Marginal Gains

savingholmes

I go into shock at current prices - especially when official statistics claim prices have gone up 4.4% Pull the other one!!

LadyWithAPlan

Cornish_mum said:

I just have to share my absolute shock butter is £2.15 for 250g in MrS 😱. It was £1.50 last year. Looks like it’s banana on toast for the foreseeable. 

In other news, our annual leave has started. I took DD to the theatre today for a treat. We took the bus into town (£2 each), had lunch at home, went to look round a free science centre and just treated ourselves to a very nice ice cream. MrCM took DS to an event at his favourite museum, to the optician and for chicken and chips. 

We also bought the new kids school shoes £57 (I used a TCB gift card for the balance). DS old shoes don’t meet the uniform policy at his secondary so he needed another new pair. DD’s feet had only gone up a half size and her plimsolls and trainers were fine so that kept the costs down.

We had a lovely first day off; tomorrow I need to clean and pack before we leave for our holiday. It’s going to be hectic as I have so much to do, but nice busy as I do love a home day having a good sort out.

Yes food prices have gone mad, and that £6.50 bread!

I am aiming to keep out the shops as much as possible for the next 2 weeks.

There is a new bread maker here where I am staying at a family members looking after various pets  and I made GF bread in it yesterday - ingredients cost about £1.30  plus electricity and absolutely delicious! No preservatives but GF bread is now over £3 a loaf and this was much better.

Cornish_mum

Thanks for stopping by!

Making our own bread is a great idea, we used to make it but have gotten out of the habit. We make homemade pizza regularly (as we can make it healthy for the kids and sneak extra veggies in the sauce). We don’t have a bread maker just use our stand mixer. 

CM

Cornish_mum

Sneaks in quietly, whoops hadn’t realised it had been quite so long since I last posted. 

All has been busy in the CM household. DS has started secondary and it’s gone really well, he seems very happy and got a reasonable end of term report. DD is settled in her new class and is her usual cheerful self. MrCM is now officially promoted and has managed to drop some parts of his second job that he found extremely stressful. I still am awaiting a funding decision on whether my contract will be renewed or not. I have completed quite a few side jobs, even been paid for some of them and have more booked in. 

Year End Totals

Mortgage -12k total left to pay £155000.
Pensions AVC pots CM and MrCM combined +27k
Savings minus 9k

Well 2022 didn’t turn out as expected. We ended up needing to do a couple of emergency repairs (fence and most recently the roof when it started raining inside) and to buy a new to us car. 

We substituted an overseas holiday for a UK break, to try to completely avoid blowing the budget. I have managed to trim groceries and gift costs to offset the impact of inflation but the costs of activities, school events and clothes for the kids has really gone up, which has impacted on our savings rate.

We are very fortunately on a very low fix for the mortgage which has another 4-years to run, so no OPs. Instead I am aiming to save in fixed rate accounts, with the goal of being mortgage neutral by December 2026.

And most unexpectedly of all; I finally lost the 5kg I have been trying to drop since DS was born. Thanks to the NHS weight loss app!

I feel incredibly grateful for all I have learned on the MSE forum that’s meant we were in a good position with wiggle room to absorb everything that 2022 threw at us. Thanks to everyone and I hope we all have a good 2023.

2023 goals to follow 

savingholmes

Happy New Year. Glad things are going well.

Cornish_mum

2023 Goals

Money
Mortgage -12k (nothing to do just letting our fix run).

AVC CM and MrCM to continue to contribute an extra 20% by salary sacrifice into our pension schemes ethical fund, because of a change in our pension conditions some of our employer and employee regular contributions will also go into this DC pot too. 

Continue with CM S&S ISA contributions £250/month.

Add 9k to our savings to bring us back to January 2022 level (before we bought the new car). This will be saved as an informal mortgage offset (into 3-4 year fixed rate saver), with the aim of reaching mortgage neutrality in December 2026 when our fix ends.

Fun
Visit to HP World with DS for his birthday

DD birthday party  
DS and DD day trip to a London museum.
Holiday in Portugal.
Panto trip and theatre trip for both kids.
Have a date night or two with MrCM.

Work
Get my contract renewed or find another job.
Stop worrying about things that are not under my control.

Health
Lose another 3kg.

becky170

Good luck for meeting all your aims in 2023! I like the idea of having fun goals as well

savingholmes

Love the fun goals. Love HP world in particular.

Cornish_mum

Hello All,

We have made some changes to our financial goals this year, as unexpectedly MrCM parents gifted us some money after they disposed of an asset. This was motivated by my MIL having some serious health concerns, which is very worrisome for all of us.  

We have put the money into a fixed cash ISA (virg!n money 4.1%) as we feel uncomfortable about the gift and plan to have it on hand in case they need it back to make their lives easier.  So we thought a cash ISA would be the best option. This is ring fenced money and won’t be added to our savings totals.

This situation has also made us think about fun more and finances less.

We have booked a longer than usual holiday to visit Portugal in the summer to spend more time with MIL. This was very spendy as we are travelling in school holidays (flights were 2k, accommodation 1.5k, insurance £150, new passports x2 £107). We will need to hire a car for ~ 100 Euro/day (it’s a small island so very limited options during peak season). When we are there we want to make sure we have lots of fun so will have a healthy budget. DD and DS are very excited but disappointed that all there cousins won’t be there at the same time (we are deliberately spreading out our visits so MIL has family visiting from June through September).

I also finally bought Harry Potter World tickets for me and DS and today MrCM and I are going for a lunch date! Next week we are going to take my parents for Sunday lunch. A few weeks ago I went on a night away with my two SIL it was brilliant fun and cost £150 each (hotel, dinner, hot chocolate and cocktails!)

My goal this year is now to make sure 1) we don’t spend more than we earn, 2) we keep on saving extra into our pensions/S&S ISAs and 3) we enjoy family time especially with the older members of the family. 

As 3 is going to cost more than expected, we won’t be able to also fill our mortgage neutral pot this year (we need 9K saved by December 26). Instead I will now aim to add £2000 this year, so we still end up mortgage neutral (including savings interest) by the end of the fix but don’t rush to do it at the expense of enjoying the time we have now. 

On the MSE front I have stopped buying flat whites and lunch at work routinely, so far this year I have only bought 4 coffees and 3 lunches (this is a big improvement).  I negotiated £30 off our house insurance renewal. I have kept our groceries budget on track by adding Jacket potatoes to our evening meal rotation (which I cook when we have our oven on for homemade pizza night). 

MrCM is owed expenses and side income still (he hasn’t done the paperwork despite my constant nagging). His argument is it’s better for him to spend time on activities that will get him another promotion (as in the long term that’s more financially lucrative). To be honest he’s right, as him moving up the career ladder is a game changer especially for our early retirement goals. Will still nag him though, as it messes up my numbers and honestly the forms take 20 minutes to do. 

I am planning on just doing quarterly numbers as our income and outgoing are so erratic that makes better sense.

CM

Cornish_mum

Half term progress

Frugal things (extra income)
initiated a NW bank switch; hopefully to net £150 bonus.
submitted a delay repay claim.
MrCM has submitted his expenses!

Frugal things (spending less)
Packed lunch and kitchen coffee at work.
DS and I ate up leftovers and took pack lunch when I took him to a half-term activity.

Decluttering 
managed to donate 2 boxes and 2 bags to cs. This includes too small shoes and coats.