Howdy folks!

Another month zooms on by. Own up, who has already said to themselves ‘how are we already half way through the year already?!’ (I certainly have!). The UK is beginning to ease it’s lock-down restrictions and normality is finally showing it’s face again. The business is continuing to hold steady / firm with turnover. We haven’t see any drama in the last few weeks (clients reducing budgets / leaving). We’re beginning to ramp up proceedings to get people back into the office and back to normality. In truth, I’m pretty fed up with Zoom calls – always prefer face to face meeting and travelling to see clients / form that relationship. Also Zoom, because it is so easy to setup, means that you have ‘some individuals’ who have the need to set a zoom call up every hour of the day! (Does anyone else have that experience currently?)

May 2020 – Housey Bits

Part of the blog will include a few pictures of the garden / house and various things that have been happening. See below gallery;

Some new bits and updates to the garden / house:

  • New garden wall planters (growingevolution.com) – Made from 100% recycled plastic, British company etc. These look great! And so far and performing very well. Putting such small pots into a greenhouse is always a risk because they can dry out so quickly. However, with these ‘plantboxes’ they include a trough of water and a piece of felt to help keep the soil moist.
  • Finally finished the raised raised bed – not a spelling mistake! I’ve finally finished what will now be named ‘the beast’. All hand built / painted – a raised planter to hold potatoes in this year. I was cautious of putting a raised bed against the wall, due to damp that can be caused by it. Therefore the only solution was to leave a 100mm gap between the planter and the wall and raise it up to allow air flow!
  • Aubergines – Have had no luck with aubergines this year and I fear that the season has now been missed! I planted seedlings almost 2 months ago and they still are only very small seedlings! Any expert gardeners like to share their insight in growing these?

May 2020 – Investment

It’s been quite a roller-coaster of a time with the investments side of things. Generally speaking for me, we are back on an even keel and things are definitely showing good uplift across the majority of my index funds. Of course though, my stocks and shares still remain a complete abomination (over 75% down!). But as I’ve explained in my previous posts, I’m not focusing on Stocks and Shares anymore. Plus the stocks I am invested in are actually to obtain the benefit of being invested in them – Carnival for example, which if you own 100 shares, you essentially are provided some extra onboard spending money when you book a cruise with them.

Jan-19 Feb-19 Mar-19 Apr-19 May-19 Jun-19
£17,919 £24,666 £29,873 £37,687 £41,400 £48,743
Jul-19 Aug-19 Sep-19 Oct-19 Nov-19 Dec-19
£58,104 £60,882 £68,509 £73,577 £79,553 £88,075
Jan-20 Feb-20 Mar-20 Apr-20 May-20 Jun-20
£88,597 £92,293 £85,130 £92,659 £105,310

Crikey o’riley! That’s an increase of £12,651 in a month! Given that my portfolio hasn’t really changed a great deal since the start of 2020, it’s exciting to see such a dramatic increase in a single month. Looking back since the very beginning, it is actually a new record! Get in!

Total Income: £6,868.00
Total Saved (?): £4,425.00
Total Expenses: £2,286.77
Savings (%): 64%

Ahh – was trying so hard to keep the total expenses under £2,000 (following on from last months blog post). However a few tins of paint / DIY bits and bobs along with some new wall planters for the greenhouse just pushed me over. Not to worry – still maintaining a savings rate of 64% for the month! Again dead chuffed with that – given that in lock-down it is even more tempting to spend money online!