July 2023 Savings

Posted on 15th August 2023 by weenie

Hello, I’m back after an enjoyable holiday.

I shall just quickly post the belated numbers for July.

I saved 16.1% of my net salary. The above includes £77.08 from doing Prolific surveys.

Shares and Investment Trusts

I just topped up existing investments.

Current share/IT portfolio can be found here.

(Entire portfolio here)

Future Fund

Finally, things were looking up but for how long!? As at the end of July, my Future Fund stood at £235,744, so the rocket makes an appearance but is highly unlikely to be sticking around for the August update!

Dividends and Other Income

Not a bad month for dividends.

Continue reading →

June 2023 Savings, plus other updates

Posted on 3rd July 2023 by weenie

This month saw me celebrating my birthday by playing crazy golf and drinking in the sunshine! It’s a sign of ~~age~~ experience and knowing my limits that the following day, I was able to get up and go to the gym the following morning, instead of feeling utterly cabbaged and wasting the whole day hungover in bed!

I’ve loved all the hot weather we’ve had, but was glad of the rainstorms that followed, as was my poor parched garden!

Anyway, after last month’s ‘property post‘, I am so excited to announce that ‘tenants’ have moved in!

My little house appears to have attracted a diverse community – I believe I have leaf-cutting bees (yellow arrows) and mason bees (red arrows). Apparently, it’s not unusual for solitary bees of different species to nest near one another. I wonder who moved in first though? 🙂

I had noticed funny little circular chunks chewed out of the leaves of some of the shrubs in my garden, the leaf-cutting bees’ trademark. Anyway, I am delighted that these little critters have deemed my garden worthy enough to live in!

Since that photo was taken, at least another two bees have moved in and a spider or two, judging by their webs!

This month was rather expensive – car insurance renewal, breakdown cover renewal, washing machine repair (5 minutes to fix, £107!) and a new shed (to replace the dilapidated/unsafe one) – the pounds are getting really stretched, especially as I’m struggling to say no to social outings (went to another enjoyable and interesting Manchester FIRE pubmeet this month).

MOT on my car is due next month…maybe I need to just get past this expensive summer and cut back on the expenses in the latter part of the year.

So, how did I get on with my savings?

I saved 16.5% of my net salary. The above includes £59.62 from doing Prolific surveys and £10 from a charity lotto win.

Shares and Investment Trusts

I offloaded Civitas Social Housing and used the funds (plus new funds) to top up existing investments.

Current share/IT portfolio can be found here.

(Entire portfolio here)

Future Fund

My Future Fund seems determined to crawl along sideways. There’s not a lot I can do except to keep on investing. As at the end of the month, it stood at £229,441.

Dividends and Other Income

Thank goodness for a great month of dividends.

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May 2023 Savings, plus other updates

Posted on 5th June 2023 by weenie

May unexpectedly saw me embarking on another property purchase.

It can only be described as an impulsive buy as I really had not planned on buying but after viewing it online (I was not able to view it in person), I just had to go ahead with the purchase.

Madness? ~~Probably~~ Definitely. Did I mention impulsive?

It’s a detached, 3-bed, new build with no chain, and I didn’t have time to sort out conveyancing.

Given that high mortgage interest rates are showing no signs of dropping, I decided that this had to be a cash purchase.

No refurb or decorating will be required which suits me perfectly, only the odd fixtures and fittings perhaps. I just need to find tenants for it now, hoping for some viewings any time soon.

The yield on this property will be non-existent, with no chance of capital gains either. However, I didn’t buy this property for financial gain, but to benefit the community.

Yes folks, I am now the owner of an insect hotel, or ‘Air-Bee-n-Bee’! 😀 😀

It’s been located at the other end of the garden, basically as far as it could go as I would rather not live too close to these neighbours, haha!

One of my friends has one and says she has bees (solitary bees) living in hers every year. No idea if mine is actually attractive to insects, so might have to cope with some ‘void periods’ or resign myself to the fact that I’ve just spent a tenner on a garden ornament!

Yes, I know this seems to contradict last month’s post where I bought a plant to eat insects but I don’t mind insects in the garden, pollinating my plants, just don’t like/want them in my house!

Anyway, May was a pretty good month, with sunny days and lots of bank holidays to provide some much needed R&R as I’ve been providing cover for both my boss and another team member.

The good news at work is that they have rolled out Bupa medical cover, which is great as I know how expensive such cover costs if I had to buy it personally.

The bad news is that my boss has come back from holiday and handed in his notice. I’m sad he’s going as we get on and he leaves me to get on with my work, but I felt none of the devastation I felt when my previous boss announced she was leaving. Oh well, we’ll see what happens there.

In other news, I’ve just paid for my next trip to Hong Kong, the most I’ve ever paid (over £1.5k just for an economy class flight!), which had to all go onto the credit card so I’ll be on a tighter budget for the next month or so.

So, how did I get on with my savings?

I saved 17.6% of my net salary. The above includes £70.11 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

My Future Fund seems to be going nowhere fast but at least it’s not going down! At month end, the total was £230,322.

Dividends and Other Income

A good month for dividends.

Continue reading →

April 2023 Savings, plus other updates

Posted on 2nd May 2023 by weenie

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?