The Last Leg; 6 years later, debt free in 2021

greensalad

I have a mini one! It's just big enough to help a few pots along, but I do love it. A full on walk-in is the dream!

greensalad

Picked up one more small shift, for an extra £50 pre-tax, but it's only 2 extra hours at my desk so that's fine by me!

greensalad

Tomatoes just gone in seedling trays! How exciting. I have enough seeds either for another round next year, or for to replace any of these that don't spring up that well. 

Thought if I get them done now then they can go in the mini greenhouse in May while I wait for the last frost. 

I've sown 8 seeds per variety, I feasibly only need two or three per variety. Let's see if they all spring up like the chillies did!

greensalad

Car quote came back, it was £44 over budget which is not bad at all! In the future I'm going to do better at having a healthy "misc" pot as you never know what that can be... think I'm going to make it a target of £200 in misc instead of £100.

Anyway I was able to pull the extra needed out of the savings pot for the car's service in August so I have plenty of time to make up the difference by the time the service is due.

I love YNAB, previously this would just go on credit card!

Sarahwithlove

I always over estimate, so whatever this year's was round up and save for next year 👍

greensalad

Yeah I wasn't too far off luckily. I'd got the correct estimate for the brake pads and discs but we had an odd one where our air blowers stopped working correctly. One of those things where the part is really cheap but the labour to take the whole thing apart was more expensive. I think a £200 pot should cover me well.

MOT brought up advisory for rear tyres. We had the fronts done last year. I'm going to ask for a quote when I pick the car up and save to have them done at our August service.

Sarahwithlove

Sounds like a good plan to me. 

greensalad

So exciting about 21st June! Means my friend's wedding is going ahead in September!

Anyway, we've been making plans, and have decided we are going to go and have a nice country hotel stay in July but near the city we want to move to. We may be viewing by July plus it'll be a nice trip to get excited about moving there and checking out things that might have changed since our last visit. We'll still be saving in July but it'll be towards the solicitors fees et al rather than the deposit. So it'll also be a nice bit of celebration that we've finished saving for the deposit. Just waiting back to see if the hotel has any particular offers they're planning on doing so we can book in quick.

Also going to get to see my Mum on her birthday, yay! It's early April so we'll be able to go for a walk somewhere. I've invited her over for a chilly BBQ and promised to get our chiminea up and running to let off some warmth. She came over in teh garden I think at some point last summer, whenever we were allowed to, and I haven't seen her since the 18th December when we did a present drop in a rather sad petrol station car park halfway between where we both live. 

Also going to hopefully visit my friend in her new house (well, in the garden of it!) and meet her new baby. So exciting! 

Finally... going to drop in and meet another friend somewhere outside and try our best to do a PPE measure-up as I'm making his wedding suit! Gawd, what have I got myself in for. I offered to make it a few years ago. We've been friends since we were 2 and if he were a girl I'd be making his wedding dress. Suit is a little out of my comfort zone, but I've made plenty of trousers and waistcoats before. I've bought a class on Craftsy to make a ladies suit jacket. Mum has brought me over all her "speed tailoring" books from the 80s. She bought me some lovely lilac checked suit fabric two Christmasses ago and that will be for me to follow the course to make my own jacket. Then I'll get started on his once I'm a bit more confident. Eeek! 

greensalad

Today I got to remove my monthly Car Insurance category line from my budget, felt so good! Of course I'll still be saving regularly for it but it's soooo much cheaper paying annually (though the fact I had a speeding fine that's now dropped off has helped too). The renewal they offered me worked out at £550 annually, I just paid £300 for our new one, and the excess is lower!

Baileys_Babe

That is good news. As you say you will are paying so much less, saving over 45% this year.
Like you, we pay annually but save up over the year. To work out how much I am going to save a month I divide the latest cost by 12 and plus 20% to cover any increases next year, for you this would work out at £30 per month 😃  Usually, I can remove the increase by changing the provider, but this gives us a cushion in case I can't.