Balancing the books

PennysIntoPounds

Happy new diary you. Love the aim of earning or saving enough to distribute it to loved ones who will appreciate a few quid or a nice day. Make sure to keep enough for yourself to have things you want and want to do too!

beanielou

Love love love the pixie dust fund 🖤

redofromstart

happy new diary from me too. I love your idea, sounds like a lovely thing to do.

Makingabobor2

Just found your new diary. Good luck in your new ventures. I keep thinking if I should start again with a new one, or just carry on as I am. I certainly need to have a rethink about a few things, that's for sure. I will follow your plans with interest.

Blackcats

@KajiKita - I agree with you. A new diary with a fresh focus has energised my MSE efforts.

PIP - we think our plans is sufficiently ambitious to make an impact but not so risky that we deplete our coffers too significantly.

@beanielou - pixie dust is my absolute favourite pot. It gives me so many options to give an unexpected but helpful and practical contribution to our family. It's not a pot for accruing funds it's definitely a pot for spending.

Thank you @redofromstart - lovely to see you.

I'm surprised how energising a new diary is @Makingabobor2

Blackcats

The thing I've found the hardest with my mini challenge is working out how to measure progress towards replenishing the coffers.

As I am investing into stocks and shares these will fluctuate so I might put in £100 that turns into £95 or £105 over the 12 months. Therefore measuring amount going in won't be a reflection of the future value.

So what I've done is record all our savings/investments total as at 1st April and will record the total again on 31st March 2027 after spending on the family. It's not an exact science but I think it's good enough.

I did a bank account switch today which should yield £175 in due course. The switch is to nationwide so hopefully I will be eligible for future fairer share payments. MrBC's fairer share £100 from nationwide is firmly in my sights.

Sun_Addict

I switched to Nwide a couple of years ago and I’m very happy with them. Don’t forget you also get a decent interest regular saver with them too. I’m too cautious to dabble with S&S, although have considered them, my DS does pretty well with them.

Makingabobor2

I agree with @Sun_Addict , NW are the best bank around .

amber03

Found your new diary and will continue to follow your journey.

Blackcats

thanks @Sun_Addict and @Makingabobor2 - I'm keeping my 1st direct account as it has a good bonus saver and regular saver and it's also a great bank. I'm switching a "donor" account from the bank formerly known as abbey national to nation wide and will definitely avail myself of the savings accounts.

Hello @amber03 - nice to see you.

I've done the end of month banking and money is in the right place for June's bills. There was some surplus in groceries, personal spends and in my buffer account. Most of this has gone to reconcile our credit card spends and a small amount has gone into my £200 at a time savings. This is my rounding up, vinted, £co, survey money etc accumulation pot. When it reaches £200 I pay it into my s&s isa. If I can get £200 every 5 weeks I'll have invested £2000 in a year in a relatively painless but fun way.

As part of my prep and motivation for the balancing the books challenge I've been reading some interesting books on finances. I'm finding my current book, The Art of Spending Money, very insightful. It's about the psychology of spending rather than a manual for spending money 🤣. I've had plenty of practice spending in the past so don't need any additional guidance on that 🤦‍♀️. I got it from the library so I didn't spend money on a book about spending money which seems very sensible.