Getting it together...one £ at a time!

Homegrown0

Thanks @elly68, it has been a long process. The last couple of years have been more focused on the debt and now that it's on the home straight, we're focusing on saving and adding to the debt (this way in a super-controlled manner and with a very specific purpose ) 

teafor2

Hi HG   I bet you're glad you didn't pay the requested contribution towards nursery fees now aren't you  Am I right in thinking children start school in August where you live, which must mean they're nearly at the end of the year anyway? I was thinking today as well as the obvious virus consideration, how many parents have also taken into consideration the expense of having to buy uniform and new shoes for just a few weeks, and decided against it.

Good luck in breaking that £10k savings barrier. It's no mean feat saving that amount of money up - you should be giving yourselves a big pat on the back. xx


 

Homegrown0

teafor2 said:

Hi HG   I bet you're glad you didn't pay the requested contribution towards nursery fees now aren't you  Am I right in thinking children start school in August where you live, which must mean they're nearly at the end of the year anyway? I was thinking today as well as the obvious virus consideration, how many parents have also taken into consideration the expense of having to buy uniform and new shoes for just a few weeks, and decided against it.

Good luck in breaking that £10k savings barrier. It's no mean feat saving that amount of money up - you should be giving yourselves a big pat on the back. xx

Thanks @teafor2 - the savings challenge has been around for a while but it's only really this year that we've seriously ramped it up so I'm really pleased with where we've got to. I think it's important that I keep setting these little goals to avoid getting complacent. This month's goal is a stretch but I know that it's achievable. 

I couldn't be more pleased that I didn't pay that contribution for April! Or the rest of the months for that matter. Yes, the kids start back school on the second week of August so schools should be finishing up here three weeks tomorrow. At the stage we're at in lockdown (still phase one at the moment), the schools would be opening up just in time to close again for the summer holidays. It does feel safer knowing that they won't be back now until August and that I don't need to make that tough choice myself. 

I've also heard rumours that when schools do start back, they won't be asking kids to wear school uniform as they will be required to change their clothes every day (which mine do anyway, but I suppose not all kids need to - messy boys!). That isn't confirmed so i'll just wait for official notification of the details of course. But I had been considering starting to order school clothes but will hold off for now. 

doingitanyway

Your savings are looking very healthy. 
It must be so nice to be able to write 0 next to nursery fees
Funnily with clothes I have 'Corona clothes' now that I wear to the supermarket and put in the machine when I get in. Who would have guessed I would own Corona clothes?
Have a good day.

Homegrown0

Haha, i like that @doingitanyway - sounds like you may become a trend setter with your Corona Clothes. Can't be too careful

It is flipping delightful to write 0 next to nursery fees after paying over £70k to them over the last almost 7 years. I'm too scared to work out the actual real figure...

Today is a grey day outside and a grey day in my head too. I'm feeling very 'meh' which means that my productivity will likely plummet through the floor. I have to make progress on some things that I'm working on though, so I need to put my big girl pants on, get some music in my ears and just get on with it. I'll thank myself later! 

Not much has changed money-wise, husband is being paid today at some point and there's only a couple of small things coming out of the account until 11th, when I should be able to save a big chunk towards this month's savings goal. 

Homegrown0

Friday is here and I'm beyond delighted about that! Any nice plans for the weekend?

We have nothing on, but i'll see what the weather is to be like. I'd quite like to go on a nice, long, head-clearing walk. Maybe take a picnic with us. Somewhere remote that there's no other people of course. 

Husband's pay irritation
My husband's official pay day is a Thursday every week. 90% of the time, he gets paid on the Tuesday before because it's more convenient for the person who pays it. It's not a problem, i don't mind getting it early as long as it's consistent (i.e. don't pay him a different day every week - that's when things get muddled). It only reverts to a Thursday when it suits them, so lately with my husband being on furlough it's been a Thursday. Again, it's no problem because it's been a Thursday every week and it's easy to keep tabs on then and adjust my spreadsheet. 

Today is Friday. His wages still haven't been paid in. How difficult is it to just set a reminder and just do the wages??

Sorry, rant over. I know I've ranted about this MANY TIMES over the years, i just don't get why it's so difficult... 

Money
Not a lot has changed money-wise. We haven't spent a penny since Sunday but I do need to start thinking about my son's birthday so that will incur some spending and I will be doing the weekly shop on Sunday. Trying to keep it reasonable and not go spending an arm and a leg (I've spent an arm and a leg every week for the last 10 weeks, so don't know where I'm hoping to save money from?) haha. 

Anyway, must get on and do one last big push of work before the weekend. Have a great one!

doingitanyway

I know what you mean about grocery shopping bills. But the offers are slowly trickling back so the prices should at least stop going up (I hope)
I hope you had your walk and picnic. Sounds like heaven

Homegrown0

Savings
Morning all! I did today's money reconciliation - husband was paid on time (his boss must've felt me complaining last week haha) and after checking everything over, i transferred my planned amount to the savings account. Total is now at £9,181.34. I'll see how the finances look at the end of the month, but hoping for another big chunk on 29th June to take us to £10k. Fingers crossed we can make it.

Income
As part of my promotion last year, I received a pay rise and agreed that in July (providing I delivered a set of plans) I'd receive a further increase. However, circumstances in the business have meant that I haven't been able to deliver what we agreed yet (although it's in progress - it's through no fault of mine that it hasn't been able to be completed). So, i'm waiting to hear whether the raise will come into effect next month as planned or whether i'll need to wait until the deliverable is complete (likely October/ November). It makes a difference of around £200 per month to me, so it's not insignificant. 

Holiday refund
I've spent some time working on obtaining refunds for our holiday. We booked it on the credit card for the protection and when this all started happening, we decided not to pay it off the CC so that if it was cancelled we wouldn't need to pay to get our own money back into our account. We have agreed full refunds (after a little aggro) with both the transport provider and the accommodation provider. The former has already arrived and the latter should be en-route as we speak. A nice big item ticked off my to-do list. It doesn't take away from the sadness that we won't be getting away to our happy place this year, but I'm happy that we're safe and well. That's all that really matters. 

doingitanyway

All sounding good but missing the countdowns...:)

Homegrown0

You're so right @doingitanyway - can't believe they were missing! To be honest, I don't have much of a countdown going on these days, except for payday. I think i need to set some goals/ milestones/ challenges to rectify this. 

Days until payday: 17
Days until annual leave from work: 14
Nursery payments: 0
Weeks until renovations start: 7/8
Weeks until Christmas: 28 

               

Good things this week:

1. The company that we were due to travel on holiday with at the end of the month agreed to refund us and told us it'd be 10-14 working days. The money has already arrived back into our accounts after just two days. Horrendous customer service but excellent finance department
2. Managed to add £1,000 to the savings account (keeping on track to hit my £10k target by the end of the month)
3. Husband's boss paid him ON TIME this week

Not so good things this week:

1. Motivation and productivity has been at an all time low throughout lockdown. Must do something about this!