Family home on the (distant) horizon - savings diary

*little.squirrel*

Spendy day yesterday with an unexpected trip to Aldi, but that will ultimately keep our grocery bill down for the rest of the month. I find it difficult getting there without a car and no basket on my bike so take the opportunity when it arises! I've been deliberating over getting a basket for my bike because I know it will come in handy. It just seems like a big expense in the beginning. I saw an advert on free cycle last night for a bike seat with panniers so I emailed about it and its still available so I'm going to go and collect it tomorrow. I'm hoping it will all fit on my bike ok and that will solve the storage problem for me. Obviously I can use a backpack but when I've got E on the back of the bike it really invades her space. Plus, she hangs on to it and puts me off balance, which is dangerous!

Half term next week so trying to make plans that will involve very little expenditure. My Dad has insured me on his car so we can take a couple of day trips. I also need to factor in a trip to the allotment with all the wood we have in the garden. Hopefully DH can spare a bit of time from work to help with that!

Oh, in term of money saving I've been making a concerted effort not to use the tumble dryer. I'm not sure how much it will save but since I've got the heating on anyway it seems like a good idea to line dry instead. It does mean I'm not being as organised - I like to wash, dry, fold and put away all in one day - but I'm trying to get it all done as quickly as possible.

*little.squirrel*

Mixed bag over the last few days. My folks were visiting so outgoings were a little higher than usual. In saying that, DH and me have become accustomed to not drinking during the week so what we had in stretched further than it usually would have. Because we had access to a car we took a day trip that involved ice cream but the kiddos were happy and it wasn't too expensive. I do have a monthly pot for family spending so it was already accounted for anyway.

Waiting to be paid tomorrow to see what we will be able to transfer to savings. I always budget the minimum I expect to earn but I have worked a lot more this month so hoping for a decent pay packet. I picked up a few extra hours last week too because they were short on staff so that will have helped as well.

Transferred £70 from eBay earnings. A nice bonus to the month, I don't expect my monthly sales to be anywhere near as high in the future, but I had some unopened perfumes that I'd received for Christmas that I won't wear so I sold them. I've got a couple of bundles of kids clothes to load, but as ever, need to find the time to take the photos.

Looking forward to this weekend. I've taken Saturday night off work because I've got holidays to use, so we might take a day trip with the kiddos somewhere. We still haven't explored too far afield and there is plenty going on in the area!

*little.squirrel*

Whoop - pay day!

£257.95 more than budgeted for so I've transferred £200 into savings and £57.95 into the holidays pot. We have a Centre Parcs balance to pay at the start of next month and I want it covered without issue. Although there was a holiday day in there, most of my pay was from the new regular hours that I do so I'm hoping it will be similar in future. Yay, I'm excited! We will definitely meet our savings target for this month now, and make up for a lame January too. Still got 12 says to go though so need to watch the rest of the pennies. I'm off both weekends too so we were keen to do something with the kiddos, but hopefully not too spendy.

Reading some diaries and feel I should have more apps for cash back or scanning receipts. Tried to access one in the App Store but my phone is linked to the US App Store so I can't. HA. How annoying. I do have a 'British' phone with a smashed screen that I've been meaning to get fixed. Need to decide if the expense of repairs will be worth it.

DH just got some good work news so we are starting today on a high. No pay rise unfortunately. :rotfl:

Happy Friday!

*little.squirrel*

Bank account still looking positive. Booked family day trip on Saturday. Train ticket not too pricey and had a look online for a voucher for the aquarium so we shouldn't have to pay full price there either. Plus, it is one of those places where one ticket lasts a year so it should be a worthwhile spend. We are planning to take snacks with us but we will eat out for dinner somewhere. The kids are pretty good eaters so we usually just buy meals for us all to share. I'm going to have a look online and see what is in the area and then try and figure out the best option. I have cash back on my debit card for a few restaurants and I'll have a quick keek on Groupon too.

Joined YouGov so I've completed a few surveys. Definitely should have done that earlier! No further forward on the phone - can't get it to reset the data for some reason. Will keep trying there though.

Friend knew we were looking for a new vacuum and tagged me on a FB post where someone was giving one away for free. Cost of car club for half an hour to collect it, followed by DH stripping it and cleaning it for an hour or so but it works way better than our Dyson and cost almost nothing. Now to get the offending Dyson listed for sale. I know that was on my to do list sometime last week...

Final grocery shop of the month just arrived. I needed to keep it under £60 to meet budget and I slipped in at £58.78. :T Although, alcohol budget went slightly over. Will need to amend slightly for next month when we have more family visiting.

*little.squirrel*

Starting March feeling positive again. It's a nice feeling to be in control. My work shoes fell apart on Monday night so I'm going to have to buy new ones. I had deliberately spent money on what I though were a decent brand of shoes in the hope they would last, but apparently that isn't the case! A friend has recommended a pair though that she got at the outlet centre so I might make the trip there. It would be cheaper than going to town. Frustrating, although I did set aside some money this month for clothing expenses.

Got family and friends visiting a couple of times this month so trying to plan for that. My sister comes first and she is really easily pleased so it shouldn't us much more than a decent bottle of gin. My FIL is also coming and hasn't visited us before so I know DH wants to make an effort. I'm happy to, as long as we plan well. I did already get beers in from the last couple month's budgets so I'm a little bit organised.

Easter at the end of the month. Already picked up some eggs for an Easter egg hunt. Also kept reusable egg shells (plastic and tin ones) from other years that I'm going to put pieces of jigsaw in. Managed to get two really nice jigsaws in the charity shop last week for £1 each. The kids love them and they love hunting for eggs so it should be good fun. Also got a joint of lamb in the freezer already that DH's Uncle gave us so Easter dinner shouldn't be too spendy right at the end of the month!

More snow today. We spent lots of time outside building quite an impressive snowman :rotfl: I think it's my best ever effort. I do usually have a free playgroup on a Thursday that I cycle to. Can't cycle in the snow and E is unlikely to be able to walk so far. I could pull her on the sledge but she didn't enjoy the wind blowing snow in her face yesterday. I'll have to think.

rawr_

Well done on your progress so far! Looks like you are well on the way to your 6k target!

*little.squirrel*

Didn't realise I wouldn't have to pay water this month; money transferred to savings! :j Actually, not entirely true - I used half for savings and half for our holiday fund. We have two short trips in May and June and I want to make sure we have enough aside for them.

£3 reward also transferred to savings, and a change in energy DD so the extra money has also been put aside. That means that before my wages have come in we have already hit our target for the month. :T

Listed a few more things on eBay and I've still got that Dyson and some suitcases to list on local selling sites. We are planning a weekend in the house to start potty training so hopefully that will all be ticked off this weekend.

DH heading out for dinner tonight. I know he was hoping it would be cancelled so he could save the pennies, but I think it will be good for him to get out. The whole time we lived in the States he didn't have much social stuff going on so I'm happy that he is meeting lots of people at his new work.

Book fair after school yesterday for World Book Day. Ended up ordering a few, probably overpriced, books for the kids. I had asked my folks and in laws for sponsorship for C's listening event which could be used towards the cost of books though, so it only up costing me £4 or so. Coffee and cake were on sale and super cheap so I didn't feel too guilty.

*little.squirrel*

Visitors really make not spending hard! Although just my sister visiting, the easiest house guest, ever, I still spent a little more than intended this week. Still, we decided not to eat out and just had a lovely meal and a bottle of my favourite gin in the house instead so I don't feel too bad, and didn't over spend too much. Had to get new work shoes because I really need something comfortable since I'm on my feet the whole time. They were only £25 and I hope they will last a wee while.

I've picked up a 5-10 shift tonight; DH has plenty of work to be getting on with and since we had a drink on Tuesday I don't feel inclined to have our usual Friday night. That will also make up for only doing two shifts next week when more visitors arrive.

Looking into switching our bank accounts. I've been thinking about it for a while, but since we have all our accounts in one place I'm reluctant to move. We don't have a branch in the area though and that is making things difficult and frustrating. Plus, I spent 5 years working in banking before I had the children and bad service really annoys me. It would mean we would get a switching bonus too, and perhaps a linked 5% saver? Need to look into it a bit more.

Another week till pay day for me. There should be a few extra holiday days in there so hoping it's a big one.

Ha, another cheeky saving - we are potty training!! Things going quite well so hopefully that will cut our nappy costs. :T

Alexland

*little.squirrel* wrote: »

Looking into switching our bank accounts. I've been thinking about it for a while, but since we have all our accounts in one place I'm reluctant to move. We don't have a branch in the area though and that is making things difficult and frustrating. Plus, I spent 5 years working in banking before I had the children and bad service really annoys me. It would mean we would get a switching bonus too, and perhaps a linked 5% saver? Need to look into it a bit more.

+1 for Nationwide. I recommended my wife to switch and got £100 each and then she recommended me to switch (even though I already had a bank account with them I hadn't switched to Nationwide before) and we got £100 each again so £400 for switching 2 accounts.

We had a similar result when HSBC were running their switching deals and have had lesser results from other banks. We have probably made around £1500 over the past 3 years from switching bank accounts. Still worth having a long term bank account as well if you will be applying for a mortgage, etc soon.

We have many 5% regular savers on the go with offset dates to keep a rolling balance.

Alex.

*little.squirrel*

I'll definitely look into Nationwide then. I was tempted by First Direct because of the good reviews, and M&S because of the switching bonus, but I think I want to be able to go into a branch if I need to. There's a Nationwide in town so that would work well. I need to start putting our deposit savings into a decent savings account, at the moment it's just sitting in an online saver with a 0.5% interest rate.

Just had a lovely weekend with FIL, BIL and close friends visiting. We annihilated our alcohol budget though :beer: Fortunately there is a lot of wine left, and a couple of crates of beer, so April's spending shouldn't be high in that department. We are tight to make budget this month and there's still 10 days to go. I'm cooking out of the freezer this week and trying to avoid making an online grocery order. E has two birthday parties this weekend so I'll need to nip to town tomorrow for cards and (small) gifts, so I'll pick up some fruit when I'm there and that should see us through to the weekend. I've got a piece of lamb in the freezer for Easter weekend so will just need to plan some sides. FIL brought a bag of goodies for the kids to have an Easter egg hunt so I don't need to buy any of that. I do want to make a little Easter basket for them that has no chocolate in it. I've got a sweater for C plus books for both of them, just need something else for E.

Savings will be harder in April. I'll really need to try and make savings in areas to bypass our target. DH is off to London for a week for work, and also Scotland, so his work expenses will be higher than usual. I think we might be due some back though so that will help.

Anyway, we are decorating paper Easter eggs this morning to send to family so I must crack on.