Thursday 14 January 2016

End of 2015 finance review

I finally found some time last night and the review of last year's savings got made up to date. Contrary to my expectations, it seems that we ended the year just over £5K better off than we had started the year - wow!  We spent quite a lot of money last year - repairing the fence, turning the chicken run into lawn, installing a shower over the bath, putting a new cam belt on the Skoda, painting, acquiring new-to-us furniture for the EF girls' room, a holiday to Sheringham in the October half term - so I am really pleased to have hit the £5K again.

As for this year - well, we can hope!

I have five more months of income from the EF girls, and we have decided that we are not going to have any more for the 16-17 academic year, as it is the YFG's A level exam year, and her application to uni year, so we may need to be going on some open day trips, as well as recognising the need for her to have peace and tranquility for studying.  I shall think about having more in the future....but they are leaving mid June, so we will have a spare room for the summer - I may have to have thoughts about that.

There is the vaguest hint that there may be some more hours at work in the offing - I shall snap those up if they do come through, as I am loving the job and would welcome the extra time to do more of it.

I still have a workshop with some beekeeping equipment lurking therein - this has to be the year to get it shifted, and bring some cash into the coffers again.

(image from bbc.co.uk via Facebook and boilerjuice.com)

On a positive note, the price of oil is so low that I am keeping the tank topped up - would you believe that the oil I bought earlier this week would have cost me over 60p/l a couple of years ago? Shocking how the prices change so no sense in letting it get too low in these economic times.  We have a good load of wood in stock, and UJ has almost finished cutting up all the rough lengths of wood that there were about, so we have several winters' worth of wood in there.  As good as money in the bank in many ways.

I am going to spend a bit more time strategising my plans and money this morning.  It all means that my plans for the future continue to look secure for now, thank goodness, and I won't need to sell the house just yet....


4 comments:

Sandra Ann said...

Well done!!! You should be justifiably pleased with all your hard work .-)

SusanM said...

Well done, that is a huge achievement. Yes, I totally agree with you about giving the YFG peace and quiet and support next year; we went through this last year. It's only one year out of our lives but is a crucial year, determining our teens' futures; lots of assessments and exams and days away visiting universities. Has she applied to university yet? The personal statement took quite a bit of work and effort (it wasn't something we had to do in our day). It's a different system in Scotland and our son applied after getting his Higher results. I know some of my friends' children in England applied during their AS level year, but they could only get a conditional offer, whereas in Scotland, after you sit your Highers, depending on your results, you can be offered places unconditionally. We've been very impressed with Aberdeen University. They have kept in touch regularly since offering a place and been very supportive. Keep up the good work x

Dc said...

Can't beat a good financial workout!

SusanM said...

I think my first comment has gone missing. Anyway, just to say very well done on your finances. Hope you're getting your energy back x