Learning to walk before I run

edinburgher

That was a very spendy month, but we did earn about £2,000 more than we spent due to my 13th wage arriving and Mrs E getting a bonus. I have decided that there's no point in doing a month end NW roundup as I've only got one month of data since I started using the spreadsheet again, so this will wait until next month.

Month ends with £11.42 payments OPed and sent to the ISA, with £34.52 paid into my SIPP (£43.15 after tax relief). I paid the SIPP money into an emerging markets fund that I used to use as a couple of quid has been marooned there and the value was too low to switch to my usual Target Retirement fund. Hopefully it will remain steady-ish until I get the tax relief and can switch it back to Target Retirement. I like that £65.99 worth of payments/investments are now just casual spends at the end of the month, there were many months where that exceeded all my efforts at being financially free in the future!

QueenJess

Isn’t caffeine or some other alternative a basic life requirement with a newborn though?! 

savingholmes

How lovely to have a 13th pay day - and a bonus at the same time - coinciding with your newborn.

Suffolk_lass

I'm also rather drawn to the four-weekly payment schedule. My only experience of this was the rather more meagre child benefit payments, but I remember well how much of a boon that second payment in one month was. It's a while ago now. DS was 30 on Monday (blue shrieky eek)

skint_spice

Another 4 week pay person here and I am looking forward to August when I get paid twice!

edinburgher

QueenJess said:

Isn’t caffeine or some other alternative a basic life requirement with a newborn though?! 

I thought I made that post - seems to have disappeared - did I press something by mistake? 

South_coast

Glad I'm not going mad, I saw it too! I was going to ask you a question about your bank switch, but then it wasn't there any more!

QueenJess

edinburgher said:

QueenJess said:

Isn’t caffeine or some other alternative a basic life requirement with a newborn though?! 

I thought I made that post - seems to have disappeared - did I press something by mistake? 

Ooh yes it was there.. very weird!

edinburgher

FIT payment a larger than expected £156👍

Spent a lovely (and frankly quite surprising) 4 hours in our large local park this morning with two of my siblings, their partners, kids and my mum. Breakfast next to the duck pond, then lots of time walking, exploring and in the play park. Largely spontaneous and felt a bit like that episode of Gavin and Stacey when they all go to "Barry's Island" (but classier darling) 

One sibling paid for breakfast as I'd paid for their Sunday roast last time we visited (nice to have my generosity catch up with me), so total spends were about £35. That probably sounds quite high, but did cover 6 ice creams, 5 coffees and 3 soft drinks.

Then went home and cut the grass in the front garden (no more no mow May)! And went on a literal tear, cutting back an overweening honeysuckle, brambles, clearing out the side of a flower bed and destroying a butterfly bush that threatens to overwhelm the front border. I'm probably going to fully destroy it with a weedy shrub killer, we didn't plant it and it needs cut back three times a year.

edinburgher

£78.20 paid into my SIPP (£97.75 after tax relief). Future Mr E says hi from the sun