MF to achieve our Devon Dream

lovemywestie

Currently hiding out in the small, dark, marginally quieter back bedroom with the dog swaddled under several quilts and the radio on full blast. The fireworks have just been relentless and we’ve had enough now. The dog is petrified and hasn’t had a wee since 5pm as if he even hears a pop he runs back into the house. It’s really unfair and makes me want to live in the middle of nowhere. 

What isn’t helping my mood is the head cold I have caught from my DP, who suffered through it earlier on this week.  It’s not the worst I’ve had, just enough to strip me of any ability to do anything other than have a bath and mope about all day. Very lucky that we can indulge ourselves like this but nevertheless, I did have plans this weekend! Hopefully it will shove off by Tues as I’m in London for work, it’s a long day (up at 6am, home 8.30pm) which I know for some people is a regular work day, but I don’t travel well, I have to take travel sickness tablets, and they give me a dry mouth so I’m constantly chugging water otherwise my voice croaks up, which is tricky as I’m in work to talk to people! Not really looking forward to being snuffly on the train and in front of colleagues. Never mind. 

Money update…

Had a guy round to quote for a garden shed, bike shed cover, rose arch and a pergola. How much are slab bases these days?!? It might need to be downgraded from a 6x4 shed to a cupboard type thing…! We only need something big enough to store the lawnmower and a few bits and pieces. Our next door neighbour offered us his old shed, how do you politely decline a 10 year old shed that will most likely fall apart if we tried to move it? He’s moving house so is probably just trying to save himself a job getting rid of it. Anyway, the shed guy’s sending us some links to sheds but we’ve penciled him in to do the shed and the bike shed cover on 2 Dec. 

His quote for a rose arch (I love roses and live not too far from David Austen’s rose farm thing which is just an amazing place) and a pergola for our side return yard was really quite reasonable quotes so we’ll give it a whirl, but they’ll need to be in the spring to allow for finances. 

Bills are going out, most have cleared now, just the odd ones left now but there’s enough in the bank to cover them. Transferred £1100 into savings - this will cover the shed and hopefully xmas pressie for DP. Then Nov’s salary will cover car insurance and tax, travel and spends for pre Xmas holiday. At the end of the day, if I do feel a bit stretched, I will need to take some from savings, but I’m hoping that this fact will make me be more careful about spends, if I can cash flow the next 2 months from salary I’d be happy. 

Had a nice little bonus on PBs today - x2 £100. This calendar year I’ve so far won something in 9 draws out of 11, a total of £950. DP has won in at least 2 draws. On my total holding, that’s a rate of over 5%, the real figure will be higher as I’ve reinvested prizes and added money throughout the year. Chuffed with this as being a higher rate TP I’d have paid interest on that. I’m sure this run of good luck will end but I’ve enjoyed the ride! 

In the New Year, there will need to be a concerted effort to rein in the household-related spending, otherwise I’m at real risk of chipping away at the savings, which actually I do want to build. But to be fair, once the floorboards upstairs are restored (although we will need rings!), the pointing is done, the shed is installed, that’ll be it for the moment. Famous last words! 

OK, it’s sounding a bit quieter out there now, I’m going to get my coat on and hope the dog will follow us out into the garden and have a wee. Then a couple of ibuprofen and hopefully get some restorative sleep. Ta ra! 

lovemywestie

Mid-month check in (although payday is 10 days away, so not too long to go).  Bank accounts checked and all is in order, although the 'lawn man' has just texted to say he'll pop around to do a treatment on Monday, so that will be £22 I'll need to find.  

We ordered the garden storage and it was delivered today, the carpenter/garden guy is coming on Mon 2 Dec to build it and put a new timber roof on a little bike shelter we have attached to the house.  The storage box is bigger than I expected, which is good as it means we can tidy away some garden tools as well as the lawnmower.  It'll also be a nice project in the spring, as I want to paint it pink (sweet pea/cuprinol - a quite subtle pink, not too garish!).

Looking ahead to December, there's quite a lot going on - Xmas meals with friends, work do's, then away for a week to Devon while the floorboards are sanded and varnished, also some car costs to be managed.  So December will see lots of outgoings but we do have the savings to pay for them, I have a feeling though that we will start 2025 fairly skint with little cash on hand.  Building up some cash reserves will need to be the priority in the early part of the year, and I must resist just popping things onto the credit card and dealing with it later.  The dog also really needs a groom.

We booked a Tr4v3l0dg3 for the Friday before we go on holiday, the plan is that we overnight at Bristol to break the journey.  I've driven the journey to Devon plenty of times, but never in the winter months.  I'm worried about having to drive in bad weather, at least this way, I can do it in two parts with a good sleep in between.  It's the wind that worries me the most, I remember driving down the M6 from Gretna Green in March 2020 after attending a wedding, the wind buffeting the car was awful, it was only a Suzuki Swift so it felt like I could be swept into the next lane.  My nerves were shredded and I ended up pulling into a services and calling my partner for emotional support.  So I'm kind of dreading the journey.  The Tr4v3l0dg3 is near the Severn Bridge parkrun so my partner will run that in the morning while me and the dog pootle about, before we continue on with the journey.  Booked the option where we can cancel at any time, so if we change our minds for whatever reason, we will get the money back - worth having the option for only an extra £6.

Got news of my performance related payrise this week - 2%, which salary calculator estimates will be an extra £48 a month after deductions etc., I will need to think what that will go towards - probably the gas bill, if our next gas/electricity bill is anything to go on!

Plans for the rest of the weekend - just waiting for partner to get back from his Cross Country race, then popping out to get a takeaway (very deserved by him, less so by me, who failed to go to the gym today).  Then catching up with some TV.  

Tomorrow - we're off to nearest town with a Cafe Nero to grab our almost free hot chocs (one free, one for £1), before nipping across to the large shopping centre.  I'm doing a big presentation at work on Monday and I'd like something nice to wear, I'm fed up of wearing the same old dresses when I do have to leave the house to go to work.  We'll also have a look in B&M and similar for some Xmas decs, this house is much larger than the last one, so our existing decs will look a bit sparse.   

Fireworks are still being set off, poor dog hasn't been able to have a wee for several hours as every time we've gone into the garden one has gone off.  We're contemplating trying to go away for 3 nights over the NY, maybe the Peak District, which wouldnt take long to drive to.  Just need to find something remote and cheap!

lovemywestie

Slightly late to the game but have been thinking about my goals for 2025.

I did have a weak moment over Xmas (after slipping on the steps in the garden) that I should really get the garden sorted this year.  The garden is on a slope and there is a rockery and a retaining wall built very close to the end of the house.  We do have a side return patio area that we can sit in but it would be good to take out the rockery, create a patio area, and add some shallower steps up to the grass.  Had a couple of landscapers out to quote, I liked both of them and they quoted the same, around 8.5K and the same lead time, getting it doen in April, which would be doable, it would hit the savings but it would be a big job done.  However, the one who I liked better has since not responded to emails, and I've since cooled to the idea.   I think I'll leave it a couple of years and build up a specific garden pot.

In terms of savings, just for my records.  I want to not dip into these, and increase these by a minimum of 5K this year, cashflowing any bigger/unexpected expenses:

Long term/emergencies
Premium bonds:  £17810 (Jan's draw yielded £100 win for me, £25 win for OH, his savings not included here though)
S&S ISA: 9310.18 as of today (total gain 27.64%)


Short term/emergencies
Marc Bank180 (set aside for OH birthday in Feb)
Monz0 pots: 983.02 (for car MOT, water bill which we should be getting any minute now, small household emergencies)

Debts
However, I have a balance of 1325 on Monz0 flex, all purchases that should have come out of savings, but I decided to try to cashflow them over 3 months.

I want to maintain my long term savings and build on them by 5K this year.

Other MSE stuff I've done:

• At the end of Dec I fixed my gas/electricity, so I can budget better with the same payment every month, I've always had prepayment meters before and then when we moved into this house, we went onto a variable direct debit, just paying for what we've used.  With the Jan and April rises, I thought I would bite the bullet and fix, an estimated 150pa saving plus we've been spared from the humongous bill we would have had for Dec/Jan because of this cold snap.  We've always budgetted £200 per month for gas, elec and water, so with the DD if £180, it just means the money goes to the eight-legged sea creature rather than into my Monz0 pot, but I wouldn't get £150 interest from Monz0 so I'm thinking, all round, this is a good win.
• Treated myself to a heated blanket to use when WFH, have got into the habit of putting the heating on when I could be hearing the self, not the home (although the dog does need consideration and I am wary of the house getting too cold and then costing a lot to heat up again from scratch!)
• Moved to the desk by the window in the spare room, it's a smaller desk than the corner desk but it's a standing desk and as soon as I got back to work after Xmas my back went again, after a busy active Xmas it did not like being sat at a desk for a number of hours.  The standing desk is next to the window, so getting valuable natural light, and it is next to the radiator, which the dog will now lie next to as he just has to be next to me at all times, so when the heating is on, he will be cosier.  
• OH has returned the earphones I bought him for Xmas as they didn't stay in his ears when he's running, the £111 will be credited back to my CC, which means the next payment will be lower (if the refund comes in on time).  Freeing up my Feb cashflow.  However, I had a small giftcard from work of £150 to use at various places, so I used £140 of this to buy his new earphones, and used the balance for a Costa giftcard.  Great all round as the giftcard was free money, I had no clear plan for spending it, so I saved myself the £140 I would have spent in cash plus £111 is credited back to the CC.  Plus we love a Costa/cafe so that'll be a free drink.
• Saved the best til last - the dog's medication.  We used to pay £73 every 6 weeks for the meds at the vets.  At his check up in Dec I enquired about buying the prescription and purchasing the meds online.  It turns out we could have been saving a lot of money doing it this way.  The prescription was £30 for 6 months supply (10 bottles, each bottle lasts about 21 days), and I've order the meds online - with delivery, 2 bottles cost £15.47.  Add on £1.50 per bottle for the prescription costs, each bottle costs £9 rather than £36.  Staggered and annoyed that I didn't do this before, as it has cost me a lot of money.
• Am also going to change vets in May and stop paying for Petclub (20.99 per month) as there's not much benefit of it other that it pre-pays his vaccs, but with what I'm saving via the online prescriptions I'll be majorly up.  Plus our vets branch has closed down and is now a 20 min annoying drive across town away, whereas where we live now we have literally 3 vets within walking distance.  Plus their consultation fees are £10 cheaper than the current vets.  I think I will be saving literally hundreds of pounds a year. This will help with cashflowing holidays etc.  I will however be upgrading his pet insurance as he's only basic cover which I don't feel comfortable with.
• I've started the 1p challenge in Monz0 - I did it last year and it was a lot of fun, the money saved is set aside for car MOT etc in March.  I do plan to save £55 per month though so it's not so painful towards the end.  I've proven I can do it once, so now it's about the prize draws!

Better go now as battery of laptop is blinking at me and I don't want to lose this post!

lovemywestie

Credit card woes.

I've realised that, since buying this house, I haven't changed my spending habits, and this is making me overrely on CCs.  In the old house, the mortgage was around 10% of my monthly salary, so I easily built up savings, both short and long term, and when I wanted 'stuff' I could just buy it without much pain.  When we moved house, I used up this pot of money for moving costs and decorating the house.  That big pot of money made me feel too comfortable!  Now that money has gone, and the mortgage is now £800 rather than £300, I haven't the disposable income to save and then splurge. 
Along came Monzo Flex.  I built up a debt of £1400 - all stuff I would have previously cash-flowed  - car tax, insurance, holiday, xmas presents, shed.  Then, in Jan, I had to use a huge chunk of my disposable income to pay it off - it was a long month.  This really peed me off, as the same was going to happen in Feb.  So, I took £1K out of my ISA, which was so painful as I had built it up to 9.5K, but it meant I could zero the CC and have some cash on hand for the month.  And, to be fair, the money was spent on big ticket items, not on small silly spends or on groceries etc.  All good so far.
Until now.
I've now got a balance of £320 on Monzo.  Gah!!  My OH lost one of my airpods - shockingly, as he is so careful with stuff - if anyone was ever going to lose them, I would have placed my money on me.  So that was £187 on Monzo to buy a new pair.  Then, we popped to a local town on our anniversary, had lunch out and bought a couple of Yeti items that we'd wanted for a while.  Then yesterday I bought a dress from Next and another dress and groceries from Sainsbugs.  It's scarily easy to build up debt.
 
So the Monzo-destroying plan of action:
- the Next dress is going back (-£38)
- i've already paid off the £18 for groceries (keeping the dress but it was only £20)
- I'm expecting a refund of £85 for a pair of walking boots I bought and have returned for dog walking duties - I am fed up of cold wet feet so I splashed out on a pair from Sorel.  They were too tight and anyway, I've decided to give over a pair of Timberlands that I have to dog walking.  I use them for everyday life and they're really nice but I will sacrifice them - I've plenty of other boots and shoes.  So that £85 will be used to pay down Monzo. 
- That will leave a balance of 197.04.  Any money left over at the end of the month (ha!) will be used to pay down the balance. 

lovemywestie

Talking of money until the end of the month, we have £148 to last until 26th.  From that, I need to pay for at least two days travel into work (£12 - thank heavens I work from home most of the time).  The rest is food.  Think I have enough diesel to last.  We've already decided that we won't go to Costa today (when I return the dress) and instead will have a hot choc at home - £9 not spent.  OH had a takeaway bhuna last night, I had a supermarket masala ready meal (I can't take the ghee/oil in takeaways any more!) and we had half portions and will have the leftovers today.  OH's mum always cooks us a Sunday dinner which OH will have tomorrow.  I'm at a big work function tomorrow with a hot lunch included, and lots of snacks throughout the day, so I'll have egg on toast for tea.  Plus, when I'm out and about this week, I can have a free Nero from Octopus, and a free snack from Greggs.  I am meeting a friend for coffee on Thursday and will probably pay, as he's on a lower salary and he feels like a bit of a little brother to me, so I often treat him (he does return the favour!) - but we can go to Nero so it'll be BOGOF.
We've got lots of milk and eggs in (we get through a lot of milk and eggs as OH runs and weightlifts a lot), there is stuff in the freezer I can pick off, so I'm aiming to have at least £50 left over on the 27th.  
I know I'm in 'first world problems' territory as realistically I don't need to worry about every penny but, as the last few months have shown, it is so easy to overspend!

lovemywestie

Other money news (AKA why is life so expensive...! !)

-Made a massive boo boo on a small business I have with a friend - we submitted accounts late so had a £750 fine.  Not happy with myself for this, but lesson learned.  Have decided we will wind up the business as neither of us have the time to generate sales.  As soon as my current PhD study data collection is in and out of the way, and I've got more time and energy, I'll look into what we need to do to close the company.  Company tax return was at least submitted on time!!

- Won £100 on PBs in Feb's draw, we have won something in every draw since Aug last year so happy with that.
- Need to look into my energy tariff, I thought it was set to pay the same amount each month (so summer offsets winter) but the next bill is for £210 - I've never had such a big energy bill! - so it looks like I am still paying for what I'm using, just on the new tariff.  

-got the window cleaner guy we used to use in the old house back as with the weak winter sun returning I could see how filthy the windows were!  £15 and then £12 every 6 weeks - and a nice chat and catch up about his baby daughter, who had just been born before we moved house.

- lawn guy came to do a treatment  - £22.  I hope it blooming works as the lawn looks awful at the moment (I know it is winter but I'm feeling very pessimistic about whether these treatments will work).  He has promised to do a free topdressing and seeding treatment in the spring, though.

- the guy I spoke to last year about repointing the wall on the back of the house has been in touch to book us in for 3 March.  I kind of hoped he wouldn't get in touch, and had forgotten about us, as it's not an urgent job.  We have cold/condensation spots in the top bedroom and because we painted the room 'sulking room pink' (farrow and ball rip off paint ha ha) you can see the darker cold spots.  The pointing below the chimney seems to be the culprit, so we got this guy in to give a quote.  However, that was in maybe Oct last year, the spots haven't got any worse, so it could be put off. However, this guy has a good rep (he repointed the front of a neighbours house and it looks fantastic, they highly recommend him, and he has worked in heritage properties as a stonemason for his whole career so knows his stuff), and he may have put other work off to accommodate us, so we'll go with it now. £1050, it will need to come out of savings - probably split between PBs and my ISA (crying here).  But, at least it will be done - and it does need doing.

-the uni where I'm an external examiner has been in touch for moderation for their autumn term.  Got an exam board and an update meeting booked in (both for 1 hour).  They pay £75 for each 'day' of additional meetings, even if it's just an hour long meeting.  It all helps.  I will get paid on submission of the final report in July, so the money for this will go towards our planned Sept/October holiday to Southwold.