Our MFW Adventure!

Needhelpsaving

Hello!

Thanks for dropping by Saving Holmes, it's always great to have people popping in x

So, it has been a busy few days. I have been approved for some new typing work :j. There is an aspect of it I need to learn, but it should come with practice. I just need to bear this in mind for the first couple of weeks.

We have been to visit some friends this weekend, which was lovely and meant we could spend some quality time with people we don't see very often due to distance.

We have a busy week this week, and with that comes some spends. My car is due to be collected from the garage tomorrow (£120 work needed on my car, including my new tyre). I had £60 put aside as I had pre-paid a portion of the service/MOT, but I will need to put £60 in my earnings goal for this coming week to stay on track for my end of month goal of not going back into the overdraft.

I need to do a small grocery shop, but most of it is already in cupboards/freezer I will plan the meals this evening and get the list ready for the week ahead

Have a great week everyone!

Needhelpsaving

Happy Saturday!

Lot's going on behind the scenes at the minute, so apologies for being MIA again for a few days.

In money news, the car service and MOT was £85 over what I had pre-paid (down from the estimated £120), due to an issue with the provider not being able to complete the work in the agreed time frame.I had already put £60 aside, so need to find another £25 before the end of the month.

I have also had to pay out for a school trip (£15.50), we've opted to get the SATs practice books for DD1 (£7 for both) and a shop to get us through to payday next week (£58.01).

Actions needed this week in terms of money;

- I can only spend the cash in my purse (about £6).
- I need to list 10 more items for sale on ebay.
- I need to continue with the current typing work.
- I need to cook from scratch at home from what we have in.

Needhelpsaving

Good morning!

We're 4 days away from payday :j Today I will need to get some milk, eggs and bread, but other than that and the £1 spent on playgroup, nothing else will be bought.

This months tracking has shown where the money has gone and the working with cash has reduced spends in my food category, so I will do the same again for next month and look to reduce other categories too.

There are lots of things going on behind the scenes this end, including a potential new job for OH, but we're trying to take it in our stride and make the decisions that work in line with our long term goals

Needhelpsaving

So, I’ve not really posted over the last couple of months as we have been living a lot of life in that time. As we head to the end of 2019, we still have some busy times over the Christmas period.

A brief overview to date on where we are with our money goals at present;
- Our wedding was cash flowed, with the exception of approx
£1500 that we had to borrow from current savings.
- Our mortgage balance currently sits at £53,445.87.
- Our net worth has increased since we started to track it in
April 2019.

We will take some time over the festive period to discuss our goals for 2020, however, our current goal is to replenish the money we borrowed from our savings (£1358.34).

In terms of day to day spending my December budget is being tested, mainly by unprecedented requests from the school for money for various things. We won’t be participating in everything, otherwise the budget will be blown.

Anyhow, I’ll leave that now, in case it becomes a political debate as opposed to a budgetary observation.

This weekend, I have a number of bits to pop on the bay of E and a local selling site. The DD’s will keep any money for their stuff (minus fees and postage) and any money made from our bits and pieces will go into the savings to get us back to the £10k mark.

Needhelpsaving

Good morning!

We're ticking along nicely here and are on budget. Sunday and Monday were NSD's, I did spend money yesterday (top up shop and new shoes for DD2) and have spends planned for today (school fete and stamps).

I have had just over £6 approved from Checkout Smart and Shopmium, this will go towards the cost of DD2 new shoes as they were not in the budget (we hadn't anticipated her growing through the last pair so quickly!).

I used a £2 manufacturers coupon for some washing powder and picked up the box that has more coupons on :money: With it being on offer and the £2 coupon, it made it the same price as Aldi for more washes :T

I have been chipping away at the Ebay and local selling group listings. I have done 3 more this morning and am due to have a sold item collected later this morning. This is an item of DD's so I will split the money between them (it was DD1's, passed down to DD2 ).

Jobs to do this week;

1. Send out name change letters - Who knew there were so many people to tell??? I'll start with banks and HMRC I think.

2. Continue listing items for sale online.

3. Get a new sign in card from the bank (I think DD2 has gotten a hold of it :eek:).

Needhelpsaving

Morning!

So this week we have had 2 ebay/selling group sales - both collected/posted and paid for. £6 was split between the girls as that was one of their items, the money made on ebay will go towards DD2 unplanned new shoe purchase.

We are on track with the budget at the moment. I used some M&S vouchers this week for milk, bread and sausages, so a £13 spend came down to £3. I also bought some new towels (much needed) with some vouchers. The only other spends were xmas gifts (budgeted).

This weekend will be very frugal. I think we have only 3 gifts left to buy for the festivities. I have 5 more bundles to list for sale, then I think that's everything I have found listed for sale.

I didn't do 1 and 3 from my to do list, so they will be rolled over to this coming week.

Have a great weekend!

Needhelpsaving

:hello: Well that weekend flew by in the blink of an eye!

Fairly frugal weekend as planned, mostly visting an pre-planned activities. DD1 has a party, present we already had, as I had picked up some sale items earlier in the year in preparation for this sort of thing. I did need more milk and cereal (I swear I live with a plague of locusts!).

Two more bits listed for sale online over the weekend, and one previously listed item has sold for £1 less than listed for :money:, that should be collected this evening.

Today; we went to a local playgroup (£1), I finally called the bank about getting a new log in thingy, I've set up my online pension portal (2 years after they asked me to :eek:) and I've sent off the name change docs to the bank with our joint account as we currently have £700 worth of cheques with my married name on that have got me in gear :rotfl:

I have a £3.50 spend (school related) to pay today, but then that's everything. Free swimming session planned for tomorrow and I need to return something for a refund.

Needhelpsaving

So we chickened out of the free swim session today - we were frozen when we got back from the school run, so cuddled up and stayed inside. In which time, DD2 decided to produce my banking log in thingy ... the one I cancelled yesterday ... and was wandering around pretending it was a mobile phone! Hilarious to watch, but she could have 'found' it yesterday!!!! :rotfl:

By spending the morning at home, I did get 3 more items listed for sale online ... and ended up finding another 7 things to be listed!

I had one item collected last night, so that's gone off to a nice new home (Children's bookcase/sling thing). I have dropped the price on a couple of items that haven't budged as I need to free up some space in the house. I'm hoping the price drop might entice a buyer.

I have two more xmas presents to pick up tomorrow (budgeted) and then I need to get stuff wrapped and distributed :T

We did have a surprise delivery of a craft box thing trying to get us to reinstate them after the free trial we had in the summer. I've hidden it away for now as DD's have enough to keep them occupied in the run up to xmas and it will come in handy for the post xmas "I'm bored" comments :money:

Right, better get back to these surveys!

Needhelpsaving

Good Morning!

Lots going on over the last few days, getting us ready for the fella in the red suit to arrive. Last night was spent wrapping gifts ready to be distributed this week as I refuse to be rushing around at the last minute.

OH and I had a money meeting this week and talked about our aims for the year ahead. We made the decision to slightly OP our mortgage using savings to use up some of our 10% allowance for 2019 (as it resets every January). We have OP'd 1341.66 bringing our mortgage down to £51,746.15 as of this morning. The amount will go up slightly as the remainder of Dec's interest is added, but it's all going in the right direction.

So, in terms of savings, we are now down to £7300, with £700 of cheques to cash once my personal details have been changed with said bank. We then have a plan to be back at £10k emergency fund by 31/03/2020.

Other aims for 2020 are;

1. Continue to OP mortgage up to 10% allowance.

2. Save an additional £166.66 p/m into the emergency fund to keep it moving over £10k. The aim is to get to £20k over the next 5 years.

3. Save £600 into my pension/set up Lifetime ISA (as I am currently a SAHM, but want to make a conscious effort to put something away for long term savings).

4. Cash flow home improvements (redecoration mainly), and then we will take a view at the end of 2020 as to whether that is the time for us to be looking to move.

Lots to be cracking on with :money:

Needhelpsaving

Good afternoon,

Just updating before the school run

So things have been ticking along in terms of my goals;

1. I sold an old bed frame for £30, that cash went towards DD1 room redecoration pot. Current balance of cash envelope is £34.

2. January 2020 budget has been set and I currently have a shortfall of £49.15 that I need to make up before starting on working towards my savings goals for the month. I have already started working on making up this shortfall

3. I have sold 2 items on the bay of e today and have 3 items that I have photographed ready to be uploaded tonight. The 2 sold items will be posted first thing tomorrow.

4. My personal details have been updated with 1 bank, so I will cash the cheques I have on Thursday. Once cashed, the money will go towards emergency fund replenishment.

5. I have chased a lady that asked to purchase an item on a local selling site - I'll give her until tomorrow and if radio silence continues, will re-list.

6. Applied for a market research group for Jan 2020 - fingers crossed I get it