A Journey of Many Pounds Starts With a Single Penny

LadyGnome

I've done a bit of financial tidying up today.  £150 to Vanguard, £80 to my income buffer and £10 to the mortgage and other pots.  I've got to sort out the rest of the money for DS1 and agree how much we pay him each term so he can budget.  We will pay his accommodation instalments directly this year but will probably send him the money next year if he is paying monthly rent rather than termly lump sums.

LABMUM

Sounds like you are doing great. 

LadyGnome

Thank you.  It's been an interesting few months getting DS1 through A level results and going to uni whilst trying to manage some major deadlines.  I am so glad that I have fairly robust financial programme in place that can still tick over even when I am focused elsewhere.

Suffolk_lass

We acquired another colony of bees from someone not wanting to take 9 into winter (free) - very happy. Our four all had minuscule mite drops so we sold the Apiguard I bought in May on eBay, only for the mite drop on this one to be much higher. We put in an Apiguard pack and have not fed syrup this week to encourage them to take it down. Weather today is a bit meh so might wait until tomorrow to look but we will top up the syrup on all the colonies so hopefully they will mix it with the ivy nectar coming in, to see them all through winter.

Yes, well done on preparing for Uni! I suffered terrible empty nest feelings when DS went. I hope you don't miss him too much

LadyGnome

Great news on the new colony SL (apart from the mite drop).  I was going to inspect mine yesterday and then it poured down so I am hoping for a fine afternoon today to get on with it.  I need to build a new roof for one of the hives as the current one is cracked so I am not convinced it will be fully watertight for the winter.  I have a roof to build but it's currently sitting in bits in the garage so not much use to anyone.

LadyGnome

Happy New Year

I've been side-tracked from posting by practicalities.  DS1 is happily at University, I am studying part-time too. I started a new project in work which took a bit of getting into so I was going to do wonders catching up in December when I had some time off.  Instead I just slumped I realised that I hadn't had more than a week off work in 18 months and I was exhausted.  I planned to do a big round up in early Jan but then Omicron intervened so that was that.  I am now finally recovered and have been tacking the the finances.  It's at times like this that I celebrate all my earlier planning.  Everything ticks over, I save for big annual bills etc. so when you are tired or under pressure it all carries on working for you.

Generally, everything is on plan.  I had one v big expense as I had a dental implant but I knew I had to get that done so I put in on a long interest free credit card.  I have the cash to cover it but I like it in my bank account for now.

The next big milestone for me should be May when I expect to have paid off half the mortgage.  Psychologically, that will be huge as every £ after that will feel like its making a bigger difference.

I've rejigged my monthly budget as my firm have switched all contractors to weekly pay which is a change if you've spent the last 25+ years on monthly.  I've decided to use it to my advantage and budget based on 4 pay days a month.  So every few months I will have a week's pay unallocated as it will be a 5 pay day month.  I will use that to boost progress to goals.

Next target is to finish my tax return!!!

LadyGnome

I am having an exciting time finalising my tax return   I should finish getting all the information together today then I can find out the damage.  I know I was on the wrong tax code for part of the year due to a rolling contract and I have put money aside to cover my tax bill.  I am hoping that I've over estimated once the WFH allowance and professional fees are taken into account so I will have some money to repurpose.

I will do some planning over the weekend to set the goals for the year.  

I should be getting ready for work but instead I am going to feed the birds.  We've already had a great spotted woodpecker on the fat balls this morning.  The woodpecker is a morning visitor along with starlings and small birds.  They tend to get bumped off by the ringneck parakeets who in turn get bumped off by the jackdaws.  I still find it weird that we have parrots in our garden on a cold winter's day in London.  I put monkey nuts out for the squirrels, magpies and crows.  Recently a couple of jays have discovered them which is lovely to see.  

themadvix

The bird life sounds wonderful! Don’t forget is the RSPB’s big garden birdwatch this weekend, if you’ve got an hour to spare to watch them. We hardly have any birds in our garden but my mum is excited about reporting the parakeets in hers and has been making a note of when they visit so she can time her survey! 😂 

South_coast

Interesting to hear about your birds, I had to Google parakeets to see what they look like! I'm rubbish on birds, but still pretty sure the only thing we see here are seagulls and pigeons 🙄!

LadyGnome

I'll have to sign up to that garden birdwatch as I don't have plans for the weekend other than writing an essay for my course.  I can be a proper student and spend an hour looking out of the window instead of working

The parakeets in London are a bit of a surprise when you first see them.  They are thought to be escaped pets and birds released when people were worried about psittacosis in the 50's.  There are wonderful theories about them escaping from the set of the African Queen but sadly this isn't true.  Thousands have now bred and naturalised in the South East and  spread into the Midlands.  They are Himalayan Ringnecks so they can cope with cold weather and will eat anything.  I like them but they are bloody noisy!