Moving forward and upwards

MovingForwards

savingwannabe wrote: »

Oooh well done on being MSE with the food and on the savings to your ISA. I hope payday is close by and am glad you have extras in your freezer. Here's to a good month.

Only 26 days til payday :rotfl:

MovingForwards

Weekend update:

My student vegi cookbook has arrived, it's in brand new condition

So far I haven't spent any money, I need to get some fruit and cheese for next week, so will have to go out at some point, probably tomorrow then I can rest up on Sunday.

Used some of my supermarket points and treated myself to a frying pan and oven casserole dish. Will see if anything else takes my fancy and use some more of that particular supermarket points.

Sold my surplus furniture to my flatmate, can't be leaving them with nothing when I eventually go, means I can do one van run when the time comes; keeps costs down and will allow me to buy whatever suits my new lifestyle. That money was moved to savings together with a bit of my food budget money.

Still been working my way through my freezer and cupboard supplies, got enough to last til payday and beyond, will do a big shop payday to fill it back up the end of the month. Lots of veg soup has been made, it's lovely to get in, put the hob on to warm it through, and get changed before settling down to eat it.

Got £45 to last me for food / petrol - 18 days time, not panicking as I've still got my survey points and a load of supermarket points left I have looked into my survey points and it seems I may be able to buy paint, therefore my plan is to keep doing the surveys, save the points and convert them to vouchers so I can decorate for free when the time comes :j

I've managed to catch a cold and am snuggled on the sofa feeling sorry for myself; somehow I cope being being in constant pain but getting ill on top of that just finishes me off!

Spending plans for January:

1. Buy a few boxes of hair dye (£10)
2. Buy some nail varnish (£2)
3. Do a monthly shop (£60)
4. Buy fruit, cheese, milk weekly (£5)

savingwannabe

I am sorry about the cold rest as much as possible. Hurrah for kitchen equipment. I think you are very organised with your food. I hope you have a restful weekend.

MovingForwards

savingwannabe wrote: »

I am sorry about the cold rest as much as possible. Hurrah for kitchen equipment. I think you are very organised with your food. I hope you have a restful weekend.

I'm feeling a little better today still tucked up on the sofa and listening to the rain, saves me washing my car :rotfl:

Been looking at microwaves today and other furniture. Going to start saving a small budget (£500) to get a few things.

I will admit to looking around online to see what the reclaimers have and my goodness there was some lovely old furniture, fire places etc, I've also been nosing around to see what IKEA have; I did this flat out with a mix of IKEA furniture and Argos sofas from BHF. I do quite fancy the large armchairs but at some point I will go to IKEA and BHF, all makes for a nice free day out!

I do like the IKEA daybed with under storage, but at the same time have seen a low cabin bed type bed with a table and storage units which would be great for a second bedroom; I'm thinking office / dressing room / guest room.

I'm keeping an eye on gumtree and local selling sites just in case anything really nice pops up.

But who knows what I will want when I'm ready, but my view is there's no harm seeing what is around, pricing, assessing my budgets and snapping anything fabulous up should it appear. I have the space in my bedroom for a few bits.

At some point this month I will go through my clothes, see what's good for charity, what I want to keep and wants only good for recycling. I can start packing my winter clothes into boxes.

savingwannabe

Oooh what an adventure. It is great that you are looking around for bargains. I spent a fortune on new things when I moved in and Steve and Andy my friends saved a fortune by shopping around! I do like the minimalism of Ikea and have their furniture in my bedroom. Love it.

I hope you are feeling better and have a good day.

savingholmes

HI MF - found you again. I hadn't realised I hadn't subscribed to your new diary so just thought you weren't posting. Things seem to be coming together for you even if it is frustrating about so many places wanting a bigger deposit.

MovingForwards

savingholmes wrote: »

HI MF - found you again. I hadn't realised I hadn't subscribed to your new diary so just thought you weren't posting. Things seem to be coming together for you even if it is frustrating about so many places wanting a bigger deposit.

I know you've a lot going on and didn't expect you to subscribe.

Things are coming together and I found the 20% deposit thing too much. To find an ex-council place valued at, or over, £75k was going to be tricky and where I was looking wasn't improving my potential commute time or cost, compared to looking over the water.

The areas were also typical residential areas, again not what I wanted. I want the cafe culture and feel of what I had when I first moved to Edinburgh, not the experience I have now where I have to drive / catch a bus just to buy a loaf of bread. But I just cannot afford to buy here, too many LLs, too many Airbnb, I was priced out about a year after moving up here, and on one salary, it isn't happening.

I accept that and will move to the vibe I'm after, but without the price tag! I want the option, not obligation, of driving, I want to be able to walk and look around local shops, find a little cafe to sit outside and people watch. I also need too think of when I'm older as who knows, how I will be when I retire; I want my little bit of paradise when buying :cool:

Over the weekend I worked out it would take me over 45 years, of today's commuting prices, to spend the difference in property prices between Edinburgh and other areas; it's a no brainer really as I can't save £100k, with each passing month it's getting more expensive round here (yes, there are a few cheap areas, but I'm not prepared to live in them :eek: ).

When I first moved to this ex-council flat, they were up for offers over £125k, one just sold for offers over £155k and within a few days of it being listed, that's in 17 months. I honestly don't think these flats are worth it!

No point saving hard, having maximum mortgage, if I've no spare money to save for maintenance, upgrading and general savings, I'm going the sensible route of nice home, lower price, with a work / life balance. It would be great to ditch a day at work in the future and not have to stay working full time. Once I buy, I can the start planning a holiday of a lifetime :T

14 days til payday and I've £45 still in the bank. Trying to resist sending some to savings

savingholmes

Sound like you have a clear plan. Hope you have a great week.

MovingForwards

Midweek update.

Haven't done a work update for a while

Was supposed to be attending training this morning, sadly my reasonable adjustment was disregarded / ignored (suitable chair request) and my boss pulled me out of the room after 15 minutes of faffing with the available chair! He saw the state of me after the last training session and wasn't prepared to subject me to increased pain by sticking around. I'm getting the trainer come to my office to do one2one training :eek:

My boss is now looking into one2one training for anything compulsory as he saw for himself how today's was messed up. (The last one I attended affected my health due to the air con being on full and an unsuitable chair).

I've been having an IBS flare up too and we were talking about it today, I explained what happens when it's an extreme flare up (hot / cold sweats, crippling tummy pain with risk of vomiting / passing out, together with screaming / crying due to pain, then waiting to recover) and agreed a plan just in case it happens at work as there is no way I'm getting round the building to the sick bay or even back to my office. So that was a worthwhile chat.

It feels so strange actually having a boss being accommodating, understanding how my health fluctuates, how different things affect my health and is putting changes in place.

Have been trying to understand all the different financial codes for purchases / spending and admitted I haven't got my head round which one goes with which and have been getting into a tiz about it the last two days. Apparently, I wasn't expected to be this far into my role yet and thought I would still be on the first aspect, not nearly learnt everything and already expanding parts of it with big plans to grow several areas of what I do :rotfl:

Got my 3 month review tomorrow and I asked what I need to bring and if I need to prepare anything, nothing is required and I can elaborate on my expansion plans to the other manager who will be in the meeting.

My department is over two sites, within this decade we should be one big site and all based at the other one. The expansion plans I have, for some of what I do, is over the next 2.5 years. Whilst I could easily put in place my plans for one aspect now (events, promotion, associated website etc), my site doesn't have the people capacity whereas the other site does

Anyhow, I've harped on enough about work, but you can see it's going really well for me :j

Stuck another fiver into MSA's.

Spent some money today on lunch, bus fares and I stopped off at the chippy on my way home due to being on the bus and it taking 90 minutes to get back tonight :eek:

Got £30 in the bank and payday is 13 days time :cool:

Bound to be other things I wanted to chat about, but as always I've written enough and can't remember what it was :rotfl:

MovingForwards

Friday update.

Had my 3 month probationary review yesterday, it went really well and I'm getting more things to do, looks like my boss got his way of getting me to do things over and above my role but there is a reason behind it, which I will share if it happens :shhh:

Been planning my future a bit since I started this job, I have a DB pension I'm paying into with them. Whilst I can't increase my monthly pension payments, I've got the necessary information to read through about AVCs. They mentioned buying an annuity with the AVCs when I retire, but I'm not sure that is what I want, I must look into pensions a lot more. I know what I want to achieve, it's how to go about getting it on my salary.

I'm torn between increasing my S&S ISA, doing a self-managed S&S collection, pension cash/long-term savings, AVCs or a combination of them.

I've set myself a target date of August (annual payrise) to have a plan formulated.

Starting to gather up sturdy boxes from work, will bring some home each month, scale down my possessions and pack the remainder. I don't want a mad panic rush to move when the time comes, it stressed me out too much relocating and then again when I had to move rentals. I want to set the pace and take it slowly.

Don't think I've said, I've moved my savings around so I've a decent amount in a reasonable interest paying account, means I will get about £12 a month in interest for the one account, which all helps.

I have reclaimed two current accounts from property savings; one is now my car fund the other is currently furniture, but will be turned into property repair fund in due course. It is very strange just having two savings accounts for my deposit / associated fees.

I'm slowing my savings down a bit from this month, will be putting £700 into property savings, £25 into PB and £25 between car / furniture; need to get my car fund up a bit more by April for my insurance.

I have to break the habit I've got into of saving every penny, it's ok for me to get my hair cut every few months, go for a coffee occasionally and still save. I will plan my fun budget in April and give myself a small cash allowance. Not that I'm concerned I will be back to no money and in debt, that's a road I'm never going down again, just to do everyday normal things and not think I should save the money, I can do both.

January Plans:

Got an exciting morning planned for tomorrow.....I'm off to IKEA :rotfl:

Next weekend I'm off to BHF.

February Plans:

Next months exciting day out will be to have a nose round reclaimers see what they have in and how the prices sit with me.

Currently got £25 in the bank and 11 days til payday.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!