Giving every £ a job

savingholmes

Well done on the sales. 

Glad you are feeling better again.

Blackcats

A quick money saving exercise completed this evening.  I subscribe to audible and Spotify - they have been my treat for many years and I'm happy to pay the subscription costs.  However, I never listen to audiobooks on spotify so I've changed my membership to remove that feature and that's saved me £1 per month.  Not much but not worth wasting £12 a year on something I never use.

did a quick shop at Lidls today based on minimal purchases to get us through the week.  Spent £17.34.  Hoping to have an underspend on the grocery budget this month which will be greatly helped by 3 nights away before the end of the month.

garden work is scheduled to start tomorrow.  It's currently pouring with rain with intermittent thunder and lightening 🙃

PennysIntoPounds

Absolutely pouring here all evening too, and we were just discussing if we should get some of the interesting looking Aldi wine of the week that's a white reduced to 3.99 from 5.99 'for the summer' 😁

That is a very handy £12 to save, well done for sorting it out. Come Christmas £12 is a couple of decent stocking fillers or a nice bottle of wine for a gift/the table or a couple of Irish coffees at a Christmassy event, not coming out of your budget!

Blackcats

Thanks PIP - there was definitely a time when I wouldn't have viewed that £12 as significant which undoubtedly contributed to building up debts.  

Garden work has started which is good.  Garden man said bye bye, see you on Monday when he left today at 3 pm which is not so good.
I am trying not to be impatient, honestly I am trying.

another £11.70 from £co which is good and will be a welcome addition to the Christmas pot.  Still plodding away at surveys and plan to cash out at £30 which is also earmarked for Christmas.

2 of my monthly income payments have landed in the current account.  I was tempted to start moving the money around but have paused in order to make a proper thought through plan.  How very grown up and sensible 🙃

PennysIntoPounds

It'll give you something to do while you're pining for the gardener 😁

Do you buy all of the many children and grandchildren a different gift each for Christmas?

savingholmes

Grown up sounds good. Perhaps you could send a dose of that over this way... 

Blackcats

reasonable progress in the garden but I suspect that's it for this week - hope I'm wrong but somehow I don't think I am.
what has been done is very good but it's mostly the prep work so not very interesting to me, however, MrBC was enthralled by the concrete pumping 🙃

@PennysIntoPounds - yes, all the grandchildren get a personal gift at Christmas.  The older ones are starting to ask for money instead but I still try to get them a little gift too.  For birthdays we buy a small gift and put money into a communal grandchild savings pot with the hope to be able to give them each a lump sum when they are 18.  It won't be a fortune but at least it will be something long after plastic toys have gone to landfill.

grocery budget for July is likely to have a £10 underspend, subject to milk supplies lasting.  We completely forgot milk when we went to Lidl so we bought some from our local shop.  A bit more expensive but I can't get by without milk in my many cups of tea,

a regular saver matured today so when the money emerges from the void between maturing and reaching an account it will go in the garden room pot.  Final balance is due next week.  I'll pay on our credit card so that I can earn a smidge more interest on the money until the credit card is due to be paid at the end of August.

PennysIntoPounds

That sounds like good progress indeed for the garden room, concrete happening and MrBC getting some bonus enthralment!

Nice to have a wee something to unwrap no matter how old you are 😊
Lovely you're able to put aside a sum to give them when they're 18 too, though given the cost of uni and housing these days you may want to wait til they're older and more settled to gift it to them so it doesn't get squandered! Entirely agree that anything that's not a plastic that's going to be outgrown is a win for everyone (my autocorrect tried to make that 'a win for Everton', it's living in the distant past 😂)

Do you have a co-op near you? They often send me an offer of 10p off milk on top of their members price which all together works out cheaper than aldi, only by 5p but might as well get the best price if it's convenient anyway

Excellent eyes on the interest earning prize 😁

savingholmes

Well done on the savings. The garden room sounds like it will be fab.

Blackcats

@PennysIntoPounds - never mind about a win for Everton - can you auto correct a draw for Chelsea against Wrexham to a resounding win for Chelsea please?
thank you @SH.  Concrete base has set and no further progress has been made.  I'm fairly sure the gardener is 2 timing me 🤣

just home after a day of summer holiday childcare duties.  Lots of fun at a farm but the quiet tonight is bliss.