Hope is not an Effective Financial Strategy 13 March 2015 at 1:18PM edited 3 March 2020 at 8:18PM in Mortgage-Free Wannabe 4.2K replies 346K views

shangaijimmy

Well plodding along. Just had DS1 at home for 10 days for school isolation. He had quite a bit of work set and some 'live' lessons and overall it went quite well. DS1 wasn't bothered in the slightest to be fair to him. Timing wise I had a mini work lockdown due to Covid so was working from home as well. 

Financially I've been keeping an eye on things since last payday, and we definitely need to have a budget readjustment. Either Mrs SJ has nudged her miscellaneous spending has gone up, or we've started eating a lot more food or inflation has had an effect on food shop, petrol etc..., or a combination of them all! We've also had a few switches to go through - multi car insurance has gone down £4 a month, breakdown cover has gone up by £2 for the year, broadband has gone down by £5 a month, Mrs SJ mobile has gone down by £5 a month but this is then offset by DS1's phone going up £3 a month (still only £8 a month). However gas and leccy has soared. I'm really hoping this is due to the extra consumption from the Jan - March home schooling period.

We do  have a very excited household in anticipation of the new puppy arriving next week. I feel sorry for our 7yr old dog. I know a puppy will help to keep him 'young' but he has no idea what is coming!!

Suffolk_lass

I've noticed prices going up for regular shopping in the last two months.Things like Ryvita have suddenly shot up by 25p and so have the own brand version. And we had slipped into buying crisps at 2x6 for £3. Suddenly £1.70 for 6

debtfreeoneday

Hope the arrival of the doggie has gone well. 

shangaijimmy

Well puppy has settled in well. Most credit is to our 7yr pooch though, he's been amazing letting another dog into his house. I've made him my priority with lots of walks and lots of fuss when all the others are playing with the new addition.

Both paydays have arrived and they were definitely needed. I try to 'zero' our money every month so that every 'soldier' works as hard as it can. Something has gone a miss thee last 2 months which I think is mainly inflation of prices so I've made a few adjustments and told Mrs SJ to keep her eye out too! Inflation does what inflation does (5% on council tax every year will have   a huge compound effect in 10yrs if wages don't increase), and both of us are on pay freezes due to Covid. So I'm going to montior things for a few more months following our adjustments.

No holidays planned for us this summer (due to my work situation alongside Covid), so its searching for things to do with 3 kids were the age span is 5-12! And considering that we also have a 9 week old puppy to think about too!

Karmacat

Thats a good point about income being frozen when everything around is increasing ... I'm glad you managed to get hold of the puppy, though, and that your dog is still happy  

Suffolk_lass

I'm really noticing things increasing in price, combined with less that £9 per month increase to my pension. Electricity is £10 per month more, so is Council tax, fuel is up by 20ppl, shopping is increasing and heating oil is double the price it was last year.

Apart from beach combing (could be adapted to country park treasure hunt) and looking to see what free things your local council have put on (swimming free for school-kids here), I'm no use to you

debtfreeoneday

Glad pup has settled in well. I always think getting one alongside an existing dog is good. 

shangaijimmy

We're in the money again...£10 win on postcode lottery  Once that clears it'll be an extra OP to finish the month off.

DD has had a cricket camp this week which was excellent and she pretty much escaped the weather. DS2 has 2 days at his cricket camp next week, and DD an extra day. Happy to report that other than that they'e been very happy playing with the puppy, going out on bikes, and then playing water fights in the garden every night!

• A few little milestones achieved this month in that our 'neutral pot' as pushed through the £15k mark.
• Alongside this our 'actual mortgage balance' has now dipped below 50% of the challenge starting balance (£136k start and now at £67.5k).

Cheery_Daff

Postcode lottery AGAIN??? 😮😮😂 That is SO rigged - I've still not won a single thing! Outrageous! 😂

shangaijimmy

Rigged maybe...but rigged in the right way