Giving every £ a job

joedenise

@blackcats - rather than renaming your pot each month why not just leave it called "Credit Card Bill"?  Does it really need to have the month on it?  Think it would drive me mad having to keep renaming it every month!

Makingabobor2

joedenise said:

@blackcats - rather than renaming your pot each month why not just leave it called "Credit Card Bill"?  Does it really need to have the month on it?  Think it would drive me mad having to keep renaming it every month!

Yes, I agree. Mine is just called C/card payments

Blackcats

I wrote a post yesterday which I lost so I hurumphed and gave up.

@badmemory - there is something very comforting about sleeping in a familiar bed.  I'm also not that good at living out of a suitcase, probably because I'm messy which quickly creates a muddle.

@joedenise and @Makingabobor2 - you make perfect sense.  I'm using the month name as part of the title of the savings pot because the credit card statement and payment dates don't fit neatly into my financial month when our money comes in and goes out.  I'm just getting  used to my new way of siphoning off money from the appropriate pots to pay the bill.  I have, however, amended the name to Credit Card November so I just need to backspace to change the date which is quite easy to do.  

Inspired by @foxgloves I've been working at having a productive week.  I wrote a November to do list rather than a weekly or daily list.  It's been really helpful as it's helped me realise how much we do to support my dad and how it's sensible to recognise this and allocate time for it.  None of it is very onerous but it's important that it gets done and dad doesn't have much patience when he wants something sorted.

Other productive bits and bobs - 

I enjoyed writing and posting a couple of cards to friends as a nice way of keeping in touch.  I hope they will enjoy receiving them.

listed 9 items on Vint Ed and 7 have sold.  5 have been posted and 2 will go tomorrow.  

Crochet blanket is now sewn up and I'll start the border tomorrow.

did a fiddly financial transaction which had been hanging around because of my inflated sense of how fiddly it would be.

In money matters, I've cashed out £35 from £co, managed £10 in surveys this week and whilst we have spent some money it's been budgeted for.  I've started buying Christmas presents for our many grandchildren.  A couple of the older ones would prefer money now which is technically easier, however I do like buying actual gifts for the younger ones.

savingholmes

Older kids and young adults tend to like £. My kids like a few surprises alongside still so I give them a value to manage expectations and they have a choice whether to have it as cash or an item.

Blackcats

@savingholmes - I think it's a nice idea to offer grown up children a choice.  I feel lucky that there are still some v young grandchildren so I can indulge myself with present buying (just spent 30 minutes on the jelly 🐈‍⬛ website looking at cuddly toys 😃).

it's Friday again and it's been another nice week although not particularly productive.  It's been a case of 1 step forward then pause and await input or action from someone else before progressing.  This means that items can't be crossed off my list which is a bit irritating.  

However, I made the most of the sunshine today to do some garden work.  I'm not a natural gardener and it's definitely more a chore than a pleasure but I've decided that now the garden has been re-done I will concentrate on doing fewer things but doing them well.    I've reviewed my unused plant pots and I've got a pretty trio of pots which I'm going to plant up with some Autumn/Winter colour.  I'll only buy what I need for these and when they are done will see what else I might do.  

I'm up to £15 on surveys this month so I need to keep an eye out for a few more.  My Christmas present savings pot has been funded by odds and ends of money rather than deliberately adding a set monthly amount.  It includes £co, survey money, bank account round ups, reward £'s from Chase.  I've got over £600 in the pot which feels very gratifying especially as I've already paid for 4 presents.  There's a separate pot for Christmas/New Year food and drink and for what MrBC are grandly calling our "company Christmas do".  Now we no longer go out to work we thought it would be fun to celebrate our achievements for the year as Blackcats & Blackcats Ltd.  

PennysIntoPounds

What a nice idea. I do hope the company will be doing a secret santa, so the two of you can speculate who your gift is from 😁

ladyholly

What fun looking for toys for Christmas. I do miss that. My dgds are 22 and 27 so are way beyond toys. Looking forward to being a great granny but thats not likely to happen in the near future as neither of the girls are interested at the moment.

savingholmes

The jelly website is good - my grown up DD loves that.

Blackcats

@PennysIntoPounds - following an Extraordinary Board Meeting we have voted to include a Secret Santa as part of our works do.  Despite the complexities of arranging the picking of names we have decided that employee well being and staff engagement should prevail.
@ladyholly - I seem to recall you enjoy panto and theatre trips with your granddaughters which is fun.  

@savingholmes - it's a very nice website to browse through but the prices are a bit eek.  The 2 littlest grandchildren have both given Santa some specific requests so it makes choosing a bit easier.

made a tasty ginger and pineapple cake today which is meant to last a few days.  Depending on the weather we can take our flasks and a slice with us when we go for a walk.  Living life on the edge eh?

Some £'s are due to hit our accounts this week so shuffling can be done including finalising the October credit card bill pay off.

was very happy to receive a £6 bonus for a survey I did.  It was agame about allocating funds to another participant so I think they were generous and so was I.  This month's survey earnings are doing quite well with that unexpected boost.

PennysIntoPounds

I'm glad that the Company has recognised the importance of this issue and is being forward thinking on the matter of employee satisfaction and staff retention