Progress is...

rtandon27

Lunar New Year has always felt like actual New Year to me!  Might be that it was always celebrated in the multi-cultural city I grew up in or perhaps it is that there is always at least a month that has passed since Yule & Christmas!

So I've done a little reflection on the past 3 months and January in particular!  There are some things that stick out to me so will write an abbreviated version of my reflections below!

HEALTH

• January has been a rough one health-wise...migraines, medical bed-rest, food poisoning & dental appts coming at me one after the other.  It seems that my body is telling me that I'm not getting enough rest & down-time so this month I'm going to actively focus on working rest into my schedule.  I hear Active Resting is a thing!
• On a positive note, I've shed 5 pounds since the start of the year, which can only be a good thing!  Two simple changes - a savory protein based breakfast and eating a serving of veg at the start of lunch and dinner are allowing my body to function on less of a glucose roller coaster.

WEALTH

• I have some things to tend to financially across the pond, which involve family & friends - I'll need to work this into my schedule as it involves both my time and energy.  I also have across the pond banking to tidy up, I've been neglecting this for just a touch too long during my illness!
• I've also not finished the blasted insurance paperwork so this also needs to be done.
• Still need to investigate better savings options (including ISAs) and investments - this went to the wayside with all the various health challenges that happened.
• I've budgeted for all of Feb, all of Mar and half of April.  Once OH's pension arrives for the month, I can budget the rest of April.  This is where I want to be, 3 months into the future financially taken care off gives us a great deal of security.  That way if I do have a relapse and end up on income protection insurance again, we won't have to scrounge from our savings during the waiting period, and I can concentrate on living as stress-free as possible.  In addition, most of our major savings pots are currently full, the others will tick along slowly with each pay-cheque received.  
• I think we have now reached proper mortgage neutrality which should last until I get the various bits of work done on the house.  I've played with mortgage calculator and come up with the following overpayment figures...
  7000 = 1 year less
  15000 = 2 years less
  23400 = 3 years less
  32000 = 4 years less
  41000 = 5 years less
  Now as my mortgage t's & c's only allow up to 10000 a year in overpayments, I think that I will aim for the 1 year less payment to be paid off by mid-December.  With my latest pay-cheque having arrived on Friday and the mortgage having gone out on the 1st, we are firmly at 3000 over the mortgage neutrality line so I'm going to bookmark this towards that payment and look at funneling 400 a month for the next 10 months into this overpayment fund as well.  A nice solid goal to aim for - is it lofty and challenging? HELL YES - but it also means one less year I have to work!

WELLBEING

• The single thing most important thing that I've decided helps me in all ways is forward planning! This includes meals & chores & work & rest.  I need to stop leaving this for the last thing when I'm tired and start prioritizing it into different points in my day!
• I've looked ahead in February and planned in low-spend & free lunches - There is only one pre-planned group lunch this month & I'm hoping to keep it that way!  Other lunches involve taking our own and sitting in the work cafe area.  Last month's efforts meant I stayed well within budget for this spending pot, and made use of leftovers & points based spending for meal deals.  I do have a galantines plan with my lovely longtime friend but that won't be until well after the 14th and is budgeted for, so we won't be paying a premium!

GRATITUDE

• Once again I find myself very thankful for the love and support of my dear OH.  Nothing big or momentous has brought this on, I am just very content in that aspect of life atm!

rtandon27

@Cherryfudge - so sorry hunny - I must have missed you when I posted! - I've never been able to use aqueous cream - the 45 one makes my skin itch like crazy!  For a cheap cream, my grandma used to swear by coconut oil & her skin was amazingly supple.  Unfortunately I find that particular scent makes me think of summer holidays so I've never been a fan as a moisturizer - it does however work wonders as a hair mask, but needs at least two goes with shampoo to get it all out!

Cherryfudge

A friend of mine has the same problem with E45, so for some people it's a definite steer-clear. I'm a fan of coconut oil: just a scraping in the bath works beautifully for my skin and it's good on my hair too. In very hot weather I used it as a makeup remover and it was really nice on my skin, but yes, definitely reminiscent of summer holidays! I think the strong scent puts me off using it much on my hands, but I've probably got used to having a trace of coconut following me round wherever I go.  

rtandon27

@Cherryfudge - I'd never thought of coconut oil as a make-up remover so had a little visit down the t'internet rabbit hole and found out that there is actually unscented coconut oil available!  Will need to remember this next time I run out of the regular remover!  If it doesn't produce the desired effect, it can be used for cooking 😂

Was all over crazy for me last week, so just ignored financial stuff and let it tick along, not to mention pretty much anything other than work stuff, so thought it high time to do a little review given that it's mid-month and Saturday sees me paying off the Credit Cards.

HEALTH

• It's been an active rest week for me - a bit of downtime to recover from last week's stress! - with a capital S
• Weight loss is at 5 lbs and holding - I'd need to up the movement to loose more, but this can wait until next week.
• Need to follow-up with medical insurance to finalize various referrals.
• Waiting on a referral though the NHS for a new program to help manage my rare condition - I'm not holding my breath!  Anything that has helped over the past two years has been private & self-motivated.

WEALTH

• Have completed step one of across the pond headaches.  Had the 1st difficult conversation & will need to have at least 2 more plus put all the follow-ups in writing.  Actual banking and money shuffling needs to be completed (probably tomorrow).  I'd really had enough of it all after the conversation on Wednesday - Families can be a right pain in the !!!!!!.
• Headache of Insurance paperwork is going super slowly - picture a turtle rather than a hare!
• OH received his pension so we have Feb/Mar/Apr budgeted for.  He had another blasted lawyers bill - grrr! - so that went out first & did not help to reach the planned 400 to the mortgage overpayment.  All pots have been examined and shuffled.  General medical pot has too much sitting in it so have reduced by 50%.  Dental pot has been topped up for the eye-watering 2nd payment.  Optical pot has been added to, 30% more to go, probably by end of April. Mortgage overpayment pot currently has a meager 250, which will double to 500 by end of April, not even close to my ambitious monthly amount, but better than nothing!  I do prefer having all the necessary pots topped up before throwing anything at the mortgage pot - still half a year to go to put away the rest or the 7000.
• Another eye-watering bill increase - water next year will double - YIKES! - this pot will have enough in it next month.  We don't have a meter, can't get a meter so are at the mercy of the waterboard that is having the biggest increase in the country. SIGH
• Groceries - conscious saving & using what we have, netted us 25% reduction last month and I'll aim for the same this month.  They price really has gone up for everything food related & my pocketbook is noticing the increase!
• Small win - a contest gave me 100gbp in Waitflower/JL vouchers. - I'm in desperate need of some dress boots for work and a pair of waterproof ankle boots for the commute - the voucher went towards these.  Now I can declutter the sad suede ankle boots with a dodgy zipper that can't be repaired.  I'm also amazed that the dress boots were found on the first go!  Have reordered the waterproof ones in a larger size as they seem to run small.  Both pairs reduced in the ongoing sales to what I consider normal for good quality shoes! (oooo - just got a text the replacement have arrived, so I will return & pickup shortly.)
• Second small win is 5gbp towards my electric bill for downloading and signing into an app I will not use, and will erase from my phone once I see the credit applied to my bill.  I also took the opportunity to send a huge paragraph to them regarding aging populations, poor eyesight and badly designed apps that don't work with accessibility features on my phone!
• Last win is that OH has not had a drop of wine for almost two months.  While I'm glad for the effect it has had on his health, I'm even more pleased for the breathing room it has allowed in the money shuffling department, especially given that he's not brought in any extra through the surveys while he concentrated on feeling better.  As someone who has a cocktail maybe twice a year at most, I just don't get the need/want for wine!

WELLBEING

• Continuing with the dopamine producing paper flyladyesque checklist that I've reinstated this year.  Now wanting to try moving over to using a digital planner instead!
• Cheaper social lunches at the office have been well received.  Everyone is in the same boat trying to make money go farther so some conscious choices wrt meals have made it easier on all of us.  Rest of the month for me will focus on free & cheap meals - one fundraiser (but cheap) lunch made by the personal chef of the top brass and one Galentine's with my dear longtime friend are the only two budgeted expenses outside of this.

GRATITUDE

• Simple one of sitting around in PJ's until 1pm in the afternoon today
• Sourcing lovely boots that while not completely free were cheap as paid for mostly with a contest win!

Happy Valentine's to all my t'internet Gals - sending lots of love to let you know how very appreciated your friendship and wise words (over the many years) mean to me xxxxx

teapot2

Excellent work with the contest win and subsequent footwear purchase

foxgloves

Yes, seconded! Winning a voucher towards your boots was good news indeed. I love winning prizes, but regardless of how many competitions I enter (& I am defo not the most committed comper), I only win one prize per year. That means there are still ten & a half months to go! I feel it's far more likely to be a packet of biscuits than anything involving Agent Millions needing to visit our address, but I can hope!
F

rtandon27

@teapot2 - I was well impressed with that win, as it was with my health insurance provider & I've not won with them in the 13 years they have been enticing me to enter contests!  It's super low effort though, enter you name and ID number and hit go.  Just goes to show, you never know when it's your turn!

@foxgloves - I'm in a similar boat to you, I win one or two contests a year, usually chump change.  I'm not an avid comper, and only enter ones for things I really want. that involve super low-effort on my part. 

On the subject of winning, this morning I got a e-mail saying I'd won a prize in last night's lottery.  OH and I usually play the game of 'what would you do if we won anything substantial' before we check the e-mail.  We had a lovely dreamy conversation of all the things we'd like to do before checking the account.  Once again they forgot the 6 zeros at the end of the paltry 7.80 - but hey it paid for the ticket with almost enough profit to buy a coffee!

The boots are lovely, one pair are calf high and adjustable, so even tough they have a zip, the laces can be loosened for comfort.  The other pair is exactly the same brand, but I had to size up a whole size as they have a furry warm lining that takes up room!  (The size that doesn't fit can go back tomorrow.)  I'm hoping for grim weather next week so I can try them both out!

rtandon27

I received an odd e-mail yesterday from the MSE Cheap Energy Club.  It suggested quite strongly that I was on the wrong tariff and need to switch.  I logged onto our account and double checked.  All tariffs that fulfilled our needs and filters were 70+gbp more than the current one, and my tariff also has an exit fee to that would be 170+gbp worse off over the course of the year than currently!  I'm so very puzzled as in the past, those e-mails have been correct in predicting savings!  Anybody else receive one of these oddities?

themadvix

I had an email the other day from the Energy Club. But I don’t think we’ve used them since we got our first PHEV and definitely not since solar, so I didn’t look as I knew they weren’t right… sorry, that’s not a lot of help!

beanielou

rtandon27 said:

I received an odd e-mail yesterday from the MSE Cheap Energy Club.  It suggested quite strongly that I was on the wrong tariff and need to switch.  I logged onto our account and double checked.  All tariffs that fulfilled our needs and filters were 70+gbp more than the current one, and my tariff also has an exit fee to that would be 170+gbp worse off over the course of the year than currently!  I'm so very puzzled as in the past, those e-mails have been correct in predicting savings!  Anybody else receive one of these oddities?

Yes. I got too.