Giving every £ a job

savingholmes

There's nothing like heat to make us appreciate rain.

Love the overnight oats with the freebies in it too.

ladyholly

I wish we could have some rain. None in forecast until Sunday!

foxgloves

What a nice idea to take your breakfast out for a sort of early picnic to start the day, @Blackcats. I might have to borrow that. We really only tend to make a packed breakfast for long journeys with early starts. Our village is very close to the riverside though, & I think that two people quietly eating breakfast with a flask of coffee peacefully on a bench might even get to see an early morning kingfisher if they were very lucky. Must remember to do this some time.
F x

Sarahwithlove

We had rain yesterday whilst I was on my beach walk it was bliss! 

Blackcats

Thank you SH - it's was a great way to use and enjoy freebies.
hope you've had some rain now LadyHolly - we've had a few rain showers over the last few days but levels in our village pond are about as low as I can ever remember.
foxgloves - an early morning sight of a kingfisher would be amazing.   I live quite near a lot of horse racing stables and whilst I don't particularly like horse racing it's lovely to watch the horses exercise on the gallops in the morning.  They are incredible looking animals at the peak of their fitness.  
sarahwithlove - beach walk with rain sounds nice.  There will be plenty of time for us all to complain about rain again in the winter.  Your signature is amazing - what great debt reduction. Well done! 

No plans for this weekend - I'm grateful we don't have to travel any distance by road, sea or air.  It's payday on Monday so I'm going to do a Foxgloves' style big budget couple of hours to organise budget pots, bills etc.  I'm actually looking forward to it, I now enjoy topping up savings instead of rushing to shops to spend my wages as soon as they hit the bank.  Mind you a finite number of remaining paydays does help focus the mind - July, August and September are full pay months, then October will be 2 days a week pay and first pension payment.  

Sun_Addict

Getting so close now 😃

savingholmes

Horse watching sounds fun.

Good luck with the budget. Very exciting to be getting so hear reducing your hours some more and having more time for you.

Blackcats

Thank you SH and SA - yes it's very exciting now although I'm keen to have more details from my pension provider just to know the choices I have regarding how much annual pension v lump sum I take.  I do have a contact number now and I know that they have received my application.

did some shredding and sorting in my office room today - no idea why I don't  just deal with the paperwork when it arrives instead of putting it in a huge pile.  Also had a bit of a budgeting brainwave today .... I keep my monthly budget plan, actual spends and record of my savings pot in a notebook and find myself flicking back between months so today I've transferred to a folder, with dividers for each month and plastic wallets (plastic wallets make me happy 🤩).  So finances are up to date and I've now paid 60% of the council tax - yay.  My current gas/electricity direct debit is still covering usage with about £35 to spare.  Once the heating is back on then the usage will exceed the direct debit.  I'm just building up as much credit as I can and getting into good habits with reducing use.

joedenise

I used to be the same with paperwork and hated having to have a shredding session!  I'm now much better and tend to shred as I go and don't have piles to deal with any more!

I'm doing the same with the gas/electric DD - using quite a bit less than we are paying.  According to my smart meter app we have used just over £55 so far this month (up to 28th) and currently paying £145 so building up quite a bit of credit and hopefully won't need to put it up too much come October!  I've also added a line to my YNAB for extra gas/elec if necessary but it's only really Tilly Tidies at the moment as have a couple of holidays booked and need to also save for those!

QueenJess

Shredding as you go is definitely the solution. This is what I try to do, but DH creates far more than me (my stuff is all online these days, but he likes paper) and sadly he prefers to stack it up so it never works. I end up leaving it ages and then it takes forever to shred it all!