The end is in sight

Porridgecat

Your diary is one I read often Beanielou although I seldom comment, one inspiring me to maybe stay here.

greent

There are quite a few of us MF-ers on the MFW boards still - it's too friendly a place to leave!  

Porridgecat

I think I'm going to continue posting on here for a bit. 
January is still going to be a bit tight money wise as part of the final mortgage payment came out of December's salary (January's money) but we should be around £500 better off, from the end of January it should be £1500 at least a month. fortunately January is the first month in what seems like a long time that we haven't had a big bill for something or other, although Mr Porridge's car is due a service. 
We were supposed to go to Cyprus on Boxing Day taking MIL but decided to change as navigating all the tests and PLF's with a cantankerous 81 year old would be too much. I've changed it to April over the Easter weekend and as there's some bank holidays in it it means Mr Porridge only has to use 4 days of his floating leave. We had to change hotels and the new one is slightly less expensive so we got a £260 refund back onto the credit card which went to pay off some of the plane flights for Corfu in July.
My priorities now are to build the savings back up again. We have lots of pots that live in our current account but are managed separately in YNAB, I also try and keep a £1000 short term emergency fund in the savings account linked to our current account in case there's not enough in the designated pot, (we get more interest on the current account than the savings) which is very depleted after some big car bills so I want to save that back up again. 
I think my strategy for the first few months is going to be splitting everything four ways, holiday fund, emergency fund, and the two savings accounts while still putting set amounts into the different savings pots (We have car maintenance, home maintenance, home improvements, dental, medical - mainly glasses for Mr P, white good replacement and tech replacement) I'm upping the home improvements fund as we have lots we want to save up to do.
Finally I'm going to try and have a no spend January to help me on my way to filling the savings pots up, so no extra purchases at all and trying to eat up as much from the cupboard and freezers as possible. 

Porridgecat

Did a L1dl grocery shop this morning, I wasn't going to and was going to try and eke out what we have in but decided to get fresh fruit and veggies before the import red tape causes havoc. Most of the shop was that apart from two packets of 30% off chicken wings (salt and chilli wings tonight I think), I bought some frozen veg as well (peas, sweetcorn and mixed) just in case, I've got lots of frozen plums and apples from the garden and possibly some rhubarb still. I got a bit of a shock looking at the receipt to find out that the organic tender stem broccoli was £2.39 - reminder to check more carefully before picking things up. 
I'm now waiting impatiently for Tuesday as that's the next banking day, which is when money will transfer from my account to the joint account and I can move some about into savings and see what its all looking like.

Porridgecat

Had a mooch around town today just to get out a bit and MrP wanted to look at Star Wars lego kits, he had a nice bonus and is being allowed to spend some of it on fripperies. We came back not having parted from a single penny though. The sales all looked already depleted even the B00ts one which normally has a lot of potential presents was pretty dire. We even resisted 45p MandS mince pies. 

Porridgecat

So today, I took lunch to work (leftover vegetable cajun pasta from last night) this is more a health thing than moneysaving. I have an almost unlimited supply of food at work but I end up eating way to much bread as toast or endless packets of crisps, ignoring the fruit (there's seldom much veg or salad around). 
Tonight I cooked some salmon fillets that I got a while back in L1dl for 90p. We ate three and I've kept the fourth and some extra potatoes so I can use them and some smoked mackarel (also markdown in the freezer) to make fishcakes on Thursday night as we always eat at MIL on Wednesdays.
I've transferred £205 to each of the savings accounts and £105 to the emergency fund. I had half expected a mortgage payment to go out that we have had to claim back but it didn't. Heli0dor mortgages must have worked out its all paid.

Porridgecat

Well, I've transferred all the pots of money and they've all got there, this is the point when I normally feel that I can't do anything else till next month but this month I want to change that mindset and remember that any money we don't spend can go into the funds.
I've done well as I've been in the shops three times for work but haven't bought anything for home at all. Made fishcakes tonight and have three left over for lunch tomorrow, I used the leftover salmon fillet and potatoes and added a peppered mackerel fillet, there's one left in the packet for MrP to have with cream cheese on toast for lunch tomorrow as he's wfh.

Chiglepig

@Porridgecat I just saw you made it MF before Christmas (haven't been around a lot!) congratulations. The MF-ers who stay around are great inspiration for what life will be like for the rest of us

Porridgecat

Thank you for that @Chiglepig. We're trying not to change too much at the moment as we want to build up savings again and do some improvements including a new kitchen. I'm a great believer in buying something once only so it won't be cheap I know that, and then we want to build up our retirement savings pots a bit as well. 

Porridgecat

Made it to the weekend, didn't get on the laptop last night as we were generally vegging out and watching n3tfl1x. We had burgers last night as out treat type Friday meal instead of steak so that was cheaper, especially as they were marked down ones for 90p
We still went out for our usual Saturday breakfast but I think this is a cheaper treat than a dinner out and we're trying to skip that this month. We also did some grocery shopping this morning, I think we could have managed to do without but we still had to get some for MIL so had to go.  We bought a few bits including markdown sausages and markdown mango kefir, then oil, powdered ginger, wraps, cheese slices, potatoes and milk so just over a thirteen pound spend in all. I'm happy with that as we normally budget £80 a month for groceries.