Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

And now for today's few small wins:
*Wrote up the notes from yesterday's Money Summit, including our goals for 2023. Amended Spreadsheet 2 (Savings Pots) with the revised maximum cap where necessary.
*Did post-weekend budget updates.
*Posted cards to 2 people who need cheering up. Both cards were from the stash I bought for 49p each last year from a charity shop's yellow-sticker cards box - lovely selection so must make sure I look next time I'm in there.
*Walked long way to & from the post box for a bit of free exercise & to test out the waterproofing of my new coat.
*Leftovers defrosted for tomorrow's packed lunch.
*Leftover lentil roast for tonight's meal. Just need to make some BBQ wedges to go with it & chuck a bit of salad together.
*All this week's laundry done - 30 degrees max & one wash on the 30 min cycle. All on heated airer so I must go & shuffle them around in a minute.
*Baked a batch of low-fat muffins to use up the last little bit of mincemeat, candied peel & some rather elderly currants. Frozen for nice portable snacks when we're out & about.
*Dug out pattern for big chunky hiking socks as I promised Mr F I'd knit him another pair for wearing around the house  - no spend on yarn necessary as I shall just use what I already have in my stash.
Looking forward to a cosy evening on the sofa with Soot & Ash, especially as today is the 1st anniversary of them coming to live with us. Will defo be getting their treats out.
F x

Humdinger1

Fascinating as ever @foxgloves! Would you consider sharing your pot titles here, to help stimulate discussion at Humdinger Villa? Xx

foxgloves

@Humdinger1 - You're welcome, They are as follows:
1. Car maintenance
2. House & garden
3. Clothes
4. Dentist/Optician
5. Meow Fund
6. Appliances replacement
7.Tech replacement
8. Holidays
9. Leisure & entertainment
10. Presents
Hope this is helpful,
F x

jwil

Thanks for sharing your pots list, theres a couple on there that would be useful that I hadn’t considered 

Humdinger1

foxgloves said:

@Humdinger1 - You're welcome, They are as follows:
1. Car maintenance
2. House & garden
3. Clothes
4. Dentist/Optician
5. Meow Fund
6. Appliances replacement
7.Tech replacement
8. Holidays
9. Leisure & entertainment
10. Presents
Hope this is helpful,
F x

Indeed it is @foxgloves though Meow might become Woof x

EssexHebridean

On the JL CC - is it not possible to add Mr F as a second card holder so he would be able to use it for the shopping he does without you present? That's how we've always worked with ours, and it works well. 

if it helps anyone, then we currently have pots as follows:
Groceries (this funds bulk buying as well as the regular groceries shop)
Car Depreciation
Holiday
Household
Joint fun stuff
Electricity Buffer fund
Presents/Christmas
Food show (specific savings for one thing funded by a small regular payment in from personal spends)
New House Fund - will become the mortgage overpayment pot once we have a mortgage again
VSP - for Tilly Tidying essentially.

We each also budget from personal spends for presents for our own friends or each other - the bits that don't come from joint funds - clothing and our individual fun spending too. 

foxgloves

@EssexHebridean - Yes, we could possibly do that. 
Other people's budget pots are always interesting, I think, as we all tend to tackle things slightly differently, but working to the same overall goal. Our grocery allocation is part of the core budget so we don't list it as a Savings Pot. We also each have our monthly Personal Spends allowance which is tracked via a spreadsheet. Any underspend carries on into the following month, which works well for saving up for something specific - also for removing any temptation to blow it all because the end of the month is coming up & we'll lose it. Both of us add our PA survey earnings to Personal Spends too. Prior to the pandemic, we used to have our Personal Spends as cash, but obviously when transactions became so heavily card based, we swapped to having 'virtual spends' managed by a spreadsheet. This works fine. I do often opt to take a chunk of mine as cash - Like a lot of people, I'm much more aware of spending when I'm handing over actual money rather than tapping a card on a little thingy.
F

foxgloves

Afternoon Diary Readers,
Oh what a horrid soggy day. It seems temporarily to have ceased raining here, having been at it all morning, but the sky is still the heaviest grey & I'm not convinced it's done yet. The dark gloomy weather plus a poor night of sleep & a lingering headache have put paid to my mood for today. Even with my new waterproof coat, I didn't want to sally forth in a downpour & I have just stayed in, shifting clutter, ironing, tidying, etc.
Very small wins on the money saving front:
*Did a couple of surveys.
*Moved some funds around to pay a few items off my credit card. Points building nicely again. Also updated Personal Spends & did a small amount of financial admin.
*Slow cooker on today - curried mince & peas (one of Mr F's favourites) from the "I heart my slow cooker" book. Sufficient to feed us tonight with rice & tomorrow on a jacket potato. I made the surplus mince into 2 chunky quarter-pounders & froze them for another meal.
*Defrosted leftover Christmas dinner which Mr F squirrelled away on the 25th for his packed lunch tomorrow.
*Wrapped friend's birthday presents using recycled materials from my wrappings stash.
I think I'll sort out my seed box tomorrow - even if it's another gloomy wet day, that will at least get me thinking ahead to seed-sowing & Spring, & I really don't want to be enthusiastically buying tons of seeds then finding out I have plenty of this or that sitting at home already.
Think I shall go & fire up the coffee machine.
F x

Debsnewbudget

Just got an email from the seed company starting with Su and ending ons
seeds are 89p today only until midnight
off to have a look ……

Baileys_Babe

EssexHebridean said:

On the JL CC - is it not possible to add Mr F as a second card holder so he would be able to use it for the shopping he does without you present? That's how we've always worked with ours, and it works well. 

if it helps anyone, then we currently have pots as follows:
Groceries (this funds bulk buying as well as the regular groceries shop)
Car Depreciation
Holiday
Household
Joint fun stuff
Electricity Buffer fund
Presents/Christmas
Food show (specific savings for one thing funded by a small regular payment in from personal spends)
New House Fund - will become the mortgage overpayment pot once we have a mortgage again
VSP - for Tilly Tidying essentially.

We each also budget from personal spends for presents for our own friends or each other - the bits that don't come from joint funds - clothing and our individual fun spending too. 

I'm a second card holder on OH's credit card, it works very well for us and means the rewards build up quicker, Ours is a JL CC.
For many years I had a credit card in my own right with a tiny limit which I used for personal spending.
We clear all credit cards every month.

@foxgloves and @EssexHebridean thank you both for sharing details on your savings pots, I find it helpful as it makes me think about ours and are we wish/need to change anything. 

It has been very wet and windy here today, and it will likely get worse over the next week.

I got back from today's errand to find OH had lit the multifuel stove, it is lovely to sit enjoying how cosy it is with a cuppa, I wish we had had some proper daylight today.