Paying the Present, Funding the Future

ShyAndRetiring

I'm shocked how long it's been since I was last on my thread. I've been lurking and reading a bit on others' threads but have had a bit of a sad Spring and am only now starting to get my head up and focused on the finances again.

Brief round up:

• I lost some hours at work - I did gain some other hours of private work instead but it's lower-paid and more hours, so overall I'm down in both time and money.
• At the time of my last post, our much-loved dog started to decline (he had a long-term condition). We sadly lost him in April. We've had dogs the whole of our married life and now, with no dogs and no kids left at home, the house is a strange place. Can't describe how I feel about this.
• Then our cat was hit by a car (we think) - she's making a good recovery (hopefully a full one). Still on medication but back on 4 legs, thank goodness!
• Our emergency fund hadn't had much time to get started before all of the above had a major impact. No insurance on either pet due to their ages / existing conditions, although the EF is commonly known as our House & Hairies pot so we expected to use this towards vet bills. What we didn't expect was so many expensive vet bills all in a very short time.
• As a result of all of the above, the credit card has been used, not to its full extent but much more than we'd bargained for. 

As Blackcats kindly suggested when I started the thread, it really does help to be accountable and I do need to sort things out. There are 15 days left in June, so I figure if I can reboot my accounting and accountability mojo across the rest of June, I can be a bit more purposeful with paying up the recent past and start looking ahead again to funding the future.

I have a few hours to myself later on today so I'll look at where we are and come back to report on today's progress.

Hope everyone else is doing ok, SaR x

ShyAndRetiring

Right, taking things day by day and today hasn't been bad at all really. Today's activities and aims for rest of June:

Spending: NSD today - I was WFH today so no temptation or opportunity to spend. We made fajitas from stores / yesterday's leftovers for dinner today so no extra food spending needed. From tomorrow there are 15 days left to the end of the month so, in the interests of accountability to myself, I'm going to aim for 10 NSDs to end of June.  Still some leftovers left over, so I've split the remains into work lunches for myself and OH tomorrow.

Saving: due to all the hidden extras behind the recent issues (fuel costs for trips to vets included) I've been worried about funds till the end of the month so today I've cashed out £60 from Top Cashback and have sent it across to my current account. I'll save it in there as a buffer to end of the month but if we manage without and it doesn't get used, I'll add it to CC payment for July, or use towards one of the many family birthdays still to come this summer.

Sorting: sorted out spreadsheet and budgets. I need to check that the CC is 0% (I think it is). Then, if I can make the payment I want to the CC once the next statement is due (see below), my aim is to try to clear it all by the end of the year.

Surprising: our joint housekeeping / bills bank account, emergency fund savings account etc are with the very wide nation bank    They recently sent us a letter about their share / dividend "Fairer Share" scheme which said we're eligible to receive £100 into the account. We got separate letters about it, which I thought was just over-enthusiastic admin on their part, but actually 2 x £100 has now gone into the joint account! Delighted about this and hope others benefit from this scheme too!

Plan to make the most of this very welcome surprise by popping £50 over to grocery budget, to help that out and then put £150 across to make CC payment with as soon as statement is ready on the 18th. I already made a payment earlier this month so this will help ensure we pay well over the minimum for the next payment and should bring the balance remaining to below £1,000.

Surveys: I cashed out my Prolific balance at the start of the month and sent it straight over to the CC, then didn't get any surveys at all after. It now seems to have picked up a bit again and I'm back up to £18 but won't cash it out just yet.

Supporting: Still growing veg to support ourselves in the food department! My lettuces are doing OK but I only have 3 left - not sure if it's too late to chuck some more seeds in? We have masses of chard still so we can probably pop stir fry onto the menu over the weekend. My courgette plants had a bit of a funny turn but seem to be recovering at last and will hopefully start to flower soon. Meanwhile, the garlic is having a funny phase of its own so may need to come up soon. 3 out of 4 tomato plants are looking OK, carrots seem fine and I've forgotten to check on the potatoes. Need to go back to lurking on the Old Style threads to find out more about growing our own!

That's it for the moment, feels good to have set out a few things - not least because they're details that are now pinned down rather than floating about in my head.

Wishing everyone well, SaR x

outoftheviciouscircle

I'm so sorry to hear about your fur baby. We lost our 9 year old lab in February and its heartbreaking. I hope the cat makes a full recovery.

ShyAndRetiring

outoftheviciouscircle said:

I'm so sorry to hear about your fur baby. We lost our 9 year old lab in February and its heartbreaking. I hope the cat makes a full recovery.

Thank you @outoftheviciouscircle ... I'm so sorry about your lab, it completely changes life at home, doesn't it? Cat is getting there, each day her movement is improving (not sure about her attitude but that's cats for you)! 

Appreciate you stopping by x

ShyAndRetiring

Today's done and I'm ready for that TFI Friday moment although not really feeling it as I'm working tomorrow - with nice people tho, so that's OK.

Spending: NSD 1/10 achieved.

Saving: Used lettuce from garden so saved on salad costs to claim the NSD above!

Sorting:  Sorted out some admin for OH but stalled on some of my own sort pile - too hot and tired once I finished work. Did finally finish my registration with BBC sounds tho, I want to listen to podcasts and help reduce screen time at bedtime a bit, so happy to have sorted that at least.

Surveys: A couple of surveys first thing before work and another after work, Prolific now at £21.

Surprising: Won £5 on last night's lottery draw. I only do this online and never top it up since the £10 I put on the account originally a couple of years ago - have just been playing with funds from the odd win since, but not necessarily every draw, every week, just now and then.  I know it's not really MSE to play the lottery when we have a debt to pay down but both OH and I have volunteered with (and I've worked for) charities which have benefited from lottery funding, so it feels like we're contributing to these organisations somehow.  Doesn't mean I wouldn't be happy to be Set for Life tho!    Leaving winnings to fund the account. 

That's it for today, over the weekend I hope to sort some goals for next week to take me through to end of the month. Possibly based on some of the DFW challenges. 

Happy weekend, SaR x

foxgloves

You can definitely sow more lettuce seed. Even in Autumn, there are varieties which will grow in colder weather..
I have an unheated greenhouse & when tomatoes, cukes, etc, finish fruiting, I remove them from their growbags, fork the compost over & re-sow with rocket & whatever lettuce seed I have leftover. The lettuce is grown as 'cut & come again' & I snip leaves off as required. Have also used old growbags for autumn sown lamb's lettuce & mizuna. 
F

ShyAndRetiring

foxgloves said:

You can definitely sow more lettuce seed. Even in Autumn, there are varieties which will grow in colder weather..
I have an unheated greenhouse & when tomatoes, cukes, etc, finish fruiting, I remove them from their growbags, fork the compost over & re-sow with rocket & whatever lettuce seed I have leftover. The lettuce is grown as 'cut & come again' & I snip leaves off as required. Have also used old growbags for autumn sown lamb's lettuce & mizuna. 
F

HI Foxgloves

Thanks for the tips ... I've sown some more lettuce today. I like the idea of reusing the growbags for lettuce later on too.

We used to have loads of mizuna - used it in absolutely everything and loved it because it grew all year round. I think we stopped growing it because we couldn't get seeds in lockdown and moved onto chard instead. Appreciate the reminder about it, I'll give it another go.

SaR x

ShyAndRetiring

Satisfied with how Saturday has turned out! A fair bit of sun and only a small amount of rain here (the first for weeks).

Cat is doing much better, vet is pleased with her progress but she has to stay on meds for the time being. We still have enough for a week so one more prescription likely to be needed, then hopefully that'll be the end of pet payouts for a moment.

Spending: NSD 2/10 achieved. 

Saving: am in the habit of Tilly Tidying, usually over to the birthdays savings pot - lots of family birthdays over the summer  so small TT of £1.67 sent today.
AIM: Will carry on with birthday pot until the end of the month then swap to sending them to credit card for July.

Sorting: got work out of the way then did a few hours sorting the garden pm. More lettuce seeds sown, moved a courgette into a better space; harvested garlic as it was (almost) ready and I needed the space. Rocket sown into a pot to add to herb area of garden - and cos I like it in a cheese sandwich

Re-sowed some of my summer flower seeds that have failed. Peonies are just about finished, but roses looking good and lavender coming through splendidly.

Surveys: none today. Nada. Zilch.

Supporting have decided I'm not going to use this heading, as I reckon most of our efforts to support ourselves could be pretty much covered by the above. However, I do want to be accountable / proactive in getting aspects of the house / garden / garage decluttered and improved (MSE-style) so going to swap this to ...

Spaces: two spaces cleared in our (plastic) greenhouse, making potting a lot easier. Discovered several snails which I'm guessing are the culprits for some of the disappearing seedlings. Relocated them to new spaces out on the lane and not in the garden!

Wishing everyone well, SaR x

enthusiasticsaver

Sorry about your dog but good the cat is doing ok.  

ShyAndRetiring

enthusiasticsaver said:

Sorry about your dog but good the cat is doing ok.  

Thank you ES ... last night's big storm was another 'first' without him - in my half-asleep state I automatically got out of bed to check he was OK and give him a comfort cuddle, before I remembered he's not here. Hopefully it will get easier. 

As you say, it's good the cat is bouncing back. She's now being very mardy about the medicine (dropper syringe method) another sign she's improving and feeling more herself!