The Piano Diary

savingholmes

I sympathise on the pension decision. I am thinking of moving my Av*** pension as that it having huge fluctuations where my so called higher risk equities investment in my AVCs isn't.

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,

I have received a message from my energy provider about the recent changes to the energy cap etc. To be honest I am not really keeping up on all the detail but the upshot is my direct debit has reduced by £20. Not sure I understand this but hey I’m not going to complain. The DD was £380 and has gone down to £360, still a lot of money.

On the pension front, my second DC fund provider have finally contacted me with the relevant forms after I contacted them through different channels. I have filled in the form and sent it to them so hopefully this will transfer across soon and I will have these two funds in the same place.

Putting aside the politics of it, I have been absorbing the changes to pensions in the budget, in particular the increase to the annual tax free allowance. I prioritised clearing the mortgage for some time and since it was cleared I have been focusing on increasing pension contributions. The increase from £40k to £60k opens up an opportunity to save more into the pension without paying tax. I am currently saving around £40k per year so this means I could save another £20k. I can’t get anything like this return from any other savings approach. Given I am aiming to be financially independent in the next 2-3 years this feels like a no brainer ie increase contributions to £60k. This pretty much means saving all my salary. This would mean potentially reaching my target in 2 years instead of 3. We can live on OH’s salary plus a bit of money I earn from a side gig. I’m not sure if I am missing something but this is how it seems to me. So I discussed this with OH and this is what we are going to do, so I have made the change online. This reminds me of how I felt when I increased the OP on the mortgage and committed to it. It makes it real and then you make the changes you need to make. I think it will make us more focused on being sensible which is no bad thing.

I realise how fortunate we are to be able to do this, at the moment with the cost of living crisis etc.

DS is working really hard at the moment. We have organised for him to spend a couple of nights at a pub hotel in the country with his GF so hopefully he will enjoy it.

 

savingholmes

Well done you. Sounds amazing.

glass_half_full

Thanks @savingholmes!

Dear diary and all,

If we are going to live on OH’s salary then we are going to have to renew some of our MSE ways. Since paying off the mortgage we have become a bit lax with the purse strings. I still log everything on YNAB so I know where the money is going, but have been more relaxed with the budget.

I have decided to start by reviewing my subscriptions. These are subs rather than direct debits. These have really proliferated since so many services have gone to a pay as you use type model. I tend to lose track of what I have got. I have gone through them all and cancelled a few of them. There are some that I am keeping under review for now but having a think. Some of them represent good value to me. May cancel more in round 2. There are some others which I have not added because they are pretty much fixed so can’t be reduced (Union fees, professional subs etc).

Cancelled / reduced subs
Sub	Was	is	Saving/month
Audible	9.99 / month	0	9.99
Filmora	17.99/year	0	1.50
Ordnance Survey Maps	28.99/year	0	2.40
Microsoft	7.99/month	79.99 /year	1.32 moved from pay monthly to annual. This is for both me and OH for our home PCs.
Britbox	5.99	0	5.99
Playstation plus	10.99	0	10.99
		Total	£32.19
Other subs		Monthly cost	Why keep?
Calm	£28.99 / year	£2.41	Use it every day for meditation. Helps with mental health. Could I do without it but keep the habit going.
Spotify	£9.99/month	£9.99	Not sure I use this enough to justify
Strava	£54.99 / year	£4.58	Plan running routes and follow them at least once a week. Could I go back to the free version.
Training peaks	Quarter $58.80 move to Annual $125 (US app)	£8.50	Very good app for planning running training. Luxury?
Adobe	£19.97	£19.97	Quite expensive but very useful for work and employer doesn’t provide it.
Netflix	£10.99	£10.99	We watch this a lot so is probably worth it
Economist	12 weeks £75	£25	Quite expensive. Useful for work, like having the print edition, is a bit of a luxury.
Amazon prime	£8.99	£8.99	Get this back in delivery charges and is convenient for next day delivery from time to time.
YNAB	£84 / year	£7	Pays for itself, excellent budgeting tool.
	Total	£97.43

 

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,

Just writing down some ideas here, it helps me to order my thoughts, and figure things out. Have made a bit more progress on reducing the subscriptions. Had a slightly bizarre online conversation with either an AI chatbot or a real person can’t be sure which, at the magazine mentioned above. Upshot of which I was offered an annual membership from now for another £44. Not quite sure how this happened by I decided to accept the offer so the going forward cost is £3.66 per month as opposed to £25 so quite a saving. Then I checked the functionality of the Adobe sub and realised I could move to a cheaper version costing £13 instead of £20 so another saving totalling around £28 across the two. I’m working my way through the subs one at a time to see what I can do. It all takes time to figure it out. This is why I think that they increase over time because we are too busy to keep a close eye on it all.

I have also done a full SOA to see how we can live on OH’s salary and my side gig income. Looks like it may be doable just. This is a first pass attempt. I have used the budget items from YNAB. Will revisit and refine. Holidays and related costs are coming out of savings rather than ongoing income. So we have paid for our summer holiday out of our savings.

One big cost is groceries which are running at £700 per month which is about £160 per week. The prices of everything have really gone up so we will be looking at this area to see if we can find savings. I have a weekly piano lesson which costs me £20. This is something I intend to keep doing. The next big item is the money we currently give to DS. I know opinions on this are different and maybe a bit polarised ie you shouldn’t support/should support your kids etc. For various reasons we have decided to help DS and his GF to establish themselves independently but at the moment with the best will in the world they couldn’t afford to do this without our support. I have explained to DS that this is not forever and that we are going to have to reduce/eliminate this in due course. He is doing well building up his income and feel positive that this will come to an end at some point.

Transport costs are reasonably under control I think. We have one car. OH gives me a lift to the station (she needs it to get to work) and I get the train. Since the pandemic I don’t pay for a monthly train pass because I am going in less and more sporadically so it works out cheaper to buy individual tickets. I sometimes need to get the bus or walk if our diaries don’t allow OH to drop me off or collect me. But I figure a bit of inconvenience to me is worth it to save £hundreds per month on a second car. Now and then we will get the odd Uber, again cheaper overall. Our car is nearly 10 years old (75,000 miles), zero tax, hybrid so uses not much petrol and has been so far (touch wood) very reliable indeed. It costs around £350 per year to insure (paid annually). Otherwise there are very few ongoing costs associated with it. Petrol is about £60 per month.

I have a target of April 2025 to be in a position to walk away from work if we want to. Doesn’t mean that we will but that we could. Having a concrete date is really helping to focus the mind, just like it did with the mortgage.

Detailed SOA

[font=courier new][b]Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet[/b][b]

Household Information[/b]

Number of adults in household........... 2

Number of children in household......... 0

Number of cars owned.................... 1[b]

Monthly Income Details[/b]

Monthly income after tax................ 280

Partners monthly income after tax....... 2730

Benefits................................ 0

Other income............................ 0[b]

Total monthly income.................... 3010[/b][b]

Monthly Expense Details[/b]

Mortgage................................ 0

Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0

Rent.................................... 0

Management charge (leasehold property).. 0

Council tax............................. 296

Electricity............................. 110

Gas..................................... 250

Oil..................................... 0

Water rates............................. 44

Telephone (land line)................... 0

Mobile phone............................ 40

TV Licence.............................. 13.37

Satellite/Cable TV...................... 33

Internet Services....................... 35

Groceries etc. ......................... 700

Clothing................................ 150

Petrol/diesel........................... 60

Road tax................................ 0

Car Insurance........................... 30

Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 50

Car parking............................. 0

Other travel............................ 50

Childcare/nursery....................... 0

Other child related expenses............ 0

Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 55

Pet insurance/vet bills................. 10

Buildings insurance..................... 10

Contents insurance...................... 10

Life assurance ......................... 0

Other insurance......................... 0

Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 50

Haircuts................................ 80

Entertainment........................... 100

Holiday................................. 0

Emergency fund.......................... 0

YNAB.................................... 7

Amazon prime............................ 8.99

Training Peaks.......................... 8.5

Calm ................................... 2.41

Beauty.................................. 60

YNAB.................................... 7

Cash.................................... 100

Strava.................................. 6.99

Son support............................. 400

Spotify ................................ 9.99

Netflix................................. 10.99

Microsoft............................... 6.66

Economist............................... 3.6

Piano................................... 80

Labour ................................. 8

Adobe................................... 13

Church.................................. 50

League / RSPB........................... 8

Gym..................................... 40[b]

Total monthly expenses.................. 3007.5[/b]

[b]

Assets[/b]

Cash.................................... 7250

House value (Gross)..................... 600000

Shares and bonds........................ 17250

Car(s).................................. 8000

Other assets............................ 0[b]

Total Assets............................ 632500[/b]

[b]

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts[/b]

[b]Unsecured Debts[/b]

Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR[b]

Total unsecured debts..........0.........0.........-  [/b]

[b]

Monthly Budget Summary[/b]

Total monthly income.................... 3,010

Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,007.5

Available for debt repayments........... 2.5

Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0[b]

Amount left after debt repayments....... 2.5[/b]

[b]Personal Balance Sheet Summary[/b]

Total assets (things you own)........... 632,500

Total HP & Secured debt................. -0

Total Unsecured debt.................... -0[b]

Net Assets.............................. 632,500[/b]

[i]Created using the SOA calculator at www.stoozing.com. 

Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.[/i][/font]

South_coast

Looks like your plans are coming together, good that you've still allowed yourselves some discretionary items, as that leaves options for further trimming should you find things are a bit tight. Hopefully you'll be able to find some savings in the grocery bill too. 

P.S. You've counted YNAB twice, so you're already £7 better off than you thought 😀!

savingholmes

Groceries looks likely to be your biggest saving opportunity. What's worked for you in the past in tackling that?

glass_half_full

South_coast said:

Looks like your plans are coming together, good that you've still allowed yourselves some discretionary items, as that leaves options for further trimming should you find things are a bit tight. Hopefully you'll be able to find some savings in the grocery bill too. 

P.S. You've counted YNAB twice, so you're already £7 better off than you thought 😀!

Hi @South_coast. Yes, I think allowing a bit of wiggle room is important, I know in the past that too much austerity can cause us to fall off the wagon. Not sure I have quite got it right yet so may see how the next month or so goes. Thanks for the YNAB spot, you have an eye for detail!

glass_half_full

savingholmes said:

Groceries looks likely to be your biggest saving opportunity. What's worked for you in the past in tackling that?

Hi @savingholmes. We shop at S*insbury for a weekly main shop (usually online). One of the main areas I think we could save is we use the local C**p to top up and I know that that is expensive. I think we could do a better job of meal planning and moving from brands to lower cost options. I am not happy with our level of food waste, I think we could do better. I need to go back and revisit some of the good habits from before. Some of the options to save money take a bit more time eg shopping locally for fruit and veg rather than paying supermarket prices. I am going to really focus on this and see what we can do. Maybe revisit some of the MSE forums to get ideas.

glass_half_full

Dear diary and all,

Apparently there is an old saying ‘We plan, God laughs.’ Unfortunately, over the weekend DS had a car accident. Luckily he is ok. He was on a roundabout and another car joined without giving way, so there was a collision. Both drivers were ok which is good. DS’s car was not driveable after the accident and it has been taken to a garage. Not sure if it is repairable, we will see. Need to see how this plays out and what needs to happen regarding repairs, replacement vehicle and the consequent impact on the cost of insurance etc. Don’t want to prejudge this yet in terms of if or to what extent we will help out with all this. It will depend on how it unfolds.

On a more mundane front, I continue the review of spending and looking for savings. I had forgotten that there is a S*insbury Nectar credit card that gives you 8,000 points if you spend £400 or more in the 2 months following taking it out. We will spend more than that on groceries so I applied for one over the weekend. It will also give points while you spend although its not a lot, but it all helps. We can use this to pay for the groceries each week.

Did a detailed meal plan for this week and the online shop yesterday. Spent £142 which is a lot and doesn’t include any meat or alcohol. Could probably shave a bit more off by trading down branded items here and there.

Other big direct debits have gone out today at the increased rates ie council tax, energy and water.

Four more days and then we are off for a week, we really need this break.