Goals 2021: Update #4

I wanted this to be the last blog of 2021 as what I've learnt from attempting to achieve it this year will help me plan for my goals in the next.  To say that my 2021 goals didn't exactly go to plan is probably a bit of an understatement, but I did still manage to achieve some of them and I've decided to see it all as a learning curve.  As this is all about finances and not achieving my goals I thought I'd disperse it with nice pictures, mainly for my benefit.

1) Keep my emergency fund

Thankfully I've managed to do this one and my emergency fund is still intact.  There's something very reassuring about knowing that you have a backup if you need it and I know that I've been very lucky to have been able to save this up and keep it during this pandemic.

2) Paying off my credit card

I did manage to pay this off at the start of the year, but then life took over and I had to buy a few things before I had originally thought I would need to, which meant not getting to save for them.  One of these was my mobile, which I had thought I had a year to prepare for.  Unfortunately, that wasn't the case and my old phone decided that functioning properly was no longer a requirement.  As the phone I wanted to get, a Fairphone,  isn't supplied through my service provider I had to buy it outright.  That added around £500 to my credit card.  Then there were my work wellies that suddenly stopped carrying out a pair of wellies primary function and had to be replaced.  I have to admit that I did also buy something that wasn't necessarily required but was on sale and that I have wanted for a long time to help with the hair side of having PCOS - an IPL hair removal system.  So whilst I did pay it off, goal achieved, I then manage to put money back onto it.

3) Save up four months worth of emergency fund

This one ended up being a bit more difficult.  Though we did manage to save around £2400 the goal was £5200, making us £2800 short.  This was quite an ambitious goal, but it probably would have been achievable if we'd been a little bit more careful with our money.

4) Put around £2000 towards my student loan

I'm not going to lie, this one didn't happen at all.  It just wasn't on the front of my mind this year and it's difficult to priorities it when I know I'll get more from saving the money than paying off this loan.  At least at the moment.

5) Be ready for Christmas 2021

Now let's get onto a good one.  The amount we wanted to put aside for the sinking fund was £700 and we achieved this before December.  This meant that we were able to buy and send all the presents we wanted to, and get it all organised pretty early on.  Obviously, this will be a yearly sinking fund and any money we didn't spend this year will go towards starting the 2022 Christmas sinking fund.  £700 was a good amount so we're going to keep this for next year.

6) Build a car repair sinking fund

This one we set as £500 based on the amount the car has cost us already.  We managed to achieve this as well but ended up having to use up £100 of it during the cars last MOT.  We'll need to add that back at the beginning of 2022, but it does mean that this sinking fund is pretty much covered now, ready for when we will probably.......definitely need it.

7) Put £200 a month into my pension

This one I got very close to achieving, managing to get 10 months out of the 12 covered.  Obviously, it would have been good to achieve the full £2400, but when it comes to pensions every little pay in counts and I'm happy that I've a least managed to put some money in.  

So, though I didn't achieve everything I had planned, I did still manage to get a few of them done and tracking our budget throughout the months has taught me a few things.  Firstly, whilst we're not frivolous with our money there are still a few things that we do spend our money on which we could probably do without.  And by probably I mean definitely.  Secondly, food and drink are where most of our money goes.  We love our food and drink, and whilst we're pretty good about how much we spend on our weekly groceries shop, it's the take-aways, treats, and snacks that we go a bit nuts on.  More recently we have been eating out or getting a takeaway around two to three times a week, and we've been getting fizzy juice, crisps, and chocolates practically every day.  All of this adds up and can lose us up to an additional £200 a week.  Definitely, something for us to think about next year.  I'm not disappointed I didn't achieve everything I had planned this year, but I will be disappointed if I don't learn from this and do better next year.

September 2021 Budget

As I've already written a goals update in the last post, which is basically all about trying to get ourselves financially fit, I'm going to be very quick with this post so that I'm not just repeating myself.  I wasn't really expecting September to go particularly well financially, but actually, we did manage to do a little better than I thought and I'll take that.

Our lack of credit card debt and personal emergency funds have remained the same and I'm actually quite proud of the fact that we've managed to keep them like this throughout this entire year.  We have also managed to start reducing our food, household, and takeaway bills, and I'm hoping to keep this downward trend for the rest of the year.  We did have one expensive week for eating out, but that was when we went on a trip out with my Mum and I wouldn't want to change that.

I did also manage to put some money aside for my pension again this month as it was something that I had decided I was going to prioritise for the rest of the year.

However, we still weren't able to put any money into our sinking funds and our four months emergency fund.  While this was disappointing I knew that it would probably be the case as there were some big, unplanned expenses that came out right at the start of the month.

And they all circulated around the car, which needed over £200 worth of repairs and two of the tyres changed, and we didn't use our sinking fund to cover this.  I suppose in a way I could say that we did actually put around £400 pounds into our sinking funds in September, it's just that we had to take it back out again right away.

We also both needed to replace our walking boots, getting replacement walking poles, and my partner needed a high vis top for when he's cycling home now as it's so dark.  Perhaps the outdoor gear isn't strictly 'needed' but walking is important to both of us and we couldn't really be happy without it so it wasn't something I wanted to comprise on.

So, whilst the big expenses on the car did have an impact on what I had originally planned for this month, it could have been far worse and I'm very grateful that we have the money coming in to cover those expenses without having to put ourselves into debt.  On that front, we have been very lucky.  And now we're starting a new month and I have plans on how to start catching up on where we fell behind, such as only eating out / having a takeaway once a week, so October should be a good one.

Goals 2021 Update #3

As I expected, especially with the way that August went, this quarter was definitely a bit of a flop.  It's to be expected really, what with the loss of two weeks earnings and added expenses for our holiday (which I spoke about in the August budget blog), and the additional expense of having to get the car fixed and then two of the tyres changed.  It also probably doesn't help that I just lost the will by this quarter and couldn't be bothered to worry about where the money was going anymore.  I guess we might as well get on with it - I'll keep it short.

Starting with the positives.  The plan to not accumulate any more credit card debt and to keep our own personal emergency funds has remained this quarter.  I have had to use my credit card on purchases, such as when I had the tyres replaced, but made sure that I paid off the debt straight away.

The Christmas and car repair sinking funds have unfortunately gone to the wayside these last few months, without any payments not only in August but also in July and September.  To catch up we will need to find £310 over the next two months for the Christmas fund (so that it's ready for December spending) and £230 for the next three months for the car repair.  We decided to not use the car repair sinking fund when we got the car fixed in September as we had enough to cover the repairs that month and decided to just use that instead of basically starting the fund from scratch again.

We also didn't put anything towards the four months emergency /expenses fund over these last few months.  It's unlikely that we'll be able to make up for this over the remaining year and so I think the best thing to do now is to concentrate on getting the two sinking funds completed over these last few months and move this goal over to next year.  The sinking funds are a bit more pressing right now.

Lastly, my pension.  I didn't put any payment into it in August but did manage to contribute in July and September so I am happy about that.  The last time I missed a payment I then spread it across the remaining months of the year, but I don't think I can manage that this time.  If I can carry on with the same contributions over the last quarter I will be happy.

I completely dropped the ball this quarter and lost the momentum that I had built up in the first two quarters.  I'm not that surprised really as it's not that unusual to have a blip now and then when you're building on your goals, but I do need to make plans for the last quarter to hopefully end on a high. The aim for this last quarter is to complete our two sinking funds, carry on paying into my pension on a monthly basis, and keep the credit card debt to nothing and the emergency fund at £1000.  Oh, and I need to look at life insurance, always a joy.  

I think I'll calm myself now with some beautiful scenery.

August 2021 Budget

So this month went as badly as I thought it was going to.  In fact, it probably went a little bit worse.  We had gone into August knowing it was going to be a financially tight month as there was going to be two weeks in which I wasn't earning anything and where my partner wasn't going to be earning the full amount he normally does.  We did expect to have one week where we weren't going to be spending much at all as we would be walking and camping, but unfortunately, due to some knee issues, that didn't really happen (that'll be coming up in another post).

Let's just get into it and start with the positives.  Our individual emergency funds have stayed at £1000 and we still haven't accrued any credit card (or any other) debt. Yay!  And now let's step into the bad.

Savings - haha.  This month was mainly about getting the balance in our current account back to where it needs to be to cover all the bills that will be coming out at the start of September.  We have managed to do that, but it has meant that we haven't been able to put any money into our sinking funds or into our four-month savings funds.  To make up for this and to reach the 2021 goals we need to now put away about £500 a month until the end of the year. 

I also wasn't able to put any money aside for my pension.  I would say that I had to priorities paying bills, and that is partially true, but I did also spend quite a bit of money on other things I didn't necessarily need this month and which could have gone towards pension payments and savings.

One of those things was eating out and takeaways.  The knee problems not only meant that we couldn't do the coast to coast walk but also meant that we weren't able to do any other walking or swimming that we had planned.  These trips would have helped get us out of the flat and away from possible spending.  I also find that when I sit around doing nothing much I get incredibly lazy and that laziness also includes not doing sensible, healthy, money-saving things like cooking my own food.  So, we got a lot of takeaways and snacks and ate out quite a bit.  Some of that is because we went out for my brother's birthday, but not nearly enough to really justify the amount.

We also had a lot more time to stare in shop windows and at things online, which is never good.  Some of it was on wedding things and things we needed to do the week-long walking that never happened.  But really those are just justifications and a fair amount of the spending could have waited until next month or, in fact, the next few months, to get.

I am actually writing this post a little bit early as there are still a few days of August still to go, but now that we're back at work hopefully the spending should be a lot less.  We've had two bad financial months now and we can only really blame ourselves.  So, goals for the next few months are to cut back greatly on our non-essential spending and to reduce our takeaway /eating out spending to just once a week (and this includes all the snacks we get here and there which will be the most difficult thing).  We pretty much have everything we need now and there are only a few items on our to-buy list - a pair of walking boats each and some elastic for a project I have going at the moment.   And as if looking at my budget isn't enough of a reminder that we need to do better I've actually put on a little bit of weight from all the eating out we've been doing.  I think my body is trying to tell me something. 😂

July 2021 Budget

It would be fair to say that July didn't go to plan at all when it came to spending and saving.  If I'm honest the main reason is that I just lost all motivation this month and there's not really much else I can say about it, so let's just jump right in.

Starting with a plus, we manage to build back up my partners emergency fund and still have no credit card by the end.

However, we didn't put any more money into four months funds or our car repairs and Christmas sinking funds.  Both of those are quite big ops and something we really need to do much better on over the next five months.

I did manage to put some more money into my pension though so that at least is a good thing which is marginally tempering the guilt of doing so badly this month.

And we also managed to reduce our household and takeaway spending this month as well.  If we can just carry that change over the next few months that should really help us out.  Food spending has remained high though and that is definitely something we need to work at.

Unexpectedly our flat and car parking rent came out this month which we thought wouldn't come out until August, and that is something that stopped us from being able to put money into our savings account.

There was also quite a bit of general spending happening this month.  A big part of this was me needing to replace my sports bras, and unfortunately, my size doesn't make that cheap, and partly because we're planning at least one long-distance walking trip in August and needed to buy a few things for that.

There have been some good things this month, but mostly it was a pretty down one.  I think I'm most annoyed at myself because I won't be able to earn for two weeks in August and so being good with our finances in July would have been a good idea.   However, there's no point in wallowing in it now, what's done is done, and now we just need to get on with being better for the rest of 2021.  No pressure then. 😂

To make myself feel better I'm just going to add a cute picture of a cat.

June 2021 Budget

This month didn't quite go to plan, but then there were a few things happening that did throw us off a little.  One was planned - our joint birthdays and an anniversary trip to Lundy Island - and one not planned - a funeral in the Cotswolds.  The way this month worked also meant that we ended up having two rents and other household expenses come out in one month. 

On the positive, our credit cards are still at zero, but the issue with the household expenses meant that my partner had to take some money from his emergency fund to put into our joint account to pay the rent.  We will be paying that back straight away in July in lieu of the rent, but it did make me glad that we had sorted out our emergency funds.

Even with that, we have still managed to put money into our Christmas and car sinking funds and managed to put a good amount into our four months saving fund, mainly due to one of us getting a nice tax refund.  This means that we are on track for reaching our financial goals by the end of 2021.  

And, in case you were wondering, we moved the money into the savings account before we realised that the second lot of home expenses were coming out.  As we had already decided that any money we received from things like tax returns would go directly towards our savings and pensions we decided to just leave the money where it was.

I'm very happy that I was able to put money towards my pension again this month.  This has definitely become a priority for me now for the rest of the year so, no matter the consequences, this will be paid in every month.  My future financial health depends on it.

Our spending on groceries and takeaways is definitely higher than what it was in the last couple of months, but I'm not going to worry about that this month because these expenses are mostly connected to our trips to Lundy Island and up to Cirencester.  Food is definitely where we spend most of our budget as we love food and, at the moment, it's not putting us into any debt which makes it difficult to see it as an actual problem.

Our joint personal spending has also remained the same and is still quite high and, whilst we mainly spend it on items for our crafting and other hobbies (and it also isn't putting us into debt), we could still probably reduce this.  Especially if we're wanting to complete our goal of having four months expenses put aside by the end of this year.  We've also done quite a bit of spending on birthdays this month.  This isn't really anything we would change but we do want to keep an eye on it so that we have an idea of what we want our birthday sinking fund total to be next year.

All in all, it wasn't a bad month apart from the slight miscalculation of when the rent would come out.  We do still have the slight problem of spending when it comes to food and hobbies, but it's so difficult to pull it in when we know it's not putting us into debt.  It also probably doesn't help that I have lived in a situation where I had to be very careful with my money, and now I don't have to be it's difficult for me to keep to that mindset.  I'm just not entirely sure how to break the hold, probably a little bit of research into that is needed and will be something I look into in July.

Goals 2021 Update 2

I am writing this post a little bit early so I won't quite have reached all the sub-goals I had planned for the halfway point.  There's also the little point of a trip to Lundy Island for our joint birthdays and anniversary celebrations, and that obviously would have taken a bit of a chunk out of our finances.  That being said, we're still doing pretty good and I'm feeling quite proud of where we are at the moment.  

The main goal for this year was to work towards becoming more financially fit and free, and I'm happy to say we're definitely on our way to that.  Our individual emergency funds are still there looking good and the credit cards remaining at zero.

Now that we've had a few months of paying bills we've been able to work out how much we would need to save to cover all our outgoing for four months and this would be £5200 (which we had round up to because, let's face it, it's always better to be over) and after a long discussion about it have decided that we are happy with just having four months covered rather than the six we had thought about at the start of the year.  This is one area we have definitely done well in, managing to get to the halfway point by the end of May.  This gives us seven months to make up the final £2600.  I'm not going to lie, I'm feeling very proud of us for that.

Last time I wrote about this year's goals I had had to miss a month's pension payment which meant that I needed to up my payments to £225 a month to ensure that I would catch up by the end of the year.  My sub-goal for halfway through the year was to have put away £1200 towards my pension, but by the end of June it'll only be £1100.  However, this is only £100 out after missing a months payment, so I'm not feeling too bad about it.  It is definitely now a financial priority for me for the rest of this year.  

We've managed to put money aside every month for our Christmas and car repair sinking funds as planned.  My sub-goals for five months were to have saved £325 towards the Christmas fund and £225 towards the car repairs and we've hit those targets.  There have been a few hiccups here and there, but I think we've done pretty well.  We could probably have done a lot better if we'd been a lot stricter with our spending, mostly on food we didn't really need.  However, as we are still managing to reach our financial goals for the year I'm not going to worry about it too much as we do want to still enjoy ourselves as well.

As for the skating, well let's just skim over that.  I've been concentrating on too many other things to make this goal a priority right now and this was always going to be a goal that was really more about having a little bit of fun more than anything else.  However, it's still something to aim for over the next six months.  Maybe I need to make the goal a little more concrete rather than just that I'd like to be able to stay upright on it before the year it out.