My Lightbulb Moment

louloubelle79

Trixysticks wrote: »

Hi louloubelle!

Thanks for your comments, I'm a simple life champion these days :rotfl:

Yes I have considered a LISA, I think when I was first looking it was all a bit new and unknown. Perhaps I'll research further. Have you got one?

Hi just opened a LISA with Nutmeg, 25% government top up on what you pay in. To use for retirement or first home

Trixysticks

Been reading lots of diaries today, it's so interesting to see everyone's different tactics. I'm drawn to spreadsheets so hoping to have a closer look at this and how others use them to record their overpayments (once HSBC let me back into my account...accidentally locked myself out earlier agh!)

Today I did have a little spend of £14.98...my first spend in days. I felt a bit sick using my card thinking "this isn't in the budget!!" but it was an overdue treat for my mum (went out for lunch.) Made me realise that I need to factor in unexpected spends into my budget. I also need to remember that this is a marathon and things will sometimes be out of my control.

Anyway, mum fully deserves a treat and she did gift me a lovely winter coat that will save me buying one this year. As I type, I'm starting to feel very stingy about buying lunch!!

All tucked up in bed avoiding the trick or treaters...looking forward to the start of November tomorrow!

Trixysticks

I've woken up early to plan my day-

1. Get access to my HSBC account!
2. Make first OP of the month
3. Withdraw grocery cash for the month. This is my new strategy- money will go in a pot in the kitchen so DH can use it too. Trying for £80 this month.
4. List a couple of things on eBay.
5. Double check budget and update. Look to create a spreadsheet.
6. Do weekly shop.

So that's plenty to get me started with today

After a cuppa of course...

VDOT47

What items do you include within 'grocery cash'? For only £80 per month I assume that can only include food, and doesn't include any other household items? We spend c£80-100 per week on the weekly shop - must do something to cut it down, but couldn't see how it is possible to cut it down to £20pw!

bexster1975

Hi

I mostly live alone and I spend about £25 a week on all groceries including washing/cleaning/personal hygiene. It's hard to be accurate as I buy things when on offer and store ( washing liquid, sanitary products, toilet rolls, kitchen rolls etc)

Withdrawing cash is a great tactic. Meal planning is another. Aldi and lidl have made a huge difference, as has using my freezer properly.

Bexster

Trixysticks

Oh no I wrote a big reply and it disappeared!

£80 covers cleaning and toiletries. At the moment it's ok because I seem to have stockpiled a huge amount of stuff! We are fairly lo key with toiletries, I buy a big 80p bottle of bath soap that gets dispensed into shower gel bottle and hand soaps. My big concern for next month is running out of Aussie shampoo...that habit will need to go!

I still have lots of food in the freezer so it's mostly just topping up with veg. I do think the budget will increase in December but I'm hoping by saving my receipts I'll get very clever about what we need to buy.

I'm back into my HSBC account woo! And I've done a lot of ebaying today. Need to get my head round these spreadsheets now...

Trixysticks

bexster1975 wrote: »

Hi

I mostly live alone and I spend about £25 a week on all groceries including washing/cleaning/personal hygiene. It's hard to be accurate as I buy things when on offer and store ( washing liquid, sanitary products, toilet rolls, kitchen rolls etc)

Withdrawing cash is a great tactic. Meal planning is another. Aldi and lidl have made a huge difference, as has using my freezer properly.

Bexster

I wish I had an Aldi near me!!! My options are co-op, Tesco and Morrisons.

Primrose

It’s interesting reading other peoples’ mortgage free journey plans now we’re mortgage free and pensioners. My only advice would be not to concentrate all your efforts to becomes mortgage free at the expense of your pension payments.
We were trying to become mortgage free as soon as we could but am so glad that we didn,t focus on this to the exclusion of our pension plans because the austerity years and unexpected redundancies meant having to give up work, or at least work in a different way meant that neither of us managed to complete out full number of pension years’ contributions.

Having paid extra into our pension funds for many years meant that the financial shock was not as great as it might have been. Going forward working life will still have many uncertainties, especially with many jobs being automated or done by robots so nobody can rely on achieving a full lifetime’s pension fund contribution.

So my advice would be to hedge your bets between mortgage overpayment and extra pension contributions. This may give you more flexibility to cope if if the unexpected hits you in years to come. But first of all, build an emergency fund of a minimum of three and preferably six months living expenses and keep it sacrosanct. Believe me, if redundancy or some other crises. happens, having this financial back up will reduce the stress on you at a difficult time .

Secret_Saving_Squirrel

Good luck with your plans. I wish I had had my LBM much earlier too, but no matter when you start, it is always worth it.

Trixysticks

Primrose, this is a very timely post as I was wondering more about my pension pot today! Excellent advice that I shall take on board.

I need to concentrate my efforts on getting my 6 month emergency fund filled up then I can look at mortgage/pension. I should really be aiming for 15% a month of my salary going into the pension :eek:

Lots to think about and I thank you very much for your comments!