Living life on my terms..

Hoffnung

Hello! 

I can't believe it's been four months since my last post- this year is definately flying by. 

I've just been plodding along and have tried to minimize any unnecessary spending. 

A couple of months back we bought new sofas and a TV unit which have been sourced from FB, so still money saving! 

Both myself and my partner have added some money into what we call our 'F It Fund'. This covers things like holidays and days out.

We've booked to go away to Majorca in October for 5 days and then another city break to Rome for four days in December- I'm just glad to have some things planned and I am looking forward to them both. I sourced the best deals possible, saved money yet have managed to get decent flights and accomodation. 

Other recent spends include my birthday presents.. I may have slightly spent more then I usually would on my son but most of it is clothing and will last a while. 

Anyhow, I best get off. Hopefully I will find the time to update more. 

Catch you later!

MovingForwards

Furniture sounds good, being comfortable watching TV is a must.

The FiF is a great idea, holiday destinations are well picked, you'll have to let us know how much you enjoyed them.

Hoffnung

Morning,

Yet another two months seem to have flown by so quickly!

I often forget that I have this saving journal and I must make more of an effort to update it regularly. 

Things just seem to be ticking along quite nicely. I'm managing to save a good chunk each month and have recently opened a FD saver account which offers 3.5% interest- it's better then nothing. I save £300 a month into here. 

For budgeting purposes I use Monzo and pots and move funds around as required. I regularly use my AMEX cc to earn reward points and always pay this in full each month. 

I have a few other pots which I save money into and the sums seem to be building up gradually.

1) I save £2 per week into a random account and this has been building up over the last week or so. I think I have nearly £100. 

2) I save £50pm into my son's bank account. I may increase this at some point in the future. 

3) I use the round the change up option on my Monzo account and have roughly £150 in there. I've yet to allocate where this will go. 

4) I save £50pm into a help to save account (government one). I've done this for three years so far and will continue to save until I get final bonus.

5) I save £200 per month into my help to buy ISA (This is maxed out but I'm continuing to save here due to interest gained yearly).

6) I save £300pm into FD as mentioned above. 

Any other spare money at the end of the month is siphoned off into my main savings account. 

Ideally I'd like to save another £2000 before the end of this year, which I think is manageable/achievable. 

I did start to put money aside for a baby fund as we hope to try in the next year or do and also a wedding fund, however we aren't even engaged yet and I don't know when that will be. You can never be too prepared or organised! 

These past few months have been extra busy- mostly full of appointments, travel and days out. 

In July we went to a wedding in Ireland and splurged a bit whilst out there and then in August we went camping in South Wales before heading off to another wedding in Hereford. So there were quite a few expenses associated with these. Nevertheless we had a great time. 

Our next adventure is Majorca in October- I have just booked the airport taxis and car hire. I need to figure out what covid tests need doing beforehand for the boy as he hasn't been vaccinated- both myself and my partner have. 

I ended up booking another holiday for November. Myself and my friend are heading to Amsterdam, which I'm really excited about and it will be nice to get away just us two. We have never travelled with each other before so this will be interesting. I paid up front for the flights/accomodation and she is paying me back £50pm, as her budget allows. I do trust her that I'll receive it all back. 

And then finally in December we have Rome, which I'm also excited for. There will be so much sight seeing and many things to do. I'll most likely need a break to recover after this! 

I've not yet booked anything for next year but have had to put my annual leave requests in at work already. It's hard to know what I'd like or what to plan ahead for, right into 2024. We haven't even got to 2023 yet haha . 

Aside from above, one of my other main focuses over the next few months will be to lose some weight. I've put on a lot over the past 2 years and it's reached a point where it's affecting me in many ways and I look at pictures of myself or look in the mirror and hate what I see. I can't believe I've allowed myself to get to the weight I have- some of this is to do with medication, PCOS and mainly my diet. I'd like to start exercising more too and build up my stamina/increase distances I walk. I tend to start getting aches/pains after so long when walking. I've also applied to join a gym but I need to sort out that application and I'd like to buy myself some gym clothes. 

Ideally if I could lose 4-5 stone, I think we would then look at trying for a baby. I just want to be a lot healthier and feel better in myself. It would be better long term for both myself and the baby. 

The last thing I'm focusing over the next couple of weeks is filling in an important application form. I've reached out to some charities who are willing to help me out and have also sought advice elsewhere. I need to collect and gather evidence to back up my claims.

Anyhow, I best get on with my day. I'm off to my partner's mum's and will be taking the dog with me as she loves looking after her, I'll also no doubt have lunch here too.

I have a therapy appointment to attend which I'm actually looking forward to. I accessed the services through work and it seems to be really helping me put things into perspective and I'm able to get things off my chest. A lot of things seem so much clearer now compared to how things have been over the past 2-3 years. I'm slowly getting back to my old ways and feel as if I am finally able to let go of things. 

I'm getting back into contact with old friends and arranging to meet up with them which feels good. A lot of my friends/acquaintances are quite a bit older them me so it will be good to reconnect with those who are a similar age. 

Anyway enough chatting, hopefully update sooner rather than later this time!

Xx

Hoffnung

Morning,

It's been yet another busy month and I can't quite believe we are now in November and that there isn't that long until christmas!

Lately I've just been plodding along  and have been enjoying myself- may be a little too much! However I'm feeling pretty happy and that's all that matters- everything will balance itself out eventually.

The theme of my most recent spends have been booking theatre and concert tickets! However not all is bad as I am eligible for a plus one ticket which makes things cheaper, though some tickets have been bought as part of birthday/christmas presents. These will be well received!

In regards to Christmas, I've pretty much bought presents for most people. I only have my son and partner to buy for now; I've got my sons main present and will only need to buy a few more smaller items for him to unwrap. I've pretty much stuck within my budget and will hopefully have some money leftover, which would be a bonus.

My mum disclosed that she may be gifting us arould £1000 this christmas as a one off- I've been pondering over what I could do with it as i don't want to just put it into my usual saving pots. I've decided that I'm going to put it aside in a seperate saving pot that I am going to dedicate to myself for my future health and overall wellbeing. My plan is to start really focusing on myself, making improvements and to enrich my life where possible. This could be used for a variety of things.. i just know that I want to spend it on me without feeling guilty about taking it from other pots.

Anyhow, I digress.. I've been moving my savings around and trying to make my money work for me and this is what I've done so far.

1) Moved a lump sum into Santander saving account with an interest rate of 2.72%.

2) I opened a first direct account where I pay £300pm in and the interest rate for this is 3.6%

3) I claimed £20 back from my top cashback which has rolled over into savings.

4) I have been using the round up features on my bank account or done this manually myself and have built up a tidy sum of £300- I'm not sure what I'll do with this at the moment.

5) I've managed to accumulate £35 cashback in amazon points by using my AMEX card. I think I'll use these  towards some Christmas presents.

I do have other saving accounts which I pay monthly into but I'm going to put some time aside and see where I can make this work for me more; for example I still pay into a HTB Isa even though I maxed the bonus payment a while ago, I kept this for the interest rate at the time however this has since dropped and probably no longer works best for me. I want to set aside a day to go through all my accounts and streamline them.

I'm also going to focus on making some goals, both financially and purposely for the next 12 months.  I like having something to work towards and keep me focused going ahead.

Some of our plans may have changed slightly and we are going to wait some things out to see what happens within the next year or so financially i.e. buying a house or trying for a baby.

As well as everyone else we are trying to cut back and save money but sometimes it's impossible, just everything is going up and it's such a crazy time at the moment. I can happily wait to see if it all blows over.

Anyway, off I go to do some cleaning today before going out for lunch with my son and his friends.

Bye!

MovingForwards

Tickets are great, make a full evening of each one with a meal out.

Good call wanting to earmark the money, find a good account to keep it in and build up more interest on it, helps it go a bit further.

Hoffnung

Afternoon,

I have had a busy couple of days..

Yesterday we went to watch Disney on Ice which was good. We had a meal beforehand which my mum paid for so all I had to shell out for was petrol. The price of petrol keeps fluctuating and I can't keep up with it. 

The other night one of my crowns fell out and since then I've had toothache which has become worse over the past 24 hours. I wouldn't mind this is a new crown which I only had fitted just over a month ago. There wasn't much to save tooth wise and we knew it might not last. To be honest I think I'm going to ask them to remove it to save further pain and complications. This will probably set me back about £90 as I pay for private dental care. 

I've done a small amount of Christmas shopping over past couple of days and have mostly bought for everyone now- I've used some Amazon points I've accumulated to cover this. Just my partner and my son left, which I'll pick up a few bits as I go along.

I've tried to cut back this year money wise and with people. I find you just give to receive and to be honest- I usually just buy myself what I want, when I want so usually end up with something that may not get used. I might see about cutting back with other friends. 

Anyhow, my plan for the rest of the day is to just chill out and relax. I have a few errands I could do with running but I'll see how much time I have left and maybe I'll do some cleaning. I'll see how I feel after the dentist. 

MovingForwards

How about forgoing gifts with friends and all agreeing a meal out somewhere instead.

You tried with the crown and they might suggest refitting it, but having it out solves the problem.

Hoffnung

Afternoon,

It's not been too long since my last update haha. Anyway, things have been ticking along quite nicely..

I've managed to finish most of my Christmas shopping and only have a couple more things to buy. I've been keeping a tally of what I've spent and I feel that I've not done too bad this year! I've cut back slightly in some areas which is something positive. I can redirect those funds elsewhere at my end of year budget reviews. 

I seem to be on track savings wise and have been taking advantage of offers becoming available. I've moved some funds to the Santander 2.72% interest account, which has gave me quite a good return. Next year I will be redirecting some savings to other accounts. 

One of my accounts is my HTB ISA, I've saved way over the amount actually and I might direct some of these funds back to the Santander account as I'll get better return but keep the minimum around for the 25% bonus. I haven't thought about that beforehand. I can redirect my normal saving amount to that account too. That might be a better idea. 

I've set up standing orders to go into two separate accounts for a wedding and baby fund. I've mentioned these previously but only set up today. It's only a small amount but anythings better then nothing. 

Another thing I managed to do today is swap my broadband to a new deal saving a total of £11 which is good. I just kept putting it off but decided to just get on with it today. It was easier then expected. 

Anyhow, I recently came back from my trip to Amsterdam with my best friend and had a really good time. I tried to get high but failed- the methods just didn't seem to affect me. Oh well! I found things were quite expensive but I wasn't as money savvy as I'd usually be. I'll try harder next time when we go to Rome next month . 

I've got a few more things I need to do this week- mainly life admin things but enough to keep me busy. I just actually need to get on with them instead of putting them off or delaying them. Sometimes it can just feel overwhelming as when I think I've caught up with everything, something new pops up.

There's quite a few things I need to do around the house and it's just finding the energy and motivation to do them. I need to sort out front room out, ready for our Christmas decs to go up this weekend which I'm excited for and then there's the kitchen and bathroom to do. See I told you it was never ending! 

Anyway, I best get going and will try to motivate myself a bit more to do things, slow and steady. 

Hoffnung

Hello!

I can't believe it's been four months since I last posted here. I guess life has just been a bit hectic and busy overall. There have been quite a few changes- some big, some small.

First off, we are officially buying a house! It was quite an unexpected purchase but an opportunity came up when my ex in-laws were selling a family property. It's a 3 bed house with much more space then we currently have now. We originally offered £190,000 but after a surgery, renegotiated to £182,500 which is a bonus. We are putting down a 20% deposit and have fixed mortgage deal for 5 years as who knows what's going to happen in future- we know we can afford this and would like to overpay as much as possible. I guess I'll be joining the mortgage free wanna be board and will make our own diary there 

Another thing I've done is I've recently taken up a plastering and multi skills course at college. I go two days a week and I can't believe how difficult it is. I knew it would be hard but didn't realise just how hard. It's definately an eye opener. The plan is to do as much DIY as I can once we move into the new home. I was able to get both courses funded because I earn less then £20k a year which is a bonus and another drive for me doing it. I've met some interesting people along the way! 

I'm still on track with my savings. I have most of my savings in my Santander account which is earning about £100 interest per month which is a tidy sum. The rest is split between a FD saver account and other saving pots that I have. I also have a help to save account which should mature this August and I should get around a £500 bonus for that- it's been four years since I opened it and time has gone two quick. I saved the maximum amount in it per month and should have around £2400 once that's finished. 

Another thing I've done is joined a nursing agency where I am able to earn double the amount of money for less hours. I'm only doing a couple of extras to give me cash to buy any new things I want, especially for the new house. It will also help towards any other additional costs that come up. 

Overall everything is moving in the right direction and there have been many positives over the last few months. I actually feel really happy and content with where I am in life. 

Anyhow, hopefully I won't leave it too long before my next update. 

Bye for now!

Skint_yet_Again

Congratulations on your house purchase 🥂 🥳  

Its also great news about your extra earnings to overpay the mortgage 😊