2020++ - smiling and waving and looking so fine

savingholmes

mark55man said:

Annoyingly CC2 took the regular Debit after I had cleared the balance - my bad I should have planned ahead, but now I have to get £500 back, which hopefully won't take too long.  Lucky its the flush part of the month unless it takes too long but I can always move some from the EF  (what a lovely thing to be able to say)

That is a fabulous thing to be able to say. My EF contributes massively to staying sane too!! Well done on the steps - that is truly awesome

mark55man

Just done the numbers - its still a bit turbulent from all my money shuffling at the start of the month, but CC2 is gone, Mr OD is still on sabbatical with no plans to return, and generally have been quite tight on food and whilst some entertainment is creeping in, its still much less than previously.  Anyway observations against my spreadsheet categories as follows:

• CAR - Very cheap - a lot of WFH in April.  Only 1 day a week out
• CASH - No Cash - apart from a couple of Cash Only places, have hardly spent anything in cash for months and month
• CHARITY - A little more on charity donations as colleagues are starting to do sponsored things
• CLOTHES - No new Clothes 
• COFFEE - Coffee heading up, as we are allowed to sit out a little more.  Money well spent
• CRAFTS - Over budget - but we got ta do what we have to do to get through this
• DEBT - Good month clearing debt after a few months of treading water
• ENTERTAINMENT - Bit more this month - same as coffee - sitting out with friends and a couple of take outs
• GROCERY - Edging down - have separated OH food bank spending, and we were quite tight this month
• HOLIDAY - First Holiday money Spent this year - booked up a mid week AirBNB Break up North 
• KIDS - DD1 made her final payment to me from the car loan I stuck on CC2 to save her outrageous interest, others not at all needy this month
• LIFE - Over Budget as we had our Oven disaster and still  continue to buy a few things to improve various rooms which are in need of care
• AMAZON - Amazon a bit higher this month ,but still indispensable for things at the moment 

Hoping to have a cheap bank holiday weekend, and then back to work on star wars day (May the 4th) 

savingholmes

May the force be with you indeed

Sounds like budget is going well... I am tempted to go paint blank canvas shopping 

f0xh0les

Just read from page 1 to now, go you!

mark55man

Thank you @f0xh0les - I do bang on a bit - wish OH and I had half your energy 

mark55man

I just read it all as well.  Lot of plans, needs more action.  (was nice to see CC1, CC2 and the car loan bite the dust in fast forward)

Well, obviously I'm going to go away and have a think and come up with a plan for that

25000 steps this weekend, although tomorrow is going to be wet

savingholmes

Well done on steps

mark55man

Thank you SH.

On reflection, and I know I've said it before but I do need to get out more so my new (multiply revised) target is at least 2000 steps a day and 10000 at weekends.  I think my previous reset was 300 days over 5000, that hasn't gone well more like on target for 300 days under 3000.  I will update regularly on this. Now my CCs are largely sorted, and my OD, and my mortgage and pension plans, and to some extent me weight, I now need to work through the summer to get the house and garden sorted.  No more sat around the telly every evening - will try one thing a day.

Going out leafletting and canvassing (not my favourite thing) has at least got me out the house and will try to keep that up even once the election is done and dusted.  Maybe I should be a postie, but I think I may be a fair weather sort of   delivery guy

savingholmes

Good to evaluate what's working and what still needs attention. You'll get there. 

mark55man

well ironically I did do my 2000 steps today, but my fitbit was on charge so its only showing 245 - ah well