Improving all the time

FloraandFauna

Thank you, Holmes, I know you're right. I was trying to plough on through as though it hadn't happened (because it's nice to pretend bad things haven't happened...), but did end up not doing much yesterday. Did get a few bits done for work, and the utility floor, and an experimental shape trim on part of the beech hedge to see if I wanted the whole thing that way. Will just potter about today as well.

You should really start the £10 a day! I too have been dismissing the bits and pieces I've had as non-repeatable windfalls. But they're not actually: if I hadn't been trying to challenge myself every day, I wouldn't have noticed the opportunities that 1 or 2 months down the line will become the 'windfalls'. Sure, none of them will probably happen again, but I have others that may pay off...

Money saving news: 25p off voucher for veg from the coop. I shall blow it on potatoes and use some of the ready-cooked cottage pie mince in the freezer, as the weather has thankfully turned a bit cooler and rainy here.

FloraandFauna

Hmmm, I'm having a dither about my season ticket.

It's currently an eye-watering £3,584 a year, from a station just 5 minutes drive from my house.

If I renew it for a station that's a 25 minute drive from my house, it drops to £2,532 a year. But with the additional petrol costs for driving, it's really about £2,980.

So would be a saving of about £600 a year, or £50 a month. Not to be sneezed at.

But to earn that £50 a month I would have to drive up to an extra hour a day, 4 days a week (usually work from home 1 day a week), with the additional morning stress of potentially getting stuck behind something (rural road) causing me to miss the train. And there isn't another for another 2 hours.

An additional 16 hours (32 trips) minimum driving per month to gain £50 = means each drive equates to about £1.50 saved v. increased morning stress.

I can't decide. Do people think it's a no-brainer and just what everyone does? Or would continue paying the extra £50 a month for a stress-free commute?

FloraandFauna

Realise I'm not sticking to my reporting format, decided I've not settled on quite the right one so will keep rejigging until I feel it's working:

- improve something every day - yes, tied up some plants, cut through the gargantuan trunk of ivy that's drowning an ash tree

- Tilly tidy every day - yes! 57p after ages with no movement in the a/c**

- free money? - some prolific and testable minds surveys. Went in lots of circles trying to find cheaper ways to commute, but apart from the station issue, there doesn't appear to be anything I can do about the cost of Season tickets.

** <cough>. You see, ossifer, I was reading this person's diary... And got to around Christmas time in their journey. So I thought "wouldn't it be MSE to buy something now and spread the cost", or rather "waah, I want Christmas". Less than £10 spent on an advent calendar and a book, but still. 100% emotional purchase. Bad monkey, no banana.

Bonus points: have been very tempted to trip off the the shops and buy appealing, interesting, new food. Have instead been in the freezer and had very comforting sausage dinner, baked pork with mushrooms and broccoli, and the last of some very nice homemade roast vegetable quiche.

FloraandFauna

Reporting in.

- improve something every day - yes, weeded the veg patch. Some expletive of a slug has chewed through ALL my parsley stems at the bottom, then eaten the leaves once they were on the floor. I have a layer of scattered thin green stalks instead.

- Tilly tidy every day - no, no activity in a/c

- free money? - some prolific and testable minds surveys done - should be able to cash out both when last ones approved. Still scared of matched betting but really must pick this up again soon. Slow progress with firstdirect, but a/c now set up and with switch organised. need to call to set up basic saver (to avoid future a/c fees) and regular saver (to move some of savings into at 5%).

Bonus points: zero. Spent on Saturday on over-excited Christmas things (although under a tenner), and spent today on some half price potatoes and cream. I see extra indulgent cottage pie in my future.

Have been thinking about saving pots the last few days. I have (virtually, on a spreadsheet) set up 17 different saving pots for, e.g. vet, next year's insurances, emergency fund, new mattress etc. It will take around £35,000 to fill them all.

(rolls on floor choking)

What I have, is £1,800. And the probability of adding another £100 per month. So a mere 27 years or so to achieve full pots assuming none of them ever need refilling...

The plan is to fill the emergency and looming ones first - so 1,000 for all sorts of emergencies, £400 for vet emergencies. The other £400 is set aside for house insurance, boiler service, chimney sweep - all due in the next few months.

I'm thinking of keeping a 1,000 instantly accessible 'float' in my TSB a/c earning 3%, and moving any excess over the the FD a/c to earn 5%. Trouble is, if I need to withdraw anything from FD before the year is up, bang goes any interest earned at all. Can't decide what split to go for. Can't decide!

Ideally I'd like to be in a position where all next year's bills were pre-saved, including oil heating, logs, emergency, loss-of-job funds, Christmas, insurances, so that any savings I had on top of that were ACTUAL savings that could be put aside and forgotten about. (or, God forbid, spent, on a holiday or something). Still, I'm enormously relieved to have what I have set aside - it's a very novel, warming, feeling.

savingholmes

HI - I wouldn't want to do an extra hour's travel most work days to save £50 per month - my time is worth more and I imagine yours is too. On the fund side of things - I have an emergency / slush fund currently - which I am trying to fund Christmas, holidays, gifts, clothes, insurance etc from... My goal when I am CC free is to have 3-6 months saved... It has just over £1500 in it currently but I know I need tyres etc next month... insurance in October etc

FloraandFauna

savingholmes wrote: »

HI - I wouldn't want to do an extra hour's travel most work days to save £50 per month - my time is worth more and I imagine yours is too. On the fund side of things - I have an emergency / slush fund currently - which I am trying to fund Christmas, holidays, gifts, clothes, insurance etc from... My goal when I am CC free is to have 3-6 months saved... It has just over £1500 in it currently but I know I need tyres etc next month... insurance in October etc

Hah! You're right. I think that's probably what I was trying to uncover with boiling it down to £1.50 saved per journey. That's a wage of £3 per hour. I should bloody hope I can make more than that through other means. On the other hand, it doesn't actually increase the commuting time, just swaps out 1/2 hour of train time for 1//2 hour driving. So that's not actually workable time anyway - as in, making additional money, I tend to finish off actual job work on the way home. Still, for £50 a month, I think the easiest gain will be to faff less with my food/other budget, which should give me the same savings. Think I'll try that first.

THAT's what I mean, Holmes, about 'savings'! They're not really are they, they're just sums of money you need to pay out in the near future. My aim is to have a sort of permanent savings pot that isn't allocated to anything, that I can swish around accounts making money on. And one day, even be able to lock away for longer without fearing I'll need some in the next few months to pay a bill.

FloraandFauna

Anddddd I've changed my mind again. That swapped section of commuting time is not extra money earning time, so it's irrelevant really whether it's in the car or in the train. Except that in the car I'll be saving £1.50 every trip. I might try it for a couple of days this week and see how it feels. Then reassess.

mark55man

please also note that by driving at your cars most efficient rate you could increase mileage per tank 5% to 10% or a saving of about £5 per tank

FloraandFauna

mark88man wrote: »

please also note that by driving at your cars most efficient rate you could increase mileage per tank 5% to 10% or a saving of about £5 per tank

Ahhh, yes, being an ifs and buts sort of a girl, I've already tested that one out... : )

Tried the trip once driving at stressy hurry up hurry up! levels, then fortunately on the second trip got stuck behind a lorry, so had a very relaxed non-fussy journey. Was really pleased to find that even sitting behind something didn't affect journey times too much.

@55mph @45mph
20 mins 24 mins
13 miles 13 miles
53 mpg 80 mpg

£510 p.a. £340 p.a.

I've based my £50 per month saving on slightly more than the difference between these - £450 a year petrol costs plus the cheaper Season ticket. So even if I do have to drive like the wind half the time it should come in ok. I do, of course, plan to drive very sedately and see if I can't get even more savings out of it.

Well, that sounds like I've convinced myself!

FloraandFauna

Payday today, PLUS the free bingo people have finally paid out! That means an additional OP made this morning of:

35.84 free bingo (the most boring two hours of my life yet)
19.80 expenses
7.63 prolific

... comes to about £63 but rounded up to £70. Really happy about this. Together with the £100 OP that goes out as a standing OP with the main mortgage payment, that puts me at £170/£300 target already this month, and I've only just been paid!

Now need to get a hustle on to find the other (IMPOSSIBLE TARGET REMEMBER!) £130 OP this month. Mortgage doesn't come out until around the 5th, so will be jigging about impatiently until then to see the numbers.

67p TT'd from current a/c to savings a/c, to OP when gets to £5.