The Edcawber Principle

Busy_Mee

Happy New Year Ed. Hope 2021 brings everything that you would want.

Suffolk_lass

Busy_Mee said:

Happy New Year Ed. Hope 2021 brings everything that you would want.

I echo that! Happy New year

beanielou

Hope 2021 is a better year for us all.

pavlovs_dog

happy hogmanay Ed.  Here's to a happier, healthier new year!

edinburgher

Thanks everybody - happy new year

We had a lovely Hogmanay evening with a (relatively) healthy seafood dinner, some wine and living room dancing. DD was a good sport and stayed up to half nine, two hours past her usual bedtime. We also watched the Edinburgh's Hogmany drone show, which was very moving.

Today we did the obligatory lie in, walk in the frozen beauty of a local park (only one fall) and steak pie for a late lunch. I made mine with a nice ale from Innerleithen (very near my childhood home), some very fancy guanciale that Mrs E put in my stocking and the last of the half price freezer steak from Mr M. Took ages to make, but we've all got time at the moment?

Nice food chat aside, 2021 needs to be the year that I break with my famine mentality and develop less gluttonous eating habits. Not quite sure how to do that, but definitely feeling ready to move past "must lose weight" to "why do I have the weight in the first place?" Suggestions gratefully taken, I am definitely an emotional eater.

Financial goals will be started slowly but steadily this year, including some for my own money (such as it is)! I've decided to invest 50% of any windfalls (gifts, FIT payments or eB@y profits) in my ISA in the same fund as I use in my pension (a target retirement fund due to mature in 2045). I'm also going to save 25% of my monthly pocket money for immediate expenses such as birthday gifts and nights out (chance would be a fine thing) and this will include a further small amount (only £18-19/month) for the ISA. I figure I'm going to be 38 this year and it's time to start feathering the part of my nest egg I'll be able to spend before I'm 68!

In terms of the family budget, I set myself a target to get our budget on track in 2020. Granted, things still felt a wee bit out of control at times (I think I'm also an emotional spender (I seem to do everything with emotion!)) That said, the numbers don't lie and we erred on the happiness side of the Micawber Principle over the year, with roughly £350/month of a surplus. While it was a surplus, it certainly wasn't a big enough surplus and we'll need to improve that over the year (pay increments and remortgaging will be a big help).

This year, I'm going to try and be a bit more relaxed about moving things between lines of the budget, but will actively protect the following 5 budget categories: groceries, home maintenance, DD, savings and presents. These were probably the most troublesome ones this year, usually because their expenses are "lumpy". Holidays will also be protected up until June, but will be fair game for robbing after our holiday.

We're getting a second generation smart meter fitted in a fortnight and hopefully this will allow us to tweak our utilities budget as well (although we're only spending £49/month at the moment).

So no big bangs, crazy ploys or radical rethinks. The new me?

earthgirl2

Best Wishes for 2021 Ed! Good ideas and plans.

greent

Very impressed with your utility spends!

With regards to emotional eating, check out Sustain Nutrition. The guys there are about mindset - understanding why we eat carp food at times. They are also not perfect themselves - they both spent part of 2020 getting leaner. There's a fb00k group or 2, a website, yootoob podcasts to have a listen to

SuperSecretSquirrel

Happy new year!

I'm liking the sound of 2021 Ed ☺️

It has to be a good sign that thoughts of big bangs and crazy schemes aren't being entertained - tweaking and fine tuning a working process is the way to go!

I'll also be focusing more on the early bit of early retirement from now on. The other side of 68 (or 58 even) will hopefully pretty much take care of itself now, so it's time to start focusing on what comes before then...

All the best to you and your family 🍻

edinburgher

@greent - thank you for the suggestion. That site looks very good (I'd love to look like those guys), but my inner Scot does balk a little at the £47/month cost for personalised support. I'll explore the free resources and get a feel for what they offer. Have you, or someone you know used them for paid support?

@SuperSecretSquirrel - I must be doing something right if you approve I'm with you on the "conventional retirement is pretty much on autopilot now" thoughts. Happy New Year to you and yours.

Budgets trimmed and holiday goal now 31% met. The sooner I get that done, the sooner I can concentrate on hardcore saving. I'm not even worried about it getting cancelled - E@syjet will offer a voucher (or rescheduled flights) and the hotel will only take part payment 7 days before the trip, fully refundable if official advice is not to travel. Worst case scenario, it becomes enforced savings that will be 75% returned in June. Money found from the budget is largely from "just for fun" categories that we should probably be funding from our own pocket money, but we have been badly behaved in relation to (rugby for me, takeaways and alcohol for both of us). The plan is to gradually phase out these categories over the next few months (we get a decent wodge of pocket money and just need to get better at saving some of it for obvious eventualities). Feeling slightly less affluent than usual, but with much bigger boy pants

Am running down some of our nicer holiday foods and doing some research about nutrition and sustainable weight loss approaches. Don't fancy anything massively restrictive (i.e. Atkin's or 5:2) and don't want anything that pushes nonsense supplements and branded processed foods (looking at you Weight Watchers). Other than that, open to eating less and developing a better understanding of nutrition and what makes me tick.

Also did a wee bit of relatively frugal fun spending (a one year hobby magazine subscription for £16.50 after cashback and a £0.99 K1ndle copy of Nigel Slater's "Toast", which I have wanted to read for *years*). Who says you can't have fun on a bit of a budget?

greent

I've used them (paid) with decent results - mindset was a huge issue for me. I balked at the cost before I used them and initially signed up to a free 7 day taster - they were running these fairly frequently at one point so well worth a go if you see one. They were also doing £25 for a 28 day support session at one point - 7 days of one on one personalised daily coaching and then 3 weeks where you get a summary of your past week (rather than daily) - again a good deal to see what they do/ if it works. There are loads of free resources (inc the free support group on fbook) in the files and the podcasts on faceb00k/ their website/ youtoob. It's the daily accountability which made a difference to me - that and proper personal feedback and suggestions of changes/ different things to try. No meal plans or suggested workouts (unlike Mr W1cks) but I found it more sustainable and family friendly than other things