April was a bit of a spendy month.
Enjoyed a couple of social outings, one of them being the Manchester FIRE pub meet last Friday.
Also, unusually for me, I intentionally went clothes shopping. I haven’t done this in a long time as it’s not something I particularly enjoy doing, but with my preferred hipster/low-waist jeans back in fashion, I had to pick up a couple of new pairs to supplement my old ones (still fitting me from the 90s but looking rather shabby!).
I know many people these days just get their clothes online, but I’m old-fashioned and prefer to try before I buy. The only time I buy clothes online is if I’ve tried the exact item previously instore. Plus, I can’t be faffed with returning items which don’t fit.
It’s the first shopping trip I’ve been on in a long while and the first items of clothing I’ve purchased since the Marie Kondo 50% cull of my wardrobe in 2021 prior to my house move (with the exception of gym wear/underwear).
During Easter, I went on a traditional bank holiday outing to B&Q and took advantage of the gorgeous weather to paint all my garden fences (front and back). As well as paint, I also came away with a plant (more on this later) – B&Q is one of those places where you inevitably always end up buying something that wasn’t on your shopping list! However, I deliberately didn’t get a trolley or basket so there was only so much I could carry – the 12L tub of paint was heavy on its own! The tricks one must do to stop ourselves from spending needlessly, haha!
Anyway, some good news at work was that I received the maximum performance-related pay rise offered by my company, which was 5%, the same as last year. Again, nowhere near inflation-busting, but still, I’ll take it for what it is, since annual increases are not guaranteed.
This new bit of extra pay will just get swallowed up by bills as it looks like everything has gone up for me, apart from water and tv licence.
Right, enough waffle, how did I get on in April?
I saved 17% of my net salary. The above includes £41.78 from doing Prolific surveys and £20 from matched betting profits.
Shares and Investment Trusts
I just topped up existing investments.
Current share/IT portfolio can be found here.
(Entire portfolio here)
Future Fund
No apparent drastic events to rock the stock markets, so my Future Fund moved up a small notch, to £231,955.
Dividends and Other Income
A fairly average month for dividends.
I received £340.02, of which £255.24 was from my ISAs, the rest from my SIPPs.
Here’s what the graph looks like:
Some dividends due at the end of April have rolled over into next month so hoping for a bumper May!
Matched Betting (MB)
A bit of time on Saturday afternoons and the odd 10 mins when European football was on during the week netted me £56.39.
Goals Update
Here’s how things are looking at the 4-month mark:
Struggling with the emergency funds one already so need to figure out how to balance that one with investing.
Plants
Seeds have been sown in my little greenhouse so hopefully, I will be able to harvest some veggies this year after last year’s abysmal attempt. Keeping the slugs and caterpillars at bay will be the main thing and ensuring I don’t forget to water!
In the summer, there are always annoying fruit flies and fungus gnats so I picked up a venus fly trap from B&Q in the hope of keeping some of the bugs under control (and also for the novelty factor! 🙂 )
Thus far, there have been no bugs in the house, so I’ve just been feeding her (yes, she’s a she and her name is Audrey!) with tiny baby slugs which I find around the compost bin in the garden – payback for munching my veggies!
Not Audrey but she looks like this
Anyway, looking forward to the King’s coronation/another bank holiday weekend/another lie-in!
Hope you all had a good April and enjoy a bank-holiday filled May!
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That dividend graph is going to have to incorporate a £1,000 monthly figure soon….hopefully this year! Another great milestone when it happens.
For the emergency funds, i’d perhaps consider the premium bond holdings in that category – they’re reasonably accessible….so you may be able to convince yourself you don’t need to hold quite as much cash. Having said that, everyone’s different in this regard.
Love the venus fly trap. I’ve just been out ‘collecting’ a pot of snails in the garden.
Hey KC
Yes, can’t wait to hit £1k a month in dividends, would be great if it was this year!
Hear what you’re saying about the premium bonds but in my mind, my FF is separate from my emergency funds, although technically, it’s all one big pot. Just me compartmentalising!
A couple of my sproutlings lasted one night in the little greenhouse before the slugs were at them so they’re back in the house until they’re a bit more robust and I can lay out my slug traps. Don’t see so many snails but they could be hiding!
Congrats on getting the max pay rise ⭐️
Did you Marie Kondo in 2021? God, it feels like it was this year when you did that. I can’t believe you’ve had a pair of jeans since the 90s, I think the oldest piece of clothing I’ve had are my hiking boots that I got in 2012, still going strong!
Good luck with your farming. The only thing that helped keep the in door gnats away from my herbs was adding a small layer of sand on top of the mud.
Cheers SN – every little counts!
Yes, it was back in 2021 when I did Konmari and I’m proud to say that my clothes drawers are still pretty organised! Yes, I have some old, or should I now call them, ‘vintage’ clothes! I only donated my 30-year old Doc Marten boots last year because they were moulded to my 20-year old feet and weren’t comfortable any more!
As mentioned above, my sproutlings have already suffered from slug attacks so I need to keep watchful. Good idea on the small layer of sand to keep away the gnats, I’ll try that, cheers!
It would be rude not to have a BBQ when it’s a bank holiday and the weather is nice hehe. We also had a nice BBQ, I lost count of how much I ate!
Loving seeing the new member of the household Audrey doing her job very well .
Chris
Cheers Chris!