Two years and then downsize...

debtfreeoneday

I start Christmas shopping in January. Just helps prevent what feels like a big hit at the end of the year. 

Sapindus

Mid-month stocktake, having just paid the credit card bill.  There is not going to be an underspend this month unless some miracle occurs.  Main reasons for this: Holiday cottage balance, car service, final vet bill, house insurance (but saved £180 on that).

Took the teenager to Tesco yesterday for the first time possibly since the pandemic started, because he needed new clothes and I'm fed up with trying to work out what fill fit him!  This also meant we spent £80 (excluding the clothes) instead of £50-60, because my bribe to get him out of the car (slight lockdown agoraphobia setting in) was that he could choose some food.  So we ended up with steak, guacamole, haribo, cookies, cornettos and chillis.

Also spent £60 at Holland and Barrett with the MSE £25% off code, but again there's that inconsistency.  I bought 5 litre refills of Ecover stuff, but it's still more expensive than Tesco's ordinary.  But I save all that plastic.  And hopefully a voucher to compensate for the broken tub of peanut butter - their packaging has not improved since Christmas when two items actually went missing!

And now I'm trying to work out how far I'm willing to drive to buy cheaper petrol.  Factoring in the increased risks associated with driving further, and the value of my time. I'm probably looking at a similar amount to what I'd be quite happy to spend time for doing a Prolific study, but for some reason my brain is going - nah, not worth it.

And then there's when money-saving-goes-wrong.  I got all excited that I could get a 7.5% discount at JD sports, then realised it was an e-voucher so I'll have to pay an extra £1 to click and collect.  And in the end, it was cheaper to get the stuff from Asda. Be more careful next time...
  

South_coast

Time v Money is such a tricky one to balance isn't it? Even when your rational brain makes a decision, the emotional part often says something totally opposite!

I think I would have needed a bribe to go into Tesco as well after that length of time 🤣! Supermarkets are stressful at the best of times - so much stuff! So much choice! Not sure how I would cope with the exposure if I wasn't getting a small dose each week 😮

Sapindus

So August was a good month!  I managed to put £750 into the credit union savings account, based on my very simple method of any surplus income over outgoings for the month gets moved across.  Partly this success was due to realising I had some money stashed on supermarket gift cards which I get at a discount through work benefits scheme.  We have a small Sainsbury in the village so I made frequent trips to see what was on the reduced counter each afternoon.  

We went on holiday to Scotland and used the Blue Peter badge for the very last time.  It was just me and the teenager as my eldest suddenly found himself some paid employment.  So I bit the bullet and took our bikes.  I was undecided because of the extra petrol consumption, but since we then did two epic bike rides and the car stayed on the cottage drive each day, we saved there.  Stopped for petrol in Carlisle on the way up and down where there is an Asda a few minutes from the motorway.  Used the Gardener's World 2 for 1 offer at Lowther Castle on the way back and generally had a very low key holiday with fish and chips once our only "eating out" extravagance.  Also ate quite a lot of blackberries!

Got back to find a £5.50 Holland and Barrett voucher for signing up to their rewards scheme on that big order I did using the MSE discount, so that was a big win.  Also a message from work saying we will get an annual bonus this month so I have chucked another £250 across into the credit union in anticipation.  I did a bit of a stock take... by the end of this year my mortgage will be almost exactly £40k, which means I can overpay £4k next year. I plan to do this on the 1st of Jan (or as soon as they update the allowance).  I've counted up what I've got, and giving myself a six-months emergency fund, I have the £4k already.  So on the 2nd Jan my mortgage will be £36k.  So at that point, my monthly payment OUGHT to be £271, according to the overpayment calculator, but because it is stuck at £436, I will then be paying off an extra £165 each month, which means by the end of NEXT year the balance could potentially be not much above £31k.

I find this quite awe-inspiring!

Of course all sorts of dreadful things could happen in the meantime.  Prolific has dried up on me and I didn't win the Yeo Valley raffle despite throwing every Yeoken I had at it. But the car has passed its MOT only needing a new exhaust bracket and a wiper blade.  Judging by its predecessor I should get another couple of years out of it.  We have managed so far not to succumb to the temptation of a new cat, though the teenager gave me a little pang the other day when he saw "Catholme" on the map and thought I had taken him to a cat home to get a new one as a birthday surprise.

I suppose the next challenge is Christmas...!

South_coast

Sapindus said:

I didn't win the Yeo Valley raffle despite throwing every Yeoken I had at it.

I love this 🤣!

Your holiday sounds fab. I'm a fan of finding the supermarkets a few miles from the motorway services as well!

Sapindus

So, bye bye September.  Not TOO bad a month.  Ended up with a £138 overspend, but this is because I got overexcited when I heard about the work bonus and put too much over into savings.  It would still have been an £100 overspend if there had been no bonus and I hadn't done that though.  Main damage was done by a £300 bill from my outgoing energy supplier. The new one has given me a more realistic monthly payment, just need to keep fingers crossed they don't go under. 

Mortgage interest for the month was £103.  In January it was £126. Very excited to see what it is next January.

I have started my Christmas present stash with three free books - one which Yeo Valley sent me by mistake, one my mother was sending to a charity shop and one I was given last year (good reading for a once through).  Recycle to other side of the family! All really nice books which are perfect for particular people I have in mind. Is this bad?

Made a good start on this months groceries by spending my nectar points in Sainsburys, plus a £5 M&S voucher from credit card rewards (with the usual struggle to get best value out of it even though it's free!) Sainsburys do big tubs of smoked paprika which Tesco don't, plus I found a big tub of peppercorns reduced to 30p because it had lost its label.

Main money waster this month is an odd one - I bought tickets for a gig months ago which entails a 130 mile round trip, but I wanted to support the band and they're pretty special to me. They've now announced a few more gigs one of which would be a 30 mile round trip instead! Not only that but neither of my kids particularly wants to go with me.  But THEN, it turns out the night of the closer gig I'll be away with work.  But in a hotel a 10 mile round trip away.  Could I play taxable-benefit hooky - this is getting complicated. I think on balance the original venue is going to be the safest bet, and try and drag a kid with me.  Or does anyone fancy a night of /prog/folk/rock with added crumhorns in Runcorn? 

Sapindus

Missed a month - nothing very exciting was happening.  The saga of the gig tickets came to a slightly alarming clinch when one of the band got ill (most of them are over 60) so all dates were cancelled. New dates are announced so I can go to the closer venue now, so all's well that ends well.

This month's money waster is an opportunity missed.  I was going to buy wool duvets for my boys for Christmas through the Yeo Valley shop with a discount, but they stopped working with the duvet supplier - AFTER I'd exchanged my Yeokens ready for the discount! I was gutted.  But have now found an alternative supplier with a Black Friday sale on, so that's turned out reasonably OK, and there are a few other things I can still get from Yeo Valley, once I've resolved an argument I now have with them after I lost my discount when the website malfunctioned.  Or I could just stop whinging and eat some more yoghurt. 

I got a nice little prize from the Paypal prize draw, and switched my credit card to Amazon because I worked out the rewards would be better than Barclaycard. I pay off my balance in full every month so that's my main criteria for choosing.  Not very happy with their whole online banking set-up though. 

Have bought the Christmas tree from Ikea (went too late last year).  Never have any problem spending a £20 voucher in Ikea, especially as eldest son is now working from home and needs a new desk.  It's not the most handsome tree ever, but for a net £9 I'm OK with that. We'll just put up a few more decorations than we did last year, and the lights will look better on a smaller tree! Other Christmas saves included getting a Very credit account for the £30 cashback and paying it off straight away (kettlebells joint present for sons, also in Black Friday sale so massive saving there).

Have been trying to cut down car usage due to the petrol prices.  I cycled to morris practice last month which is a 30 mile round trip, and was going to do that again this weekend but have woken up to snow - yikes - I was going to cycle for my Covid booster today as well!  Do I still dare? I think I have to.

It has also been a great autumn for wild mushrooms which has given me the odd free lunch here and there, and most excitingly in the foraging stakes I have started a batch of rosehip and sloe wine.  That might be ready for next Christmas!

 

Sapindus

So, here we are at the end of January already.  I have made my annual OP, of £4000 this year.  Always a bit of a momentous occasion as I wonder if I am doing the right thing, will I need it and regret doing this?  But I have the recommended 6 months salary in savings, plus a bit more.  What's the worst that can happen?  I always reckon 1) losing job (very unlikely) or 2) need new car (meh).  And then guess what... my energy supplier went bust.  Just as I was feeling very relieved I had a good fixed rate until September 2023.  Ironically I have been shunted back to British Gas which is who I was with before I went to Bristol Energy last August. 

So time for a stocktake on where things can be screwed down even tighter.  We went shopping in Asda instead of Tesco and spent less but that's probably because I couldn't find half the things I wanted.  I bought a very cheap new pair of walking boots at £55 instead of the £100 or so I was thinking of.  Then it was time for a scan down the MSE latest tips.  Current account switch!  It's a bit of a hassle not least because the Nationwide website kept refusing to let me open a savings account so as to get the extra £25 for already being a member in the switch.  But seems to be sorted now.  The boys can't understand why I am going to the trouble.  But one of them picked up a £1 off the road the other day, then went "oh, it's a bit muddy, I think I'll leave it here..." ah to be young and carefree again!

Also in the MSE tips I spotted a savings account at 0.72% instead of the 0.55% mine were sitting at and opened one.  It's now closed to new customers and I can only pay in up to 5th Feb.  I'm not sure what this signifies, but it's easy access so if I have to switch again I can.

I am grateful to MSE for so much.  My credit union savings account has just paid its dividend of 1.5%.  I didn't get as much as I would have if I'd moved ALL my savings in there, I've just been topping it up each month, but I will keep using it as my main route for new savings. 

• I would not have known about credit unions if not for MSE
• I would not have spotted the best ordinary savings account rate
• I wouldn't have seen the cash bribes for current accounts, worked out which was best for me, and had the confidence to switch 
• Also MSE pointed me to my other current account which gets me £20 a year in interest
• I don't even know when I would have realised what a good idea it is to make mortgage overpayments
• I found out about Prolific via MSE (£300 in my first ten months)
• I discovered Pick My Postcode (no wins yet, but hey)
• Oh yes, the petrol price finder website, found that on MSE

I think that's the main things.  Thanks, MSE!  

South_coast

It's funny isn't it, there are so many things I do which I first heard about either on the website or through the forum, but they're so ingrained now it's difficult to remember where they first came from. In my head it's my doing, but it's not - it's definitely down to MSE!

I would still definitely pick up a muddy £1 coin though 🤣!

Sapindus

Things don't get any easier do they, but at least I don't live in a war zone or be having to decide whether to heat or eat...

I'm not sure what's going on with the energy switch, I still seem to be paying the same direct debit to Bristol Energy but all the emails from British Gas say don't do anything we'll handle it.  They've sent the new rates for April through though, so still looking for ways to save.  I have cut down on showers (maybe TMI!)

Spotted the MSE deal on robo-investing with Wealthify.  Not something I had ever considered, but for a free £50 I had to look into it.  So I put £50 of my money into my very own pension.  I hasten to add I do have a good workplace pension already.  But I'm 55 in three years, and £50 instantly became £62.50 with the tax relief, and in a year's time when they add the cashback it therefore becomes £125, presumably, and then another couple of years and I can get it all out again, minus 20% tax on 75% of it.  I am pretty sure that even if the stock markets are rubbish this still has to be better than putting £50 in the savings account.

The new savings account meanwhile is now overtaken by an increased rate with Virgin, so I was all about to empty it and ran into a slight problem that they don't have a sample signature to check and I have to change my nominated bank account because of switching.  I think one of my friends is an accountant so I can get her to verify my signature and send it off on Monday.  Maybe by then interest rates will have gone up again and it won't be Virgin after all.  Annoyingly I know lots of retired teachers but no functional ones and I really don't want to have to pay someone to verify the signature. 

I have also stepped up the comping with the PMP dailies, at least seven a day to get the weekly entry into their monthly extra draw.  Mostly food and gift cards.  It's a bit misleading to say a prize is "worth £15" when it's a load of expensive cereal bars that would cost a fraction of the price in Tesco equivalent, but still.  Going to Aldi tomorrow on a trial basis, I reckon I will go there alternate weeks to mitigate the "can't find what I want" effect.  We got an Asda delivery recently while the teenager had Covid, and I reckon it was worth the £2 delivery especially with the price of petrol.

I know February is a short month, but amazing to see the monthly mortgage interest at £83, and that next month the balance will be below £35k!

I am encouraging eldest son to think about the concept of moving out one day.  He said "...how???" as if I'd proposed flying to the moon.  OK, which bit of moving out are you having problems with the "how" of? "Well, how will I move all my stuff?"  We still have some work to do there...