Keeping on the Straight and Narrow...

DancingInTheRain

Thank you @savingholmes and @sashybo it's definitely been a good month on the 'small amounts adding up' front

Since my last post the May free money pot has reached £332.82 as I've received £5.43 from Pro!ific, £8.20 from V!nted and £1.26 cash back from Cha$e. In addition the 5% round up pot is up to £11.00.

DH is paid tomorrow so that's May's pot closed off. Even without the council tax rebate that would have been a very healthy £182.82 made this month which I'm delighted with. There's a few V!nted sales pending so have a head start on June too

We got our monthly energy statement this morning and it confirmed we've continued to make good progress reducing our usage (could still be better), by my predictions when we come out of our fix next month we're looking at payments increasing to £183 instead of the £197 I predicted earlier in the year and £219 instead of £237 predicted from October. Still ridiculously high but a bit better than we initially predicted. Once the monthly direct debit goes out on Wednesday our account will be £186 in credit so hopefully this will help too.

The last few days have continued to be busy but more relaxed, we finally got some warm weather on Saturday so took the opportunity to tidy up the garden and enjoy a couple of meals and drinks out there. DH and I went to see the new Top Gun film yesterday, loved it! It's definitely one to watch on a big screen. We're having a day home today relaxing and doing a few chores and then planning on having a day out with the children tomorrow, just need to decide what we want to do.

End of month 'What We Owe The World' figures

Current scores on the doors are:

- Mortgage 31.12.21 was £46,415 now £44,200
- Credit Card 31.12.21 was £8,175 now £6,950
- DH Student Loan 31.12.21 was £5,285 now £4,850

WWOTW total 31.12.21 £59,875 now £56,000

Total 'Free Money' 2022 = £1865.12

DancingInTheRain

We all woke up with coughs and or sniffles today, so decided not to go far. Lateral flows were negative so hopefully just a little bit of cold. It's been showery here today so wasn't worth going too far anyway, especially as the forecast is better for the rest of the week.

Popped to the shops for some supplies as hoping to go to the zoo tomorrow depending on how we feel, we got a heavily discounted ticket a while ago that needs used so if we take a picnic and drinks the only costs to DH and I will be fuel & the boys can use their Hyperj$r cards (which they love!) if they want to get a little something from the gift shop.

June free money pot has started with £10.81 as no PPC payment this month and £12.20 from V!nted. Total £23.01 

Used this money towards rounding down the credit card and mortgage balances to end in a zero rather than using money from wages.

DH finally had some fuel expense paid with his wages today, been waiting a while so while I almost added it to the free money pot we're going to use this to cover fuel costs for the zoo tomorrow if we go and also towards the 2 x swimming classes the boys are attending Thu and Fri.

savingholmes

Great free money totals for May.

Good news on the expenses being paid. 

Trips out sound nice. Hope you're all well enough to go.

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Just caught up from February, you've had a busy few months

Sorry to hear about your neighbour.  

Bet it's nice to have your mortgage fixed for 5 years... our deal ends in 2 years, goodness knows what the interest rate will be by then

Hope you have a good jubilee weekend

DancingInTheRain

Thanks for dropping in both hopefully interest rates won't be too scary in 2 years time ohsh x

We felt a lot better so made it to the zoo on Wednesday and had a fun day although DS2 was a bit cranky, we put it down to tiredness but when he woke up the next morning he was in a lot of pain around his genitals. He got steadily worse so we got in touch with 111 which led to a video consultation with a practitioner followed by being asked to take him to see a doctor at A&E, he finally got seen at 11.20pm was diagnosed with a skin infection and was prescribed with antibiotics and cream which both seem to have done the trick in helping him. Pleased to say he's on the mend but honestly why do things always seem to happen on a bank holiday?!!!

We took a picnic to the zoo and only spent £10 on ice creams for the boys and a hot drink each for me and DH. The boys used their Hyp£rjar cards to buy a small treat each from the gift shop so that they had some money left for another time (hopefully my MSE ways are rubbing off on them  )

DS2 was unable to attend his swimming lesson due to the above but DS1 attended and had a great time, no regular lessons available near us at the moment but hope to get both boys booked when some become available.

On Friday we attended a local seaside town's jubilee celebrations and had a great day and Saturday saw us attending a small family gathering at DH's brothers house. It was a scorcher of a day so we were outside in the garden and really enjoyed just being together and watching the children having fun in the paddling pool

We were all exhausted yesterday so had a PJ day, DS1 should have gone to a birthday party but just had no energy so I sent our apologies. I'm pleased to be back in the usual routine today. 

On the money front I have just finally remembered to renew our buildings and contents insurance (expires Friday), got this for £105 and hopefully £32 cashback which I was pleased with.  A further £3.97 added to the free money pot from V!nted and Cha$e cashback, June total now at £26.98. The new lower mortgage rate kicked in on the 1st and DH has had a 2% pay rise awarded, a couple of small wins there but will  be dwarfed by energy costs once our fixed rate ends later this month. 

Hope everyone else is okay and had a good weekend x

DancingInTheRain

Wednesday already! Back into our regular routine, nothing much to update just trying to stay accountable.
A further £15.81 added to the free money pot, a combination of small payments from Pro!Ific, TCB, V!nted and Cha$e rewards. Total for the month now at £42.79
5% round up pot total currently at £20.44
Trying to focus on the very small wins and not think too much about how much everything is increasing, I noticed another increase in several items we buy weekly when I did our grocery shop today. I'm sure some items are increasing every week or 2.
DH is working from home all week so at least diesel usage will be low this week. V!nted sales have come to a stop, going to look for more things to list and get them uploaded in the next few days.

savingholmes

Sounds like you did a great job at keeping spends low at the zoo etc. Sorry DS1 has been ill. Sounds unpleasant.

Sounds like a great win on the insurance renewal. Good luck with your free money wins.

I've starting increasing my stocks of tins, pasta, coffee etc as prices are rising and I hate it.

DancingInTheRain

Hi hope everyone is well

We've had a busy few days enjoying being out in the sun on the days it appeared (definitely no heat wave here!!!), catching up with family & friends and getting some little niggly DIY jobs completed.

Definitely having a spendy month due to a couple of things have come up which we hadn't budgeted for Firstly, just after my last post after waiting for ages 2 spaces for swimming lessons finally came available on Saturday mornings. A little more expensive than we'd anticipated at £13 each but they are in a small group of 4 which we hope will mean they pick up the basics quickly, they're certainly visibly more confident in the water after only 2 lessons so will see how they do in the coming weeks as lessons in bigger groups are available at £6 each.

We have also increased the number of full days DS2 is doing in nursery to in order to help get him ready for starting reception in September. It's £10 for each day he stays so doing 3 at the moment, will increase to 4 after next week and then aim to have him in every day in July. He's finding it tiring but enjoys spending more time with his friends. On top of this he's also started attending our local Scout group's Squirrels section which is a new group for under 6's at £2 per week so he's a busy boy! We didn't expect this to start until after his 4th birthday in August but they had a space so we took it while it was available.

In my head I was hoping the swimming lessons would start a little later in the year and then the money we spend on DS2 for lunches, snack money and all day sessions (£120 per month approx) at school could be utilized for this. Given we've been on a waiting list all year we've decided just to go for it and suck it up for the 6 weeks or so. Worse case scenario we dip in to savings but hoping to avoid this by being as strict as I can get away with on spending, I'd rather the boys got access to these things while they're on offer especially after the last 2 years of not being able to access much.

Finally, the gig we were supposed to attend last month has been rescheduled to October so have booked a budget hotel to enable us to have an overnight stay and not have to rush back home. £48 spent on this.

Also had a stupid tax to pay this week after clipping a kerb while making room to allow a van to pass me, I caught it a bit too hard and popped the tyre While getting the tyre replaced, we asked the garage to look at another tyre we were concerned had a slow puncture, came out £140 poorer. Annoying but these things happen I guess.

Thankfully CB is due in tomorrow and then just need to be careful with spending until DH's pay day on the 30th. We're not planning on doing much extra so hopefully will be okay. Will look to list a few more items for sale too.

June free money earned since my last post:

£14.69 Pro!ific, £2.77 cashback, £1 V!nted, £10 SnapMyEats total for the month is £71.25

5% round up pot total £28.47

savingholmes

Sounds a spendy time - but investment in kids swimming is essential in my view. It's a hugely important life skill that could one day save their lives as well as hopefully give them hours of fun.

Nursery at £10 a day sounds fab. Is that because of free vouchers? Someone else posted that having their child in nursery was costing £17K a year. I nearly fell off my chair. Even when my DS was small 20+ years ago it was close to £5K so I suppose proportionately to income it could be similar.

sashybo

Good news about the kids’ swimming lessons. We are trying to get DS on a waiting list right now, even that is proving difficult!

Well done on the free money too.👍🏻