Prosperous soul in the making

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Very comprehensive budget!  I'm so jealous of your mortgage payment, ours is £1650pm!
Do you find the dental insurance worth it?  Seems expensive, but I guess it depends what you get done.  We're with an NHS dentist and it costs us £72 a year for the family. 
Likewise, I'd twitch at paying a cleaner, but I'm guessing you've decided the money/time equation works.  Tbh if I had your monthly surplus, I'd probably get one too  

savingholmes

Hi Grogged and Ohsh... 
Thanks for the positive comments on my art, books etc.
On the dental side - I have bad teeth so find it worth it. DH is not much better than me. Before I used to balk at paying for a crown etc and would instead end up losing a tooth - and ended up with partial early dentures!! So having dental insurance is a must now.

Our mortgage is only so low as it has no forced repayment element to it. It needs paying by August 2031 though so once we're CC debt free we have to 'fix' that. Given our mortgage rate is so low 1.05% - it makes more sense to invest the money I think - particularly if we could get the returns that some do of 7% or more per year - and then the compounding effect of that. Not that such returns are guaranteed but the general direction is up.

Our cleaner is a God-send. None of us possess the tidy gene - and at times things get bad enough I think we could qualify for P1P as we need help. She cleans and tidies - and during this period offers some social time too. She comes 3.5 hours per week. I would love her to come twice a week (or every day....)

My long term goal is to find a way of replacing working full time at our day job with alternative income streams including passive income, pensions etc. I might see what £ there is in notecard / postcard book printing too as I could create some series from the artwork I've done in the last year. I bought a tripod in the summer to use for taking photos of my art but haven't got around to using it yet. I think our increasingly digital world offers a lot of opportunities. I could also create 'downloadable prints' to sell on 3tsy.

I've kept £100 of my xmas £ to one side with a view to buying podcasting equipment - but am going to make myself wait and trial's DH's work stuff first. You can pay anything from £40 to multiple hundreds and up and I don't want to invest and then have my interest fizzle. DS is interested in doing some podcasts too. I'm considering doing some motivational videos. You can join subscription services - which include a range of video shorts to choose from which you can splice together - so considering something like that. I also have a pool of poetry I've written that is gathering 'metaphorical' dust. It's not normally a huge money earner - but teamed with pretty cards/artwork some of it could sell. I plan to explore that too - but I am most interested in print as you go type services and ones that do drop shipping as I tend to be too disorganised/disinterested to do parcels etc. 

I feel like I broke through a huge barrier finally putting my book up for sale (regardless of what I earn from it). I'm hoping to capitalise on that momentum while it is still there. Traditionally we have given stuff away rather than sold - and while there is merit in that there needs to be balance too. 

doingitanyway

I vote for your art as a source of passive income.
Your detailed budget illustrates how far I have to go in creating a working budget. I need to decrease my food budget and increase my clothes/shoes/bags budget to a more realistic sum!

savingholmes

Thanks DIA. When I first joined MSE - I posted up our budget on the DFW board - which helped me know which areas I needed to tackle. When I first joined - I spent over £100pcm on clothes etc... When we first were in debt - we cut our personal spends to closer to £30 then upped it to £50 and a year or so ago £100 each. I don't normally have the surplus I should - so putting it up here is kind of a promise to myself that I will do it. I told DH yesterday how much I was hoping to pay off this month - and he suggested I set an easier target. But TBH I've found - as long as he has his £100 spends, occasional clothing £ (I used to spend his on me LOL), Nflx or similar and the odd takeaway he's happy. DD was fine with me doing a tight budget as long as Chinese takeaway was still in it once a month... I've offered to knock £5 off DD's debt if she cleans and tidies lounge... She said she would but hasn't yet. I want to try and burn away the debt as quick as we can and just get it over with while I am still motivated. 

I've just set up my author page on Am*** & G00dr**ds. Getting there slowly. 

Blackcats

£5 for the tidying is a decent deal for your DD.  My kids were terrible around the house - rarely tidied up after themselves and seemed to have a serious allergy to the dishwasher.
its great to read your latest posts - so positive and energised.  I think the break from work has worked wonders for you.  

Are you back to work on Monday?  I am 😕.  I need to get my bedtime and getting up time adjusted back to office regime 😱

longway2go

Happy New year. 
Well done on getting your book published it must feel incredible. Sounds like you have some good motivation atm. Lots of luck with clearing your debt and your new income streams, just imagine where you could be this time next year. 

MovingForwards

Zero budgeting is good and how I've run my finances since moving, causes others to sweat when they see £20 to last 3 weeks!
Do you use a full box of hair dye each time? It's another thing I stretch out and only use half a box.

You've many ways of creating a passive income and the more you can get on the go, the lower the risk if one isn't generating enough for a period of time.

savingholmes

Blackcats said:

£5 for the tidying is a decent deal for your DD.  My kids were terrible around the house - rarely tidied up after themselves and seemed to have a serious allergy to the dishwasher.
its great to read your latest posts - so positive and energised.  I think the break from work has worked wonders for you.  

Are you back to work on Monday?  I am 😕.  I need to get my bedtime and getting up time adjusted back to office regime 😱

All our family including me are very sporadic about doing chores. DD still hasn't done the job... I feel a lot more positive than I did. My brain was fried by the time we broke up for xmas. I only have another 2 or 3 days off to last me until the end of March though which is a shame. I too need to get my body clock back in gear - getting up at noon won't quite cut it!!

longway2go said:

Happy New year. 
Well done on getting your book published it must feel incredible. Sounds like you have some good motivation atm. Lots of luck with clearing your debt and your new income streams, just imagine where you could be this time next year. 

Thanks I find my motivation comes in 'spurts' so trying to make the most of this one. If we hit our goals then we could have the equivalent of a 6 month EF (basic) by this time next year. I want to prove to myself what we can do financially - and then review the whole moving idea again. It looks like DS is going to be living with us far longer than planned - which would be fine if he was financially contributing but his earnings aren't very steady currently - so I've been kind to him. If he intends to stay long term though I want him to pay something as a matter of principle. We'd give it back to him in other ways I'm sure. Some of the places we were looking at moving to were only 2 bed - which would be fine if it was just us and DD - but not if he came with us... All the current restrictions wreck any potential 2 home benefit which might otherwise have been an option.... If over this next year - we can demonstrate we really do have that level of surplus - it does open up other property options which could be exciting.

MovingForwards said:

Zero budgeting is good and how I've run my finances since moving, causes others to sweat when they see £20 to last 3 weeks!
Do you use a full box of hair dye each time? It's another thing I stretch out and only use half a box.
You've many ways of creating a passive income and the more you can get on the go, the lower the risk if one isn't generating enough for a period of time.

I get stressed when you talk about living on x amount until payday - even though I know you have savings for emergencies.
It never occurred to me not to use the whole box - plus DD says my hair is so thick it needs the lot. 
I agree spreading the risk would be good.

MovingForwards

My budgeting works because it's just the two of us and we always have food in.
Until my haircut months ago my hair was down my back and had I not randomly cut a few inches off I would have been sitting on it. I still only used half a box doing it myself. Give it a try one time, what's the worst that can happen? A few grey's not covered, a lowlights effect.

jwil

Your posts are always thought provoking - thank you.

I'm hoping to finish the book today