Marginal Gains

savingholmes

Great news on the expenses and other refunds

Cornish_mum

Thanks savingholmes!
CM

Cornish_mum

Changed my payment card to take advantage of Nat&£wide supermarket cash back offer.  Hopefully we will net £50 for the duration of the offer. 

Aiming to achieve £150 of side income and money for nothing (bank switches, delay repay, top cash back etc) per month this year.  I will track when money is paid rather than the work done. 

CM

savingholmes

Great goal. I am tempted by another bank switch but don't want the complexity. My accounts also have good savings rates for linked accounts... 

Cornish_mum

2023 Q1 totals

Mortgage 3k capital repayment (152k left to pay).
Pensions AVC pots; CM increase £4230;
MrCM increase £6750.
ISA S&S CM increase £1100; MrCM “increase” £456 (investment loss of £44).
Cash Savings increase £6k.

Side income £313 (missed my £450 target).

I missed my side income target mainly because I didn’t receive a N@twest switch bonus (as I had forgotten I had one in March 2018 & thus was not eligible). Otherwise super happy with our progress.  MrCM second job income and reduced childcare costs helped us to save this quarter. We had big lumpy expenses for our holidays (summer and 3-days in the  Cotswolds) and a replacement gate.

CM household news

Work has been very busy for both MrCM and I, many long days, weekends and work trips away from home which has been eating into family time, unfortunately. This is likely to continue alas; as work returns to normal post pandemic. We have been spending our free time with our parents as much as possible, so we are both quite frazzled.  Next week I hope we can have 3-days off together for some quality family time and I plan to take the kids to London for a day out.

My work contract was renewed for another 5-years, which is great news financially. 

We managed to keep MrCM income to below the child benefit threshold with a good safety margin, so I hope we can just leave his AVCs running. I will just review again at Christmas. The pension changes for the next tax year mean I don’t need to worry about needing to use carry forward if he exceeds the old AA.

Goals for the next quarter
Match Q1 financial progress
Enjoy family mini holiday and London day out
DS family birthday party and birthday treat
HP World in June (finally)
Spend time with our parents 
Tidy up the garden

I hope everyone has a very happy Easter 

CM

savingholmes

Great stuff. 🐰Happy Easter 🐣🐇

Cornish_mum

I feel like our work lives are huge grinds at the moment. This is causing me to spend too much time dreaming about mortgage freedom and early retirement. In reality, even with everything going to plan we have 15-17 years to go. Which is a big chunk of my life, so I thought I would try and write down some positive things to focus on “enjoying the journey”.

Firstly, a few frugal/money saving things

I received the N@wide reward £100 email and I hope MrCM will also be eligible. I am also carefully doing their groceries cash back.
When we had our electricity meter switched, the engineer misread the dials (despite me having a long conversation about it with him). I complained to Oct0pus (with photos) and got a full refund in 2-days.
DS needed a desktop computer for homework, MrCM asked around at work and the IT department gave him an old one for free. 
I have reduced my lunch and flat white spending at work; and finally think I have cracked this.
I found a very nice top at the local c/s for £8, rather crazy that this price is a bargain.
I sorted out the kids savings, to maximise their interest rates and also allocate some of their savings to an ESG S&S fund. 

Money Goal
To focus on our key priorities and spend only on things that give us lasting value.

Treats and fun - enjoying the journey 
We had a really nice mini break in the Coltswolds. We went to a midrange Spa hotel and I had some treatments, the kids and MrCM enjoyed the fancy pool, we had a morning on a lake and visited three Roman sites. One of them had an amazing kids Gladiator experience on the day we visited (for free) which DS loved. It was all really good value and we managed to pack a lot into our 4 day weekend. We had a mini kitchen in our room so we self catered for most meals. Only annoying thing was we both had a couple of work issues crop up while we were away so unfortunately it wasn’t a full break. 

DS had a home family birthday party, and a day out with MrCM (they visited a shop/museum of type of Board-game that DS is really into currently). DS was very happy and MrCM was also very happy that the venue had a licensed bar, so he could have a cheeky pint with his lunch while he waited for DS!

I took DD and DS to London zoo, on one of the Bank Holidays when MrCM had to work. We took a pack lunch and had a great time but left earlier than usual because it started raining, was really packed and DD got very upset about how some of the other parents were treating their kids.

MrCM, DD and I managed to do a good bit of tidying in the garden. We decided to treat ourselves to new Sofa covers (as the old ones were mouldy), a few cheap plants (total £20) and a bit of fresh compost. 

New Fun Goals
DD wants to visit an exhibition at the Tate, so I will plan a day out around that for the summer.
Enjoy local free places to visit, with the kids and host play dates. Try for one fun activity every weekend.
Plan weekend away with a good friend.

South_coast

Cornish_mum said:

Money Goal

To focus on our key priorities and spend only on things that give us lasting value.

Treats and fun - enjoying the journey

I LOVE this - sounds excellent 😀

Good luck with the fun goals

savingholmes

Sounds like you did lots of memory making.

South_coast

Hey CM, hope all's well with you. You commented on my diary the other week, so just reminding you to update yours!