Busy Mee's Last Leg

savingholmes

Great goal setting. Good to be earning more income as you come up towards retirement too. Had to laugh at the image of face mask and marigolds in the great outdoors.

Suffolk_lass

Busy_Mee said:

I have been rethinking my targets ( yes I know I said I wasn't going to  ), and I am going to commit to chipping £1k a month off our interest free mortgage. A couple of things are contributing to this change of heart, firstly my temporary promotion looks set to continue until the end of the year and secondly our much reduced spending in the current lockdown environment.  My TP gives me an extra £300 a month and we are literally only spending on food and stuff for the garden at the moment. I can obviously review this as things change, but I want to make the most of not being able to spend at the moment. This means more money in the forever savings pot, so that when I do retire we will be able to do more. It looks like I will be working for another year, so I can benefit from the higher salary for my pension, but to be honest that suits me at the moment. 

I also want to introduce another target, which is to increase our ring fenced savings to £215k. We started off with £210k and will add interest through the year, but I want to be able to "tidy" it up to £215k by the year end.  

All of this will put a bit more tension on the finances but I want to stop money just leaking away, which I can feel it doing a bit at the moment. To this end, I am going to get a grip of the grocery spending again, we have been spending far too much. This has been to keep us well stocked during the crisis but there have also been lots of treats. We have managed this week to only go shopping once, there has been no weekend top up and I want to maintain this once and done approach now.

Ooh yes, Get a grip, woman!  (I've waited ages to say that to someone else! - I used to say it to myself, hence my diary title, haha)

LadyGnome

The new goals sound good. 

I was hanging out cloth face masks on the washing line the other day. It felt slightly surreal. Your couple with the marigolds sound like something from Dali or Monty Python. 

Suffolk_lass

There have been some hilarious home-made protection pictures on social media. My favourite was the couple in full Hazmat suits and the Aldi carrier bag

Busy_Mee

It's a grey and drizzly day here today, so just generally pottering. I have been feeling a bit meh this week....I've run out of lockdown steam. I've done all the positive and productive things and tried to invent events to relieve  the boredom. But feel as if I am all out of energy and enthusiasm now.

I gave myself a good talking to yesterday went for a long dog walk with DD and then produced a Mexican night that turned in to quite good fun (maybe something to do with the bottle of Sicilian lemon gin that found its way into my trolley yesterday 

I haven't got too much financial stuff to report. I've failed this week with once and done shopping and  did a second top up shop yesterday for the Mexican stuff ( and the gin). I have also spent some bits and pieces on the garden, £25 in the local garden centre and £22.50 on a new rose from David Austin (Queen of Sweden for anyone interested).  It really is the mid month financial wastelands. I am looking forward to getting paid next Friday, so I can do some shuffling  

Today I am cleaning the oven  and pricking out seedlings. The packet of stock seeds I found in the drawer, best before 2016 have all grown and so close together, they look like cress and now I have the fiddly job of pricking them out. The dining room table is now covered with trays of seedlings.

The weather is supposed to get much better from tomorrow, so have a good week everyone.

Suffolk_lass

Ooh I like the rose - lovely colour. As I was googling it a set of coasters with a picture of the rose popped up on screen. I believe you can use your own pictures to get place-mats and coasters made up - maybe something to consider for your new outside tiled patio? - Another variation on outside in...

Have a good week

shangaijimmy

I'm with you on the lockdown steam petering out. I barely watch tv so occupying time watching something just doesn't work for me either. 

Busy_Mee

Good morning everyone. Not much to report this week....groundhog week again. Work, cooking, gardening and repeat....but at least the weather have been amazing. 

I had a very exciting trip to B&Q yesterday, there was no queue and it felt all very ordered and safe inside. I had a nice mooch around the gardening bit and bought a couple of plants. It comes to something when a trip to B&Q is the excitement of my week 

I spent yesterday pricking out and potting seedlings. I have approximately a zillion stock seedlings and they are really fiddly to pick out. I have run out of trays and pots again, so will need to wait until I get some more. I have cleared a couple of bits of the borders and am hoping to start a cutting garden. I just love picking flowers from the garden 

A builder came on Friday to price up tiling the deck and another few jobs. He comes highly recommended and seems OK. He won't be able to start for 10-12 weeks, but we are not particularly in a rush. I am off work on a Monday, so we are going to look at some tiles. DD has a friend whose Dad has a tiling shop which is open.

Nothing much financial to report. I am still waiting for a refund on some Emirates flights and cancelled our holiday for early September to the US and Canada. The holiday company have given us a voucher for the deposit back, I now just need to wait and see what happens with the flights ( booked separately with BA and Avios points). I am hoping they cancel but have a feeling they won't.

I was paid on Friday, but I haven't finishing my month end accounts because I am expected some ISA interest on the Coventry BS account on 31 May. Hopefully that will be visible tomorrow and I can pop back with my May update.

I am off out for a walk with the pup now before it gets too warm. Hope you all have a good day in the sunshine x

Thick_n_Thin

Love the idea of a cutting garden. This might be another one of your ideas that I steal 😁

Busy_Mee

It really appeals to me too Thick_n_Thin but I can't claim it as my idea. There are lots of great examples on Instagram.

Anyway on to my May 2920 update:
Repayment Mortgage.            £45,370.86
Interest Only Mortgage.        £164,000.00

Total Mortgage.                     £209,370.86

Ring fenced savings.            £211,600.00

Savings offset                      +£2,229.14.  Forever Savings

Mortgage decreased by:        £1,951.28
Savings increased by:             £200.00

Principality BS.                      £875.00 (this is a regular saver @2.75% a month)
Odds & sods.                        £288.62

Chipped off mortgage.          £500.00
Total                                       £1663.62
 Saved this month.                 £142.54
          
The Coventry BS ISA interest (£109)  arrived this morning, but the M&S regular saver interest hasn't dropped in yet. 

I am really pleased with May totals, but this has been obviously helped by lockdown and not venturing too far, our petrol costs are the biggest saving. 

I am really pleased with the Odds and Sods totals too. I have basically saved over £1600 since Christmas by saving all my Tilly Tidies, TCB, rewards and any other small wins. This is funding the Principality saver at £125 per month with some excess left over. Every time I reach £625 (£125 +£500) I will chip an extra £500 off the Mortgage. When the regular saver matures at Christmas (£1500 + interest)  this will added to the ring fenced savings. I am aiming to grow the ring fenced savings to £215k by Christmas. 

Complicated moi ?   Anyone else have a whole set of ridiculous rules about where they save their money or is it just me 

In other news the weather is still amazing. I have made homemade pizzas tonight using sourdough dough and they were a real hit. Back to work tomorrow.....work is really starting to intrude on my home life now

 I have been thinking about retirement again and it could be any time after 1 January 2121 to take advantage of my best final year salary. A year today would be good. I will be another year older at 57 (April Birthday) which reduces my actuarial reduction of my pension to 15%, I will have completed 40 years in early May and will have taken advantage of all the bank holidays through April and May. Not over thinking this at all