Getting back to frugal ways in 2023 and beyond to reach my future goals

Betharooni

Hi

Sorry for lack of posting in September, it was an exceptionally busy and spendy month. I attended a convention a couple of weeks ago, which was largely budgeted for, but had some unexpected spends as the hotel room did not include breakfast as I had thought. I will make sure to triple check that in future. I also had a weekend away in London at the beginning of the month, again this was budgeted for and came well within that budget. However I had to purchase some flights for holidays next year and buy an upgrade for something I’m going to in April - money for these was borrowed from a savings account but is in the process of being paid back this month, so I should be back straight with my finances fairly imminently.

This month has been very helpful finance-wise. Our annual pay rise was paid this month, backdated to April, and we were also given a cost of living payment, which has come in very handy for replenishing my various savings pots. I have a fixed rate bond that matures later this week - the money from this will pay off the remaining amount owed to bring my accounts up-to-date, with an extra amount that will go into my savings for conventions/holidays next year. Have requested the time off for the remaining conventions that I have booked so hopeful of getting that all confirmed in the next couple of days.

I started back to work on a phased return a couple of weeks ago and have occupational health appointment later this week so hopeful they may offer some positive assistance going forward.

I have an opticians appointment booked for this coming Saturday - am hopeful that I won’t need new glasses, but not holding my breath. That is the only spendy thing that I am expecting this month. Other than that I have a lovely quiet month planned, hopefully with plenty of time to catch up on everything I ended up neglecting in September, and lots of rest and relaxation as I ramp up my working hours.

My few frugal positives from September are:

• £17.95 earned on Prolific in September, with a further 90p pending approvals. I didn’t spend as much time as I should on this in September so hoping to improve this in October.
• In spite of the non-frugal month, I haven’t had to borrow any money or put myself into debt and all savings accounts should be correct by the end of the month.
• I opened an 8% regular saver a couple of days ago. This is one that you can make up to 3 withdrawals from during the year so will probably put some of my convention savings in there and withdraw if needed. At least I will get the benefit either way of the very handy 8% interest.
• WeBuyB0oks successfully paid the £33.41 I was expecting and that cleared a little bit of clutter around the house.

Hoping to spend October doing more decluttering around the house and tidying in the garden if the weather allows. Also have a Christmas jumper that I would like to finish this month and I need to get back into weight loss mode and start eating better and going to the gym/swimming more to make better use of my gym membership (I use it but not as much as I probably should).

I will be more reliable about posting this month and hope to come back with some great frugal wins in a few days time.

Much love

B x

Sarahwithlove

If your mum wishes to gift the house then it needs looking into sooner rather than later as she gets older then views on deprivation become stricter. I would suggest discussing putting it into a lifetime trust, this is what I'm doing with my dad atm. It guarantees he can remain living in it for his lifetime and for yourselves it would mean you and your brother would have until your mother passes or goes into long term care before you need to get the mortgage. It also helps negate any issues for your other sibling regarding owning a share of 2nd property as technically you wouldn't until your mother passes. But it can be ignored if she needed a care home. Also worth noting that if you remain living in property and are your mothers main carer before she goes into a home the property wouldn't be taken into consideration if still in her name. So unless there will be inheritance tax issues there's no harm in it staying in her name. The trust would also protect against you all potentially making her homeless. I'm sure you wouldn't intentionally but legally it protects her and if you lost your job and couldn't afford the mortgage costs anymore then that could eventually happen. Sorry to ramble and be all doom and gloom but think it's important you understand all the implications. 

Betharooni

Hi

Apologies for another long gap in posting. Since being back to work it has been a very intense time (we are shockingly busy at the moment with no hint of let-up) and I don’t think I’ve had the mental bandwidth to focus too much on the money-saving side of things. That’s not to say that I’ve been frivolous but I’ve also not been as mindful and productive as I could have been. Am expecting a couple more intense weeks at work then I’m hoping it will quieten down a little for the Xmas period.

Frugal wins are few and far between (and I can’t remember that much either) but the ones that come to mind are:

• £5.99 cashed out on Prolific. To be honest I haven’t really looked at this too much over the last couple of months but will definitely try to make more of an effort going forward.
• Budget for November has gone very well. I still have money left with a week of the month remaining, and have been able to reduce what I would need to budget for some categories for December as I still have money there (e.g. I have not needed to get petrol yet this month so don’t need to allocate so much for that next month). December will be reasonably quiet but I do have my work Xmas meal on the 1st which I have budget remaining from November to cover.
• Have been looking ahead to 2024 already and thinking about my train season ticket renewal. In March this year I bought an annual season ticket as I was going into the office pretty much every day so it was financially worth it. However in my occupational health meeting, they recommended I stick to just two days in the office per week except in exceptional circumstances. Therefore I’m thinking that I won’t renew the annual ticket and will probably get either flexi season tickets or day tickets around the leave that I will have in 2024. I have been saving towards an annual ticket since March and have enough for around 10 months of flexi season tickets so will redirect the money I have been allocating to that savings accounts to replenish my other savings.

Frugal fails are probably too numerous to mention but will start afresh from here.

Will make every effort to post more regularly over the coming weeks and will try to be more mindful of being frugal-I often find this time of year is good in some ways for frugality as I am much less inclined to go out and about so much when it’s this cold and miserable.

B x

Betharooni

Sarahwithlove said:

If your mum wishes to gift the house then it needs looking into sooner rather than later as she gets older then views on deprivation become stricter. I would suggest discussing putting it into a lifetime trust, this is what I'm doing with my dad atm. It guarantees he can remain living in it for his lifetime and for yourselves it would mean you and your brother would have until your mother passes or goes into long term care before you need to get the mortgage. It also helps negate any issues for your other sibling regarding owning a share of 2nd property as technically you wouldn't until your mother passes. But it can be ignored if she needed a care home. Also worth noting that if you remain living in property and are your mothers main carer before she goes into a home the property wouldn't be taken into consideration if still in her name. So unless there will be inheritance tax issues there's no harm in it staying in her name. The trust would also protect against you all potentially making her homeless. I'm sure you wouldn't intentionally but legally it protects her and if you lost your job and couldn't afford the mortgage costs anymore then that could eventually happen. Sorry to ramble and be all doom and gloom but think it's important you understand all the implications. 

Thanks for your advice. To be honest no one seems in any rush to put anything in place at the moment so I think it is a way off before anything is going to be done, but am trying to focus on replenishing my savings as much as possible so that I’m ready for whatever is to come. Some interesting information to ponder and pass on nonetheless.

Betharooni

Hi

Another ridiculous week at work-doing interviews for three out of the five days. Was in the office for 4 days last week as well, got the interview days and our team Xmas meal on Friday. Luckily I only have one day in the office this coming week to make up for it a bit.

This weekend I spent yesterday doing some shopping bits and went and got my hair cut and coloured. The hair appointment was all budgeted for and actually ended up costing less than I expected, but was happy to pay whatever as supporting a local business, and it does make me feel so much better once done. Only a couple of inches cut off but feels about a stone lighter on my head lol. While in that town for my haircut (it’s the next town over from where I live) got a new swimsuit as am doing swimming lessons-felt pretty good as it ended up being two sizes smaller than the one I have been using and not as expensive as I was fearing. The existing one was a bit loose round the top of me and was wearing a bit in places so was a necessary purchase, but out of my clothing spends savings pot so all good.

Have had a very quiet day today as not feeling 100%. Am trying to work through some of the TV shows on our Sky Q box and have managed to clear half a dozen shows already. Might try to do some knitting and a bit of Xmas wrapping with the rest of this evening and watch a couple more things off the planner and try to get into the right headspace ahead of another busy week at work this week.

The coming week should be far more frugal with only one day in the office and nothing else much planned. Have asked Mum to start writing her cards so I can post them second class this week and to sort out the local ones which I will drive and deliver to save a bit on postage. I’ll do those deliveries next weekend. Need to spend time doing some tidying this week so we can sort out getting our Xmas decorations up. Am having to manage my energy levels very carefully at the moment as they are pretty low-think I need to make an appointment with doctors and probably get some blood tests as my iron levels are always very up and down so suspect they are very down at the moment. 

Budgets were set for this month and all moved when I got paid on Thursday. Should be a reasonable month budget-wise as only a couple of meals out with family planned, have a couple of annual leave days the week before Xmas and it’s cold and miserable so I tend to hibernate a bit more anyway. Have got plenty of stuff to keep me occupied at home anyway and need to make some plans for next year. That’s a job I’m hoping to do (or at least start) this week.

B x

Betharooni

Hi

Had a fairly busy couple of weeks since I last posted. Work is still rather manic so my space for thinking about other things has been somewhat limited but I have a handful of frugal wins:

• Have started taking lunch into work again - had been very lazy and bought something cheap and SW friendly recently but the last two weeks have taken something in instead to save a bit of money.
• Hand delivered local Xmas cards yesterday to save on postage costs.
• I finished knitting a new Xmas jumper this week, which used 5 balls of wool which I bought a while ago and oddments of wool that I had from other knitting projects for the picture. This ended up being cheaper than a bought jumper like this would have been.
• Started a bit of decluttering and took some items to charity shop which had free car parking while I was picking up a purchase from Argos, which is next door to the charity shop.
• Was looking at options of to do apps on my phone/ipad (including some paid options) when I remembered that I had previously downloaded Microsoft To Do so making use of that to get me organised and my thoughts a bit straighter.
• Am gifting a couple of books that I already had as part of one of the presents I’m giving this year to eldest niece (DN1) as they relate perfectly to the rest of her presents and I was planning on selling them instead. Am going to personalise another part of her present myself using my Cricut machine.

Have been spending some time planning what I want to achieve in 2024 and it all falls into four main themes - enjoying the trips that I’m taking, saving money, decluttering/getting the house in order and losing weight. 

Have made a start on a couple of minor decluttering jobs and getting things in order further to help me with that. Hoping to get someone to quote for a skip to come after Xmas so we can get rid of a load of the bigger bits of rubbish that would need to go to the tip in one go-hopefully saving me a lot of time and petrol in the process. Have started making lists in Microsoft To Do of decluttering tasks I need to do so I can work through it step by step.

Have had covid and flu jabs this afternoon after I finished work. Hoping for a quiet evening of wrapping presents, watching tv and organising some bit and continuing to write my decluttering to do ideas as they come to me.

B x

[Deleted User]

Having re-read this diary I am intrigued as to why your mum pays most of the bills herself. To be honest by doing so you are shielded somewhat from being truly financially responsible for yourself and having a realistic budget. In the long term are you aiming to have a place of your own?