*sigh* this may take a while

DancingInTheRain

Good plan, I may copy you 😊 Well done on getting the debt paid down though. Here's to July and your debt free future 🥂

mark55man

well done on paying the debt off, now you can look after paying yourself
 

ohdearhowdidthathappen

I've been looking at where to save. 
Currently we have £400 in premium bonds, which we'll keep there. 
We then have our £1k EF sat in an easy access account. 
Everything else is a bit muddled... we're saving £200 a month currently and that gets split between accounts in each of our names, those accounts where you put a set amount in per month and after not touching it for a year you get a decent interest rate.  There's currently £1200 between these, which I'm earmarking for Christmas.
When we start overpaying and saving properly next month, I think we need a few separate pots and I've worked out approximately what needs to be saved into them.... 
1) Holiday fund (aim for £250 per month)
2) House renovation (£450pm)
3) Christmas (£150pm)
4) Longer term pot to build up to £15k (£250pm)
5) EF (currently £1k)
What does everyone do with longer term savings?  Interest rates look pretty rubbish everywhere I'm looking

ohdearhowdidthathappen

I still have some refunds I'm waiting for 
£150 school trip
£385 school trip
£685 cancelled holiday 
Assuming these all come in, they'll go in the holiday fund for next year

enthusiasticsaver

Love the plan and totally agree with your savings objectives.  We have several savings vehicles.  Two internet savers with Marcus (which unfortunately has just reduced rates but higher than most other providers1.3% I think). One in my name and one in DH name as they don't do joint savings accounts.  One includes our emergency fund money and replacement car money.  The other covers home improvement projects and long haul holidays.  We have an e saver attached to our current account (which pays rubbish rates) for Christmas, birthdays, insurances and short breaks. Our long term savings are in a cautious to medium risk portfolio in sipps and stocks and shares isas.  As we have DB pensions though we are not drawing on them at the moment as the market is down slightly. 


I have given up slightly on chasing higher rates as they are appallingly low everywhere and I cannot  see they will increase any time soon but 75% of our assets are invested through an IFA and about 24% in Marcus. The other 1% is just a slush e saver. 

XSpender

Another Dave Ramsey ish follower here although it will take us another 2 and a half years to get out of step 2.  Your employer pension contribution is fabulous!

I also like thebudgetmom for budgeting and sinking funds/savings pots.  She has a blog and a great Instagram account if you have a few hours to kill 

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Thanks DITR, Mark, ES and XS

ohdearhowdidthathappen

XSpender said:

Another Dave Ramsey ish follower here although it will take us another 2 and a half years to get out of step 2.  Your employer pension contribution is fabulous!

I also like thebudgetmom for budgeting and sinking funds/savings pots.  She has a blog and a great Instagram account if you have a few hours to kill 

Just noticed the 'quote' button, is back.  Yay!
I like DR, not all of his stuff is relevant to the UK, but I like the basics.  Not disciplined enough to follow it religiously though, it's very strict!
It is a good pension with the NHS, only downside is you have to work for the NHS 
Will take a look at thebudgetmom, thanks for the suggestion

ohdearhowdidthathappen

I'm getting a bit concerned about how we'll cover childcare in the summer holidays.  The children currently attend key worker school... my contracted hours at the hospital are 22.5, usually I do that over 3 days, but I'm currently doing it over 4 (which I hate) as there's no before/after school provision.  Kids are loving the shorter school days, so that's an advantage though.
But in the holidays, there's nothing!  I'd usually use play schemes and friendly grandparents, but neither of those are an option this summer. 
There's still no annual leave allowed at the hospital, so that leaves me with 18 days of childcare needed.  OH can potentially take 10 days, although that leaves him with very few days for the rest of the year.  Not sure what to do about the other days... I've rung some childminders, but none have got 3 spaces and I don't really want to be dropping them off at 3 different places 

mark55man

Not really sure where to start with that.  Could it be an option to form a bubble with someone so they could look after the kids at your house.  Can you work weekends - will be dreadful not being off at the same time, but could be quite economical.  Other than that possibly ask around at work, to see if anyone else in is that situation who maybe has something to offer

My only other consolation thought is that it will be 4-6 weeks before the end of school, and possibly lockdown might have eased so that you can get some holiday to cover the missing days.