Giving every £ a job

Blackcats

Another week and weekend has flown by.  Feeling very bleurgh about work at the moment - I want to break free (humming the song to myself).  I know it's within my own gift to make an early retirement happen but it always seems just out of reach.  Feeling weary because of hour after hour of staring at a screen for work meetings and although work days are flying by the only positive I can currently find is not having to get on a train anytime soon.
On a more upbeat note, I made an effort to return a top that I had bought that I sort of liked but didn't love.  Posting on Foxgloves' diary about my terrible Ne*t Directory (just had a smile when directory autocorrected to dire Tory 😀).  I used to order clothes, quite like them, sometimes never wear them but never bother to return them.  So today I've added £30 to the aggregation of marginal gains pot.  It's not a cumulative saving But it's a change of behaviour.  There is a direct debit for £5 a month that goes out of my account for something I've long since stopped using but I've never got around to cancelling so I'm going to do that this week - £60 a year.  It's like me going to a coffee shop and paying for coffee and cake each month and not bothering to drink the coffee or eat the cake - daft! 

I have picked loads of apples from the garden - overnight oats with apple for breakfast this week, ginger and apple cake but not sure what else to use them for.  Any suggestions for 15kg of apples?  I've already given lots away!  

Oh and crochet project not quite finished yet but I'm ok with that as it is looking very nice so far.  

joedenise

Apple pie, apple crumble, baked apples.

A couple of websites which might help:

https://www.delicious.com.au/recipes/collections/gallery/35-clever-ways-to-use-up-leftover-apples/bdh2gkl8
https://www.delish.com/cooking/g1968/easy-apple-recipes/

I'm sure you'll be able to find something to do with them!

SuperSavingD

Could you make jars or apple sauce or use some in a fruity chutney would be nice for the festive season 

Blackcats

Thank you JoeDenise and Supersaving - some good ideas there.  I've made a couple of crumbles today - 1 for me and 1 for elderly relative.  Apple and ginger cake (yummy) overnight oats with apples.  Also I gave some bags of apples to neighbours and got some chutney in return which was nice.  The pile of apples is slowly reducing.
in non apple news, I've been good money wise this week.  I was going to go out for dinner last night, downgraded that plan to a takeaway and eventually used ingredients I already had at home to make a yummy curry.  I'm going to transfer a sum of money equivalent to a takeaway to my current savings challenge - my challenge, my rules 🤣.  

Other fruagalistic (new word) activity - knitting a stripy scarf for young relative using odds and ends of wool.  Only 10 rows per stripe so it's quick and easy to see progress.  

I've also set an early retirement date target by December 2021 I want to be working my notice or better still not going back to work.  I realised that while early retirement was just an aspiration it would always be just that - an aspiration.  So that feels exciting and it is doable.  The future is in my own hands.  👏

joedenise

Well done on setting an early retirement date target.  December 2021 isn't too far away!  Good luck with achieving it.

savingholmes

Congratulations on setting a date. Exciting

SuperSavingD

Congratulations on setting the early retirement date - exciting times ahead for you 

Blackcats

thank you thank you SavingHolmes, JoeDenise and Supersaving.  I am excited but a bit nervous.  

In the past I never planned for anything.  For example I would move house without thinking through the associated costs, I emigrated without a job to go to (or any money to fall back on) and had my babies when I was an agency temp way back in the days before you even got holiday pay.  Finished work on the Friday - got paid the following week and then that was it until I could go back to work.  I always managed to scrape by but that involved overdrafts, credit cards etc.  

So I'm almost in danger of over thinking this next step.  Mind you, reading some of the threads on the retirement forum amazes me.  Some people have made such huge provision for their retirement that it can be intimidating.   I've got a public sector pension to draw and other provisions so I think I will be fine.
I'm going to start my countdown officially from 1st November which gives me 14 months.  I will use the next couple of weeks to set some targets, check some figures and plan the milestones along the way.  It will be lovely to have MSE folk to help keep me motivated along the way.  

Blackcats

It feels like it's been dark for ages and it isn't even 7 o'clock yet.  Still I'm cosy at home, just making a cuppa and lighting a candle.  I'll watch bake-off later but I usually start it a bit later as there are so many adverts.
I've got a couple of mini tasks for this week - based on the every little helps philosophy 
1. research a reward credit card - I now pay my credit card off every month 😇 - I never thought that would happen.  So it would be good to get some sort of "reward" from it.
2. Check interest rates for My savings.  I know they are all paltry at the moment but I just had notification that one account is dropping to 0.01% which is sufficiently insulting to prompt me into action
3. find out about working from home tax allowance.  

I'll hold myself accountable and give an update at the end of the week (which could be Friday or Sunday depending on how I get on) 😀

foxgloves

Great idea re the reward credit card, Blackcats. Once you know you are always going to pay it off in full every month, it's a no-brainer. We have one each - Mr F has M&S & I have John Lewis. I received £15 of vouchers from mine just last week, which can be spent online or instore, & as they are also accepted in Waitrose, I might even keep them for Christmas, maybe to buy a gift, I'll see.
Interest rates are just shocking, I know. I have also been wallopped by the 0.01% rate recently. I'm trying to convince myself that this economic period will eventually pass (although Covid followed by a hard or no-deal Brexit will seriously not be a good mix) & I do feel grateful for the fact that I do at last have some savings. It's really motivating to see little bits of interest augmenting savings, but I'd far rather have savings which aren't accruing any meaningful interest than no emergency monies at all. I used to wing it for years with no money put by. I wouldn't want to return to that way of thinking (although I don't think there was any actual thinking going on, just a lot of spending!)
Good luck with you investigations,
F x