Marginal Gains

Cornish_mum

Month End Update

Mortgage 196,440 (reduction 675) plus paid our £999 rearrangement fee for new deal which starts tomorrow.

Education fund £17,395 (+£752).

AVC CM’s £650 (I can’t check DHs but it’s a bit more than that). Plus DB contributions.

I didn’t make my December savings target because of paying our mortgage rearrangement fee upfront but that will be MSE in the long run. So my goal for January is 1100 to education fund savings.

The last few days were unexpectedly spendy because of 3 meals out and a family day trip, this was an extra £200 :eek: so I am glad we covered without blowing our budget.

In total we put around 3000 into our long term financial goals in December. :j Which I am really pleased with. DH second job paid quite a bit less than expected, :mad:, so he is going to look into that and hopefully he will receive the extra money next quarter.

Freezer and cupboards are completely full so hopefully I will be able to keep grocery bill down in January. The fridge has some very random stuff left in it, so will need to be creative in the kitchen:p.

Will post 2020 goals later as pretty exhausted from trip to see extended family.

Cornish_mum

The new mortgage has started and interest is down to £6.67 a day, which feels so much more manageable.

In other news we received a rather unexpected 10k windfall. So far we spent £120 on a new vacuum cleaner (our old one has a broken part which would cost £53 to replace, was more than 10 years old and really smells despite both me and DH pulling it apart and cleaning every bit of it). The replacement of our vacuum was condition of the windfall (don’t ask). We kept the old one as a spare for parts etc.

I moved 3k straight into the children’s savings accounts currently receiving 3% interest. These are now maxed out. I used another 1100 to make a MOP and ~1000 to contribute 1500 to pension ACVs via DH sacrificing an extra chunk of salary this month.

Not sure of what to do with the other 4700 and my regular savings going forward. I won’t need this money for 5 years because we already have enough saved in cash to subsidise years 7-10 of school fees for DS. Given our employment situation is stable for another 4.5 years, I could start saving for my 2028 EF pot now and then fill my 2027 and 2026 pots in 2022. I am wondering whether to start putting some money into an S&S ISA with this goal in mind. Inflation is going to pose a risk for cash savings over this time-scale so I could mitigate this by a bit of diversification.


2020 goals

Fun (budget 4k)
DH big birthday weekend in February (booked).
EuroDisney and trip to see family in April
A week in Cromer in late August
A summer trip to London Zoo
DS birthday treat
DD birthday party

House and garden (budget 500)
Declutter one room per month (January will be the Kitchen and February the dinning room.)
Get boiler serviced
March buy sand for kids sandpit when on sale, plant climbing plants around kids play house, plant salads and herbs (look for containers and cloches for free), jet wash patio. Divide plants and take cutting of rosemary and lavender to increase stocks.

Savings 2020 goals
15k into Education fund. Aim for 5k into S&S ISA. Find a 2% products for the remaining 10k (regular savers to start with).
Up DH AVCs to 21% plus £1500 as a one off payment in January. (done)
MOPs try for 4K but accept this might not be possible.

Frugaling
At least 52 packed lunches (2)
No more than 52 hot drinks out of the house (flat-whites) (0)
12 Gumtree listings (0)

I bought 14m of Christmas wrapping paper for 30p in MrW this morning... and resisted the 10p mince pies. That’s a frugal win!:T

South_coast

Hi Cornish_mum, congratulations on the windfall. Great 2020 goals, a real mix of money aims and life well-lived

Cornish_mum

Quiet weekend as DH and I were feeling really shattered but we did some chores and played Lego and football (after a fashion) with the kids.

DH resealed the shower. He did a great job despite spending the whole time swearing about it.

I took down Christmas Decorations with DD (which is a job I love doing as it makes the house feel so much lighter and bigger once it’s done).
I batched cooked pasta sauce (beef and veggie versions) 9 meals worth for the 4 of us.
I decluttered tupperware/kitchen cupboard and found we had about 40 lids with no matching containers (I have no idea how this happened). Food cupboard will be done next weekend.
I cleaned the kids shoes which was hideous, as DH took them on some very muddy walks wearing them as he forgot wellies.
I mended a small tear in DD coat, and made chocolate chip cookies with DD from the store cupboard.

Yesterday morning I bought 5pairs of Christmas cotton socks for £4.25 in MrW and got a free coffee. Today I packed homemade soup for lunch.

2020 packed lunches 3/52, flat-white 0/52.

becky170

I have the opposite Tupperware problem...I have containers but no lids :rotfl:

South_coast

You should have swapped :rotfl:!

We should set up a container-lost-and-found - next stop, Dragons' Den....

Cornish_mum

:rotfl::rotfl: they have already gone to recycling. It’s still a mystery to me where all the containers went... I remember throwing a few away that cracked.

Cornish_mum

Last week was quite dull nothing too stressful or unexpected; so that’s a win. But after the Christmas “break” my work motivation isn’t the highest, I feel I am very slowly plodding up a very steep hill. Only one long offsite day (6.20-9pm out of the house). DH was away on Friday so I dropped off kids and babysitter picked up.

I used topcashback for train tickets for work (I hadn’t been doing this previously which was really silly). Online groceries came in at £43 plus top up of 2.20 (emergency loo roll) and 2.50 (nice bread).

DH had to work all weekend, poor him :(so I didn’t get much done. I made one extra meal of roasted veg, frittata for lunches and a bit of extra tuna pasta sauce. Kids and I managed to clear out half of the food cupboard (DS was in charge of checking dates, DD of matching tins and jars into groups). We only had a little bit to throw out and a few things to use up. We planted a few seeds in the garden and I did 10 minutes of weeding and cutting back.

Kids and I visited local museums on Sunday afternoon, we had drinks and biscuits/cake £8.40, £6 on reduced Christmas decorations and our bus fare was £3. The museums were both free entry.

Took a pack lunch today, plus free coffee,
I picked up DS from school so £2 on bus fare and also bought posh bread £3.60 as it was all that was left in bakery.

I have been reading the prudent homemaker blog she has 9 children, a beautiful garden and makes her own bread I am secretly envious... but 9 kids:eek::eek:

Cornish_mum

Money wise not much occurring. Online groceries were £79, plus £2.50 top up on cheese and tomatoes. Work has been extremely busy and stressful for both me and DH, which has been exhausting for us as we are working every evening and at weekends as well as full time during the week, but at least we have secure jobs which pay well so must not grumble.

Frugal wins
2 packed lunches and 2 free lunches last week. Packed lunch again yesterday and today. I am doing a bit better on this one than I expected.
Put in 2 delay repay claims.
Was issued a free coffee because of awful trains.
Cut DDs hair, took a few goes but looks ok now. Most importantly she is happy.
Weekend spend was low, just bus fare of £7.80. we visited, a country park, the library and botanical garden all for free, and brought snacks and drinks with us.
Paid half term and January childcare for DS with vouchers, my account is very low now, so I might need to top up with cash for February’s costs.


Frugal fails
Err my hot drink from cafe challenge is not going very well so far 7/52..:mad:. the plan was to limit it to 1 a week... (even if I deduct the free one) I am way over. Boo - I am officially addicted to flat-whites.

Cornish_mum

Work is extremely busy but feel I am just about keeping on top of it all.

This week has been lots of money out but doesn’t feel spendy as all was necessary or highly valued spending.

Only bought one coffee before a particularly hideous work meeting on Wednesday morning. So that’s an improvement. Plus took in 2 packed lunches.

Groceries came in at £57. Batched cooked chicken and sweet potato curry, carrot soup and mac n cheese. DD and I also baked chocolate chip cookies and I made a batch of popcorn.

DD needed new shoes again (£44), DS and DD needed new trousers £17, I also spent £10 on gift for birthday party for DD, £21 on cards (I bulk bought in card factory plus some multipacks in JL), £5 on seeds and a plant in Wilko and £2.25 on topping up our free coffee and cake in JL to make it stretch to the 3 of us.

A style of brogue I really like have just come out in a wide-fit and brown. Last year I searched high and low for this style of shoe in this colour; so I treated myself to a pair for £65. Also ordered a small gift for DHs birthday.

I booked half term holiday club and payed this months after school club bill with vouchers. Paid the fees for various clubs for DS £35 which is absolutely worth every penny.

Frugalish things

Renegotiated house insurance saving £85 on initial quote. The spend will come out in February.

DH has been paid and all his extra pension contributions were taken as planned which is great as it keeps him in the lower rate tax band and below CB threshold. I am going to let this run for another month with the extra contributions and use the windfall money to top up cash flow.

Entertainment this weekend was garden football and a trip to the woods. Saturday afternoon was spent shopping with the kids, while DH worked. That was definitely not entertaining but was unfortunately necessary on account of DD needing shoes.

Triple checked DH wasn’t over the CB threshold for 2018-19, and he was under so no need for a self assessment this year as everything else is PAYE and silly man never claims for all his extra work at other institutions.

Applied for a new regular saver at 2.75%.