Tales from the Avenue

TalesfromtheAvenue

Quite a productive afternoon so far. DS was at a club after school so I managed to get a few things done before picking him up.

I went shopping to Aldi, was going to place an online Tesco order but just couldn't do it, knowing how much cheaper it would be from Aldi!
I had a huge trolleyfull of fruit, veg, tinned goods, pasta, cereals, yoghurts, chicken and eggs, as well as washing up liquid and kitchen roll, and it all came to £39.11. I'm always pleasantly surprised at the checkout in Aldi.
I've since unpacked the shopping and split the bread and meats into portions to put it in the freezer.

I've also wrapped the two eBay levels and one return, ready to post tomorrow. Tonight I need to make one business order so that I can post that at the same time.

There's a pan of potatoes boiling as they needed using up, will fridge then and use tomorrow when cooked.

Washing's on and whites are soaking too. Will
Have to use the tumble dryer unfortunately as still sans washing line, but I have ordered one today, £25 from Wilko, has good reviews so fingers crossed it will live up to them. I've taken the money out of the 'monthly spending money' pot.

Tonight I'm also going to do a little bit of meal planning to make sure I don't waste anything that's in the fridge; have a nice hot shower and read the first of my magazine subscription I was kindly given for my birthday

TalesfromtheAvenue

Everything's done for the night and I'm just settling down under the duvet with my book. 😁

I've been reading a bit about 'paying yourself first' today and, have to say, I really like the idea. I'm not sure how I will manage it, but I am going to look at the budget and see if there's any way I can treat 10% of my take home salary as a 'bill' from next payday onwards. I have set up a standing order, direct to my isa, ready for next month so I have a month to jiggle the budget around.

Night all x

TalesfromtheAvenue

A low spend day today, £11 odd on postage of the ebay parcels and business parcel.
I also listed another item on ebay and gumtree last night, hopefully it will bring in about £20 if sold.

I've done a bit of batch cooking tonight, so have 3 portions of lasagne in the freezer now for DS for a later date. I had all the ingredients in, so didn't cost me any extra.

Quite pleased with myself tonight; I've manage to complete a small DIY project that has made my lounge look so much more finished and more homely. Better still, the materials were kindly given to me by a friend recently, so it was completely free

Tired and worn out tonight, so off to bed. x

TalesfromtheAvenue

So, I hit a wall. A big fat spending wall. I didn't hit is so much as run into it voluntarily.

In the past 24 hours I've managed to spend just over £100 on non-essential 'stuff.'

What can I say? I knew I didn't need any of it, I knew I just wanted it, but I still bought it anyway.
It consisted of some craft bits and activities for DS and I to do over Easter, some music and two tickets to a concert I got excited about and bought on a whim, completely 'forgetting' I couldn't aford it. Suddenly I was back to my old impulsive ways which got me in debt in the first place.

Rather than continue to beat myself up about it as I have been doing all morning, I have gone through the budget in YNAB with a fine toothed comb and jiggled money about.

I have taken £50 out of the 'school uniform/DS clothing budget' as he has plenty and won't need anything for a good while, so there's £50 left in there now. I've also reduced the grocery budget to take into account the £40 in gift cards I was given. £20 has been shaved off the fuel budget as OH will be paying for fuel on our planned trips.

So I have been able to balance the budget.

Just.

It does mean I have very little leeway this month now and a very busy month planned with the school hols and going away twice.

Oh, and I've decided to give the tickets away as a 'big' birthday present coming up in the summer as I know the recipient would love them and it will save me buying something else.

I'm my own worse enemy sometimes.

Bobarella

Sometimes if you've been holding on to every penny a splurge just happens. I think we can all be our own worst enemies. It's normal.

TalesfromtheAvenue

Thanks Bob, you're completely right.

Two bits of money have gone into the bank account today: the £20 refund I was expecting which has already been allocated in YNAB and £38 ish from business sales which will stay in the business account for now.

I slept well last night but I'm soooo tired today, I feel ill with it. My body is aching all over, even my fingers and toes and ankles are aching, I hope I feel a bit better soon as I'm struggling to stay awake at my desk, I just want to put my head down.

Oh and I went to c0stco last night, I only spent £9.35, but bought a couple of things in bulk that I had run out of and, luckily were also on sale with some coupons, so saved even more money. This has come out of the grocery budget.

TalesfromtheAvenue

I've had a really busy weekend, getting lots of jobs done both in my house and helping OH in his, today every muscle in my body is aching (still!), I'm so sore!

Friday cost me a lot of money, having to pay the plumber £500 for the work he's done to fit the bath, remove the old one and change the pipework. I have had the money ready for him for some weeks though, but it still stung handing the envelope over.

Last week I found some foreign currency in a drawer, left over from a weekend break last year and a trip earlier this year, so I took that to change back on Friday night, was quite chuffed with the £70 I got. I spent £20 of it on some groceries and an M&S meal for OH and I, £10 has gone towards DS's school dinner money for the week and the remaining £40 has been put with £50 of birthday money I received to save towards some flooring for the bathroom, so there's £90 in that pot now. I'm going to look up some tutorials and try to have a go at fitting it myself to save some money... I'm not sure how wise that is, but I'll have a go!

On Saturday OH and I went to pick my washing line up that I'd ordered and some new plates as my old ones were in a pretty desperate state. I also picked up a few groceries in Asda whilst there, using one of the giftcards I was given for my birthday, so I have approximately £28 left on those.

DS and I made cakes in the afternoon, having to pop out to the corner shop for (overpriced, being the corner shop) butter, a kinder egg for DS and maybe a chocolatey treat for myself and OH.
Yesterday DS was out with his Dad, so I got on with a bit more tiling; I put my washing line up, then stripped both mine and DS's beds and washed and line-dried it all in the sunshine
I cut the grass and then went to help OH do some work in his house. Last night OH treated us to fish & chips, so yesterday was a NSD for me

A buy it now I listed on ebay sold for £20 yesterday, I'd forgotten about it so it was a nice surprise! That will equate to around £15-£17 once postage has been paid. I'll put that towards spending money on our little breaks coming up. Oh, we have also been given free leisure passes to use the facilities on the site we are going to with the children, so am very chuffed about that.

I have also earmarked a few other bits to list on ebay, so I hope to try and get that done tonight. I've been given a bundle of DS's too small clothes from his Dad to send to the charity shop, so I will see if there's anything to ebay from there first and will give him the money if so. He's not so resourceful like that and would have no idea how to ebay!

Happy Monday all
x

TalesfromtheAvenue

Just given £2 for a collection at work, thankfully had the change in my purse.

I've signed up to a newsletter from the flooring company I've spotted some reasonably priced bathroom flooring from, just to receive a discount code from them. Only 5% off, but it all helps for when I come to order it. I need to save £10 more to afford it, but just need to double check the measurements first as well.

I checked my mortgage statement today and this month, I've paid £198 in interest. :O
I can't be having that.
I need to start paying this mortgage down some more and am so eager to do so, but I'm aware I don't have a lot put by as an emergency fund (currently only £350 which is to cover things like car and house expenses too). I don't know what to do first, whether to try and build that fund up or throw a little at each simultaneously.

I have 3 goals I'd like to achieve ASAP financially:

Build up an emergency fund of around £2K.
Overpay the mortgage by at the very least of £50 a month.
Start 'paying myself' 10% of my monthly salary by putting money into my ISA via a SO.

Trouble is, on my PT wages and my (very slow at the moment home business) I can barely afford one of these, let alone all three.

I don't know where to start with them tbh, or whether to just split any surplus income between the Mortgage and the Emergency savings and do the third when (if) I can afford to.

If only there was abit more money to go round!

TalesfromtheAvenue

I have a plan! I've been scrutinising the finances since my last post as I really feel like I need to make some progress and have a strategy in place for saving and overpaying the mortgage.

I have been through my budget and found £135.69 left over every month that I tend to just use to 'top up' the pots when I overspend, so from now on, this is being split as follows:

£70 SO set up to ISA to slowly build up an emergency fund
(this is in addition of my regular £100 a month car/house maintentance fund as I don't want to view this as the emergency fund.

£60 a month as mortgage overpayment savings
I have two sub accounts on my mortgage, one from my original mortgage and the other from buying my ex out of our original house. I overpaid a chunk off both of these (£16K total) when I sold my last house. I have just checked, and I am able to pay another £340 off sub account 2 this year to make it up to my 10% so that I don't incur any penalties. This will be my first goal. This has a slightly higher rate than the other sub account, hence why I am concentrating on this one first.

Then, I am able to overpay another £2364 on sub account to make it up to the 10% allowance. Not entirely sure if I will be able to make this amount, before the end of the year, but I think these are mighty fine targets to aim for.
I have set up two categories in YNAB for this and have transferred some business profit of £34.63 in Sub 02 pot to start with, so I'm over 10% there already

I have set up standing orders for immediate payment into the savings pots for when I get paid, so I don't forget or allocate it elsewhere.

The remaining £5.69 I may even spend frivoulously!

I love a plan!

TalesfromtheAvenue

Forgot to add, the grand sum of £8.26 has been added to my ISA in the form of interest which has been added to the emergency fund.