Learning to walk before I run

edinburgher

Good news the third - won £2.10 on Eur0millions

Paid this, some money from my personal spends account, a few pence of cashback from Ch@se and a virement from our "Baby" pot that is being run down as Mrs E will have a semi-normal wage from 28th February to the CC (£54.88 today, £51.56 yesterday). We're now £870 in the black after Mrs E got paid yesterday, plus Mrs E got into the spirit of things and donated £7 of cashback to the CC payment.

I had a very busy week at work, with new starts who I am managing. They all seem very nice, although they will need a bit of support to get up to the level that we expect (specialised role, staff have all been promoted). I managed IRO 5 hours of overtime and £11.34 from Prolific. Unfortunately I can't actually log the overtime as the work system used to book it has been down for a fortnight I'm not quite sure how it will work if I have to put it all through next month and it adds over £1,000 to my normal wage, hope the tax doesn't go silly.

Not much more to report. Feeling a wee bit down in the dumps as it looks like builder has installed Velux windows wrong (damp patches after recent heavy rains and has failed to come out over a week after being notified) and experiencing some pain in a sensitive area where I've been waiting since October for a scan. Am thinking I'll go private, ultrasound appears to be c. £100 and I am scunnered.

No point in sitting around moping. It's the last weekend of the month, I have loads of chores to do and DD2 needs a walk in the pram so that she gets her morning 40 minutes Trying really hard not to spend any real money before the 1st of February. 

savingholmes

Congratulations on being in the black and the switching bonus 

Suffolk_lass

Your post prompted the question to DH as to whether we had won anything on Euro lottery and we had. Evidently we must have had an additional number as it was £4.pp, so thank you for the nudge. Not enough to buy the listed farmhouse I covet, or to donate a couple of £m to the local lido trust that failed to secure the levelling up funds they need to get going again on the planned restoration.

One would think a swimming pool project that won't have any expensive heating bills would be a winner, but no. The east projects that received money were mostly around town-centre improvement and included Southend's borough-council-owned theatre having yet more work done and money to widen the seafront (in my view that Borough Council spends far too much on road and walkway surfaces and the High Street has had the block paving redone at least three times). And while Clacton town-centre got money, the poorest area (Jaywick) did not, it appears. 

Alchemilla

edinburgher said:

@Alchemilla - would that be Nadim Zahawi? I think I'd run out of companies to do business with if I boycotted every one that had a Tory connection in this country Still, I admire the strength of your convictions 

Coding and overtime completed last night, I didn't finish until nearly 10. Mrs E doesn't particularly like the overtime as it places a little more pressure on her to do housework etc. It is, however, just about the most straightforward way for me to earn extra money and pays £24.50-£32.50 an hour depending on when it falls during my work schedule. It is definitely helping with the bills - the cumulative effect of my new pay rate and overtime will be over £300 (net) in my next wage. The fact that our energy bills will double? triple? from April and that we need to find an extra £6,000 for childcare costs over the next 31 months is definitely focusing minds... Anyway, it's the only time I've been offered paid overtime in roughly 13 years of public sector work, so I am determined to make hay while the sun shines!

• £64.78 paid off CC (£32 TCB became payable)
  
• £0.5 from YG
• Hoping to come back later and report a £40 FB sale of our side sleeper cot if the guy actually turns up this time

It's ******* it down with rain here and I have chores to do - hope everyone else has a more enjoyable day and more clement weather. I'm hoping to get some overtime in.

It would 🙂

What language are you coding in?

I really popped in to ask you how you're getting on with Vanguard? 

edinburgher

It was a mix of things @Alchemilla - HTML, CSS and JavaScript. All well and good but I would need to dedicate *a lot* of time and study.

As for Vanguard, they're great, our accounts function so well that I almost forget they're in the background. Easy to make ad hoc payments, send me some occasional educational materials that I ignore as they basically say "stay the course".

We now have 2x SIPPs, 2x ISAs and a JISA with them. LISA is with Dodl, Vanguard don't offer those.

It feels like solid, old fashioned wealth building to me

Suffolk_lass

Oh how I wish I had been as forward thinking as you are. I have so much admiration for your approach and simplifying your investments is definitely the way to be. 

We found the start of school (with the much shorter days, and long holidays) was more difficult than the nursery fees, and twice, DH and I took different holidays when my Mum could not come for a fortnight.

savingholmes

It is hard with childcare when the kids are young. You'll get through this. Seriously impressed at how switched on with money you are despite the young family that many use as their excuse for debt.

Suffolk_lass

You're quiet at the moment. I hope all is well with you and yours. Maybe you are away if it is half term there as well as here.

edinburgher

We're fine thanks @Suffolk_lass - maybe struggling a wee bit with work burnout, overtime and the number of hours in the day but otherwise well. To try and quantify the burnout, one area of our work had seen 150 requests a year until perhaps a couple of years ago. Now it's 1,000 a year. Our mid-term break was last weekend and I took an extra day off for a 4-day weekend.

It was good relaxing family time until the Sunday, when we decided to visit the aquarium at Loch Lomond. We experienced a burst tyre as we were approaching Alexandria and had to pull over at the side of a national speed limit road. Luckily my adrenaline kicked into action and I had the car up on the jack and ready to put on the spare wheel by the time a nice young AA guy swooped in and finished the job with his fancy electrical tools I took the wheel with the tyre and left it at the side of the road, not making the connection that the wheel would be needed for the next tyre Mobile tyre fitter comes out yesterday, I explain the job and then he goes "where's the wheel?" Only for me to reply "at the side of a road in Alexandria" Cost of aquarium, lunch, replacement wheel and tyre? £235.

I have found 2 jobs to apply for with the same organisation. Scottish Government adjacent, so the comparable salary band is c. £42k-50k. Haven't done my applications yet but really need to get on with it. Scottish Government pension arrangements look interesting. I believe they're similar to UK government where there's either a CARE scheme or a DC scheme with a more generous than usual employer contribution. Either could serve a place in our financial planning, although DB would probably make more sense until I hit 46 in 6 years time (max DC contribution paid from 46, could theoretically get 27% of wages paid in for a 3% contribution on my part and then take it at 58).

Non-theoretical finances go fine too. CC is now just over £1,000 and I've opened a LISA as an overpayment proxy with a government bonus. Have only invested £108 so far (shooting for the moon with a global equities tracker). Didn't do a NW calculation at the end of January as I had missed December but am back on track and have updated my spreadsheet to show a few different things. Virementing my socks off

DD2 is now crawling, pulling herself into a standing position and has cut the beginnings of her first 2 teeth She will be starting nursery in about a month, we have misgivings that she is still quite young but needs must.

How's you?  

savingholmes

Eek about the tyre. At least you had pretty scenery 

Well done on pensions