Giving every £ a job

Blackcats

I read on another diary that next payday is really first payday for next year, so I spent some time moving leftover money for this month into savings.   Yes!  Leftover money in December. I would never have dreamed that would be possible.  

I've topped up the car cost pot to £1000 - it's due a service and MOT in February and I think there will be plenty in the kitty to cover that.  Fingers crossed.  I will keep topping up that pot and so that will also start to build up funds towards a replacement car eventually.  

I've had a note to say my work expenses claim will be paid on Monday.  It's £107 so I'm putting £7 into my accumulation of marginal gains pot.  This is my odds and ends, rounding down, discounts and cash back pot.  I started a few months ago and I've got £350 in it.  It has been painless savings but very satisfying to see it grow.  When I get to £500 I'll move that to main savings and start again.  

The remaining £100 from expenses I'll put into my "one month" fund.  This is a month's worth of expenditure and is aimed to be used for the first month of my retirement.  

It's been such a tough year which has made me more determined and focussed to achieve my early retirement goal.  I need to stay focussed though and reduce expenditure and increase savings.  I can do it 👏

joedenise

Love the idea of your "marginal gains pot" - think I'm going to pinch that one and add it as a pot on my YNAB.  I have one which I call "Things I have forgotten" - I thought I could rename this one but I think "marginal gains pot (MGP)" ought to be an extra.

This year I've been using the rounding down as a savings pot for spending money on our Golden Anniversary holiday which was supposed to be in April 2021 but we have cancelled as not sure it will be safe.  The holiday savings will be going into Premium Bonds for the time being but the spending money pot is going to become my new MGP!  £500 of the pot will also be going into PB but the extra £150+ will be the start of the new MGP.

Thanks for the idea.

Blackcats

Hello JoeDenise - sorry that your holiday is not going to happen but hopefully you will be able to enjoy it before too long.  Congratulations on your Golden wedding anniversary - how wonderful.  

I adapted the idea of a marginal gains pot from another diary.  That's the great thing about these diaries - there is so much to share and learn with others.  I know that you give so much advice and support to so many of us - you are very wise 🦉.  So I'm chuffed that you've got an idea from my diary.  

joedenise

Thank you - I've never thought of myself was wise and never been told that before either!  I think it probably comes from living with a young family during the 70s when money was short because of things like the 3 day week (there was no furlough in those days you just got wages for the days you worked!).  I learned 101 ways with mince and sausages during that time, LOL!

Blackcats

JoeDenise, I was a child in the 70s and I remember the power cuts.  There was always an urgency to fill up a flask of tea and hot water bottles before the power went off.  I also have fond memories of playing cards with my mum and dad by candlelight with a shared sliced up mars bar 😋.  I'm sure mars bars must have been bigger.  😄 I also naively thought that a 3 day week would be a nice thing - 3 days at school and 4 days off.  I suppose I was lucky that my parents shielded me from any financial worries and we made the best of the situation.  

Today's exciting news - I made a meat pie!  There is a wonderful butchers in the village who make their own meat pies - they are lovely but very expensive - around £10!  So I used up a small portion of stewing steak, onions, mushrooms and a bendy carrot and it was a yummy pie.  For years I've been intimidated by trying to cook different things but this year I've really enjoyed cooking.  I've got confident with cakes, biscuits, soup maker soups, bread maker breads, more vegetarian dishes and generally cooking from scratch without relying on packet mixes etc.  Along with changing to Lidl's for my main shop, I've saved lots of money this year on my food budget.  

joedenise

@Blackcats My 2 DDs were also shielded from things.  For them Daddy being at home was a good thing, a bit like you I suppose.  As well as lots of sausages and mince we ate an awful lot of vegetables.  I was lucky in as much as my dad had an allotment which meant we had a good supply of free veg!  We also had a Sunday dinner at my parents and a meal midweek with my DH's parents - it all helped.

Glad you're enjoying cooking now - fortunately I've always enjoyed it.  Made some mince pies for DH today but not sure how long they'll last (I don't eat much pastry but will probably have a couple of them).  Will make another batch just before Christmas.

savingholmes

Well done on the savings. Good to have specific targets

Blackcats

JoeDenise - I've thought about what you said about shielding your children and it made me think that my parents did similar.  I went to my nan's for tea every Thursday.  I loved it because I could chose my dinner - usually chicken, mash and peas with gravy, followed by banana and evap.  My parents had homemade soup on a Thursday so I was very happy to be at nans.  I also got a Murray mint for the walk home but I'd always crunched it within a few moments of putting it in my mouth.  I winder if mum and dad had soup on a Thursday as supplies were low ahead of Friday payday?  I never even thought about that at the time.

Finished work for Christmas now - a nice feeling and I'll be glad to re-charge my batteries as it's been busy and I'm feeling weary.  Got paid early so I've done my banking to get it sorted and not have to remember to go back to it,  filled up with petrol today and I don't need to spend any more money until next week when I'll need a food top up.  

Sometimes I'm feeling Christmassy and other times not feeling it at all.  I'm sure it's the same for many of us so I'll make the best of it.  I've lit my Christmas Spruce scented candle which is smelling very nice.  Time for tea and cake and I think I shall watch Little Women.  I loved the book as a child - hope the film doesn't disappoint.  

joedenise

Well the mince pies didn't last long!  They've all gone and I've only had one!  Will be making some more tomorrow morning - maybe I'll get more than one of those.

DH also made himself some mini pannetone - 8 of them and they've all gone too but he made those a few days before I made the mince pies.  He's also made himself an enriched dough cake which was supposed to be more pannetone but the first lot of mixture was too slack so he decided to just make it into a cake!  Half of that has gone too - I think he's still got hollow legs like a teenager!

foxgloves

Interesting about your Thursday night dinners at Nan's, Blackcats. I can't recall anything similar from my childhood, but I do think getting their  mortgage may have been a bit of a shock to the system for my parents. We lived in armed forces accomodation until then. I can remember my Dad moaning about the mortgage & making wry sarky asides about it for a couple of years after we moved in. I remember asking what 'it's mortgaged' meant & being told it meant paying a lot of money every month for absolutely years & years before you could own your house because houses are very expensive'. I was 7 at the time but it did put it into context sufficiently for me to get why Dad would usually follow these comments with a massive eye-roll. 
F x