My savings journey - take 2

atush

At the moment you put 19% into a pension, but 10% is your employers.

So for every 100 of your pension pot, you are likely to get back less than 30% should you have 'taken back your contributions' like his silly friend did. Not that you can always do this, it has to be done early in a pension, generally less than 2 years or even less than 1.

So try and point out why his friend went wrong and how much better off you are having not done so?

MaryMurphy

atush and Temrael, you’ve confirmed my feelings on the matter so thanks for your explanation. I always knew cashing in your pension early was a bad idea, but never really understood why –it’s obvious when you explain it like that.

Every day is a school day

The best thing about it is, his friend (who cashed in his pension) is an accountant! And a very successful one at that, from what I can gather. I really don’t get why he did it.

I’ll have a chat with Mr MM about this once I gather some more info on plans etc.

Pay day today, I will have one day of looking at my wonderful bank balance before all my standing orders come out tomorrow for bills and savings and I am “poor” again :rotfl:

atush

He can't be a 'Very good' acct if he didn't understand this. Certainly not a chartered one who has to take all t he difficult exams lol.

He may have made some bad investments or run into debt and felt this was the best way out of a hole?

But as you can see it isn't.

MaryMurphy

I can honestly say this month has been a bit of a tough one financially. April was always going to be an expensive month due to a few expected things that were due to come up (and we had planned for), but there’s been a few unexpected expenses and I’m annoyed we haven’t really been able to save much at all this month. And we’re only half-way through!

In addition, all “home-improvement” spends are on hold until we get a resolution to the damp problem. The plan was to dump as much money into that savings account this as possible, but it hasn’t really worked out (see paragraph above).

One bit of good news. I have opened an Isa with a better interest rate for our “new and improved” emergency fund, so I’m happy about that. Not that anything extra will go into it this month!

I must get the finger out and start looking into eBaying some stuff, in particular my beautiful expensive dresses that I won’t ever be able to fit into for a very long time and/or have reason to wear. To de-clutter if nothing else.

In non-financial news, these last few weeks MrM and I have been trying to make an effort to get out more and visit friends/go do stuff outside of the house. Everyone keeps telling us that we need to make the most of it now before the baby arrives.

Thanks to the good weather and me being extra-frugal (as my husband would say), none of our little trips/visits have cost us much. We’ve mostly been to friends’ houses or went out for the odd drive here and there, which was lovely especially with the good weather this past week.

We’re almost half-way through the month, here’s hoping nothing else unexpected comes up!!!!

richyg

MaryMurphy wrote: »

Last “Change Day” of the month was Friday, so did that

… needless to say, this is NOT the plan (never put your eggs in one basket etc etc) so he’ll follow my lead.

MM

MaryMurphy,

I don't know if you are 18 or 80 but it seems like you have your man under control. Love your posts. Are you Mrs Brown ?. Maybe that would be. He'll !!!!in follow my lead I'll tell yeh.

MaryMurphy

Richyg when it comes to finances I’m definitely in charge

I found out what pay rise % I’m getting, which is what I was expecting to get so I’m happy about that. After pension/tax/shares etc it probably equates to something like an extra £20.00 a month, but still, I’m not complaining!

We have made some good steps in curbing all unnecessary spends this week, so if we can keep this up we will be in a good position to put away some extra money at the end of the month.

Tasks completed this week were:
Friday-change-day;
Uploaded some of my sellable stuff on eBay. Hopefully it can all find a good home;
Changed mortgage payments from one account to another;
Set up DDs with the rates people (UGGGH!)

To be completed next week:
Price paint for little one’s room (OH will paint it when he’s off next month);
Make another go at wall stripping little one’s room (oh the fun! At least it’s come off quite easily so far…)
Do something fun and cheap at the weekend! Hopefully the good weather holds!! BBQs anyone?
Check out Asda’s “baby event” on Monday - get some ideas for future reference.

Hopefully we won’t have any more “financial events” happening until next month, so hopefully the next update will be mundane as ever.

A scary thought occurred to me today… there are only 4 full pay-days left until the baby arrives! It might seem cynical to look at it this way, but this is a savings diary after all

RE baby stuff – if anyone thinks we’re jumping the gun and it’s too early to start getting stuff ready – I absolutely agree. I’m not supersitious but it is still too early. That being said, the spare room needs painted regardless (to a passable standard at least). Also, pricing baby things (wipes etc) will give me a good idea on how much money XYZ will cost. Closer to the time I’ll probably start stocking up on bits and bobs, and it would be good to have a few ££ earmarked for when this happens.

Have a good weekend everyone!!

MaryMurphy

OH’s travel expenses came through, but they all went towards his car service and new tires that he needed (since they are “travel” expenses, at least they went towards what they were intended for so can’t really complain…)

Tasks completed this week were:
- Friday-change-day.
- Re-listed eBay items that didn’t sell. I’ll try my local Facebook Buy and Sell pages if I get no joy this time round again;
- Snooped round Asda baby event, bought our very first box of baby wipes lol
- Priced flooring for the spare rooms – we’re more than likely going to go with a cheapish carpet for both rooms. We aim to purchase them within the next two months (again, subject to the living room situation).
- Chased up Student Loan Company for an overpayment of around £100 that I’m due back. They are a shambles of a company! >:(
Got damp expert out – it’s not as bad as we thought. Thank goodness!

To be completed next week:
- Get a quote for a plasterer
- Await patiently for pay-day, and try to be a tightwad until then lol
- Move funds from low-interest Isa to higher-interest Isa.
- Get little one’s room stripped, and paint bought – we priced paint but the wall-stripping has come to a halt.

Nothing overly exiting has happened over the last week money-wise, I should have a bit more news after pay day next week

MaryMurphy

Happy “Pay-day” dance everyone! It’s the start of a new month, so here’s another [STRIKE]essay [/STRIKE]I mean, update:

Tasks completed this week were:
- Friday-change-day. Totals to date: maternity: 83.12, loan OPs: 24.96 (loan OPs have slowed down in favour of maternity savings. I still like to think we’re making some OPs, but my upcoming reduction in pay is a bigger priority at the moment);
- e-Bayed another dress
- Also listed a bunch of other stuff – let’s see if it sells…
- Got the plasterer out – the work should be completed by the end of May.
- Isa funds moved!
- Student Loan Company – No refund yet. I chased them up, and they are apparently behind with processing their incoming letters. Grrr…
- OH painted 90% of one of the spare rooms. He was very motivated last weekend!
- Completed my budget for May – turns out I can’t read my own budget (or indeed the MOT disk!) and car MOT is up in June, not May. At least I get an extra month to save towards my “car maintenance” fund (although I’m hoping nothing major will come up, obviously)…

Tasks overdue:
- Get little one’s room stripped – as above, OH decided to tackle the other spare room instead so I don’t really mind this being overdue. Both rooms need done so it doesn’t really matter. He might do this at the weekend (although he will more than likely finish painting the other room first).

To be completed this week:
- Buy £50’s worth of Euros. I have a wedding to go to in September in the South of Ireland, so I’ve decided it to do this every month leading up to the wedding (money permitting), as it’ll be cheaper to pay for everything in cash Euros than card. I’ve bought them through ASDA online, and I am due to pick them up in store. Also, trips to the South for us aren’t uncommon (we have them at least twice a year, even if they’re just a “day trip”) so they won’t go to waste.
- Sort out MrMM’s personal savings accounts and DDs – have I mentioned he can’t save?

I feel this month we’re in a better position financially, and we’ll hopefully feel even better once the work in the living room is all sorted.

We don’t have any social events scheduled this month, it’ll hopefully be a quiet one. So my priorities this month are:
- Continue Friday Change Day for my maternity pay shortfall, and OP the loan so it shows the remaining balance as a decimal of 10;
- Apart from my scheduled savings, any extra cash is to go into Car Maintenance Fund (and hope I won’t need to use it). I’m slightly panicking about this as this pot usually always has a good cushion in it, but this year so far I haven’t been able to save much towards it.

MMxx

atush

MaryMurphy wrote: »

Richyg when it comes to finances I’m definitely in charge

I found out what pay rise % I’m getting, which is what I was expecting to get so I’m happy about that. After pension/tax/shares etc it probably equates to something like an extra £20.00 a month, but still, I’m not complaining!

We have made some good steps in curbing all unnecessary spends this week, so if we can keep this up we will be in a good position to put away some extra money at the end of the month.

Tasks completed this week were:
Friday-change-day;
Uploaded some of my sellable stuff on eBay. Hopefully it can all find a good home;
Changed mortgage payments from one account to another;
Set up DDs with the rates people (UGGGH!)

To be completed next week:
Price paint for little one’s room (OH will paint it when he’s off next month);
Make another go at wall stripping little one’s room (oh the fun! At least it’s come off quite easily so far…)
Do something fun and cheap at the weekend! Hopefully the good weather holds!! BBQs anyone?
Check out Asda’s “baby event” on Monday - get some ideas for future reference.

Hopefully we won’t have any more “financial events” happening until next month, so hopefully the next update will be mundane as ever.

A scary thought occurred to me today… there are only 4 full pay-days left until the baby arrives! It might seem cynical to look at it this way, but this is a savings diary after all

RE baby stuff – if anyone thinks we’re jumping the gun and it’s too early to start getting stuff ready – I absolutely agree. I’m not supersitious but it is still too early. That being said, the spare room needs painted regardless (to a passable standard at least). Also, pricing baby things (wipes etc) will give me a good idea on how much money XYZ will cost. Closer to the time I’ll probably start stocking up on bits and bobs, and it would be good to have a few ££ earmarked for when this happens.

Have a good weekend everyone!!

Once the twins were 5 months or so, i started stockpiling diapers and wipes on Bogof. Once they were big enough that if they came early they would survive. Int he end I was induced at 37 weeks as they were already over 6lbs each lol. I was HUGE

I had a tower of packs in the corner of their room. Painted the room too, and hung a border, even though I was over pregnant lol.

Serendipitious

Just read through and wanted to wish you well. Lots to look forward to!

We found the NCT Nearly New sales were a godsend, almost every branch holds them twice a year, and if you are within easy travelling of several branches, all the better.

xx