Marginal Gains

South_coast

I'm always blown away by how much you manage to get done, CM - you're doing so, so well 😀!

Hope you're all recovered from the colds now, there's a really nasty one doing the rounds this year x

Cornish_mum

Thanks South coast! MrCM is back soon and I am going to put my feet up and do some gardening to celebrate!

Cornish_mum

Finally found time to sort out our numbers. Work was incredibly hectic then I went all out for Christmas.  We had a lovely time although, part of the family decided not to travel to the UK and MrCM brother’s family were isolating because their kids had omicron. 

We decided to dip into our savings to have a special Christmas this year and treat the kids and our families. We were incredibly lucky that we didn’t catch Covid and that everything went smoothly, so many of our friends Christmas plans were wrecked by kids catching the virus. MrCM organised a zoom New Year’s Eve party with games and a quiz for our nieces who were still self-isolating, poor things.

Totals for November and December combined 

Mortgage capital reduction £2000, outstanding 167k

AVC +£3000 each for both MrCM and I 

Cash +£1000 (this might be less as MrCM was paid more than expected for his second job (he just was due a retainer and the week and half of work he did just before Christmas). He is due a large amount of expenses from his first job so I hope this will even out. 

Spends (I went Christmas crazy)

Groceries £1600 for the 2 months (I just added it up and I am in complete shock). We hosted Christmas Day, this included booze & food gifts, wrapping paper etc and restocking the drinks cabinet. We have 12 bottles of wine plus loads of spirits and quite a bit of food left over. I just bought everything we all wanted and cooked a lot of fancy stuff from scratch. But yikes.

Car MOT and repairs £700. Our car is showing it’s age. We are likely going to need to replace it soonish.

Childcare £600 in November (I managed to pay December’s costs from vouchers)

A fish tank and various bits £300.

A bike for DS, we had been looking for a second hand one for ages, but as he needed a frame in between kids and adult standard sizes we weren’t having much luck. MrCM bought him a new good quality bike (£400). This will be for getting to school when he starts secondary and should last him until he grows into an adult frame. He has handed his old bike to DD.

Last minute panic adult Christmas gifts £200 (I had gifted experiences to my parents but they didn’t feel comfortable with attending so I had to get a last minute alternatives plus presents for my Dads birthday and Christmas present for my brother). 

Contribution to my brother’s 40th, £170.

Ice cream at Panto £16, program and lunch when I took DD to West End show (£45). Tickets bought earlier in the year.

Decluttering 

I managed to declutter our clothes just before Christmas and got rid of 2 bin bags of worn out unrepairable clothes. We also donated 7 bags to the charity shop. These had been accumulating for a while.

We tidied and slightly decluttered the little CMs bedrooms. 

I also donated 3 bags of gifts to the kids school. (the bargain present cupboard is now almost completely empty).

Frugaling

I repaired a black wool pullover that had been attacked by clothes moths. 

I repaired my glasses and a headband of DDs.

I replanted the bulbs I saved last spring. I also finally planted all the bulbs I bought this year.

I harvested kale and herbs from the garden. Carrots were full of maggots and leeks were full of beetles yuck.

I cooked our Christmas cake, pudding, mince pies, cakes for the kids and Christmas dinner from scratch. 

MrCM fixed our TV; as Netflix had stopped working (it took about an hour to do a full factory reset). 

MrCM fixed our washing machine, it had been making an odd noise for about 3 months and then wouldn’t drain. After it flooded the kitchen, MrCM managed to fix it. 5p coin had worked its way inside the drum and then got into the back of the filter. 

I kept food waste to a minimum over the holidays. Just some double cream and excess cranberry sauce chucked out. 

We covered holiday childcare ourselves. 

We did a furniture swap with a relative (old sofa for a desk). DS now has a full-sized desk which he needed. MrCM fixed up DS old one for DD with bits he already had. 

I bought discount charity Christmas cards on December 23rd.

Goals

We went to an in person Panto.

Tax returns sorted. 

I did sort out the garden (though quite a lot was done in December not November).

Drains still not fixed!

I didn’t worry about work over Christmas.

I didn’t make my savings target but will try again in January.

I used a Christmas voucher I was gifted to buy a new winter coat in the sales (the lining is torn and the zips on both pockets have broken on my current coat).

New Goals for January 

Stay calm at work 

Chase up drains.

Order no take aways

Keep food spends to £200 groceries and £50 out of the house. 

Buy pet fish

Open S&S JISAs for the little CMs. I have finally persuaded MrCM that this is a good idea and we have agreed on an ethical fund. 

Save £1500.

edinburgher

Love the aquarium purchase @Cornish_mum If you're a new fishkeeper, may I suggest reading up on the nitrogen cycle and fishless cycling? It may save some heartache down the line

Cornish_mum

Thanks Edinburgher. we are 3 weeks into a plants in but fishless cycle so far we have alot of algae and a couple of hardy snails that hitched a ride into the tank. I splurged on a proper API test kit. I am hoping it settles down soon!

debtfreeoneday

Glad you had a good one. Love the honesty about the spends. Life goes on and I think the main thing is being in control of it. Well done!  

Cornish_mum

Thanks Debtfree! 

Last day of the holiday. I am just reviewing 2021 progress.

Mortgage reduction 12k, 2k less than my target. However, I arranged a 5 year fix (with 1k fee) and reduced the term and interest rate. I have decided to focus on pensions and our ISAs rather than MOPs.

CM & MrCM AVCs +36k, 6k more than target.

Savings + 12k, 2k more than target.

We had a lovely family holiday in Norfolk, a trip to Legoland, 2 zoo trips and 2 theatre trips and Christmas with both sets of grandparents. 

MrCM really enjoyed cutting back on his second job and I survived two stages of our funding review at work. 

We have found a secondary school for DS (fingers crossed he gets a place) and DD is well settled at school.

We replaced 6 windows and a fence.

Goals for 2022

Mortgage-12k

Combined AVCs +36k (match this year and increase contributions when MrCM restarts second job)

Savings 8k for a holiday to visit MiL home country (its a long way and we need to pay for a hire car & accommodation, during peak season).

Saving 5k (ISAs long-term)

Fix drains (we have the money set aside for this)

Visit Harry Potter World

Visit a zoo and the theatre

Lose 5kg (my goal every year since DS was born!) & take more exercise. 

Cornish_mum

First frugal fail of 2022, I was in the office today so left prepared components of a healthy veg curry for MrCM to assemble for dinner so we won’t have takeout. I just got in and he added sweetened condensed milk (he thought it was coconut milk)… to it. It’s properly vile! 

He’s just ordered takeout. 

Cornish_mum

Frugal January is going quite well apart from the curry disaster. We had homemade pizza as a Saturday treat but MrCM and I are both on diet (no puds, no snacks and subbing half our carbs for extra helping of veggies). 

Family fun has involved buying and caring for our new pet fish, making gingerbread men and walking at Nature reserves. Little CMs have been using the new to them desks for homework and MrCM and I are both back to work (though we both had a relatively quiet first week back). 

Kids both caught covid this week at school, so we are back to home school.  Both the little CMs are fine and we are allowed to WFH during the isolation period. 

Spends

Groceries £53 January week 1 & £51 January week 2. (Not buying meat or alcohol this month just using what we already have.)

DS lunch money top up £80

CMs Coffee and water at the office £4.05 (forgot my water bottle).

Takeaway (because of MrCM curry disaster) £15

New pet fish £21

Fish food £12

Gift for DD friends birthday £8

Scouts subs £30

Commuting costs £50.

Frugaling

I mended my slippers again.

Turned up trousers for DS.

Listed an item on gumtree.

MrCM did a minor fix on our hoover and bathroom extractor fan.

Took pack lunch to work last week.

Money News

Turns out MrCM wasn’t over paid for second job but will get paid almost his normal salary as a retainer! Unexpected bonus. So we have upped his AVCs to 40% for the next few months, as a way to save this unexpected money tax efficiently.

Cornish_mum

The last couple of weeks have been all topsy-turvy because of Covid. There was an outbreak at the kids school, so they shut the wrap-around care. Then both DS & DD caught Covid, then a few days later I caught Covid. I was pretty sick and had to go into hospital for antiviral treatment. All on the mend now and very glad that MrCM didn’t get sick and that the children only had very mild symptoms.

In other news the drains have been finally fixed, so great to have that sorted out. DD has switched her activity from gymnastics to swimming classes and is trying Rainbows. DS had a week of cycling classes at school and cycled home from school with MrCM, which I am very proud of.

Frugaling

Sold an item on gumtree for £10.

Deep cleaned our oven and extractor fan, saving us £180.

Booked half term childcare using vouchers £300.

Cut DDs hair.

Spends for Week 3 & 4

Groceries week 3 January £142, week 4 £48. Total for the month £290. (includes house hold items like toothpaste and loo roll).

DS school trip £11

Drain repair £2600

Childcare £230

Commuting costs £52

Work lunch and coffee £10

DS haircut £17.50

Month End Totals

 😫 to the equities crash, will just keep plodding with our plans.

MrCM AVC account £3200 loss (his employer didn’t put through his increased AVC request; he will chase up.)

CM AVC account £2000 loss

My S&S ISA has also lost. Boo.

Mortgage balance £166,000 reduction £1000. We have 13 years left on the term.

Cash improvement £0 (we ended up paying for the whole drains bill from income as we spent very little this month because of the virus), so we didn’t touch our savings this month.

January Goals

All things considered I am pleased with how we managed. Although we went over my very tight groceries budget, meals out of the house, childcare and commuting costs were less than expected. We did have one take away but managed not to let it become a habit. MrCM finally put in his expenses claim. 

February Goals

Save £1000 (and make sure MrCM makes extra AVC)

Organise our cash and redistribute (I have fixed rate accounts maturing and too much spare just sitting in our joint account).

Book Harry Potter World tickets

Arrange MrCM birthday day out 

Have a day in the garden and start planting seeds.

Groceries £350 (will need to buy fish & meat but will see if we can go another month without buying booze)

Try to take a pack lunch at least once a week when I am in the office. 

Stop stressing out about work (not doing very well on this one currently).