Prosperous soul embraces creativity & mortgage neutrality

savingholmes

Thanks Blackcats, jwil, WD and Ohsh

£300 to reg saver went out so now at £3.2K formal savings. £3K was my original target for the year so really happy with that. It's equivalent to over a month's EF. My next target is to get to £6K EF - hopefully by the end of the year. My plan is to row back on my pension goals rather than my savings in this climate.

I am currently too slowly drinking coffee - when I actually need to rush round and get out the door by 9.30. Not dressed yet. Just packed work bag and lunch.

Have a good day y'all.

jwil

Well done on reaching and exceeding your savings target

MovingForwards

Well done clearing a bag of stuff out and for the budgeting.

Could you slowly work towards an actual month, so it feels like the budget has worked, rather than mid-month pay monthly?

LadyWithAPlan

badmemory said:

My cynical opinion looking back, is that men tend to deal better with having a wife & a spare & women deal better with just being the spare.  I don't know if it still true but single women used to live the longest & single men the shortest.

Ha! Yes it is true  happiness tests are single women are happiest followed by married men..  (this is when married people are asked separately - apparently the stats change when both partners are in the same room together

I havent thought about being the spare but i guess they get the best version - the romance, wining and dining  and no stress, no clean up or laundry duties ... - I would feel very sorry for the poor wife though 

@savingholmes I really enjoy my single life and the future person would have to be amazing for me to split my life, my savings, my time ...  

beanielou

Well done on reaching your first saving target

savingholmes

Thanks jwil, MF and @LadyWithAPlan

MF - I've been paid mid month most of my career so used to it. All my budgets are worked out per pay month so that bit's fine... The problem is my spending is lop sided - I spend too much right after pay day when I'm feeling flush - and then leave myself short towards the end of the pay month. As my food plan for the week has shown though - I have enough food in - just potentially bought some of it 'too early.'

I've been going over budget across a broad range of categories in recent months and this month I'm making strenuous efforts to rein it back in - ahead of the huge bills etc... Lifestyle creep - which I want to stop. I need to get back to telling my £ where it's going... I'm also trying to be more 'honest' with myself about my spending...

@LadyWithAPlan always interesting to hear others perspectives.

Spent £24.99 on fuel today and £1 on goal stoppers. So now about £29 left for food and £2 for fuel... Boss bought me a coffee when we went out for a chat - so no spend there... Sis's house move is delayed - so shouldn't have to go there again this week. She doesn't yet have another date. I can potentially do over 200 miles with the fuel now in my car so should be more than fine now on that until pay day.

I ate the veg chilli and then 4 Viennese whirls at work... 3 apples. 82g MnMs. Now having crumble and custard - and then that's finished... If I'm hungry after that may have porridge. Couldn't be bothered cooking the freezer food. £/Food needs to stretch 15 more days but that's doable. Just need to plan more and use some of my stores. DD being away from Friday for a week will also help - as less other household items like loo roll used and energy and water etc.

Want to pick more plums tomorrow.

Cleaner is due again which is always nice - although it's a 5 week month this month which is a slight ouch.

lucielle

Just started my budget for the new house and its very scary!  Well done on trying to rein in the spending, never easy.
L

Blackcats

Well done on smashing that savings goal.

I remember (many years ago) getting paid from my Saturday job on Saturday lunchtime and spending the whole £7.20 😀 by the end of the day.  Straight to the market for cheap clothes and tat and then 99p on earrings.  So I think it's a bit natural to overspend when money hits our accounts and then run short towards the end of the month which makes you want to spend freely again when you get paid again.

give yourself time to balance lifestyle and spending - you'll get there.

savingholmes

Thanks Beanie.

Reviewing my F1R3 goals 

I got my pension statement today for my current job. As at 31/3/22 I was at roughly £10.6K accrued per year - as long as I wait until age 67 to take it. 

Looking at it closely, at 67 I could take a £45K lump sum if I was desperate but that would knock £3.8K off my pension every year for ever so if I live longer than 12 years I'm making a 'loss'... - if I lived 25 years I would be £49K worse off than if I hadn't taken a lump sum. If however I had to pay 20% tax on that £49K over the intervening years - my 'loss' drops to more like £31K... Still significant. However - none of us know how long after retirement we'll survive... or if we'll even get there...

I have another DB pension elsewhere that's worth around £3.8K - so if I don't transfer them and don't take either early - at 67 I could get £14.4K plus SP of around £9.4K = £23.8K per year based on what I've already accrued. It's a long time to wait though.

If I can't transfer my 2nd DB out, taking a lump sum from my current pension could be a 'safeish' way of getting to a lump sum if I still needed it. My remaining pensions would then be index linked forever. Obviously all my figures would drop significantly if I took any of them early. They are due to rise by around £1K a year though for each year I continue working full time - which is fantastic.

I was talking to a friend recently about the Portugal option again (or similar) - that could still work - if I wanted to retire earlier and live on a smaller budget. Or at some point I could downsize and majorly reduce my outgoings &/or release equity - depending on what happens with the housing market.

I am in a fortunate position. Just need my mortgage / equity to improve significantly too so I can reduce my monthly costs in the longer term.

savingholmes

Thanks lucielle and Blackcats

Well I've done an analysis of my spending diary so far 12/8-31/8 - ignoring direct debits and standing orders

£22.61 Non food (foil, cling film, zip lock bags, batteries, moisturiser)
£84.17 Food including stores e.g. 2 x 200g coffee etc
£32.26 Goal Stoppers
£12.23 Pet Food (several months supply)
£102.97 Fuel
£105.98 Gifts (unusual)
£57.77 Eating out / drinks / entertainment
£427.75 Health (counsellor, SW and dental £353)
£214.38 Home & Garden (fridge repair, handyman, fridge thermometers, cleaner)

which comes to a scary £1060.12 or roughly £56 a day.

If I take the dentist out it would be £707.12 or roughly £37 a day.

Plan for the first 2 weeks of September

£28 Food
£2 Fuel (i.e. don't spend / use towards food)
£84 Cleaner
£45 Counsellor
£4 Eating out / drinks / entertainment
£69 Hair - however have £38.60 or so cash I can use towards that
£100 handyman
£10 window cleaner

That would lift my revised total to £1402 or around £45 a day including dental!

Will definitely need to keep these kind of spends under continual review but if I have more dental and handyman work done - I will continue to erode my 'float' / savings... Let's hope I'm better between now and pay day - and that then in September pay day period - I further challenge some of my food and non food and goal stopper type spends.