Facing reality

Sarahwithlove

Bluegreen143 said:

It’s not through frugal virtue I just really really hate the taste of coffee 😂

Hmm, no, it wouldn’t cross my mind to get something to go from a coffee shop 😜 I do buy hot chocolates if I’m actually sat in a cafe with people (rare) but wouldn’t buy one to carry about. If too hot in the summer and water isn’t cutting it I tend to just pick up a nice cold fizzy can at a corner shop, haven’t tried coolers.

I do drink (unsweetened and no milk) tea but only average about one cup of tea every two months, usually if someone is offering me one (which doesn’t happen much as my friends know I usually say no). 

You’ll be unsurprised to learn that due to low exposure I’m really sensitive to caffeine (need to be careful with soft drinks in the evening) so that puts me off getting more into tea as it affects my sleep 😂

(I hasten to add, I do spend on both alcohol and soft drinks at the pub and alcohol for at home - in case I was sounding too frugal 😜)

I usually get coffee on either days I go into office which is once a week or if I have a long drive. I do need to get better with this though. It's one of my vices but comes out my spending money for the month. I don't drink or smoke etc so I guess there are worse things I could spend it on ha! 

Sarahwithlove

Happy payday for anyone else who has to wait until last working day of the month. I love payday as looks like I have money, well until tomorrow when majority of my DDs and SO come out ha! Been doing some more reworking of my budget spreadsheet...again. 

Provisional Action Plan

- £100 p/m into premium bonds which is what I used to pay my dad towards the loan. 

- £250 p/m into my new regular saver which is going to become my emergency fund. (Lloyds) 

- £50 per month into my other regular saver (Nationwide) and will be my gas and electric top up. Currently has £150 so £200 from tomorrow. I'm still on a fix until August. 

- £100 per month into my sinking fund, Currently stands at £2250, needs to be £3000 to cover the years expenses. This is where any extra money will be going for now to get to £3000 then will be replaced as used 

- £150 per month into petrol account. Current work expenses last few months have averaged £100-150 a month that claimed back. So any petrol/parking etc will go from this fund rather than using my CC and paying it back. Ideally would like to get to £200 left in there at end of month so can then work in advance and just top up to £200 at start of a month when needed. That's 2.5 tanks of petrol or 2 tanks and parking costs. 

Once my sinking fund and petrol funds have been topped up I will then focus on getting a month ahead in my DDs which will round up to £1k as currently my current account offers 5% on first £1k. Actually may focus on this first as better than 2.7% that my sinking fund is in. 

Thanks to my dad giving me that money things look a bit more positive for me from a financial perspective and I would like to be in a good place when my mortgage is up for renewal at end of August so that I can adjust my budget without too much hassle to the increase for that and gas and electric. I have done provisional sums for increase and a predicted budget. I should be able to manage and keep my sinking fund topped up but won't be much wiggle room for anything else unfortunately. So may need to get creative with ways to make extra money and join some challenges. But that's a problem for then. 

Well done if you made it to the end! 

lucielle

I love having different pots but then feel sad when I have to use the money for what it’s saved for!  

L

Sarahwithlove

lucielle said:

I love having different pots but then feel sad when I have to use the money for what it’s saved for!  

L

Yes I'm a nightmare with this. I try to use my spends for it instead and then get to last week of month and wonder why I have no money left 🙃 

Sarahwithlove

So did my monthly check on account and realised my DD hadn't come out for my service charge. So went into my DD list to discover it hadn't been taken since November. So now instead of having 2 months without for april and may I'll be paying it instead. Never mind. Budget adjusted. Just means slightly less to be put in saver each month. Still able to keep to my planned SOs just not as much extra. Unless I find other ways to make the money. 

Sarahwithlove

So first week of Feb is almost over. I've decided to move to weekly budgeting for my groceries and spends as I'm finding it makes it easier to not overspend and I ask myself do I really need it. 

So discovered that my current account isn't 5% as I've had an account with them before. So will be putting the extra into my saver with ch@se as that's going up to 3% and so much easier to use. I'll probably look at moving my bank account again once my mortgage is sorted later in the year. Had my offer through from HSB-C and it's not the best around at the moment. So waiting to see what happens as we just had an increase in BOE rate but there's talks of it dropping again. I'm still debating the idea of moving in the next 12 months so wondering whether I should go with a tracker mortgage as most will let you leave penalty free after a year and I have flexibility in my budget should it temporarily increase. Rates are also better than fixed options at the moment so would have further room still for it to increase. 

Worse case scenario I would have to look at having another lodger again but hoping won't get to that point. 

Sarahwithlove

Hiii and I'm back with a new thread, so you can find me here. Hope to welcome some of you back and get some new readers as well. I'm looking forward to catching up on some threads 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6474943/the-three-cs-coffee-clothes-credit-cards#latest