Five Year Fix, Five Year Plan

Merlin's_Beard

Thanks for the casserole dish recs @KajiKita and @redofromstart  - definitely something to go on the list.

End of month roundup!

Surveys: £51.79 - okay number, good effort:reward ratio though as I was focused on other things, so happy with that.
Cashback: £99.78 - the last energy rebate, and my Amex annual cashback.

Food spends: £258 (not great) - takeaways, accidentally allowed a gin subscription to pay out, multiple snaccidents... the list goes on.

Book update: 3 read (The Metamorphosis - actually entertaining which surprised me because I'd been told it was a dense difficult book, La Belle Sauvage - very good continuation of His Dark Materials but still felt fresh, and Lord of Rings - an old favourite revisited), 2 bought. This may be the first and only time my TBR pile decreases.

Sort My Home Out Fund entirely devoted to the garden right now: £1964.87.

Which means I saved £2.97 towards it this month (it would almost be better being zero? Not-quite-three-pounds just feels a bit funny?)

But. £855 paid towards the garden. A day out booked with a work friend (a social thing! I feel very brave). A music gig booked for a band I've loved for 20 years and never seen live. Hot hands ready for standing on a windy trackside. So all good spending in that department.

Socially I've got plans to meet an old pal for coffee on Tuesday, also made plans to see another friend later in May. Possibly tentative plans to see another mid May as well, for a mini Eurovision party (details TBC). So I'm calling that a win as well.

Long term financially wise: pensions have dipped a bit (still holding at £45,000), total liquid net worth has dropped (£-191,900). Hopefully they might recover a bit if the banks settle down, until then I guess I'm buying cheap...

KajiKita

“Multiple snaccidents” made me smile, I can relate! Thank you for that one 😊 To be fair, I don’t think that is unexpected when you have been feeling so sickly for so long. 

Hot Hands?

Yaay for the social things 😊 I really ought to do more …

And good on the savings too. 😊

KK

Merlin's_Beard

Hot hands are little disposable things that heat up when you activate them. Perfect for cold days stood outside.

KajiKita

Merlin's_Beard said:

Hot hands are little disposable things that heat up when you activate them. Perfect for cold days stood outside.

Ah … thank you 😊 

KK

savingholmes

Well done on paying for the garden work without going into debt. That's fab. Give yourself credit for that as well as the £2.97 saved.

madhatter83

The surveys really do add up through the month! your post up there jogged my memory to do these as regularly as possible. 

I used to do loads, of late I have become more picky and started rejecting some with low hourly rates.

Merlin's_Beard

@madhatter83 same for me - most of my surveys these days are via Prolific, which has a £6/hr minimum rate guarantee. I keep panelbase and yougov around but I only do them if I have time.

savingholmes

Thanks for posting on my diary. Hope your allergies settle soon.

Merlin's_Beard

savingholmes - the allergies will be better in October! Until  then I'm walking around with the vague feeling that I have a sore  thoat and might be getting a cold.

Hope everyone had a good Easter weekend! I had a couple of days out on the racetrack watching cars go zoom (and volunteering is very MSE - not only is the view much much better but I saved about £30 on tickets) with company that likes the noisy cars as much as I do. So socialising points to me as well.

Financially all downhill from this point on spending wise, look away now if you don't want to hear the score etc:

Haircut today (not MSE, very expensive hairdresser but got two unsolicited compliments on my difficult hair while browsing in town after, so a mindful luxury that is budgeted for because curly hair is not easy).

Two new bags - one of them a new everyday bag that I told myself I could have after I bought the house so well overdue. There's a list of stuff that I kind-of-need-but-not-urgently that I'll be working through this year.

Cafe lunch out in the town as well, with my kindle.

New book bought, straight from author over social media, with limited edition map and signed

Comedy gig booked for 2024 -  after so many years of being "about to move", or not being sure what my future held, it's so nice to be able to plan.

Hair products bought, because conversation with the hairdresser has reminded me that I'm running out.

Merlin's_Beard

In more purely financial news:

Moved £9000 of my emergency fund over from the Santander eSaver to the Santander eISA, as the rate rises mean I'm liable to go over the £500 savings threshold in 23/24. Same interest rate, so no real loss there (I  could get a higher easy access rate elsewhere though). Keeping £3000 out at the minute in case I need to dip into that pot for the garden payment (a lot of my savings are tied up in regular savers, which I can get out if I really need to but would prefer not to).

Claimed my tax back on my professional fees, mileage, uniform washing for 22/23.

Will need to call and claim back pension costs at some point, but not today. I need to work out what I need to contribute to pension this new year as well, with the pay rise, to take advantage of the 40% tax band. After that, then I get to decide whether anything extra goes into pension or whether I start an S&S ISA.

Back to looking at my student loan again. Normally the interest rate changes once a year, but recently it's been going up every few months. When I completed on the house at the end of last August my interest rate was 1.5% and now it's 5%. My interest rate has gone from around £25 a month, to £72 a month. I think I need to consider tackling this more proactively once the house is more settled if interest rates stay that high.