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2020: Becoming a Saver, Not a Spender

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  • If you're trying the squats and plank, a great one is wall-sits (sorry if you've heard of them already!) You just squat until your legs are at right-angles, but lean against a wall, and time yourself. I used to do it while the microwave was going :rotfl: it's amazing for the legs though
    Nov 19 CC was: £1334.95 Now: £0!! 1% challenge - 100% Savings:£300.83February take lunch to work: 19/18
    Made in Feb: £41.68 Made in March: £32.15
    Made in April: £31.79, Made in May: £30.18
  • If you're trying the squats and plank, a great one is wall-sits (sorry if you've heard of them already!) You just squat until your legs are at right-angles, but lean against a wall, and time yourself. I used to do it while the microwave was going :rotfl: it's amazing for the legs though

    Haha, that's a great tip as I always have lunch to microwave at work, and that's when I was planning to do it anyway :rotfl:
  • If you're trying the squats and plank, a great one is wall-sits (sorry if you've heard of them already!) You just squat until your legs are at right-angles, but lean against a wall, and time yourself. I used to do it while the microwave was going :rotfl: it's amazing for the legs though
    OMG. I got a headache and cramp just reading this :eek:
    If you have built castles in the air, your work should not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

    Solicitor/survey savings 300/1700
    Emergency fund 0/1000
    Buffer fund 0/200
  • Just sat down and calculated our total household expenses/bills to check it's still 50/50, OH pays the rent, CT and utilities whilst I do the food shop, pay for Sky, Wi-Fi and then send him over money to balance it out, too. A quick tot up shows I'm paying a little more than my half, so asked if I can tweak the SO to him and also stop paying him my voluntary extra monthly payment towards some money I owe him for a few things last year, then pay that off in chunks when I have paid my first SE tax bill, just so I know where the land lies with everything, can't see it being an issue now that he has cleared all of his debt, he earns a good wage.

    My aim is to have a watertight budget over the next few months to see how that goes (and know that I can stick to it) and then I'll know which tweaks I need to make (if any). Then, come April, that will be the start of my 'proper' budget as:

    a) I will have repaid my PAYE tax (although most of this will be sent to the pension via additional contribution each month)
    b) I should be getting a tiny amount more monthly if I can show my boss I will be barely above minimum wage with the National Living Wage increase
    c) I will be about to pay my road tax and car insurance in full
    d) I will commence paying heftily into my pre-planned pots

    This all sounds a tad waffley but it's just me getting my thoughts out into written words, and making it make sense in my head.

    Off swimming tonight which is good as my muscles feel like they need a stretch, plus then I only need to gym it once more this week to hit my personal target of gym/swim sessions :)
  • Morning world :hello:

    One more day to the weekend! :j

    I enjoyed the swimming last night, then got home and there was still a bit of SE work to be had, so did a little bit on there last night. It looks like the workflow *might* be getting back to normal now, so fingers crossed.

    Today I plan to head into our Boots opticians and check out what glasses they have, I got a voucher with my advantage vouchers for free eye test, and £30 of Boots points if you spend £150 on glasses, so I just want to see if they've got any that I really like to make the offer worthwhile.

    The kids were on good form yesterday which was nice, we had a fairly chilled out evening for a change, think everyone was knackered from swimming :rotfl:

    I need to phone up the actual underwriting company that my phone insurance with my bank is provided by, as I've been trying to update the phone on there and it is not recognising the serial number, but some googling shows that some other people have had the same issue and just phoned them, instead. So, that's on my to-do list today.

    Our food shop is coming nice and early on Saturday, my bike should also be delivered on Saturday, so once that's all out of the way I have the whole afternoon and evening to do as I please, I suspect if my grandad seems ok, that my nan may come over and visit for a couple of hours.

    I also NEED to tackle the mountain of ironing over the weekend, I just reeeeeeeeeeeally don't want to :rotfl: but needs must....

    Right, time to crack on. X
  • savingholmes
    savingholmes Posts: 27,061
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    You are sounding really on it SSDD23. Great that you've made it to the gym. Had to laugh at the thought of doing exercise near the work microwave. It's a very public place where I work.
    Achieve FIRE/Mortgage Neutrality by mid 2030
    1) MFW Nov 21 £201,999 with 237 payments to go - now £184,341 Equity 26.26% (lower post move compensated by EF) plus spent £10K+ on home improvements/emergency repairs
    2) Mortgage neutral by June 2030 AVC £8.063/£127,466 AVC target 6.32%
    3) FI Age 60 annual income target £12,500/30,000 41.66%
    Achievements: CC free since April 22. 1 year EF from Jan 24 & dedicated pot for home improvements
  • You are sounding really on it SSDD23. Great that you've made it to the gym. Had to laugh at the thought of doing exercise near the work microwave. It's a very public place where I work.

    Haha, thankfully I have a little staff area to myself most of the time!

    I have decided to switch our broadband provider, our plusnet connection is really bad, the speeds are not great either. Sky pretty much offer the same, but Virgin offer an absolute minimum speed which is quite a bit higher than our maximum speed we can currently get, and their 12 month offer is cheaper than what I pay now. Also, £130 offer through TCB ;) there will be an early termination charge obviously from plusnet but I am hoping to haggle that due to the rubbish connection and the fact they haven't been able to generate a bill for months and months which leaves me unable to use half of the "my account" stuff online. Seems easy enough, pick up the pack and set it up, thanks to there already being a Virgin connection box in our house :D

    Didn't go to Boots as the weather turned awful, neither did I call the underwriter, two jobs to do tomorrow, as well as phone 'Swan' as our kettle lid has been sticking on the rubber seal bit since pretty much the day after we bought it, and I currently have to wedge a knife under whilst pushing the lid button to get it open, looked today and it has a 2 year warranty so I'll be looking to get that replaced. My focus at the moment is working on the little niggly things to build a more peaceful day to day 'big picture' :rotfl:

    Booked into the squash court for Sunday with OH, don't mind managing the pain in my foot now that I have a possible self-diagnosis from the things they are checking for on the ultrasound, and the fact that I have an ultrasound. I'll just tape it up and it should be fine for the 40 minutes - I've missed how much of a good, fun workout it is :D

    That's enough waffling on for now I think, my eyes are sore (hence I really need to sort out some comfier glasses!) and I'm sure you all have better things to read :rotfl:
  • jwil
    jwil Posts: 18,825
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    You are going great :T
    "If you can dream it, you can do it". Walt Disney
  • Thank you :D
    jwil wrote: »
    You are going great :T

    Frogs swallowed so far this morning: TWO :D

    I phoned up plusnet and said I was giving my 14 days cancellation notice as I am changing provider, he looked and triple checked I knew I was in contract for another year, so I explained that the connection drops out all of the time, I can get minimum speeds elsewhere higher than the maximum I can get with them, and that at least any other company could offer me a bill every month, at which point he kind of went "Oh, well that's understandable". All went smoothly, I'll get a figure at some point with the Early Termination Charges but I've worked them out and it shouldn't be too painful :o

    I also sorted my phone insurance out, they don't need the serial number if you phone them, so that took a matter of minutes and is all up to date :)

    I meant to sort out the kettle warranty claim, too, but I forgot to take a note of the serial number this morning, so I will do that tomorrow as long as their helpline is open on Saturdays (no information on that front on the website)

    Feeling uber productive and it's not even 10am :rotfl:

    Our grocery shop comes between 10:30 and 11:30 tomorrow, so no rushing around at all in the evening to get it all done. That reminds me, parcel force should be calling me at some point to sort out the £12 fee to deliver my bike on a Saturday (:mad:)

    I even managed to do the washing up this morning before leaving work, and put a wash in on a delay start so that it should finish as we are all getting home from work. I reckon I've got at least another 2 loads in the washing bins alone, plus I want to do everyone's bedding :o

    Just the trip to Boots to tick off of my to-do list today, then I will be feeling super smug ;)
  • savingholmes
    savingholmes Posts: 27,061
    Name Dropper First Anniversary Photogenic First Post
    Forumite
    Did you get to Boots? I tend to find Mr As cheapest for opticians - just a thought
    Achieve FIRE/Mortgage Neutrality by mid 2030
    1) MFW Nov 21 £201,999 with 237 payments to go - now £184,341 Equity 26.26% (lower post move compensated by EF) plus spent £10K+ on home improvements/emergency repairs
    2) Mortgage neutral by June 2030 AVC £8.063/£127,466 AVC target 6.32%
    3) FI Age 60 annual income target £12,500/30,000 41.66%
    Achievements: CC free since April 22. 1 year EF from Jan 24 & dedicated pot for home improvements
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