The Piano Diary

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,
Up early this morning. Had an early night last night and feel so much better for it. Will keep this going! OH had to work quite a lot at the weekend so I did the weekly shop. I also did some cleaning. I’m trying to reduce our waste to landfill and use of plastic so trying a few ideas to cut down in this area. Trying out some more eco cleaning ideas as well. Did a park run on Saturday and a cross country run yesterday, training towards a 10K at the end of March.
All reasonably ok on the money/budget front. A couple of hiccups, one being the switch of the broadband/phone. Everything works fine but I forgot we were on some deal for local calls with our previous provider and then we lost this when we switched, so the land line bill is high. Annoying because we could have made those calls on mobiles for free! Oh well, this is the sort of thing that happens when you switch so I’m not too worried, the savings are there overall for sure. We have booked our summer holiday in August so needed to pay the deposit for that with the balance being due in August. Otherwise all is on plan and the mortgage goes out tomorrow so another marble is going to transferred across to the other jar! We get paid in about a week’s time, so will then top up the P*ffice account to £1200. Then in Feb, Mar and April, will use extra money to pay off the car loan.
Have a great day all!

savingholmes

Love the marble transfer. Glad things are going well. Boo to the extra unplanned cost - but at least you know now.

glass_half_full

savingholmes wrote: »

Love the marble transfer. Glad things are going well. Boo to the extra unplanned cost - but at least you know now.

Hi Savingholmes,
Yes, I pinched that idea from the Frugal Fairy. Its nice to have a visual reminder to keep motivated! Mortgage is down to £63K and I’m really looking forward to breaking into the £50 Ks!

glass_half_full

Dear Diary and all,
We have both been paid so that’s good! January has been more spendy than I would have liked. Nothing particular, but lots of little overspends here and there. I have a category on YNAB I call ‘Stuff I forgot to budget for’ and this month that has been £70. Not even sure what that was. I think it may have been some of the eco ideas I have had such as bulk buying 10 litres of hand soap so I can refill rather than keep buying plastic dispensers. I have to confess also that there have been a few ‘pick me up’ mini spends which is not very MSE ! Overall though, should be able to transfer £200 to the P*ffice savings account taking it up to £1060. Still aiming to get this up to £1200 as a pot we can go to for mini treats etc without affecting the main budget.
Still on track to pay off the car loan by end of April. I’m going abroad for a few days leaving tomorrow. This is to do with my side gig and if the trip goes well I should be able to line up two further days which will pay some extra money. I don’t enjoy travelling away so much these days to be honest, but the extra money really helps and so I need to remember that. If I get this extra work then it will help me hit the OP target on the mortgage! We have booked our summer holiday, this has given us something to focus on during these cold winter days!
Have a great day all!

savingholmes

Sounds like you are doing well overall. Having a summer holiday to look forward to is also positive.

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,
Its been a busy week, travelled abroad last Sunday and spent the week away returning Thursday pm. It was a good trip and it looks like I have at least one extra paid day in February. Yesterday OH and I were both tired so we went down the road to our favourite curry restaurant for a meal. Haven’t done that for months but really enjoyed it with a take in bottle of red wine. I have to work this weekend, but I have a race tomorrow morning which I’m looking forward to.
On the money front, January was more spendy than I planned for and savings have been lower. Nonetheless, still managed the £250 overpayment on the mortgage. The budget looks better for March and April and my regular saver matures in March. Managed to come in at £480 on the groceries so under the £500 target. I think at the moment, sticking broadly to the budget is how I am defining success.
Have a great day all!

savingholmes

Hope the race goes well. Your date night sounded fun too.

I think only you can define success for your money journey. It is never going to be a straight line.

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,

Its blustery outside but I understand that the main storm has not yet arrived. Winds are due to get stronger. DS came home yesterday for a visit, it’s lovely to see him. We are battening down the hatches and staying in today. I think he won’t be travelling back until Monday. I have some work to do so I’m up early to get some done so I can spend time with him when he surfaces later.

Last night we had a takeaway, it was nice. On the money front seem to be managing ok due to it being a short month and plus we have a Council Tax holiday. We did an online shop yesterday and took advantage of a £18 voucher. That will be delivered today

According to my calculations, the car loan will be paid off on April 10th. This will be a muted celebration since I declared debt freedom some time ago so really shouldn’t have taken out another loan. Anyway, it will be a nice feeling. The car only has 50,000 miles on the clock so I will be expecting it to last a good long time. The last one was retired at 150,000 so at that rate we will get at least 10 more years out of this one! OH is going on a girls’ weekend abroad at the end of the month. We bought the flight last year. The hotel will come out of the P*ffice money.

Keep safe out there!

savingholmes

Celebrate freedom from car debt when it comes. You had an EF that could have cleared it - you just chose not to. Yay to an £18 voucher code - awesome! I too love the 10 month CT thing - although sadly we need to put ours towards debt repayment still. 

Enjoy your time with DS. My DS is home for the weekend too - he's not due to go back until tomorrow night. It's hammering down with rain outside and blowing sideways so looks unpleasant for anyone out in it. Really grateful that we bought DH a car (£750) in October. It's still going strong - it only had about 55k on the clock despite being an 06 plate. Slightly nervous that we haven't yet sorted breakdown insurance. We were planning to get a packaged bank account that included it but never quite sorted the paperwork! It's been over 4 months! Oops!

glass_half_full

savingholmes said:

Celebrate freedom from car debt when it comes. You had an EF that could have cleared it - you just chose not to. Yay to an £18 voucher code - awesome! I too love the 10 month CT thing - although sadly we need to put ours towards debt repayment still. 

Enjoy your time with DS. My DS is home for the weekend too - he's not due to go back until tomorrow night. It's hammering down with rain outside and blowing sideways so looks unpleasant for anyone out in it. Really grateful that we bought DH a car (£750) in October. It's still going strong - it only had about 55k on the clock despite being an 06 plate. Slightly nervous that we haven't yet sorted breakdown insurance. We were planning to get a packaged bank account that included it but never quite sorted the paperwork! It's been over 4 months! Oops!

Hi Savingholmes,
Thanks for swinging by! You did well with that car to get a runner under £1000 with such low mileage.