Learning to walk before I run

edinburgher

My credit utilisation is now 0% 

South_coast

YAY 😀!    

Karmacat

Congratulations!

CCW007

That must be a good feeling!

savingholmes

Well done on getting down to 0. Very satisfying. 

I'm another spreadsheet lover...

Good luck with the impending arrival. It certainly focuses the brain. 

Have you thought of whether there is any other types of work you would enjoy? I've done a few sideways moves in my life but happy that I did.

Suffolk_lass

That really is an awesome achievement and you should celebrate, maybe do something lovely together (but reasonable cost!) ahead of impending baby and building stuff. Really well done!

I just read your first post SOA for this diary and you have paid off over £5.5k and turned a monthly deficit of almost £1k into money that is working for your family. Amazingly in just over six months. Not to be underestimated or under appreciated!!

edinburgher

@Suffolk_lass - thank you

I am pleased with how far we have come, but there is more to do.

• I'd like to try and get Mrs E to commit to maxing out her work pension (would mean saving an extra 14% of her wages towards it, but less than 10% in real terms because it's salary sacrifice). We could have £400k in DC pensions by the time I'm 58 with 3% growth.
• We need to save more towards the next big thing
• We need to grow our Emergency Fund
• Our energy bills will only be fixed for another year, I need to be ready for the hellish increase that is coming our way

But for tonight we will celebrate with half a bottle of Bolly (how the hell are half bottles of shampoo more expensive than full ones at the moment?) and I will continue reading my way through your diary. 1/2 bottle was intentional as we have a long drive tomorrow and Mrs E only allowed a small glass, we're also celebrating the fact that today was Mrs E's last day of work before maternity leave

Suffolk_lass

Bottles of shampoo have always been cheaper - you could always add some frozen fruit and make jelly to the remainder - even one of the cube packets of lemon would do it, making up to 1 pint with fizz - another time, another cocktail glass...

I would personally not commit to the additional sacrifice in full at this point. Maybe half now and half when your second child is out of paid-for childcare and at school (although school trips for Miss E may be bigger by then) - just to give you that opportunity to hedge things a bit and possibly mitigate the risk that a future Chancellor changes the drawdown rules, the 25% TFLS or the age at which you can access your pot. Any of these would frustrate your plans so pre-empting by saving the extra (7%?) in an ISA might just give you the flexibility to tap funds elsewhere if the DC pot goalposts move.

Re power, we are looking at installing a powerwall so that we can charge it on our overnight ("white meter") cheaper rate (brown electricity in that we are not generating it) ahead of a community group purchase solar scheme. Not sure how many panels the roof of our kitchen (the only bit not thatched) can take. With a cost differential (current tariff) of just over 25p per unit more for day rate and our annual usage is 4506 (of daytime units) if we can reduce these by using (stored) cheap rate electric it will help. I am not on a FIT so have not explored how compatible that might be. 

We already wash clothes cold and run the dishwasher overnight, stove top kettle, virtually no ironing, almost all LED lights but I'm sure we could do more without the ultimate sacrifice of turning off the electric aga (other than in summer) - which would mean more heating oil as we use it's warmth to heat the dining room, kitchen, bathroom and all the bedrooms (as much as they get warmth drift). Just a few thoughts that might help your energy ponderings

Alchemilla

Haha at the Night Nurse!

Left over champagne is a great problem to have, as is having sorted your money. Well done!

edinburgher

We had a bit of a chat and decided to go for max pension, Mrs E has increased her share to 20%, taking her total monthly to 26%, a little over £600.

She was initially reluctant based on new baby expenses, but I pointed out that there were a lot of mitigating factors that wouldn't make it seem like quite as much of a squeeze:

• We spent significantly less during the first year of DD's life because so much of your life revolves around when the baby can nap
  
• We have saved the difference in income for the next year, so we will be no worse off before the extra pension payments are made
• The payments will be lower when she's on mat leave, because her wages will be lower. In fact, in net terms, we'll be slightly better off during the next year
• I've paid off my student loan and that has made a difference of c. £120/mth to our income
• It will (slightly) reduce the impact of the chancellor's latest stealth taxes

Remember that FITs no longer exist for new customers @suf@Suffolk_lass

I'm not sure that we would get away with washing clothes cold, 30 degrees is as bold as I get, occasional 40 degree wash for stains and 60 for towels/cloths/things used to clean up after I've cleaned the fish tank! We have all LED bulbs bar a couple of legacy mini fluorescent lights under the kitchen units, they can be retrofitted as and when they die. Need to use the tumble dryer less, we utilise the sun and wind whenever possible Heating use will actually go up slightly, as baby. Draught excluder and curtain for front door still a good idea, plus think our other curtains could use replacing, cheap H@rry C0rry ones we bought when we moved in, backs breaking down because of bright sunlight. Worth checking whether floor length is necessary current ones fall about 18" below the sills.