Balancing the books

Blackcats

so the spending part of our plan is well underway and we are just waiting for one of our recipients to decide on their treat.

We put our allocated budget into a kitty and are drawing out the cash to pay for the spends. On the other side of the balancing the books scales I've got 2 things to focus on at the moment. Firstly I'm trying to squirrel £200 every 5 weeks from odds and ends, round-ups, surveys, cashback etc. I am putting something into that pot every day - sometimes it's just £1 and other days it's bigger - just depends on where I've sourced some surplus from. I'm up to £148/£200 at the moment.

The other focus is saving £2880 to put into MrBC's SIPP. This is then topped up by £720 from HMRC. Current total is £1900/£2880.

I'm enjoying reading The Art of Spending Money and I'm getting lots of insights and "ah that explains it" moments.

I'm posting on the grocery challenge thread as this is an area of discretionary spends where I can hopefully generate an underspend. I'm doing flylady too which is helping me to keep the house spic and span.

Makingabobor2

The Art of Spending Money sounds interesting.

Blackcats

@Makingabobor2 - yes it's interesting. I got it from the library too, so no money was spent in order to understand The Art of Spending Money 🤣

It's by Morgan Housel.

PennysIntoPounds

£200 every five weeks is fantastic, please do let us loyal followers know the bits and bobs you raise it from so we can be inspired (copy you 😁)

Blackcats

PIP - here are my tangled thoughts on the £200/5 weeks challenge. Firstly, I don't know if I will achieve it but if I can manage it then that will be 10 chunks a year and £2000 back into the balancing the books kitty.

Recycling money -

I skim a minimum of £1 a day from one or other of our current accounts - a minimum of £35 per 5 weeks but can be more

At the end of the month I take any underspend from the grocery pot and round down personal spends and fun pot money

We both have sant and dec savings accounts as it's a good rate of interest up to £4k but zero on balances above that, so I take the monthly interest

Chase has a round up facility so i take that and also the spending rewards money

Rounding down to the nearest £10 when our monthly pensions land in our accounts

New money - surveys, £co, vinted, eBay etc

I'm waiting for a buyer to confirm their order on vinted and then I'll cash out my latest sales which total £44. Why do people take so long to accept their order? Don't they know I'm on a mission 🤷‍♀️

When I get that money I'll have my second £200 of the challenge 🥳

PennysIntoPounds

Marvellous, good for you 🥂 Do keep us updated!

Sun_Addict

I do find it keeps things interesting if you have a challenge.

Makingabobor2

Love these ideas. I need to try this for extra debt money.

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Happy new diary, hope you enjoy retirement. Love the idea of a pixie dust fund!

I’ve recently got the psychology of money and the art of spent money by Morgan Hausel out of the library too 😁. Keep seeing both books recommended, do hoping they’re as good as they sound!

Blackcats

thanks for popping by PIP, SA and Makingabortwo.

@ohdearhowdidthathappen - I love my pixie dust pot (even more than clothes, personal spends and fun pots). The latter 3 pots are for us whereas pixie dust is for other people. This week I used it to sponsor a grandchild's fundraising endeavours and also to give 2 other grandkids spending money for the village fete. No guilt, no pinching from another budget just the joy of giving.

My 2nd £200 balancing the books target was reached on Friday and the money has been invested in my S&S ISA. As it took a while for my vinted sales to be paid I overshot my goal when that money finally became available. This means I started the next 5 week challenge with £20.26. I'm not a fan of odd amounts but that amount seemed ok in 2026. The next 5 weeks ends on 17th July.

Surveys seem slow this month - I'm not prepared to give access to my tv or search history etc so this is ruling out quite a few studies. MrBC has miraculously sold some junk/treasure from his shed on eBay so that will boost the coffers by £24.00. Other than that, this week will be little trickles of money each day to keep up the habit.