Giving every £ a job

savingholmes

I love that you are reaping the rewards of those marginal gains by being able to retire on a date of your choosing.

foxgloves

@Blackcats - I don't like taking money out of our savings pots either. I think because we were silly spenders for such a long time, the presence of money in our savings pots makes us feel secure & is a sign that we have very much changed our irresponsible habits for the better. Of course, the pots are there for a reason, but I feel the same, whether it's the car pot, the meow fund or (likely to be extremely soon, sadly) the dentist &optician pot. One of the tasks I need to do imminently in preparation for our annual money summit (usually January but delayed due to car purchase which should have happened in September), is to look at the current state of our Savings Pots, do my best assessment on likely commitments this year & thus decide on a realistic 'ceiling amount' for each of them. But yes, I agree that every time I draw some funds across from one of them, I resent seeing the total drop. Probably still not 100% used to the fact that we are now capable of actually saving!
F x

Blackcats

Evening!
reassured that it's not just me not wanting to use the savings pots ... I enjoy distributing the various amounts each month to the various pots and watching them grow.  I put £100 into the car pot each month so it will grow again quite quickly.  I think you are right Foxgloves - spender to saver is a tough journey and savings are highly prized.  

The money has been drawn out from the car pot and we will pay the garage tomorrow.  Apparently OH says the car is running much better.🤷‍♀️.  I hope so but as I'm not an officianado on shocks and springs I can't comment.  

We were planning a freezer inventory today (oh the giddy excitement) but had a last minute better offer.  We went for a walk and an outside coffee with friends (which they treated us too).  although it was bitter cold we really enjoyed ourselves.

we WILL do the inventory tomorrow as I want to try and do a meal plan using up stocks.  I'm moving our shopping day from Tuesday to Thursday this week so I need to squeeze a couple of extra meals from what we have in store.  I read somewhere that slipping shopping day by one day each week gives you a "free" shop every 7 weeks.  

Interesting to read other's experiences of eating out and becoming more discerning.  It reminded me that we had a voucher for a steak house chain given to us for Christmas 2019 which we hadn't used because of covid.  So we checked it was still valid and used it for lunch on Friday.  We didn't have alcohol (good old lime and soda) but we did have a main and a mini pud and coffee.  Cost us £5 above the value of the voucher plus tip money which I'd swiped out of the car parking change pot in the car.  Felt like a nice treat but I wouldn't want to pay the full price.

so that set me on a search for a couple of other unused previous voucher gifts and we've now got a show and a concert to look forward to later in the year.  Very happy with that.  

savingholmes

Fantastic finds on the vouchers! Lots of things to look forward to.

amber03

We’ve used a few vouchers recently that we were given before all the Covid fun began. They were honoured at all the places even tho a few had gone out of date. Annoyingly one of them for a restaurant we really liked and was bought by our DS in Xmas 2019, can’t be used as the restaurant had closed down as it was relocating but has had planning issues and basically they have given up and just shut down.xx

Blackcats

Thanks SH  - feels like we are coming out of hibernation 😸.  One set of tickets is for Human League so that will be a trip down memory Lane. It's at a lovely venue so can have a picnic before the show.

that's a shame Amber - it's been tough for restaurants so I can see why the owners would give up.  Glad that other vouchers have been used though - I think it's nice for those that gave us the vouchers to know that we've finally enjoyed their gift.

Freezer inventory complete - didn't take long once we got started.  I conclude that this household has a very large stock of prawns .... a few unidentified tubs of leftovers and enough variety of food to make a good few tasty dinners.

MissRikkiC

I love the delay week shopping by a day a week, it’s clever if not simple yet unthought of! 

savingholmes

MissRikkiC said:

I love the delay week shopping by a day a week, it’s clever if not simple yet unthought of! 

I like this idea. Definitely will try that. 

lucielle

I have ufo’s in my freezer, unidentified frozen objects…
L

[Deleted User]

Amazing on the vouchers and the freezer!  You are rocking MSE Blackcats!