The Plan

Thanks for the good wishes.
Bexster - the insurance does seem like a good deal. We've decided we just need Family Income Benefit, which I understand is relatively inexpensive, as we both have lump sum insurance via work which would take care of most things but we would need some kind of income should the worst happen to one of us. Should our jobs change though that may be something we would have to change also.

I do know what you mean about a mind shift, I still find myself browsing online shops when too tired or demotivated to do much else, clearly looking to buy a slice of happiness. But it's easier to not buy anything now.

Also when we moved, we realized how completely overwhelmed by just how much stuff we had...we had to hire an extra van in moving day. I had done car boot sales and dropped bootfulls of books and hardly worn clothes at the charity shops to get rid of stuff beforehand but there was still so much :eek: its actually been quite hard work slowly getting the volume of stuff down. I think DH got on board when we finally music magpied the remaining CDs and DVDs after the move, it was a shock to have spent so much which turned out to be for very little gain...though we didn't have things like digital radio and music and TV streaming in those days.

TSG- congrats on your impending leave too. It's certainly admirable to do it whilst on SMP, I will follow and I won't forget I'm in a lucky position with the mat leave I am getting.

On the MFW action front
DH cashed out some matched betting and we have paid an extra £400 off for this month.
I have also sold investments to pay off the mortgage which should come in next week.
All the FI websites say I should invest rather than pay down the mortgage and I understand the logic but....the thing that helps me sleep at night is de-leveraging.
I only invested for 5 months at £200 a month and actually ended up worrying that I would lose my money, I'm far more risk averse than I realised. Our aim is to reduce not add to our worries so investing outside of the work pension is off the cards for the next 12 months at least.

Its been a bit of a funny time since I last posted. I had been feeling very very fatigued, short of breath, faint etc but Im 7 months pregnant so expected to be, I thought perhaps there are a lot of viruses around so perhaps I picked one of those up, it got to the point where I was downright ill with some rather alarming symptoms so I popped to the GP. There were a couple of things just not quite right so Ive got an ecg and blood tests tomorrow. It'll probably all be fine but it has been a bit of a worry.

Because of this I did take my eye off the ball a bit, in fact, I stopped playing. After the GP I had some ready meals and bought jar food and chicken and cereals etc, I ate some rather processed/bad for you food.....Im feeling much better:D. Im suspicious that I didnt have enough salt, BP wasnt the lowest its been in the pregnancy and clinicians dont usually mind a lower BP in pregnancy. Though I do eat bread and butter most days I dont season my food and apart from a lot of chocolate I dont generally eat processed food. I do buy bad stuff at work but banned that for the month so got a lot less/nil crisps and bacon :think:
We may never know and hopefully the tests come back OK and Ive stopped googling all the things it may be.

As Ive been feeling better for the 2nd half of this week, things have started to pick up again. Friday evening and yesterday was spent doing a lot of sorting.
- listed some tech for sale on ebay, this should get me a couple hundred
- checked webuybooks but they didnt want much of what we had so they will go to charity shop
- went through all the kitchen cupboards to get rid of very old OOD spices, baking goods and medicines etc, it feels wasteful but some of it went OOD 5 years ago:o
- went through junk draws and paperwork for shredding etc
- finished painting the baby room
- fixed odd jobs

Today we will be:
- setting up the babys room
- taking lots of bits to the tip
- couple more odd jobs and home repairs
- vacuming and cleaning top to bottom
- a bit of light work in the garden if there is time.
- listing a couple of things on freegle
- I'll be taking a couple of lamp shades back to the shop, Im just going to clean up and keep the ones I have
DH and I will both be tackling this and I work very slowly now so I dont think there is a risk of overdoing it.

Re the budget, Ive been paid already but try to work month to month so wont start it until 1st November. Its looking OK, I am keeping some money back for some work that we still need to do on the house.
I still have £500 to pay off the mortgage after planned for works are done but I will keep it until the end of the month hopefully....I find it burns a hole in my pocket and just want to get it off the mortgage.

We spotted a hole in the roof whilst up the loft yesterday so I will add that to the repair mans list and I have no idea how much it'll cost. I think its just one tile that was damaged, in the recent high winds a bit of scaffolding tried to go flying off :eek: it was rescued just before it did but appears to have dinged the house first.

So, the budget is set, the money is there to come off the mortgage, but Im going to try and leave it there for 4 weeks until next payday. Perhaps just focus on getting more money in rather than pushing it out of the door :cool:

Thanks Bexter, there have been some odd viruses going round so it may have been that. I shall find out soon enough but if I get symptoms like that again I will take my HR, if its below 60 as it was then I know I need to return to the GP as low HR with symptoms is a bit of a problem. Ive been feeling fine since and HR is back up around the usual for me.

So November budget is set. I have squirreled away £2.5k for some continuing home repairs and final bits we need to do before the baby arrives. I would much rather overpay but I think I do need to put that 2.5k to one side and remove it from the budget until the house is 'finished'.....hopefully it will be soon!

I have just detailed what I can affect on the below budget, energy, c tax and water etc are semi-fixed costs for us. We dont have sky and already get free broadband etc.

Food: £220 (have added 20 as we seem to struggle with £200)
Car Parking: £10
Diesel: £70 (im hoping this wont all be needed this month)
Cat food: £27
Cat medical: £295 carried forward from Oct for vaccinations not yet done
Baby: £450 (carried forward)
Own spends: £300 (£150 each)
Mortgage Overpayment: £418
No cosmetics: Boots points: £57.24 (this is my annual budget for hair dye, face wash, mascara etc)
No Clothes:

Re the overpayment I have decided to do this at the start of the month. I am just sure I will dip into it otherwise...I'll at least end up rounding down that £18.

Im awaiting ebay sale income and MB income - that will all go on mortgage overpayment. MB has slowed right down this month.

I have committed myself to not buying any clothes or cosmetics for the next 12 months. I dont have an expansive wardrobe but I do have enough. I am pretty sure I even have enough underwear. If I get a hole in my sock I intend to sew it up, if they wear our and I truely need more I will get some, but I dont intend to at all and I think I have enough. Nursing bras will have to come out of the baby fund though - babys gotta eat Shoes may be a bigger challenge here. I have been keeping my eye out for some boots for a while but think I will manage without them. No weddings coming up next year that we're aware of so no need for a new outfit.

I will have to buy deodrent etc and do dye my hair every so often, out of my advantage card points - previously I would have just blown this resource on perfume or something. I have a small stock of toiletries and cosmetics that will probably take me at least until spring to work through anyway.

This is as much about being less wasteful as it is about saving money, this is usually budgeted for out of my own personal spends but actually...I dont NEED to spend money here and do waste a fair bit. Historically - this category was a big/the major cause of my personal debt. Wanting to spend money on cosmetics is still an itch I constantly want to scratch - most of what I bought ended up being chucked...even the beauty counter brands.:mad: so this will stop....this rambling is me convincing myself

I typed out a long post but it's gone!

Anyway, to restate: the vets bill was less than budgeted for so another 140 paid off this evening.
Money saving activities today: slow cooker chilli made with yellow stickered beef out of the freezer. The slow cooker was a bit over full so I couldn't pad it out with lentils, next time I shall just use one pack of beef at a time.
I had to drive to a meeting for work, I will get fuel expenses which usually gives extra than what I actually use due to a good mpg on the car. This will pad out my December pay.
More onepolls completed as well.

I had to relent and put the heating on today, it is officially on for the winter but because of the reduced drafts from all the insulation works and house works since last winter, I have dropped it down half a degree.

Thanks Wishing. Im going to bear that in mind. The guilt already sneaks in and the baby hasnt even arrived yet. I want to make the choice not to get too many toys but when you go round to peoples houses, they're chocca block full of toys and it does make me question if Im right in my thinking. As cliche as it is, I would rather spend on experiences than toys, swimming is the primary thing I will insist on that may cost a lot but if we stay careful we have the first years worth of swimming money already because we havent spent what we were given by parents.

I dont have a John Lewis near me but if I do go near one I shall have to pop in. I have bought one nursing bra for the cost of 2 at JL, I definitely want to be able to try it on first.

In MS news, the ebay sales settled which should net a profit of £200 after fees. The more expensive item did not do as well as I had hoped (probably was looking to net just under £300 in total) but I really couldnt justify keeping it - I wouldnt pay that much to purchase it now and I think minimalism rules say if you wouldnt buy it now - sell it. Just a bit disappointed the income didnt meet my expectations but it is more money off the balance for next month.

I have restarted my YNAB budget. I wanted to hide my savings accounts from YNAB and not have it counting towards the age of money etc. When I tried to close the account it kept putting me in the red. Its been 12 months since I got YNAB and I have started and closed so many categories whilst learning, I have decided to start completely afresh.
It is now showing I have £109 over budgeted which is bamboozling me but this is why I needed a fresh start.
We have also set up another bank account for just for matched betting. With all the transactions, and people not paying out until days after they should YNAB was getting too complicated to reconcile and keep track of. So those movements will be kept off YNAB until a profit is 'realised' by transfering into joint account to pay off the mortgage.
2 Lamp shades returned to the shop and cleaned down the ones we already had. (£18cr)
Meal plan has been written.
When I went to town I got so hungry (had been awake for 7 hours but only had 2 bits of toast) I did use a pound off my advantage card points to buy a sandwich. I should have been more prepared and had a second breakfast before leaving the house but i think that was an alright compromise.

Moneysaving has otherwise been fairly unexciting. We spent most of last weekend and most of the day yesterday sorting things from my to do list. Its rather dull but Im putting yesterdays tasks here anyway:
-Meal planned
- Both cars cleaned and cleaned out. 2nd car was so grubby it had to be washed twice. I even had to hose moss off in some places . I hadnt cleaned it since I bought it and the previous owners kept the inside spotless but not the outside, it was also parked under trees.
-wiper blades replaced
-screen wash topped up
-Kitchen blind installed
- Bedrooms, hall and living room: all surfaces damp dusted and fully vacuumed
- internal and external windows cleaned
- Mowed lawn
- Washed walls and ceiling and every surface of bathroom with sugar soap (dregs needed using up) or bathroom cleaner
- posted 1st ebay item
- washed and line dried (havent put away) 2 loads of washing
- took 3 items of clothing and 3 electrical Items to charity shop
also napped in pm for an hour as woke at 3am and couldnt get back to sleep

Outstanding items:
-Spot clean hallway carpet (a few decorating slip ups)
- wash all surfaces, walls and ceilings etc of kitchen
- weed back garden
- bathroom shower and kitchen sink sealant replacement
- freegle garden incinerator
- sow lettuce in greenhouse
- caulk around front door

Doing that and then walking to town to watch the fireworks helped me get another hour of sleep before insomnia woke me up at 4ish this morning. Physically I can definitely feel myself starting to tire more quickly but the mind seems to want me to sleep in 2 phases at the moment.
We have a couple of free days out today and tomorrow + cinema tomorrow evening. I am off work Tuesday so will finish those tasks off then.