Balancing the books

tjp70

Good morning greent and Happier Me. Thank you for stopping by.

greent - with the exception of your two youngest, our lives are very similar! Where are you off to next year, on your holiday? I have started reading your diary and it’s going to be a long read

greent

tjp70 wrote: »

Good morning greent and Happier Me. Thank you for stopping by.

greent - with the exception of your two youngest, our lives are very similar! Where are you off to next year, on your holiday? I have started reading your diary and it’s going to be a long read

Ah, yes! - I've been on the MFW forum for quite some time now! :rotfl:

We're looking at Florida for 3 weeks next year - the 6 of us and probably DD's boyfriend and DS1's girlfriend (although the add-ons can pay for their own flights and park tickets! (unless we win the lottery! ) - I'll just pick up food costs and bigger car hire - the accom is no different for what we'd need, anyway) Looks like my best friend and her husband are also joining us (although not sure if they want to come for 2 or 3 weeks) I'm budgeting 20K at the mo (and trying not to think what effect that could have on the BTL! ) but we shall see..... As DD will only just have finished her Masters I don't think she'll be in a place to contribute and DS1 definitely won't! Am guessing that will be the last big whole-family holiday we'll have
x

kaycastle

I enjoyed reading your diary Well done on paying off your mortgage all those years ago and all you've achieved so far.

Yikes the american holiday sounds big but also fun - you have plenty of time to plan and find good deals I once had a friend who was really into disney and there are forums/sites that are disney crazy and I'm sure they post lots of deals for america and the parks - might be worth signing up to something like that over the next year and see what crops up and enter any of their competitions

tjp70

Wow greent, your Florida holiday plans sound amazing. We did a similar thing last year, but only for a week. We took DS and his GF as they had turned 21, and DD of course. We had such a great time and whenever we all get together, someone mentions something funny that happened in Florida. Such great memories.

In money news, now that the credit card has gone, we are slowly building the savings back up. In a rash moment last year, I opened a S&S ISA but didn’t have a clue as to what I was doing. Yesterday with the cash balance remaining, I bought some more shares. But I’ve decided that I am way too risk averse for any more stocks and shares, so I’m diverting the tiny monthly payment to buying premium bonds instead. So £25 of premium bonds purchased yesterday.

DH is still sticking religiously to his diet (and inspiring me too) so the takeaway fund has grown to £75 (so far untouched). We haven’t had takeaway since DD’s birthday late February.

Two pounds lost this week.

tjp70

£50 to savings this morning:)

tjp70

Morning.

I jumped in the car yesterday to go to work and the clutch pedal shot to the floor with a twang. A local garage came to get it and they have said there is a problem with the gearbox. Noooo! It’s only done 33000 miles. This sounds so expensive - fingers crossed it’s not too bad. Now struggling with one car and both DH & I needing to be in different places.

tjp70

The car repair bill amounted to £1635 :eek:

A while ago I would have freaked out about this, but I can honestly say that, whilst I am sad that it cost so much, it's happened and I am fortunate to have the money to pay the repair bill.

In other news, we bought a takeaway pizza at the weekend. DH was not happy that he gave in to temptation. I reminded him that we had no takeaways at all in March, so major progress has been made in this area. We had cash to pay for it in the savings pot

I am finally getting logos and things sorted for starting my little business. A friend has offered to help with a web page but he has had to go into hospital, so that will take a back seat for now. I'm hoping he gets better quickly; he's been waiting for this operation for over a year.

I have a FB page and a Google My Business page. I just need to get a few more things sorted (price list, terms & conditions, flyers etc.) and then I can really start to promote my services.

No weight lost this week (stayed the same) and £3.50 Tillytidy this morning. Also forgot to buy a lottery ticket last night so £2.50 saved.

greent

Ouch! Clutches are never cheap - we've found that out a couple of times now Glad it's sorted and that you had the money for it, though

tjp70

April was an odd month; a mixture of dieting, saving and spending. Not sure if that’s a good mix.

Dieting: I seem to have lost my mojo. I insisted on KFC last night. I’m now regretting it after getting on the scales this morning (why do I do that? The scales are hardly going to tell me that eating fried chicken was a good thing). Today I have eaten a chocolate bar and a chocolate ice cream, all before 1pm! So I need to get a grip again or I will undo all my efforts of the last few weeks. Rant over.

Saving: Well, not too much of that going on because of the clutch. Also DD passed her driving test and we gave her £500 towards buying a car. DH did receive a dividend, so we managed to save just over £200 in April.

Spending: We have a big holiday booked for June 2020, but nothing for this year. So I have booked a week in a cottage in Yorkshire mid July this year and a short break at a cottage that we love in Wales end of November.

Takeaways: The takeaway fund did increase in April, we did relent, so need to work harder in May on this.

Small Business: My friend who was going to help out with a website let me down, so today, I have tried to create one of my own. It’s coming along quite well; I just need to write some content. I’m struggling a little with this, although I am extremely chatty, I’m not very good at writing this stuff down! I’m aiming to get the website up and running by the weekend.

In other news, £31.20 op to the BTL mortgage today and £25 of premium bonds purchased. Every little helps.

Oh and I’ve ready greent’s entire diary! Greent (if you are reading this) you are amazing - how you juggle everything is beyond me.