Crunchy pays off the loan early, and other stories

shoppingobsessed2020

Fantastic news on being sub 10k, hope your feeling better today

crunchy_time

enthusiasticsaver said:

Great that the loan is now under the £10k mark.  Every little bit slushed helps.  Is there a reason your emergency fund is quite large or is part of that earmarked for something? 

 Tough having all those birthdays coming up to Christmas.  Ours are spaced out over the year thank goodness and we have now stopped buying xmas and birthday presents for friends and extended family even my mum and stepdad who now say in their mid to late 80s  they have everything they need and they don't want to shop for presents either.  So xmas and birthdays for us we only buy for  each other, our daughters, son in law and grandchildren.  So much easier and cheaper. My xmas list used to be almost 20 people and now down to 6. 

Just realised I never replied to you ET - The emergency fund is for car servicing too.  It is also supposed to be paying for our house to be painted which is around the £2k mark but it's not likely to happen this year now the weather has turned bad.  
We were each paying £100 into it and then we dropped to £50 but we are now upping it to £100 each again.  I like the feeling of a big buffer.  £1000 doesn't seem enough if either of us were to be made redundant we would be screwed so it makes sense to keep growing it, especially as our debt is stable in two loans.

We only buy for nieces and nephews and our little family here at home but even then it seems to still cost way more than I want to.  Not this year - I am determined!!

crunchy_time

Morning all!
I've updated our actual emergency fund amount now as we have both taken out money from our savings accounts - husband for the mouse man and me for husbands birthday watch - which cost £350 with delivery.
Husband and I have had 'the chat' about money.  He wants a bit of extra spending money which is actually ok as he has had his pay rise.  We have decided how we can organise ourselves a bit better as well and I have laid down the law for the next few months.  I have told him how it has got to be to get through all the birthdays and Christmas realistically.  he's not needy - just disorganised and chooses other things over managing money which is why I have to do it. 
We are all very exhausted and need half term now but have another 3-4 days left next week.  My kids 3 and me 4 days.  I'm nowhere near as exhausted as I was when I was teaching though.
Yesterday I nipped to Sainsburys on my way home and picked up some organic lamb and beef mince that was yellow stickered.  I think I may continue to do this as I do prefer higher welfare stuff and often Aldi doesn't have this.  I'm also going to base our meals around 3 lots of meat a week and one fish to ease our budget a little.  Husband has been planning meals and they are a little meat heavy.  I'm hoping to take back control a bit now and get creative now I am settled in my job.
It's so depressing in the world at the moment isn't it.  We are in the southeast in a rural area with low transmission rates, but still, the thought of a whole winter without socialising like we are used to fills me with a sense of dread and anxiety.  We will just have to get creative and embrace the opprtunity to save some more money.
Right - I had better get showered and on with the day!
Crunchy xx

crunchy_time

Morning all
Husband has put me on a news diet after a whole day of anxiety related episodes yesterday culminating in me scratching myself raw and sobbing so much my face is all puffy. I think this has been building for a while. Sometimes I get so overwhelmed and as I have felt ill I had to stop and rest yesterday which fuels the anxiety monster. 

One positive thing I did do yesterday was look at my current local authority pension. The projection showed that if I continue on the same salary (of which I plan to earn way more than what I currently do anyway) when I do retire it will be about £750 a month (I currently earn £1138 a month) I thought it would be way less than that so that’s a bonus. Once I have paid off this consumer debt I intend to up my contributions to make up for being part time and a few years of no income. We still haven’t done anything about husbands pensions and putting them in one place. But I will do very soon.

crunchy x

t2rry

Morning Crunchy!! Just wanted to concur with the misery at the world news at the moment, I've been dealing really fine with it for the most part but the wall seems to have hit, through sheer length of the conditions I think.  But you're right about taking the positives, our debt free journey has gone into overdrive really this year because of it, so it makes sense to embrace it, look towards financial freedom coming at the same time as actual freedom!! We're also a low transmission area but it feels like you can almost see it closing in as other areas deteriorate and spread.  

Great work looking at your pension situation, I have never tackled this really at all, I now have 3 difference workplace pensions, two of which are stagnant and tiny, one current.  I have no idea what I should be doing with them or when, but maybe I'll kick that to the top consideration when the CC's are gone as we could seriously look at boosting both of ours, or even looking at additional private pensions that my parents do bug us to do!  One thing at a time, hey!?

Hope you have a good week, half term must feel like a nice relief just round the corner!

enthusiasticsaver

It will definitely be a good idea to up your pension but the LGPS (I have one of those too) is a good scheme and only working part time (or is that full time at a lower rate per hour?) means less pension needed to plug the gap when you do eventually retire. I don't think you are 40 yet so you have time. I worked part time until our youngest was a teenager then full time until they left uni then part time again after DH retired until I retired too. So altogether out of a 40 year career I had a career break of 3 years while our daughters were babies then 14 years part time(25 hours pw) and 23 full time.  One mistake I made was to prioritise my husbands pension over mine because he was a HR tax payer and earned more. We definitely did the right thing by him as his pension is more than 3 times as much as mine but it would have been a good idea  to have overpaid mine more than we did as I am not maximising my personal allowance as my pensions are under the £12k or whatever the limit is now. Simply the down side of working part time for so many years and accepting lower grade jobs to fit in with family life.   It will go over though when my state pension pays out and in the meantime I have transferred part of my PA to my DH.

I focused on S and S ISAs for me to plug the early retirement gap. 

crunchy_time

t2rry said:

Morning Crunchy!! Just wanted to concur with the misery at the world news at the moment, I've been dealing really fine with it for the most part but the wall seems to have hit, through sheer length of the conditions I think.  But you're right about taking the positives, our debt free journey has gone into overdrive really this year because of it, so it makes sense to embrace it, look towards financial freedom coming at the same time as actual freedom!! We're also a low transmission area but it feels like you can almost see it closing in as other areas deteriorate and spread.  

Great work looking at your pension situation, I have never tackled this really at all, I now have 3 difference workplace pensions, two of which are stagnant and tiny, one current.  I have no idea what I should be doing with them or when, but maybe I'll kick that to the top consideration when the CC's are gone as we could seriously look at boosting both of ours, or even looking at additional private pensions that my parents do bug us to do!  One thing at a time, hey!?

Hope you have a good week, half term must feel like a nice relief just round the corner!

We have to look at the positives don't we.  At least husband and I both still have jobs and yes, we are the same.  The debt pay off has largely stayed on track thanks to restrictions.  It's also making us think more creatively about socialising.  I have three pensions too.  Husband has about 5 or 6 and it was on my list to sort something out about this this year but I haven't done so yet.yet.  

crunchy_time

enthusiasticsaver said:

It will definitely be a good idea to up your pension but the LGPS (I have one of those too) is a good scheme and only working part time (or is that full time at a lower rate per hour?) means less pension needed to plug the gap when you do eventually retire. I don't think you are 40 yet so you have time. I worked part time until our youngest was a teenager then full time until they left uni then part time again after DH retired until I retired too. So altogether out of a 40 year career I had a career break of 3 years while our daughters were babies then 14 years part time(25 hours pw) and 23 full time.  One mistake I made was to prioritise my husbands pension over mine because he was a HR tax payer and earned more. We definitely did the right thing by him as his pension is more than 3 times as much as mine but it would have been a good idea  to have overpaid mine more than we did as I am not maximising my personal allowance as my pensions are under the £12k or whatever the limit is now. Simply the down side of working part time for so many years and accepting lower grade jobs to fit in with family life.   It will go over though when my state pension pays out and in the meantime I have transferred part of my PA to my DH.

I focused on S and S ISAs for me to plug the early retirement gap. 

Thank you for the advice ES!  Husband's company pay a lot into his pension and he only pays the minimum and its still a good one.  I've been working part time for 8 years.  I'm now full time but receive the equivalent monthly take home as 2 days a week teaching.  I think we shall overpay mine first like you say and then just organise husbands so it is all in the same pot.  I'm nearly 39 and the LG pension said I can't retire until I am 68 so I have a loooooong way to go which is fine as I love working!  I don't intend to retire early but will probably look at part time or contract work when I am much much older.  I'm planning to work full time from now on.

crunchy_time

Morning all!
My wobble seems a long time ago now, thank goodness.  I am now onto the practical aspects of getting through the winter without accumulating any more debt and sticking to our goals whilst enjoying ourselves although we are limited by the current restrictions.  Sometimes it feels really good to let all the emotion out.  Then it's easier to knuckle down and get on with it.
We had exhausted our food budget so we were using my extra money to see us through until Friday when husband gets paid as it's a five week month for him.  I did a bare minimum shop yesterday so I can now see what money I shall have left for the rest of November.  I've just got a chiropractor appointment today to pay for, birthday meal out this week, and a hair appointment tomorrow and should have enough money providing we are sensible.
I bought paint for one of the children's bedrooms and we painted it this weekend.  It looks great and we have enough left over to paint the other child's bedroom as well.  I just have to exchange the extra tin of colour for a different colour.  The plan is to get all the bedrooms done before the end of the year, which is doable both practically and financially.  
I wonder whether I should up my game and start filling the freezer with bits in case we have to isolate for 2 weeks.  This might keep my mind busy and it doesn't hurt to be so organised.  We have home schooling stuff so it would just be food.
When I get paid on the 19th November we will have £300 for Christmas and I intend to stick to that.  I'm going to make the children write to father Christmas this half term so I can get a good idea and start buying.  I'm going to start stocking up for food by buying a few extras each week that can be stored.  We are starting to get a picture of how we are celebrating so it's worth starting now.
I can't wait until a week today when I can update my signature again!!
Crunchy xx

crunchy_time

Morning!
Another anxiety attack yesterday.  I went to the hairdressers but was very restless while I was there.  My hair ended up nowhere near what I wanted it to be.  They offered to correct it for me but I didn't have time as the kids were with husband whilst he was working so basically were on screens for 3 hours.  They have an appointment for me today but I've decided I'm not going as they were talking about bleach baths and this scares me immensely.  The trust is gone.  Luckily, the toner will eventually fade.  I just need to get used to having much darker hair than I anticipated.  I haven't been happy there for a while and neither has husband so he hasn't re booked.  I shall look for another one for my next cut.  I'm going to go back to my last one even though she is a drive away and more expensive.  You get what you pay for.  
So with all the change in the world already, the world is now going to have to cope with me being brunette instead of blonde! Ha ha!
So anyway, I wrote off yesterday as soon as I got back at lunchtime.  PJs back on and watched home alone with the kids.  Had a curry.  Got an early night and now I feel loads better.  A lot of my anxiety is from trying to please everyone with regards to the birthdays coming up in our family.  We are having to do lots of different events so everyone can see people and it's really stressful for someone like me who doesn't enjoy being a hostess or any sort of organised fun.  I'm cancelling plans, even if that means upsetting people.  My mental health is way more important.
Not much to report money wise.  I spent £100 on a hair cut that wasn't what I want but hey ho.  Just trying to make it to husbands pay day on Friday then I can sort out November and look ahead to Christmas.  
I'm still working on all these little organisational plans in the background.  They seem to be works in progress than massive eureka moments though.
Happy humpday everyone!
Crunchy xx