Taking back the control

Thick_n_Thin

So I managed to save £9.50 out of my spending money last week, this has gone straight into my coin jar. I allowed myself my next week spends on Friday which was £20 for this week which I have spent already! £9.50 in co-op on wine and chocolate! Then £8.50 on last nights chippy tea! So I will need to have 5 no spends day until Friday until my next allowance is allowed!
I am doing well on my energy project. Heating has been going off at 9pm every night and because the weather has been so mild it has really been noticeable, I may look at discreetly reducing this by another 20 mins this week. If we have been in during the day we would automatically put the heating on but haven’t over the last week so I am confident that we have reduced our weekly use by about 15 hours which has got to make a big difference. Any washing has been done on 30 degrees and on the shortest cycle possible and have only used the dryer once. We have also been turning the lamps of each evening and just using the light from the tv screen. I’ve submitted my meter readings and my cost for jan is £136.50. My estimated cost for Feb is £128 according to previous spends so I want to try and get this under £100.

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Weekly shop came in slightly over budget at £57. Will need to cut back next week. OH treated me to a car wash ( who says romance is dead) seeing as I paid for the takeaway and wine last night. Going to have a nice roast chicken Tonight and I will save some for a saled for lunch tomorrow. Going to commit to my healthy eating and fitness regime tomorrow, spring will be on its way soon and I have lots of clothes I need to fit back into.

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So it’s now day 3 of my healthy lifestyle, all meals have been sensible portions, portion control can be 1 of my weak spots. Porridge and blueberries for breakfast, salad and fruit for lunch and then a stir fry with boiled rice for tea. No alcohol and as much water as I can. I have also done 2 exercise classes and plan on doing another 2 before the weekend. I know it’s only been 3 days but already I feel a lot better mentally if not physically. I am still continuing with my mission to drive down our energy consumption and the heating is now off at 9pm each night which should hopefully significantly reduce our bill. I’m also being more aware of lights left on ect. I have just sent some meter readings through to n power and I plan on doing this every 2 weeks. Spending has been kept under control and I am having a lot of NSDs, I think ensuring I buy enough bread and milk at the start of the week is key as when I do a top up shop I tend to loose control of the budget.

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So things are still ticking over, I received my club cards vouchers today, £9.50 which I will put towards my weekly shop. I have £40 per week for the next 2 weeks so this will be a nice little top up. 2 weeks until pay day, I had to put petrol in my car today and I’m hoping £10 will last me this week at least, I have minimal driving to do so we will see. Still £40 in personal spends so doing ok just need to stay on the straight and narrow.... I can do this!

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Not much to update, having more NSD’s than spend days atm which I am pleased with. Went massively over budget with the food shop last weekend, my budget was £40 but somehow managed to spend £72 which I was pretty shocked by at the checkout, this leaves me with £8 in my shopping budget plus my £9.50 Tesco vouchers but I am determined not to use an overdraft this month. I may need to add £10 from personal spends as I have £20 left to last me 10 days. I will need to be creative with my freezer contents and make use of what we already have in ... time to make some lists!

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Finally been paid again! Really pleased with how I managed my budget last month. I didn’t stray into my overdraft at all and ended the month with £4.11 in my current account which I sweeped over to my Christmas savings account, this now has £10 in which is made up from save the change which I have set up on my current account. I saved £50 from my personal spending money which I am proud to say is still in my account. I have carried on with my mission to drive down our gas and electricity bill that is due in April and have submitted my meter readings every 2 weeks, I have managed to shave around £15 of my February bill so far so the heating will continue to go of at 9pm each evening. The food shop still needs work as I do tend to still overspend on this area and run short in the last week so want to work harder on this area this month. Last month I funded any alcohol purchases out of my personal spends and it made me think about how much it was actually costing, I want to reduce this for March. 

So yesterday after being paid I straight away moved £200 into my pot for the gas/electricity bill. I have also saved £50 from my personal spends so I now have £100 saved. I am determined to try and save this amount each month if not more! 

Plans for today .. not much maybe a bit of cleaning later.

Thick_n_Thin

It’s been a few months since my last update and what a few months it has been, coronavirus has resulted in us both being furloughed from work and we have now been off for 6 weeks, what strange times we are living in atm, I feel very lucky in comparison to a lot of people and so far we have managed to stay healthy for which I am grateful. I’m sure a lot of people are feeling anxious and worried at how things are going to unfold and it dosnt look like things are about to change any time soon, it’s really bought it home to me how much we have and actually how little we need, what better time to really embrace and appreciate the little things that we can often overlook and take for granted....

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Lockdown has really made me take stock of some of the financial goals that I’ve had swimming around in my head for the last 12 months or so.... I have really been unhappy in my job for many years and having this time away has really bought it home how much more there is to life. I’m really going to try hard now to get us into a good financial position so my partner can retire at 60 and I can have the option to reduce my hours or days at 55 ( so in 6 years time) our mortgage has 6 years 11months left to run but I would like to get it gone in half that time so I’m going to be ambitious and say 3 years to get it paid off. I can then (fingers crossed ) continue to work for another 3 years in order to save to top up our retirement fund). This is the rough plan anyway.. I’m aware that a lot could change over the next few months that I could potentially have no control over but until this happens I’m going to carry on formulating my plan until things change. I will work on my figures and update as soon as I have a solid plan. I feel better writing this down already as though I am committing to it properly! 

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So I am setting myself the target of June 2023 for our mortgage to be paid off. By then I will be nearly 53. Mortgage currently stands at £63.464 fixed rate of 2.94 until July 21. Current plan is to overpay by £250 per month  which according to the mortgage overpayment calculator will take off 1 year 9 months off the mortgage term so I really need to be hitting regular overpayments of around £500 ideally which wouldn’t be possible at the moment. Need to revisit my monthly budget and see where we can tinker with the numbers. A big chunk of our money is still overspent on food/alcohol but I am getting a little better each month. My goal for the last few months is to stop the midweek top up shops or stopping to buy milk and spending £10. I’m getting a lot better with just making do with what we have in the house so this will have to continue to me managed tightly as it really does make the difference between me slipping into overdraft territory. I also really want to address our personal spends that we have each month and what we spend it on, we tend to have around £250 to £300 each to spend each every month which I know is a lot so if we could half that it would make a massive debt in what we could afford to overpay. 

Today’s mission was a NSD which I am pleased to say has been achieved. Going to make meatballs and pasta for tea and will chargrill some vegetables that need using up as well to avoid waste. Have been for a run this morning to try and get back to running 5k regularly, if I can take to it I could save my £28 monthly gym membership when it reopens. I’m well aware that best laid plans ect but being off work has really got me longing for a simpler lifestyle and I’m really not missing a lot about how things where before, I feel happier now.