Now for a healthier, wealthier me

LittleMissDetermined

Sun_Addict said:

I factor in holiday spending in my budget and save it monthly. We have two holidays a year so I estimate total rough costs of both which includes everything like spending money, taxis, etc, then divide that total by 12. 

In fact 2 weeks today will be our first full day in PDC 😎

Ooh I'm very jealous.  Family circumstances has meant our July holiday was unexpected so that's probably what's put me out of kilter. I had it in my head we had until September when we do the big one.  Also, September is early for us to be going on holiday and I would usually pay for it with the sealed pot. 
Ah well, I will look to budget better next year!

LittleMissDetermined

Today is not looking too bad for me, I don't have back to back meetings (hurrah), the weather looks reasonable and it's already Thursday! 

I've sent £5 to the sabbatical as part of my PAD today, well, it's auto-scheduled so I don't have to actually do anything but at least it's being saved  

Today is a NSD for me, I have to pop to the doctors to collect a prescription later but I have the pre-payment certificate so I won't have to pay anything, although I suppose I would count a prescription as 'essential' spending anyway...

I'm definitely going to move left over spending money to the holiday spends saver pot. Will also see what money is left at the end of the month and add that wherever I can.  The end of this month we are away in Scotland so not likely to have much left at all for April, but we will have to see. 

In other news, I have dropped 2kg in the last 2 weeks as I have been trying to eat much more healthily. I would like to say that this will continue but in all honesty my weight is like a constant yoyo.  I do need to get back to the gym this weekend too, I just can't seem to find the motivation

That's it from me, I hope you're all keeping well 
LMD x

LittleMissDetermined

Morning all, just a quick update from me as I have early calls.  My PAD is just £5 to the sabbatical fund and today is yet another NSD for me which makes 5 in a row. Go me! 
LMD x

LittleMissDetermined

Good morning all.  I hope you all had a good weekend and you are keeping well.  

This weekend I went out shopping for the day with my sister and I bought us both some treats, things we wanted but didn't 'need' which was nice. I used some of my savings and I also had some gift vouchers from my birthday left.  I know I am away at the end of the month and i should be saving for that, but we both needed a little 'something-something' to cheer us up.  I also used some of my Zizzi clubcard rewards to get lunch for us which in contrast was very MSE  

Anyway, today's PAD included £5 to the sabbatical and £37 to the envelope challenge.  The sealed pot keeps being boosted by my savings challenges which is fab, I have a plan for my holiday savings now and in general I am feeling in a good place financially. (knocks on wood) 

Today is a NSD, as was yesterday. I'm out tomorrow evening though, but no plans for the rest of the week.  I should be able to make my target of 17 NSDs this month. 

Nothing else to update on really, I'm off to make a cuppa before my first call of the day. 
LMD x

LittleMissDetermined

Happy Tuesday! I cannot believe the wind yesterday, we have quite a bit of damage to our garden unfortunately so we will need to evaluate that over the next few days or so.  The direction of the wind cut straight across the back garden so it took full force. 

I've PADded the usual £5 to the sabbatical today and it's not a NSD as I am out tonight but it will be low spend as I am driving this evening. Car is fuelled so no need for any spending there either  

This coming weekend I need to start looking at my car insurance as that's due. I am confident it will have risen in price (much like everything except my wages) but will shop around as always. I just hate having to input the same details over and over again!

That's it from me, I've already got a load of washing in as I have been up since 5am due to hubby's snoring... 
Catch you all later 
LMD x

LittleMissDetermined

PS - I welcome any advice/tips on getting a good deal on car insurance.

KajiKita

LittleMissDetermined said:

PS - I welcome any advice/tips on getting a good deal on car insurance.

I start from the links in the MSE article on it and then compare it to Dir3ct Line. 

Apparently the best time to renew is 21 days before the renewal date. 

Always worth playing with having a second person on / off your policy. 

KK

LittleMissDetermined

Thanks @KajiKita, I will have a look 3 weeks before, which is actually on Monday next week. Hubby is on my policy as a named driver anyway.  My insurance has been really cheap in the past, as low as £155 for annual fully comprehensive! But it's been creeping up over the last few years. 

LittleMissDetermined

Morning all! It's dice day today and I have moved a total of £121.60 to various savings pots:

£5 to the sabbatical
£65 to holiday savings
£56.60 to the sealed pot, including (mainly) my dice rolls and a bit of loose change

I spent a grand total of £5.40 last night on drinks, we had a good night and it was a late one so I am tired today, good job I have no plans for the rest of the week.  As there are no plans I have taken a risk and added my left over spending cash to the holiday fund. Along with £30 from an ongoing 'kitty' we had between us that we have decided to stop doing.

I could have used this to take my sabbatical to the first £1k but I figured that as it seems to be just taking care of itself at the moment in the background I would boost the holiday spending money coffers.

It's a NSD for me today.  Hubby is on night shift for the rest of the week so I will be catching up on ironing and all the TV programmes I love but he just rolls his eyes at  

I will update my signature next, as I always seem to forget.
Have lovely days!
LMD x

LittleMissDetermined

Good morning, I have been awake since very early this morning sorting out my finances and updating my tracker and pots etc. I had got a bit confused with accounting for so many different pots and challenges on my spreadsheet that I just needed to verify that my numbers were in fact correct.

So, I have consolidated some of my mini monzo pots, and split out my savings so that rather than lots of savings amounts being in one interest accruing pot they all have their own now.  It makes it much easier to keep a track of.  The reason I wanted to do this is that my tracker showed that I have now got over £8k in savings.  Which I didn't believe. 

Actually, it's quite true. I am so pleased! . £8033 and some pence to be precise.  On January 1st my total savings were £4434 so the challenges and cash budgeting I'm doing is clearly working out for me. 

We are away next Thursday for a long weekend so some will be used then but all in all I feel like I am in a good position.

That's my win for the day, in other news my PAD included the usual £5 to the sabbatical and it's going to be a NSD for me which I will declare now as other than walking the dog I will be staying at home. 

Hope you're all having a good week? We are almost at Friday - woohoo!
LMD x