Countdown to Part Time…

Spinayarn

Busy day today - working from home on Etsy stuff. Had an overtime payment that has gone into some different savings pots. One is for going away next week for a few days. I’m hoping £200 will cover it - £100 for the hotel for 2 nights. It includes breakfast and I’ll try to take lunch with me to eat on Sunday so I’ll have Sunday evening, Monday lunch and dinner then Tuesday lunch. Not quite sure how/where I’ll be eating - I know Tuesday is likely to be at a pricy cafe so I’ll just have to go with the flow with the people I’m with. Petrol money will be covered from my usual petrol budget as I won’t have work commuting while I’m away abroad in a couple of weeks.

 Having a couple of gin and tonics tonight as I have plenty in stock at home. Still waiting for £1.58 to be approved on prolific so I can take out £20 and transfer it to the EF.

Spinayarn

Lots of Etsy work today but good progress made on some orders. I’ve been stalking prolific for some quick surveys but everything that I’ve seen today have been longer ones so I gave up waiting and withdrew the £18 plus added a little Etsy money and paid it into the Emergency Fund. This means it’s now at over £500 which is a huge milestone. 

Only spends today have been petrol (budgeted) and chicken food. I decided to buy 2 months worth of food as next month’s pay will be lower so I need to adjust the budget to reflect this. 

I’ve got a long drive down to the southwest tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing family and I hope the weather will be nice.must remember to pack my camping chair so I can sit on the beach and enjoy some peace and quiet too.

 

Blackcats

Your emergency fund has really grown.  Well done - it's such a good safety net for the unforeseen things that can pop up and de-rail us.  The £500 + that you have already saved would cover a big range of emergencies.

olio really is helpful.  Where I live there is always plenty of bread and then a real variety of other items.  We sometimes collect sandwiches and use them for quick and easy picnics.  

I hope you have a lovely time with your family.  Enjoy the beach too.

Spinayarn

Thank you @blackcats. Finally caught up with your diary the other day. It’s been lovely to read, especially as I’m at the start of the same journey.

Drove down to Devon today. Stopped at the posh services at Gloucester - never seen so many Boden, Joules and Seasalt wearers in the same place! Spent about £6 in there on coffee and a delicious piece of carrot cake. I don’t begrudge the cost - all locally sourced and paying into the local economy.

Had lunch at my brother’s house then stopped at a convenience shop and spent about £13 on a bottle of wine, crisps and chocolate so I’ve got some goodies in the hotel room. Cheaper than going down to the bar. I’ll be having lunch out tomorrow then dinner at my other brother’s house. Then Tuesday will be lunch out with my niece. If I can keep the food spending to £20 per day I will be very happy. My car is bi-fuel meaning it runs on LPG and/or unleaded petrol. LPG is much cheaper but can be difficult to source. Filled up last night before I travelled with LPG and pleased to see there is a garage nearby that stocks it, meaning I can drive back on LPG too. That means my 500 mile round trip is likely to have cost me about £40 in fuel. 

PAD today of £2.11 out of my “save the change” into the emergency fund.

Only other spend today was an “esim” in preparation for our holiday outside of the EU. $18 for 2GB for 15 days. That will be coming out of holiday pot or incidentals.

Any leftovers from my £200 budget for these few days will then go into the pot for my next trip which is our big holiday next week. If there’s any leftover from that, it rolls into the next trip and so forth. I’m trying to remember that the savings pots are maximum amounts to spend, not a target that must be spent!

Spinayarn

Had a lovely day today. Woke up to breakfast at the hotel then walked down to the beach and sat on a bench looking out to sea for an hour, knitting and enjoying the peace. Then took a little walk round the lovely gift shops with some very tempting goodies. Saw some nice dresses and lots of mugs, prettily packaged hand creams and other tempting goodies. I resisted them all. 

Went over to my brother’s house in his town. We wandered round his market town, going into lots of lovely shops. More tempting items but again I didn’t buy anything . This is definitely a huge step for me. Usually I would justify spending on something as a “souvenir” and if there was no cash in the bank account, stick it on a credit card. But no spending from me. Went to lunch with my brother. We had toasted sandwiches then, instead of buying dessert in the cafe we bought cakes from the health food shop and took them back to his house. I did buy some Hibiscus teabags from there too, but that is something I’ve been looking for and at £2.99, quite a lot cheaper than what I’ve seen online. So, total spend was £15.98. 

Then I drove another hour further into Devon to see my other brother. Dinner at his house so free. Did put more LPG in my car so it’s pretty much a full tank ready for the journey home tomorrow.

Plan for tomorrow is: a quiet wander round a different seaside town in the morning, then buying a cheap lunch in the supermarket and taking it back to my niece’s house to eat. Then we are going to some shops together where I completely expect to buy something and maybe coffee and cake before I drive home.

Spinayarn

Yesterday I was looking at some of the other MSE boards (I don’t usually stray past the Debt Wannabe area) and decided to investigate switching current accounts. I have been locked in with my Lloyds account as I set it up as a student 30 years ago, accrued a huge overdraft and then whenever I consolidated debts I went straight back into using my overdraft.

Now I have cleared my overdraft I think it’s time to switch accounts. Looking at the guides on here, it seems to make sense to switch to NatWest which will give me £200 bonus for switching, plus there is a regular savings account (instant access) that you can open which pays 6%. You can pay up to £150 per month into it. I get a pay rise in September which should amount to about £180 a month. I had been planning on using this to go towards debt but now I’m considering saving it in this account each month.

We go away next week and I’ll have limited access to phone data, wifi etc so I think I will wait till I get home before starting the switching process as I don’t want to be using my limited data on constantly checking the status of any changes. 

I think potentially I could still find another £100 per month to go towards debt anyway. Since I started properly budgeting I haven’t had many full pay days as I am a public sector worker and I have striked which affected my pay between £80-£170 each month. Hopefully from September’s pay I’ll have a consistent amount and can look at my budget again.

Spinayarn

Evening all. Got home from my few days away last night. Yesterday afternoon I went to a wool shop with my niece. We are both very keen crafters and I knew there was a chance I would overspend in this shop - it has beautiful yarn. In theory I had £65 left in my budget for the mini break. I actually spent £72. Took the other £7 from my incidentals pot. Then I felt guilty all the way home. But today I’ve fried to shift that mindset. I did not put it on a credit card, I have not overspent this month and I have a beautiful souvenir from my mini break that will remind me of that time both when I use the yarn and also when I wear it.

whilst I was in Devon I went to a little independent gift shop and found some Whistlefish cards in their reduced box -£1 each. I bought 5 of these using the last £5 from my gift pot for this month. Very happy with those. I went on the website last night too and bought more of the cards using the 10 for £10 deal, then put a bottle of their gin that was heavily reduced but used a 10% off voucher on top of this. So I feel I got a good deal and again, nothing that can’t be paid for within the budget.

I’ve had an email to say there should be a little more overtime available so I might be able to earn another £100 or so before we go away next week.

Today I went into work for the morning then I met my husband for lunch. I had put some money to one side for a haircut before going away, but I haven’t got time for this now, so the haircut money went on lunch. 

All in all, I feel I am still doing ok with this budgeting lark.

bigbeff

Wow, just caught up on your diary and you are doing amazingly. Well done 🙂

Spinayarn

Thank you @bigbeff - I’m trying hard to keep it all together!  Finding lots of help and inspiration from reading through other peoples diaries.

Had a day off today. My eldest daughter is home from uni and she wanted to borrow my car. She hasn’t driven many times since passing her test so we went out together in my car 3 times. She bought short term insurance which meant it cost her £16 to insure my car for the day. When we go on holiday next week she wants to borrow the car a few times to get to and from work so it was good for her to practise today.

Other than that, it has been a quiet sort of day. I did buy two dresses from a local charity shop. Cost me £10 and hoping I can wear both when we’re away. Need to try them on tomorrow. Oh and I bought hair dye - on offer in our local Tescos. Both came out of incidentals. Spent the evening watching TV with Mr Spin, having a gin and tonic or two, still using the out of date tonic water I bought last month from Approved Foods. Absolutely nothing wrong with them.

Cashed £5.00 from prolific today and transferred it into the Emergency Fund. I need to top it up tomorrow morning so I can colour in one more square on my colouring chart.

if my calculations are correct, I still have approx £120 not allocated for this month. I was going to put it in The Emergency Fund, but instead I will put it in our holiday spending money. Apparently a lot of people expect tips where we’re going. I suspect the wages are not brilliant so it will be useful to have extra cash with us for tips if needed.

vampirotoothus

Hi with regards to the switch, I recently did to FD. When you apply you tell them what date you want it to happen, so I applied around 25th and set it for 13th of the following month, when hardly anything happens in my account. It all went through no problem. So apply and start looking forward to your free money. Good luck on the rest of your journey V x