From £6000 ----> £9000 in 2023.

duesouthtwin2

Glad to see you back NSK. I’ve missed you! 

savingwannabe

My bus pass enables me to go to  3 supermarkets but to save time i just go to Aldi now rather than shopping at all of them as it seems to be cheapest. Well done on chasing up your pension. I like your bit in purple at the bottom persistence pays off. 

MovingForwards

With payrises, or job changes resulting in more money, I tend to split it 3 ways; mortgage, savings and pension. My stance is if I've managed ok on the lower salary, I won't miss paying the difference out for my future.

Double check your wage slips to see if they're deducting any pension and also ask them to opt you in if there's proof you opted out. Missing 3 years isn't a deal-breaker with our lifestyles and we can catch it up over time.

Have you done a state pension check, to make sure you're on track with that?

With shopping I tend to stick with T, occasionally A1DI, rarely my local. 

NinjaSavingKat

Hello friends..

@savingwannabe... I have a massive Tesco and Asda right next door to each other and as the town is so small the Lidl is within a 2 minute journey. LIdl is right beside the guy I buy coal from so it I plan my morning route to ensure least petrol consumption....lol!

I also get petrol at Asda as its the cheapest in town. I would do exactly what you are doing though - we don't have an Aldi, definitely something I miss from living in London. 

That quote is my all time favourite. Calvin Coolidge was an American president for information. 

@MovingForwards they are starting the contributions as instructed, and I will chase them up today as I am off for the next few days. There has definitely never been any deductions.

No state pension check yet - how would one go about that then?

I agree with the distribution of the new money - my long term savings will be increased to £85 a week (£340 a week / £4420 a year) with the remaining £60 being divided between pension and the other account.. or something like that.. still need to wait and see that it happens...;-)

MovingForwards

Here you go:
https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension
Just make sure you read everything and not the headline details.

NinjaSavingKat

Thanks for that.

So pension contributions have started, just got my pay slip through today. I am registered with the same company I was with before this current workplace 3 years ago. I am going to find my log in and check to see if I can contribute more each month. Not sure I will but it's high time.i learned more about what pensions I have etc. 

However this now means I am £10 down on my weekly food/fuel budget.

Tempted to hit Asda tonight instead of tomorrow.. might be more chance of yellow sticker foods as well. 

Genius.  

Baron_Dale

Your future self will thank you for sorting your pension provision.

MovingForwards

Perhaps downgrade some food items to value brands, if you don't already. Try and bulk buy other items as it may work out cheaper.

duesouthtwin2

Lurking. Hope you found some yellow sticker buys 

NinjaSavingKat

Good Day one and all.. 

Thank you all for the comments. Friday was a let down. Petrol and coal purchased, food budget went over a little more than I wanted. I had £27 to spend on food. This is not living. This is existing. I don't think this will last long term. 

Spoke with a friend for a much needed and well planned Costa catch up ( I ate before I went to save ££) and only purchased a cuppa. We spoke about the gym a lot and I realised I needed to get my eating planned a little better so went to Tesco for an unplanned tupperware run - also bought porridge oats and lentils that I'd forgotten and before I know it I spent an extra £22.87. Bummer. 

I can't drop to value brands. I have dropped brands as much as possible during my debt busting days, and I use supermarket own brands over everything else but I am not buying a 10p can of potatoes over the real thing. I live on lentil and beans and rice, there isn't much else to drop . I purchased a £2.75 / 2kg rice and cooked enough to divvy up into 10 tubs that I have frozen in 100g portions. I already buy my "treat" of nachos of the Tesco own brand ones, any cheaper and you're getting sawdust.. 

I bought a 25kg bag of soya beans and have taken to making my own soya milk and tofu. SO I understand the value of bulk buying but there is only so much space I hvae in my kitchen..lol!

Food is my only pleasure right now so there only so far I will go with brands.  I did a food prep session yesterday and yellow sticker mushrooms (hate them) were used to make mushroom/black beans and lentil burger x 8 and I made a tofu / lentil and aubgergine lasagne to portion and freeze. Multiple portions of brown lentils for easy "I'm starving and need to eat right now" meals. This was all done yesterday after coming from from town so I was cooking from around 3pm to 9pm. 

Gonna sit down and rethink this budget thing - think the petrol will have to start coming out of the car budget now.