Atrixa's Saving Diaries

savingwannabe

Right you have just talked me out of a takeaway atrixa. 

atrixa

Glad to be of service! I'll keep a spending tally here to keep me accountable.

atrixa

I do my monthly budgets payday to day before payday and January's is 37 days long as I get paid early for Christmas. 

Roll on February.

I've ordered some short-dated and very heavily discounted items from an online vegan supermarket as I needed some specialist bits as well. I'm not sure that I really needed so many 20p packets of crisps, but they'll certainly get eaten

MovingForwards

Can never have enough crisps!
We're all heading towards EOM and feeling rich again, you can get through the week.

Skint_yet_Again

Crisps are essentials in my book 😂 at least they are only 20p a pack. My favourite of the moment are over £2 a pack 😳 so I try to resist buying them! 

atrixa

£2!  I hate finding things that I love that are expensive or shoot up in price!

Today I will be heading out for a run and spending no money. I've got revision I need to do for a professional qualification I'm doing. I'll treat myself to a nice bath tonight.

atrixa

Just been looking at all the finances for the coming year.

Mortgage balance as at 31st Dec 2021: £54,815.80 13 yrs 10 months left on term.

Pension Fund currently sits at £13,448.70

I upped my employee contributions to 6% from 5% this week. Employer contributes 5%. Ideally I need to be making AVCs too. 

I have no plans to start overpaying the mortgage yet as I think the money is best off in my Emergency Funds. 

Savings:

Sinking Fund for Holidays: £632.89

Cat Adoption: £250 (that place still hasn't opened to the public)

House Emergency Fund: £901.68/£4,000

Bathroom Sinking Fund: £1,021.26/£5,000

Emergency Fund £2,746.84/£7,000

I'll probably use some of the Holiday Fund for a trip to London in the autumn as we have no plans for anything abroad.

I don't know if I want talking out of this or into it, but I'm considering buying a car. Public transport up here is becoming unusable and not just because of the current situation. I have hobbies where I would quite like to do something early on a weekend morning, and I have to say no to so much because there's no transport that early. It would also allow me and bf to take trips places that are usually inaccessible to us (he only has a motorcycle license).

I haven't driven in about 10 years, so I would just want a banger to run into the ground at first, maybe:

£2,000 car (probs old hatchback)

£400 insurance

£50 breakdown cover

create sinking fund for ongoing costs e.g. tax and MOT

so ball-park £2,450 start up. 

Pros:

Would allow me more freedom to travel where I want, when I want.

Saves time on buses or waiting for trains

Emergency use if needed

Could save on delivery costs if I needed large items from shops

Would only use for leisure purposes so potentially cheaper insurance, ditto fuel

Cons:

Would be taking on maintenance costs

Would not be using for commuting so can I really justify it?

Buying an older car brings higher costs, but don't want a car on finance particularly, and couldn't afford a new one

Fuel costs (although the petrol would be much cheaper than the equivalent train ticket even with a railcard- I had no idea this was the case)

Parking costs

Increased carbon footprint

Haven't driven in so long I'm wondering if I still can.

Spending money here would hinder progress making other savings

Opinions welcome.

atrixa

Decided to change the name of the thread to reflect more on where I am now

I've crunched the numbers and if I stop paying into my savings funds (apart from the bathroom one) and channel all my spare money toward a car fund, I could potentially buy a car in August. I think I'll do that and if I think it's a bad idea, I can redistribute the savings back out.

I cancelled a few subscription services today and saved around £13 per month. My February grocery challenge starts on Thursday when I get paid. 

MovingForwards

I would never talk anyone out of considering buying a car, but would suggest looking at one where it's currently up to £30py tax; it's one less big thing to pay for. 

A 3 door means less people ask for lifts, it also gives bigger doors for ease of getting in / out. Having one with folding back seats allows for extra carrying space. 

Skinty and I both have 'shopper' cars, but that doesn't stop us filling them to the roof, getting furniture in etc and we both do distance travelling.

I budget £1200py for MOT, insurance, repairs and home insurance, that way I can pay in full and not have something else on monthly payments.

Used car prices are funny at the moment, but there are still bargains around. I wouldn't be worried about not driving for years, it will come back to you or budget for a couple of lessons with an instructor.

The hardest part is working out which car you would want. 

atrixa

Thank you That's such a good point about the door sizes as well. I had a little Ford Ka in 2011 and with the seats folded down, I managed to fit the entire contents of my university halls room in it when I moved. 

I found a couple of older cars on some local dealer sites that could be good options e.g. Mazda 3, Suzuki Swift. Also some throwbacks- I haven't seen a Fiat Punto in the wild for YEARS!