Balancing the books

Blackcats

After some pondering, I've decided to start a new diary to reflect a new focus chez la maison Blackcats.

My previous diary (giving every £ a job) was pivotal to moving from early retirement wannabe to achieving early retirement and it has kept me on the straight and narrow through my first years of leisure time.

Being on these boards - reading, posting and keeping my diary has really shifted my mind set from a person who craved buying sparkly plastic cacti to a person who has a different approach to spending and saving money. There's still plenty to learn but I feel that we are in a good place.

At our 26/27 Blackcats plc grand financial summit 😁 we agreed that we wanted to allocate a sum of money to provide memory making experiences for our children and grandchildren. As the Chief Financial Officer and Head of Strategy I have taken responsibility to try to "earn" back over the next 12 months the lump sum we will be spending on the family.

Hence the balancing the books title of my shiny new diary.

I'm full of excitement at being able to gift some fabulous treats and full of enthusiasm at seeing how close I can get to balancing the books (so hopefully we can do the same next year).

SpurRoadTraveler

Hi Blackcats,

Congratulations on the shiny new diary and reaching early retirement! It sounds like you are in a brilliant place mentally and financially.

I love your idea of a 'grand financial summit' to prioritize memory-making with your children and grandchildren. Balancing the books to 'earn' back that fun fund sounds like a fantastic, rewarding challenge for the next 12 months.

Looking forward to following your updates and seeing how the Chief Financial Officer manages the strategy. Best of luck!

Brie

It's nice to have things to look forward to and the money available so you can enjoy them!!!

Sun_Addict

Found you 🙂Glad you’re staying around.

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary and happy early retirement.

joedenise

Found your new diary. Thought you'd stopped posting and was missing your posts. Will bookmark this one so I don't lose it!

Willow1983

Glad to see you haven’t left us, love reading your updates 😊

lucielle

There’s no escape, tracked you down! Sounds like you’ve got some great plans and I’ll be following and cheering from the sidelines

L

Blackcats

how nice to see some visitors on my new diary. I've missed posting and chatting but I think I was taking some time out to mull over our finances and shifting my mindset. I like reflecting privately and then sharing my ideas for feedback and suggestions. My old boss once told me I needed to speak out at meetings even if I had nothing to say - apparently that's what senior leaders are expected to do 🤦‍♀️. She had got this"skill" down to a fine art.

@SpurRoadTraveler - lovely to meet you! Thank you for your encouragement and please keep visiting. As CFO I'm very excited by the next 12 months. Myself and DH who are the entire staff at Blackcats plc actually have a works Christmas outing and swop not very secret Santa gifts. DH is Director of IT, Chief Operating Officer for Refuse disposal & recycling and Chief cook & bottle washer 😉

Thank you @Brie , @Sun_Addict and @beanielou . Beanie I feel like proper royalty now that I've had a welcome message from you.

@joedenise and @Willowtree222 - thank you so much! It's nice to know my ramblings are enjoyed.

KajiKita

Understanding the want for a new diary to reflect a new focus. I did similar at the beginning of this year, it does help.

Loving the division of labour between you and Mr Blackcats 😉

KK

Blackcats

what's staying the same?
I definitely want to keep our financial foundations stable and strong and won't be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Our household bills are fairly stable -

Council tax is what it is - paid over 10 months as I relish the 2 "free" months. This might come in useful in the last couple of months of my mini challenge.

Water - we are on a meter and whilst there's always room for improvement our bills are ok.

Gas/elec - fix is coming to an end in a couple of months so I need to look into options. We finished the winter with about £150 credit and I've upped our payment by £15 a month so that we go into the colder weather with a good balance.

Phones are Sim only and my contract is up for renewal in August. I'm not loyal to my provider so I will explore options. Broadband is reasonably priced but is also up for renewal in August.

We are both members of the leisure centre and I pay for Spotify and Audible.

We have a tv licence but don't have sk-y or verging or any streaming services. We manage ok with some workarounds.

I have got into a good routine with our spending pots and I use the grocery challenge to keep me focussed on our spending.

I fund my "pixie dust" pot each month and use this to sprinkle some financial help amongst our family. This month I gave eldest grandchild some money as they are starting a summer job but will have travel costs before they have wages. Last month I used my blue light card to get a small discount on a supermarket gift card for a family member who is on a very tight budget. I really like this pot.

We save for house insurance and car insurance and expenses over the year. So nice to have the money set aside ready unlike in the past where it was a real hit to the wallet when these bills arrived. Always have been completely predictable expenses but it never clicked with me to plan properly.