October update and November goals

Autumn is well and truly upon us and being my favourite season of all, I have enjoyed getting out and about during October. Our trip to St Malo was wonderful and the weather in Brittany was very kind to us, I thoroughly enjoyed indulging in french food and making the most of our break away. I also spent a weekend in the van on my favourite local site, just myself and the dog during the first weekend of November. One of only a handful of campers on a very large site in the woods, at times it felt as if I was totally alone. Not for everyone I'd be the first to admit, however for me it was a blissful and totally relaxing experience, and as the heavens opened on the first night, it gave me the perfect opportunity to test out how water-tight the new skylights were. Result? Not a drop, which means I can now make a plan to start work on patching up the ceiling from the previous leak over the winter months.

Frivolous travel aside, how did my finances do this month?

Spending

As I knew I would be paying out for two weekends away, I reigned in all unnecessary spending to balance the books. The result was a pretty low spend month in total.

How much did I save in October?

Regular Saver - 500
ISA - 500
Property Moose - 50
Cash ISA - 100
P2P - 300

Total - 1450

Having said last month that I would not be saving anymore into my P2P lending, I did an abrupt 360 and changed my mind. There is no payment to my pension this month. It's taken a while to sort everything out with my new SIPP and get the new monthly payment direct debit set up, so my first payment will be going out in November.

Savings rate

For simplicity, I calculate my savings rate as a percentage of my net take home pay plus interest on bank accounts, royalties from kindle, bank bonuses (from switching to TSB this year), found money, cashback from Quidco, child benefit/tax credits, and income from any other source throughout the month. I do not add back in any pension contributions from my wages or tax relief, nor do I include growth on investments, dividends or P2P interest. I also ignore all matched betting winnings as I am still building my bank roll, I will start to include this once my total profit has reached £1000.

Savings rate as % of take home pay - 45.07%

This is the second month in a row that I have achieved a record breaking savings rate. Although my total savings were the same as last month, my income was less, so my savings rate was higher.

Matched betting income was again slow this month, due to working as much as I could and also being away part of the month and only concentrating on guaranteed profits. Not sure where I am going with this to be honest, I am finding it boring, and although it is free money, it is not passive and I can find better uses of my time.

Goals for the coming month

November will be a month of Fiscal Fasting for me. It is something I have done for a few years. During the month I try not to spend on anything unnecessary, and at the same time using up as much as I can from the fridge, freezer and cupboards to clear some space before Christmas and save some money. I have no plans for going out during the month, no trips away planned, but I do have lots of projects and stuff at home that wont cost a bean.

Reading - plenty of books on the shelf to get through
Sewing - I have made a start on the new cushions for the van, but still plenty to do
Baking - lots of ingredients to use to make goodies for the kids lunchboxes
Painting - need to finish painting the walls in the van and the hallway could do with a spruce up
Planning - need to work out the weekends I want to camp next year, plus some financial stuff too
Walking - need to hit that 10k steps a day to keep healthy during the long winter months
Gardening - not my favourite, but the lawns will need a final cut before the winter
Netflix - self explanatory. lots of good stuff on at this time of year
Christmas-ing - I will be making a list and checking it twice...

Thanks for reading!

September update and October goals

Where has the last month gone?

Spending

No unusually high expenses this month, although I did spend a little on the van, and buy myself some new jeans. My biggest purchase was the new foam and material to make the new sofa cushions and the vinyl for the flooring, work still continues in earnest and I am hoping to have everything finished by the time she goes in for her MOT in April. I also bought my daughter a reconditioned camera this month, as she has just started her options and needed one for her photography class.

How much did I save this month?

Regular Saver - 500
ISA - 700
Property Moose - 50
Emergency Fund - 100
Pension - 100

Total - 1450 plus a little money left in bank account

I have now reached the maximum amount I wanted to save in P2P lending, from now on any extra savings will be diverted to my ISA. I have yet to decide whether to continue to reinvest the interest/principle repayments from funding circle, I am waiting for the new FC ISA to be released before I make my decision. If it doesn't happen this year, I will probably decided to slowly withdraw my money each month as repayments are made and divert to my ISA with Halifax.

Savings rate

For simplicity, I calculate my savings rate as a percentage of my net take home pay plus interest on bank accounts, royalties from kindle, bank bonuses (from switching to TSB this year), found money, cashback from Quidco, child benefit/tax credits, and income from any other source throughout the month. I do not add back in any pension contributions from my wages or tax relief, nor do I include growth on investments, dividends or P2P interest. I also ignore all matched betting winnings as I am still building my bank roll, I will start to include this once my total profit has reached £1000.


Savings rate as % of take home pay - 42.82%

This is the best month so far this year. I have really buckled down and chucked as much as I could towards savings.


Matched betting income was slow this month, due to working as much as I could and only concentrating on guaranteed profits only. Although I haven't reached my goal of £1000 yet, I am happy with the increase and my total profit so far stands at just over £860. I am now hoping to hit £1000 by end of December and start 2018 with anything over that being withdrawn and used as part of my budget for van costs.

Other news

My SIPP is now up and running and awaiting transfers in from my old pension accounts. I can see it when I login to my share-dealing account and am looking forward to when the money hits and I can make my bulk purchase.

Managed to get another trip away in September to my favourite 'weekender' site. Lovely time spent with my partner, my kids, and my best friend and her family.

I have booked some time off work during October, I am taking three days away with my partner to St Malo. On my return the van will be going in the garage for another three days for the skylights to be finished and some more work done from the list. I have also booked a solo weekend camping trip for the first weekend of November just myself and the dog. It will be a relaxing weekend of tea drinking, reading and long walks. I can't wait.

Goals for the coming month

I would like to see my match betting profits reach £900 by the end of October.

I will try and beat this months savings rate of 42.82%. This is going to be tough as I have a fair few expenses coming out this month, but I am going to give it my best shot.

I will be gearing up and planning ahead for a Fiscal Fast during November. I will be aiming to spend only on true essentials for the whole month, whilst incorporating a use up month and trying to get the freezers emptied before December. Hopefully this will see my savings rate increase for the month. October will be spend planning for this and seeing if I can find new ways to spend less and save more.

August update and September goals

Well, all the best laid plans etc...

Back in early July, I decided to part exchange my campervan and buy something bigger. The main reason for this was because I could no longer fit my youngest two constantly growing teens into the roof of the van anymore, plus as they are different sexes, they obviously no longer wanted to share such an enclosed space. After some hunting, I found the perfect 'home' for us. A 1990 Autohomes Travelhome. A four berth motorhome which saw me go back ten years in registration from my Bongo. I ended up paying £1000 on top of the value of the Bongo.

Throughout July and August I have been haemorrhaging money fixing her up and getting her to a good standard. I had a habitation check done, fixed various items within the 'house' part, repainted, laid new kitchen surface, had a complete service done, bought new accessories, including an awning, she now has a new (reconditioned) cooker installed, a full gas bottle and a new cam-belt and water pump. There is still a long list of things I want to do to her, but for now she is camp-ready. I have since taken her on three trips away and have loved every minute in Bella Bird.

Bella Bird

The downside to all this splurging is that my cash savings took a big hit, plus I didn't save anything new in July or August. However, my savings rate will be back to normal for September and I have already paid my monthly amount to both Funding Circle and Property Moose for this month.

I also started match betting at the end of June and my profit so far is a touch under £800. Result.

Other big news is that after a small break between jobs while I was waiting for my DBS to arrive, I am now back working full-time as a carer and it is so nice to have that fortnightly wage back again (and a new works pension).

Goals for September:

Save my full planned amount this month. £1080 spread between P2P, S&S ISA, regular saver and my personal pension. Any leftovers will be swept into my ISA at the end of the month.

Hoping to reach the £1000 mark by the end of September in matched betting profits, which is my targeted 'bankroll'. Anything I earn over and above this will be withdrawn as a wage and directed into my motorhome fund to pay for all remaining work to be done on Bella. This way, my motorhome expenses will be funded purely by matched betting profits and not come from my wages.