My savings journey - take 2

TrustyOven

MaryMurphy wrote: »

Tasks completed this week were:

Tasks overdue:

To be completed this week:

I love the way you've broken down the tasks into those groups. Are you a fan of GTD? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done)

MaryMurphy

Hi TrustyOven, can’t say I have ever heard of GTD but having read the Wikipedia page it looks like I’ve been a follower without knowing it

One of my previous managers was very “actions” orientated and I really liked her working style, so I adopted it for myself. I now like keeping track of what I want to achieve this week and what I missed the previous week as a way of measuring how well I’m going.

If I don’t break it down in small bite-sized tasks, I find I get quickly overwhelmed and lose momentum, so there must be some truth to it.

Serendipitious thanks for the tip, I’d never heard of them before. It turns out there was one in Belfast today! They are having another one in autumn apparently, so I’ve bookmarked their page for future reference.

atush you had twins?!? My full admiration goes out to you, I have no idea how I’d cope if I was carrying twins (well, I guess you don’t have a choice, do you? You just have to get on with it…) MrMM is currently in full painting mode and I’ll admit I’m extremely paranoid of the paint fumes. I’m working this evening but in the meantime all the windows upstairs in the room and hallway are wide open, even though I’m downstairs, with all doors closed. MrMM keeps saying I’m being completely OTT lol

I secretly said to myself that I’ll slowly start buying things after I reach the 30 week mark (so for me it’ll be around the end of June). I’m happy for now to save money for essentials, since I have a general idea of how much things are now. I’ll be keeping an eye out for any offers out there that come up when the time comes.

An MSE thing happened yesterday. A friend of mine showed up and gave me a massive bag of her maternity clothes (she had her baby at the start of the year); it’s all really lovely stuff. So that’ll save me from having to go out and buy a bunch of new clothes (I have been getting by with two pairs of maternity jeans, “normal” tops, and any stretchy dresses I could find, but I’m starting to reach that stage where I can’t quite get away with non-maternity wear).

I am yet to get her daughter a proper present, and since she won’t accept any money for the clothes, I’ve bought the little one some lovely little outfits from Next (not the cheapest I know, but it’s a gift! And she has saved me a fortune on “fat pants” – as I like to call them – so I won’t be a tightwad about it ). I have a gift receipt so she can exchange them if they don’t suit.

I am working all weekend and the weather here is awful, but wherever you all are I hope you get to enjoy some rays

MaryMurphy

A later update than normal this week, this should’ve gone up on Friday. I exchanged my euros elsewhere last week in the end up, got a better deal in a local shop

I got my yearly pension statement this week. Assuming I retire at 60, inflation is a steady 2.5%, I’ll get back just under 8K a year. I haven’t worked out “THE NUMBER” in any great detail yet, but I know 8K won’t cut it, not for the standard of living I want. And there was me thinking I was doing quite well… I’ll need to have a good think about this one, but I won’t be able to make any payment increases until after I come back to work next year. I keep saying this, but I really must venture into the Pensions board…

Either way, early retirement doesn’t look like a likely option anytime soon! I do have a very loose “retirement plan”, in terms of a wishlist of things I believe we need to accomplish in order to have a comfortable retirement, but our financial situation won’t allow for any major changes at the moment. I am aware that starting a family will push these plans even further away.

Tasks completed this week were:
- Friday-change-day.
- e-Bayed another dress and listed a couple more.
- Student Loan Company – no update. My letter hasn’t been processed yet… contemplating raising a complaint soon.
- Spare room: walls stripped, sanded down and 95% painted the remaining 5% will be painted once the wall dries out (we discovered two small patches of penetration damp when the room got stripped, and their underlying cause has now been sorted. It’s a waiting game now, with a little help from a dehumidifier kindly borrowed from someone and keeping the house warm).
- Baby stuff update: decision’s been made on what we’re going to get, and when (i.e. after I’m 25 weeks). It apparently takes 6 weeks for the travel system to arrive, so I can’t wait until I’m 30 weeks to order it, we’d be cutting it way too fine. F-I-L has generously given us money for a travel system, so we’ll use that to pay the deposit.

To be completed:
- Ring the Nationwide. I’m a bit confused at their loan overpayments policy, I checked their T&Cs today and it turns out I need to notify them before I make any OPs (which I haven’t done, I’ve been transferring the money via online banking), so I need to figure out what’s up with that. Since I’ve been OPing such small amounts, I may need to put a pin on this as I’m not ringing them every time I’m about to overpay three quid… we’ll see. If needs be, I’ll just put that money towards my maternity leave, I’m sure I’ll not be sorry when my pay plummets!
- Not much else, thankfully! Just a matter of looking after the pennies until next pay day. So, packed lunches, no extravagant purchases, and hope for some good weather!

I doubt I’ll have any meaningful financial updates for the rest of the month, so fingers crossed nothing major happens between now and pay day.

MMxx
PS: I forgot to say… it turns out we’ll need to replace the roof either next year or the year after (we got a roofer out to address the damp issue in the spare room). The type of tile they put down in the ‘80s was apparently only ever going to last 25-30 years, and it looks like the time is almost up (tiles are starting to curl/lift from the nails). They obviously used a cheap tile to begin with. So here’s hoping we have a mild winter… aaaand that my shares through work skyrocket, as that money is effectively already spent. Oh, a massive pay rise would also be nice…

There were always going to be issues with buying an older house, but it seems to be one thing after the other. At least we’ve had some prior warning and can start earmarking some money towards this future repair.

MaryMurphy

Stressed today. My brother had a guy out from the house insurance, and it looks like the house needs major repairs, he has a leak from the oil tank that is causing a noxious smell in half of the house and it needs to be sorted as priority. It is believed the leak had been ongoing for a long time, but it must’ve got progressively worse and we’ve only detected it now as a result of the smell.

He is living independantly but has asperger’s, so I can’t just leave him to it. he relies on me and my aunt when it comes to this kind of thing. All we can do is relax and just take each step as it comes. Next step: expert to come out next week, test the soil for toxicity levels and identify which external walls need stripped/dug up to expose the foundations and clean them. My brother’s helper is going out today to move his bed to a different room that’s not affected by the smell –the fumes are carcenogenic and very dangerous. Depending on the extent of the work required, he may need to vacate the house for a while (probably a minimum of around 6 weeks, but the whole thing could take several months). Again, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.

I get so stressed and sometimes mildly depressed when it comes to anything to do with my brother, but that’s a story for the Dr Phil boards, so let’s move on to more on-topic things.

Tasks completed this week were:

- Friday-change-day.

- e-Bay: I have about £80.00 sitting in my PayPal account (after all fees). This balance is currently earmarked for exciting stuff such as bibs, baby grows, and the like. I need to re-list a few skirts that didn’t sell, if I don’t shift them individually again I’ll re-list them as a bundle and try my luck once more.

- Student Loan Company – refund now issued! It’s gone towards “Car repairs” fund (Boooooo).

- Spare room: Dampness seems to be retreating now that the leaks have been sorted, so it’s only a matter of time now. It’s been really rainy here, if we got a good month of sunshine it would do wonders I think. Here’s hoping… the dehumidifier has been on flat out since last week, and it seems to be sucking a fair but of moisture, but I am still sceptical about using it.

- Electricity bill: our bill currently comes to £30.00 per month, so due to the dehumidifier being on and also an expected increase in usage when I go off on maternity, I have arranged for the direct debit to go up to £40.00 a month from next month onwards. The meter gets read every three months to ensure accuracy, but we’re in a slight debit of around a tenner with the electricity company at the minute so if nothing else this should cover us for a while. I truly have no idea how much electricity a dehumidifier uses, but it’s been kept on at full whack for a week now so probably a fair bit.

- Coin jar: My OH got me a terracotta pound jar some three years ago for Christmas (I had asked for one) and whilst it’s still nowhere near full I have hacked into it and deposited my 1st set of £100.00 in the bank today (the bank has a policy whereby you can only lodge 5 money bags per day – I think it’s to reduce the risk of fraud or something). The jar was only ever going to be for “fun” stuff, so I’ve decided it’s going towards buying us euros. I’ve booked us a two night stay in the south of Ireland next month and this money will come in handy. I’ll keep any extra for my friend’s wedding in September.

I reckon there’s about £300.00 in it, but it’s really hard to tell. Part of me feels I should’ve either kept the jar untouched, or cracked it open and use that money to pay towards something useful, but spending time some quality time away alone with my OH is also important. And I want to do it before my energy levels plummet and I’m too big to get through the front door! I think the next pound jar will be earmarked for going away somewhere cool for my 30th (which is only two years away!) Some of our wealthier friends will scoff at the thought of a pound jar, but each to their own.

Tasks overdue:
- Loan OPs – ring N/wide!! Never did this, so no OPs made to the loan this week just in case there’s an issue with them.

To be completed:
- I’ll be 25 weeks tomorrow! Next week we’ll pay a deposit for the travel system etc, which we’re researched extensively and found a good set for a very good price. F-I-L has very generously given us money to go towards it, so we’ll use that. Brother in Law has also offered to either give us money or buy us something that we need for the baby, which is great. My own brother has given us a load of sticks and turf for the fire, which will be a great help in winter. We’re very lucky.

My own father is unfortunately broke. I actually went off on a whole tangent about this but have deleted it. I keep having to remind myself to keep this on-topic. The point was I won’t be receiving any big monetary gifts from him, but also that I’m not sitting here expecting anyone other than me and OH to provide for our baby and keep us in our lifestyle! As much as I bang on about our little pots of money and expenses, in the grand scheme of things we’re in a very good position compared to some other people. Still, I think seeing how things are with my father is partly why I am so concerned with keeping on top of our finances.

I think this is it for now.

Writing all this down really has helped me keep focused, even if it’s probably only of interest to me it’s somewhat cathartic. I look forward to the end-of-month update, and tackle a new set of priorities for June.

//end of sermon.

atush

And there was me thinking I was doing quite well…

Dont beat yourself up about your pension. I actually hang out ont he pension forum, so knwo that many people dont have one. So in a way you are ahead of the game. 2 rules of thumb (just as a starting example).

you put 1/2 your age as % into a pension when you start. this can include employers contribs and tax relief. So if age 30, 15%. When you get to 35, you should have 35K already.

Again, dont worry if you aren't there yet, but aim to get there. And contributions of any kind are great int he early days as they will have 30-40 years to compound the interest- that is where the big money comes from (and your employer).

Address this issue once you get back to work.

And congrats on reaching your buying deadline. I rec buying nappies and wipes over the clothes which tempt you. I know this the hard way as a mother of twins, so rock the BOGOFs lol

MaryMurphy

Thanks as always for your advice atush I finally ventured to the Pensions board, I have lots to think about!

With only a week left to my next pay-day, I can say this month has so far been a success money-wise. No unexpected spends, we’ve been within budget and we were able to save what we intended to save (and a little bit extra), which puts us in a good position for next month as it will be more expensive (with us starting to get more stuff for when the baby arrives etc).

Lots has happened this week!

Tasks completed this week were:

- Home improvements! The plasterer contacted us on Tuesday saying he was available to do the work in our living room the next day! We thought he wouldn’t be free until the end of the month, so now we have a lovely-looking living room (with the old crumbly/damp-stained plaster chipped away on all three external walls, and replaced with new plaster). Our pockets are also £350 lighter, but it was an expected expense.

- Friday-change-day. I am really glad I have started this again. I’ve actually cheated this month and have been rounding down my balance a few times a week (more or less any time I use my debit card), which has had the by-product of dissuading me from making card purchases. Now that I am using cash more, I am more aware of my spending and I think I am definitely spending less. So win win all round.

- Coin jar: total count was £346 I’m mostly going to buy euros with it, which will pay for our little trip away next month (accommodation and spending money) and the stay at a friend’s wedding in September. Since we live in Northern Ireland, any euros left over (and I expect there to be a fair amount unspent) will be put to good use sooner or later.

I now have a shiny new jar. Its purpose is to be decided, but it’ll probably go towards doing something cool for my 30th, or a nice trip away in a few years’ time. Either way, something fun. Strictly fun!

- Travel system: it’s been bought! Well, the deposit has been paid at least, along with a number of other things – cot bed, Moses basket, etc etc. We shopped around extensively and found a very good deal with a reputable Irish company (so we’re actually saving almost £200 due to the weaker euro at the moment). F-I-L gave us a generous monetary gift to buy a travel system, so we’ve used some of it to pay the deposit. The rest is sitting in my bank account, gathering some interest lol it may well only earn me 2p by the end, but it’s 2p I wouldn’t have otherwise! So the plan is to save a little bit towards the “Baby big purchases” pot so we can pay this off in the next two months. Brother in Law has also said he’d like to contribute so we’ll not be stuck, whatever happens.

- Boots card: I signed up! Not too sure if it’ll be worth it (Boots is expensive IMO), but I’ve been told they sometimes have great deals on baby/maternity things so no harm in applying.

- Maternity leave: It’s hopefully soon to be official… I go off on maternity leave on Monday 20/07! I have a lot of leave to use up. Less two months to go, scary stuff! I have 3 days of leave left over to play with, which I may take in half-days between now and then, depending on how I get on.

- Maternity pay buffer: I think I mentioned before, I had some shares I could cash in at any time. Since I am now past the 25 week mark, I have cashed them in and they’ve gone towards my maternity pay buffer. It came to around £450.00 so not big numbers, but every little helps (I still almost quadrupled what I paid for them several years ago, so I’m not complaining!)

I could’ve waited until closer to the time and cash them in, so that it came through around the same time as my other plans, but I decided against it. I will count up a total amount when I cash in my other shares. I have worked out how much I need as a buffer, and I am 99% we can do it (including some of the shares I am due to get in August). More on this in due course.

- Brother’s house: things aren’t as bad as it first seemed, and the house insurance should cover all the necessary work. Stress-levels are at an all-time low, thankfully.

To be completed:
- Home improvements: Now that the living room has been plastered, we should be able to get I painted in hopefully a week or two’s time. Money has been earmarked for this, as well as putting laminate floorboards down (to replace the existing old carpet). The next big thing we need to get done is for OH to finish painting the baby’s room, and get both spare rooms carpeted. The Home Improvement Pot will more than likely be wiped in the next few weeks.

Savings priorities: any money left over at the end of this month will more than likely go into the “car repairs” fund. I should have around £50.00 left in my account before pay day (more if I don’t need to put fuel in the car until next month). I will list next months’ priorities next week.

I think that's it, stuff's starting to get real!

Here's to another productive week

MM xx

atush

Sounds great!

I myself am not on a strict budget, so overspent as usual at Tesco and m&S lol.

MaryMurphy

LOL atush sure why not! If you can “overspend” without compromising other essentials then you’re in a wonderful position (and one I thought I was in myself up until January 2015!!!) But we’ll get there, I’m not too worried, all things considered

Pay day has arrived! ***Happy dance***

And another chance to be thankful for starting this diary again. It’s amazing how much it’s helped me stay organised and on top of things. We’ve been able to accomplish a lot in a few months, without creating any other debt for ourselves (credit cards/loans/etc).

Even MrMM has managed to not spend his own personal savings this month (which is unheard of!) I’m quite proud of him, he’s not naturally a saver.

There are only about three months until little one makes an appearance (assuming he/she decides to stay put until then!) and we have lots to do, financial and otherwise!

Tasks completed this week were:

- Euros: bought! The accommodation for our two-day trip away and for my friend’s wedding is now paid for. TICK!

- Maternity pay buffer: I have pooled together all the money that I had earmarked for this from various savings accounts. As I mentioned last week, I know exactly how much I need to cover my share of the bills, and how much I have left to save.

I keep playing with my spreadsheet but I know for sure that: 1) my share of the bills will be covered, and: 2) I will have very little “fun” money left between February and April (i.e. when I’m down to statutory pay). This is primarily due to my Sharesave plans. I can defer them, so I’ll make a decision closer to the time, depending on how we get on. MrMM did say he’d help me out (obviously we’re in this together), we'll see how this one pans out.

- “Big purchases” baby fund: We have two months to pay off most of the big stuff (cotbet, travel system, etc) as we’re getting it delivered in July. It’s doable, we just need to stay focused on it. The favourable exchange rate will really help with this as well. I’m making another payment towards this tomorrow.

To be completed this month:
Tomorrow I start getting bits and bobs for my hospital bag. It’s sad how exciting this is for me.

Declutter: I need to clear out a load of junk. We did get rid of a load of unwanted things when we moved, but we still have sooo much **** lying around. Some of it is still useful and in good condition so I’m giving it to a charity shop, I will eBay anything that might sell but to be truthful the majority will probably need to be binned. I have drawers full of stuff that I have literally not looked at in years (including a broken glasses case. !!!!!!? Why would I keep something like that?!?) It’s all my own stuff so I only have myself to blame lol

My mobile phone contract is up in the next few weeks. Since my bill rarely exceeds £17.50, I am keen to stay in and around this price (either PAYG or contract) but I do need a new phone – my current one is becoming increasingly unresponsive. So now’s the time to shop around and see what’s available… I don’t need anything fancy; as long as it operates on Android and has a relatively decent camera I’ll be happy.

Heating: fill up the oil tank for winter, whilst it’s cheap! I keep thinking back to winter 2009/2010, when the olive oil crystallised in the kitchen cupboard and ice started to form in the inside of one of the upstairs windows. It was absolutely crazy cold weather! I vowed to never get complacent coming into winter ever again, so we’ll be preparing for the worst even more now that we’re living out in the country (and being unable to easily reach the shops when the roads freeze over is a real possibility).

MOT: GET. IT. BOOKED.

Home improvements: Living room is due to be painted next Monday by my SIL’s father (he’s very good, tidy and will charge us “family rates” ). Then we need to arrange for the living room floor to be put down and for the spare rooms to be carpeted. We have enough to cover this, based on previous quotes, but I do expect the home improvements fund to be pretty much wiped after all this.

Most of OH’s monthly savings have been going into this pot (I’ve been saving a minimal amount towards this, just so I feel I’m still contributing) so it’ll be down to him how quickly we can move on to the rest of the house. We have nothing essential coming up, so I’m not worried. MrMM is though; he wants EVERYTHING done before the baby arrives. He must be nesting lol

Stock up on essentials/non-perishables (especially if anything we’d normally buy is on offer). It worked very well for us last month.

We’re getting there. Time’s flown by already, it won’t be long before I write a gloating post about me finally going off from work :rotfl:

MaryMurphy

It’s been a busy and expensive few weeks, but everything was (mostly) accounted for already so we’re actually doing OK.

MrMM and I have been talking about my maternity leave, and he has tentatively floated the idea of shared parental leave. I have nothing inherently against this, and financially it makes sense as I earn a bit more than him (and if I didn’t have my pension and sharesave contributions, it would be a lot more).

We’re therefore looking into the pros and cons –it certaintly won’t be happening until after January 2016 (which is when my pay is due to drop to statutory) and it’ll obviously be dependant on lots of other things. I actually think he’d cope a lot better than me staying at home all day with a baby, so it’s an option worth thinking about, and one we can prepare for financially if and when the time comes.

Tasks completed this week were:

We have stocked up on some essential non-perishables (which will see us through the month and beyond. Again, this is a good habit to get into and good prep for us to get organised).

Euros: our little trip away was lovely, but my nice Euros pot is now wiped we couldn’t resist taking advantage of the favourable exchange rate and bought quite a few essentials at a cheaper rate than at home. I need to start buying some more for this wedding in September, but it’s perfectly doable, as I’ll only need around E200 (so basically buying about £50’s worth in July, August and Sept – which is what I’d planned to do anyway).

Paint: Living room and spare rooms all DONE! Everything looks great. All we need now is for the cot bed etc to arrive so we can start decorating the baby’s room

To be completed:
We need to start to batch booking and freezing it. OH is a whiz with the slow cooker, and we’d like to have some inexpensive nutritious meals ready to reheat for when we’re too sleep deprived to turn the cooker on I’ve been lurking on the “When the SHTF” thread in the OH forum, and whilst a lot of the discussions are probably a little too extreme for me, I like the general principle of preparing for the worst (the worst catastrophe for us being that we can’t afford to stay afloat).

Tasks overdue:
Everything is in hand, no red flags here.

Another two weeks (ish) until pay day, and with no major events coming up and continuing to be sensible we should be able to stay within budget. I’m not worried – we’re slowly getting there!

MaryMurphy

June turned out to be a very expensive month. Most of our expenditure was already accounted for, but we ended up overspending on some non-essential areas. We do have a lot to show for it (it was primarily all stuff for the house) but I loathe overspending, especially when the items bought weren’t essential.

No matter, I get paid tomorrow and I have already rebalanced my spreadsheet. We’re starting July with no deficits, which is a relief.

Heating oil has been bought and it will hopefully see us through the winter (as we have plenty of solid fuel for the open fire to get through as well).

Priorities for this month are:
Baby things: Pay off the travel system etc (which is getting delivered next week).

Continue stocking up on essentials – we need to do a big shop this week, but also put away money for nappies etc.

Batch cooking: this didn’t happen in June. We need to really get the finger out!

I’ve sorted out the purchase of my shares, and have a rough idea of where everything is going.

Priority 1: I am going to allocate £2000 towards my maternity pay shortfall. This will cover my share of the bills from December onwards (when my pay drops), alongside what I have already saved.

Priority 2: I am allocating £1000’s worth of shares to go towards our “roof replacement” fund (current balance: £0.00!) This is work that will be due either next year or the year after (depending on what kind of weather we get) – we’re going to need a bare minimum of 3k to cover the necessary work.

Priority 3: £450 is going towards replenishing my Heating Oil pot. We will probably need to buy more in December/January, so at least it’ll be already covered.

Priority 4: £500 is going towards a “leisure” fund, for when my pay drops. Having done a detailed plan of how my pay will be affected, and having decided that I don’t want to defer any of my share plans, I’m going to need a small amount of money set aside for coffee dates etc.

Priority 5: Anything left after this will go towards topping up my Car Repair Fund (assuming it needs topping up – the car service won’t happen until the end of July, due to a massive waiting list with the MOT centre).

P1 and P2 are the two main pots, everything else is on a “nice to have” basis and it assumes the share price remains steady (which is debatable at the moment).

Assuming I can get P3, 4 and 5 covered, I can then put more of normal monthly savings towards other pots, which will leave us in a nice position for 2016.

Just to add, I appreciate I’m giving the impression that I am doing all of the saving. OH’s savings typically go towards other categories that I haven’t mentioned, and they will continue to remain covered by him.

Two months until my due date… but we’re getting there