Getting shot of the mortgage sooner than 2049!

Bluegreen143

It is five years here, Red served on a jury last year so looked it up at the time.

Meant to say, I’ve been at my job three years, so they’re increasing the amount they contribute to my pension. Currently it’s 6% me, 6% them, but their contribution is going up to 7%. Pleased with that as I’d forgotten that happens. 

Baileys_Babe

Great news on your employer's increased pension contributions.

Cheery_Daff

Fingers crossed! I've only ever done hey service once,  and Mr Cheery has never been called.  Interesting,  but it was white stressful because of the nature of some of the cases 😕 hope you don't get called in. 

Bluegreen143

Well I’ve escaped from jury duty. Didn’t get called in in the end.

Things feel like they’re ticking over nicely financially. I get paid on Wednesday so will top up various pots in YNAB at that point. Hoping I can add something to the emergency fund - current balance £818.

I’m trying out more of reverse meal planning thing, of just buying enough meat/pulses and veg to do a week and planning out meals on a daily basis using what I have. I wanted to do burgers for dinner tonight, thinking I had mince in the freezer, but I don’t 😳 however, I found some chicken breasts in there, so we’re having chicken burgers instead. 

Tomorrow I’m going to do a veggie chilli, then on Sunday Red and I are going out for dinner, because the children are going to stay with my mum for a few days (it’s half term, but neither of us had enough leave to take it off so my mum has kindly taken it off instead). We’re having a valentines dinner out, which will be much more enjoyable for not being on actual Valentine’s Day 😂

REALLY need to start sorting out Red’s birthday. He turns 40 in less than two weeks 😳 He wants to build a pizza oven, so his present will be bricks and materials for that, but I need to get him stuff to open and something from the kids, ideally something they can make 🤔 need to make him three cards too - for Valentine’s, his birthday AND our anniversary. Always difficult to think of three different designs and messages!

Bluegreen143

Checking in briefly to say I’ve not forgotten about my diary! Life is busy right now! Will do a fuller update later, but Red’s birthday went well. Off to Paris in a week! Budget looking ok though spent more than I’d really planned to on Red’s birthday - you only turn 40 once though. 

Bluegreen143

Right, time for an update. Life has been busy! 

I think it’s officially spring now so a good time to reflect over the last three months and plan the next three. 

Last quarter…

- we had Christmas (not to mention both kids’ birthdays were just over three months ago too).

- it was Red’s 40th 

- Red and I went to Paris for our 10th wedding anniversary 

- we were all ill all of January 🙄

I definitely feel soooooo much better in myself now we are out of that challenging winter. The past few weeks I feel like myself again. 

Looking ahead… (from now til mid/late June)

- looking forward to getting outdoors more often for walks, adventures, picnics etc - these are mainly free though🙌🏼

- I’d like to invest in camping gear soon as the kids enjoyed the couple of times we went camping with borrowed gear last year. The issue being we haven’t got enough saved currently. Hoping to be quite frugal in April & May to get this before the summer. 

- I’d like to do a kayaking course with Monkey, though Red is on the fence about this - I may end up just doing it myself 

- I’m saving up to replace my wedding ring, which I lost a few years ago 😣 it’s about £850 to rebuy the same one, which matches my engagement ring, and I’ve saved up £485 so far. I’m really proud of this, as it’s all been saved from my own personal spending budget, not the household budget and I’ve only been saving since I increased my working hours in October. I also need to get my engagement ring widened a bit as my fingers are too fat for it now 🙈😳 I think it’s conceivable that I could save enough to buy it this quarter. 

- our tumble dryer AND dishwasher broke a couple of months ago. Red replaced with dishwasher with one off gumtree which is great and only cost £70, but he hasn’t seen any good tumble dryers yet. I suppose we can keep putting this off through summer but Red is quite keen to buy one. 

We also have two week-long domestic holidays coming up in the summer, one in July and one in August, and haven’t saved up much for them yet either so need to get cracking on that! 

Current financial status 

Joint account: £424.25
This is to last us until Red gets paid at the end of the month. All big bills are paid now so it should be fine. I’m working on a grocery & household budget of £20 per day atm and I don’t think we’ll need petrol. Anything leftover will go to the emergency fund. 

Emergency fund: £613… except Red has borrowed a couple of hundred £ from it until his pay day 🙄 but that’s what it should be.

Wants pot: £603.33 
We do use this through the month to buy any small household/kid purchases eg eating out as a family or kids’ pocket money. But mostly it builds up - most of it is earmarked for our holidays at the moment. 

Personal account: £172.63
To do me until the 14th April

Personal savings: £485
Earmarked for a wedding ring but if necessary I can dip into it for other personal expenses 

We do have quite a bit in our Help to Save accounts now, about £4k I think - but can’t access this until December without a penalty. I’ve got around £300 in a personal Stocks & Shares ISA too, which again I’ve saved from my own personal spending money since October. Basically in 5 months I’ve saved over £750 on my own which I’m pleased about - but the joint savings are dire 😬 I may divert my own savings to our holiday or camping gear yet… but I would love to replace my wedding ring…

I’m still paying my mum back for our car and this is down to £1,420 now so not long to go. We pay £400 a month so it’ll be done within 4 months. After that we’ll be able to save that £400 a month so it’ll make a huge difference 🙌🏼

Trying to think what else is relevant money-wise. 

I just ordered the kids spring/summer clothes so won’t need to budget for any clothes for about 6 months, except sun hats (which I’ve still to get) and school uniform for August. 

It was about £250 spent between them both but I prefer to just shop twice a year at season’s change (plus the summer school uniform shop) rather than shop in dribs and drabs through the year as we all do a capsule wardrobe concept. I got both kids’ gear from H&M this time which was good value compared to Next, where I bought their winter gear last year. I did use the employee discount site at my work to save 8% too ☺️

I haven't looked at my own spring/summer needs but I have maxi dresses from last summer in a tub over my wardrobe so hoping I just need sandals and light footless tights tbh. Or maybe one new dress max (I wear dresses everyday but try to keep only 8-10 at any time as a “10 outfit wardrobe”). Any spends will come from my own pot but probably not before my April pay. 

Bluegreen143

Oh and I forgot! I think I said that my work are increasing their pension contributions for me as I’ve been here three years now. But I’m also getting a 6.29% cost of living payrise from April 🎉  I think that takes me to £37k actual salary and £42.5k FTE or thereabouts. So if I was full time I’d officially out earn Red for the first time ever, as he earns £40k +£1-2k bonus a year. 

TallGirl

Lovely to have you back sounds like you had a great time in Paris and your other breaks. Could be a worthwhile investment in camping gear I quite often see people off load a whole bunch of stuff on marketplace when they decide not to go again. Might be worth looking out for good second hand. 

Amazing salary please be proud of yourself and good they are increasing your pension. It is hard to save for your future self but you can shown you can do it. Will be so nice when you get that wedding ring replaced that is a lot of savings in a few months. Well done. 

Baileys_Babe

Good to see you back @Bluegreen143 well done on your savings. Any idea why Red needs to borrow from the emergency fund?

Bluegreen143

@Baileys_Babe yeah, he spent all his money on stuff for building a pizza oven (he got a lot of money for this for his birthday but totally underbudgeted for it even though I told him to add contingency) and forgot he had a big day/night out planned for wetting his best friend’s baby’s head this weekend. He doesn’t generally save his own money, spends it down each month, so in expensive months he tends to struggle. 

He only goes on about two boys nights out a year so I don’t begrudge him. 

The overspend on the pizza oven is because he didn’t realise how expensive delivery was for some of the components (£90 just on delivery!!!) and he’s had to buy more of some stuff than expected. While his own spending money is his own business he is fairly transparent and not secretive about what he spends on.

He will pay it back when he gets paid, issue being he’s borrowed so much this time I’m a bit concerned he won’t get through next month without borrowing again. I did have a word with him about how he’s stealing from April Red who will be cross with March Red 😆