Getting a Grip and Saving towards the mortgage

Busy_Mee1

Aww thanks ETE I am feeling a lot better today.
So I am drawing a line under last week as everything went to pot - I ate rubbish and did no exercise, as well as my saving plan being scuppered. But to be honest I was literally hanging on my my fingernails at work and eating my body weight in cough sweets and chocolate ( which has magical medicinal purposes ! ) So today I am getting a grip and eating properly and am off to the gym shortly. I have done the pay day money shuffle and will be back later with some revised figures to reset my savings goals

Busy_Mee1

A good start to the month - £50 worth of 20p from the 20p jar bagged up and paid into the O&S account, along with 2 Tilly Tidies - £2.70 and £5.71.

I have been playing around with my figures to set a revised goal for the year - I would like to get to a nice round £50k by the end of March but that is going to mean saving around £16k in 11 months. That will be tough and I might have to be a bit more realistic. I will wait until I have paid for the building work before committing.

In other news DS has bought a house, so will be moving out in around 6 months. So finally we will have a empty nest, although if DD is anything to judge by, he will be home fairly regularly checking out what goodies we have in the fridge.

Busy_Mee1

:wall::doh:I have just had a bit of a duh moment. Topcashback are doing £15 refer a friend, with £5.00 in Tosco club points for the friend. Our Topcashback account is in OH's name so I have only just realised I can refer myself as the friend (Have already referred the kids) I will just use the new account to track spends until £10 reached - result £15 in OH TCB and £5 in Clubcard points to mine.
The trouble is I tend to think of us as a single unit financially rather than two separate people - happens when you have been together for 100 years:rotfl:

Anyway while I was in his account I noticed there was £15.51 ready for payment so that is now winging its way to the O&S account :T

smallholdingsister

Wow a hundred years - that's some marriage!

Busy_Mee1

Not really - it just feels like it :rotfl::rotfl:

Busy_Mee1

What a difference the sunshine is making this week - I've just been out for a steady 3k run ahead of Park Run on Saturday and it is just lovely out. The sun is shining, the birds are singing and the bluebells are out.....

In MSE news I have received £18.90 in interest from TSB (lost some at the beginning of April when my money went MIA over the Easter Weekend) and£12 from Barclays Blue . I also managed to get a refund from TfL of £7.70 because I mistakenly tapped my contactless cards going through the station barrier - well worth a phone call (on works phone:D)
All this has been swept into the O&S account and I am feeling relatively confident that I might make £150 into the O&S account this month.

I am thinking that this could be a new target - £150 into the O&S account, which along with £1150 into regular savers would make a nice round £1300 per month :T

Busy_Mee1

It's Friday:j:j:j
I have finally managed to get into town to get my fixed rate ISA pass book updated - a lovely £441 worth of interest earned this year. I have updated my spreadsheets accordingly.
I also called into sainsbreeze to use a £1.25 brand match - bought some YS raspberries and blueberries. All very MSE.
I am psyching myself up to do some selling on fleabay - I was very successful a couple of summers ago but I don't really like it and it takes some organisation to make sure I can get to the post office to send the parcels during the week. Still it is going to have to be done if I want to achieve my targets.
Next week is the boring bank account week - no interest or cash back due now until the week after ...
It is generally a very tight month this month, but OH has agreed that we will both try and manage on £20 each a week cash spends....he is treating it a bit of a competition to see who can spend the least (rolls eyes) but it is suiting my purpose;)
Have a good weekend everyone and enjoy the sunshine

Moneyfordreams

My OH has been really good at bargain hunting but seems to have gone wrong last night (he works nights in a supermarket). he's bought our GD a water garden toy £10 and a leg of lamb for £12.99!!!!! there's only the 2 of us who like lamb, we usually have a chicken under £3. mind you he did get 2 loaves at 15pence each

LadyGnome

Building your own house sounds great. I think Mr Gnome would love to do that, I'm not sure I could cope with the stress. You sound very clear and focussed. Like you I am going to think how best to use my £500 PSA as saving into an ISA may no longer be the right option. Best of luck on your MF journey.

Busy_Mee1

Moneyford - that is exactly the sort of thing my OH would do and would come home as proud as punch. Although the loaves of bread were a good buy.

LadyGnome- I loved the project management and the actual building work. It was the scary finances that had me teetering on the edge and unfortunately once you have started by knocking your house down, you can't stop until it is rebuilt again. You also lose all sense of perspective because of the scale of the costs, I can remember being really pleased because our staircases "only" cost £1300 more than we had budgeted for :eek::eek:

It is a beautiful day here again, I have done Park Run and now am going to spend the afternoon tackling some weeding in the garden. DS is feeling good because he has just moved £20k towards his deposit for his house into a S@antander 123 and worked out he will get around £45 per month in interest......he is learning lol !