Giving every £ a job

savingholmes

Well done on planning for the dip in income. It's all about finding the right balance isn't it with the challenge of money saving / wise money management, enjoying yourself and forward planning. I'm sure you will find a way...

Blackcats

Thank you @EssexHebridean and @savingholmes.  Yes, the plan is to use the contingency fund well and try to emerge with some of it intact.  I will then try and build it back up to it's starting point again.  The situation will be very worthwhile in the long term and was always part of my retirement planning.
so, good things this week -
🐙 have reduced our monthly payment 
sold another item on vinted - it sold within 10 minutes of listing so I'm telling myself my pricing strategy is very good (and not that I could have charged a bit more 😉).  The main thing is it's left the house and some £'s will arrive soon 
we are continuing to get good value for our gym membership which is working out at £2.50 per visit this month 
I used up the unwanted quality street toffee pennies by putting them in an apple and cinnamon cake and creating a toffee apple cake with a cinnamon crunch topping - declaring a success with that no waste effort
grocery shopping is now complete for January.  I need to do my final tally up but I think I'll have about £80 left.  I'll put £10 into the Christmas butcher shopping pot and the rest can be used for February and immediately reduce the draw on the contingency pot.  I've decided to have a separate pot for the Christmas food spend as I got myself in a bit of a tangle with Christmas gift spending and Christmas food spending.  

savingholmes

Well done on having a £90 carryover of positive £ instead of a debt hangover. It's things like that that illustrate how much we've changed in our years on MSE. Enjoy the challenge you've set yourself.

Sun_Addict

All sounding good 🙂

lucielle

Well done on the shopping and great to having a carry over. 

L

Blackcats

Thanks @savingholmes, @Sun_Addict and @lucielle
there were lots of bits leftover from Christmas which certainly helped January's budget plus the forever full freezer.

feels like a sluggish day today - I started brightly with a swim but since then I haven't been very productive.  I took some time to do the patterned rows of my knitting because I got it wrong twice last night!  Had a nice chat with a friend which went on for a while - long enough to need 2 cups of tea to fortify myself.  Dropped 2 bags to the charity shop and posted an EBay parcel and 2 cards,  actually now I've written that down it sounds reasonably productive so it's probably time for a rest now 🤦‍♀️

We are making a chili for tea tonight - nice and warming and there will be enough left for tomorrow with a jacket spud.  We visit my dad on a Tuesday evening so it's lovely to come home to a quick easy dinner and when it's already cooked and waiting it deters us from stopping off via the curry restaurant or kebab shop.

mr BC is buoyed by his weekend ebay sale and is apparently listing more items although it looks like he is busy doing other things such as staring at his music corner and adjusting the position of his speakers in order to get the best sound from Eric Clapton 🫤

PennysIntoPounds

Certainly sounds productive reading it!

Hope your Dad is feeling better after his winter ailments.

You'll have to start calling Mr BC 'SlowSort' as a Clapton tribute 😁

EssexHebridean

That chilli will be all the better having sat for a day or so, you just know it don't you! It's definitely a good plan to have food ready planned to mitigate against takeaway temptation isn't it! 

Great going on your budget leftovers on the January groceries too! I was a little under that at around £70 left, but that will be left sitting in the grocery pot ready to hopefully boost holiday spending money - I plan to do the whole "how low can you go" thing again in February, too! 

Blackcats

@PennysIntoPounds -thank you for asking about my dad.  He has bounced back and is doing well.  He is enjoying watching snooker and darts interspersed with world cup rock climbing which is a surprising sport, let alone a sport for dad to watch 🥴. I'd rather be watching rock climbing than Wednesday night football though.

Slowsort is a great name for MrBC.  He tries to do everything perfectly which is a great attribute but means things stall.  He is currently listing some CDs for a few £s each but you'd think he is listing a Ming vase!

@EssexHebridean - I'd like to join you in the February "how low can you go" challenge.  Perhaps we can be a subset of The Tuppence Club (definitely based outside of Sheffield where meanings are very different apparently 😉)

I did a quick look back over January to reassure myself that it's definitely over and to remind myself of the highlights

Leisure centre membership equates to £2 per visit.  Mostly swimming, some dance and Zumba and some very reluctant gym time - happy with that and the scales show a 2lb weight loss 

a good month for the grocery challenge - we ate well, benefitting from Christmas leftovers and well stocked freezer and cupboards.  Money was left at the end of the month and will certainly help this month when our income temporarily drops.

other savings pots doing ok including leftover money in personal spends.

progress has been made on sorting, donating and selling stuff.  I'll have to accept that steady and slow progress is better than no progress

lots of nice time with families and friends including a great theatre trip which was an unexpected and very generous Christmas present.

lucielle

Theatre trip sounds great. Well done on going to the gym. I’ll cheer you on from the sidelines re grocery challenge. I do need to do one but it won’t be this month. 

L