Giving every £ a job

PennysIntoPounds

That's brought a wee tear to me eye too ❤️

£3.50 is quite a decent amount on vinted 😂
But it all adds up!
Mr PIP has been chasing companies for VAT receipts from build materials today which is (and will be) a very tedious task especially when a receipt will bring in a maximum of a fiver, but as I told him, that's only two quid off a M & S meal deal, we're not missing out on that!

Blackcats

PIP - it sometimes seems like it's such a hassle to get the £'s into coffers but you are a marvel at it.  

I remind myself that businesses, governments, shops, banks etc all want to get their mitts on our money and I enjoy trying to keep it for me and my family.  I've just read chapter 1 of Atomic Habits and we are aggregating our marginal gains (ooo err missus 😉)

I tackled some admin tasks today and waited til we got home from the high street outing to have a hot chocolate in the comfort of our garden room.  We popped into the library to collect a copy of Atomic Habits and got involved in the communal jigsaw.  3 adults, 1 librarian and a child managed to do 5 pieces 🤦‍♀️  
Tea tonight is homemade chicken kebab with home made hummus which means we don't have to go out in the cold to get a takeaway.  I'm really motivated to have a good surplus from this month's budget to offset the cost of concert tickets we bought last week.   

PennysIntoPounds

Communal library jigsaw has made me smile.

Do keep us updated with yer learnings from Atomic Habits!
Hark at you aggregating your marginal gains, I hope it involved some reaching out for a brainstorm to fulfil the blue sky thinking ethos of Blackcats Ltd

lucielle

Yes please circle back to me when you’ve dug deep and hot through the granular!
L
Gosh I hate jargon!

Blackcats

Ah yes, I will share our overarching, underpinning iterative plan at a granular level of specificity.  It might be an inch deep and a mile wide or an inch wide and a mile deep - just depends on who steps up to the plate and which approach gets traction.

lucielle

lol!!!!!!!!
L

Blackcats

So January is finally over. Since I stopped working I don't mind the cold, dark days as I'm not having to travel or be starting and finishing work in the dark. However, the last week or so of January seemed to drag on and on.

January budgets went ok and there was a grocery underspend. I've been reading the chat on @foxgloves diary about how folk manage our food spends. We had a full freezer after Christmas and our freezer inventory was invaluable in helping us meal plan and not just buy things just in case. I didn't buy any wine either. The underspend went into my pixie dust pot. Talking of which I love that pot and have already used it twice to do nice things for family members. It was great to know that I had allocated money for the benefit of other people.

There is no council tax in February so I've added that to savings pots and £100 of it to my S&S ISA. We are still in credit with 🐙 which I hope will keep our DD the same. I think our spending pots are set up ok for February - now I just need to stick to them.

time for a cuppa and to do some crochet.

Cherryfudge

I think the guy who just posted may stand to gain from referrals to this company

ETA: post has been taken down.

Blackcats

thank you @Cherryfudge . I didn't see that post which, of course, makes me curious 🙄

First week of February has dawdled by in a mostly rainy way. That said, we did manage a couple of lovely, muddy walks with our flasks. Snowdrops, crocuses and a few daffs help to remind us that Spring is on its way. And the lighter evenings are definitely very welcome.

Moneywise the grocery budget is overspent if I look at last week's spend but it's ok because it's the cat's fault. His monthly stock up of wet food, dry food, dreamies and lickety licks has been done. I should be able to get back on track this week. Still in credit with octo🐈️ - it's down to about £200 now but I'm pleased with that. We had our annual boiler service and the engineer helped us with adjusting temperature of our hot water and we've also twiddled with the temp of the towel rail which was much too hot. Christmas regular saver is topped up for Feb. The other 2 regular savers will get topped up on 20th when my pension is paid. It still feels very odd to talk about receiving a pension!

We've booked a week away with friends and MrBC did a great job of finding some excellent accommodation for a few hundred pounds less than the place I'd originally chosen. MrBC's jolly boys outing in July is also now organised and the deposit has been paid.

Cherryfudge

I think the deleted post was trying to sell you some form of environmental services. Elsewhere he wanted do do bat surveys or some such.

I love that it's your cat's fault the budget went overspent. Have a word with him or her about budgets but don't expect too much compliance. In my experience cats are very savvy and he or she has probably worked out how to get away with a bit of overspending!