Steadying the ship - a perilous voyage across the financial middle

edinburgher

It's a funny thing taking a break from incessant forum posting. There you are, quite happily chuntering away with updates every day, when you decide to have a rest. One month becomes two and you discover that you can't really be bothered starting up again. A two-month break probably seems like nothing to many of you, but I suspect you aren't as terminally online as I had become 😁

That said, I did promise I'd come back in July, so here I is. Not linking to my old diary because I can't be bothered and because it is easily found. Thank you for all the kind words for my fellow posters who have clearly developed the diary equivalent of Stockholm syndrome from listening to my drivel

Life is good in almost every regard in our neck of the woods. All are healthy, work is 90% positive, and Mrs E and I have started to regain something like evenings together. DD1 (now 11) is much too cool to hang out with us and DD2 (after 4 bloody long years) has finally been schooled in the dark art of going to sleep by herself.

I won't lie and say that things are all good - our transition to relaxed evenings has been very recent and eating nonsense and drinking booze are still features of our lives. We have also had a bit of family drama which I won't discuss here for reasons of privacy 🤐 Still, black dogs and sarlacc pits of despair are being held at bay, so mustn't grumble.

Finances have been a bit ropey after an early summer holiday, a bathroom replacement, and four-figure summer childcare costs. Our portable net worth has screeched to a halt or possibly clunked into reverse, so it's time for a bit of mildly radical honesty and a change of tack. Still, that's another post, let me go and find some coffee.

*Edit: I'm not sure a boat can clunk into reverse, have I ruined my nautical theme?

Baileys_Babe

@edinburgher lovely to see you posting again, your public awaits 😁

edinburgher

Isn't AI wonderful at stating the bleeding obvious/stealing ideas?

A month or so ago, Gemini created the helpfully titled "Managing Financial Goal Overwhelm". In this friendly chat, I pointed out some of my financial challenges in terms of our many goals and the friendly LLM stole some solutions from Reddit. I am being glib, but it did make me approach things in a new spirit of "well, duh!" that has allowed me to re-visit a few topics. Kudos, Gemini, not like that useless Microsoft Copilot that can't even sort a list of names alphabetically 🙄

None of the themes would be surprises to my fellow forumites, mainly trying to do everything all at once, with nae money 😅 I have had the half-realisation that life is expensive and that there are some things that are more important than our eventual retirement riches, which are already fine from the perspective of anyone other than Smaug 🐉

It takes a little while to steady the ship after someone shouts "iceberg, right ahead!" I'm getting there.

1. Most importantly, I now have an element of control over my annoying 4-weekly wage. A buffer now helps to keep things stable. It was initially funded with a lump sum and my 4-weekly wage and Child Benefit are also added into the this. I then draw down a fixed monthly amount. Total clarity on what my wages are each month.
2. Budget for following month is funded at the last minute, if the money isn't there, we can't allocate it.
3. My AVCs have been reduced to a miserly £1/4 weeks. I am not looking forward to losing more money to tax, but we need more cash for now.
4. We now have ££,£££ towards an extension. Not clear if we can continue to add to this to the same extent, but feels like an achievement anyway.
5. Our mortgage overpayments have now been cut to a meagre £1/mth.
6. Two perennially high categories are home maintenance and holidays. Home maintenance isn't really home maintenance at all, it's more like home improvement. Not really sure that a low-£££ budget expense should really be periodically having ££,£££ projects added in. These should fall organically if we don't book more expensive holidays or home improvement projects.
7. A swathe of expenses that weren't being budgeted very academically have been re-visited and improved upon. Some of this will probably just turn out to be "unbundling" (i.e. the categories are Groceries/Coffee/Takeaways/Alcohol, not just a Groceries line that sits rocking in the corner). Yet to see if this will help to reduce costs.
8. There was actually some money left over after all this budgeting. An as-yet unspecified "Future Opportunities" line has been established. I'm thinking something like a home battery, an EV or God help us, air conditioning at some future point.
9. We are still technically stoozing/holding far too much credit card debt, but at least modern credit card minimums (2.5%) mean that this is being whittled down gradually. We should both get a pay rise by the end of the year.
10. We have too many regular savers, trying our best to maximise our interest rates.

I'm sure there's something else [scratches head].

*Edit: Oh yeah! I still survey when I'm not being whipped to write briefing notes in my real job. This fluctuates between days where I earn sweet FA and days like today, where I earned £80 between Prolific and finally reaching my latest Y Live £50 😊 I have earned IRO £700 this financial year, so reaching the point at which it will have to go into my SIPP if I earn more (or face paying the tax).

beanielou

Happy shiny diary.

KajiKita

I’m aboard! And yes, things definitely go ‘clunk’ in nautical settings - motors do that everywhere! 😉

Glad to hear the family is doing well and you are keeping your soul above water in spite of private dramas. So very pleased that the job is 90% okay - that will make such a difference to you 😊

Interesting rehash / refocus of priorities. 👏 I suspect I need to do the same, as things have been pretty spendy here of late without much to show for it … 🙄🤷‍♀️ The child care costs sound eye watering <cough, cough> - how do people afford to work??

When are you hoping to start the extension?

KK

rtandon27

Happy 'New House' & Happy New Diary!

Welcome back old friend!

Willow1983

welcome back Ed 🙂

newgirly

Welcome back Ed 😊

Suffolk_lass

Welcome back ed - yes, boats do clunk into reverse - think about the reverse clunk on the Arran Ferry as it approaches the harbour docking point - it made me think it was going to burst through the deck!

We also divide up things we spend on what was once a big lump of groceries with no insights - with a collective Treats and Entertainment tracker for SM ice-cream, alcohol and chocolate, plus pub and restaurant trips, take-aways and coffees. It is separate from Subscriptions and DD (Milk and big river), Store cupboard (hoarding) and Groceries. Oh and a Pets and Livestock pot too. At the least, I ensure T&E does not exceed everything else 😉🤔

skint_spice

Good to see you back!

edinburgher

@KajiKita - Target would be £60,000 contribution for Jan-31, finger in the air budget of £150,000 with the rest borrowed. We will have been in the house for 15-16 years by then, so are building up sufficient equity to make that a reality. Still, every chance we'll just take the huff and move house when the realities of further building work kick in.

Is anyone else a bit of a Nectar points hoarder? I find it fairly easy to use and abuse offers, the AMEX helps as well. We now have in the region of £460 worth, and I am wondering if that's maybe too much, seeing as we don't have any specific target. It's different to say Virgin Points, where you need 100,000 for a business class return to wherever. Tempted to use some of the points for grocery shopping but find myself making comments about my precious when I open the Nectar app 😅

For Tesco shoppers, I notice there's a bonus £5 cashback on a £70 spend at TCB today.