Spendy Wendy to Saver Savvy

Spendywendywoo

Yesterday was a very busy day but productive, as per. 

* Finish ironing pile - moved to weekend
* Utility room reset
* 3 litres of water (really haven't been drinking a lot these last few weeks and maybe why my weight loss has stalled, even though I'm eating well and walking too) - really need to get better with this...
* maybe a walk (I've got pain in my heel and it seems to get worse when I walk so going to monitor this) One hour done!
* one lot of washing - two lots of washing done and dried
* run and empty the dishwasher
* Change doctors appt as it now falls on a day that I am attending a funeral cancelled the current appt but no other appts available, need to ring back next week, which I've diarised
* Freezer inventory (I've moved most of the freezer stuff into the chest freezer in the garage so that the meal preps are inside and easy to reach) at the start of the year this took 4 pages of A4 to record... we've been using stocks and now it's down to two pages, and this includes new meal prep items which are now being stored
* work task list is as long as the above lol worked through my priorities so all good

Spendywendywoo

Morning all

So, lots of progress made - I've started a new financial course that I thought was worthwhile (it's free through work so thought I'd take advantage). I'm currently using my spare time to record what we spent last year (to show the impact this new budget is having), following all the steps that have been highlighted in the course, which is an eye opener. 

Compound interest... wow! I just wish that this was all taught in schools, it would have made such a difference to our lives (I thought I was quite financially savvy with no credit cards or high interest debt (other than mortgage). I am determined that DS will understand all this to help set him up well in the future).

I'm very impressed that motivation isn't waning yet. I still put all this progress down to the fact that I've moved away from social media. I really am kicking myself for allowing myself to waste so much time over the years, but I can't look back... I can only look forward and give us the best future possible

The freezer was sorted and a new inventory pulled together.  The plan is to do a big clean (I'm keeping on top of the tidiness, just deeper clean like floors to do) and to do a Feb meal plan (already sorted Saturday and Sunday). 

Grocery spend is just under the budget for this month (half month for Jan) so really happy with that too. 

Today will be work, finance course and progressing with the actions from that, walk for 1 hour listening to a financial podcast and then reading for 1 hour.

Meals all from stores;
* Cereal
* HM soup and roll
* Chicken fajitas from the freezer (which were pulled out yesterday to defrost)

Recording this information is really keeping me accountable, sorry if it is boring to anyone but even if I am just recording for me, it will be worth it. Cannot wait until 15th Feb when I can record just how much money we have left which we can put towards mortgage, balloon payment and annual expenditure...money we normally fritter away

Have a great day all, 
Wendy x

DrunklMunkee

Good morning @Spendywendywoo

Your revelation on compound interest reminded me of an Albert Einstein quote...

 "Compund interest is the eighth wonder of the world. They, who understand it, earn it..... They, who don't, pay it  "

It's so very true!!

Spendywendywoo

@DrunklMunkee funnily, they quoted this on the course!!  

Thanks for stopping by, hope you are well

Suffolk_lass

Ooh, I like that saying @DrunklMunkee! Yes indeed. I tracked how much I was saving each time I made a mortgage OP as it was better as an incentive than earning interest for me. Giving them money for no return just felt wrong and felt bigger than receiving compound interest on my savings

Spendywendywoo

@Suffolk_lass, how did you work out the interest saving, please? Is there a calculation? I'm assuming I'll reach that information on the course soon enough but if you could please share your way as it might be easier

Suffolk_lass

I used a slightly inaccurate calculation because the building society calculated it daily but charged it monthly (so I worked in months)

The calculation for compound interest is

A=P(1+r/n)nt

where:

A = final amount

P = initial principal balance

r = interest rate

n = number of times interest applied per time period (in my case the number of months)

t = number of time periods elapsed

My savings were recorded by the difference after recording the before figures (principle amount), then amending the principle amount (by subtracting the OP) and modifying the number of times it was due to be applied.

I also kept the repayments at the same amount and updated everything when the annual statement showed the impact of that (shortening the period, not the monthly repayments) and applied this to the spreadsheet retrospectively. It meant I was aways doing slightly better than my tracker, which was nice. If you are using excel, there is a set of formulae you can use... as follows

Compound interest is the interest calculated on the principal amount and all previously accumulated interest. 

Functions for calculating compound interest 

• FV: Calculates the future value of an investment
• PV: Calculates the present value of an investment
• RATE: Calculates the interest rate per period
• NPER: Calculates the number of periods
• PMT: Calculates the periodic payment amount for a loan or investment
• EFFECT: Calculates the compounded interest rate for intra-year periods

Steps for calculating compound interest in Excel 

1. Enter the data
2. Select the Formulas tab
3. Click the Insert Function button
4. Enter the function arguments
5. Set the interest rate
6. Enter the number of payments
7. Enter the payment amount
8. Enter the present value if available
9. Set the payment due date
10. Execute the function

Spendywendywoo

@Suffolk_lass, thank you, I’ve copied into notes and will do this when we make our additional payment in Feb. It will be great to include this in our monthly summary, and in my signature.. thank you x 

Spendywendywoo

So, I managed to source a free laptop today from a friend who has just replaced theirs. They said it was uber slow and not enough for what they needed.  I didn't expect much from it but I've just set it up and it's fine for what I need - M365 Excel and websites Feel a bit cheeky that I didn't offer some money, but then again they didn't need it and it was going to sit unused or passed to someone else. 

I've moved my budget over, and in line with the homework from the finance course, I am currently working my way through 2024 finances so that I can do a true comparison with this year and see just how much we are saving (I think this will be a really big motivator for us).

Other activity today;
* 8 hours of work (new project started so busy busy)
* 1 hour of walking 
* 1 hour of cleaning, hoovering etc
* Dinner made and lots of compliments from both DS and DH (it was only fajitas)
* Helped DS get his items together for a DT project at school next week
* Completed one more module of the finance course
* Remembered to update my inventory when I used items from the store (miracle in itself!)

I'm going to complete another hour of 2024 finances (hopefully to the start of Nov...working back from the end of the year, but there are a LOT of transactions...) then read for an hour before bed. 

I hope everyone is having a great week, 
Wendy x

Spendywendywoo

I got to the start of December, popped my formulas in to calculate the amount for each category and I am speechless, and incredibly embarrassed with the findings... I knew we were overspending, and I'm conscious that December is a more spendy month than others but...

Groceries: £960.74 (this includes cleaning items, the odd lotto ticket and dog food, plus anything bought at a supermarket as I have no receipts to review (I keep all receipts now until the items are recorded on my tracker)). Current spend since 15th Jan is less than £250 and our monthly budget is £450, but I expect it to hit this for the first few months whilst we move away from takeaways and eating out.
Takeaway: £216.57 (tbh this isn't as much as I thought it was going to be, but still excessive as the new budget is £100 and I'm not expecting to use all of that)
Eating out: £272.74 (I don't believe it's usual this much but we did pay for a family meal and we ate out more due to Christmas meet ups)
Coffee: £89! (We don't usually spend that much in StarBs but we got into an habit over the last two months of the year of nipping in on our dog walk (this ended over Christmas and we do now budget a small amount but haven't used any of it yet)
Amaz0n: £436.05 (we spend a lot here normally, stems from habits formed during COVID, and some of this amount was gifts, which I'll be budgeting and recording as such this year, but still, this is excessive and there is really no need for it! Happy to confirm we haven't bought anything from Amaz0n this year so far...

I can't look at November yet, that's tomorrow's job... I need a cup of tea and my book... I may even cry. Please tell me that this is normal after a LBM as I am currently very very embarrassed that we have been so flippant with our money.

Well, I was motivated before but even more so now, 
Wendy x