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

Homegrown0

Yes, that's exactly our thinking. We are still in our early 30s and while making sure we can retire as soon as possible on a good pension is important, there's so many other things that can affect how we live now that we can tackle. My husband has two pensions (basic) and I have been paying 5% of my salary into a pension for the last 10 years or so. My employer matches to 5% so can't complain there. 

It's always good to hear reassurance that I'm not missing a trick when it comes to these grand plans, so thanks a lot for contributing. It helps me to have confidence in my plans. 

Days until payday: 9

teafor2

Hi HG Excellent news about the wage rise. That's quite a substantial amount of extra money you're going to have every month. Will your company be letting people work from home more in the future and would that appeal to you or do you prefer to be office based? 

Not long until the building works start now is it. I think your boys go back to school earlier than ours, so hopefully that will help. It's hard enough having work done in the house without having little people to think about as well. 

I'm afraid I get brain freeze when it comes to pensions and savings vs. over payments etc. but I've no doubt whatever you decide to do you'll make the right call  xx

Homegrown0

Lovely to hear from you, @teafor2! Hope you're well?

My company is very flexible with working arrangements anyway, so before the office closed I worked from home most of the time anyway, going to the office once per week roughly. I'm hiring in the near future so if that person is hired locally to me, I will likely be in the office a bit more. I have an office setup at home so am equipped to work from home permanently but sometimes it's nice to have the interaction with colleagues. 

The building work starts at the 'beginning of August' which is less than two weeks from now. We haven't heard anything since he said that so we haven't pinned down an exact date. We'll expect to hear from the builder soon with a date in mind. It depends how soon he wraps up all the work that he had to abandon when lockdown was announced, I suppose. Ours is first on the list to start, so unless something comes along to change that, it shouldn't be long. 

My husband is sorting out the conservatory contents right now (it's being demolished to be replaced with an extension) as it's effectively our kids' playroom right now. He may as well get enough done, cleared out and organized so if we get the call that the builder is starting on Monday, then it won't be a crazy rush around to get ready. 

I'm glad I'm not the only one who struggles to get to grips with mortgage and pensions. Don't get me wrong, I get the basics but I'm just not numerically minded so anything to do with tax, apr, interest etc. gets me muddled usually. Once we are nearing the end of the renovations debt and close to paying it off, i think i'll start spending some time on the MFW and pensions boards just to educate myself a bit. One thing at a time!

Finally managed to finish school uniform shopping today - just need to pick the rest up on Saturday (click and collect - I've spent enough on postage and returns to last me a lifetime!). The only things I need to buy now are oldest's schoolbag and lunchboxes for both. 

Days until pay day: 8

teafor2

Evening HG We're all good thank you. Slowly getting to grips with the new normal although I must admit apart from the obvious tragedy of it all for people who've lost loved ones and jobs etc. I can honestly say I've enjoyed the slower pace of life over the past few weeks. 

I knew you worked from home but didn't realise you did that more than being in the office. I think it has it's pros and cons doesn't it but it's good you can go into the office for some human interaction when you feel the need  

I'm looking forward to hearing how your building works progress. I know it's been a long time coming for you so I hope it all goes well, which I'm sure it will. xx

kindofagilr

Homegrown0 said:

Just nattering away to myself here. 

Grocery win
Managed to get this week's groceries for a lot less than I have been spending in recent weeks. My groceries were up around £200+ per week since lockdown (haven't yet pinpointed why...) but this weekend I spend £117 in Ald1 and £23 in M*rrisons which is a big improvement. I know our weekly shop could be much lower but we're all at home at the moment, all eating food all day and we're eating well (high protein and good fats, lots of greens and low carb). This means I'm forking out on steaks, salmon, chicken, prawns and everything for four, as I refuse to make multiple dinners for me, husband and kids. But it is bloomin' expensive!

Well done, I am struggling with the shopping tbh, its like all the shops have decided to take away all offers etc! we used to spend £85 a week ish for the four of us, the cat and hamster, and now it's about £140 a week xx

Homegrown0

@kindofagilr i'm sorry you're facing the same mammoth grocery costs as us, but it is comforting to know it's not just all in my head, or that I'm blocking our some frivolous overspending. I'm meal planning this afternoon for the week ahead so ill see how we go with that. I do 90% of my shopping in Aldi so I know that like-for-like I can't get my shopping any cheaper unless i start compromising on what I actually buy (less meat or cheaper vegetables) but in doing that I'm compromising our health goals. Maybe I just need to be at peace with the new spend and just budget around it? Otherwise, i've been considering exploring some veggie recipes to reduce our meat consumption but we are a family of meat lovers (myself excluded - i enjoy it but could happily eat without meat) so it'd need to be filling and enjoyable for us all or else it's pointless. 

Money
Not a lot to report on the money front - we've eaten into a bit of our savings this month to outlay for a tent, some walking boots for us all and some other camping equipment that we've been saying for years we'll invest in. A worthwhile investment indeed but I always have that niggly "that could've gone into the savings" feeling. Husband also had to invest in a new piece of equipment for his work (it's his responsibility to supply his own) so that was another £400 hit... we have the money there for all of these things, which is good but still just a little annoying knowing that it slows down the savings. In saying that, it's good that I'm questioning these things and not just happily spending savings. I'm sure that shows true money attitude growth or something like that...


House
Still not heard anything from the builder about our extension starting. He said early August and given that August starts later this week, I'm not holding out much hope that it's imminent. To be honest, if he told us it'd likely be September before he can start, i'd be ok with that, but the not knowing is killing me. It sounds ridiculous but I just like to know things so that I can plan.


Other
On the home straight to pay day now, which is on Thursday and a new month will begin financially. Kids are returning to school in 3 weeks, so we will have some organising around that. Need them to try on all of their uniforms so i can then label it all and get it ready. Just one school bag, two pencil cases and two lunchboxes to buy (I'm waiting on payday to buy them, because the kids have chosen ones from a particularly expensive shop. Normally I'd tell them it's excessive and would look elsewhere, but eldest has still been using the same pencil case and lunch box that he got in P1 (he's in P4 now) and it's youngest first year at school, so i don't mind them picking something they really would like, knowing it'll last them a few years). 

Two people in my close family are facing redundancy, which is a scary thing for both. It serves as a reminder to us all that things are likely to be precarious for some time ahead and that we should all be preparing for a potentially difficult few years economically. It could be any of us really. Food for thought. 


Days until payday: 3

teafor2

Morning HG Just jumping on the 'how much!' bandwaggon re. shopping. Mine has also rocketed. At first it was because I stocked up on a few bits when I saw them just in case they weren't there the week after, but that stopped a while ago but the cost doesn't seem to have changed. Mind you, we've also have DD home from Uni, but even so. 

Spending on a tent and camping equipment is a good investment if you know you're going to get your monies worth out of it, especially the way holidays abroad are going at the moment. Same for your OH's equipment, that's definitely going to pay for itself in no time at all from what I've read about all the extra work he does  

Sorry to hear about the possibility of family redundancies. It's a scary time and you're right, it really could happen to anybody. I'm of the thinking it's going to get a lot worse for people but really hope I'm proved wrong. 

Have a lovely day and hope you hear from your builder soon. I'm very easy going as long as I know what's happening, but like you, it's the not knowing that drives me crazy. xx

Homegrown0

@teafor2, sorry you're also falling into the supermarket money pit along with the rest of us. We have run down loads of stocks in the freezer and cupboards too which just shows how much things are costing. We're buying a lot of fresh fruit, veg, meat, seafood etc, so I might explore trying our some frozen elements. I'm thinking fish is probably a decent thing to start with. Currently buying 6 salmon fillets per week (£10.50), last week i spent £10.74 on king prawns (2 meals), £10.27 on 5% fat mince (two meals) and £7.78 on chicken thighs (we prefer them to breast). That's just short of £40 on meat. And we have a lot of fresh greenery/ veg to accompany which varies in price. 

When I look at my last Aldi receipt and break down the spend, I spent: 

£90.68 on meal ingredients 
£2.34 on cleaning supplies
£10.84 on fruit (and we already had a half full fruit bowl) 
£10.63 on snacks (yoghurts, chocolate etc)

This shows me that it's not a lot of extras that drive up the price... hmm... stuff to think about! 

Now just waiting on pay day arriving to get August on the road. I also need to check my payslip when it comes in to see what my new salary reflects in take home pay. I have run it through a calculator with higher pension contributions and have estimated in my budget forecast but need to confirm it to finalize the budget. Sometimes I'm paid before I even get my payslip so will just need to keep an eye on it. 

In case you haven't realised by now, I'm impatient and want all the information now! 

Days until pay day: 2

Homegrown0

Supermarket sweep
Well, just spent a not insignificant £207 in the supermarket yesterday. I know why it was so high - I bought extra meat to bulk cook one of our meals for this week, which should leave us with another two full dinners, plus I splashed out on a large multipack of loo roll, a couple of laundry products that were required, some toiletries and many, many store cupboard things that we had run down to nothing. We generally have 3-4 cereals to choose from and just replace as they run out, but yesterday there wasn't a scrap in my cupboards. 

At least we're stocked up and it should just be groceries for most of August. 

This week's grocery test - we are having prawns with two lunches and one dinner this week so instead of spending £14 on the fresh ones I'd normally get, i went half and half with fresh and frozen ones, spending £8.04 instead and there should be some freezer ones left for future. Likewise, i needed 6 cod fillets - fresh would've cost me £8.07 (£1.35 per fillet) from @ldi but I bought two packs of frozen cod (8 fillets in total) for £5.38 (£0.67 per fillet). Let's see how these substitutes seem to work for us!

It's small things like this that I think will make a positive difference to our supermarket spends. It's not going to be groundbreaking stuff, but I feel like keeping an eye on things and making even small changes will stop it from running completely out of control! 

Anyway, I will stop gassing about supermarket spending... 

Money
Still no payslip, so looks like I won't be getting it until tomorrow which is a little irritating. I'll probably see the wages in my bank before the payslip is live. Nevermind. 

All of the remaining DDs for the month have come out of the account, and I just reviewed. Everything is as it should be thankfully. 

Husband burst his work trousers yesterday (they're on the road out anyway as they're really worn and he has also lost a lot of weight) so we'll be forking out on a new pair of them this week. They're not cheap, but they do wear really well given the work that he does. He has tried buying cheaper pairs but he just buys them much more often so we're better off with the hard wearing ones. I'll keep my eyes peeled for a discount code. 

Husband was also paid for some more work that he completed quite a while ago and so the money that we added to the savings pot almost covers the money that we spent on the work equipment and camping gear. So that's a nice win. He still has a couple more outstanding payments so we'll see if/ when they come in. 

Despite not potting any funds in my sealed pot for MONTHS (can't remember when I last used cash), I cleared out my purse and husband's coin tray this week and added £11 to the pot, followed by £1 this morning that I found in my handbag. It's not as heavy as it'd normally be by this time of the year, but I think i can give it a break considering what strange times we've been living through. Not sure what I'm saving this money towards, will have a think. I always find it more motivating (and easy to remember to continue potting) if i have a goal for the money. I think last year I used it for some fun Christmas activities with the kids but not sure what will be on this year, if anything. Will think on. 

Hope you're all having a lovely day! 

Days until payday: 1

teafor2

Hi HG I know everybody has their own preference and we don't eat a lot of fish, but I tend to buy frozen because I'm sucked into believing the ads that tell me it's fresher than fresh I bought a bag of king prawns from Iceland a couple of weeks ago and they were absolutely delicious. 

We always have a choice of cereal as well and tend to go for Mr T brand but it's only recently I've managed to get some delivery spots so we've had to buy the well known brands instead. Not only are they expensive but we find them overly sweet, no matter which we choose. 

I usually have a 'Christmas activity pot' and already had something in mind before lock down but I'm not bothering to book anything this year. If the DC's want to do it and I can book it there and then that's fine, but I'm not keen on booking anything in advance. We've already had a birthday experience and a theatre trip cancelled and although we got the money back without any problems it seems pointless booking anything else at the moment. 

Good news that your husband has been paid and you're pretty much back where you started. Did you hear anything from the builder yet? xx