Hazelnutty's New Start

Hazelnutty

Hello from Scotland! The journey was really smooth and we all let out a sigh of relief as we crossed the border! Mum's place is in the middle of nowhere so it's a great place to relax and recover. Did a short walk yesterday and got very delayed by all the wild raspberries on the way down (so small and sweet ) I almost never get to read for pleasure so that's been another treat for me. I picked 'H is for Hawk' off my Mum's bookshelves and have been utterly immersed in it since!

CC cuts off today and I'm pretty confident that it's not gone over £500 This adds £175 into the budget for next month! I'm going to rejig the spreadsheet, which is really satisfying Managed to get hold of the builder and luckily he said the costings were absolutely worst case scenario and he's still confident he can hit the original budget. I did emphasise that we need to keep talking so there aren't any nasty surprises. If we go over on the garden room it'll have a major impact on the downstairs remodelling so just can't afford to let budgets slip.

Hazelnutty

Update: Mum's OH has turned the wild raspberries in their garden into homemade ice-cream - I'm counting the minutes 'til tea time! Also had another £40 Quico cashback confirmed To be honest, the best thing about today was an informal Zoom graduation for our students. It was lovely to see them (in a range of homemade mortar boards and other fancy hats - I borrowed one of my mum's fascinators) and give congratulatory messages - they've done brilliantly in truly terrible conditions and it was all a bit emotional. I was giving the citations for two prizes, which is a lovely task. All the staff shared pictures from our own graduations and laughed at dodgy perms etc. The students will get a proper graduation later but this was really good fun. I had a great group of dissertation students and I'll miss them!

Karmacat

What a great pair of posts, Hazelnutty, all of it sounds brilliant.  Carry on, holidaymaker!

Hazelnutty

Yay! CC cut off at £498. I can't even remember the last time I was under budget. I clear any purchases that come out of my virtual pots immediately (I know I could do it at the end of the month but psychologically I find it easier just to log on to the app and transfer the money so I know where I am). During lockdown, the food budget just went out of the window with weekly G0usto boxes and ridiculous big shops full of treats but I'm now getting some control back  

I've just rejigged the spreadsheet and will be sending:
*£1000 to the virtual pots, including £250 which'll go into my regular saver on 1st August (normally I'd have to transfer this from an online savings account so to have it 'spare' is brilliant') I have 15 (!) virtual pots - all in the same linked savings account - which I keep track of on a spreadsheet.

*£700   to my house renovation linked savings account, which I know will be swept away for something uninspiring but necessary such as cement or timber!

*£600 split between two separate online savings account. One is my safety net account (I'm not at immediate risk of redundancy but we are a single-income household - 6 months' essential bills is c. £10k and my target is £15k) and the other will be for the later stages of the renovation. Once that's finished, I'll only have my safety net savings, so I'll urgently need to rebuild the other account...

*£50 to my personal guilt-free spends account, which basically goes on coffee, books and the odd lottery ticket

A lazy day today. DD is doing school homework this morning and we're wondering what to do in the afternoon as I'm off work. Might take a drive into the nearest small town but it's so peaceful here I'm not sure any of us wants to move!

themadvix

That all sounds like excellent progress. Scotland sounds like bliss... enjoy!

Hazelnutty

Thanks, Vix! It is, it is. OH did our long walk today and it was just glorious. Some quite steep sections which were tricky for OH as her range of head movement is limited but the views were lovely and I'm having the usual spell of wondering why I live and work in the east of England when Scotland is where my  is.

I checked the interest rates on my non-linked accounts last night and found out it was 0.6 and 0.7% respectively. I've closed one (the one I could remember my details for - basically a building pot) and will close the other when I get back. Have bought some premium bonds and set up 2 best buy accounts with NS&I. I've decided to keep my monthly renovation saving going into 2021 and have made a list of jobs that aren't essential but I could fund through extending the more disciplined phase of saving:

* New front door (probably a composite - it's a cheap and nasty white UPVC atm which is actually fine but it'd just finish off the house to have something in keeping with house) 
* Retile the bathroom (again, it's basically fine but it's been done as cheaply as possible and just grates a bit on me - it wouldn't have taken much more money/effort to do it properly) 
* Get some help landscaping the garden and creating raised beds so OH can garden safely ? 
* New front fence (currently 1950s concrete posts and chicken wire) 
* Stove in the newly exposed/renovated fireplace

I guess this isn't far off £10k's worth but it really would make the house *ours* and we'd basically need to do nothing more for years. 

themadvix

Hazelnutty said:

 I'm having the usual spell of wondering why I live and work in the east of England when Scotland is where my  is.

I could have written this!

Hazelnutty

Lol Vix! Good to 'meet' a fellow wonderer! 

We're heading home tomorrow   as the building work starts on Tuesday and we're missing the mogs too. To be honest, we always get to this point at about a week when we're clashing a bit with mum so it's time to part while all is pretty much ok! Lighting the firepit from wood scavenged from around the garden and toasting marshmallows, so should be a lovely final evening. DD is off with the GPs for another berry-picking excursion - strawberries and tayberries this time - while OH and I make scones for afternoon tea.

It's going to be a bit of a rude awakening getting home to an empty fridge and chaotic house   Just hope I can manage to get back into WFH with the renovation getting going (first stage, breaking up the old concrete in the garden )

Hazelnutty

At the moment I'm due to be MF at the age of 66 I think mid-50s would be a reasonable goal for me, so in about 12-15 years. I just used to OP calculator thingie and to reduce the term from 22 to 13 years I'd need to OP £400/month (or to 12 years £500/month). It seems such an unreachable sum once 'normal life' (whatever that is) resumes and I'm paying for clubs for DD, holidays etc. I guess the other thing is it seems a remote prospect so you're investing in a distant future - motivation to OP over an extended period might be an issue.

Can I ask those of you who've become MF what tips you'd offer those of us starting out? How do you keep motivation going as other costs need to be covered, such as work on the house, a new mode of transport, holidays etc?

Karmacat

Hazelnutty said:

Can I ask those of you who've become MF what tips you'd offer those of us starting out? How do you keep motivation going as other costs need to be covered, such as work on the house, a new mode of transport, holidays etc?

Ooh, thats a good question ... I didn't have kids, thats one important difference.  And I became a moneysaver because my self employment was gradually going downhill, with no way/ no wish to make it pick up.

What did I actually do?  I worked so hard that I didn't have much time to do anything else, to be honest there was one month when two of us earned £170 gross from mystery shopping - thats minimum 15 hours a week extra, as well as everything else.  Matched betting brought me about £1000 one year.  Online bingo was a new thing, and the introductory offers were mad, everyone piled in and earned hundreds over six months or so.  My life got really, really lopsided, and I wouldn't recommend me to anyone!  So here's my **considered** list:

- getting outgoings down.  Whether that means growing your own, putting an extra jumper on, fewer/ more domestic holidays, using the slow cooker not the oven, whatever you can.  Do you have two cars?  Can you make do with one?

- clothes!  Buying as little as you need to, and using second hand.  I can't remember the last time I paid full price for a winter fleece, for example.

- for moneysaving activities, get the most bang for your buck - not swagbucks, but pinecone research, that sort of thing. 

- if you do spend, make sure you buy in the most efficient way: sales, vouchers, reward points, whatever.

- do you or OH have good heads for figures?  Think about modern matched betting - via Team Profit.  I'm about to go for it again after the end of July, when my finances list is all ticked off.  Cheery Daffs has made about £4.5k over the last year - its hard work, but you could put in less time week to week to get less (still a good whack, though).

HTH -