Busy Mee's Last Leg

Busy_Mee1

Mr Mee is watching football ( rock and roll here on a Saturday night folks:rotfl:) so I thought I would do a quick update.

We had a fab day at the seaside last Sunday. The weather was glorious and we walked 7 miles and earned my fish and chips. The only spending was fish and chips and a round of coffees.

I then had a run of five NSD's Monday to Friday......work has been manic and I have hardly had time to lift my head never mind spend any money. I spent £6.03 in Lidl today as we had run out of bread and other bits and we need to do a big shop tomorrow.

I also sorted my home insurance out. This is still high because we had a couple of claims in 2017 but I have managed to get it down from £500 to £377 by combining it with our multi car insurance. Mr Mee paid our car tax ( cars are his job ! ) Mine was £30 and we paid his expensive car tax for 6 months to move the renewal to September ( thanks Suffolk Lass).

I have now set up a standing order for £150 a month into my bills account to cover these annual bills. We soon won't have a large monthly salary that enables us to pay these in the normal run of things.

Nothing much else to report..visit to elderly parental,and lots of dog walking in the sunshine The weather has been glorious this week and I have actually line dried all the washing. I am hoping to get out in the garden tomorrow after I have been shopping :T

beanielou

Sorry work so busy but that is an awesome run of NSD's :j :j

Busy_Mee1

The weather is absolutely gorgeous today and I have spent most of it in the garden.

I have been wondering what we might fill our time with when we retire but assessing our garden today I realise that we will have plenty to do. We barely manage the basics at the moment and it needs some TLC. It could be really beautiful and we could grow a lot of our own produce . I feel quite excited at the prospect.

I am gradually getting into the head space of retirement. I have been flip flopping for a while between panic and excitement and I think I am now coming to terms with it. We can afford it and I will find things that I will enjoy doing. I think 2020 will be the year

We have had two great months in January and February in terms of spending and I feel that our finances are back on track. It is payday on Thursday and I still have money left in the bank and in my purse, despite paying a hefty credit card this month. I haven't actually tracked total spending through February ( I wish I had ) but it will have been less than the £985 we spent in January. I based all my retirement calculations around spending £1200 a month on day to day living ( groceries, petrol, entertainment, household, medical, clothing and other personal spends). So I am feeling confident that this will be enough. I think I will try and track spending every month now until Mr Mee retires.

I did our grocery shopping today and spent £73.77, bringing the total for February to £221.95 and £55.48 per week. I am very pleased with that...truly a UUFF :T

I did also spend on household things today ( you can tell the February finish line and payday is looming ). I bought 4 new mugs @ £1.29 each, 2 bags of compost @ £1.99 each, and 2 pairs of gardening gloves @ 99p each. (The pup has pinched ours and we suspect they are buried down the garden with his other treasures )

I also spent (ahem) £30.50 at the garden centre on spring plants for my pots.....but they are sooo pretty and bring me lots of pleasure .....

I have just put a large gammon joint onto cook which we will have with cauliflower cheese and asparagus (Aldi super 6 this week and DD's favourite)

Hope everyone has enjoyed the sunshine today:T

Busy_Mee1

Woo hoo pay day is finally here and Ultra Uber Frugal February is over. To be fair it hasn't been too bad because it is a short month and we don't have any birthdays or anything. I might make this an annual thing as being really frugal for a month has really helped us to get back on top of our finances.

The big credit card bill with the long haul flights has been paid and we still have money in the holiday fund and bills pot. I do however want to start a new regime now of saving for the annual bills and holidays rather than sticking everything on credit cards and then lurching from month to month borrowing from Peter to pay Paul.

I had NSDs Monday Tuesday (although I bought some bits in Boots but paid with my Boots points....that counts doesn't it :rotfl:) Yesterday I was back at the dentist for the prep work for my crown and paid £100 towards it....only £97 to go. I have another appointment on Friday and then another two appointments in March :eek:

Only eight more pay days until Mr Mee retires and I need to focus over these next few months on getting our finances in great shape and managing on our retirement income (as if we were both retired, to see how this feels ).

The great financial news is that I have finally received the backdated pay I have been waiting for for the last eight months, and because I waited so long it has mounted up to £1000 extra. This is just in time to pay our multi car/house insurance policy at the end of the month with a little left over for the holiday fund :T

Today is my last day at work this week, I have a day off tomorrow as we have friends coming for the weekend and I need to clean :rotfl:

I will be back later with the financials x

beanielou

All sounding good

Suffolk_lass

I love your last two posts.

I love the getting ready for retirement bits - especially the grow your own reference (consider if you want to raise any beds (we sit on the edge when drinking tea), and they are less awful for knees and backs, as long as they are not too wide (ours are!)). I don't regret stopping work (can't quite use the R word yet!). I had a fab day yesterday with a friend - just wandering around a local Village and having coffee and lunch. So great. You won't regret it.

I also love that you are taking the day off tomorrow because you have friends coming for the weekend and you have to clean. This is how I get the housework done. I invite people over then we have to clean and tidy. I sometimes think entertaining is our bridge between hoarding and normality... :rotfl:

Busy_Mee1

Thanks Beanie - I hope you are feeling better.

I think we will have some raised beds Suffolk Lass. It is Mr Mee who has suddenly taken an interest in growing vegetables, he has never shown any interest before and I am actively encouraging it.

Glad "the next phase of your career" is going so well. It is quite incredible the change in my mindset, I have gone from loving work and thinking I would work until I am 60, to now actively planning to retire at 56 :j

Busy_Mee1

The best day of the month and an update on our financials :T

Repayment mortgage. £59,314.57 (we are in the 50's:T)
IO Mortgage. £169,000.00
Total Mortgage. £228,314.57

Savings in month. £1500.00
Total savings. £72,000.00 (the highest ever :T)
Savings offset mortgage to. £156,314.00

I am really pleased that our UUFF has meant that we have maintained our savings rate in February and paid a hefty credit card bill. The repayment mortgage has now dropped into the 50's for the first time ever and our savings are the highest they have ever been. We have finally recouped the money I took out to pay for my car :T

Our holiday savings now looks like this:

£443.27/£3228.23. so I need to be saving around £500 a month towards this over the next 6 months. So just need to save £2k a month, including our normal £1500 a month savings:eek: Living on our pensions will be a breeze after this :rotfl:

try_harder

Wow brilliant numbers you are doing so well plus great times to look forward to , keep it up

Catanddogs

You are doing amazingly Busy Mee!