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Taking the scenic route from chaos to calm!!!
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Good morning.
Exactly one week until pay day and it’s very tight. Mindset is beginning to shift though, usually I’d up the overdraft by £50 to buy us breathing space. Not this time. At the moment there’s £58 in the account, it can (and should) be plenty. This needs to cover a food shop at the weekend plus any activities. I’m hoping both cars should be ok fuel wise but mine may need an additional £10. So plan of action
1. Re-list unsold stuff on fb pages
2. Car boot on Sunday
3. Meal plan - trying to hold out on the food shop until BH Monday.
4. Check forecast for weekend and plan accordingly. Still got my months pass for the local leisure centre so can swim for “free”. Also got passes for local theme park so potentially another already paid for activity.
Day off today - got a cheap day planned with a friend and her little one. Bike ride and picnic at local park. Will cost £3 for parking plus maybe ice cream money. Have cash in my purse to cover today.
Right cuppa’s finished - best get up off my backside and do something.....0 -
Congrats on a low-spend day out - forward planning definitely helps with that. Great that you are out of overdraft. I seem to hit it at the end of the month as DS borrows money at the last minute or this month a CC of OH's took £ 3 days earlier than I expected. Definitely an area I am still working on including saying no to DS.Achieve FIRE/Mortgage Neutrality in 2030
1) MFW Nov 21 £202K now £174.8K Equity 32.77%
2) £3K Net savings after CCs 6/7/25
3) Mortgage neutral by 06/30 (AVC £22.5K + Lump Sums DB £4.6K + (25% of SIPP 1.1K) = 28.2/£127.5K target 22;12% updated 6/7
4) FI Age 60 income target £16.5/30K 55.1%
5) SIPP £4.6K updated 6/7/250 -
Sorry if my post was misleading savingholmes - unfortunately I’m not out of the overdraft, I’ve just resisted the urge to increase the limit by another £50 to “make life easier” til payday. Believe me, the day it gets paid off there will be celebrations!
Lovely low spend day yesterday with DS and friends. Cost me the price of parking and an ice cream. The boys played nicely together for hours whilst we had a good catch up.
Moneywise, a small £5 eBay sale plus realised I have £10 in Morrisons more vouchers which will help with the food shop. Total in kitty til pay day is now £65 (paid cash for eBay postage) plus £10 in vouchers and £8 in cash - we will be fine!
Looked at budget for September and it’s another tight one. Want to clear £100 off Very as have £407.59 outstanding that the interest free runs out on at the end of the year, so need to chuck £100 a month at it.....
Still on course for carboot Sunday, so fingers crossed for a good day with lots of buyers.
Right, best spring into action and get ready for work. Have a great day x0 -
Happy Bank Holiday!!!
Lovely long weekend so far. It started off with parkrun on Saturday morning. I don’t get to go very often so it was great to go. Slow but I don’t care! It was soooo hot. Took DS to the park in the afternoon and had a lovely time. We’re so lucky where we live as there are so many wonderful parks and so much countryside to explore.
Yesterday was car boot day. Almost wish I hadn’t bothered. I took the grand total of £20. But £20 is £20 so shouldn’t moan!
Did the food shop - very small list and came in at £34 after using the vouchers. Very pleased with that.
Off to theme park today - again should be low spend as we all have passes.
In other news I’ve locked myself out of online banking! Must sort this out, I feel kind of anxious not being able to check the accounts.
Was wide awake at 4:30 so have used a bit of time to get listing on eBay. Slowing making my way through the huge pile. Just need someone to buy it all now!
Have a fantastic day x0 -
Woohoo - 2 sales within a couple of hours of listing, £16 taken. Pleased with that. Nearly as much as yesterday’s car boot efforts and I’m still in my pjs :rotfl:0
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Fab about the ebay sales. I would struggle if I got locked out of banking app - would feel so out of control.Achieve FIRE/Mortgage Neutrality in 2030
1) MFW Nov 21 £202K now £174.8K Equity 32.77%
2) £3K Net savings after CCs 6/7/25
3) Mortgage neutral by 06/30 (AVC £22.5K + Lump Sums DB £4.6K + (25% of SIPP 1.1K) = 28.2/£127.5K target 22;12% updated 6/7
4) FI Age 60 income target £16.5/30K 55.1%
5) SIPP £4.6K updated 6/7/250 -
Morning! DS has been wide awake since 5:30 - not sure where the boy gets his energy from! I’m sure it’ll catch up with him later.
Lovely family bank holiday weekend now back to work for a rest :rotfl: 2 days to get through before Thursdays payday. Diet and exercise has slipped over the weekend - must get back on track.
Got 2 more pressies for the Christmas box. The works do calendar/ diary combos for £3, they’re fab quality and look far more expensive. Had 20% off so got the 2 for less than £5. Crazy that I feel like I’m running out of paydays for Xmas shopping and it’s only August! Just have so much to pay out for in the last quarter of the year I really need to get the majority sorted ASAP.
Right best get breakfast sorted. Be back soon x0 -
Are you me? :rotfl:
Crappy car boot sale, locked out of online banking, ebay sales, prepping for Christmas - all the same here
No you can't be - I wouldn't have done park run in that heat this weekend :rotfl: Well done for doing it!"If you can dream it, you can do it". Walt Disney0 -
Jwil - that’s spookily similar :rotfl:
Back in online banking - almost wish I hadn’t. 3 x direct debits that usually get taken on or just after payday have been taken, leaving us £50 over the OD limit :mad: Debated long and hard last night about whether to up the OD by £50 to cover it or to take the hit with the 2x £5 daily charges until payday. I’ve opted take the hit. £10 will be paid and forgotten, £50 increased OD could stick around for ages, especially since Very and the CC are our primary focus at the mo. It’s been a big eye opener this last week. Can’t remember a time where I’ve let us just struggle it out, especially over BH weekend. Usually we’d have upped the OD limit and just got on with things, but it’s that mindset that got us into this mess. £58 plus £35 from car boot and eBay has paid for a weeks food shop (usually £85!), put fuel in the car and we’ve enjoyed two good family days out with lots of ice cream! In all I couldn’t have wished for a better BH weekend. I’ve still got £8 in my purse so taking that as a win for now.
Cheap day planned today with DS. My monthly pass to the leisure centre runs out this week, so think we’re going to head to the swimming pool this afternoon and maybe quick nip into town before hand to pick up the calendars from the works. We’ve definitely had our monies worth from the pass. We’ve been swimming probably 6 times, I’ve not managed the gym as much as I’d have liked, but it’s been worth it for what it’s saved.
Budget looking very tight for September. OH car is due a service, want to order tickets for parent in laws xmas pressie and few bits for DS birthday. There’s also potentially another vet visit. Woof is pretty much back to his bonkers self, will phone and speak to them later and see if he needs to be seen again. I guess the only question really is whether he needs to stay on the meds long term. Will see what they say.......
Right, going to get ready to face the day - have a good one x0 -
Well done on not increasing the overdraft :T"If you can dream it, you can do it". Walt Disney0
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