beer:

BookWorm

Pushkin wrote: »

I also have some cash back due from TCB but I can't work out how to withdraw it. It is showing as 'outstanding' but when I click on payouts the total showing is £0.00. I am assuming it is still pending but it doesn't seem to be very clear.

If it says outstanding that means it's not yet payable. If you click on 'dashboard' under 'my account' it shows a better breakdown. Most likely it will be in pending or confirmed. You can't withdraw until it becomes payable

Pushkin

Hey Bookworm - thanks for clarifying the TCB terminology. It does show as 'outstanding' so I obviously need to wait a bit longer.

So major MSE success today - I posted the two items I sold on eB@y and cost of postage on both was spot on what I had charged in the on line listing. - Feeling chuffed with myself - signs of progress. :T

I also finished work and did the ironing which I am feeling rather smug about. DH said he'd do it yesterday and ended up just doing one shirt for DS last night. I couldn't bear the thought of this continuing each night this week and as DH is working in London so gets home late I felt I should play nice wife and just plough through it.

So while I'm in the flow of to do list best write the next one (they are perpetual aren't they )

Christmas - have started a festive spreadsheet to capture ideas, est cost & actual cost for all presents - have been doing this for a few years and it works quite well. I have a couple of ideas so am going to start some on line ordering with the aim of spreading the cost across as many pay days as possible (of the 3 that are left inc my last one!)
Garden Office - want to get some companies round to provide quotes while DH is off at end of month
Fencing- still haven't contacted any other companies so need to get onto that
Meal Planning - need to find a new recipe to try ! Sick of cooking the same few meals - need to add to my repertoire
Job List - not sure if this will spur me on and keep track of jobs or overwhelm me and make me feel like its not worth starting as I'll never finish, have a week off at end of Oct so need to plan a few 'productive activities' along with the leisure and laziness :A