2020++ - smiling and waving and looking so fine

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Brilliant, thanks.  Will take a look now  

mark55man

So the garden furniture arrived - but its raining.  Also it turns out its click together self assembly which slightly surprised me, but maybe explains the price.  Its rainy all weekend as well, but will have a look for a dry spell to but it together

Busy day at work, but managed to fit in a lunch break to go and drop a load of wrapping from our new bed construction and rubbish from our bedroom.  Took 6 hours to clear the room last night, but then only 30 minutes to assemble the bed so a bit of a late night, but could have been worse.  New mattress made OH very happy as she hadn't liked the previous one!!

Will be updating monthly spends and targets tomorrow so expect a flurry of messages

doingitanyway

A good mattress is indeed something to be happy about 

savingholmes

Hope the new mattress is paying off. Great sleep makes a world of difference

mark55man

Thank you SH.  My OH loves the mattress and the decluttered room, although there is some onward sorting to be done.  The mattress is a touch firmer than the previous one but I am sure I will get used to it.

Still haven't made the underbed drawers.  They are a bit smaller than they looked, and we can't decide to do without them and use low profile plastic storage for out of season clothes

mark55man

Spent a happy afternoon at home working my annual spreadsheets - first report back.  My spends against budgets

CAR - Over budget, but its an insurance month.  Still mainly working from home

CASH - Not using cash at all at the moment

CHARITY - Giving a bit more now I can afford it, still not as much as I should but that will come

CLOTHES - No new clothes so far this year

COFFEE - Lots of coffees / planning meetings for our works

CRAFTS - Bang on budget

DEBT - Just the mortgage now, occasional CC spends will be paid in full and counted in appropriate category

ENTERTAINMENT - Going out for drinks with old friends a little more now that we can, but only slightly over budget

GROCERY - Doing well on budget, although flattered by a refund for my OH foodbank purchases

HOLIDAY - Couple of early seaside day trips, both lovely and not too dear, but more than expected

HOUSE - Utilities and monthly services are bang on prediction.  Energy costs may challenge this if we hit a cold snap

KIDS - As predicted, except a little hiccup means will get a double rent payment next month and none this month

LIFE - This is my LIFE Happens category, so it was a bit over, but we have spent on some smaller home improvement items which aren't really part of the big jobs

OTHER-AC - Money Shuffling - has all been zeroed out - keeping track separately until our home improvements are finished

STUPID - No stupid tax this month - big H M R Sea one still pending!!

WORK - Work salary reduced due to increased pension contributions by about the amount I was paying down CC

AMAZON - Quite a lot of amazon, including some regular purchases for vitamins etc so that's edged up

Grand Total - In total about £300 over monhtly average budget, but that includes a number of one offe (insurance and birthdays), so my target for next year is to have those in a pot somewhere, but this year will be swings and roundabouts.  Also balances neglect about £400 I am saving (trying to save) into EF so as long as I don't go over y too much I'm still net up

mark55man

This morning was spent building the garden furniture which was not easy.  @ohdearhowdidthathappen - I am not sure I would be recommending the beds.co.uk products as they turned out a bit cheaper and more plasticy than expected but that said very comfortable and look great.  The assembly was a nightmare until I had a brainwave and found my ratchet spanner and fitted an alley key head into it. Then it was straightforward but a bit dull ratcheting away for an hour.

Unexpectedly the table has an inset ice bucket - but no need for ice today although it was nice in the odd spot of sunshine that came through

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Thanks for the heads up, will keep up my search then... although the ice bucket sounds like an excellent design feature 

mark55man

So steps in January averaged 3800/day - almost always over 3000 which is better than last year. 

I need to be just under 5000 to meet for 3 million target (split 4700 for winter months and 9400 for summer months) .  I have put a slot in my diary to go for a 20 minute walk every day that should make the difference

In weight terms I have been remaining the same since mid Jan, but I haven't been truly on plan - so good to know what maintaining feels like but need to get a kick on, although Feb is looking difficult with a week away at half term by the sea side - clue pasties and seagulls.  All paid for in 2019, and the cash jar is pretty healthy as we have had 2 years worth of coins and a few notes put away.

savingholmes

Like the coin jar.

Well done on putting together the furniture.

Good luck with EF