Giving every £ a job

Blackcats

QuuenJess - I feel for you with the poor behaviour in the workplace.  Why can't people just do their work and be nice to each other?  I've been looking at manoeuvring and manipulating from a senior colleague this week.  I'm trying not to react to it but their behaviour really challenges my values.

foxgloves in the end we made more elderberry cordial - quick and easy.  Need to get ahead of ourselves with our apples now.  I remember back in feb or March finding a small tub of frozen stewed apples lurking in the depths of the freezer - we added it to our porridge and it made us very happy!

thanks SH.  The week just gone was my last ever week of full time working - hooray.

I've been surprised how affected I've been by the death of the Queen.  She has been such a constant in our lives and a remarkable woman.  I'm glad that the jubilee celebrations demonstrated the affection many people felt for her.  

My September budget pots have already gone wonky but I've made some adjustments and hopefully they will balance themselves.  We are away on holiday at the end of next week and I'm trying to spend as little as possible on food til we go.  We will need some milk and perhaps some fruit but other than that should be ok.  I'm going to budget £20 max.  It's a self catering holiday but we've planned a few eating out treats.  Realistically though I think I haven't budgeted enough - mm - will need to have a good think about that.

Sun_Addict

I think you’d have to be a very hard person indeed not to be affected by the loss of our Queen. She’s just always been there. I turned up for work yesterday to a very sombre mood, the flag at half mast, flowers on the steps up to the office and security guards with heads bowed. 

Great news you’ve done your last full time week 🥳

savingholmes

Enjoy your holiday. 

Great on the work milestone.

Blackcats

Thank you SH and SH.

we've been doing our own winter fuel saving plan this weekend - inspired by Foxgloves.

we have blinds at all windows and will pull these down and tilt the slats as dusk falls.  Our hall has a large bay window and we usually keep the blinds pulled up - we aren't overlooked and this maximises the light but will pull them down in the late afternoon.  Our front door is very nice but very draughty.  We've found a fairly ok full length curtain in the garage, curtain pole (missing brackets which we've bought replacements for) and this is being put up this week (or so I've been promised).

we do have curtains at the lounge patio doors.  On closer inspection yesterday we realised that they were a bit grubby so they've gone to the dry cleaners .....£60 😱

im going to make a flask of tea on work days to keep in the office - I drink a lot of tea so will have a morning flask and afternoon flask.

cooking will mostly be air fryer, slow cooker and hob.  Washing dried on line or heated airier - NO tumble drying.

2 table lamps in the lounge rather than the 4 we currently use.

both of our cosy dressing gowns are washed and ready.  Our downstairs duvets are ready.

we already turn off tv, sky box etc at night rather than on standby.

every little helps.

the £60 dry cleaning bill was not factored into this month's budget - neither of us are keen to offer up our personal spends budget to cover the costs.  Cats seem reluctant to compromise their monthly budget too.  

So £10 from petrol, £20 from grocery, £20 from eating out and £10 from personal spends. 

savingholmes

Hope the curtains appreciate your hard earned dosh...

Hope your winter heating plan works out. I'm still debating buying more curtains. I have others I plan to let go of though... so feel guilty - but hate some of my existing (not currently up) ones.

Cheery_Daff

Lots of good winter planning there, well done!

Sun_Addict

Although I originally didn’t want blackout curtains in my living room (they were the only ones I could find in the colour I wanted) as they are also thermal I suspect I’ll be glad of them come winter. They should keep the heat in. 

I can’t believe how expensive dry cleaning is 😱 Our local launderette has a dry cleaning machine you operate yourself, not used it but presumably a lot cheaper. 

Blackcats

SH and SA - I was taken aback by the dry cleaning costs, but they are nice, made to measure lined curtains so it's worth getting them cleaned properly.
Mr BC was busy looking at curtains on-line - he showed me a pair of brown curtains with orange circles on for £20.  Nothing wrong with brown and orange curtains but our lounge is soft blue with hints of turquoise 🤦‍♀️

thanks for the encourage to Cheery.

I've been thinking about a comment on BenBen's diary - making more money and spending less money.  As I move into semi-retirement my income will be different.  It will come from different sources at different times and I need to adapt my budgeting to that.  

At first I thought that I wouldn't be able to make more money but of course I can do some things to bring in money.  For me, that currently means ensuring my savings are working hard for me - I've just opened a Raisin account using MSE link which got me £55 cash back and 2.6% interest.   I will have a pension lump sum so need to use that wisely and well.  I might do some bank account switching and there are lots of things I can sell.

I'm thinking of doing a big finance day once a month - like Foxgloves does her big budget day.  Give my money the time and attention I give to my job.

the spending less part is work in progress and I feel strangely excited by the chance to be more thoughtful and frugal with money.

foxgloves

Aww, @Blackcats - I feel proud that my Big Budget Day has had a mention! I still do it every month on pay-day. I believe it has been a keystone in both getting & keeping us debt free. You'll remember I came to budgeting late in life, in my 40s, & once I'd got my system working, I wished I'd discovered it in my 20s. I stick to the same budget cycle each month. 27th is payday so my new budget for the month begins on that day, when I spend a morning at my desk reconciling previous month's budget & setting the new one. I also do general financial admin then too, updating my 3 spreadsheets, filing, etc. For budget maintenance, I do updates every Monday morning, shifting funds around as necessary. I also do a mid-month check-in around the 14th just to make sure everything's on track & no nasty surprises lurking in the wings. Admittedly this part of the process was built in when I was new to budgeting & would be fretting about whether it was 'working', but I find it useful to touch base & have left it in place. It's my Big Budget Day each month,however, from which all else follows.
The curtain choice made me laugh!
F x

savingholmes

LOL at your DH. If I'd invested in made to measure like you I'd want to keep them looking trim.

Good luck with budget day. You are still planning to work part time for a few months aren't you? Hopefully that will help you get in the swing of things...