I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, now my saving journey begins!

~FlowerPot~

Im with you on the no eggs. Not a single one in the masoosive sainos yesterday. BUt last week the local farm shop had a big stack. So ill try and pop there later today!

Sorry to hear about the kitchen appilance, when you replace does it still need to be integrated? it alsway so much easier to pull out and do any maitenance on free standing machines

shell16

Morning @~FlowerPot~ Yes I asked hubby if we could get away with a freestanding one as much cheaper but he said we would need to get an integrated one.  I do eventually wish to revamp the kitchen but that will be next year now as we will need at least £5k, so the new integrated appliance will be reused into the new kitchen.  We have a local farm shop near us, so will try there, thanks!

I have just manged to cashout from Prolific after completing a great paying survey for £2.60 just now which got cleared immediately.  £6.10 transferred and split £6 to the Starling Saving Pot and odd 10p to SPC.  I still have £8.40 pending.  I also have £1.41 in my save the change in my banking app so another £1 to the Savings pot and 41p to SPC.  Total £7 savings pot and 51p SPC.

Shell x

~FlowerPot~

shell16 said:

I have just manged to cashout from Prolific after completing a great paying survey for £2.60 just now which got cleared immediately.  £6.10 transferred and split £6 to the Starling Saving Pot and odd 10p to SPC.  I still have £8.40 pending.  I also have £1.41 in my save the change in my banking app so another £1 to the Savings pot and 41p to SPC.  Total £7 savings pot and 51p SPC.

Shell x

I also just did a study for 2.60 and it paid immediatly ~ i do love that when it gets paid so fast!  Mine was about recycling!

shell16

Sound like same as I did, on recycling???  Yes its great when they are cleared immediately!

LittleMissDetermined

That’s rubbish about the dishwasher. I hope you manage to get a bargain. It may be worth looking around for a second hand one, we sold our old integrated one on Facebook Marketplace and it was only 18 months old. You never know. Even if it’s just to put you on until you have more savings behind you x

shell16

Thanks LMD, I never thought about that to be honest, will have a look later.

Yesterday was quite a sad day as I attended a family funeral.  My mum is now the last of that generation in the family.  Saw alot of old faces I havent seen for years and my auntie kept numerous photo albums of all family and they were there to peruse.  I came across several of me from nearly 25 years ago, wow I was young! :lol No hair colour covering the greys, slim, young, wrinkle free   It was quite nice to look through all the memories and also see photos of my own family with mum and dad, me and my sisters.  Memories came flooding back of the time they were taken (Some were before I had a memory) but most I did recall the time they were taken.

Yesterday also marked the sale of my parents house.  Following my dads passing last May and mum going into full time residential care due to her dementia in October 2022.  I did feel very sad, seeing mum and dads life in numbers in a bank account.  It just felt very final.  As Im 1 of 2 Power of Attorneys, we both now need to decide what to do with mums finances and need to find a good savings account as Im not comfortable with the amount sat with 1 bank.  

I have managed a prolific cashout of £6 this morning and still have £3.90 pending.  Also £1.85 in my save the change attached to my account.  Transferred £7 to my Starling Savings pot and 85p to SPC.  Since paying off my debt on the 4th March, I have sent £45 to my savings but this excludes any cash I have left from my weekly budget before resetting.  I get paid tomorrow so will be able to really start attacking the many Pots I need to fill.  I will also be sending the £440 to my EF even though I will be using some of this to pay for a new dishwasher.

I think thats about all for now.
Shell x

LittleMissDetermined

Sending you love at a difficult time Shell, the last 2 family funerals I went to were cut short because if the travel time and distance. 
LMD x

EssexHebridean

Martin touched briefly on savings accounts that allowed POA access in his TV show this week Shell - I know Chip was one of those mentioned - can't recall the other two but they were all in the top easy access options.  I can imagine the sale of the house must have been very strange - nd combined with the funeral it was a bit of an "end of an era" day for you wasn't it. 

shell16

Thanks LMD and Essexhebridean.  It was a surreal day yesterday, and felt quite final in respect of my parents and the last thing to go which was the house.  Im better today, but me and my sister still need to chat through what we do with mums cash in the bank.  I did start watching Martins programme yesterday on playback but only watched first 10 mins then switched off as girls came in to chat with us.  I was thinking of NS & I as the total is protected with them not just upto £85K and they have a 4% 12  months fixed rate account which looks appealing. 

I have closed off the weekly cash envelopes and also the monthly ones as its payday tomorrow.  Transferred a total of £73.98 which was the cash left over to the following:

£10 monthly Challenge - Now at £170
£40 to our Bedroom Revamp 
£23.98 to Penny Challenge - Now at £264.29

Budget will reset again tomorrow and I have already stuffed £280 into my envelopes which includes the monthly ones which I stuff only once during the month.

Thats about all for now.
Shell x

shell16

Morning and Happy Friday!

Payday for me and Hubby today, so was on early filling various pots (I have also listed the other pots I have where I haven't topped up 'yet' this paycheck month).  Its a 5 week month for me budget wise.

1. £440 to EF (Now £775) - Annual Accelerated Fund Focus
2. £279 to Bedroom Revamp (Now £319) - Long Term Accelerated Fund Focus
3. £210 to Motorhome Storage (Now £420) - Fully Funded
4. £59 to Golf Fees (Now £118)
5. £25 to Hair & Beauty (Now £30)
6. £125 to Dental/Medical
7. £25 to Gifts/Occasions (Now £45)
8. 50 to Clothing
9. £50 to Car Maintenance (Now £356.36)
10. £50 Fun Days 
11. £75 Train/Car parking
12. £220 School Travel/Lunches 
13. £440 Holidays (not Topped up)
14. £697 Downstairs Bedroom revamp (not topped up)
15. £50 Home Renovation 
16. £10 Motorhome Club Fees 
17. £170 Monthly Savings Challenge (not Topped up)
18. £264.29 Penny Challenge (not Topped up)
19. £37 Starling Savings Pot (not Topped up)
20. £30 Girls savings 
21. £35 Eating out (Now £70 as transferred £35 from School pot)

Several of these Pots are Variable so I will be dipping in and out during the month and transferring 'Back to bank' when any card payments are used.  I have also set up a holding account Pot which is the reminder of my weekly cash stuffings for the month, so this is now out of the main account.  Bank account just has the money in to clear all DD's for the month and then as I noted above, when card payments are made I can transfer out of the pots for that spend category and send 'Back to Bank'.  I feel I have a good system here but as always things may get tweaked along the way.

With regards the dishwasher, we have seen some online which look ok and some of these have a really good energy saving guide too over the lifetime of the appliance (although Im not sure what the general life span is for a dishwasher!).  Looking at around £400 so not as spendy as I first thought.  We did look at marketplace but there were none or they wanted too much for them.

The Downstairs bedroom had some new flooring laid last weekend and we managed to get a good deal too from a well known DIY chain 4 for 3 and 15% off underlay, plus the assistant gave me a random £5 off a £50 and above spend and I also had £5 off a £30 and above spend on my email so around £300.  We need a sofa bed in there and we are also contemplating a smart projector instead of a TV as these can be roughly the same cost as a smart TV, but still deciding on those, which will come out of Pot 14.  

One final thing, we had £35 left in the school Travel and lunches pot from last month.  I have been trying very hard to reign in the spending on this with the girls , well one of them!  I agreed with them that anything left in that Pot at the end of the budget month, we would use towards a family meal out at our local Italian.  So I booked an early tea time slot for tomorrow, and we have £35 towards the cost, which is 3 of our meals fully funded and part way to the last meal (excluding drinks).

Thats my first savings update done and dusted, I plan on checking in weekly to record spends and savings to help me keep focussed.

Off to make a fresh brew before I log on for work.  Have a great Friday!
Shell x