Did I really need to buy deer food?! My 'concentrating on saving' diary

leftatthetrafficlights

Yesterday I decided after a discussion with dh about my spending on deer food and a bin to keep it in (despite them seeming perfectly happy with the bird food and peanuts that i put down several times a day) that I'm probably not being as money-saving as I should be!! 

I need to make much more of an effort with my savings and think a lot more about my spending...

I have a couple of threads on the Old Style board and I could keep a track of it all on one of those but I think that having a specific thread for saving will make me feel more motivated and accountable so here it is 😁 

I have a number of pots that I save into monthly for annual spends and things that we buy as required as follows:
Car tax and insurances
Car maintenance and MOT'S
House insurance 
Household fuel and oil
Solstice and birthdays
Creature food and garden
Bulk Buy fund

We also have a joint savings account, a slush fund, personal savings accounts and a debt neutral fund.

The two savings accounts I want to concentrate on are the joint account and the debt neutral fund. 

The debt neutral fund is for very old debts which are 0% interest - we pay an agreed amount monthly to the creditors but I want to get to a point where we have the funds to just pay them off should we wish to. 

Our joint savings account is healthy but I want to see it continue to grow - over the past couple of years it has been hit several times due to replacing boilers etc and although it is now above the minimum amount I feel comfortable with, it's not where I want it to be yet. 

I left work eighteen months ago and have no intention of rejoining the workforce so we live on one income - it covers our bills and personal spending money along with a bit of savings but I know that I could and should save more!

I'm going to set a £1000 target for each of the two saving accounts and see what I can do to reach the targets ASAP 😁

MattMattMattUK

leftatthetrafficlights said:

Yesterday I decided after a discussion with dh about my spending on deer food and a bin to keep it in (despite them seeming perfectly happy with the bird food and peanuts that i put down several times a day) that I'm probably not being as money-saving as I should be!! 

That depends, are you eating the deer after fattening them up?

leftatthetrafficlights

MattMattMattUK said:

leftatthetrafficlights said:

Yesterday I decided after a discussion with dh about my spending on deer food and a bin to keep it in (despite them seeming perfectly happy with the bird food and peanuts that i put down several times a day) that I'm probably not being as money-saving as I should be!! 

That depends, are you eating the deer after fattening them up?

😂 vegan for over 20 years so nope! 

leftatthetrafficlights

My 'round up' account came to fruition today so I've had it paid into the debt neutral fund (will be referred to as the DNF from now on!) 😁

I've also put the contents of my Tilly Tidy Fund in there - makes more sense to amalgamate the two! 

Any savings/round ups/rewards in future will be split equally between the DNF and the joint savings fund (JSF from now on) 

DNF: £275/£1000
JSF: £0/£1000

leftatthetrafficlights

I've been looking at all my accounts and have decided to reduce the buffer that I keep in my regular bills account as the interest rate is rubbish! I have split the excess buffer between the two savings accounts - I should probably reduce the buffer further but I wouldn't feel comfortable with that yet 🙄 I'll keep a closer eye on it over the next couple of months and hopefully that will make me feel more confident to lower it further! 

DNF: £384
JSF: £108.50

I had a day out yesterday with my dd and grandbaby - nowhere near as expensive as usual so I'm definitely changing my mindset! 😉

leftatthetrafficlights

The final grocery shop of the month has been done so I've split the remaining £60 funds and paid them into the accounts. I updated my food inventory yesterday so that I have a good handle on what we have for meal planning - I have an enormous amount of basics and the garden will be producing well in a couple of months so this is one place that I can really make massive savings - I'm keeping the funds the same but I'll use as little of them as possible! 😉

DNF: £414
JSF: £138.50

Sunshine_girl2

Looking forward to hear how you get on . I have pots but not a bulk buy one , I think I will start one , so thank you for the idea . 

leftatthetrafficlights

@Sunshine_girl2 - thanks for dropping by! 😁 I find the bulk buy fund really useful - especially when there are offers on non-perishables that we use frequently.

£1.11 in my bank 'rewards' pot this morning - I can't split it across accounts so have transferred it into the DNF and will alternate between accounts for the rewards. I've still got a few pence waiting to clear which I will transfer into the JSF as soon as I can. 

The deer food and bins turned up yesterday so I now have a bit of a creature feeding station in the kitchen - 4 bins containing bird seed, peanuts, deer food and duck food 😂 add that to my 4 recycling bins, my general waste bin and my compost bin and I'm starting to feel like I should have shares in a bin manufacturers!! 🤦‍♀️😂 

DNF: £415.11
JSF: £138.50

leftatthetrafficlights

Money shuffle this morning moving interest on a few of the savings pots around - £6.61 to each pot - also an additional 53p from rewards to the JSF 😁

DNF: £421.62
JSF: £145.64

Skint_yet_Again

Well done your pots are building quickly. 

Sounds like you have lots of visiting wildlife. I need to find a bird feeder that will stop the food going all over the floor as it was attracting rats. 

leftatthetrafficlights

Thanks @Skint_yet_Again 😊 we have loads of visiting wildlife and to be honest it costs me a fortune to feed them all but it's one of my greatest pleasures in life - I love watching them all 😍 I can't help with feeders that stop food going on the floor - we put loads of food on the floor as well as in the feeders! We do have rats coming and going but I live rurally so it's not an issue 😁

39p from rewards over to the DNF today - it also had a bit of interest added to it which I'd forgot to add to the total so I've updated below. The JSF also had interest added but I'm only counting what I've added to that on top of our usual contributions and added interest. 

DNF: £422.76
JSF: £145.64