Stop coasting and get serious!

FacelessNumber

Hi jodles16! Thanks for reading. I find that lists and goals help keep me focussed. I'm hoping it will keep me going with the diary for longer than when I've previously tried it!


Anyway update for the last few days:

• Lidl shop done again, £27 for the weeks shopping!! :j - we didn't need any meat but I'm still so impressed with this.
• Little spends - 60p on Wednesday for milk for work, £1.40 on eggs for someone (also Wednesday), 78p on Thursday for snacks, nothing yesterday!!
• We had a takeaway last night paid for by friends, we bought some drinks which came to ~£12 so can't complain at that.
• Plans for the weekend - nothing much moneywise, we might go to buy the wedding rings but that is all budgeted for so no problems there. I really need to get shopping for a couple of dresses for some weddings we are going to this summer as well. £50 budgeted for that.

Overall going fairly well I think. Still haven't listed anything on Gumtree but it will be done before Tuesday (the end of the second week of July).


Thanks to anyone reading, it's helpful in keeping the motivation high!

FacelessNumber

Not a bad weekend financially. A few spends but nothing extreme. The aim here isn't to spend nothing on enjoying ourselves but to keep an eye on it and try and increase our savings. As we aren't in debt I don't see a need to live completely frugally, it's just a case of being a bit more sensible!


So we spent our £12ish on Friday on drinks. Another £8ish on snacks and beer for OH as we had a movie night on Saturday, and £8 at the driving range on Saturday as well. The driving range £8 was from change we had lying around so doesn't really affect our budgets. Also gave a bottle of wine to the person whose BBQ we went to so need to replace that as it was from the wedding wine stash which will be £8 if I get it full price and £5ish if I can find it on offer.


Overall a great weekend without spending too much. This week off is off to a bad start however as I haven't packed my lunch today I did make a decision to buy lunch today as I haven't got much in for salad which is my usual. Maybe could have been a bit more creative but never mind, it's done now!


Generally feeling like I'm really behind on lots of stuff, have a day off tomorrow so I feel a monster list coming on to try and get caught up!

FacelessNumber

I have a to-do list in progress today! Lots to do and I keep adding to it but I'm planning on cracking through it as best I can! Lots and lots of admin stuff to do.


Just a quick update on the goals. £7.16 spent on wedding stuff that didn't come from savings so that means I can add another £7.16 to the honeymoon fund


I'm also going to update my wedding total soon. I've been estimating budgets and changing them as we get definite quotes so although my signature says £2250, we are actually needing £2202.52 at the moment and this will continue to change (hopefully downwards) as we continue to finalise prices etc. The lower we can get everything sorted for, the more we will have towards the honeymoon so lots of motivation here!


Also have a few more bits and pieces to order for it today so if I can do this without dipping into the savings that will add more to the honeymoon fund.


Edit: Another item ordered for the wedding at £22.49 without using the wedding fund so another £22.49 into the honeymoon pot
I like this way of getting progress before payday!

FacelessNumber

I haven't done my weekly update yet, not got round to checking all the figures. I've figured out something that knocks me right off track - losing my routine! OH is away for a few days working which means I have to be home for the dog every night as early as possible.
This means I didn't do my usual supermarket shop yesterday and has resulted in today being a bought lunch, and possibly tomorrow as well as I won't get home til 8pm tonight so no chance of food shopping. I'm a bit annoyed about this as with a bit of planning I could have gone food shopping a day or two early, but I didn't and that will be about £15 spent this week on lunches. Monday I decided to buy lunch because I couldn't be bothered to make it and now today and tomorrow due to having no food in the house.


Other than that though things are generally going to plan. Sorted out new house insurance with £50 cashback on a £200 policy so can't complain at that really! TCB now up to about £110 which will go towards the suits for the wedding, saving us some money!


Not much to say otherwise but thought I should post or it will easily turn into a big gap and then I'll struggle to get going on the diary again!


Little spends the last few days:
Monday £4.08 on lunch
Wednesday £1.20 on snacks
Thursday £4.57 on lunch

Runders

Hey FN,

I find like you, that a little bit of forgetfulness on the planning front can really throw me and lead to spends Sometimes it just catches you out unawares though, boo!

Hope all is well.

Runders x

FacelessNumber

Slight increase to the honeymoon fund because I got the home insurance for ~£5 cheaper than budgeted. However we are getting our flooring laid next week so the honeymoon fund will take a bit of a knock. On the plus side our living room will be finished apart from repainting the skirting and getting a wood burner (eventually....no rush on this one!).


Had a good few hours in the garden at the weekend so continuing to clear that, hoping to get it cleared by next year ready to start making it pretty!


Had budgeted £50 for a dress for the wedding we are going to next week and spent £30 so an extra £20 in the budget at the moment. Deciding where to allocate it, I could do with more new clothes but I don't think I will be going shopping again.


Also spent £26 on household stuff today - new towel rings, dusters, bleach etc etc. I am trying to put together a spending diary for the month as I've never been able to fully analyse where our money goes. Will see if I can get everything categorised for the month!

FacelessNumber

I am definitely not very good at keeping a spending diary! Completely lost track of last week, will try and catch it up at some point this week. On the plus side, have made some big savings on the wedding stuff which helps the honeymoon fund. Also have booked the flights for the honeymoon which is very exciting!! £2400 spent with the click of a button.


So update on the funds:

• I have updated the budget based on prices as we've got them and it's looking to be £600 less than I thought at the start of this diary - obviously this is still subject to change.
• Another £17.99 spent on the wedding without dipping into the savings so that's another £17.99 into the honeymoon fund.
• We are getting our new flooring laid this week so that will cancel some of this out but for now:
• Wedding: £1650.01/£1650.01 - 100%
• Honeymoon: £912.29/£5000 - 18.2%!!

Pretty happy with that at the moment! Hoping to make some more savings on the wedding as well - managed to negotiate 20% off the rings at the weekend so that was a big help

FacelessNumber

Well we had a few days away over the weekend which wasn't great for the wallet or the waistline! Back to the daily grind now though with some updates from the monthly payday!


Uni fund: £61.14 added to savings at the end of the month, £75 added in savings at the start of the month, and £50 paid off the credit card on which my first years fees are = £186.14 added. This brings the total for year 2 of uni to £232.23 which is 8.6%. I'm quite pleased with the rate at which this one is going up!
Honeymoon fund - only £9.18 to add to this one at the end of the month but this one has been steadily rising by making savings elsewhere and will hopefully continue to do so!


Budgets are all done for this month - tracking my daily spending has gone out the window but I am going to make a concerted effort to stop spending money day to day and only buy planned expenses. In fact I'm going to make a 7 day challenge of it starting today.


Apparently it takes 28 days to form a habit so if I can manage 28 days without any extra spending I should be sorted

FacelessNumber

Forgot to include the mortgage goal in the stats - £6646.73 now paid off which is 66.5% of our goal in half of the time - well on track to hit this fairly early I think! And because I enjoy them here are my OP vs no OP stats:
We are saving 17p per day in interest thanks to overpaying.
We have paid off £1919.55 extra capital, which equates to an extra 1.02% of the mortgage!


All this with fairly minimal effort!

A_Frayed_Knot

Hi

Just read your diary and have done so well, so early on, Good Luck.

I, too love op stats v non op stats, can you give me the formula on how to work them out?
as I would love to see my progress this way.